I had messaged Xander about our little trip to Colorado while we were on our way to the airport.
He had messaged back with a I already know.
I shrugged it off, knowing that Avery had probably messaged Jameson and Xander of course has Jameson's phone wired, so he probably can read his messages as well.
I probably shouldn't message Jameson about planning any surprise parties for Xander then.
I message Grayson as well, he hasn't messaged me since last night so I just let him know we found another lead and are going to True North.
When Xander joins us he mentions that Thea and Rebecca would be joining us for this small get away.
The private jet- mine and Avery's private jet- was amazing, it could sit twenty people and I had never seen anything like it.
The six of us, Xander, Thea, Rebecca, Max, Avery and I, were spread across two sofas at the back of the jet while the adults were all near the front.
"We don't know what we're looking for," Xander made sure to keep his voice low so we don't get overheard.
"But we know the old man left it for Skye. It will be in or very near to the cabin, and it will probably have Skye's name on it."
"Do we have anything else to go on? Any particular wording in the prior clue?" Rebecca asks.
"Very good, young Padawan." Xander bowed towards her.
"No Star Wars references, listening to you talk geeky gives me a migraine." Thea shot at Xander.
"You knew I was quoting from Star Wars." Xander smiled widely, "I win!"
"Sorry, they're just like this." Rebecca was speaking to Avery, Max and I now, referring to the two bickering.
Rebecca's phone rang, cutting any sort of response short.
Rebecca looked down, her deep, beautiful red hair covering her face as she does so.
"Everything okay?" Avery asks.
"It's fine" Rebecca quickly replied behind her wall of hair.
Thea slowly inched closer to Rebecca before she quickly made a grab for her phone.
"Rebecca's phone," She answered, pressing the phone to her ear.
"Thea Speaking."
"Thea!" Rebecca tried to grab her phone from Thea's grasp.
"Everything's fine, My. Laughlin." Thea held out her hand to keep Rebecca from reaching her phone.
"Bex just nodded off. You know how she gets on planes" Thea now twisted away from Rebecca to block her even more.
"Sure, I'll tell her. Take care. Bye." Thea spoke before removing the phone from her ear and ending the call.
"Your grandfather says to have a good trip. He'll take care of your mom." Thea turned to speak to Rebecca directly.
"Now.. I believe Rebecca asked about the wording of the clue." Thea turned towards the rest of us, tossing the phone on the table in between the two couches.
My eyes find Xander's as I notice him fiddling with something.
I see a small glimpse of the thing before he quickly slides it back into his pocket, giving me a look as though to tell me not to say a word.
I tune back into the conversation to Avery answering Thea's question.
"A compass. The clue that pointed us toward True North was in the part of Tobias Hawthorne's will where he left Skye his compass." She answered.
That's when I realized what exactly it was in Xander's pocket.
"Oh," Thea said innocently.
"Like the antique compass Xander's hiding in his pocket?" She asks.
Xander scowled at her.
Max reached for the pastry platter and beaned Xander with a croissant. "Holding out on us?" She demanded.
"I see our budding friendship has reached its croissant phase, I am pleased" Xander told her, a small smile sitting on his lips.
"You're also hiding things, you have the compass the old man left Skye?" Avery accused.
"Ash knew!" Xander quickly says pointing toward me.
"What? No I didn't? I just saw you with it literally as Avery was explaining about it" I quickly defend myself.
"Yeah but You know me. You surly didn't think I'd come unprepared." He raises his hands.
"A Hawthorne always comes prepared." He defends.
"Can I see it?" Avery asks.
Xander reluctantly hands her it, hesitant to pull it out of his pocket.
I look over Avery's shoulder at it.
It looks normal.
Perfectly normal.
Avery looks over to her phone as it buzzes before our conversations section off, doing whatever we please for the short amount of time we are in the air on a private jet.
Xander ends up coming over to me, the two of us moving to some seats where we spend the rest of the flight time playing connect four.
Who knew connect four could get so competitive?
We played about 50 games, we were still tied.
We're setting up for another game when we start to descend, cutting our tournament short for the time being.
"I would have won that" I scoff as we're packing up the game.
"In your dreams" Xander replies, a smile on each of our faces.
It takes half an hour- and three enormous SUVs- to make it to True North.
"The house has ski-in/ski-out access," Alisa informed Max, Avery and I on the drive. "It's private, but there's a s trail that will take you to the lodge below."
As True North came into view I can't help my jaw dropping slightly.
It's the most fairytale, magical, dream like place I've ever seen. And I've seen Hawthorne House.
"I called ahead to have the caretaker open up the house," Alisa said as she, Oren, Max, Avery and I stepped out of the SUV and onto the snow. 'We should be stocked with food. I took the liberty of having appropriate attire delivered for you girls."
Girls.
Girls.
"Fox me," Max whispers, awed as she looks ahead, taking in everything.
"It's beautiful," Avery says what everyone is thinking.
"This property was one of Mr. Hawthorne's favorites," Alisa smiles. "He always seemed different up here."
A second and third SUV roll up not very far behind us.
Libby steps out of the second one first, Nash following her out before a handful or Oren's men.
Xander, Thea and Rebecca stepped out of the third not too long after.
Alisa turned to the three of us, turning away from Nash and Libby as she does so.
"I understand that Grayson and Jameson will be joining us," She says.
"Whatever you do," She warned, "do not let any of the Hawthornes challenge you to a Drop."
YOU ARE READING
Fame//Grayson Hawthorne
Fanfiction//Book two in the paparazzi series. Ash Grambs had been sucked into a lifechanging series of events, meeting new people and having experiences they never dreamt of. Its been a few weeks since their life got switched upside down but now, there's a n...
