The Black Box

27

We walk out into The Shaft's main area and we see our friends, Navi, Jess, and Christie. I run over to them.

"Hey, how are you?" asks Adam. He's drinking something that looks like a smoothie.

"Good," I reply.

"Dude, you should try the desserts here! They're awesome!" says Kevin, jumping up and down.

"I think you ate too much of them Kevin," I say.

"Yeah, I think so too," answers Kevin nodding his head very fast.

"Does anyone want to start training?" asks Noah, clasping his hands together.

"Training?" asks Adam, Kevin, and Annabeth in unison. Sophie's looking at Noah with curiosity, tilting her head and putting her finger to her chin, her eyebrows furrowed.

"Yes, training. To master your enhancements," says Noah, meeting everyone's eyes.

"Sure. Why not?" asks Adam.

"Ok," says Kevin, Jax, and Annabeth in unison.

"Let's get started then," says Noah, rubbing his hands together.

"Wait!" says Annabeth. Everyone freezes in their footsteps and turns to her. "Not to be rude or anything, but shouldn't we go back to our time on Earth?"

"She has a point," says Adam.

"I think we should," agrees Kevin.

"Well. Since you are going to be going and we won't know when you'll be coming back, come into my laboratory-the place where I met you-and I will most likely be in there. If I'm not, go and find Jess," says Noah. "I wanted to start training today, but it can wait."

"Ok," says everyone in unison.

"Peter, do you want to get out the box?" asks Annabeth.

I reach into my pocket and pull it out. Everyone stares at it.
"I guess we'll see you soon," I shrug.

We (Jax, Adam, Kevin, Annabeth, and Sophie) hold hands and I flip the switch.

We look around and we're in my bedroom. I immediately take off my swords and belt of daggers and shove them into my closet.

"What time is it?" asks Adam rubbing his head. "I can never get used to this." He shakes his head.

"Are you supposed to see black dots?" asks Kevin, rapidly blinking his eyes.

"I've never seen them," I tell him.

"Wait! What time is it?" says Annabeth. Everyone freezes and looks at my alarm clock.

3:30

"It's only been 30 minutes?!" says Kevin, louder than he expected.

"Why are you surprised that it's 3:30?" Saige pushes my door open with her arms crossed.

"Um... because we didn't know how slow homework could be," interrupts Adam.

"Mm hmm." Saige knows it's a lie and stares at me straight into my eyes. "Is your homework that boring?"

"Yeah," I reply, sounding confident.

"Then why couldn't I find you and your friends in your room?"

"We took a break and went outside."

"I didn't hear a stampede go down the stairs."

"We jumped out my window."

Saige still wants to interrogate me but her eyes tell me later.

"Whatever." She leaves.

"Phew! That was close," Adam says wiping his forehead for dramatic effect.

"Do you actually want to do homework?" asks Annabeth.

"You and your homework Annabeth," mutters Adam. He muttered it loud enough so everyone could hear it and all of us cracked up.

"Do you?!" her cheeks turn bright red.

"Fine. Whatever," says Adam, rolling his eyes at her.

We do our homework with some occasional jokes and laughs.

"Oh shoot! I gotta get home!" yells Kevin while we did our homework silently. Everyone jumped including me. He grabs his books, shoves them into his backpack, and runs out of my room like a mad man.

I check my phone and it's 5:30. My mom should be making dinner right about now.

"I'll be right back," I tell them and leave the room.

I run downstairs and see what my mom's cooking. She's making chicken and rice by the looks of it.
"Hi mom," I say as I walk to the stove where she is.

"Hi Peter." She's stirring the rice in a pot. "When did you start wearing all black?" She looks at me head to toe.

"Can my friends stay over for dinner?" I change the subject so she doesn't get suspicious.

"As long as their parents are fine about it."

"Ok." I shoot up the stairs and run into my room. I slide onto the floor and stop right in front of my books.

"You guys can stay for dinner if you want to," I tell them. Everyone looks up from their books and stares at me.

"Sorry Peter but I have to go to school early tomorrow. Maybe another time," says Annabeth.

"Yeah, I also have to go home 'cause if I don't, my dad'll kill me. I haven't been at the house lately and he's been wondering where I've been," says Adam.

"Jax and Sophie, can you stay?" I ask them.

"I think I can," says Jax.

"Me too," Sophie replies.

"Cool," I say.

"Sorry, gotta go," says Adam, picking up his books and leaving the room.

"Bye Adam!" I yell down the hallway after him.

"Bye!" says Jax, Sophie, and Annabeth in unison.

We hear a muffled, "Bye!" down the hallway.