“What happened to the Matt I once knew, the Matt who was so carefree and would crack a joke every second or two?”
-Amy
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I woke up with a pounding headache, the memories of last night coming back to me with a painful slam. I still couldn’t believe that the minute we were about to open that box, the whole place had went up in flames. What had been so important in that box that we had almost died?
Last night when I had gotten back to my cabin, both Tanya and Nancy were awake. They were peering out the window at the fire, watching as firetrucks arrived and started to hose the place down. Both Julia and I tried to sneak in unnoticed, but that didn’t work.
“You’re okay!” Tanya came and embraced us into a giant hug. She then pulled back and gave me a weird look. “Wait, are you okay?” I could sense that she smelled the soot on my skin, and my charred face probably wasn’t much of a help.
I waved aside a hand. “Yeah, I’m fine. Just fell trying to get back through the woods, Julia and I were at the dining hall for something to drink…”
“Okay…” But Tanya didn’t seem too convinced.
“More importantly,” I said, trying to change the subject, “what is going on outside?!”
“No idea,” Nancy said, leaving her gaze from the window. “We both got back here and saw that Kathryn’s cabin was ablaze. Quite strange if you ask me, that Kathryn died and now her cabin’s burning down…”
“Huh,” I gave a nervous laugh. “That’s quite a coincidence.”
Julia sent me a look, and I decided to shut my mouth. “I’m tired,” I mumbled. I flopped down on my bed and pulled some sheets above my head. “Night guys.”
“But the fire-” Tanya protested, worry in her voice. But I pretended not to hear her, drifting off into sleep.
But I guess I couldn’t get off that easy, because the minute I got out of my bed in the morning, Tanya bombarded me with information. “Guess what!?”
“What?” I groaned, clutching my head.
“Kathryn’s whole cabin was burned down to the ground! There is absolutely nothing left, just a bunch of ash!”
Hearing this news, I ran to the window and peered outside. Sure enough, there was only a sad little pile of ashes that was once Kathryn’s cabin. My heart lurched as I saw this, it was as if all memories of Kathryn were trying to be pulled away from me.
“I’m going to go take a shower,” I muttered, grabbing my towel and a pair of nice, clean clothes that weren’t covered with soot. As I locked the bathroom door, memories of me blacking out and falling flashed in front of my eyes. I gripped the side of the sink to stop myself from swaying. A little part of me was even more terrified than before, knowing the incredible power of Mr. Grey was even worse than I thought. I had almost died last night. If Andrew hadn’t carried me out, I would’ve. I had to give that boy more credit than I’d been giving him… Maybe he wasn’t that bad.
Suddenly, I remembered that night when he had run out of the dining hall for absolutely no reason. When I had to burn his secret before Mrs. Grey read it. The secrets Andrew was hiding.
Huh. He was so strange.
***
At breakfast, I greeted my friends with a happy smile, sitting down with my pancakes and hot chocolate. No, I wasn’t close to being happy, but my shower had made me feel refreshed and right now that was all I needed.
“Hey guys,” I said.
I got a mumble of greetings from them. Ethan, Johnny, and Kyle came to join us at that moment, sitting down at our table.
“Did you know Kathryn’s cabin burned down last night?” Kyle asked us.
“Yup,” we all replied simultaneously, sending each other wary glances.
“Isn’t it strange?” Ethan asked. “Surely it was Mr. Grey… But why would he?”
“Probably just an accident,” Matt snapped at his brother. “Stop fishing for answers you’re never going to get.”
I winced as Ethan looked defeated from his brother’s outburst. A little part inside of me felt responsible for this. I had forced them all to come searching for answers with me and in turn we had almost gotten ourselves killed. Knowing Matt and his protectiveness, he probably feels all responsible for our near death experience when it was really my fault.
“Let’s go,” Ethan stood up from our table. “Some people aren’t in a good mood today.” Johnny and Kyle followed him to a different table, where they sat down and started to chat.
“Matt, don’t do that to him,” Julia said quietly.
“Sorry,” Matt sighed, slumping his shoulders and running a hand through his hair. “I just feel like I could’ve stopped this.”
“This is my fault,” I told Matt. “So stop blaming yourself for it.”
“I could have been more insistent that we don’t go in,” he argued. “But I wasn’t.”
“Matt.” I gave him a glare. “Stop.”
“I need a break,” he sighed. “I’ll meet you in class.”
I watched as he left, feeling bad that he had all this guilt on his shoulder that just didn’t need to be there. If only he stopped blaming himself for all of this, because not everything that happened was his fault at all. Nobody was perfect, letting your guard down once in a while or having fun didn’t mean the end of the world. What happened to the Matt I once knew, the Matt who was so carefree and would crack a joke every second or two? I thought us all being friends again would’ve brought back the old Matt, but I guess not…
An awkward silence filled our table once Matt was gone.
“So thanks for saving me last night,” I told Andrew.
He just shrugged with a reply. Why was he always so difficult?!
“You gave us a scare,” Julia sighed. “When you weren’t waking up…”
I gave her a wry smile, still keeping my attention on Andrew. “You haven’t said anything mean to me yet,” I told him. “Why is that?”
He shrugged again. “Not in the mood.”
“What’s happened to you?” I tilted my head and looked at him.
“What do you mean?”
“When I first met you, you were all quiet and aloof. You had some big secret that we still don’t know, and you refuse to tell us. Then after that… that night, you started being an asshole to me and insulting everything I say or do. Now after you saved my life, for reasons I don’t know why, you totally go back to your mysterious self.”
“I saved your life, because I wasn’t about to leave someone in a fire and have the guilt eat me alive. I still don’t like you, and we never were or will be friends. So keep your nose out of my business and secrets.”
Andrew’s words hit my like a ton of bricks. “There’s the asshole I knew,” I whispered, not feeling the least bit happy.
A dark look came over Andrew’s face, and he took his plate and left.
“And then there were two,” I sighed, picking at my pancakes. “And then there were two…” I was annoyed at Andrew. I don’t know why he was like this. He was always rude to me, and he refused to share anything about himself. There was obviously a big secret that he had, once that was eating away inside of him. But he had saved my life, so I felt that no matter how mad at him I was, I couldn’t officially hate him. Not yet at least.
“So, we have the volleyball tournament tomorrow,” Julia tried to make small talk.
I groaned. “Oh great, volleyball.”
Julia laughed. “Hey, at least you aren’t as bad as me. Volleyball is definitely not my strongpoint. I’m probably just going to make a fool out of myself tomorrow.”
I waved a hand aside. “As long as Matt doesn’t get too competitive and wants to win…”
Julia gave another laugh. “Since when does Matt not get competitive? Winning is his thing.”
We spent the rest of breakfast talking about volleyball and the upcoming masquerade dance. I admit, I was sort of excited for the dance. It was one night where I could be worry-free and just dance. I wouldn’t have to be Amy, I could just be whoever I wanted behind my mask.
“It’s time to go.” Julia got up to throw her stuff away.
“Joy,” I groaned, realizing it was time to face Mr. Grey at school. Surely he would act as if nothing had happened last night and that it totally wasn’t him who set Kathryn’s cabin on fire. Typical.
As we were leaving the dining hall, all I could hear was chatter about the fire last night. Julia and I traded looks.
“The things we get ourselves into,” I sighed.
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Uhh FIVE votes and I'll upload the chapter tomm(: Otherwise I'll upload on Wednesday as usualllll.
Anywhoo, what'd you think of this chappy? Few things: Haha i got emotional when Andrew started being an jerkface and told Amy that they never were or will be friends </3 right after he saved her life... Also got emotional when Matt yelled at Ethan and then keeps blaming himself for everything D': Sighhh...
So my author's notes are gunna be short for the rest of the week cuz I'm going to DC for a school field trip... I wrote all the chapters ahead of time so yeahhhh. Imma just make this author's note longer than usual! (lolol just skip this if u don't wanna hear any of this stuff)
Intresting Hamilton fact of the day #1: in the old version of this story, there used to be another character named alana... She was a year older and julia's sister... Alana was also obsessed with video games. Her character was really weird and such but now she's gone. The problem was that she originally saved Ethan in part one. I didn't think that one through when I got rid of her character lolol.
Interesting Hamilton fact of the day #2: so yeah there's an old version of hamilton, as referred to just a second ago. It was really strange... I won't go into it now because there's just SO MUCH to say. It was so different and called Turtle's Peak ahaha. Maybe another day I'll explain the whole thing. Maybe upload the whole book just for laughs? :D
Interesting Hamilton fact of the day #3: there used to be a julia's pov. YES. and there was also an attempted andrew's pov. Andrew's failed because he has no character and to be honest I have no idea what his intrestes are... sigh. And Julia's pov failed because all of her chapters were just filler stuff on her social life. xP
mkay that's enough facts lol... I could go on forever. When I get back I'll continue with my facts about the old version because it's so entertaining to talk about lololol xD
So err any thoughts on the chapter? Ya know, Kathryn's cabin's on fire and suchhh... Andrew's being a jerk and Matt's blaming himself for everything :P
Will upload tomorrow or Wednesday, depending on if this reaches five votes ;D (ahaha ten votes failed last time... so yeah...)
Peace out guys!
xx
Ella
Comment, vote, fan<3