~Chapter five~

"We have to get that bird" Lyria said very quietly as we watched Principal Krugger and a man dressed in a grey suit talk animatedly to each other no doubt concerning the weird looking circle in front of our school and the dead crow.

We were both hunkered below the window of Principal Krugger's office which we managed to sneak into when he dissipated the crowd.

"How do we do that with Krugger watching over it like a hawk?" i whispered back, my eyes still trained on the two men outside. The man dressed in a grey suit walked over to his car and then returned seconds later holding a glass box which he handed over to Principal Krugger who picked the bird up and placed it into the box.

Krugger picked the box up from the ground and nodded towards his office then he and the grey suited man turned, heading back into the school building"Shit they're coming this way, we need to leave now"

"You go, i got this" Lyria said and i raised a brow"Are you sure?"

"I'll meet you in the cafeteria"she flashed me her yellow eyes with a smile and I nodded. I got up from my crouched position and moved towards the door when the door knob turned.

My eyes widened and i swiftly dashed towards the back of the door before it opened. I glanced around to see Lyria had disappeared and breathed a sigh of relief. Principal Krugger and the grey suited man walked in which left me the chance to quickly crawl out of there.

∞∞∞

It's been five miutes. Five fucking long minutes and i haven't seen Lyria yet. Maybe I shouldn't have left her all alone back there. What if she got caught? Urgh, don't even know why I'm worrying so much. She's probably fine. She's a goblin and can handle herself right? Shit.

"Earth to Brian!" Charlie yelled snapping me out from my train of thoughts. I tore my eyes away from my phone and looked up to find him glaring at me and Allison staring at me worriedly. I Didn't even notice she was there.

"What?" i asked

"Dude the school is on fire about the creepy crow shit and you zoned out on us just staring at your damned phone for five minutes straight"he scoffed

"Its my phone and i can stare at it for as long as i want." i rolled my eyes"Besides, the crow shit is probably a prank" I said dropping my head to the table.

"What's a prank?" My head immediately snapped up at the sound of that familiar annoying voice and I unconsciously let out a breath of relief. She flashed me a smile and plopped herself down next to me.

"Hey, Lyria right?" Charlie smiled brightly.

"The one and only" Lyria winked and I scoffed.

"You're even prettier from up close" he sighed dreamily making her chuckle

"Thanks"

"I'm Charlie" Charlie introduced himself and motioned to his right"This is Allison" Allison gave a small wave with a tight lipped smile which Lyria returned with a bright smile of hers"And that grumpy ass next to you is Brian"

Lyria turned to me with a playful glint in her eyes and smirked"We've met" At that Allison's ears perked up.

"You two know each other?" she asked narrowing her eyes at Lyria.

"Yeah" Lyria shrugged"We met in English class actually and got detention"

Charlie snorted"Her second day of school and you already got her into trouble. Real Smooth man"

"Shut up" I said dropping my head back to the table as they chatted on. Well the conversation was more between Charlie and Lyria with me occasionally adding to it when being mentioned while Allison fell silent but I didn't miss the scowl on her face as she stared on at Lyria who kept laughing at Charlie's lame jokes.

The conversation went on like that until the bell rang and we all had to leave the cafeteria. While Charlie and Allison headed back to class, Lyria and i snuck into the library. We could get in trouble for not being in class but whatever...

"Did you get it?" she smirked and said"What do you think?"

"A simple yes or no would do" I deadpanned"What took you so long anyway? I thought you had been caught or something"

"So you were worried about me? ha! I knew you liked me" she grinned and I rolled my eyes

"In your dreams"

"You say that now but you won't be saying that later" she wiggled her brows kinda reminding me of Charlie.

"Stop doing that you look stupid" she chuckled and said"You're hilarious but anyways, i couldn't help listening in on their conversation. Didn't know the principal of Rose Valley high was such a comedian" she laughed. Are you fucking kidding me? And there i was getting worried that she had been caught...unbelievable!

"Why do you look like you wanna knock my nose off my face?" she asked cautiously taking a step back and i released a breath running a hand through my hair.

"so where is it?" I asked

She dung her hand into the back of her jeans and took out a small piece of paper which was crumbled up due to it being squeezed between the bird's claws. I took the paper from her hand and opened it up...I frowned. The fuck?

"What gibberish is this?"I voiced out.

"Is it a letter? a note? what?" she asked peaking anxiously.

"No, it's garbage"

"What do you mean it's garbage? Give it here."she snatched the piece of paper from me and furrowed her brows as she read out the words from the paper "EaJiCsAsITWHe?"

"Told you." i said knowingly."Maybe the crow shit was just a prank"

"It was not!" she hissed"This has to have some type of meaning or something."she muttered plopping down on the library bench and glared hard at the paper.

"Glaring at it won't make the answers appear Lyria." I pushed away from the wall and leaned over her to get a better view of the paper. she puffed a breath through her lips defeatedly and dropped her head to the table making me hiss.

"Get your head off I'm tryna get a view of this thing" I pried her head off the paper and drew a sit on the opposite side facing her and sat down.

"It could be a password" I said reading over the letters again. Lyria sighed but picked her head up from the table to stare at me then at the paper on the table

"Or a Cipher" she added with a frown.

'Cipher' I found myself repeating mentally. But what hidden message could be in the words EaJiCsASITWHe?This is exactly why I don't play word puzzles. It stresses my brain out!

I narrowed my eyes on the paper once more then as if a light bulb went off in my brain I blurted out the word"Anagram"

"What?"

"It's an Anagram. The letters might have been rearranged to look like this" I pointed to the paper and continued"So maybe if we rearrange them again we can find out what the hidden message is"

"Genius!" she beamed.

"Do you have a pen with you?" I asked and she nodded. I watched her stick her hand into her bra and pulled out a pen and I scrunched my nose up in disgust"I don't even wanna know"

she smiled and said"You know for a person who hates maths-"

"I definitely do my calculations right" I finished for her with a roll of my eyes and she giggled"Pen please?" she dropped the bra pen into my hand and I picked it up trying my best not to gag as I wrote.

"So overly dramatic" she muttered and leaned to watch me write as she passed comments at every trial.

'JCsiaEASHIWTe'

"No"

'EITWEHJASCise'

"Bullshit"

"WJHeSiIEATCs'

"What alien language is this?"she snorted and i glared at her.

'HESiATJIsWCe'

"I can't even..." she shook her head in disappointment.

"JAEsSIiCeWT' she sighed and i dropped the pen annoyance"I give up!"

"No no no, you can't give up. I promise i won't make any more snarky comments."

"Fine" I huffed and picked up the pen and tried again.

'JESsiCAWHITe'

"Jessica White" Lyria read out whilst my eyes remained fixed in a glassy stare set with a hollow look on the name i had scribbled on the paper "Who the hell is that?" she asked her brows furrowed in confusion.

"My mom" i whispered, my voice barely audible.