The Mysterious Benedict Society - Short Story

Day One

"Reynie!"

He turned as a girl ran towards him at top speed, wrapping her slim arms around him. He stepped back, startled, then returned her embrace. "Hi Kate."

A bald, bespectacled figure trotted up, wiping a trail of perspiration from his forehead. Sticky still was a bit on the scrawny side, even though he had grown a good two inches.

"Sticky!" Kate flew at him, practically picking him up as she hugged him tightly. He choked, signalling wildly to Reynie to help him. Reynie smiled and persuaded Kate to release Sticky from her death grip.

"Weren't you supposed come with Constance?" Reynie asked as Sticky adjusted his glasses. He nodded and pointed to a dark figure plodding determinedly forward. Kate squinted at it, fingers tightly wound around her bucket. Her expression cleared as the grumpy not-so-little girl's face came into view and scooped her up. Constance grumbled but didn't push Kate away when she squeezed her.

Constance critically eyed her friends up. "Reynie's been working out, Kate put on lip gloss and Sticky brought some books in which he wants Reynie to read and discuss about with him." At this, Kate and Reynie turned their heads away, embarrassed, and Sticky flipped the flap of his satchel open to reveal four dark green leather-bound books, blinking in the harsh sunlight.

"You put on what?" Reynie questioningly stared at the blushing teenager's pink lips.

"Lip gloss," Constance confirmed, digging through Kate's bucket. She emerged triumphantly with a tube of "Pale Strawberry" gloss. Kate cheeks flushed an even deeper red, averting her friends' gazes.

Constance gazed at Kate's face, opening her mouth and loudly crying, "She put it on for someone! She put it on for-"

"Milligan," Kate interjected, covering her burning cheeks. For once, Constance kept silent and let the old friends catch up while sniffing the lip gloss with distaste.

"Too artificial," Constance remarked as she dumped it back into the red bucket. Sticky cleared his throat and changed the awkward subject to a less embarrassing one.

"Where will we be staying at?"

Kate screwed up her nose and Reynie couldn't help but think how that action made her seem... Cute? He wasn't sure. "About a fifteen-minute walk from here, factoring in Constance's sulking..." Constance snorted indignantly while Sticky momentarily furrowed his eyebrows before coolly saying, "Approximately twenty-seven minutes and fifty-four seconds."

Twenty-seven minutes and fifty seconds later, they were strolling into the campsite, Constance dragging behind by exactly four seconds. Kate looked up from her watch and applauded Sticky. "How you managed to calculate that is really beyond me," she grinned, clapping enthusiastically.

Reynie shrugged off the heavy backpack and pulled out two folded-up tents. He quickly set it up and laid out the packed food, dividing it into four parts and splitting the parts up into even more piles for each meal.

"Sticky will be sharing with Constance on Mr Benedict's orders, and Kate will be sharing with me," Reynie read out from a crumpled piece of paper from his pocket. Constance heartily protested while Sticky dabbed at his neck, carefully placing the slightly-damp handkerchief back into a compartment in his bulging rucksack. A screech resounded in the quiet site and all four of them looked up. A bird with massive wings that looked suspiciously like a peregrine falcon was circling above them. Kate delightedly pulled her glove out of her bucket and tugged it onto her wrist, whistling the falcon down.

"Madge!" she exclaimed, stroking the bird's dark brown feathers. "You clever girl! You followed me here!" Kate fed the falcon a bit of meat from her red bucket. Sticky stared at the bucket, then his gaze followed to Kate and Madge.

"Why did you store meat strips in your bucket if you didn't know that Madge was going to follow you?" Sticky questioned. Kate brushed him off with a flick of her hand and sent Madge soaring into the sky, having finished all the treats in Kate's storage. Kate waved goodbye and set her bucket down onto the grassy clearing.

"Do we need to gather wood or something?" she asked. Reynie shook his head and pointed to a pile of logs neatly stacked up at the side. They started to build a campfire with Reynie lighting it with a metallic-blue lighter. The four sat by the blaze, quietly staring into the orange flames. Their eyes were bright by the fire, warm and contented. Even Constance was peacefully dozing off when Kate suddenly jumped up and exclaimed, "We haven't had dinner yet!"

Reynie yawned and stretched, his visible muscles tensing under his shirt. Kate admired his impressive physique, tilting her head to get a better view. Sticky padded softly over to the supplies and handing them out wordlessly. They all tucked in, drowsy by the warmth of the roaring blaze. There were grunts of appreciation as Moocho's meat pies and hotdogs were devoured heartily.

Constance and Sticky stumbled into their tent, leaving the remaining two to pack up the leftovers - not that there was much. Kate was staring at Reynie again, eyes tracing his strong jaw. He had the beginnings of a fine stubble, his soft lips pursed. She shook her head and caught Reynie's attention by jerking her thumb at the tent. He nodded silently and, thoroughly exhausted, they crawled into the comfort of their sleeping bags and fell into a deep slumber.

The next morning when the pair woke up, they were tangled in the material of the sleeping bags and tried to detach themselves from each other. Once Reynie broke free, he sat up, immediately shivering as the freezing cold air slapped his back. A crackle from the walkie-talkie lying beside them made Kate reach for it and listen closely.

"Constance won't get up and, frankly, I would like to stay in bed for a little longer. Do you guys feel the same way? Over."

Kate pressed a button and replied, "Roger that. Thanks, Sticky. Over."

She leaned over and smiled at Reynie with his dark brown hair tousled by the tossing and turning of the night's rest. He returned the gesture and shimmied back into his sleeping bag. Kate, ever impulsive, felt herself inching closer to Reynie. She put her face closer to his and he could feel her warm breath on his tingling skin. Suddenly, it didn't feel so cold and he parted his lips. Kate, taking a deep breath of the icy morning air, pressed her mouth to his, combing her slender fingers through his hair. Reynie grabbed her waist and pulled her closer to him. Their lips were connected until they ran out of air, puffing as their eyes sparkled.

"I... Uh," Reynie stumbled over his words and Kate saw the timid little boy in him once again. "I've been waiting for that ever since we parted." They grinned, giddy from the kiss and this time, it was Reynie who initiated the kiss.