Sitting down at her desk, Caia smiled sheepishly at Jaeden who was sprawled across her bed, now in dry clothing borrowed from Irini’s closet. Caia’s clothes were all a little too short.
“You think Ella will forgive us?”
The kitchen was now sparkling clean after a thorough tidy up. Tired and a little afraid of Ella, Jaeden had followed Caia up to her bedroom rather than sit with the rest of the family.
“She already has, I hope.” Jaeden sighed, glancing down at the calculus work Caia had left on the bed. “Dude, what is this?” She tilted her answer book up at her.
“Drywall,” she replied sarcastically.
“Haha, funny.”
Caia smiled. “What are you talking about?”
“Uh, the genius solutions you’re apparently capable of.”
“What?” Caia knitted her brow in confusion and took the answer book Jaeden held out to her. Her eyebrows must have hit the roof. “What the Hades...”
Now in the once blank space next to the problem she had been unable to solve was a solution and answer. She had no idea if it was right. There was no way on Gaia’s green earth she would have been able to come up with that. It was gobbledy-gook.
“I have no idea how this got here.” She looked up at Jaeden, her eyes round with confusion. “Did you do this? Are you messing with me?”
Jaeden snorted. “Jeez, no. I wouldn’t even know where to start with calculus. Or anything to do with math. Math hates me.”
“Irini, maybe? One of the others?”
Jaeden sat up and stared at Caia like she had gone a little crazy. “You’re saying you didn’t answer this?”
“No!” Caia stood up abruptly. “This is just another in a long line of weird things that have happened to me this week.” She grimaced, staring hard out of the window as if the forest would give her the answers. Images passed across her eyes - of water coming on of its own accord; of Alexa’s chair flying away from her without anyone having touched it. What was going on here?
“What other weird things?” It was Jaeden’s turn to frown.
Could she tell her? She felt like she could trust her, but she had only known her for a week, and telling her this stuff would probably only make her think she was a prime candidate for the insane asylum.
“I um...” Caia took a breath. No. This, she would have to keep to herself, until she could work out what was going on. “Nothing. You know... I forgot the teacher did this one as an example for me. I must really be exhausted, huh?” She laughed hoping it didn’t sound entirely fake to her.
At first she thought Jaeden was going to argue, her gaze narrowing as if she were trying to see past something. It seemed she gave up, however, smiling gently. “You’re cuckoo, you know that?”
“It’s been drawn to my attention on occasion.”
“Beside the cuckoo, I’m really glad you came back. You’re sort of soothing.”
She smiled gratefully. “You were right before. I’m not used to being around so many people. I hope I can keep the names straight.”
“Yeah, you are kind of awkward.”
Caia grunted. “Well, thanks.”
Laughing, Jaeden threw a pillow at her. “I’m kidding.”
There was a moment of comfortable silence, and then Jaeden giggled as if she had just remembered something. “So, you ready to get publicly na**d on your first run with the pack?”
Caia’s heart stopped. “Get what?”
“Are things going to plan?” he asked his agent.
“Very well. I nearly have all the information I need to execute Phase One,” she purred back at him.
“You’ve raised no suspicions?”