The halls were all empty. Strange. I wonder where all the other kids were…

…Rumble…Rumble…Rumble…

All the other kids were coming down all the halls. Fast. And there were a lot of them.

I ran into the cafeteria as fast as I could. I got my lunch as quickly as possible. Then I immediately went to a table to eat it. And almost got trampled in the process.

I let out a breath. Then I took a bite.

Soon after, kids started piling onto the tables. Then, a whole group of boys and girls—about a dozen people—came over and sat down at the table I was sitting at, and the one next to it.

continued on 12/6/11:

“So you’re the new girl,” said the oldest boy of the group, “I hear you’re in my class…”

Hmm… they all sit next to me for no reason, then the leader starts talking to me. I’ll ask him what they’re doing here.

“…although, you are a bit late.”

“Yes, I-”

“Couldn’t sleep?” he asked.

“Do I really look that tired?”

“Nah, it was just the… simplest answer,” the leader said, “I’m Ralph, by the way.”

continued on 12/7/11:

“Alexandra,” I replied, “Why did you all decide to sit where I am? Did you want to enlist me into your group?”

“We always sit here,” Ralph answered, “And since you were already here, I thought: why not try?”

I stood up, “Just because I’m here?! Why shouldn’t I just get up and go eat at a different table?!”

“Because you think I’m Charismatic, and I also want you to join ‘cause you’re smart enough to have skipped a grade.”

I sat back down. How did he know all that?!?!

continued (again) on 12/7/11:

“I’m psychic,” he said, “At least all my friends think so.”

Apparently, they were right.

“How did you know I skipped a grade?!”

“Like I said, I’m psychic,” Ralph chuckled, “It’s because you’re in my class, and you’re too young to be. You’re twelve years old, right?”

“Yes,” I answered, “but how did you know?”

“You look twelve,” he replied.

“All my friends think that I look more like I’m thirteen that twelve.”

“Well then, uh… lucky guess?”

Sure…

“How did you know I think you’re Charismatic?” I asked.

“Simple,” he said, “everyone does.”

Hm. No wonder he’s the leader, with his social skills.

“So,” Ralph started, “Tell me about yourself. What’s your favorite dessert?”

“Well, I’m a particularly big fan of cheesecake…”

“You’re in luck! That’s for dessert tomorrow.”

“How did you know this time?” I asked.

Ralph held up a magazine, “School News.”

Duh. “Oh.”

“Y’know, Chris over there helps out with the school magazine.” Ralph said, pointing at a ten or eleven-year-old at the other table. “He’s great with computers. He even printed out membership Ids for us!”

Membership Ids?!? If they have those, then the group must have a name…

continued on 12/8/11:

Chris held up a card, “Yep!”

“Um, what’s your group’s name?” I asked.

“We, uh… don’t have a name,” Ralph said, “We just go by ‘The Group’”

“You don’t have a name?”

“But we will by the end of the month!” Chris shouted.

Ralph whispered to me “That’s what he said last month… and the one before that.”

I laughed.

“Anyway, I think I can trust you enough to give you the coordinates for our secret headquarters,” he said, “Come to the same place tomorrow, and I’ll give them to you.”

“So I get to see where the eleven of you meet?” I asked.

“How do you know there are eleven of us?” he replied.

“There are six chairs at each table, and all of you plus me take all of two.”

“You really are very smart.”

I smiled.

continued (again) on 12/8/11:

~Chapter 2~

The next morning, I actually got to school on time. I got straight As on all my classes, and during lunch period:

“Hey, Alexa!”

“Hi Ralph.”

“Here they are,” he handed me the coordinates.

I read them. “This is in the middle of the park!”

“I know,” Ralph said, “Meet us there at 4 o’clock.”

“I will.”

“Oh, and don’t tell anyone the coordinates, okay?”

“I won’t.”

“Promise?” he asked.

“Promise.”

continued (again) on 12/8/11:

Later that day, at the park:

“Whoa!!” I yelled, looking at a giant treehouse, built across four humongous trees.

Ralph opened up the front door. “Ya like it!?” he shouted.

“Wow!!”

“Here!” he said, throwing down a rope ladder.

I climbed up to the treehouse.

“That is an amazing treehouse!”

“I know,” Ralph replied, “It took all of us two years to build!”

“No wonder,” I said. Then I saw a power strip, “This place has electricity?!”

continued on 12/15/11:

“Yep, Chris wired up a generator through ol’ Oakhouse”

“Oakhouse?”

“That’s its name.”

Hmm…

“Anyway,” Ralph said, “There’s a comfy and soft chair over there, and I’ll get you a snack.”

I sat down, and looked around the room.

Soon after, he came back with a plate full of grilled cheese sandwiches. A girl I didn’t know, and
Chris, followed with glasses of lemonade.

“I hope you like them cut into triangles,” he said.

“They look delicious,” I said, reaching for one. “Mmm… Tasty.”

“We prepared them for you,” said Ralph, taking another.

Chris took a third, “Yeah!”

“I made the lemonade,” the girl said, taking a sip.

“Really? …Wow, that’s great!”

“Thank you, I’m Elizabeth. No nicknames.”

“I’m A-”

“Awm nom nom nom!” interrupted Chris.

“I know your name Alexa,” Elizabeth said, “Ralph told it to me.”

“Oh. Well then…”

continued on 12/16/11:

While eating our sandwiches, Elizabeth and I had a lovely conversation about how the tree branches wove around the inside of Oakhouse, how she designed it and she was going to be an architect when she grows up, the fact that she’s so green, she has a green “Recycle” button instead of a delete button on her computer at home, and how Oakhouse got its name.

“All four trees it’s built across are oaks,” Elizabeth said, “Didn’t you notice?”

“Well, yeah, they’re easy to identify,” I replied, “I was just making sure.”

“Well anyway,” Ralph said, reaching for another sandwich, disappointed that there weren’t any, “Let’s get down to business…”

Business?

“The reason we’re here right now is to invite Alexandra to the group,” he continued, “But first, we need to explain all the facts to her…”

“Like what?” I asked.

“Like the fact that it isn’t free…”

continued on 12/17/11:

~Chapter 3~

“Joining your group isn’t free?!” I asked.

“But it’s not expensive, either,” Ralph added.

“How much does it cost?!”

“A third of your allowance,” Chris answered.

“…Per what?”

“Whenever you get it.”

“So I’ll give you four dollars every week,” I said, “But why?”

“It’s… like a tax,” Ralph answered, “For snacks and treehouse repairs and stuff like that.”

“And on Christmas we use all the leftover money and throw a party!” Chris added.

Hm, “What are the other facts?”

continued on 12/19/11:

“Well there’s the fact that it’s run democratically,” Ralph started, “the fact that every member has an official job,” he held a card that said ‘president’ on it, “…and in order to become a member you have to come to a group sleepover, which the next one is tomorrow.”

“It’s Tomorrow?!”

Ralph shrugged, “It was already scheduled before you even came to the school. If you can’t come, you can catch another next month.”

I sighed, “I’m not doing anything then… I guess I can come.”

“Sweet! It’s at seven,” Ralph said, “And the meeting’s now over, but you can hang out if you want to.”

So you have to go to an official meeting to go to an official group event to get an official membership Id.
…And they still don’t have a name.

continued on 12/23/11:

I went to the porch to talk to Elizabeth, but the conversation was interrupted by Chris before it could get interesting.

“Well, I think that-”

“Hey, Alexandra,” Chris “Ralph says you’re a genius, and I’m going to test if he’s right with some questions.”

“Okay, shoot.”

“What element burns with a green flame?”

“Boron.”

“Capital of Greece?”

“Athens.”

“What’s my middle name?”

“Donald.”

“How do you know?!”

“Elizabeth told me.”

Chris grumbled under his breath, “Who was the twenty-sixth president?”

“Theodore Roosevelt.”

“Who was the awesomest president?”

“Again, Theodore Roosevelt.”

“Explain.”
“He was shot in the middle of one of his speeches, and finished the speech before going to the hospital. And that was just one of the many awesome things he did in his lifetime.”

“Couldn’t have said it better myself.”

“And Chris, speaking of your middle name being Donald…”

He gave me an angry look.

“Isn’t it weird that your initials spell C-D-L, or cuddle?”

He gave me an infuriated look. “I’ll bet Elizabeth told you that.”

“You could blame your older brother Ralph for telling her…” I said.

“How do you know he’s my older brother?!?” Chris yelled, “I’ve been deliberately hiding that so people don’t just know me as ‘Ralph’s little brother’!”

“I know,” I replied, “That’s why it took me over five minutes to figure out.”

He stared at me, then angrily stomped inside and slammed the door.

“I’ve finally got rid of him.” I turned around to talk to Elizabeth, but didn’t see her. Where was she?

continued on 12/24:

~Chapter 4~

I looked around, “Elizabeth…?”

“Hmm hm hmmm”

I leaned over the fence, and looked past the side of Oakhouse. And there she was, dangling in the air by vines coiling around her left arm. She was calmly watering a variety of plants.

“Elizabeth!”

She swung the vines around to face me, “Yes?”

“I, umm…”

“You’re worried about me hanging from these vines, aren’t you?” Elizabeth asked, “Well, don’t worry, they’ll let go.”

She wiggled her arm a little, and they did. And she immediately started falling!

continued (again) on 12/24/11:

…Into a short bushy tree, which I didn’t see before.

“That was an… interesting way to water plants,” I said.

“I know,” Elizabeth replied, climbing onto a tree branch that wove in and out of Oakhouse, “That’s what makes it fun.”

“What kind of vine is that?” I asked, “I’ve never seen it before.”

She stared at me. Then shrugged, “No needles, no thorns, no poisons,” she walked across to a branch that extended out from underneath the deck, “They’re sticky and strong enough to hold me up, but will let go if you wiggle right,” she walked across and climbed over the short fence,
“…and they generally seem to like me.”

“So you don’t know what they are??”

continued on 12/28/11:

“They’re sticky plants that hang from tree branches.”

“Gotcha,” I replied, “But why would they hang from tree branches? Hmm… Have you noticed a lack of flying insects since they started growing?”

“Yes, actually.”

“That explains it.” I said, “The insects fly through, then get captured by the sticky vines. That explains how they get their nutrients without being parasitic, why the vines hang in midair, and why they’re sticky.”

“You really are a genius,” Elizabeth replied, “…but I already figured it out. Though it took me more than one week, instead of less that one minute.”

I smirked.

“Anyway, now that Chris is gone, what would you like to talk about?”

continued on 12/31/11: 

“Well, there’s the fact that there are eleven people in The Group, and I’ve only met three,” I pointed out.

“You could say four of twelve, since you’re now an honorary member,” Elizabeth added.

“Even so. Why weren’t they all there?”

“We were the only ones willing and able,” she answered, “I came here because I was going to water the plants anyway, and Ralph and Chris were going to do this videogame thing, but Ralph thought this was more important. And then everybody knows Ralph makes good decisions when it comes to inviting people into The Group.”

“Hm? Videogames??” I asked, “Such stupidity! I’d rather do something much more intelligent with my time.”

“And it’s such a nice day, too,” Elizabeth added. “And speaking of intelligent things we can do outside, why don’t we start doing our homework together?”

“I already finished it.”

“All of it?”

“On the bus ride home.”

“Even the book report??”

“I already read the book, so I just wrote it up at home,” I answered, “And you can stop making that shocked face, I’ll still help you with yours.”

“Okay…” Elizabeth took out her notebook, “I knew you were smart, but wow!”

I looked at it, “Who’s Andrew?”

continued (again) on 12/31/11:

“Huh?”

“His name is drawn all over your notebook.” I said.

“Oh, yeah, that was late last year, back when all I had was a crush,” Elizabeth replied, “We’re actually going out on a date next week.”

“But you’re Twelve!”

“…And he’s thirteen. It’s just pizza,” she said, “…What?”

continued on 1/2/12:

~Chapter 5~

“You’re early!” Ralph said.

“I’m on time,” I replied.

“When it comes to sleepovers, late is on time.”

“Hi Alexa!” Chris said.

“Hi Chris,” I replied, “That sounds completly stupid!”

“No I’m not!” he yelled.

“It is,” Ralph said.

“Hey!”

I sighed. Then someone knocked on the door.

continued on 1/6/12:

“It’s Andrew and I,” Elizabeth said.

Ralph opened the door, “S’up Andy?”

“Nothin’ new,” Andrew replied, “Don’t mind if we bring Duke and Cinnamon again, do ya?”

“Not at all,” Ralph said as two brown dogs walked in, “This is Alexandra.”

“Hey.”

“Hello,” I replied, “Andy or Andrew?”

“Either one.”

“Hey Andy,” Chris said, “Want to see the new videogame I downloaded?”

“Actually, I was going to hang out with Elizabeth for now,” Andrew answered.

“Okay…”

“We’ll be going out,” Elizabeth said, jumping out a big window onto a branch.

Andrew followed her, “Bye.”

continued on 1/9/12:

There was silence as Duke and Cinnamon sat down in a bed in the corner.

“Andy never hangs out with us anymore,” Chris said.

“Why are you complaining?” Ralph asked, “He’s my best friend.”

I sighed, “I wish Amelia was here.”

Ralph looked at me, “How do you know Amelia?”

“We were best friends,” I answered, “She always made me laugh, and I helped her focus enough to study. She always wanted to play music, or read fantasy, or paint in watercolors, or something else,” I sighed again, “Then she moved away, and we didn’t talk much after that.”

Ralph and I stared at each other. “I assume that since you asked how I knew her, instead of who she was, you already know her. How did you meet her?”

“She moved here, and I thought she’d make a good addition to the group,” he answered, “Simple as that.”

“Stop with all the background information,” Chris said, “I think someone’s here.”

continued on 1/26/12:

He was right; someone knocked on the door.

“I wonder if it’s her,” I said.

Ralph shrugged and opened the door, “Dwain!”

“Wazzap, mon?”

“New member,” Ralph answered.

“Hi,” Dwain said, “I read about you on our blog.”

“You have a blog?” I asked.

“Yep,” Ralph replied, “Chris writes it.”

“I can show you right now,” Chris added, turning on a laptop on a desk.

“Hmm…” I looked at the title of the latest post; “New member!” it read. On the post itself, it showed all the possible information about me that you could deduct, as student at Cherrybirch. (The name of the town and school.)

Before I read any of the other posts, Chris click on a link that said: “Members”; and then immediatley started up a new page for me. “Eyes?” he asked.

“I’m right here! You can just look!” I said.

“You have to finish this in order to become a member,” Chris replied.

I sighed. “Fine.”

“Eyes?”

“Brown…”

continued on 1/27/12:

~`~
The page ended up looking like this:

Alexandra________________________________________________________
| Last name: Brown | Job: Researcher | Basic Personality: Extremely smart & logical |
| Hobbies: Science, Roleplaying | Notes: Grade ahead, Metagamer |
|Hair: Dark brown, curly | Eyes: Brown | Skin: light brown |

And below would have a full description of me, and background and contact information. I’m glad that’s over.
~`~
“So how did you get so smart?” Chris asked.

“Homeschool with mom,” I answered.

“I thought you went to school with Amelia.”

“After homeschooling.”

“Oh,” Chris said, “Are your parents that smart?”

“Let me put it this way:” I replied, “A Doctor married to a Professor.”

He opened his mouth say something else, but was interrupted by a knock on the door.

“Finally!” I said.

“Well, we are about done anyway…”

I opened the door. Standing there were Amelia, and a thirteen year old boy.

continued on 2/01/12:

~Chapter 6~

“Amelia!” I said excitedly.

“Alexia!” she replied, equally overjoyed.

We walked inside while talking, while the boy look at us puzzled expression, followed with rolling his eyes, and going into the other room.

“I was wondering if the new member was you!” Amelia said.

“Well I am,” I replied, “And I haven’t seen you all summer! What’s happened?”

“Well, I’ve joined The Group.”

“I know! Where do you live now?”

“1407, sesame way.”

“Hey, that’s four houses from where elizabeth lives!” I said, “If she knew you, it’s no wonder that she got you into The Group!”

“Aww… thanks,” Amelia replied. Then she sniffed in the air and said: “Is that popcorn? I’m so hungry, I had a such a light lunch.”

“Then have some, I had a nice big one.”

“Sweet,” she said, licking her lips ang going into the other room.

Right after, Chris came up to me to ask another question. “Which one of your parents is the Professer, and which subject does he or she teach?”

“My mom teaches math,” I replied.

“Does that mean you’re that good? Quick, what’s 33 times 47?

I turned around and silently went through the door. And I couldn’t help but instantly think: “1,551.”

continued on 3/12/12:

In the other room there was a pot of popcorn cooking on a stone fire place (which looked made by them), where everyone—including Andrew and Elizabeth, sitting on a branch by the balcony—where around it waiting.

“You guys have everything!”

“Including smores!” Chris said, putting a marshmellow on a stick and over a fire.

“Wait, weren’t you just in the other room?” I asked.

“Yes,” he said, taking sunglasses out of his pocket and putting them on. “Yes I was.”

Amelia Immediatly knocked them off.

As Chris grubled under his breath, the popcorn started popping. And kept popping. Soon the lid jumped off, as popcorn overflowed and spilled onto the floor.

“How much popcorn did you put in there, Josh?” asked Ralph.

“You told me to fill the pot,” the thirteen-year-old replied.

The pot was the size of the ones at restaurants, where they cook very large portions of pasta.

“Oh no,” said Dwain.

continued on 3/17/12:

“Douse the fire! NOW!!” shouted Ralph.

Immediatly, Elizabeth jumped off the branch, rolled when she hit the ground, got a bucket, and threw it to Andrew. He threw it to Josh, who then put out the flames.

“Aww…” Chris said. “My marshmellow is soggy.”

“We’ll light the fire again once we finish the popcorn…” Ralph sighed.

“Alright!” Chris shouted, jumping into the expanding pile of popcorn. However, the pot was still very hot, and he was completely buried in the popcorn flow by the time it stopped.

And we would have stared at him the entire time, if I didn’t ask “Wait, what about elizabeth?”

continued on 3/8/12:

We all turned to the balcony to see her being pulled up vines, showing no effort whatsoever. And she had a disgruntled expression on her face. As she got pulled up to the fence of the balcony, we saw a red-haired girl about Chris’ age hanging on to her ankle, who looked very angry.

“Amelia,” Elizabeth said, “Your little sister’s here.”

continued on 3/19/12:

~Chapter 7~

“You left me in detention!” the girl said.

“I told you I’d be leaving!” Amelia replied. “And besides, it was your fault anyway.”

At that moment, her younger sister charged her. Yup, that’s little Sophia.

“Really?” she continued, “You know I’m better at playing Matador than you are at playing bull. Well, Matadora and angry cow.” Amelia then doged Sophia. “You’re the one who’s science project blew up!”

“…What?” I asked.

continued on 3/22/12:

“Chris was working on it with me!” Sophia said.

“You were the one who made it explode!” he replied. “You didn’t follow the formula we made!”

“Also, volatility is your special power,” Amelia added, “Like Elizabeth and controling plants.”

“You can conntrol plants?” I asked her.

“Subtly, like with all special powers.” she answered.

“What IS a special power?”

continued on 3/24/12:

“Its a… requirement to even try to join da Group!!” Dwain replied.

“No, I’m asking what one is!” I said.

“Its an inherent power…” Ralph started.

“…that requires use of subtility…” Elizabeth continued.

“…that both apperently requires good mental and/or social abilities…” A pink haired girl said.

“…and manifests itself up to four years after the first decade of life.” finished a girl who looked exactly like the pink-haired girl, exept with blue hair and a diffrent clothing style.

“Woah!” I said. “How did you get here?”

continued on 3/29/12:

“My special power is based on the abilty to affect peoples minds,” the pink-haired girl said. “Namely, getting them to subconciously do things they have neutral or better opinions of doing. So I took control of them to block me from your view without them even realizing it.”

“Amazing!” I said. “But… isn’t using a rare, special power to it’s full extent, just to sneak up on me a bit unnecessary?”

“Totally!” she replied, “But it was fun, and I need to practise my powers on any oportunity I can. Anyway, my name’s Katie, and my sister’s is Sam.”

“Where is she, anyway?”

“Her power is stealth, so she could be right behind you and you wouldn’t know it.”

I turned around.

continued on 5/20/12:

“She’s not there,” Katie said. “I was just saying she could be.”

“I know,” I replied. Honestly, I wasn’t even sure I believed them. I decided to remain skeptical. Though there was something I had to ask. “But why did you guys introduce yourselves like in ‘Twilight’?”

“I’m surprized that an intellectual like you knows that much about it,” Ralph commented.

“Best friends with Amelia, remember?”

“Ah, right,” Ralph said. At the time, Amelia was a huge fan. She had the books, the movies, and even a few posters which she hung in her room. I could see Ralph remembering this. “And it was her idea too…” he mentioned. “We couldn’t come up with anything better.”

continued on 5/22/12:

In response, Chris shrugged and… smirked? Everyone chuckled. Except Amelia, who just crossed her arms. “Am I missing something?” I wondered out loud.

continued on 5/23/12:

“Oh yeah, I forgot to show you something…” Chris said, taking me to another room. As I came in, I saw that the floor was covered in prototypes and all sorts of machine parts, making it difficult to walk through. This was probably because he ran out of space on his workbenches, which were already covered in small devices, taken apart and sprawled out across them; they also had piles of books, taken from the two bookshelves next to the workbenches.

In the center of all this mess was a peice of technology unlike anything I’ve seen before! It was there, sitting on a platform in the middle of the room, full of complex, interconnecting wires and pieces of machinery. It had a lot of buttons, knobs, and switches, used to adjust the very delicate settings. The device also had some sort of antenna/satallite dish that I just didn’t know how to analyse. “I call it the Telepathic Enhancing Device,” Chris said, “Or T.E.D, for short.”

I just had to know how this thing worked.

continued 5/31/12:

~Chapter 8~

“Alright,” I said to chris, staring at the T.E.D. “What does it do, and more importantly, how does it work??”

“Most people have who have the special power have base mind powers that they draw upon,” Chris started, “The T.E.D. amplifies these powers, allowing a person who’s ready and willing to establish a mental connection with someone else who is.”

“So for example, when everyone laughed, when all you did was shrug…?” I asked.

“I was making a joke about sparkly vampires,” Chris replied.

continued on 6/3/12:

I could see why Amelia crossed her arms now. “Now I know the theory behind it,” I said, “But what’s the technology that makes it work? I’d take this thing apart to figure it out!”

“Don’t!” Chris yelled. “It’ll take weeks to rebuild!”

“Can I at lease see the blueprints?”

“No. I’m keeping those a secret.”

“Can you at least tell me what the flashing lights are for?” I asked.

“That’s the monitoring system.” Chris answered.

“And the wired in headset…?”

“That allows for outside communication,” Chris said, taking it off a hook and handing it to me. “Andy and Elizabeth are talking through link number three,” he pressed a button, and it started glowing. “Want to hear what they’re saying?”

continued 6/6/12:

I put the headset on. “…And then I asked her if we could do our homework together…” Elizabeth said–or, well, thought.

“But isn’t she a grade ahead of you?” Andrew asked.

“Yeah, but Alexandra is super smart, and I wanted to have good grades!”

“Is that it?” I thought, “She just wanted an A?”

“Anyway,” Elizabeth continued, “when I asked, she said she already finished all of her homework!”

“Even the book report?” Andrew asked.

“Yeah!” Elizabeth answered, “And she agreed to help me anyway, because she’s nice. I’m glad we have her in the group.”

“Thanks…” I whispered.

“Alexandra?!?” they both yelled.

continued on 6/21:

Hi… Chris was showing me the T.E.D.” I said.

“And you were listening to our conversation with the headset?” Andrew asked.

“Yeah.”

Elizabeth sighed.

“So where are you guys right now?” I asked, “I don’t see you in the other room.”

“Duke and Cinnamon ran off, so we split up to look for them.” Andrew answered.

“Y’know, it’s pretty nice out here. If you have Chris give you the goggles, I could send you an image of it.

I looked at Chris to see that he was wearing a second headset, and was handing me a sci-fi looking pair of goggles. They fit perfectly onto the headset. Now I could see a beautiful evening at the park, just like Elizabeth could. But I could also see something she didn’t notice: There was a shadow behind a tree in the distance.

“Watch out on your left, Elizabeth.” I said.

A man wearing a dark hoodie jump out from his hiding place, and he had a gun.

Elizabeth thought some things that I shouldn’t repeat.

continued on 6/25:

~Chapter 9~

The stranger shot his pistol! …At a Blonde-haired teenager, who was behind a boulder. He ran toward the man, darting side to side, avoiding the bullets the hooded man shot at him. Then, he jumped up, and kicked the gun out of his hand!

…And right to Elizabeth’s feet! She had no choice: she picked up the gun, and started toward a walnut tree. Then she jumped onto it, ran up, and leaped to a branch at least ten feet in the air! I was purely dumfounded.

The man in the hoodie charged toward the tree Elizabeth had climbed, with the blonde teenager chasing him from behind! He jumped up and snapped the branch, but Elizabeth got to a higher one before it fell. And before he could use the stick to hit it, the Blondie tackled him, and knocked it out of his hands!

Unfortunately, the man in the hoodie caught him, and used the momentum to throw him into a pine tree. But, the Blonde teenager bounced off to a birch next to the walnut Elizabeth was on, and sprung up to a branch above her. “Give me the gun, Elizabeth!” he said.

“As if, Russell,” she replied, hitting the trunk of the tree. Then, a big pile of walnuts fell from above him, knocking Russell of the branch, and fifteen feet to the ground.

continued on 6/27:

He rolled off the momentum when he hit the ground, of course. Then he started to wrestle the hooded man again! “That’s Russell, my cousin,” Elizabeth thought to me, “And a convicted felon.”

“Hmm…” I said. I wasn’t thinking too much into that fact; for I was coming up with a plan utilizing the skills Elizabeth just showed me…

~`~

“So that’s your idea?” Elizabeth said, “I think I can do that.” And so, she jumped off the branch, and started running up a birch tree! Then, she leaped off, did a back flip so she was upside down, while punching the pine tree Russell and the hooded man were fighting under.

continued on 7/9:

They, knowing that Elizabeth can knock nuts and fruits off of trees with a touch, dodged out of the way of the incoming pinecones. They landed under a birch, and promptly continued fighting. Higher up, Elizabeth was running down the very same tree.

Nearing the bottom, she kicked off, trying to hit one of them. They both ducked, so she flipped around, and jumped off a walnut tree! This time, she got the hooded man, and pushed him into it!

Afterwards, Elizabeth tried to keep going, and leaped onto Russell. He grabbed her by the arm, spun her around, and threw her at the hooded man. Who had already gotten hit by a big pile of walnuts.

continued on 8/4/12:

“Well then,” Russell said, “With him knocked out, that gives us each two options: either we attack each other, or we try to walk away. If you walk away, then one of two things will happen: either I walk as well, and we both successfully retreat, which is good for both of us; or I attack and capture you, which is great for me, but terrible for you. You could also try to attack, and possibly capture me; or I could attack you back, and we’ed both be worn out. Your choice!”

“Oooh! Prisoner’s Dilema!” I said, excited for the intellectual challenge. “Let’s see, he already achieved tactical victory by defeating the hooded man, plus he, as your cousin, wouldn’t try to hurt you. Therefore, he will walk away. But… considering his reflexes and Acrobatic skills, he’ll probably dodge and counter if you try to attack him. So you should just go, too.”

“Alright then,” Elizabeth said. She turned around and started to walk away.

continued on 8/19/12:

“Dodge to the left, Elizabeth!” I yelled.

Elizabeth darted out of the way of Russell’s attack. “You said he wouldn’t attack!”

“Yes but that was after Chris and I discovered that somebody was interfering our messages, who it turns out to be Russell,” I told her.

Russell tried to jump kick her, but Elizabeth ducked and grabbed his foot, which caused him to fall face-first onto the ground. “Russell got access to the T.E.D.? I thought we blocked him out!”

“Well, me and my friends are good at stealing,” Russell replied through the mind link. “For example, a victory,” he said, grabbing Elizabeth from behind, putting her in an arm lock.

continued on 8/26/12:

~Chapter 10~

Elizabeth tried to kick him, but Russell just put his feet on hers. With her arms and legs bound, Elizabeth couldn’t do anything. She was captured.

“But,” I said to Russell, “Unfortunately for your victory, Chris already sent reinforcements. They should be there about now.”

“Oh crud!” Russell yelled, dodging a wooden arrow.

Andrew was running toward the two of them, with a bow in his right hand. He was using his left hand to signal Duke and Cinnamon to attack. “I’ve found our dogs,” he said.

Andrew took another arrow from the quiver on his back. “Time for a tactical retreat,” Russell thought.