The Unlucky Ones

chapter 11

  “Then I got a job at a bakery and I worked there for about 3 years. Now...here I am.” Collin     finished. After Jaylen’s funeral, Collin and Tailynn decided to go on a walk around the house, and Tailynn wanted to know more about Collin since she told him everything about her their first night at the house. “Wow...so that’s why you were so good at making pancakes!” Tailynn smiled. Collin laughed, “I am pretty good at making pancakes aren’t I?” They both laughed again but quickly went silent. “I still can’t believe he’s gone..” Tailynn said quietly, “This whole thing just didn’t seem real. It didn’t seem like anyone could possibly die...but now...I just don’t know what to think.” Collin wrapped his arm around her, “Well...at least you don’t have to worry about being the one to die.” Collin gave her a sad smile, but she already had tears forming in her eyes. “Let’s just..not talk about his anymore.” “Agreed.” They shared sad smiles again, and Collin wrapped his other arm around her in a hug and she quickly wrapped her arms around him as well. But they were soon interrupted by Ms. Kall’s rather loud voice.  “There you two are! Oh…” Tailynn and Collin stepped away from each other awkwardly and faced Ms. Kall. “Sorry to interrupt,” Ms. Kall continued, “but it’s time for dinner. Because this has been such a busy and...tear-filled day, we will not be having dates we will all be eating the dinner the Chef has prepared for us. So, please be in the dining hall in five minutes.” Ms. Kall gave them a small nodded and quickly walked away. Tailynn and Collin looked back to each other and Collin offered his arm as he said “Shall we?” Tailynn happily took his arm and they headed in the direction of the dining room.   All the other teens were already seated in the dining hall and as soon as they walked in Elara called “Collin! It’s about time! I saved you a seat right next to me!” She patted the seat next to her and shot Tailynn a quick, but powerful, glare. Tailynn ignored her and sat down in the other empty seat in between Jonas and Dagan, while Collin reluctantly took the seat next to Elara, with Drew on the other side of him.  “Now that everyone is here, we can start eating. Marix, please alert the chef that we are ready.” Ms. Kall said to the servant standing closest to her. Within second there were delicious looking plates of food in front of them and almost everyone starting eating immediately, except for Julie. She stared down at the food, with her hands in her lap. Drew leaned over to her and quietly said, “Julie, you have to eat...please.” Julie finally tore her stare away from her food to look at Drew. After a few moments of the pair just staring into each other’s eyes, seeming to be communicating through their gaze, Julie slowly picked up her fork and started eating as well.  The rest of the meal went on in silence except for the occasional comment, usually from Dagan or Collin and of course Ms. Kall. Soon all the teens had finished their meals and started to get up to go back to their rooms or to other areas of the house, but before anyone could make it out of the room, Ms. Kall stood up, “Before you all leave for bed, please join me in the living room for a few minutes and I will tell you about tomorrows activities!” Ms. Kall was a lot happier than Julie felt she should have been, considering there had been a funeral this morning, and she felt a small amount of anger rise up in her, but it quickly diffused when Drew suddenly grabbed her hand. “Are you okay?” He asked, and Julie could feel heat rise in her cheeks. “Yeah, I’m fine.” She replied with a small smile. Drew smiled back at her and said, “Good. But really I just wanted to make sure that you didn’t punch Ms. Kall in the face.” Julie realized she must’ve been glaring at little bit at Ms. Kall without even knowing, after a second of embarrassment Julie just laughed and Drew laughed with her. “Well thanks, I think I was getting pretty close!” They laughed again, before sitting next to each other on the couch.   “Alright! So, tomorrow I do not have dates planned for you guys. The activity is going to be a group activity, and I for one think it is going to be tons of fun!” “She thinks everything is fun.” Dagan whispered to Taillynn as they both laughed quietly, because it was true! She was always telling them that everything was going to be “Tons of fun!” so they would be excited for the silly activities they planned for them. “Tomorrow we are going to go on an all day hike!! It will be amazing! So we’ll have lunches for you to take but we’ll eat breakfast bright and early before we leave and we will be home before dinner! Aren’t you so excited??” Ms. Kall said. “You’ve got to be kidding me!” Elara said in disgust. “I don’t do hiking, or dirt, or bugs, or walking, or going outside at all unless I am somewhere tropical and I’m going to the pool!!” She screeched. “Calm down!!” Jonas finally yelled. Elara snapped her mouth shut it shock while everyone else shared nervous glances, Jonas was the only guy to ever stand up to Elara. “Please go on, Ms. Kall.” Jonas said. “Yes...ummm...anyways so as I said, this hike will be all of you as a group, but you will have partners. I have cards right here for you boys, and whoevers name is on it, that is your partner.” Ms. Kall said, and she quickly gave a card to each boy. “You can open your cards now, and please read the names out loud. We’ll over here with Collin.” Collin slid the card out of the envelope and flipped it open “Elara.” he said with a groan. Elara ignored his groan and squealed with excitement “I just knew we were meant to be together!” “Oh please..” Tailynn mumbled, rolling her eyes. Then Dagan opened his card “Julie!” he read with a smile. Julie smiled back at Dagan and Drew felt a pang in his chest that he couldn’t explain. Next Drew opened his card “Jonas??” he exclaimed. “Oh I forgot to explain this, yes there will be a pair of two boys because the number of girls and boys is uneven.” Drew and Jonas looked over at each other with looks of some sort of embarrassment but then just started laughing.    Finally Harvey opened his card to find Tailynn’s name of course. Harvey felt excitement in his chest as he smiled over at Tailynn and found that she was smiling back. Tailynn couldn’t explain her feelings for Harvey but she knew she liked him as a friend at least. “Wonderful! We will meet tomorrow morning out on the patio and you will find shoes and clothes that are sufficient for hiking in your closets! You are all free to go to bed now.” Ms. Kall then turned and left the room, flanked by two servants. The teens left only seconds later, “Good night Tailynn!” Collin winked at her before he entered his room. “Good night Collin!!!” Elara yelled but she was met with the sound of his bedroom door closing. She huffed in frustration and stomped into her room slamming the door. Tailynn laughed and rolled her eyes at Elara’s tantrum before saying “Good night Julie.” “Good night Tailynn!” Julie replied. Everyone else shouted their goodnights to everyone until they were all in their rooms except for Julie and Drew. “Good night Julie.” Drew said softly. “Good night Drew.” She replied, before going into her room and shutting the door quietly. Drew stayed in the hall until he heard the click of Julie’s door closing, and he smiled to himself “Gosh, she’s adorable.”