Secrets Are For Keeping

Chapter Twenty-One

I woke up to an empty room the following day. It took me a moment to realize that it was ten o' clock in the morning and everyone else had already gotten up to eat breakfast and prepare themselves for whatever we would be faced with during the day. I quickly got up from my sleeping bag and hurried out the door and into the cafeteria.

Almost every seat was filled and my eyes found our usual table, where Pepper and Zander now sat with, surprisingly, Kain sitting right beside Zander, yet he wasn't exactly talking to them. He was just sitting at the table, slowly eating a piece of toast as he watched Zander and Pepper animatedly discuss some topic or another. I went towards the lines where the food was served, and they were all practically empty with only a few other stragglers besides me trying to get food.

I picked a plate with two waffles side by side and headed towards the table.

It was so early the fact that Pepper was actually there took a second to come crashing down on me.

Pepper hadn't been caught. Pepper was alive, she was safe, she was here, physically here. She'd escaped. I had stopped in the middle of the cafeteria in my realization and as I saw people were staring at me, I quickly picked up my pace again and continued walking. But the shock was still there, and my guilt was melting away. I hadn't indirectly put Pepper in danger. Pepper had turned out to be perfectly fine after all and all the guilt that I'd gone to sleep with had been pointless.

But a certain part of me still held onto the guilt. Not because of Pepper. But because of the other girl.

The one I'd let get taken away by one of the inspectors. I hadn't even tried to help her.

I sat down in the seat next to Pepper, shoving the guilt away, not wanting to think about it. The minute I put my plate down both Pepper and Kain stared at me weirdly, both probably thinking about the night before. I returned with my own gaze, trying to act casual.

"Hey," I said, but it came out much stiffer than I'd intended it to. Zander was the one now looking at all three of us oddly, probably wondering why we all were apparently incapable of normal communication.

"Hi." Kain wouldn't look at me as he spoke, and instead stared down at his fork that was picking through his eggs. He only knew that I'd left and reentered the room really late last night - or technically early this morning - and probably was waiting for the right chance to ask questions.

Pepper didn't respond at all, and just sat there, shoving a piece of French toast in her mouth as she avoided making eye contact.

Now Zander looked even more suspicious than he had when I'd first sat down. He looked at me with accusations written in his eyes and then said to me, "Can I talk to you for a second?"

I put my fork back down on my napkin, and after wasting a couple seconds trying to formulate an excuse that I realized didn't exist, I nodded.

Zander stood up from the table, and I did the same. Pepper finally glanced up at me as I walked by her to follow Zander outside of the cafeteria.

"What the heck is going on?" Zander asked when we were right outside the door.

"What do you mean?" I replied, still trying to avoid directly just stating everything that had happened. I didn't know why I was hiding it from Zander. Maybe I didn't really trust him after all.

"Why...why are you all staring at each other strangely? I can tell when something's off." He glanced back into the lunchroom where Pepper and Kain were now eating in silence, not even trying to talk to each other and I wondered again if they had some awkward relationship with each other.

I debated whether or not to tell him, and how if I should decide to. I mean, what could I say? Oh yea, I woke up at two in the morning today to secretly spy on the truth behind the inspectors. And by the way, I'm totally screwed and will probably be taken away in chains once they realize that they're looking for me.

Zander didn't seem to want to give up without an answer, though, and continued to stand there waiting for my response. I briefly considered sprinting past him and back into the lunchroom, but it was likely he would find another time to interrogate me and find out what I wasn't telling him.

But then again, I couldn't really just tell him right there in front of the cafeteria. I could already count nearly five inspectors in the surrounding area that might just be close enough to hear our conversation. So I really didn't have any options for what to do. The most obvious option, that seemed to have the least amount of consequences was to lie. I didn't want to lie, especially when I knew I would end up having to tell him that I lied later on when there weren't inspectors around. Because I already knew that was what I was going to do: he deserved to know. Why shouldn't I trust him? I was already regretting the moment of doubt I'd had minutes before.

"It was just something that happened last night...you weren't there," I lied, staring at him in the eyes as I did to make it more convincing. It was one skill of mine that I wasn't exactly proud of; I'd gotten so used to lying in dire situations that lying for reasons that weren't as important had become much easier and more fluent for me.

"What happened? Sorry, but the looks that you were all giving each other were not normal...," Zander pressed, looking annoyed that I wasn't just saying what had happened and I was giving so many general answers.

"It's just...one of Pepper and Kain's friends, something happened to her. She accidentally fell down a flight of stairs while trying to get to her room last night and she had to be taken to the hospital. Not that many people know about it because mostly everyone was asleep." Zander stared at me as I finished my entire lie, probably trying to guess if I was telling the truth. None of the nearby inspectors turned around to ask why I was saying something that wasn't at all real, and then I realized that I could've just hurt myself.

Maybe they weren't asking why I was lying because they were mentally taking notes on my actions. Someone who was better and more prone to lying would likely be considered a more dangerous person. My mind brought up the bright image of the warning category from the laptop the night before.

Zander finally sighed and turned around. "It's better not to miss breakfast, right? Anyway...you missed out on what Pepper did this morning...," he said as he smiled at me and walked back into the cafeteria. I paused for a moment wondering if I'd made a bad choice, then quickly caught up to him and returned to my seat at our breakfast table.

Except just as I was sitting down another announcement came from the speaker. I was starting to get tired of hearing the same lady's voice monotonously giving out instructions. "Everyone please report to level two, classroom E890. Report to level two, classroom E890."

I looked over at Zander, Kain, and Pepper who shared equal expressions of curiosity. What were they planning on putting us through now?