Rebel

Chapter 5

"WHAT IS WRONG with you?!" Leo yelled. Alesha held her hands up in innocence,

"I did what needed to be done. We would have died if they stayed." With that, Alesha straightened her dark green hijab, looking back one last time to where Sheila disappeared, and turned down the hallway the way Maddy and Eren came from. She stopped, right as she reached the door, and turned to face her friends again.

"The Higher order will only send out search parties for a couple weeks. No one pays attention to the wanted posters," she snapped, looking right at Leo. "They seem all big and bad from afar, but we still snoop around right under their noses." She spun oh her heel and walked out of the room. Everyone was so shocked, they didn't move. It just felt like a dream, the way their friends just... left.

"She can't do this!" Leo yelled, looking to Maddy and Eren for support. "Does she realize that she just threw away three teenagers away to rot in the streets or be caught by soldiers!?" Maddy, still and shock, trembled at his sharp words. Piper swallowed hard, as if the words were stuck in her throat. Maddy knew Piper had feelings for Alesha, but she couldn't let that get in the way of Oliver, Heather, and Sheila's lives.

"I-I think she was thinking for us, too. It was horrible what she did, but she had a valid reason-" Piper started,

"There is really no good reason to cast out any human being just because there is a risk of them making us an even bigger target for the soldiers. That's just being selfish." Maddy cut in, before she even knew what she was doing. All eyes turned to her, and a silence fell over the table like a blanket of anger and confusion. Out of the corner of her eye Maddy saw Leo smiling in gratitude and nodding in agreement.

"Could we go and get them back?" Charlie asked. Leo looked at her in confusion. Connor shook his head.

"No. That will just make Alesha more angry and more firm with her reasoning. If I know Alesha, her words are steel. We can't change her mind that easily." Piper urged. There where many murmurs of agreement.

"What if... what if we bring them back here and ask Alesha for another week to decide if they are worthy or not? I know that they are, but they're still traumatized from the deaths of the others in Prospect Street." Leo proposed, eyes flicking to Maddy before traveling the rest of the way around the room.

"Someone has to ask Alesha, then someone else has to go," Eren whispered, barely loud enough to hear. Maddy stood up.

"I can go, if Alesha says yes." Maddy said. Leo smiled, standing up as well. "Me too."

There was an awkward silence between Maddy and Leo, but then Piper clapped and called out,

"Yess! I can go ask Alesha... right now!" Piper stood up from her chair, dashing the way Alesha left.

Leo looked at Maddy, "We leave at dawn," he smiled, grasping her hand, "We will find them and change Alesha's mind." His skin was warm, matching his smile. For a moment it was just them in silence, looking into each other's eyes like some cheesy romantic movie, until Eren touched Maddy's shoulder gently,

"C'mon, Maddy. We gotta get to sleep. We share a room now that Sheila, Oliver and Heather are gone." Maddy nodded and slowly turned away from Leo, glancing back one more time to look into his dancing eyes.

Once Eren and Maddy were alone in their new shared room , Eren was hysterically asking Maddy questions about Leo. "Do you sit next to him on purpose? Did you see the look in his eyes when he looked at you? Did you see him grab your hand?" Maddy rolled her eyes, and felt her entire face heat up with embarrassment. She placed her mother's box inside her dresser, before turning towards Eren.