The Mysterious Students

Chapter #17 Spy

Lily's phone couldn't stop blowing up from how much the group was texting. Before, she started to ignore them, Lily did read them and saw that they were conducting theories of what Arabella is capable of. The sky turning red because of the fires made them immediately think that she could summon fire. Vincent said the power was called "pyrokinesis."

What was annoying about the group being of kids was that they would go on random tangents about random topics. When pyrokinesis came up, the boys started debating on who the better superhero was, Batman or Superman. It got too heated that Rayne had to step in and stop the discussion. They were barely chatting after that.

Oddly enough, it felt nice to have someone blowing up her phone, or in this case, multiple people. She never had a phone up to this point, but she never had a whole group of friends who were available to talk, even if it was about school. However, it was tough to hide the fact that she had it in her house. Whenever it would ding, her mom or others around her would think it was their own phones. After fiddling with some of the buttons, she found silent mode and that got it to only buzz.

Lily didn't have a problem with it at school though. Students weren't allowed to have technology out during Brunch and Lunch. Well, you were allowed to use them in the library, but it was always full of students that got there in the beginning.

After school ended, the group gathered to talk about the several weird but not all so ridiculous theories they came up with. One didn't sound so bad to Mrs. Vesper.

"There is a Fire wielding Guardian." She did mention after George brought it up.

"There is?" Vincent questioned.

"Yup." The instructor briefly searched the stack of textbooks that were left from the research and opened up the World History book. She went pale once she saw the picture of this Fire wielding guardian.

Before she explained who she really was, all she was in the end, was that she was cruel and malicious.

That description did not fit, Arabella. Not to Lily. Arabella didn't seem cruel or malicious. She did earn good grades, had a lot of friends, and was even friends with teachers. That was what Lily could tell from being in only her Language Arts class.

"Unfortunately, I did not want her to be the cause of all of this." Mrs. Vesper hung her head down, with despair.

"Why?" Lily asked, but didn't want to, already sensing sadness with just looking at her teacher.

"She was part of our team. The team of 10. Her name was Lyra Grimstalker. She was enthusiastic and was always looking for villains to fight. As long as she got to use her fury and fire abilities she was content. Later on, she ended up getting bored of what she was able to do and wanted to be able to do more. When she learned that dark magic could be held, she wanted to access it. The fact that she could hold more power got consumed into her mind, that it made her turn against us. We had no choice to destroy her power or else she would destroy everything herself. We killed her." It didn't take the multiple tears to show Mrs. Vespers guilt and shame that came from killing one of her own. She couldn't look at the students while sharing her story. She was still holding on to the guilt for so long. Lily couldn't imagine killing one of their own. She hoped she wouldn't have to.

George decided to break the upsetting silence, with a hopefully uplifting tone. "But you had no choice. She was the one who chose to become dark."

Mrs. Vesper softly chuckled, but there was barely any humor in it. "It took all of us to come to that realization. Some more than others."

As much as the kids wanted to learn more about the instructors past or The Guardians as well, Lily did think it wasn't the best time to do that. She even noticed Vincent feeling the same way when he asked, "Uh I hate to change the subject, but you really think that Lyra or Arabella is the villian in this whole thing?"

Mrs. Vesper quickly wiped away her tears to pull herself together. "Yes. I believe so."

"So what do we do now?" Rayne wondered.

The instructor straightened herself up along with the some sniffles. "I suggest Lily go in as a spy."

"Me?!" Lily shrieked, while her heart dropped.

"Her?" Vincent followed along which confused the other three students.

It looked like Mrs. Vesper was really recovering quickly from sharing her story. She crossed her arms and arched her brow. "Do you want to spend your lunch and brunch hanging around with them?"

Vincent and the other kids sensed her authority, which made him look down at the ground. "No thanks."

"It does seem like she is the only one that Arabella is close enough to and won't question why she is suddenly wanting to hangout with her." Rayne mentioned. Lily hated that she pointed that out. It had to make her the perfect candidate.

"Lily, what do you know about Arabella's friends?" Mrs. Vesper questioned.

Lily shrugged. "She only has one specific friend group. I don't see her hanging around with anyone more. Um, They're all 7th graders. Some are in special ed and some are in general ed classes."

"That could be why we don't know them." Rayne pointed out. "We don't have the same classes as them."

"Could they also be involved in this?" George countered.

"Why would Arabella want to only hangout with only them?" She argued.

"Even if they might not be, it would be beneficial to see how she is outside of class and maybe in her home life." Mrs. Vesper replied. A large wave of heat coursed through Lily's face, and possibly to her shoulders. She was not looking forward to befriending Arabella to that extent of visiting her house. Who knows what she was capable of? If she even was the villain.

"There is only one way to answer all those questions." Mrs. Vesper said, directing her words mainly towards Lily.