Keep Pretending

Half an hour later, Lucas continuously ruffled through his hair in frustration when he failed multiple attempts to decode the encrypted message. At the end, he gave up on the idea of tracking Chloe down tonight. 

"Ugh, I'll make a trip there tomorrow. As part of our deal after all..Who told me to always worry for her." He decided to call it a night and head off to bed as it would be a long day. 

Early next morning, before the rooster alarm went off on Ivy's cellphone, a loud doorbell dragged her out of her dreamland. Ivy jolted up from bed with her lioness bed hair, sending her dark romance novels to her carpeted floor.

"Ugh... who visits this early? A random relative? Wouldn't be the teacher being twisted enough to send summer assignments in person, could it? I shouldn't have gone back to sleep earlier. My head is spinning again." With a palm pressed against her temple, she made her way to the door. On her way down, she had already checked the cameras to see who it was.

The door creaked open and Ivy's fatigue expression made Lucas jump out of her sight. 

"Lucas, I already saw you. Quit jumping out of my sight expecting me to erase the few seconds of your frame from my memory. I may be sleepy, but I'm not dreaming about you." She mumbled in a dull voice.

"Aha, were you still sleeping? Rise and shine, lioness." Lucas knew how moody Ivy could be whenever she gets woken by any external source. Normally, she would be awake by now. However, he had underestimated the summer heat's effect on her health.

Her cheeks flushed pink, making her seem dazed at the moment. "What are you doing here?" She leaned against the door frame lazily, trying to keep herself awake.

"Oh, I'm looking for Chloe. Is she awake yet?" He subconsciously hid one of his hands to his back. However, his swift movement rose Ivy's suspicion. Suddenly, her drowsiness seemed to have dissipated as something had piqued her interest.

A playful smile sat on her face as she countered his question with a question. "Why are you looking for her? She's been out with our parents since this morning."

"Oh! I'm here to take back the pair of binoculars I lent her yesterday! Since she's not here, I think I'll just go back..." He turned around, thinking he could easily escape her claws. Once again, he was wrong.

The second his head faced another direction, he felt himself being dragged backwards into the house. He stretched his arms out, struggling to get away from her.

"Hold on, what do you need the binoculars for? For you to come this urgent, it must be for something important, right?" Ivy went straight to the point as she always had. 

Bam!

The entrance shut tightly followed by the sound of the door being locked automatically. 

His Adam's apple dropped. 

'I'm doomed' Lucas thought to himself.

Ivy smiled, "Well? Aren't you here for your binoculars? I remember seeing her place them on her desk last night."

"Oh! Haha, well I need them for my .. uh.. biology class lab. I'll just grab it and go. My class starts tomorrow morning, so I need to prepare tonight." Lucas voiced his thoughts and immediately walked towards Chloe's room on the second floor.

Since childhood, they've always entered each other's room freely.

When Lucas reached Chloe's room, he looked to the side to find Ivy standing right next to him. She held the same smile on her face. "So, why would you need binoculars in Biology lab class? Don't they have magnifying glass and other equipment that is more professional?"

Deep down, she can already see through his lies. However, she wanted to see whether he would play along. Her messy hair was now pulled into a high bun, making her appear more innocent than she really was. 'Keep going. Continue pretending. Let's see how well you did in Biology to explain the use of binoculars, not that it is uncommonly used at times.'

"Uh..the.. the.. magnifying glass is not enough to examine microorganisms. We need binoculars to study them closer. it might be a new specimen or something, but binoculars are good. Haha..."He did not think twice before spatting out his reasoning. Neither did he ever think that his reasoning was the reason why he exposed his own motive.

Ivy nodded in full understanding several times. 'Binoculars for microorganisms? Who do you think you're trying to fool?'

'Yes! She didn't suspect me! Now I can go in Chloe's room and track her location.' Lucas silently gave himself a pat on the back, pretending to brush off dust.

'Andddddd here we go with the victory pat. Man, he really sucks at lying...but I will never tell him this habit of his. Hehe..Let's see what you're up to.' Ivy continued studying his movements as they entered Chloe's room. 

"Oh, here they are!" Lucas pointed at the binoculars on Chloe's desk. The set up was the same as yesterday when they were FaceTiming each other. Hence, he was certain that she didn't have time to clean up after herself. 

At lightning speed, he attached the device he had kept in his hand to Chloe's computer. While waiting for his device to function, he suddenly heard Ivy's shriek from behind.

"Ahhhh! Something moved! No, no, no, no.. OH helllll Noooo, there is something in the hallway! I heard scratching noises! Uhhh maybe a wrapper or something..." Ivy dashed into Chloe's room, gently nudging Lucas forward towards the hallway. She had no shame after the many years of friendship between them. When it came to possible living critters in the house, she is the first to send anyone to kill them.

Being used to such behavior, Lucas picked up a piece of printer paper and rolled it up before scavenger hunting in the hallway. It didn't take more than a minute for him to spot the active roach circling around an old chocolate bar wrapper in the middle of the hall.

He turned back and signaled for Ivy to not make a sound. Ivy covered her lips and nodded in full cooperation. Like a team of robbers, they tiptoed towards the living creature. Their target was ready to be ambushed. Right when Lucas raised his fingers at the countdown of three, Ivy couldn't watch and covered her eyes.