A NECESSARY DISTRACTION

"This is getting tiring," Danny said as he leaned against the cabin that was behind us.

He wasn't wrong.

The conversation that was going on between Mr. Monroe and the man from Mr. Ahmed was taking too long for comfort.

This was going to seriously ruin our plans to escape.

Due to the sudden interruption from the Venator, the students eventually scattered across the town with some of them going back to their cabins to rest their feet.

Others just went back in to enjoy the remaining good things of the cabin town with the opinion that it could be their last time doing so.

Not like they were wrong anyway.

The state of my mind was nothing to write about. I was an emotional wreck at this point. I was sweating as though I had just seen a ghost and I was visibly fidgeting.

We hadn't yet secured a way for these guys to escape and now Mr. Ahmed wanted someone to follow us on our trip. In more ways, than I could put down to reason, this was bad.

At this point, I was convinced that Mr. Ahmed was psychic. There was no other way for him to foresee this.

"I guess we might eventually have to allow one of them to tag along," Eva said casually. She was seated on a block of wood in close physical proximity to Danny.

"We can't," I said blankly, dusting my hands.

"why?"

"Because if we do..." Jay-Jay started.

"If we do, we will have to find a way to lose that person and still get back on route quickly enough for it not to look like a setup"

As though she were reading my mind.

She finished her statement and walked over to where I sat before placing a hand on my shoulder and massaging it softly.

She had no idea the relief that her touch brought to my entire body. My body felt like I had been pulling a heavy burden for an unbearably long amount of time but her touch was the relief I needed.

"so that means we have only one option," Danny said coolly as he picked up a stone and threw it to no one and nothing in particular.

"We just have to have faith"

"in what?" I asked

"Mr. Monroe" he replied

"you want us to have faith and trust that Mr. Monroe will be able to dissuade Mr. Ahmed from asking a person from following us?"

"It's that simple" he replied before slowly turning to look in the direction of the men who were discussing.

Taking a short glance at the discussion it was hard to tell if they were meeting a reasonable conclusion or if they were unsettled. There didn't seem to be any form of tension between them but then they didn't seem to see eye to eye at the same time.

The mere thought of it left my brain scrambled.

I was agitated for two reasons. The first was probably the answer that Danny had given me. He just wanted us to believe that Mr. Monroe could pull this off and convince the manager.

To be fair though, it wasn't far-fetched that he could eventually be able to dissuade them. He can be very convincing when he has to be.

He is so far the only one I know who was able to convince some overweight teachers to have a swimming competition and he was even capable of making overly protective parents allow their kids to go on excursions to entirely new continents and spend a lot of time there.

Excursions such as these would normally not have this much turn-up but because of Mr. Monroe, these numbers were very possible.

The man is one of those people that could successfully coax a person with no teeth into buying a whole shop full of tic-tacs.

He was good at convincing people, that was a fact but I was unhinged based on my understanding of the reality that there was always a first time for everything.

The second reason, however, is probably the way I wondered how Danny was my brother.

I mean how could he be? Here we were, in the midst of a crisis, and while I am freaking out and panicking in all directions and throwing a fit mentally, Danny just leans on the cabin and acts as cool as sonic.

We share parents, so how is this possible?

While I pondered on these things, we watched the men talk and slowly this awkward silence crept into our midst.

A deafening silence. It made my head hurt.

"you know what? Let's find something to do," jay-jay suggested.

"What do you mean?" Danny asked.

"well, the rest of the students have scattered and gone to find something to keep themselves busy with. I think we should too" she had two hands up in a suggestive posture as she said this, peering into our eyes one by one as though checking what thought about it through our eyes.

I thought about it for a short time and I realized it was not such a bad idea. It was a great idea. What we needed was something to take our minds off all the stuff that was going on and ease the tension in our minds.

"I'm down if you guys are game," Eva said.

"I'm game," Danny said almost immediately. I chose to assume he didn't just do that to impress her.

"well, Jerry are you in?" Jay-Jay asked. I had forgotten I was soon going to reply to that question.

"yeah sure," I said. My two hands were in a position similar to when a person was taking something like grains in his hand as they rubbed my face.

"yay, alright let's go" Eva cheered springing to her feet. Looking at her face right now, I could swear she didn't have nearly half the energy she has now before.

It's like she changed her heart battery to a new one.

We made to leave the place we were staying as those who were seated before stood up slowly

"hold on guys," Danny said putting the whole party to a hasty halt.

"what is it, babe?" Eva asked looking back at him.

"Have you guys even thought of what to do when you reach the 16?" He asked as he stood in akimbo.

Come to think of it, we hadn't put thought into it, and for reasons that beat me, my mind was too blank to think about anything.

"Why don't you guys just play the regular teens' game," said a voice from behind us.

I was startled at first but not because of the voice but just the idea that the person that owned the voice had been around long enough to know we needed a game to play and to even suggest one.

It was Camilla.

"OH MY GOODNESS!" I exclaimed almost shouting at Camilla. She stood there a few inches away from us with her two hands on her waist as she peered at us through her glasses.

"How long have you been there?" Jasmine asked with her hand on her chest.

At least I wasn't the only one that was scared. Taking a look around now, she pretty much frightened all of us.

"I happened to be looking for Jerry and by the time I saw him and came closer I heard you guys saying something about distracting yourselves so I let myself in"

How convenient.

"Hey, is she the neighbor?" Danny asked as he pointed at her.

I could only nod

"Oh hi," he said as he stretched a handshake to her

"I am Danny, Jerry's brother"

"Camilla but you can call me Camille " she replied in a faked British accent.

"Nice to meet you madam" he replied in a tone that was very similar if not the same as hers.

What a kid Danny is!

"So what is this regular teens game?" Eva asked as she shoved her hands into the pockets of her jungle bum shorts.

"You have got to be kidding me!"

She kind of threw us off there.

"You mean to tell me that you guys don't know what I mean by the regular teens game?" She asked looking wildly surprised.

To be frank, I felt I should know what she was talking about but for some reason, it just wasn't clicking on my mind.

It appears that this was the same thing that the rest of the guys were going through. They all shared that same bewildered look as the one I imagined I had on my face at that moment.

"Oh God," she said easily after about a minute of silence.

"Truth or dare?"

Of course, how didn't I think of that?

"Oh yeah," Danny said as his mind finally comprehended what she was suggesting.

"Great... Now that we all know what I am talking about, can we go?" She asked, her arms crossed over her chest.

"I'm in," Eva said almost instantly.

"Likewise" followed Danny

"Sounds cool," Jasmine said as she stood up and walked over to where Danny and Eva stood hand in hand.

"You coming?" Camilla asked with a cheeky smirk on her face. She must have known that I wasn't one to turn back on a challenge because it looked like she was intentionally playing on that aspect of my persona.

"Let's get this over with," I said before standing and joining the rest of the guys as we walked toward cabin 16.