The Hunters of Artemis: The Return of the Hunters

Chapter 20: Let's Talk

I walked into my first class after lunch, and sat down at a two-seat table near the back of the room, hoping not to be noticed. I had tied my hair back in a braid so that it wouldn't get in my face, and hopefully, that would contribute to being unnoticeable.

Someone sat down next to me, and I glanced over.

"Hey, Ayla," Keegan greeted, smiling brightly. "Nice to see you again."

I smiled back. "Likewise."

He got out some books, and I did the same, following his actions as not to make a fool out of myself by accidentally getting the wrong textbook or something.

It was math class, and as soon as the teacher started talking, I was lost. The curriculum in the US is very different from that of Canada, so as soon as she started to talk about radicals and such, I had no clue what to do.

"We say that a square root radical is simplified, or in its simplest form, when the radicand has no square factors. A radical is also in simplest form when the radicand is not a fraction. 33, for example, has no square factors." I stared at the board, and then at my notebook and figured that even though I wasn't going to be here long (hopefully), I should at least try to understand what the heck was going on.

Keegan saw my confused expression and I could see he was holding back a smile.

I narrowed my eyes playfully at him. "What are you looking at?"

He averted his eyes quickly. "Oh, nothing. Just a girl who looks to be out of her element."

I tipped one side of my mouth up. "Well, you're not wrong about that..."

"Do they not teach you guys about this up in Canada?"

"I suppose I wouldn't know. I'm not exactly going to school there right now, am I?"

"True." He shrugged, then looked a bit bashful. "If you need any help, I'm sure I could offer you some assistance."

It was a bit weird hearing such language from a teenager, but I guess there are some teenagers out there who still know how to speak English properly.

I smiled and looked down at my paper. "Thanks."

Even though my going to school was all an act, it was kind of sad to know that in a few days, I would be leaving Keegan, who had been so kind to me, even though he knew nothing of me. He had showed me around the school, leaving his own class to do so. He was offering to tutor me, even though he didn't truly know if I was confused or not. If that's not someone I would miss, then I don't know who is.

___

Later that night, back at the hotel, the rest of the questers were shoving questions at me about my day at school.

"How was it?" Anna asked.

"Did you meet anyone nice?" Hannah questioned.

All Jack said was, "How was the food?"

I laughed and put my hands up. "Hold on! Hold on. I will answer all of your question, but you need to give me some time to talk! Anna, it was fine. Hannah, yes, I met someone nice. Jack, I did not taste the food."

He shrugged. "I bet it was bad anyway."

I giggled. "I bet. But, if you want me to taste it that badly, I'll have some tomorrow."

He nodded. "Cool. You don't actually have to, though. It was just a joke."

Rolling my eyes, I sat down on my bed. "Whatever."

Lyra nodded at me. "Did you find anything that pertains to our journey?"

Remembering the mural, I nodded. "Yeah. I found more than one thing, actually. One more worrisome than the other."

Robyn frowned. "What'd you find?"

I brought out the phone and pulled up the photo of the mural. "This. It... Well, it sounds crazy, but it looks like you guys. You guys and my parents."

"And you, Rhea," Anna said, looking at the picture. "Well, not you, you. But the other Rhea. The original Rhea..." She trailed off as I gave her a look.

"Lyra, how is this possible?" Atlanta inquired. "We were there over two decades ago. And I seriously doubt anyone remembered us enough to paint this by memory, or bothered to take pictures..."

Lyra shook her head, her lips tight. "I don't know." She looked up at me. "What else did you find?"

I handed the newest note over.

After a few seconds of looking it over, Lyra threw her head back and groaned. "Noooo. Not Taylor Swift! I'm sorry, but her songs pain me."

Anna gasped. "How dare you! Taylor Swift is one of the most talented singers of her time! Of OUR time! I get you're old and all, but that doesn't equate to can't-see-talent-when-it's-right-in-front-of-them, right?"

I rolled my eyes. "Guys, we can talk about this later. Right now, we need to focus on what this note says."

Hannah took the note from Lyra and read it out. "Oh, darn. You figured it out. I was hoping it'd take you some time. But now that you're here, we can play. You've been shaken, for that I am sorry. But now you've got to Shake It Off." She lowered the note. "Let's try to, I don't know, figure out what it means."

Jack nodded. "We should go line by line." He grabbed the paper from Hannah and read it over a few times. "The first two lines are just fluff. They don't mean anything. The third... But now that you're here, we can play. What could that mean?"

"It could just be a threat," I said. "You know. It may not be anything."

He shrugged. "Still, we should be ready for it to show up."

Shaking my head, I said, "What comes after that, again?"

"You've been shaken, for that I am sorry."

I narrowed my eyes. "I think that's a jab at me. I kind of freaked out when I saw the mural... But why it's important enough to put in a note..."

"Is no one going to ask how whoever wrote this note knew that Rhea freaked out?" Atlanta said suddenly. "No one could have predicted her reaction."

I frowned. "That's true... But only Keegan was there when I saw the mural for the first time..."

"Keegan?" Lyra said, her eyebrow raised.

I waved a hand. "The guy I met."

"Guy?" Robyn frowned.

I blinked. "Yeah. A guy. But that's besides the point! This not--"

"This note could have been written by your new friend," Atlanta accused. "It's exactly the point."

I sighed deeply. "As much as I would like to converse about how much you hate boys, I think we should be worrying about the contents of the note."

Atlanta glared at me. "Fine. The last line of the note is referencing our last time here. We all went to the school and ended up going to a school dance. Kat did some acapella when the stupid music went down. She sang Shake It Off."

Everyone stared at Atlanta, including the Hunters.

"What? I have a good memory."

Blinking, Lyra said, "Even I don't have that good of a memory... And I'm me."

I laughed. "But back to the note, if it was a reference to a school dance, then I would assume that the next clue will be somewhere similar, am I wrong?"

No one spoke up.

I sighed. "So, I guess I should be on the lookout for any dancing-singing-music stuff going down at school...

This would be fun.

Not.  

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Dear readers,

New chapter! Yay! Questions: (These will be regular from now on)

What's going down next? WHO'S LEAVING THE NOTES?

-flygirl1