-HIATUS- ᴏɴᴇ ᴏꜰ ᴛʜᴇᴍ - ᴛʜᴇ ʜᴀᴡᴛʜᴏʀɴᴇ ʟᴇɢᴀᴄʏ (ꜱᴇQᴜᴇʟ ᴛᴏ ᴀɴᴏᴛʜᴇʀ ɢʀᴀᴍʙꜱ?) -HIATUS-

Chapter 25

We were now in an SUV heading down to the lodge at the bottom of the mountain. Alisa thinks the plan is one more photo opportunity when in reality, it is just a hunt for information. Oren wasn't very happy with the idea of going but here we are.

"My grandfather outlawed the Drop when I was around twelve. Too many broken bones" Xander announced.

"Ummm... How many?" Rosie asks from beside me.

"I don't think we want to know," Rebecca says from behind us.

"Because that's not concerning or anything," Max Avery's friend says sounding too happy.

"Hawthornes" Thea scoffs. She was right but... I was Hawthorne... Avery was probably Hawthorne. Right?

"Be nice" Rebecca sighs giving Thea what was probably supposed to be a deadly look but it came out soft and pretty.

"Do Hawthornes break a lot of bones?" Rosie squeaked.

"No-" Xander starts.

"Because Amber Hawthorne here broke her arm four weeks back and I don't know how she got it. "

"The reason was stupid... You are calling me Hawthorne?" I say shaking my head in disbelief.

"Yeah."

"Whatever. I will tell you later. Xander already knows. Anyways what is the Drop?"

"It is a friendly little game of ski-lift chicken. You ride the lift up until someone calls 'Drop'. And then you" Xander shrugged "drop"

"As in jump off the lift?!" Avery said staring at Xander.

"The first person to call is the challenger. If the other person declines, the challenger has to drop. If the other person accepts the challenge, they drop and get a fifteen-second head start to the race." I imagined everything. Them doing it as children. What did Skye think? Or did she not care?

"You Hawthornes and your nine lives" I mutter and Xander looks at me smiling.

"The race?" Max and Avery said in unison. Race... to the bottom?

"To the bottom" Xander clarified looking out the window at the lodge as it came into view.

"That is the single dumbest thing I've ever heard in my life," Avery said her face full of horror.

"Maybe, but as soon as we've finished at the lodge, I've got a winner."

---

We arrived at the lodge and were escorted to a private alcove overlooking the slopes. Oren's men took a position at the door while Avery and I talked to Alisa.

"You sit. You sip on hot chocolate. We get a few pictures and we get you out" Alisa says. That was what she had planned for us, but not what we had planned. We were going to identify the boy in the photo by asking the staff. I sat down at the table with Avery. 

We were given hot chocolate and our personal photographer took many pictures and Alisa checked each of them. Giving suggestions on how to move our bodies. A few minutes later Max, Rosie, Xander, Rebecca, and Thea walked into the room their guard looked like he wanted to die.

"These two, are really useful in getting information out of people," Max says nodding towards Rebecca and Thea.

"Thea's better at flirting" Rebecca murmurs.

"And you're a very quick learner" Thea replies looking Rebecca in the eyes.

"So what did you learn?" I look at Xander but his gaze is somewhere on the floor. He doesn't even look up. "Xan?"