Joker

TWELVE - Avery

"You know, if I had a list of reasons to ditch school, this would be at the very bottom. Frankly, sitting in a park knowing someone just got kidnapped is not the most pleasant thing to do."
"Of course you would have a list of reasons to mitch." Immediately, Amaya and I grinned at each other; Axel and Aiden we're having a conversation! "Hey, maybe it's not a bad thing." Aiden shrugged.
"Last time I checked, not showing up for your lessons is a pretty bad thing." Axel smirked.
"What are you two smiling about?" Aiden asked, staring directly at Amaya and I.
"Alright ladies, time to focus." Axel clapped his hands to get our attention, as if he wouldn't get it from just speaking. He can be so dramatic sometimes, but that's why we love him.
"Excuse me?"
"Oh, right. Sorry, Aiden. I forgot you were here too. Allow me to correct myself: ladies and golden boy, it's time to focus." Axel's smile was wide whilst Aiden tried his hardest to keep a straight face. "So, let's start with this: how many of us know Sadie?"
"Obviously I do, Amaya doesn't know her but knows of her, and I'm almost sure this is the first time Aiden's ever heard about her."
"That's not true. Does she have brown hair, brown eyes and always wears a cute little headband in her hair?"
"Yeah, how do you know that?"
"I think I kissed her once."
"Of course you did. Anyway, I'm friends with her because during summer, I was out and I saw her wearing a rose qu-" I paused for a second, taking time to think about what I was saying. "I saw her wearing a crystal necklace and I thought it was really cute, so I went up to ask where she got it from and we just... clicked."
"I only know of her because she's Oliver's girlfriend's sister." Axel said.
"Oliver has a girlfriend?" Amaya gasped.
"He's dating Gwen?" my mouth dropped open.
"Who's Gwen?"
"See, Aiden. This proves that you're a total player. You didn't know a thing about her family!"
"Shut up, Axel. You're the one who-" Aiden stopped himself from speaking, as if whatever he was going to say was forbidden.
"Guys, I feel as if I'm obliged to bring you to your senses and tell you that whoever has Sadie has been watching us very closely for the past year." Amaya had a touch of fear in her voice, changing the atmosphere completely. As if on queue, grey clouds rolled over the sky.
"So they could be..." My voice had dropped to a whisper without me even noticing.
"Yeah, we really have to watch our backs, and our mouths." Axel, like the rest of us, seemed petrified.
"What would possess someone to do this?"
"It's simple: me." Amaya was quick to answer Aiden's question. None of us wanted to admit it, but the whole point of both X and Joker's attacks was to get rid of Amaya. X was some kid from her old school who wanted her back for the athletics team, but if I'm honest, I don't even know where to start when it comes to identifying Joker. "Amaya, who have you told about your athletics competition?" Axel asked.
"You guys, my Ma, Noah, obviously Coach Ashcroft knows, the rest of the team, Jasmine-"
"Who's Jasmine?" I cut in, narrowing my eyes at her.
"Now who's the jealous one, huh?"
"I'm not jealous! None of us have heard about her before and suddenly she's your best friend? Oh, come on! Do you really expect us to believe that?"
"Chill, she's not my 'best friend', she's my brother's friend's sister, and for the record, I didn't tell her, Noah did." I raised an eyebrow, indicating I didn't 100% believe her story.
"I'm not lying! She has a little brother called Jake who's in Noah's class. I took Noah to Jake's birthday party and Jasmine was obviously there, and because she's our age, she was the only person I could really talk to. Turns out she's super cool."
"If she's our age, why doesn't she go to our school?"
"Aiden, you can't say that! She might not have the money." Axel warned.
"Oh, no, she definitely has the money, but her parents didn't want her going to our school because they were scared this would happen."
"Depending on what you're referring to as 'this', that's understandable." I shrugged.
"Enough about Jasmine, how about we get on with what we came here to do?" Amaya was clearly getting agitated.
"Sounds good to me." I said, not wanting to make her mad.
"Okay, so let's start off with what they know." Axel tried to sound professional.
"They know each of our suits, which is pretty creepy if you ask me. They also know about what happened last year, Amaya's competition, that Avery's friends with Sadie, but Amaya doesn't like Sadie... Amaya, why don't you like Sadie?" Aiden raised his eyebrows.
"Amaya was with me last night and Sadie called me-" I began to explain.
"Avery, Sadie called you last night." Aiden said. Then, the realisation hit me like a bus.
"Oh my God. Sadie tried to call me, probably asking for help and I didn't answer-"
"Calm down."
"Don't tell me to calm down, Amaya. How am I supposed to calm down when I know that if I hadn't messed up so bad then we wouldn't be sitting here doing this and maybe Sadie would be okay and in school instead of wherever on Earth she is right now!" I snapped, almost bursting into tears. "It's okay, it's not your fault." Axel tried to be comforting.
"Yeah, you didn't know this was going to happen, none of us did." Amaya agreed.
"I hate this."
"And you think the rest of us don't? Newsflash: the whole world doesn't revolve around you! Stop being selfish." Aiden's tone was harsh.
"Dude, what's with the attitude?"
"It's not that I have an attitude, it's that I'm sick of Avery being the centre of attention 24/7."
"You know what, I think we're done here for the day." Axel obviously didn't want the drama.
"Actually, I have to go, because Noah should be home by now and I don't want to leave him in the house on his own." Amaya said.
"See you tomorrow." I waved to her as she left the park, disappearing into a crowd of people.
"I'm going home too."
"Bye-bye, golden boy!" Aiden threw his middle finger up as he walked away. "Someone's in a bad mood." Axel muttered.
"So I guess it's just you and me then."
"Avery, I need to tell you something." His words came suddenly.
"Go on..." I said, sipping on my drink.
"I kissed your brother."
"You did WHAT?!" I exclaimed as water flew out of my mouth.
"I can explain..."
"I'm listening."