The Vagrants

Chapter 13

EVELYN

I wiped off the rest of Jefferson's blood that splattered my knuckles. Was it a hard punch? Yes. Was I sorry? Nope. Okay maybe I was, but not for him, for everyone watching. I thought we were getting close enough to maybe be friends and punching one of their friends isn't a good impression.

Cameron was fixing a bandage over Jefferson's nose while the rest were sitting  quietly around me. It really was awkward. "We figured the reason you collapsed was because the power Chaz gave you is starting to wear off." Maikki said, trying to fill in the silence. I thought so too, so the only word coming out of me was a small "Oh."

"Okay, let's get moving." Cameron said over his shoulder. We picked up our bags and walked deeper into the forest. As we made our way through the trees, my thoughts slipped back to the conversation I had with Maikki  after that whole river bathing thing:

The girls and I were sitting in a circle, eating some food, when I decided to ask her about Jefferson. They both looked at me weirdly before Maikki responded. "Well, he's blond, has brown eyes, wears glasses because he can't see from far-" I cut her off, lightly whacking her shoulder with the back of my hand. "I know that. I mean like what he does when you're not around, what he's like at home..."

She finally got it and replied correctly. "Oh, well I don't know what he's like when i'm not around, because I'm not normally there. He usually disappears, which is a good reason he should have gotten a tracker..." A tracker? Why wouldn't he have gotten one.

I asked her why and she said "He's allergic to copper, and that's what the trackers we get are made of. I wish they changed the material so we'd know where he wanders off to." Maikki explained while holding up her wrist to show us a sort of big bracelet-like metal thing around her hand. A red light blinked in the centre of it all. That's weird I thought the hilt of the sword I gave him is copper. What is that boy hiding?

My thoughts were cut off by Maikki giving me another interesting piece of information. "Instead of a tracker he wears some sort of talking device. But to whom he talks to, I don't know. Maybe a family member, because he says he doesn't like to talk to anyone but his friends. And one more thing. When I pulled Jefferson into the river, he screamed."

I kind of knew that already. "Noticed." That didn't seem to be all. "I expected you to say he screamed like a girl. Everyone says so, why didn't you." Was she serious? She wanted to ask me why I didn't say her best friend sounded like a girl? Wow... "It was high pitched, alright, but I wouldn't say it sounded like a girl." It angered me when people thought all girls' screams sound the same.

"Girls don't always sound like that. They scream to alert people that they're in danger, not risking the chances of doing it all alone. Meanwhile guys don't scream because they think they can handle it. They too impulsive to even consider what could happen. Girls scream because they are smart."

I listened in on what Jefferson and Cameron were saying incase it told me anything. They were talking about how Jefferson hasn't befriended any guys but the two best friends he already has. Then who does he need to communicate with?

Jefferson jacket sleeve slipped up a bit and I noticed a silver invention clipped around his left wrist. It had fancy engravings and words in other languages. A wolf was position on the top of it, with ambers for eyes,and under that were three lines and a hole, for talking and hearing. I had never seen one of those before.

I don't even think the Crafters were the ones that made it. That would mean no other Vagrant would have one. These thoughts didn't help lower my suspicion. In fact they did anything but that.