Winter's Academy

Chapter Fifteen: Seven Days Alone - in the view of Angelo

If you obey all the rules, you miss all the fun.

- Katharine Hepburn

Max led us to Eva's room. We received a few stares along the way from the girls that obviously know us guys aren't meant to be here.

Max had a spare key to Eva's room – I'd wondered why, but I didn't ask, if it's private, I didn't need to know.

"Alright, split up and look for Eva's laptop." She said as soon as we got in.

"You boys look where the drawers ain't." Lucida pointed, I assumed she didn't want us looking through Eva's underwear. It would be fairly embarrassing. Lucida was searching in the bathroom, Jackson in the kitchen, Alec around her computer desk, Max at her drawers I was checking around her bed.

"Uh, Lucida, come here a second." Max called after opening the first drawer. Lucida walked over to her, "Take a look and tell me if that's something most teens have in their underwear drawers." Lucida looked inside, neither Alec, Jackson or I spoke, afraid they might snap at us.

"Well. Its not protocol." She put her hand in and pulled out a ceremonial knife, what police call a double edge steal knife.

"Knife in the panty draw, what would it be doing there?" I didn't hear Lucida's answer, I was searching under the covers of her bed and under the pillows, but when I tried to pick one up, it seemed a little heavy. I picked it up and turned it to its open side. About three more knives, same as the one Lucida had in her hand and a gun fell out with loose bullets.

"Is this protocol?" I asked and everyone came to me.

"Okay. Is Eva some sort of psychopath, cause this is freaking me out?" Alec tripped on his own feet and fell on the bed lightly, he obviously felt something because he put his hand under the mattress and pulled out Eva's laptop. Talk about an obvious place. He handed it to Max and she put it on the desk where we all gathered, obviously forgetting what else we'd already found. I wasn't completely sure if any of us wanted to remember what we'd found. She turned it on and it instantly asked us for a password.

"We three are one." Lucida murmured. "Okay, so she's talking about us three, right?"

"Obviously." Max sighed, "But she said we're one. So how does that gives us the password?"

"Maybe it's just a name – Mel."

"Mel?"

"Yeah. Maxine, Eva, Lucida. M, E, L. Mel. Get it?"

"Only you could think that's the password."

"Oh, give it a shot anyway. It'll shut me up." Max sighed and typed in the name 'Mel'. It worked. "Hah! I got it! In your face, Maxine Nicola Sierra!"

"Maxine Nicola Sierra?" Alec laughed,

"It's not as funny as Jaime Rosiest Luis." Max replied to him,

"Rosiest?" Jackson exclaimed laughing,

"Laugh all you want, as soon as I'm 18 – I'm changing it!" he yelled,

"To what? 'Pinkest'?"

"That's it-" Alec tackled Jackson to the ground and started wrestling, they did it so often it didn't even phase me anymore. The computer finished loading and on a black screen in red writing flashed a single name, 'Carl Nicolas'.

"Who the heck is Carl Nicolas? It sounds familiar." Lucida pointed out, I knew who it was,

"That's because you only know him as the Chairman." I said,

"Yeah right. The Chairman is killing students – why would he do that?!" Okay, apparently women are more emotional than I thought,

"How should I know, ask Eva." We didn't know what to think, what to do or how do even do it. All we knew was, Eva had a plan – one she's sure we'd figure out.