It takes me forty-five seconds to pull up the rendering, two minutes to get Xander to stop sending cat gifs to my computer, five minutes to convince Bex to stop being so melodramatic and... oh right, a never-ending eternity to get Thea off my back.
"As you guys can see, the wing has been blocked off." I twist the rendering around with my mouse, highlighting the brick wall.
"So... sledgehammer time?" Xander looks up at me with scone crumbs around his mouth, eyes shining with a boyish glow.
"Umm, no. We don't want to break anything."
"That's not what you said last week when our controller exploded and you said - and I quote 'Wow, I really wish that would have broken that ugly table.' For your information, that's a specially magnetic table, designed for roboting!"
"That's different!" I cry. "That's an ugly metal table with wave corners. I don't think you understand how aesthetically displeasing that is. It looks like it was haphazardly constructed!"
"The 'waves' are cutouts to hold tools!"
"Hey guys," Thea steps between us. "As totally riveting as this is, we have bigger issues at hand. Does the message 'Find Tobias Hawthorne II' ring a bell to anyone here? Aren't you guys supposed to be, like geniuses?"
I sigh. "Back to my main point, we can't just go around bashing down a brick wall. People would wonder."
Xander flopped back into a bean bag. "Ugh, you're right. How else are we supposed to get in?"
I flop down next to him. "Maybe one of the countless secret passages and tunnels?"
All four of us laugh. "C'mon," I stand up and dust off my leggings. "Let's go tunnelling."
Tunnelling was a thing we used to do over the summer holidays when Emily and Rebecca would come to visit. We'd load up a backpack with snacks, then we'd slip through the secret passages, race around the house and play hide and seek.
"Guys?" Rebbeca pipes up from my computer chair. "We have a problem."
"What's up?" I cross the room.
"There are no passages to the wing."
I exchange a look with Xander. "When I made this... Granddad, he looked over it. He had me remove some parts."
"There are passages everywhere. Every room, every nook and cranny, has some alternate form to get there." Xander explains. "It's almost like a rule of thumb. We just have to find it"
"Sure, sure." Thea nods. "But there's no way I'm going tunneling in this. These jeans are not for dust."
I roll my eyes. "There are filters and other tech to make sure there's no dust."
"Still not going."
I pinch the bridge of my nose. "Bex, tell her to come. I'm not lending her any more clothes. I'm still waiting for my Rep Tour sweatshirt back."
Rebecca lets out a small sigh, so slight it's almost like a short breath and slips her hand through Thea's. "Please? We don't want to waste more time. This is important. We need you."
Thea's stiffness slowly melts away. "Fine, but Trinity needs to pay for my dry cleaning."
"Excuse me? I just got disowned."
She glares at me. "Please."
I choke back more of my shake. "Come on, it'll be easier to do this with daylight."
We wander down to one of the sunrooms.
"I know it's here somewhere." I run my thumbnail down the baseboard. Click. "There we are."
A panel folded inwards. "Hop in everyone."
Tentatively, Thea steps in, followed by Rebecca, then Xander. I slide in after, pulling the panel back into place.
"We should follow along here." Xander waves his arm, lit up by three phone flashlights.
We wind through the tight, cramped hallways until we come across a set of stairs.
"Woah!" Bex steps on an old step and trips. Luckily, Thea's hand is around hers before she can fall flat on her face. She looks up at Thea with wide eyes. "Thanks." She breaths.
"Yeah." Thea doesn't say much else but turns to us. "Seriously? You guys would just have let her fall down the stairs? How safe is this exactly?"
We exchange glances. "There are four stairs." I deadpan. "She wouldn't have died."
"Drop it, you two." Xan steps between us.
I rub my temples. "Fine." I've had enough today, and don't need Xan on my back too. I never can get along with his 'friends'.
We keep walking until we come to a boarded-off tunnel."I swear I thought this was open."
"Well," Bex says tentatively. "Maybe we really shouldn't be going into this wing."
"Shouldn't? This is important! Why would Grandad tell us to find Uncle Toby if he didn't want us to go into his wing?"
"Maybe we should look somewhere else!"
"How about," Xan's voice rising. "We get some lunch. You're probably just hungry."
I am hungry. The only thing I've had all day is this disgusting shake, and we've been wandering for a good hour and a half. As much as I hate to admit it, food would solve a lot.
"Come on, I'll show you the secret to the kitchen." I wind us back through corridors and fake doors, before pushing open the spice room wall. We step into the main kitchen, then tiptoe into the smaller, homey kitchen where a majority of our usual meals are prepared.
Mrs Laughlin is standing over the stove, stirring soup for dinner later. "Oh my! What have you..." she trails off, clearly not wanting to know. "Would you like lunch?"
I smile. "Yes, please. Can I have my salad?"
"Sure." She drizzles Italian dressing into my salad. "What would the rest of you like?"
"Whatever you have, Grandma," Rebecca replies politely.
"Same for me" Thea echoes.
"I'll have the leftover quiche." Xan chips in.
She puts our food on the small table, and we dig in.
"What are we supposed to do now?" I whine, frustrated.
"We could scour the internet," Rebecca adds unhelpfully. "Find some information on the fire."
"Or," Xan says through bites of pastry. "We could just use the sledgehammer."
A.N.: Shorter chapter, but give me a break. Tests are a bitch. Also, if you see something a little off (comment abt it so ik!), a swear word was probably supposed to go there, but I only have a monitor, and sometimes want to write on things like, my bed or something, so I use my school laptop. Kinda hard to explain but whatever. Love you and have an amazing week! Also, go check out my shatter me fanfics please please please. I'm so addicted to the series and it would mean so much (shameless self promo ik)
Sky(lar)