Hero In The Making

Chapter Ten: I kiss you.

Reed walked into his cabin with a frown on his face. The past week and a half have been hectic for him with preparing for the tournament and all. All he really needed was time alone. The first thing he noticed when he walked in was a note on his bed. Reed opened it and began to soak up the words.

"The rocky shore, the rickety pier. Go to the place where we first met here." The note read. Forget alone time, this was Lae's handwriting, and if she was going to put effort into something like this, it was worth following. They hadn't talked about the kiss at all since it had happened. He had a suspicion that this was going to be it, when they finally accepted each other feelings. Reed smiled knowing exactly where to go. One of his earliest memories was stepping out on the dock one morning to see the boat delivering two new people to the island: the Director and Laena. Reed dashed out of his cabin and flew right to the dock, only to find another note.

"The hideout where we always had something to think about." Reed smiled at the note remembering the good times, when Lae and him were smaller they would always go to a certain place in the woods to hide away from the older kids to play and talk. He expanded his wingspan and took flight once again.

Reed landed deep in the forest, now where was it again? He asked himself. Reed remember it was past the rickety tire swing, and through the tiny stream but the rest of the directions were a blur to him. He wandered for a little longer before Reed stumbled upon another note. He bent down and picked it up.

"I knew you'd forget where it was, so it's just up there to the right." He laughed. No rhymes on this one. He kept walking and saw the huge tree with the above-ground roots, where they used to sit. There was a note attached to the tree, right over where they had carved their names years ago.

"Cleaning the dishes, not our first wishes, turned pretty vicious." Memories came flooding back of the time Reed and Lae got kitchen duty together. Reed tease her with water until it broke out into a full on fight. They were both scolded with another week of kitchen duty.

Reed walked into the cafeteria with a smirk on his face.

Mia frowned at him "Dinner isn't for another two hours!" She yelled.

Reed laughed and said. "Calm down Mia, I'm here to see if Laena dropped off a note." He said.

"I think she did last night. Check on the bulletin board over there." Sure enough, there was another note pinned to the board. He ripped open the envelope and read the next note.

"This is the last note. Go to the lake and find a boat, and try to stay afloat."

Reed walked out the door with a giant smile on his face. He walked to the shore of the lake finding the empty boat on the shore. "Try to stay afloat," he muttered. He figured that meant that he was supposed to take this out in the lake. He started rowing when he noticed something in the bottom of the boat. A water gun. He started laughing, and picked it up. As soon as he picked up the gun, he got hit in the face with a blast of water. He looked on the shore, to see Lae getting in another boat and rowing out. He shot back until his gun was empty. By this point, their boats were almost right next to each other. He leaned over the side to try to fill up his gun; he lost his balance, and fell in the lake. Lae started laughing so hard, that she also lost her balance. She almost righted herself, until Reed grabbed onto her hand and pulled. Lae screamed as she fell into the water. They continued splashing each other until they grabbed onto each other's hand. Lae pulled him to her.

"So that scavenger hunt did have a point you know. I didn't do all that rhyming for nothing." She laughed.

"Okay, what was the purpose of all of this?" He asked.

She took in a shaky breath. "I... have to tell you something."

Reed's eyebrows furrowed. "You can tell me anything, you know that. Right? Here, let's go to the shore-"