No More Secrets (DISCONTINUED)

Chapter 4 - Aria levine

 I sit at the table, without a tray. I don't like the school food and prefer to wait the whole day till I get home. Enzo and Raven come and sit opposite me followed by Laiker and Ivan to my right.

"Hey guys!" says Vitya cheerfully as she comes to sit beside Raven. Then, Enzo turns to Ari and asks, "Ari, why do you never get the school fo-" he is interrupted by a ball slamming into his face as Maritza and Trinity come over, Maritza retrieving her ball and sitting next to her brother and Trinity taking a seat next to Ivan.

"Why don't you try being nice to Enzo for once in your life?" Raven manages to shoot at Maritza while attempting to stifle a giggle. Maritza is quick to reply: "Where's the fun in that!"

"Enzo, for the record, I don't get the school food for two reasons: 1. The food either sucks or gives you stomach problems and I have much better food at home and 2. It's good practice for if I'm ever in the wilderness and need to fast." Before anyone else can respond, Finch approaches our table with her cookies.

"$5 dollars a box! Any takers?" She explains in her usual business-is-business tone. "I-I'll take one!" I say shyly, handing her a ten dollar note. "Uh, not that I'm complaining, but this is extra. Aren't you in that inventor's club? Where you're meant to be smart? Would you like one or two?" She says, plainly as though she didn't just basically insult me. Gosh, Aria! Pull yourself together!

"Two please!" I manage to say though it sounds more like a squeak than I wanted it to. "Ok, here you go." She hands me the box and walks off to the next table.

I am internally kicking myself by the time the butterflies in my stomach die down. I really hope no one saw my cheeks light up like fireworks. What the hell was that? Not that I need to think about how much of a fool I made of myself, Maritza is doing that already.

"'I-I'll take one!'? What's with the stuttering? You sound almost as dumb as my brother talking to Raven." Their cheeks quickly flush at the mention of their names but of course, everyone has to focus on me. "And I thought you didn't like food from school."

"I only like the cookies here!" I'm telling the truth, the cookies are really good! "And I'm cold! Anyway, shouldn't we be getting to the Inventor's club?" I ask, pulling on my jacket for show and starting toward the science room.

Once in the inventor's club meeting, we start to discuss the plans for tonight. "So, tonight we meet at my house with all the supplies, head into the forest to catch this mysterious crow monster, then one of us stands watch at Trinity's while the others go and ransack old Theo's house?" Raven asks, and her question is met with silence.

I'm the one who finally breaks it, "Yes, Our plan to ransack Peterson's house is finished but we still need one more person in our other plan to be able to attack the beast from afar if the plan goes terribly wrong"

Everyone thinks about this for a second before a voice comes from the doorway. "What's this about beasts and attacking from afar and plans?"