Outliers

Chapter 8: Tripping

"You wanna warn her?" Xavier asked. The three of us were sitting on my air mattress in the living room. Ariana's lay across from it, and Xavier's was in the bedroom. We'd stopped bothering to take shifts guarding at night soon after we started working at FitHub. Ariana just fell asleep, and Xavier and I were up enough throughout the night as it was.

          "Yes," I said.

          I pressed my lips together. Maybe it was a bad idea. I shouldn't have been asking them to risk everything. What if this got them killed?

          "I'm in," Xavier said.

          "Me too." Ariana nodded.

          "Really?" I furrowed my eyebrows. "Just like that?"

          "Well, yeah." Ariana rolled her eyes. "Did you think we'd say no?"

          "It's what we've been waiting for," Xavier said. He looked at Ariana, then his dark eyes bore into mine. They flamed with determination. "This is how we get back at the Takers."

          I nodded. "Alright." I took a breath. "I guess we're doing this." Dangerous or not, there was no point in protecting ourselves if our lives were just wasting away anyway.

          We went down to the lobby and gathered around the Screen. I tapped it to life and typed in the woman's address. A map came up, showing a blue dot where we were and a red flag at the address. It was a few streets over, behindthe FitHub plaza.

          "That's not even too far," Ariana said. She reached over, tapping to get walking directions. "Twenty minutes."

          "That's good,"Xavier said, nodding. "If she flips out or something, we can get back here fast."

          I peered at the map, trying to memorize it. I was better at memorizing things, thanks tomy genetic enhancements. "You guys ready?" I asked as I erased our search. I powered down the Screen and straightened up.

          "Yeah," Ariana said. She tightened her long ponytail and nodded. "Let's do this."

          Xavier straightened up too. "Let's go," he said. A brief, small smile lit his features.

          I let a similar smile drift onto my face as we walked out of the apartment building. We bolted across the street to FitHub as usual, but this time, we continued behind the plaza. Mystic Court wasn't far, and with our five months' worth of training, the walk felt like nothing. Less than fifteen minutes later, we were facing the plastic door of Thirty-Two Mystic Court.

          "So, who's gonna ring?" Ariana asked, her voice hushed. The entire street was quiet, with only the low humming from the ground disrupting the silence.

          "My idea." I brought my shoulders back in an effort to appear confident, though my heart was beating harder. I tapped my finger on the button above the door handle, which flashed red. It beeped faintly. I stepped back on the porch.

          We waited for a minute or so, and there was still no answer. Had we come all this way for nothing?

          "Probably gaming," Xavier muttered.

          He moved up to the button, brushing lightly against my shoulder as he walked past. He tapped the button four times, in rapid succession. As he stepped back beside me, movement could finally be heard in the house. Footsteps stomped towards us, and an eventual grumbling sounded on the other side of the door.

          The door swung open, revealing the sickly-looking woman from the gym. "Look, whatever you're selling—" She stopped when she saw the three of us. "Who're you?"