WHY ME?

I so, so, so sorry I haven't posted in forever. But I getting ready a week long wilderness survival course.

Which should be awesome right? I mean, Dad teaches Wilderness Survival to CIA recruits and my brother is in special forces and I am addicted to learning which plants to eat and which one to poison people with and all.

A fun chance to spend some time with my friends in the wood right?


WRONG.


Apparently, "my teamwork with the boys is lacking and I need to work harder on that or something."

So they paired me up with....

You guessed it.


Alex.



Bleh.


I've been working so hard on avoiding him...and then this.



WHY ME?

WHY?


-K

What The Hell?

This morning, we were all standing around, waiting for breakfast to start (We were mainly talking about whether we thought the waffles I made would turn out soft and fluffy like Chef Louis's always did, or if they would be really gross). The meal started, we grabbed our food, and still chatting, sat at our usual table. 

And then Alex, David, and Pitt slid into seats at the table.

(What the hell?) 

Without looking the least bit uncomfortable, they just sat down, chatting about some video game thing or other. 

We were all sort of dumbfounded. Then Jess started talking to David and within a few seconds, Lily was bickering with Pitt. Cas rolled her eyes at me and put in her earbuds. Alex turned away from his discussion with David and Jess long enough to meet my glare with a insufferable smirk and say "We are starting over, aren't we?" 

Then. I kid you not, he twitched his eyebrow up, and with one eyebrow up and that....THAT....smirky half smile thing, he turned and went back to his discussion. 

I'll ask again.

What

The 

Hell?

-K

Start Over

The meeting was set for five o'clock in the afternoon, in the woods, by the stream (Yes. That stream.)
 4: 15, Operative Edgeworth arrived at site.
 4: 56, Operative  Hawkins arrived, sat down on the log on the north end of the clearing and waited
 5: 15, Operative Hawkins was seen to be a little on edge. A started pacing and looking at his watch.
 5: 30 Operatives, Demos, Peterson, and Hawn arrived at scene.
Operative Peterson asked what he was doing here and where the hell Operative Edgeworth was.
5: 01, due  to the heated attitude, Operative Edgeworth dismounted from her awesome hiding place in the nearby oak tree.
And scared the hell out of everyone.

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They all jumped when I appeared. Alex had just finished saying.

"Please. I just want to talk to her." 

So I said, "Why? What could you possible have to say to me."

"I...." He seemed a little at lost for words. "I...didn't know." 

I snorted. "Obviously."
"What am I supposed to say?"
"How about nothing?"
"If you didn't want to talk to me, why did you set up these meeting?"
"So you would leave me alone!"
"Kat...."
I turned and glared at him.
"Can't we just start over?" he asked.
"Fine." I turned and walked to the other end of the clearing and started walking towards him. "You do remember I threw a book at your head?"
Then I turned and Lily said, "WHO ARE THEY???"
I smirked, remembering when Lily and Jess first saw Alex, in that cafeteria room so long ago. What they said before they walked over and sat at our table...
"Oh, yeah. I may have forgot to tell you that the Blackthorne boys are here."
"Katherine!" Jess said in a high pitched voice, mimicking her surprise and anger on that day.
"Ooooh,  who's the hottie?" Lily asked, glancing at Alex. He stood confused on the other end of the clearing.
"Looks like a real heart breaker." Jess commented.
"Oh no. Here they come." Lily whispered hurriedly.

"What?" Alex asked, starting to walk across the clearing. "What was that all about?"
Jess stepped in front of me. "That was, word for word, what we said when we first saw you."
Cas stepped up beside Jess. "Consider yourself started over."
"Kat..." Alex started, sounding a little annoyed. He stepped closer, but the girls closed around me in a ring and we walked out of the clearing without a backwards glance, leaving Alex behind.

-K

Meeting Arranged

As soon as class was out last Tuesday, Alex must have gone to look at the security cameras from the class. We were all allowed to look at them, for training purposes, but not many people did (because it still makes all the girls mad.) I could tell he hadn't looked at them before, because he looked like he was still in the dark. He still didn't realize...

That afternoon, he came jogging up to where I was watching TV with Cas, Jess and Lily. They didn't know about out talk, but they did know that I didn't want to be around him, So I just kind of ignored him and let them chase him away.

And this went on for days. One of them was always near by and ready to chase him away. Cas would just step in front of him and say something cutting until he left. Jess would bluntly tell him to leave, and Lily (Which is kind of ironic.) glared at him with a look that said, "Just try and annoy my bestie. I have a new gadget that I want to try out. Hopefully it will make you scream and twitch on the floor." After a few days, he got the message and left me alone. Or at least, he stopped trying to talk to me.  Then he left me a message in my cookbook.

"Kat, 
Please just hear me out.
-Alex"

I mulled it over for awhile and then, yesterday as I was passing him in the hall, I ran into him. Or he ran into me. I'm not sure which.

"Watch it!" I snapped.
And we were past each other.

In a few minutes, he would notice the note backpack. I'd agreed to meet him. Tuesday night.  (because we had a couple papers due that night and a movie marathon tonight.)

Let's hope nothing horrible happens.

-K

Nope. Not Cas.

The kitchen is running fairly smoothly. I had a bit of trouble with one of the Junior boys, but literally every girl in there turned and glared at him and silently threatened him with whatever they had near them (Knives, frying pans, mops, serving trays, cheese graters and cucumbers) and he shut up.

I'm not sure how I did it, but I haven't broken down and started crying in front of everyone yet, so I think I'm doing pretty good. Not emotionally, I mean acting wise.

We got fairly good news. Dad called back in, but now that the kitchen thing is on my shoulders... I haven't gotten a moment of emotional peace.

I'm just very, very stressed out. So today, I happily, but a little tiredly waved everyone out of the kitchen and started to work on the menu for the next week.

But I couldn't focus, so I left.

There are these tiny little balconies off the library and that's where I went, slipping out the doors and letting the white curtains slide shut behind me.

The summer breeze is very calming, and normally that's all I need to calm myself down. Sit outside, breathe and look at the stars.

But not tonight. I ended up curled in a little ball, knees tucked to my chest, crying.

Sometimes you just need to get tears out of your system, so I sat and cried as silently as I could. I was just about finished when I heard footsteps behind me and the curtains swishing open.

Great.

 I sighed and said "I'm really not in the mood."

Nothing.

"I'm fine, Cas. I just don't want to talk about it."

"Fine." A voice that was diffidently NOT Cas said. "I'll just stand here."

I whipped my head around. Alex. Bloody Alex.

Crud..

Well, it kind of was too late to hide the fact that I was sobbing by myself, but I tried.

"Oh, hey!" I said, in a fairly normal voice, which would have been extremely convincing if my throat wasn't clogged up and if mascara wasn't running down my face.
"What are you doing? What do you think of my crying? I've been practicing FOREVER to get it right. It's so hard to get the sniffle right, you know...." I probably would have kept babbling on, but Alex snapped "Would you cut the crap? Since when have you had to pretend around me?"

The happy but very fake smile dropped away, but it wasn't Sad Me that appeared.
"Since you lied to me, tricked me and had me tortured?"

"First of all, it was interrogation, NOT torture..."I snorted but he kept going "And second, it was training, Nobody got hurt...."

"I've got split lip selfies that tell a different story."

"That wasn't supposed to happen. Kat, I wouldn't hurt you...."

"Can you even hear yourself?" I screeched. "You lied and acted to get close to me, and then used everything you had learned against me."

"I wasn't even in charge of your interrogation process! What are you getting mad at me for?"

"You had no idea what they were doing with me? Then why did you have the bloody fake split lip?"

"That? That was for one of the other girls. The dark haired senior who  doesn't like seeing other people getting hurt. Why? What does that have to do with you?"

"Idiot" was all I said as I went to walk past him. He grabbed my arm and asked. "What? What is that supposed to mean?"

I face burned. There was no way I was going to tell him that they had used him against me. And that it had worked.  "If you care so much, go look at the security videos."
Startled, just stood there as I jerked my arm free and walked away. "But don't worry. It won't work ever again."  I called over my shoulder and walked out of the library.

I couldn't go back to my room, not like this. So I walked down and out the front door and went for a quick run in the woods. When I left, Alex was still standing in the balcony door way.

-K