Crossing The Mental Line

Chapter 6: Books and Renuions

"We need to find a safe place. The outside is too dangerous." A thin and wiry girl stated.

"No. We need to stay away from each other. We're too easy to spot altogether." Someone in the crowd made an intelligent comment.

"While that's true, where is Mr Ace? He should be helping us, not locking the freaking door and trapping us in that abandoned and most probably ghost-enveloped house!" Arnold screamed at no particular person.

"Shhhh!" Everyone shushed him. They heard the rustling of leaves.

"See, look at what you have caused!" Someone blamed Arnold.

They took out whatever weapon they had and out came a terrified girl.

"I'm harmless!" Val immediately recognised that voice.

"Cam?!" Val pushed everyone out of the way to see her non-blood related sister.

"Val! Hey, Switzerland's amazing, you know?"

"How in the world did you come here?" Val asked quizzically.

Everyone watched the exchange in pure confusion.

"You know that handsome guy back at AOB, yeah. Your doofus friends asked him if we could hide in the plane that came to fetch you! Don't ask how we did it, just know we did! Okay, who are these hilarious looking fellas?" Cam, obviously oblivious to whoever they were, offended some who understood the universal language.

"Yeah, about that... These are my competitors. We got trapped in that place the previous night and we need a shelter to live under for a day." Val sheepishly told Cam.

"You got trapped there!? Haha, my prank worked!" Cam blatantly revealed everything.

"What do you mean by that?" Carl asked worriedly.

"Okay, I have no idea who you are, but since you look good and look like Val's boyfriend, I'll explain. So, I saw all of you yesterday with that blond haired guy and decided to pull the trigger to trap all of you there. I wanted to test your teamwork! As the saying goes, "If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together!" Cam was honestly so proud of her miniature speech.

"Are you out of your damn mind?" Someone shouted at her.

"No, I was bonding all you. Look, you'll thank me later. Tell me, do you think any of you would have communicated one bit at all before the competition?" Cam daringly pumped the answers out of them. But, none of them could answer.

"As for accommodations, be ready to squeeze into a small cottage. We have three other roommates there! Much to many's disappointment, they're all British!"

All of them groaned, including Val. Her whole personal life was going to be exposed by this big-mouth.

They trudged on and waited for Cam to unlock the door.

"Max, Team JMVC is back together as one!" Cam yelled form the front door.

John rushed to the door and found Val there with all the foreign people.

Being the protective man he is, he pulled her away and held her hand tightly.

Val, perplexed by this abrupt change in behaviour, she jerked his hand away and looked straight at Carl.

"Make yourselves at home. Carl, could we talk?" Val surprised herself with the last sentence but meant the first sentence.

"Sure." Carl responded.

Val walked out first and Carl followed shortly behind.

"Sorry, I just wanted to get out of that embarrassing incident. John's my best friend. Maybe he's not comfortable with the crowd."