"I don't look for trouble,
But trouble looks for me.
And it's been waiting around corners.
Since I was seventeen."
~ Trouble by Neon Jungle
"Ethan!"
Upon hearing his name being called, Ethan, his dark brown curls bouncing against his forehead, turned around and scanned the room. "Adalynn? Hey, what's up?"
Adalynn, struggling to breath, sprinted across the lobby towards him. "H-have you seen .... have you seen ... ?"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold on," Ethan chuckled, stepping down the stairs to join her. Clasping her shoulders, he looked into her eyes and whispered, "Catch your breath first."
Adalynn's eyes widened as she realised how close they were. Nodding, she ducked her head and heaved a couple of big breaths before trying again. "Have you seen the article on the NEWS?"
Ethan frowned. "No. What about it?"
"They're - they're saying Mrs Woods killed herself Ethan!"
Ethan stiffened, his gaze one of unwavering shock. "W-what? How on earth is that even possible? She was in a frickin rocket."
"That's what WE'RE trying to figure out," Jackie cut in as she hurried through the Academy's front doors towards them, Max hot on her heels.
"Who ruled it as a suicide anyway?" Max scoffed. "That's so stupid."
"Shhh," Adalynn put a finger to her lips as she glared at them. "We don't want Jason overhearing us again."
"What's this about Jason?" Ethan inquired curiously.
"N-nothing," Adalynn quickly piped up before Jackie could say anything. "So, what do you think?"
Ethan glanced around furtively and shrugged. "I say let's go down to the Deli across the road, get some drinks and have a proper discussion about this."
"I agree," Jackie said. "The food in the cafeteria sucks anyway."
"Then it's settled. Let's go."
About half an hour later, the four were seated at a table in the Deli's cafe, munching on hot chips and sipping on sodas. Ethan was fully informed in detail about the situation at hand and he'd even looked at the article on his Louie. Every one of them were confused and upset that the whole accident could be ruled as a purposeful suicide.
"It's not right," Adalynn sighed. "It's not right to simply ASSUME that Mrs Woods wanted to kill herself!! She had Hayley and Alex and Mr Woods ... there has to be another reason for all of this!"
"Well, you DID say that it seemed like she KNEW she wasn't going to come back," Jackie told her, eyebrows raised.
Adalynn rolled her eyes and huffed. "I don't know WHAT to think anymore."
"Hey," Ethan laid his hand on top of Adalynn's. "Stop trying to sought out everyone's problems, Ad. It's okay not to know everything."
Adalynn bit her lip and remained silent. Just then, a vibration sounded from her pocket. She pulled out her Louie and opened it, staring at the screen.
INCOMING CALL: MUM.
Adalynn pressed her lips together in a firm line and slammed her Louie shut. It was the first time she'd purposefully rejected a call from her parents, but she couldn't do it, she couldn't talk to them, not now.
INCOMING CALL: DAD.
"You should really answer that," Ethan spoke up softly, his eyes not leaving Adalynn's face. "They've probably found out about the explosion and checking in to see if you're okay."
Adalynn shook her head. "They don't know I know Mrs Woods' daughter. I'm sorry, but I can't talk to them right now. I'll ring them back later."
No one said anything for a while after that. The only sound breaking the silence was the slurping of condensed water being pulled up their drink straws and the occasional munch-munch of food being crushed between their teeth.
"Does anyone know who that woman was?" Jackie asked.
"What woman?" Max looked at her, confused.
"The African woman. The one behind Ryan when she was FaceTiming us before," Jackie explained.
"Oh yeah, her!" Adalynn nodded. "I - I think Mrs Woods said her name was Judy?"
"Judy? As in Judy Hayward?" Ethan questioned.
Adalynn froze in the middle of putting a chip in her mouth. "You know her?"
Ethan raised his eyebrows and shrugged. "She's Daniel's Mum. Daniel ... the Captain of the Eagles?"
"Oohh," Jackie finally uttered when she realised who Ethan was talking about. "That's weird. Why would she be at the launch?"
"I dunno. Maybe they were friends or something?" Max put forth.
"Friends? Hmm," Adalynn tapped her foot against the floor. "Why don't we follow that up?"
"Pffff," Ethan nearly spat his soda right out of his mouth as he struggled to contain a laugh. "Oh geez, I'm sorry if I sounded rude but how?"
"By asking him."
"Who?"
"Daniel. Obviously the Woods are in no state to talk so when we get back to the Academy, we ask Daniel if his mum knows ... knew ... Mrs Woods," Adalynn explained, a sad tone to her voice.
"Sounds like a plan," Ethan agreed, gazing upon her with sympathy.
"Hang on, let's write up a list," Jackie volunteered, digging around in Adalynn's handbag for a paper and pen. "Okay," she murmured as she clicked on the pen and hovered the tip above the paper. "We all need to have specific jobs regarding this situation. We all need to know WHY it was ruled as a suicide. We all need to make sure that it gets cleared as either an accident or a purposeful malfunction. If someone blew up that rocket on purpose, they need to be brought to justice."
"You think someone would do that?" Max squeaked.
"No," Ethan quickly assured him, giving Jackie a stern look. "I don't think so, it was probably an accident. But we can never be too careful."
"Let's call this mission the - uh - Ryan Operation Pact," Adalynn suggested with a chuckle.
Jackie nodded as she jotted it down. "I like it. So, point 1: Ethan finds out from Daniel if Mrs Hayward not only knew Mrs Woods as an acquaintance, but knew her as a friend. 2: Max and I will go down to the basement to check up on the school surveillance cameras; just to see if there was anything suspicious going on around here on the day of the explosion ..."
"Wait, wait, what?" Adalynn gaped at her. "You can check the school cameras ... in the basement?"
"Yep," Jackie replied in a careless tone. "There's a load of old machinery and equipment down there that's just sitting around. Louis got it taken down there when he received the new surveillance servers. He wanted the students to learn how to use the old servers during science class but no one's gotten around to setting it up for the students' use yet. It's still rigged up and powered into the system though so it shouldn't be too hard to get it working again."
"And you know this how?" Ethan demanded.
"Yeah, how come I haven't been informed of this earlier?" Max whined.
"I - I may have gone down there one or twice," Jackie paused as she glanced up at the others' shocked faces. "WHAT? It's still on school grounds; it's not prohibited. I'm not breaking the rules or anything, am I?"
"T-that's true," Ethan responded hesitantly. "But I still don't think Louis would be very happy if he knew we were going through his stuff ..."
"Well he's never gonna know is he? Unless one of you's tell on me," Jackie narrowed her eyes at them all.
"Relax Jackie! We're in this together. No way are we turning you in," Adalynn assured her. As she glanced away, she caught Ethan's eye. He bit his lip and turned back to look at Jackie who was scribbling away furiously with her pen. Adalynn frowned slightly before rolling her eyes and shaking her head. She needed to concentrate on the mission at hand.
"So ... what do I do?" she ventured.
Jackie tapped the pen against her chin as she scrutinised Adalynn. "Hmmm ... well ... how good are you at doing background checks?"
"Background checks?"
"Yeah, you'll need to search up Judy Hayward, Ryan Woods, NASA, anything that connects these three together ... anything at all. Can you do that?"
Adalynn shrugged. "Sure. But what good would background checks do if Ethan's gonna find out how it all ties in anyway?"
"That's the whole point, Ad," Jackie hissed under her breath. "We don't know if Daniel could lie to him or not. Besides, he probably doesn't know EVERYTHING there is to know about his Mum, and we NEED to KNOW EVERYTHING. Got it?"
Adalynn nodded slowly before leaning back in her chair. Wow. Jackie's taking this very seriously. Maybe she's on to this more than I first thought.
"Remember, we're not doing this just for Ryan, we're doing this for Alex and Hayley," Jackie announced. "Let the Ryan Operation Pact's first mission began."
~~~~
Gif: Jackie writing ✍️
A/N: WOW!! Sooo ... what doya all think of the crew: Max, Ethan, Jackie and Adalynn? Do you think they'll figure out what's going on? Do you think it's wise for them to get involved in the situation? Whose your fav character out of the four? Mine would have to be Jackie. She's soo funny and snarky and sneaky ... she's a total badass and I love her. [Even though Adalynn would be a probable choice, I'm basing her character off of mine, which is totally everything the opposite of sociable, observant and badassy, so I'm gonna have to go with someone else I really like]! What about you? Please voice your opinions in the comments below, I'd love to hear from you! Thanks so much for reading! Have a great day guys!!! xx