Tale Of The 10: Gone

Chapter 8: Distractions

How can you pay attention when the attention is on the distraction?

Surely you must know that they are two different words for a reason.

Attention.

Distraction.

You cannot pick both.

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11:13 AM.

"Who the hell are those people that tried to attack us?" Frankie questioned, once the 6 were back in their apartment.

"As if I know," Selena replied.

"You mean to tell me that you didn't try to search their minds?" Frankie asked.

Selena sat down at the dining room table, while everyone stood around her. "Welllll......."

"SL!" Frankie angrily called out Selena's initials.

"Heeeey! Ya don't see me goin around here callin out your initials like thaaat! FL."

"SELENA," Areli pushed.

"Okay, okay.. No, I couldn't!" Selena finally answered. "I didn't because I was focusing on keeping my mind shielded so that I could lead you back to their lair. Like, duhhh."

"Sugah, but that doesn't mean much because can't Hira & Jaiquan do that too?" Chyna wondered.

"No," Hira stated. "Well for me, after I got taken away, I blacked out. I can only remember seeing you guys coming towards me."

Jaiquan added, "Same. That's really all I remember too. Well I remember them all having an upside down & backward C on their shirts."

Selena looked at Frankie slyly. "SEEEEEEEEE? The Selener knooows what the Selener's doing."

Frankie was pleased. "Okay, I'll give you that, little Lena. Sooo.. Are you gonna show us where the lair is?"

Areli cut in. "First, we need to figure out who those people are that attacked us, & why they attacked us."

"And might I ask, how do you plan for us to figure that out?" Chyna asked.

Areli looked at Chyna quickly. "Research."

"Hm?" Hira asked.

Areli wanted them to pay attention more. "You all need to learn to listen for details a bit more. Jaiquan said they all had an upside-down & backwards C's on their shirts. This clearly means something. Something that could be extremely significant to what is going on with us right now."

She paused.

"I take it that you weren't paying attention to that either, Selena?"

"... Yeaaah... I wasn't..." Selena slowly answered, a little afraid of Areli's next response.

Areli sighed. "Do I have to teach you all how to be..."

"Cool?" Jaiquan threw in.

"Fierce?" Chyna guessed.

"Heroic," Areli finished.

"I'm no hero..." Frankie let Areli know. "I've never been a hero."

Hira strongly disliked when Frankie felt this way. She always has.

She tried, "Frankie --"

"No, Hira. I'm not. I'm not a hero." Frankie paused, & looked down at his hand.

"You wanna know a what a hero is?" Frankie asked rhetorically.

He headed to his room to retrieve something.