Genius (CENTURIES series: Book #2)

6

"Well, he's not going to get a standing O from me," Mia scoffed, pursing her lips as they started walking down the hall. "I'm over it, it's a stupid media game he's playing."

"But that's why it's fascinating!" Anna said. "He's deliberately messing with this school! Why us? What's his motive? If he doesn't want to come forward, why's he trying to get noticed?"

"I don't know, he's probably crazy," She replied to Anna while power-walking to get to her art class. "He's fucking up our quiet school days and he clearly likes it. If he didn't, he would've come forth by now and ended this whole circus."

"Well, if he's really crazy, he probably won't," Anna replied. "Okay, I'll just see you later then," She then sighed when Mia just kept furiously stalking towards her class. "Have fun drawing or painting or whatever..."

Damn right she would, Mia thought. She wasn't going to let the Genius destroy her future chance of becoming a brilliant artist.

~~~

"Caleb, if you don't fucking call me back, I'm going to cause hell for you," Mia heard Eli's furious voice growl into the payphone in the hall. "I'm not kidding anymore, you piece of shit. I'm going to kidnap your fucking sister and take her with me," He hissed. "You crossed a line, Caleb. Call. Me. Back."

Mia frowned at the sight of him slamming the phone back, but then quickly moved on when he begun to turn around. This was the second time she had heard him yell at someone over the phone. This Caleb person, whoever that was, was facing a dangerous future if he continued to ignore Eli's calls. Had he been serious about wanting to kidnap his sister? Mia prayed he wasn't, but from the sound of his pissed voice, she feared he might actually mean it. If so, should she report it to someone?

"MIA! Mia, Mia, Mia!" Zoe's voice suddenly bellowed from the hall. When Mia turned around again, she saw her friend racing down the hall – bolting as if her ass was on fire. "Miiiiia!"

"Jesus, Zoe, what's wrong?" Mia finally said when Zoe stopped up in front of her, completely out of breath.

"I... I fi... figured it... out," She managed to get out between heavy pants. "The code! I cracked it!"

"What code, what crack?" Mia frowned, trying to understand what she was getting at, while she in the corner of her eye saw Eli look up. "You gotta start explaining yourself more, Zoe, I can't keep up with you."

"The mystery code the Genius left!" She exclaimed, clutching her ribs. "The code he left in the server room on the screen! The one the forensic team is working on cracking, I cracked it!"

"You did?" Mia said, her eyebrows shooting up. "How? What was it?"

Zoe smiled widely and pulled out a notepad from her pocket. "I got a look at the numbers and I wrote them down just the way the Genius had on the screen. Here, look," She showed her the notepad and Mia took a look at it.

"32 - 28 - 92 - 16," Zoe listed off as if she didn't couldn't read the digits. "They could be anything, a phone number, an address, coordinations, a lock combination – I tried everything I could think of, but nothing made sense. I didn't know where to look next, I had actually almost given up when I hit a lazy slum in chemistry," She told, now fishing a chemistry book out of her bag. She opened it on the first page where a picture of the periodic time table was printed neatly with the names and elements. "I was sorta having a brainfart moment when my eyes suddenly landed on this."