Beneath the Surface (On Hold)

Chapter 4

Lexi...

So the next day after school, Jacob met me outside the computer lab again.

"Are you sure you're okay to do this?" I asked him as we walked in.

He took a deep breath and nodded, "Yeah. I need to know."

We walked to the same computer we used from the day before. I could hear the shouts and laughter of the kids outside, where they were fooling around on the football field, coming through the open window.

"Alright. Let's pick up where we left off yesterday." I said after I had sat down and logged on. I pulled up the results from the search yesterday and we started looking through it all.

After an hour of looking through site, after site, after site. We came up with nothing more than what we already knew. Nothing. Zilch. Nada. Zippo.

I leaned back in my seat and threw my hands up in surrender, "There's nothing here, Jacob. We should just stop now." I said. I moved to get up from my chair but Jacob grabbed my arm to stop me.

"You told me that you would help me find out what started the fire that killed my parents and left me an orphan." He said, sounding slightly angry.

"Jacob, there's nothing there. It doesn't say," I said shaking my head, "I won't waste my time looking for something that isn't there." I said, not flinching from his cold stare.

"If you don't help me, I'll go to Olivia and tell hr about the little 'adventure' you had with Casey the other day." He said, a smirk appearing on his otherwise serious face.

"That's blackmail." I accused, fixing him with a cold stare very similar to the one he had given me earlier.

"No, Lex, it's called doing whatever it takes to get what you're looking for." he said.

And I swear, if looks could kill, Jacob would have dropped over dead right then and there.

...............

Over two months later we still hadn't found anything new. We had stopped our daily visits a few days into the search. I made Jacob agree to this mostly because Casey started to think that our after school visits to the computer lab weren't actually in the computer lab, if you know what I mean.

It was the day we had our 15th meeting and even Jacob seemed hopeless now.

Jacob was already at our usual computer, struggling with the window, trying to get it closed. It was starting to get chilly outside and the computer lab was cold.

"It's-stuck." He said as he attempted to yank the window closed with no avail.

"Just leave it," I said shaking my head and sitting down, "we won't be here very long anyway." I mumbled softly under my breath so that Jacob couldn't hear.

"Can we make a deal?" I asked, turning to look at him.

"What?" he asked, looking at me suspiciously.

"That if we don't find anything new today, we stop looking all together." I said.

Jacob thought about it for a minute, and for a dreaded moment, I thought that he would say no, and we would have to keep searching for something that probably didn't exist.

But then he sighed and nodded, "Yeah. If we don't find anything to today, we can stop." He said.

So I pulled up the same page we had been looking at for a couple of months, "This is the last link in the search. So if we don't find anything here, then there isn't anything." I said.

I took a deep breath and clicked the link. I scanned the page, "There's nothing there. I'm sorry I wasted your time." Jacob said starting to get up.

"Wait!" I said grabbing his wrist, "I think I found something." I said.

Jacob nearly fell back into his chair, he moved so fast, "What?" he asked eagerly.

"Right here," I said starting to read the article, "'When reporters asked, the firefighters refused to give any information in what caused the fire-'" Jacob interrupted me.

"We already know this, Lex. Let's go." He said getting up again.

"No wait! There's more." I said grabbing his arm yet again and yanking him back into his chair.

"'The firefighters' name is Reginald Pierce of Lexington, Massachusetts.'" I said with a triumphant smile.

"So we have a firefighters name. Big whoop." Jacob said, sounding unimpressed.

"No you don't get it. The firefighter, this firefighter was the one who refused to give up the cause of the fire." I said hoping that he would catch on.

"I still don't get it." He said shaking his head and giving me a blank stare.

"It means if we find this guy," I said pointing to the name on the screen, "we find out what started that fire." I said. Jacob smiled.

"So tomorrow, we search this guy." I said and scribbled down the name of the firefighter.

"Why can't we do it today?" Jacob asked, sounding disappointed.

"Because, it says the firefighter lives in Lexington. Tomorrow's Saturday, so Olivia won't get suspicious if we're out for a long time.

We left the empty computer lab and headed out of the school. We walked to the orphanage where Dennis and Alisha were playing with Mark in the square of grass that we called the front yard (remember this is the city).

Dennis and Alisha ran up to me when we walked through the front gate.

"Lexi! Lexi! There are people here!" Dennis said as I knelt down to them.

"Okay. People come here a lot." I said looking him in the eye.

"Lexi they are talking about you!" Alisha said.

That came as a surprise, but then I remembered Claudia and Donald. It had been two and a half months since they had been at the orphanage and I had figured the usual, they didn't want me. I guess I was wrong.

"Alright. Well let's get you guys inside. It's getting cold." I said picking up Alisha as Jacob picked up Dennis.

"Come on Mark." I said putting my hand on his shoulder and gently guiding him to the house.

Mark opened the door and walked inside. We out our stuff in our "cubbies" and closing the door.

Alice had gotten adopted about a month ago so it was just the five if us now.

"Alright. We're going to go through the living room but you have to be quiet." I told the kids putting my finger to my lips and they nodded and mimicked my movements. I smiled.

Jacob and I, still holding a twin each, followed Mark through the doorway into the living room.

It was the same scene as it had been the first time they came here. Olivia in her chair, and Donald and Claudia sitting on the couch, this time holding hands.

"Hi." I whispered to Olivia as we walked by.

"Actually, Lexi, can you stay here? the Connolly's have something they would like to tell you." Olivia said.

I nodded, "Yeah. one second." I said and walked into the kitchen.

I put Alisha down and looked at Jacob who gave me an encouraging smile and nodded.

I walked into the living room and sat down in the same chair I had sat down in two and a half months ago, when I thought that this couple wanting to adopt me was some kind of sick joke.

"It's good to see you again, Lexi." Claudia said with a warm smile.

"You too." I said returning the smile.

"Well let's get straight to the point," Donald said, squeezing his wife's hand, "Lexi, we've talked about it and we've decided, We want to adopt you."