Searching for the Key

Chapter 10

After flying back to the city, they met up with Laura, Suki, Amanda, Mike, and David at the park where they were sitting on the grass.

"Hey where were you guys?" Mike asked.

"We were just hanging out. I showed Katia some of my favorite spots," Nathan answered.

Katia looked over at the three girls and they all had knowing smiles on their face. Katia rolled her eyes. She knew she was going to be cornered about this later.

"So you guys ready for dinner?" David asked as everyone stood up.

"Sure am!" Amanda said and began to walk alongside David.

At dinner everyone seemed extra excited. People seemed to be running around and talking loudly while there were many groups whispering secretively, jumping from table to table.

"What's with everyone?" Katia wondered out loud.

"Oh we forgot to tell you! Every month all of the Elictis have this huge competition," Laura said, pretty much jumping up and down with excitement.

"What do you do?" Katia asked.

"Well there are two teams and we each have a fort that we have to protect. The other team uses their powers to try to enter and press a button that will blow the whole thing up!" Laura explained.

"That sounds intense!" Katia said. It definitely beat the games she was forced to play in PE.

"It's so much fun but our team hasn't won for a while," Suki said sadly. "Remember Celia? She can get under our team member's force fields."

Katia's mood darkened slightly at the mention of Celia's name. She still wasn't a fan of the girl.

"Who knows maybe today will be the day we win," Katia said. "What happens to the winners?"

"They get bragging rights plus they don't have to do chores," Mike answered.

"Then we better win. I'm not spending another month doing chores while they just have fun," Katia said.

The seven of them were talking enthusiastically about the upcoming game when a blonde girl stopped at their table with two of her friends. Katia immediately knew they were the mean girl type, practically clones of Fiona.

"What do you want, Britney?" Lizzy asked with a cold tone.

"Just wanted to tell you guys it's okay if you lose. Some people just aren't meant to win," she said in mock concern.

"Well it's a good thing you already know that so we don't have to tell you later," Katia threw back at her without missing a beat.

Britney and her friends didn't know what to say back. They just stared dumbly.

"Now if you don't mind continuing on, we'd like to enjoy our food in peace," Katia said with a fake smile.

"Bye!" They all chorused and Nathan sent a slight breeze to push them along.

"Dang Katia you've got some bite," Mike said in approval.

"I've got an evil foster sister," Katia told them. "She tries to embarrass me at school but fails."

"Nice!" Mike said, giving her a high five.

They quickly finished their dinner and met up with their team on the large field usually reserved for trainings to make a game plan. Cabins one through ten were the red team while cabins eleven through twenty were the blue team.

"Okay guys I really don't want to lose again like the past three times," their team leader, Mason, said determinedly. "So we have to figure out how to get underneath their force fields while trying to stop Celia from getting under ours. Any ideas?"