chapter eight
SHOOTING STARS
"i could change all my ways if you say that you want me to. don't give up on me so soon."
"Evelynn! Wake up!" She heard someone yell in a sing-song voice from outside her tent.
Evelynn groaned and sat up to see two shadows outside her tent, the sun bright behind them. She blinked fast trying to adjust her eyes to the blinding light. How long did she sleep?
"You better be dressed, because we're coming in," The voice spoke again. Before she could protest, in walked Jasper followed by Monty who had his eyes covered, just incase she wasn't modest.
Evelynn laughed, throwing her pillow at Jasper, "Please, you wish I wasn't dressed."
Monty peeked through his fingers and slowly let his hands fall to his side, "Good morning to you too,"
Jasper laughed and threw her pillow back at her and hit her square in the face, "You've been asleep all day,"
Evelynn yawned with disinterest in her tone, "So what? Did I miss anything?"
Jasper and Monty both sat in front of her in perfect unison, Jasper with a smirk, "Just everything."
Evelynn rolled her eyes at them and pulled her blanket around her anticipating a story, "Well, go on. What happened?"
Monty looked to the top of the tent trying to recall all of the details of the day, "Well, early this morning everyone woke up to the sound of something crashing into the atmosphere. It looked like it was a shooting star but it was—"
"A pod!" Jasper butted in with extreme excitement. Monty shoved him a bit out of annoyance of his story being interrupted, but Evelynn ignored it thrilled at what she heard.
"A pod? With food? Supplies? People?" Evelynn asked, excitement filling her body.
Jasper shook his head, "A girl."
Evelynn titled her head, "The Ark sent us a girl?"
Monty leaned forward, filling the gaps in Jasper's story, "A girl who was sent here to see if we were alive. The Council is voting on the Ark today whether to kill 300 people to save oxygen."
"But, if they think we're alive, then they won't have to," Jasper said, "That's why they sent the girl with a radio,"
"A radio!" Evelynn ripped off her blankets nearly jumping in the air with joy, "So can we talk to the Ark?"
"Calm down, maniac," Monty said putting his hand out in front of her face, "There's no radio anymore."
Evelynn felt her excitement deflate, "What do you mean, anymore?"
Jasper explained with very exaggerated hand gestures, "There was a radio, but when Clarke and Finn found the girl the radio was gone. It turns out, being the selfish shitbag he is, Bellamy took it and threw it in the creek."
Monty and Jasper watched as Evelynn's face fell. She instantly was up from her bed and out of the tent. "Wait! Lynnie, where are you going?" Jasper called after her as she made her way out of camp.
"The creek! Duh!"
»»————- ★ ————-««
Evelynn approached the wooded area around the creek. As she pushed through branches and walked down the small hill towards the water, she saw Bellamy crouched by the shore.
She walked closer and saw a dozen delinquents all searching the frigid creek for the radio. She slowed down to a halt a few feet behind Bellamy. She spoke, her voice merely a whisper, "What have you done?"
Bellamy instantly whipped around and was on his feet in seconds, his eyes already pleading for forgiveness, "Ev, I'm so—"
"No. You don't get to do that." Evelynn cut him off, her unbelief becoming anger, "What were you thinking?"
"I wasn't thinking." Bellamy stated.
She walked a few steps closer to him, "Obviously. Bellamy Blake, do you have any idea what you've done?"
He stayed silent. She could tell he knew and that he felt guilty, but she wasn't ready to forgive and forget so easily this time.
"There are over 300 innocent people up there that are going to die, all because they think the ground isn't survivable." Evelynn's hands began to shake, her emotions flooding her senses, "People I love are still up there. My dad is still up there."
Bellamy's face softened for a split-second but instantly his expression became hard and defensive again, "I didn't know that any of this would happen. You know that. All I knew is that if they came down here, I was dead."
Evelynn spoke harshly, "Bellamy, do you truly think that I—that we would let them kill you?"
Bellamy stepped back as if surprised by her words. She noticed and lowered her voice, but her words were just as piercing, "Your people won't let them kill you."
Evelynn saw Bellamy's demeanor shift, becoming the boy she met in the cave. He spoke to her quietly, "How do I fix this?"
Before she could even think of an answer, Jones held up something over his head, wading in the creek up to his knees, dripping with freezing water, "Hey! I found it!"
One girl that Evelynn didn't recognize ran over and grabbed it and brought it close to shore and all the delinquents gathered around. Evelynn approached the group with Bellamy behind her, his face contorted in guilt.
"Can you fix it?" Clarke asked the girl who was examining the radio. She turned it over and looked at the wires for water damage, "Maybe, but it will take half a day to dry out the components to see what's broken."
Bellamy's low voice spoke quietly from behind Evelynn, "Like I said, it's too late."
Clarke pursed her lips and pushed through the group until she was standing right in front of Bellamy to yell at him, "Do you have any idea what you did? Do you even care?"
Bellamy crossed his arms in front of him, abandoning emotion and regaining his cold facade, "You asked me to help. I helped."
Clarke snapped, "300 people are going to die today because of you."
Evelynn stepped between them, "Clarke, he knows. Drop it."
Clarke looked Evelynn up and down in confusion as if she didn't recognize the girl in front of her, "I don't think he does."
"Hold up!" The girl in the red coat interrupted them, and Evelynn was grateful she did, "We don't have to talk to the Ark. We just have to let them know we're down here, right?"
Finn flicked some hair out of his face as he eyed the girl, "Yeah, but how do we do that with no radio?"
The radio girl smirked, her ponytail whipping in the wind, "I built a pod to get down here, don't doubt me."
»»————- ★ ————-««
"We need to launch the flares ASAP if we have any hope of saving those people!" The girl, who Evelynn recently learned was named Raven, shouted.
Evelynn helped Finn lift up the control panel with a grunt, the cool metal digging into her raw palms.
"Finn, get the control panel back to camp," he nodded, but Raven held her arm out and stopped them. She grabbed Jones by the coat and dragged him over, "Take the control panel with Finn. Bright eyes, you're with me."
Evelynn gladly handed the panel off to an annoyed Jones and curiously walked up to Raven.
"Could you start pulling out some wires in the front of the pod?" She asked. Evelynn nodded and turned to head away.
Raven instantly grabbed her shoulder and pulled her back around, "Slow your roll, I never told you how to take out the wires."
Evelynn put all her weight on one hip as she smirked, "Gently. Pull the wires out in one piece or their as useful as your appendix."
Raven let her mouth fall open a bit as she let out a chuckle, "No way. Were you a mechanic on the Ark?"
Evelynn tucked a piece of unruly hair behind her ear, "No, but my mom was. She taught me that saying growing up."
"My mentor told me the same thing when I was learning the ropes to become a mechanic. Sophia Ortega."
Evelynn felt her heart skip a beat at the mention of her mom. She smiled proudly, "Yeah, that's my mom."
Raven had a big smile plastered on her face as well, "So you're the Ortega's pride and joy. Yeah, now that I think about it, you look just like her. She could not shut up about you."
Evelynn felt her smile grow even larger as Raven continued, "Sophia taught me everything I know. How is she? I haven't seen her in years,"
Raven looked to her anticipating her answer as Evelynn fumbled with her words, but she didn't let her smile falter, "She's really good."
Evelynn felt her heart squeeze painfully in her chest as she lied to Raven. But, it felt so nice to be able to talk about her mom like she was still alive, like she was still there.
»»————- ★ ————-««
"Okay, I think we're ready for launch," Raven said excitedly to the group, "Everyone get behind the rockets and pray to whoever the hell you want that this works."
She stood next to Finn and took shaky hand to the control panel, "Here we go!"
Off shot three bright purple flares firing into the sky. Everyone watched in amazement as the rockets that they built from scrap burst high in the air.
Evelynn held her breath as she felt a familiar presence walk up beside her. She turned to him for a second watching the purple flares light up his face.
"They kind of remind me of shooting stars." Evelynn said with wonderment as she watched the flares shoot further into the sky.
Bellamy let out a breathy chuckle, "Those are some aggressive shooting stars."
"Well then, make an aggressive wish," Evelynn joked feeling the heat of his arm brushing near hers.
He let out a deep sigh not really taking in her joke, "I wouldn't even know what to wish for."
Evelynn looked up at him again as he watched the flares. She then tucked her fingers into her pocket and felt the cool metal music box touch her fingertips, reminding her of her dad who was still on the Ark.
What was she supposed to wish for? If the Ark made it down, Bellamy's life would be on the line, if they didn't, her dad's and Abby's are. There was really nothing to wish for.
"Yeah, me neither."
»»————- ★ ————-««
Sleeping until midday and then worrying about the possible death of 300 people did not mix well for a good nights sleep.
After tossing and turning for hours, Evelynn gave in. Consumed with her thoughts, she left her tent and wandered to the dropship and sat right on the cool metal door in front of the sheets in the dark listening to her music box and watching the stars. She let the music transport her away from reality of the ground, the Ark, the Grounders, and all the drama.
She was just Evelynn, listening to music.
Her eyes squinted when a light landed on her. She yanked out her ear pieces from the music box and blinked fast to try to see past the torch that was blinding her vision.
"Evelynn?" Bellamy's voice whispered, "What the hell are you doing?"
She looked down at the metal she was sitting on and looked at him as if he was dumb, "Sitting."
She smirked as she heard him groan. His torch moved down towards her hand, "What's that?"
Evelynn slowly put the metal heirloom back in her pocket, "My music box."
Bellamy wanted to question the "music box" more, but her green eyes were watching him with anticipation for some sort of reason for interrupting her night.
He pulled back the torch from her face and kneeled down in front of her, "Have you seen Octavia?"
Evelynn wracked her brain, she didn't recall seeing her since the night after Murphy was banished, "I haven't seen her in a while. Why? Is she missing?"
Bellamy nodded, his face solemn.
"Okay, I'll help you find her."
Bellamy simply stood up and put his hand out for her to take. She graciously accepted. She felt his hand linger on hers a second longer than usual, his fingertips gently grazing her palm.
He then ran his hands nervously through his hair as they walked away from the dropship towards Clarke and a search-party she assembled.
Evelynn walked beside him and attempted to calm his nerves, "Hey, don't worry. We'll find her. I promise."
She really hoped that was a promise she could keep.