Angel Academy

Chapter 9: Secrets

Ok, I really wanted to continue, so this chapter's out a bit early (by "early", I mean a day after.) I won't do an upload a day, it's just that I'm going back to school tomorrow and I'll be busy all week. Anyways...

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The next few days were fine. I figured out the machine in HS (well, Ms. John forced Violet to help me figure it out,) and spied on Ash (which by the way I'll probably never get used to doing.) I started finding HS incredibly boring and frustrated that Ash hadn't admited her "problem" yet. I was starting to have doubts about her problem. What if it was a mistake that I was paired with her? She seemed perfectly fine to me, and she made friends with the volleyball team. She was sort of quiet, which I took a mental note of, but that didn't concern me. I expected her not to be very social. In fact, here was a conversation she had with Amy, captain of the volleyball team and one of the most popular girls in school (I feel horrible.)

Anyways, Ash was visiting her locker inbetween classes to grab some textbooks she forgot in her locker. Amy casually walked up to her and said, "Ash! There you are. I have been looking all over for you. I wanted to invite you to my 13th birthday on Saturday. It's a bowling party. The entire grade will be there!"

"I'm not sure Amy. I-"

"Oh, and Ryan too!"

"What? How do you-"

Amy rolled her eyes, "Come on Ashley. EVERYONE knows. As if it wasn't obvious. Besides, everyone saw you ask him to dance with you during the halloween dance."

"Oh. Yeah, I forgot about that," Ash sighed.

"Please Ash?"

Ash considered it, but rejected, saying she had to study for-something.

I was shocked. Ash LOVED parties. If she was normally invited to the most popular girl in school's birthday party she would accept it right then and there. It just-well, wasn't Ash.

After that conversation Ash had history, which was my personal least favorite subject. I found it boring and Ms. Stubbs, who was the 8th grade history teacher, was extremely strict. She sent anyone who talked to the principal's office. I knew there was no point of going to history, but Ms. John would kill me if she noticed that I even lost sight of Ash. Not literally. That wouldn't make any sense.

History was exactly like I remembered. Ms. Stubbs would read a section of the history textbook out loud. Afterwards, we had to answer questions on a worksheet about what we had just learned. Exciting, isn't it?

I waited...

And waited...

And WAITED...

It was longest school period of my life.

I almost felt like cheering when Ms. Stubbs came around to collect the papers.

"Anyways class, I have a VERY special announcment!" Ms. Stubb exclaimed as she walked up to the front of the room. "The school finally gave me permission to take all grade 8s to the local war museum and memorial next Wednsday!"

A few kids in the back started mumbling. Ms. Stubbs whipped her body around to face the class. "But only if you deserve it," she glared at the entire class. "Ashley? Could you please hand out the permission forms?"

Ash sighed, stood up and took the papers from Ms. Stubbs. She carefully handed them out to everyone-except me. I almost forgot that I technically wasn't there.

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After school, Violet once again escourted me to my room. I told her about the field trip and how my process with Ash.

"So, yeah. She's doing fine. I have no idea what's wrong with her though. How are you doing?" I asked.

"Uh, what?" she bit her lip.

"How are you doing on the HS project?"

"Um, I'm doing fi-great! I think I know what her problem is!"

"Uh-huh." I didn't believe her one bit. Ms. John told me otherwise.

Violet quickly changed the subject, "Are your grades keeping up?"

"Yeah I-wait. We were talking about HS. What was her problem?"

"I-I-" she sighed. "I don't know. I don't even have a clue."

So she finally admited it. "But, you've been here for a couple years. You really don't have a clue?"

"No..." she looked ashamed.

"Well, why? You only have a few years to finish."

She stopped, "Ok, I'm sorry, but promise you won't tell anyone-"

"What?"

"I'll show you tonight. But we're going to have to sneak out..."

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Just to let you know, I was completely against Violet's plan of sneaking out. I didn't really have a choice. Before I could say yes or no, Violet was already telling me her plan of sneaking to the HS room. I had to admit, it wasn't very well thought out. It was simply "don't tell anyone and be quiet or else we're going to get caught and be expelled." I gulped at the word "expelled." I suggested telling Alice, so that she wouldn't wake up in the middle of the night, see that Violet was gone then have a panic attack. Then someone would obviously catch us. Violet refused and said Alice would stay up the entire night just to make sure she wouldn't get up. I didn't want to know how she knew that would happen.

We snuck out at about 10:30, an hour and a half after our curfew. Violet informed me that Alice was asleep and that she didn't see anything. I just nodded, hoping that she was telling the truth.

I took us half an hour to get to the HS room. We walked very slowly, just in case anyone was still awake for any reason. We didn't want to make too much noise. Every few minutes Violet would stop and make sure there were no cameras, other people or anything that would blow our cover. By the time we got to HS I started feeling tired. I'm not exactly much of a night person...

"So," I yawned, "what was it you wanted to show me?"

"Ok, but you can't tell anybody. Promise?"

At first I was unsure. What if her "secret" (whatever it may be) was potentially dangerous? Then I realized how unlikely that was. "Promise."

Violet and I shook on it.

She smiled, "Thanks." and walked over to Ms. John's desk.

And was I ever so wrong for believing her.

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