Faking Robin

Chapter 13 - The Initials

Chapter 13 - The Initials

Edited by Lostindreamz :)

I was waiting in the auditorium, seated on stage with my four other friends, Reagan included. He was the person that Landon had talked about. I didn’t know if it was fortunate or unfortunate that he was seated right beside me, and I was at the edge, which meant no one else was on the other side of me. 

He had been scribbling down some equations on his paper, while the other three, May, Landon and the other member, Rick, were chit-chatting about a holiday plan to some place that I had never heard of. 

I played with the pen, twirling it between my fingers – a habit I’d developed for when I was nervous regarding something related with academic things, or when I had a pencil with me. I took another look at the guy beside me, his dark hair covered some part of his eyes, but because of the colour contrast, his electric blue eyes were clearly visible. 

I tried to do the same thing as him, write down things I needed to remember before the competition started, but my mind didn’t seem to want to cooperate. 

“Ugh,” I grumbled, my fingers still twirling the pen. My voice seemed to break Reagan’s concentration. He moved his attention from the paper toward my pencil, “That’s cool,” he complimented.

“What?” 

“That,” he answered, pointing at my hand. “I have never been able to do that, though I tried,” he chuckled, his voice sounded like a nice melody. Wait a minute, what did I just think?

“Oh, this.” I put down my pen, embarrassed. “It’s a habit,” I confessed. He took my pencil,clumsily trying to twirl it but he failed miserably. 

“I have no talent for that,” he complained. His expression was so cute with slight red tints on his cheeks. I was about to reply, but a woman just had to begin the welcoming speech right at that moment. 

“Welcome, everyone!” she cheered, smiling brightly to the audience. She was someone I didn’t know, maybe some outsider to keep it fair.  Everyone clapped cheerfully. Wow, that was an energetic applause for a Math competition. 

“Welcome to The Thinkers Olympiad! Please welcome –” and I didn’t pay attention to whatever she said next. I just knew that our opponents were students from Ashmont Academy. 

They were wearing matching cream polo shirts with red skirts or pants. They smiled at the audience and were cheered by their schoolmates. The team consisted of three boys and two girls, just like how our group was.

Myeyesthen moved to the crowd, trying to spot anyone familiar. Unfortunately Apple wasn’t able to come. My eyes stopped on a few familiar faces sitting together at the front row. They both waved at me, the boywaved more energetically, waving his hand highin the air.

“Luke, Kate,” I called them in low voice, not wanting tocatch anyone’s unnecessary attention. They waved back and Luke got even more excited then. Was he on a sugar rush?

I felt really grateful for having them as my friends, as the peoplewhom I’d met first in Abbey Mount. If I were tomeet people like May or Landon – who seemed kind but they proved me wrong – first, I didn’t think I would have this much spirit and courage to continue. I might not have been here now.

My eyes then swept the room once again, in hopesof finding a certain someone that I had invited. I started to feel disappointed when I couldn’t find those messy locks and huge glasses. Wait, were outsiders allowed to come in? And how could he come here if he had full-time job?

My face fell in total disappointment after that. Why didn’t I realise that earlier. I made a low “tch” sound with my mouth, which apparently caught Reagan’s attention once again. 
“Nervous?” he asked, raising one of his eyebrows. I just replied him with a nod when I felt those birds in my stomach once again. “Yeah,” I answered.

Our teacher who was acting as the host of the Olympiad then explained some rules and what we were to do in this competition. I tried to put everything in my brain so as to not embarrass myself later on, since it was my first time at this kind of thing. 

After around an hour, we reached the third round of the game, which was the final one. Our group was losing by five points to Ashmont’s team. The look on the other members’ faceswere displeasing, especially May, who seemed mad. Maybe because she almost answered it correctly, except she forgot to add a negative sign to her answer, that is.

“The last round! We are giving you big questions to answer, and for every correct answer, we’re going to give you one point! But, if you’re able to answer all five at once, you are going to get six points!” she announced, with her fingers changing from showing three to five in very animated movements. 

Everyone once again cheered, including Kate and Luke, who were still in the same position as I’dseen them last, Kate calmly sitting and Luke cheering like he’d just won a truck of strawberries. 

Suddenly I felt an energy boost, feeling alive and confident once again. I smiled at the two, which was directly noticed and got a huge smile from both as a reply. I hoped this feeling wouldn’t vanish soon. 

The host started a countdown to ten before she pressed the button on a laptop to show the last question. This short time was supposed to be used by both teams to prepare.

“If we get all those right, we could win! We’re the home team, it would be really embarrassing to lose,” Landon told us for which he gained frowns as replies. 

“Thanks for the pep talk, Lan,” May mocked him, giving him a fake smile which turned into one that showed as if she was ready to bite his flesh off in a split second. I wondered how their relationship was, they looked pretty close, a couple maybe?

Landon just mumbled a few inaudible words expressing his dislike for May’s action, which was, of course, being ignored by all of us.

“ONE!” The host shouted before pressing the laptop’s keyboard with full force. For sure that laptop will break soon, I thought. If I had something that expensive I would use it with care.

The three questions popped up on the projector screen, along with a sixty-second countdown that had already started. What?! Only sixty seconds for five questions? 

“I’ll take number one, May number two, Landon third, Rick fourth and Robin, fifth. Fast!” Reagan ordered. In this kind of time his voice was filled with authority. I directly scribbled the question on the paper. It wasn’t a hard one, but with my brain and hands not synchronising with each other, it felt far harder.

“Done!” Reagan suddenly announced, my head snapped to face him, smirk of glory on his face. It had taken him only twenty seconds to finish. Wow. I noticed how his paper showed a very messy handwriting, though. I chuckled a bit, before I realised my part was half done. 

“Fast guys!” Rick said when he finished. The countdown showed fifteen seconds. Oh, no!

Move this, put it here… I thought. “Done!” I announced, feeling very happy that I had done it and that I was not the slowest.

May and Landon then threw their pens on the table, their hands up, “Done!” they exclaimed at the same time. Honestly, they looked like fraternal twins more than a couple. 

All of ushurriedly pressed the red button to call the judges, telling them we were done. The countdown stopped at that moment and the Ashmont’s team groaned loudly, throwing their pens and pencils on the table, showing great disappointment.

“Okay! Please tell us your answers!” the host told us. My eyes moved to the three judges who looked at us in seriousness. I shouldn’t lose. This was my first ever Math competition and I didn’t want to disappoint anyone or myself. 

One by one we told them our answers, and the judges marked them as correct. Then it was my turn, “y square is equal to…” 

I stopped. Something was wrong, but I didn’t know what it was. C’mon think fast, they are waiting for you, Robin!

“Yes?” one of the judges asked me to continue, impatient. My eyes wandered around once again, I just couldn’t focus. Say it, Robin. My friends’ eyes were all looking at me expectantly. If I got it correct, we’d win, if we got it wrong, we would be doomed.

The time felt like it had stopped, or maybe it was moving in slow motion. I couldn’t hear anyone, no scream, no sound at all. I just wanted to focus on my paper, but my eyes denied my wish, so I kept on looking to the audience. Help! I screamed in my heart.

Then I saw someone whom I had been looking for: Anthony. 

He wore his huge glasses and a cap that hid his messy hair. I think he saw me too. His lips curved up, then mouthed me, you can do it! 

I don’t know why, but that inaudible “You can do it!” gave me the strength. I wasn’t even sure if he really mouthed that, but for the moment I just believed he did. 

I put my eyes once again on the paper, then with confidence, I said, “minus fifty two.”

The negative sign, was what I hadmissed. Anthony was the one whohad kept on reminding me about not being careful when moving some numbers tothe other side of theequation and thatsudden addition of negative sign to my answer was because I was reminded by his face. Weird, huh?

“Correct!” The judge announced and the one with the scariest face actually smiled. I couldn’t help but let out a silent scream. Out of reflex, I hugged the person beside me for a split second, until realisation hit me. 

Wait, did I just hug Reagan?

“Sorry!” I apologised. Reagan only smiled, as if he was surrounded by flowers, and patted my head, “Good job,” he praised, then just like the other team members whowere going in front to receive the prize, he got upfrom his seat.

I was dumbfounded, I felt like a puppy. 

I followed him to receive the prize, trying not to think about it. When everything ended and people started rushing out of the hall, our teacher came to us and gave us some ‘advice’ on how we should be working harder since it was a really close win. My mind was still clouded with that unintended hug with Reagan, I was so embarrassed!

I walked out of the building with my phone in hand. Apple had asked me about the result of the competition and I also got a message from Luke telling me to meet him in the main lobby. Pressing down the buttons, sending replies, I didn’t realise someone was waiting for me by the door. 

“Robin,” a voice called. I turned to see the source of the voice. I saw the person who gave me the spirit to continue in the competition, Anthony. He wasn’t dressed in his waiter uniform; instead he wore a t-shirt with a jacket over it. His long legs were covered in khaki coloured pants with dark brown shoes. His huge eyeglasses were still on his nose,  while his usual messy hair that was covering some part of his face seemed ’tamed’ a bit as a worn-out dark blue cap with a lightning bolt sign on it covered the top of his head.

It was my first time seeing him outside Breeze, and I felt closer to him. We finally felt like friends, not just acquaintances. 

My lips curved up as soon as I saw him, “Anthony!” I exclaimed. He showed me his very rare smile and replied with a, “Hey.”

I felt those birds in my stomach again, but these were different birds. If the onesinduced by Reagan were doves, these felt like eagles. Or maybe it was a dragon. I couldn’t tell, but it was just different. 

We both then walked together to the main lobby as he agreed to accompany me to meet Luke and Kate. All the way there, we both didn’t talk much. I only asked him whether he had had a day off, to which he answered with a slight nod and a yes. He seemed uncomfortable. 

I couldn’t blame him, though. It was only because I was Robin Apple that I felt a tad bit confident. Everyone here were wearing something that I could never be able to buy. They ate luxurious food every day. They didn’t need to care who cooked or took care of the house. Everything was ready for them.

“Robin!” Luke’s voice snapped me out of my thought bubble. He was sitting down with Kate in one of the comfy couches in the main lobby. I smiled at the two, waving while approaching them.

“Congrats!” Kate smiled brightly, so like a shining sun. She rummaged through her bag and took out something, a white box. “For you,” she said, handing the box to me. I opened the box and found some slices of Tiramisu flavoured cake there, along with a foldable white plastic spoon.

“Thank you so much!” I exclaimed, very happy with such a hearty gift until I realised that both Kate and Luke had been looking behind my shoulder. I looked to the same direction and saw Anthony standing there. 

“Oh, I forgot! This is Anthony,” I introduced him to them. “Anthony, Luke and Kate,” I continued. They all shook hands. Luke and Kate had this same teasing expression and giggly face looking at me. 

Anthony looked down even more, looking like he was very uncomfortable. 

“Robin, enjoy the cake, I should be going now,” Kate excused herself. She said good bye, and went off with someone from her company to her car. “Are you going somewhere?” he asked.  

Anthony and I looked at each other, we both had no clue. My only plan was to go home by taxi today since Apple had informed me earlier that he wouldn’t be able pick me up. When we were waiting for one of us to speak up, Luke’s phone rang loudly. He made an annoyed expression but soon it changed as if he had just seen a ghost. He directly picked it up. I couldn’t help but feel curious. 

“Yeah, I’ll go home directly. Don’t worry! NO NO NO! Okay…” Luke’s tone changed every time the person on the other side said something. Who could this person be? His mom?

Luke ended the phone call and put his phone in his jeans’ pocket. He looked at both of us with an apologetic expression, “I’m sorry, my sister called me to go home as soon as possible,” he pouted. 

Aw, cute. He was scared of his sister. “She is devilish,” Luke added, as if he had read my mind. “I’m going then. Nice to meet you, Anthony, See you, Robin!” he waved his hands as he pushed the glass door heading out. 

He was like a sudden refreshing wind, came just like that, brightened up the mood and then went away. 

“So…,” I trailed my word, waiting for Anthony to say something. His presence in the main lobby had started to attract attention of the students. They looked at him with various expressions, mostly curiosity, questioning who this outsider was, but I could tell some of them were disgusted, as if he wasn’t a human, as if telling him, what is a person like you doing here?

Maybe the last one was just my paranoia, but I couldn’t help it. It scared me to be in the centre of attention, especially when I didn’t know why. Anthony rubbed the back of his neck, his lips turning into a slight frown. He seemed just as uncomfortable as I was.

“Hey, you!” A loud yell echoed the hall. My head snapped toward the voice, an angry security was heading toward us, or specifically, to Anthony.

“Ah!” Anthony exclaimed when he realised the man in a security uniform, trying hard to run with his body all wet and his uniform heavier because of water. “Intruder!” he yelled again.

Wait, did he mean Anthony?

I felt warmness in my hand, electric impulses were going from the sensory neurones of my palm. His hand was in mind. He began dragging me all of a sudden, as a funny worried expression replaced his previously stoic one. “C’mon, run!” he ordered me. He pushed the big glass door and then led us down the stairs. I almost fell because I couldn’tcatch up with his fast stepsand his long legs. 

“Anthony,” I called him, but he didn’t stop. We were still running, passing the pond and heading toward the huge flower garden on the other side of the school. The voice of the security man faded but then I heard something worse, seemed like that man had called for more security to search for the intruder. 

“Snap, he is calling more people,” Anthony said when he heard the faint angry screams telling people to scram and find “the guy in blue cap and brown clothing”.  

Currently, we were sitting around thick bushes in an unknown area of Abbey Mount. The view of the flower garden that I was very familiar with, had gone. Only a few bright purple or red buds could be seen from where we were.

Soon enough we heard some footsteps, three people came running toward our way, but they were far enough to not see us. “He was here! With a girl in Abbey Mount uniform!” one of the guys said, or rather yelled, it was so loud, we were far from them but it seemed as if they were speaking right beside my ear. “Yeah! This might have been kidnapping! What should we do!” the other one replied, even his last sentence that was supposed to be aquestion came out like an exclamation as well. They should learn to control their voices. 

Erm, Kidnapping…?

“Do they think you kidnapped me?” I asked Anthony in low voice. No, no, no, that was wrong. Anthony might have gone in without permission but he surely wasn’t going to kidnap me. Who was I anyway?

Oh wait, for them, I was a super rich young lady. I forgot.

Anthony shrugged; his eyes still wandering around, on guard. “Seems like it,” he said. His expression was back to the no-expression one. Deep inside, I wanted to see his worried expression again. 

“What do we do?” I asked him. This reminded me of when I’d ‘stolen’ some Appleswhile I was back at home, I felt nostalgic. Except this time I was the one being ‘stolen’. 

Anthony looked at me in the eye, I didn’t know why. One second, two seconds, three seconds… 

I felt the birds bursting in my stomach again. His sunflower eyes weren’t that clear behind his huge glasses, but they attracted me nonetheless. “I don’t know,” he moved his face away, breaking the sudden eye contact, shrugging again. 

I felt my face burning. I couldn’t move my own face and my eyes seemed to be glued to his face. The sound of people screaming and yelling searching for us had faded in my ear. I didn’t know whether they had really gone away, or it was just me. 

Anthony didn’t seem to realise that I was looking intently at him, studying his face. He was too busy looking for a way to get out safely. His ear had reddened a bit, but maybe that was because of the cold condition. His jaws were tensed as he looked around, thinking. I wanted to sweep his messy bangs that covered his face, and maybe pull down the glasses off his face. I wanted to know how he truly looked like.

“Hey,” he called me. Hadhe caught me observing his faceand imagining scenarios? “Y-Yup?” 

“They’re gone,” he told me. Great, it didn’t seem like he noticed. He stood up slowly, making sure no one was around. He put his hand in front of me, “Let’s go.”

I raised my head, looking at him, he was bathing in sunlight and his brown hair looked rich andshiny. I welcomed his hand, putting my own on top of his, as he helped me to stand up. “Thanks.”

Itseemed like a new flower had bloomed that day.

—
We were able to leave Abbey Mount through a back door of the scary back building that had been abandoned. I myself had never gone there and I’d only passed it twice when I was going to the library. It was really dark and it was full of unused things, from tables to smelly expired canned food. 

“Hey, Anthony,” I called the guy in front of me as I crawled through the mess, my eyes were beginning to adapt to the lack of light. He just hummed in response, turning his head toward me. We both looked like two babies who had just learnt how to crawl, passing huge mountains of scraps.

I decided to ask him later, when we were really out of Abbey Mount. Loud cough echoed the building, startling me. I looked at Anthony who stopped a bit behind me, coughing vigorously. “Are you okay?” I asked him, shifting my body so I could face him.

He only nodded in between his coughsand it seemed like the dust here was the probable cause. “Abit more,” he told me in a rough voice, pointing to a door that was only visible because of some rays of light passing through a small opening nearby. I nodded, though I was actually very worried. It seemed really painful, his coughing.

We were able to reach to the door within a minute butAnthony looked tortured with his continuous coughing. We both tried to push the rusty door with as much power we had in us and finally it creaked loudly. On the other side of the door was an alley, which seemed to head to a small road beside Abbey Mount. 

Anthony still coughed and coughed and it sounded even more vigorous than it was. The question of how Anthony knew of this way leading out of Abbey Mount was buried deep in my mind, in place with the many 'what if’ scenarios as to what was happening to Anthony.

We walked slowly toward the road as Anthony held his hand over his chest, his shirt crumbled from his strong hold. His face was starting to get wet with dripping sweat beads despite the cold weather.He shut his eyes, holding the pain. 

“Anthony, are you sure you’re okay?” I asked him, he would be lying big time if he still said he was. Not waiting for his response, I directly called for someone whom I could rely on in this kind of situation. Hopefully he was done with whatever he was doing since an hour and a half has passed since the maths Olympiad ended.

I called Apple while I slowly walked to the small road. Fortunately an empty taxi passed by which I directly called. I talked to Apple over the phone, telling him my friend was sick and what his symptoms were. Apple said he would get a doctor ready by the time I would take my apartment which was barely ten minutes away.

I hoped ten minutes wasn’t too long for Anthony. The taxi driver drove along the road which was surprisingly empty today, fortunately. As soon as I reached my apartment, Apple was waiting there in the lobby, knowing Anthony wouldn’t be able to move too much. 

Anthony was made to sit on one of the brown couches, the boy still holding his chest tightly. The person who seemed to be the doctor, though he didn’t seem like so, with his blonde hair swept neatly to the left and long sleeved button down shirt and black jeans, looked at Anthony who was barely conscious onthe sofa, beforebeginning to check him. Fifteenminutes passed and all I knew was that Anthony was sleeping peacefully on the sofa, not holding his chest any more nor breathing heavily. 

I sighed in relief when I saw his face was relaxed. “He is okay, now. It was breathing problem due to dust, severe allergy, and because his body condition wasn’t at its best and all,” the doctor explained, his eyes moving from me to stop on Anthony’s face, as he observed him.

“Who is he?” he asked me. “A friend,” I answered shortly. He seemed to realisethat I wasn’t comfortable giving away anything and only nodded with a small smile. “Reminded me of someone,” he said and went away to talk to Apple.

I walked toward Anthony, thinking where he could sleep now, because of course he couldn’t sleep in the lobby like this. 

Meanwhile, Apple thanked the blonde doctor and even fist bumpedhim, which I found very weird for two grown up professionals like them before finally the doctor excused himself and went out of the apartment building.

“Let’s take him upstairs,” Apple said, taking Anthony’s arm over his shoulder, which I also did, to help take him up. We were more like dragging him, though. 

As soon as we arrived, we put him on my bed, letting him sleep and rest. Then I knew it was my time to be investigated.

Apple went to the kitchen to prepare some chicken and cheese sandwiches for three. I sat quietly beside the kitchen’s island, knowing that Apple was going to ask something. “So,” he started. “I got a call from Abbey Mount,” he said.

His lips turned into a teasing smile instead of any other expression I had thought he would put. “They said ‘Robin Apple’ was kidnapped,” he chuckled. Oh, he wasn’t mad. 

He put the cheese on the last piece of bread before finishing it with a lettuce and continued, “So I answered the person with ‘No, they are just The Princess and The Pauper,’ while laughing out loud.” 

I was dumbfounded at his story, my jaws hung open. “Uh, young love birds,” he commented. My face reddened when I realised what he meant by “The Princess and The Pauper”. It was us. He was referring to me as Princess and Anthony as the Pauper, when in reality, we were at the same economic level, rather, I was worse. To add on, he even called us lovebirds!

“That wasn’t it!” I exclaimed, denying with all my might. Not that I didn’t like the idea of Anthony as, you know, someone I could be close with, but I didn’t think Anthony himself thought of me in that way. After all, we had just levelled up our status from acquaintances to friends.

Apple took a bite of his own home-made sandwich and handed one to me, leaving Anthony’s share on the table. “I see,” he smirked, obviously not believing whatever I had said.

“I-I found a good-looking guy by the way,” I said, trying my best to move away from that conversation about Anthony. Apple just raised his eyebrows, gesturing me to continue while munching his sandwich. 

“His name is Reagan Heath,” I told him, also biting on my own sandwich. I loved how the cheese melted on my tongue and the taste of chicken filled my mouth soon after, before the lettuce and tomato gave the fresh finishing taste along with the bread. 

Apple stopped eating as soon as he heard the name, his eyes going wide as if in realisation. “No way,” he quietly said. 

“Why?” I asked him. He put down his half-eaten sandwich and moved closer to me. 

He leaned toward my ear, “R.H.,” he whispered. Then I did the same of what Apple just did, put down my sandwich, my eyes going wide. 

I looked at Apple in shock, I hadn’t thought of that. I might have found The One!

Meanwhile, a boy was listening carefully behind the door, waiting for the right time to come out. He held his blue cap in his hand, looking at the yellow lightning bolt on it. He turned it around and on the inside, in white ink was written something that Robin and Apple were talking about. R.H. “Reagan, how are you?” he mumbled softly, memories beginning to shower his mind, reminding him who he was.

---

A/N : I can't believe I had written this much, I hope this is not too much :( 

The last chapter was 7 pages long and I think that was a bit too much :/ which one do you prefer? 3-4 pages or 7 pages? >< Sometimes I got confused where to cut the story if I wanted to split it :p

Anyway, I hope you'll continue reading Faking Robin! Comment and Votes are very much appreciated!