Tekkit High

Chapter Five: Redstone Heist, part two

He only needed a few more handfuls of redstone to complete his project.

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Cleo stood in the darkened hallway, silent. Her green eyes had adjusted to the darkness quite a while ago, and she could see things rather clearly. An hour had passed since she had slipped from her bed, and since then she had covered nearly the entire school campus. Strangely enough, she still wasn't tired. Maybe she just hadn't tried hard enough.

Cleo stood at the end of the hall for a moment longer, then turned to walk back to her dorm. Suddenly, a door flew open in her path. Cleo's head connected with the wood and she stumbled backward, clutching at the sharp pain on her forehead from where the door had struck. She let out a pained hiss between her teeth.

"Oh, sh- I'm sorry ... Are you alright?"

Cleo looked up at the teen who now stood across from her in the dark hallway, her eyes widening with recognition. At the same time, his did too, although his shades hid it. A moment of silence stretched between them, before Cleo broke it with a giggle. "Er, hi?" She dropped her hand to her side, the pain starting to fade on its own.

"Hi! I'm sorry about the- er ..." he sounded sheepish as he closed the door behind himself, and scratched at the back of his neck embarrassedly.

"It's alright! It didn't hurt that much ..." Another awkward moment of silence stretched between them, this time broken by the boy.

"Are you the girl I saw outside, earlier?"

"Yeah! I'm Cleo," she responded with a smile, glad that he had been the one to ask first. She extended her hand toward him happily.

"Vechs." He gingerly placed his hand in hers and shook it. "Strange way to meet, huh?" he said, with an apologetic half-smile that Cleo found kind of cute.

"It's alright. Um ... What-"

"-Am I doing up so late? I could ask you the same question."

Cleo let out a small laugh. "True. I just can't fall asleep. I'm not used to this place yet. Can I ask what you're doing up?"

"Oh, I have a - uh, project I'm working on, and I needed to borrow something from the school to finish it." He pulled a crumpled paper bag that Cleo hadn't noticed before out of his jacket pocket.

"Borrow, huh?" Cleo arched an eyebrow, the tone of her voice hinting at her suspicion; although her smile ruined the effect.

"Y-eah. Borrow." Vechs shifted his weight nervously from one foot to the other. The picture of guilt.

"And where were you 'borrowing' this thing from?"

Vechs brought a hand up and rubbed his forehead exasperatedly. "From somewhere."

Cleo's smile widened. He was avoiding the question, which meant he was definitely up to no good. This was exactly what she needed; a little trouble-making. (Especially with a cute guy, but she would never say that out loud.) She had to admit that she was bored. There wasn't much you could do after curfew that wouldn't end up in punishment. With an accomplice to take the blame, however...

"Why do you care, anyways?" Cleo noted that his tone of voice was thick with annoyance.

She felt a small stab of guilt, but easily pushed it aside. Years of letting younger siblings take the blame had hardened her against such things. She tilted her head to the side and leaned forward conspiratorially, saying in an innocent yet suggestive voice, "We-e-ell ... I was thinking that I could help you 'borrow' what you needed. Two heads are better than one, right?"