"I have no idea why he talks to her in the first place. She's a complete dork."
My notebook slipped from my hand and landed on the floor. I quickly picked it up and a shoved it into my locker. I glanced to my right and noticed a few girls standing twenty lockers away from me. They snickered as I fumbled with my books.
I was not appalled by their insults. Instead, I was more astonished by the fact I was able to hear their whispering from so far away. I shut my locker and proceeded to walk to class.
This oversensitive hearing was yet another shocking discovery. Ever since I received the strange dream and memories regarding my inevitable connection to the alien agenda as the SOM5, I had begun to experience various changes within myself.
A few days earlier, I realised that my eyesight had improved tremendously. I never had to wear my reading glasses anymore. Not to mention, I was constantly getting vivid dreams and countless lucid ones as well.
I could not help but think it was yet another side effect of being an SOM5. I shuddered as I remembered my infant self undergoing various surgical procedures. What had they turned me into?
Shrugging my thoughts aside, I tried to focus on class.
-----------------------------------
"The coming holidays I guess," Lin suggested.
We were currently discussing our plans to infiltrate Area 51, through our new found secret passageway. As dangerous as it may sound, Lin confirmed that we could not get many secret agents to help us, therefore, we would have to carry out the infiltration ourselves.
I concluded that she was psycho.
"I'm still not on board with this plan. Lin! We are not spies!" I retorted.
"Well, what choice do we have? Do you want to solve your little mystery or not?" Lin fired back.
I grunted in frustration. "Fine..." I surrendered. I still could not wrap my mind around the whole thing.
"So you guys just tell your parents that you're joining a short camp. All the other details will be settled by the secret agents. If your parents visit school and ask the teachers, we got that covered as well.Then, just hop on my private jet, and we'll be on our way, " Lin explained paying attention to her phone while talking. She had everything planned out, which was relieving and unsettling, all the same.
"Wait, which agency is even helping you in all of this? Because for all I know, you are not allowed to get involved with any of your father's agencies," I asked.
She looked up from her phone,"It's one of the minor branches of a non-government agency my dad was working with. Let's just say I have my connections," she said smirking. Lucky for her, I had no objections. As long as they helped us. And as long as we were safe.
"Well, I hope they do their job well, because we're gonna need as much professional help as we can get. You've never been on a mission before, even though you believe you have all the qualities, and we don't even qualify as spies," Axel stated in a matter-of-fact tone.
Lin finally put down her phone and clapped her hands.
"Which is why, you guys are gonna have some basic spy training during the one month before we leave, just to get ready," she beamed.
"What?!" I exclaimed.
"How can we possibly become spies in just a month?" I cried.
Lin rolled her eyes,"Laila, you're not gonna be spies, just have enough self defense and skills to complete this mission," she said.
"Lin..." I murmured doubtfully.
"Oh, chill! Meet me at my house, tommorow," Lin exclaimed.
"But weren't you grounded last week!" I retorted.
She rolled her eyes,"Yeah, but its over now. I got things covered," she said smiling cheerfully.
Easy for her to say. I turned to Axel.
"Axel, how about it?" I asked.
He seemed to have just snapped from a daze,"Hm..what? Oh, yeah, okay."
"What were you thinking about?" I asked.
"Stuff... Okay, so I guess we're done here. Lin see you tommorow.. Laila, you're coming with me," he said and stood up.
----------
I shifted nervously, as I stepped into the wide and pretty spacious house. The large living room, still had a few cardboard boxes stacked at the side, indicating the recent move in.
"Mom, I'm home," Axel stated while shutting the door behind him.
I heard some sounds coming from the kitchen, and a woman in her forties stepped out.
She had her black hair in a tight bun, with streaks of grey visible within the dyed hair. She wiped her wet hands on her shirt and gave me a smile. Her face bore plenty of resemblance to Uncle Elias. Same grey eyes, and thin smile that reached her eyes.
"Axel, I didn't know you were bringing guests," she said.
"I had a group project to do... You know..." Axel murmured.
His mother eyed him with a playful glare and smirk.
"I see... Well, you must be Laila then. Axel has told me alot about you," she said.
Really? I blushed slightly at the thought.
"Anyways, we have to get to work," Axel said aloud, breaking the awkward silence.
I nodded hastily. His mom let us go up to Axel's room, not before reminding us that she was leaving for work later. I stopped walking when Axel paused in front of one of the three doors on the second floor. He swung it open, and let me into his room. I did not know why I was feeling slightly nervous, maybe it's because I ever entered a guy's room before... apart from dad.
I imagined them to be more, messy, full of posters. Stuff like that. But of course, Axel was not an ordinary guy. His room amazed me! Almost as much as Uncle Elias's library.
A single bed was positioned at the right side of the room, which was twice the size of my own bedroom. And his cupboards etcetera were located at that side of the room. But what was on the other half of the room astounded me.
A huge wooden shelf that almost reached the ceiling, covered the wall on the left. It was filled with books! There was a desk, with journals stacked neatly on it, as well as a flat screen computer. Axel walked to his desk, and pulled open one of the drawers underneath it. He began sifting through a number of files in the drawer.
Meanwhile, I was too occupied skimming through the rows of books that filled the shelves. Journals, encyclopedias, research compilations, books from famous scientists, this was the ultimate ancient astronaut theorist collection!
Axel was simply too perfect, it was pretty strange. He was my ultimate other half.
"They belonged to my grandfather," Axel suddenly spoke up from behind me. I turned to him.
He was leaning against the desk, with a green spring file in his hand.
"It's amazing," I said in awe, turning back to the shelf. I was so envious of his collections, but at the same time stunned.
I heard Axel sigh in frustration. I saw him reading through the file. I walked towards him and peeked at what he was reading.
I saw a page of calculations and another with a few diagrams of Sumerian, Hebrew, Aztec and various other, ancient calendars.
"3336669," I said.
"Yeah, I've been trying to decode the date for a while now. But I'm not getting anywhere," he said to me.
I took the file from his hands and flipped through it. Calculations after calculations. It could be any damn date. It will be close to impossible to determine the right one.
"It's going to be soon. How many years do you think that is?" I asked.
Axel shrugged.
"Well, I for one know, no matter how many calculations we make, finding the date would be nearly impo-," I stopped midsentence.
As I was skimming through the pages, one specific calendar, caught my eye. The wheels of the calendar that were encrusted with symbols, one of the ancient calendars I was most familiar with, The Mayan Calendar. There were diagrams of simplified versions of it, emphasizing each wheel of the calendar. As I stared at the images, my thoughts processing, it suddenly hit me.
"Axel, the Mayan Calendar Long Count! It has to be it!" I exclaimed too abruptly, causing Axel to jerk.
Without hesitation, I immediately sat on the chair of his desk and got to work. Scribbling various numbers, and words on the pages, I knew the calendar calculations by heart. Even Axel could not keep up with my pace.
Breaking down the numbers, forming new series of them, I kept on going, till I found the right match. My thought processes were different from others, so were my calculations. I was quicker than most people, but when it came to ancient calculations and calenders, I was the best!
Finally, after about thirty minutes of crazy calculations, I dropped the pencil and looked up at Axel.
"I think I got it," I said.
I showed him my final results.
"3 Bak'tun, 3 K'atun, 6 Tun, 15 Winal, 9 K'in, G3 Lord of the Night, to the direction Lak'in," I explained.
"16 April... 2016."