The Elements Trilogy: The Secondaries

Chapter 8: Wood

An alarm blared the next morning, and the loudness of it felt like it shattered my eardrums. I groaned as my head pounded, and my stomach lurched. I immediately regretted that champagne bottle last night.

David rolled out of bed and he began digging through the clothes. We both got dressed in jeans and tee shirts, as there wasn't much of anything else and I slowly made my way out into the main room, holding my head.

"Hangover, Derek?" David asked.

I nodded, and then winced. "Did I do anything stupid last night?"

"Define stupid," David grunted.

"Just...un-me like,"

"You hit on Evalynn non-stop, and then on the plane you went to go to the bathroom, and nearly opened the deadlock seal door..." David smirked at me. "Twice,"

"Shit," I muttered.

There was a knock at the door, and Chester entered. Harry frowned. "I thought you were leaving."

Chester sighed. "I thought I was too, but there's a terrible storm. No planes are taking off for the next few days. Anyway, who's hungry? The cafeteria is making sausage, pancakes and waffles."

"Thank God, I'm starving!" Tony was practically drooling. I, on the other hand, was about to vomit.

Chester looked over at me. "There may be some dry toast for you, Mr. Fox."

"Good. And do we eat with the girls? I need to apologize to Evalynn,"

Chester nodded. "And after breakfast, you will all have to go and pretend to be the interns that you're posing as,"

"Yay, diseases," I said dryly.

"Chester, about that, is it possible to switch what lab we're in?" Harry questioned.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Anderson, it's not,"

Harry sighed, and David's lip curled.

To avoid unnecessary tension, I headed for the door, and everyone followed suit. We followed Chester down to the cafeteria, and we found the table where the girls were at. Harry's face lit up when he saw Skylar, and she smiled brightly too. However, she was smiling because of something other than him; Chester was beside Harry, grinning at her.

I sat down next to Evalynn, unsure of what to say. "Evalynn..." I started.

She shook her head. "It's Samantha now," she whispered.

"Shit. Right. Samantha...I just want to apologize for my behavior yesterday. I was an idiot. Wait, no, I was drunk. Well, I was a drunken idiot, technically. But anyway, I just wanted to let you know that I'm not always like that, I was just drunk. Wait, I told you that already. I guess I'm just nervous because of us supposedly being soul mates or something, and I-"

"Derek?" she was grinning at me.

"Yes?" I said, thankful she had stopped my rambling. I had no idea where I had been going with that.

"It's okay," she nodded. "Really, it's alright,"

I blushed. "Right. Good. Okay. Do you want something to eat?" I stood up, and staggered over my chair.

Her smile grew wider. "How about you sit, and I get you some coffee?"

She left and I sank down into my chair and closed my eyes. When I opened them again, Tony was shoveling syrup-soaked pancakes into his mouth and grinning at me. "Smooth,"

I scowled. "Don't you ever chew? You're inhaling your pancakes,"

Diamond nudged his arm. "Apparently chewing slows down the process of getting more food into his mouth,"

"See this is why I'm dating you instead of him," Tony snickered.

"Oh really? And here all this time I thought it was because I'm a-"

"Person who will get me more food?" He shoved his empty plate in her direction and batted his big brown eyes at her. "I love you...." He bribed her.

She pretended to be annoyed as she walked away, but she had a smile on her face. Evalynn set coffee in front of me, and Skylar took Diamond's seat next to Tony with her own plate of waffles and sausage. "Hey Samantha, hey Derek. Hey Sparkplug," she greeted all of us. "Hey now!" She slapped away Tony's hand. "Get your own food!"

He huffed, and put his head down. Skylar looked at Evalynn. "How old do you think Chester is?" She asked.

"I don't know...pretty young yet. No more than 25. Why? What are you up too?"

"What? Nothing, just curious."

Evalynn narrowed her eyes. "Right,"

Diamond sat on the other side of Tony as Harry, Evie and David all joined us. "Aren't you eating, Der?" Harry began gnawing on a piece of sausage.

"Not without barfing after," I laid my head down on the table. I must have drifted off, because the next thing I knew, Harry was shaking me awake, and Chester was introducing us to three other men in lab coats.

There was Dr. Lake for cloning, a tall, thin middle aged man with a Scottish accent and long spiky brown hair. Dr. Logan for diseases, a tall, muscular middle aged man with short brown hair, tan skin and a northern English accent. Lastly, there was Dr. Mast for genetics, a shorter, younger man with thick brown hair, British accent and pale skin. He was goofy, and clumsy and I felt jealous that I didn't get to work with him.

The twins and I followed Dr. Logan down the hallway and into a huge room. People in lab coats were everywhere, and we were given name tags to hang around our neck.

I walked around in awe. People were using technology I have never seen before, and studying all kinds of things under microscopes. A pretty German girl popped up in front of me. "Anything bothering you today, Mr..."she peered at my name tag. "Fox?"

"Uhh..." I glanced back at Dr. Logan, and he nodded.

"Go on," he encouraged.

I shrugged. "I have a hangover," I said.

She shoved a cup of something bluish into my hand. "Drink,"

"Wait, what?"

"Drink it,"

I hesitantly drank it. Miraculously, my head ache and swirling stomach, immediately disappeared. "Woah, thats awesome! What is this?"

"Secret," she winked at me and disappeared around a large computer screen.

Suddenly, nails were digging into my shoulder. "Derek!" Evalynn hissed into my ear. "Derek, look!"

"What, where? At what?"

"Over there! By the smart board and that 3D thing! Who is that?!"

My stomach dropped. I grabbed Evie and yanked her to us. "Evie, who is that?" I pointed her in the direction and she stumbled back against me.

"No, no, no! I didn't want to deal with this, Skylar needs to be here. Skylar would know what to do!"

"So it's really her? She's really here?" Evalynn whispered.

I nodded. "I'm afraid so."

As much as I wanted to deny it, there was no mistaking that thick, long red hair, and loud American accent amount all the German and British ones. Bryner was happily working, not even 5 feet away from us.