Flightless Bird

Chapter 4

"H-hi Jacob," Lexi stammered, and I could instantly tell that this guy must be popular by the way Lexi seemed nervous. I didn't think she liked him though, judging by the look of joy on her face when one of the blonde twins leant down to help her up.

"Thanks Jay!" she exclaimed, beaming at him. He grinned back at her, and in the corner of my eye I saw the other blonde guy smirk and roll his eyes at his brother. Finally the guy coughed, and Lexi stepped back, turning to me.

"Oh," she said, adressing the boys, "this is my new roomate Kerri!" she then turned to me, and pointed to the dark haired guy, "this is Jacob," she pointed to the brown haired guy, "Adam," then to the twins, " and this is Jayson and Clark." She then turned to me and whispered conspiritally, "They're twins!" I laughed, but stopped when I felt four pairs of eyes on me.

"So," Adam began, "what brings you girls to the East wing after hours?"

"Just trying to get back to our room," Lexi replied.

"Been using your shortcut again Lex?" Jayson joked, which sent Lexi into another fit of laughter. Jayson looked thoroughly pleased with himself, although his brother looked less impressed with the rapport.

"Gents, I do think Lexi may be a rather bad influence on the new girl," said Jacob, which caused all the boys to laugh. Lexi's smile changed to a joking frown, and even I laughed, albeit nervously.

"What are you guys doing down here so late anyways?" asked Lexi.

This time Clark spoke, "We were meant to put up some posters earlier for the year 7's, but we got carried away in a pool tournament, so we kinda...forgot."

"Yeah," Adam broke in, "so now we have to try and get them out of Mr Branner's room and up before the inspection at 11!" I looked at my watch: 9:12.

"I think we could help," I said, and Lexi smiled at me.

We all stood outside Mr Branner's room, who I had found out was the head of English here. Everyone stood, studying the door and trying to think of a way in.

"There's no outside window," Jacob told everyone, "so this door is our only way in. Problem is, it's locked."

"Why don't you just..." I began, then quicky slipped a bobby pin out of my hair and into the lock. Thankfully it wasn't a deadbolt, so it was fairly simple for me; my uncle had taught me how to pick locks years ago after my dad got mad at him when he left me locked out of the house for hours in winter on a family holiday. After a minute, the door clicked, then swung open soundlessly.

"Wow, that was brilliant Kerri!" Lexi exclaimed.

"Impressive," said Jacob. All the other boys agreed. I was starting to see who the leader of their little group was.

"Where are the posters then?" Clark asked his brother, who was rummaging around on Sir's desk.

"Found them!" cried Jayson, and he quickly exited the room, pulling the door behind him so that I could re-lock it, a process which was slightly harder than unlocking it. Once we had the posters and the door was securely locked again, we began to make our way down the hall, blu-tacking up posters as we went along. We then moved into the maths rooms and any other surface we found on the ground floor of the East wing.

"I saw these posters around earlier," I said, actually taking a look at what we had put up, "obviously the girls in the West wing did theirs on time." I was joking, so everyone laughed or pretended to be offended.

"Thank you guys for helping so much," Adam said when we were done and standing around in the English corridor again.

"Yeah, you guys really helped," Jacob said, "especially you Kerri." I blushed, but thankfully I was in a shadow so I doubted anyone saw.

"You're welcome!" Lexi told them all, "now I really think Kerri and I should get going now, it's nearly quarter to 11!" She took my arm, and started to lead me to a staircase which would take us to the second floor of the East wing which had a connecting door to the girls' dorms.

"Night Lexi!" I heard on of the guys call, and judging by Lexi's giggle and reply of, "Night! Sleep well, and see you tomorrow, right?" It knew it had to be Jayson.