Conspiracy Theorist

Chapter Nine

Scarlett woke up with anxiety eating away at her stomach. The prospect of having to train to become some sort of super weapon was weighing down on her shoulders. She rolled—grudgingly—out of bed.

            Jocelyn was moaning about something or another and was in a zombie-like state. Neither of the girls were paying attention to where they were going and crashed right into each other. Jocelyn let out a string of swear words as her butt made contact with the hard floor, she was wide awake now.

            Kasper saw the incident unfold and ran to Jocelyn’s side to make sure she was alright. Scarlett observed the two and a small smile played across her lips. They would be a cute couple, she thought, maybe I should try to get them together.

            “What are you doing on the ground?” Gem’s obnoxious voice cut through Scarlett’s thoughts. “Get up; we have a long day of training ahead.”

            The four of them simultaneously let out a groan. “Do we have too?” Adam whined. Scarlett covered her hand to suppress the giggle threatening to escape her lips, something about a grown boy whining seemed ridiculously funny to her.

            Adam shot her a glare, “Well, I’m sure you don’t want to be training either.”

            “You have a point there,” Scar relented, “I don’t.”

            “C’mon, rats, the sooner we start, the sooner I can be away from you.” Jocelyn rolled her eyes towards the sky; she didn’t understand why Gem would be doing this if she hated them so much.

            ***

An hour later found Scarlett blowing out a frustrated breath while Jason said words of encouragement. A sheen of sweat beaded on her forehead and Scarlett tried not to scream from aggravation. “It’s not working!”

            “You just have to try harder; I promise that you’ll be able to do it eventually.” Jason flashed her a smile, “Now try again.”

            Scarlett turned back to the glass of water.” She glared at it, silently begging for the water to move—just the slightest bit. She felt an unfamiliar tingling in the pit of her stomach, she knew, she knew, that it was about to move. “Just chant: I think I can, I think I can, I think I can.” Jason’s smooth voice severed her focus and the tingling in her abdomen fled.

            “Jason!” she yelled, “I was about to do it!”

            Jason didn’t even have the courtesy to look sheepish, he just flashed his trademark smile and said, “Just try it again.”

            Scarlett glared, but Jason didn’t even notice the daggers she was shooting him—he was looking over her head. She spun around to see what Jason was looking intently at, all she saw was Kasper—part visible and part not so visible. She turned back around to see that Jason was still focusing on the red haired boy.

            She snapped her fingers in front of his face, but the man before her seemed to be in a trance, “Jason?” she yelled in his face.

            Jason blinked slowly and looked down at her, “What?”

            She rolled her eyes and mumbled something about guys being weird. “Why don’t we try it again?” she asked, but what she really wanted to do was demand he tell her what the hell that was about.

            ***

An elderly man came in and bowed to Adam. Adam looked behind him, confused to whether the man was bowing to him or to somebody else. Realizing he was the only one in the vicinity, he bowed awkwardly to the man. The man seemed satisfied with the response and stared at Adam.