P L A N B E T A

Chapter Seven

July 14th, 2042

Baker-Crane

The day I saw Maia ask Orren to physically train her was the day I decided to pursue her brother out of spite.

I couldn't sleep, and I didn't know what to do. Just being near Maia made my blood boil so much I felt as though there was a hot soup in my veins. I hopped off of my bed and snuck out of the room, then sneaking into Orren's, where I found him scrolling through his phone.

He brought me out into the hall to talk, and we did that for a long time.

"You know," I said. "Maia just makes me want to end it all sometimes."

"Why?"

"She's so annoying. Why does she want to be able to do anything? That's not the point of Plan Beta. We have places. Why can't she comprehend that?" I sigh and roll my eyes.

"Arabella, she has to stop her training as soon as she turns fifteen. You go until you're eighteen, so does Peter. And not only that, but she feels like we all have something to work toward and she doesn't. She's jealous, Ara," he explains. I look over at him and tilt my head.

"Then why doesn't she try to come work out with me or go do puzzles with Jack?"

"She loves doing things with P, but you never really invite her to do anything."

"Orren, is she really even worth being in Plan Beta? Like Jameson and Ashlynn are already learning the same things she is..." I try to convince.

"Come on Ara, you can't tell me that you've wasted your whole life pretending to be her friend and just want to drop her. There has to be some love there." This is my chance, I think. This is my chance to say something and get him around my finger.

"Yeah, but not for her," I say, and scoot closer to him.

"What?" He asks bluntly. "Arabella Lee Baker-Crane, stop this. Don't act like you've been in love with me your entire life just so you can get away with alienating my sister," he scolds. I scoot away in a bit of shock and pull my knees up to my chest.

We sit in silence for a little bit, and I'm not sure what to say. Maybe I shouldn't have said what I dd about Maia to his face, or maybe I shouldn't have said it at all. Maybe I shouldn't play him like I am.

I remember when we were all little and would mess around in the jungle gym that they had for us at GZU. We would all be pirates or Amazonian warriors fighting against invisible bad guys. Maia was always really good at swinging from things, Jack Peter was really good at hiding and collecting data, and I was great at everything else because being physical is my niche.

"Orren I'm sorry," I say apologetically. "I shouldn't say that stuff, you're right."

He pulls me closer to him and hugs me. Then saying, "You wanna sneak down to the file room to see if they have anything on ACA down there?" I nod and we practically race down to the file room.

In order to get in, you must have a code, and neither of us knew what it could have been, but somehow, the door opened, and when we entered, the room greeted us.

"Okay O. Which one is the ACA file cabinet?" He looks over at me and shrugs, so we start to look around. Every time we attempt to open a cabinet, a wall of green hologram hexagons cut us off. I sigh angrily and look back at Orren, who has successfully gotten into a cabinet. I rush over to him and examine the scene, it was the ACA cabinet.

He looks inside all of the drawers and finds hundreds of files full of things we knew nothing about. "We have to go get the others," Orren suggests. I want to disagree but I decide not to.

We get them but then return downstairs to the file room. After Orren and Jack Peter have a small argument, the lights go out. I grip onto Orren, thinking that we've been caught and race to another room nearby, it's only a closet. We're a little bit squished and Orren tries to ask questions but I just cover his mouth to hush him.

"What are you doing?" he whispers.

"I think someone found us, O." I respond.

"Ara no one found us, there's no way. The lights are always on we closed the door. Unless an employee was coming down here to look through some things that they aren't supposed to."

"Okay well, they'd still find us. And I don't want you getting in trouble, Wagner," I say, not even noticing what that could mean.

"Oh, you care?" He acts surprised and presses his hand to his chest.

"Stop moving, Wagner, you're hitting me." He smirks and leans down. For a moment, I have absolutely no clue what he's doing. I am utterly flabbergasted when he actually kisses me. "What?" I say in a confused manner.

"You might have been lying when you talked about liking me, Arabella. But you have no clue what goes on in my head," he says and opens the door, then walking out. I follow him but of course, but my brain is no longer working properly. I feel staticy and weird inside.

There's a very tall woman with red hair standing in front of Maia. She says something about making a deal, and before she can do anything to anyone I shout "Deal", hoping I made the right decision. But according to Maia later that night, I did not. In fact, according to Maia, I'm a bumbling idiot.