A Musical Mayhem

31 - Arielle (Part 1)

~ One Day Later ~

"What?"

Claude bit his lip, looking uneasy. "I don't think it's a bad idea, Bree. Besides, it's what Flynn wants."

Bree threw her hands in the air. "In all honesty, I don't really care what Flynn wants right now. Look, he can just lie around in bed and give around orders all he wants, but don't expect me to give in so easily."

"Why don't you want Alisa to help with the mystery?" Claude questioned, frowning.

Bree, Claude, Archer, Ivy, and I were all seated at the water fountain in the courtyard of the AAA. Claude had just asked us if we thought that it was a good idea to include Alisa in our hunt for the Masked Guy, since Flynn was taking a break and everything. I personally thought that it was a good idea, since there was no harm in it, and we could use an extra person, but Bree really didn't seem to like it. I had a feeling that somehow, Claude had already known beforehand that it would be hard to get Bree to go along with the suggestion.

"Because," Bree said, rolling her eyes. "Because we've been doing this for weeks now, almost a month, as a group, and we don't need another person jutting in. We already have a group that's big enough; adding new members will only increase the suspicion. We have to remain subtle, right?"

"But what if Alisa could be an asset to the group?" I offered. "We don't know her that well yet, but we can at least give her the chance to prove herself as a worthy group member to us. Besides, there has to be a reason why Flynn's such close friends with her, right?"

Bree rolled her eyes a second time. "Okay, okay, I get it, there has to be a reason why Flynn's still friends with her. But, I mean . . . guys, is it really necessary?"

"Maybe we could do a trial run," Archer suggested. "Bree, if you're not sure about whether it's the right thing to do to let Alisa join our group, you could give her some sort of test, right? To see if she'd fit in with the rest of us? But here's the deal. If she passes, and if ALL of us agree that she'd be useful in our group, we let her join us permanently, if she wants to. And if she doesn't, then we can just tell her so. It's no big deal."

I smiled at Archer. He always came up with the best solutions. He noticed and smiled back, the corners of his eyes wrinkling.

Bree pondered the suggestion. "Fine. That's a decent idea. Does everyone agree to it?"

The rest of us nodded, and Claude looked temporarily relieved.

"Alright, so who's going to talk to Alisa about all of this?" Ivy asked, crossing her arms.

I hesitated, then raised my hand. "I will. Maybe she'll take me as being a little more friendly and approachable than -" I glanced pointedly at Bree, then at Ivy - "some of us."

"That sounds good," Claude agreed, nodding. "Well, we'll leave you to it, then, Arielle."

I glanced at Bree. She still looked a little ticked off, for some reason. I still couldn't figure out why she seemed to dislike Alisa so much. Alisa didn't seem like a bad person, and if she was nice enough for Flynn to like her, she would probably be nice enough for the rest of us, too, right? Besides, it wasn't like Bree had encountered her any more than the rest of our group had.

So why did it seem like Bree never acted like herself whenever someone mentioned Alisa?

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~ A Few Hours Later ~