Too Young (The Jewel Project #1)

Chapter 10.1 - Backup

Chapter Ten

Backup

Sam woke up the next morning to an empty tent. After assuring himself that he hadn't slept in, he stretched and pulled on a fresh t-shirt. As he searched his rucksack, he found the document from the temple. He'd been so busy with feeling alive and Christine that he'd almost forgotten all about it.

T-shirt safely on, he opened the parchment carefully and read the first lines. The more he read, the more excited he became. It was a letter from a conquistador named Miguel Rodriguez who had found the temples back in 1699. He'd been searching for the ruby as well, and had come close to grabbing it before he'd been captured by the natives. And once he'd finished telling his story, he claimed to know the way through the temple, where the traps were and how to avoid them.

Sam frowned. He also claimed the ruby was guarded by many deadly traps. Sam looked back to his rucksack as though to check if the ruby was still there. There hadn't been many traps. More like two.

He remembered the sharp projectiles coming towards him and shuddered. His shoulder still hurt, but Jerry had done a good job cleaning and bandaging the wound. Trying to distract himself, Sam left the tent, but as soon as he stepped out, he jumped back. There was a tent right next to his, one that hadn't been there last he remembered. Just to make sure he hadn't gone crazy, he counted. Yup, there was one extra tent there.

A girl came out of it, a bottle of water in her hand. Sam stared at her stupefied, and as soon as she noticed him, her green eyes narrowed.

"Stop staring already!" she said and before Sam knew what was going on, she threw the bottle at his head. He didn't even have time to duck.

"Are you crazy? Man, that hurt!" He rubbed his forehead with his free hand.

She frowned in confusion. "You're not Tom?"

"No, I'm not Tom!" Did it always hurt that much to be Tom?

"Oh, my God, I'm so sorry!" She rushed to him and took his hand off to check the damage. "I thought you were Tom. He would've thrown something back at me by now..."

"Who are you anyway?" He pushed her hands away. Her eyes widened and he regretted his gesture because she really seemed sorry.

"My name's Angie. I'm backup. I...I'm really sorry. This is an awful way to meet new people, but you have to understand that you look very much—" she squinted and came a bit closer to him, checking every feature of his face. "You look just like Tom. How is this possible?"

"I know it's odd, but we do look exactly the same." Sam pocketed the document, trying not to feel very self-conscious, but she kept staring at him as though trying to decide whether to believe that he wasn't Tom or not. "Look, I'm not wearing sunglasses," he said to help her make up her mind.

She accepted the argument because she nodded, but didn't take her eyes off him. Awkward silence followed.

"So... You're backup, then? By the way, I'm Sam."

"Hi, Sam." She finally smiled.

Sam was stunned by the change. Even if he'd noticed at once that she was a pretty girl, when she smiled, she was gorgeous.

"Yes, I'm backup. Kay and I finally managed to find you last night. We didn't see the point in waking everyone up."

"You and Kay?"

"Yeah, she should be around here somewhere Let's go find her." Angie started off toward the center of camp.

Sam followed, trying to figure her out. She was fun and spunky, he could tell that much, but her obvious dislike for Tom got him wondering. He didn't feel like having a civil war inside the team. Jerry and Kyle were enough.