LAILAH
TWELVE
When I made it back to the dorm, I checked my phone and, sure enough, Jay had texted me the number.
I laughed at how direct he was in his messages.
I’d also gotten a response from Brayden on when he would be available to meet up.
I decided to get back to him after I took another shower, taking my clothes with me for safekeeping.
I hurried out of the dorm and off to English class, trying not to miss my only other class for the day.
Thankfully, English was one class that I didn’t have to worry too much about. I was good at writing, and this one was a basic class that all students had to take. Heading to the coffee shop, I got my beloved chai and decided to reach out to this guy Jay suggested.
Hello, you don’t know me but your friend Jay gave me your number. I am struggling in organic chem and he said you might be able to help me.
Here’s to hoping he would reply. I pulled out my schedule and looked over what projects I had coming up and what tests I would need to be prepared for. Feeling like I could step back the next week and do something fun, I texted Brayden back, feeling kind of nervous.
Lailah:
Hey, so Thursday works for me if you want to meet up at the coffee shop.
I pulled out my notes from what I had found in the special archives and started picking out what I could use for my paper. I was so focused on my work that when my phone vibrated loudly on the table, I jumped. I glanced at it and saw that it was a response from the mystery tutor.
Mystery Tutor:
Jay gave you my number? How do you know him?
Lailah:
Bit of a strange story, but he rescued me when I got lost on a run. As we were talking, I told him about not doing so hot in my class, and he said you would help me. I hope I didn’t overstep in reaching out to you.
I knew I shouldn’t have trusted a guy I’d just met and a strange phone number. This is how people get catfished and crap like that. This guy must have thought I was an idiot for believing this rando running around school grounds.
Mystery Tutor:
No, it’s fine. Just surprised. Jay doesn’t mingle much. I am free tomorrow after 4pm if that works for you. We can meet at one of the study labs in the library.
I breathed a sigh of relief; this guy wasn’t a joke.
Lailah:
I can make that work, thank you for doing this!
Mystery Tutor:
Sure thing, I’ll text you the study room number tomorrow.
“Thank God,” I said, dropping my head on my notebook in relief.
“What’s up with you, Lala? Did you have someone roll you off the bed at an ungodly early hour because they needed to pee? Oh, wait, no, that was me,” Cami said, plunking her stuff down across from me.
“Hey, if you hadn’t wrapped yourself around me, I wouldn’t have had to do that. I tried to wake you up before jumping to such drastic measures,” I said in my defense.
Cami rolled her eyes and took a long pull on her monster-sized coffee. “Whatever, how has your day been? I haven’t seen you at all.”
“It’s been a day, let me tell you. First, I got my clothes stolen and tossed in the dumpster.
Then, I went on a run to clear my head and got lost running almost twenty miles.
Thank God someone happened to be running in the same area, and he helped me get back.
If that all wasn’t enough, because I got lost, I missed a lab class for Organic Chem.
Those are big deals, Cami,” I said, exasperated at the whole day.
Cami sat back in her chair and looked me up and down. “You can run twenty miles and still look this good, damn I’m impressed.”
“Out of all that, running twenty miles is what you zeroed in on?” I asked, shaking my head.
“What? It’s impressive,” she said in her defense.
I shrugged my shoulders, “It’s not really. I used to run twenty miles on a normal basis and did marathons for fun when it was off-season.”
“Kill me now!” Cami said, shivering at the thought. “I would never run like that for fun, sounds more like torture.”
I laughed and took a swig from my now-cold chai. “Oh! I meant to tell you this earlier, but the day got away from me. So, when I went to the special archives yesterday, I took the chance to do some investigating into the Elementi.”
Cami stilled and peered at me over her coffee cup. “What did you find?”
I leaned in, excited to share. “So, it looks like the first mention of it is when the Knights Templar had this huge battle and lost, it was toward the end of the golden era of the Knights. After the battle, they splintered off and started being known as the Elementi.”
“So, are they rogue knights?” Cami asked, frowning.
I shook my head, waving off her comment.
“No, they went off to help defend many small towns and villages that became super prominent places later on. It’s like anywhere they went, some influential person popped up from there sometime later.
If they’d gotten wiped out, then we wouldn’t have some of the most brilliant minds in the world. ”
“How crazy is that? Do you think they might have known these places were going to be important or could it just be chance?” Cami asked, setting down her coffee.
I grinned, knowing I had her full attention now.
“I don’t have a clue, but don’t you think it’s crazy that they always seemed to be around when something important was going down?
When I dug a little deeper about the places where they were spotted, strange occurrences happened afterward at each one. ”
“Strange occurrences?” Cami asked.
“Yeah, like a massive rainstorm, earthquake, forest fire, or tornado. There was even a mention about people having mass hallucinations, and a whole town believed angels came down from heaven and possessed them,” I said, letting that hang for Cami to mull over.
“Why would angels possess people?” Cami ventured.
“According to my research, these people were saved because they all were woken up and walked out of town before a volcano erupted. It would have been Pompeii all over again. When the village woke up, they were all in boats out on the sea, safe and sound.” I flipped through my notebook to see what else I had discovered.
“Are you saying you think this Elementi splinter group is causing all these strange things?” Cami questioned, scrunching up her face.
Leaning back in my chair, I sighed and stared up at the ceiling of the coffee shop.
“It’s crazy, right? This is the real world, not some fantasy story where the impossible can happen.
” I looked back at Cami and gave a wistful smile.
“I guess I’m connecting things that probably have nothing to do with each other. ”
“You never know, Lala, maybe it would take someone who believed in the impossible to see the truth,” Cami said with a look in her eyes that I couldn’t place.
“You might be right, but I have lots of other things to study that are more important than that. It’s my first semester, and I’m already on the way to failing a class,” I said, closing my notebook and the topic.
“You’re done with classes, right? We should go into town since you’ve had such a crappy day. You can get those sugar cookies you love so much,” Cami said, wagging her eyebrows, knowing that was the one thing I couldn’t say no to.
“Sounds like fun,” a male voice said behind us.
The look on Cami’s face was enough to tell me it had to be Parker. I knew that they got along better than they liked to let on, but I’d figured it out. I tilted my head back, and sure enough, Parker was right behind me with his signature grin.
“Who said you’re invited, dickweed?” Cami shot at him.
He pulled over a chair and sat on it backward as he leveled his gaze to Cami. “Lailah is my friend, too. You can’t keep her to yourself all the time. Sharing is caring, Camilla, I know Beth taught you better than that.”
Cami’s hand shot out, and she had Parker’s hand with his thumb twisted at an awkward angle, and his face twisted in pain. “Call me that one more time. Go on, I dare you,” Cami growled.
“Uncle, uncle I give, I give,” Parker said, trying to twist his body to lessen the pain.
Cami released him, tossing his hand away like it was going to bite her. “I better never hear that out of your mouth again, or I really will break off your thumb, ya douche-canoe.”
“Wait! Is that what Cami is short for?” I asked. “I never would have guessed you as a Camil—”
“I love you, Lala, but if you finish that sentence, I will bitch-slap the shit out of you,” Cami said, glaring at me and scaring me with how intense she was about it.
“Okay, I’ll forget I ever heard it,” I said, raising my hands in submission.
“Look what you’ve done, ya twat waffle; you made me scare Lala,” Cami said, turning her anger back on Parker.
“Why don’t you keep from getting your panties in a knot and calm down,” Parker said, holding his own against Cami.
I looked between the two of them and started to giggle.
Hearing me, they paused their stare-down to look at me in surprise.
The way they were so similar just struck me as funny.
I couldn’t explain it, but I loved seeing them go toe to toe.
Getting myself under control, I waved them off and gathered my stuff.
“Come on, let’s head into town so I can get my sugar fix,” I said.
“Wanna ride with me?” Parker asked, giving me puppy-dog eyes.
I looked over at Cami with a questioning eyebrow, and she just smirked at me. “Sure, sounds good.”
“Awesome. I have my ride in the faculty parking lot, so we don’t have to go far,” Parker said, giving me an excited smile.
“Parker, if you do something stupid and get Lala hurt, I will kill you, raise you from the dead, and kill you again. You feel me?” Cami said, giving Parker a stern look.
“Chill, I won’t let anything happen to her,” Parker grumbled.