Not Just Another Cover Story

Slowly I lowered my camera. My (current) worst fear was confirmed – whoever that was, was looking at me. And not moving.

It wasn’t a good sign.

“VAL!” My brother called from the jumble of people. That wasn’t good either. Now this guy knew my name. He made a move to come toward me, but stopped mid-stride. I saw his eyes flint back and forth between Zach and me. I could almost hear him wondering if we were related. He must have decided that we were, because he made a beeline for Zach.

Which I thought was a total and complete mistake on his part, because, with my camera still clicking away, I ran toward him. Later I realized that this part was the only part that I didn’t have on film, and unfortunately, it was the best part of the whole fight thing.

I reached Zach before the guy did, and blocked my twin. The guy in black slowed down, and Zach pushed me out of the way. I stumbled for a minute, and then pushed toward the supposedly bad guy. He was watching Zach, and was surprised when I ran into him at full speed. He stumbled, and Zach yelled at me.

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!” He called. “You’ll get yourself killed!!”

“Relax, I’m not stupid.” The guy I had run into was straightening up, and instinctively I punched him in the stomach. “I’m a big girl, Zach.”

“Yeah, but you’re my sister.” He replied, coming up beside me and giving the guy another punch, one that knocked him down. Zach pulled some rope out of his pocket (‘What the heck!?’ I thought.) and tied the guy’s hands behind his back. “Oh well. We’re finished with him.” Zach turned to me and his smile faded. “What’s wrong?”

“Um… There were a whole bunch of guys that ran inside…” I said. Zach groaned.

“Great. Just great. Guys! We need to move. Check everything… important.” He improvised, nodding to the guy that was tied up. “Go!”

I took off, but Zach caught my sleeve. “Woah, not you.” I protested, but Zach shook his head. “No way, sis. You’re not trained enough.”

“Zach! I totally helped hurt this guy! C’mon. I don’t want to look stupid in front of the girls when they,” I nodded my head toward the building, meaning the boys inside of it, “tell of how they defeated the intruders.” I shook my head. “You guys wouldn’t even know they were here if it wasn’t for me.” I pointed out.

Zach started to say something, but I put my finger to my lips. The guy was still out cold (Zach hit him harder than I thought!), but I noticed something. I reached down and pulled a little tiny hearing device thing off of his right ear. I held it up and Zach’s eyes got wide. He muttered a curse word, and I gave him a nasty look. He playfully rolled his eyes before taking the ear thing and putting it on his ear. I watched his expression go from playful to serious to panicked to that calm look that mom’s sometimes get when they see that their toddler has just colored all over the freshly painted white walls, and also spilled ketchup over the white rug.

That scary type of calm look.

Needless to say, it freaked me out seeing it on my brother. I’m the calm one in the family, not Zach. He gets super mad and storms off to his room.

Okay, exaggeration. But last Christmas when Mom and I sent him a pair of Hello Kitty boxers (don’t ask how we found those), he sent us a picture of the most annoyed face. It was great. We enlarged it, had it framed, then took a picture of it and sent it back to Zach. (We won that war!)

Anyway, I was panicking in my calm sort of way, and Zach turned and started towards the building. I ran after him, and he took my arm. Silently, he mouthed to stay quiet, and I nodded. They say that the whole twin telepathy thing is real, and trust me, it is. I’m not that great of a lip reader, but I knew what Zach was saying. I could come, but it was at my own risk.

We got to the building, and Zach peaked inside. There was nothing. No boys, no guys in black, not even any tables or, I don’t know, furniture. Odd. Zach motioned for me to follow him, and he crept inside. I followed, turning the flash off on my camera and shutting the click sound off. We slipped up the stairs (because the door that led into the hall way was locked, and the lock didn’t look broken), and down the hall. Zach glanced into every classroom window that we passed, and I took silent pictures. Nice way to get a tour, I thought to myself.

When we turned the corner, I nearly had a heart attack. There was one guy in black, standing there, waiting. Zach hit him from the back, and knocked him down. I was watching the screen on my camera again, and it was like slow motion: Zach getting behind the guy, hitting him, the guy turning, the look of surprise on his face, Zach hitting him again, the guy falling, and falling, and finally Zach bending over him getting the earpiece.

I could hear noises coming from the door at the very end of the hall, and I quietly asked Zach what room it was. He grimaced, and told me that it was the gym; the worst possible room for the fight to be taking place, except maybe for the Chemistry labs. (I mean, weapons and workout items used specifically for training us to fight, or chemicals. Knowing the basic chemicals my old Chemistry labs had, and knowing that this school definitely had more deadly chemicals, and more of said chemicals, I’d choose the gym any day.) We ran towards the gym door, and Zach opened it, motioning for me to stay back. He slipped through the door, and I held it open with my foot and stuck my camera around the door. Through the screen, I saw Zach head to the railing (the door led to the loft above the actual gym) and duck suddenly. He turned towards me and nodded his head. I slipped into the gym and propped a weight against the door, keeping it cracked open just enough so it didn’t lock. I bent down and joined my twin. Finally, I dared to look over the railing, and almost screamed at what I saw.