It's Complicated

Chapter 4

A/N

Okay, so I stole a joke from someone in this chapter; you know who you are. This may be badly written because I wasn't really that focused on it half the time, but yeah. Anyway.

Enjoy! (sigh)

"We're going for a tour with this Alex chick?" Antonio clarified. I nodded.

"And Bear and Dix. But, uh, don't call her Dix, because we're not meant to know that."

He flashed a thumbs up. "You got it, boss!" I eyed him shrewdly. He doubled the thumbs up.

"Because you doubled it, I'm gonna trust you. And you don't know Alex is from Freya, okay? Because that'd definitely blow our cover-"

"Sparky," he interrupted. "Relax. Do I really look like the kind of guy to screw things up?"

I looked him up and down, tapping my finger on my chin. "Well, since you're asking-"

"Oh, shut up."

"Hey, you did ask the question."

"Whatever. Let's go." With that, he walked out of the door. I jammed my foot in it before it closed and hurried after him.

"Hey! Wait up! You don't even know where we're going," I accused, running down the stairs two at a time. Then I realised I was talking to thin air. "Antonio! Where'd you-"

Oh. The dude could teleport. He had not been kidnapped by a creepy knight like Alex had that one time. I was cautious of Sir Can Opener randomly appearing every time I walked down a flight of stairs. What can I say? Something about talking suits of armour freak me out.

"Yo, Oli, man. Why'd you take so long?" Antonio asked, grinning. I flipped him off, and we began walking towards where the others were standing in the distance.

I pointed a finger at him. "Remember, no screwing anything up, alright?"

"Yeah, yeah. I got this, bro. You're gonna be the one messing up, what with your having crushes on two thirds of them-"

"Shut up or I'll tell Calista you like her," I said loudly, before speeding up my walk.

"You wouldn't dare!" He called after me. I spun, and pulled out my TCD, finger hovering over Calista's name. I only had her on my contact list so I could get hold of one of Aven's cronies if something went bad. Because of course, the king couldn't deal with his own servants. Oh no, that was far below him. Calista was also in love with Antonio, or so I deducted. I mean, I knew the symptoms well enough. She probably wasn't all bad, but...she was Claimed, so who can judge?

"Okay, okay. I'll be quiet," he grumbled. I smiled widely and slipped my TCD back into my pocket. Didn't want the others seeing that, because they'd probably recognize it on sight.

"Glad you could make it," Alex said as we arrived.

D.C. muttered something under her breath. "Even if they were ten minutes late." Alex and Bear both shot her sharp looks.

"Listen, maybe you're still all depressed since...the incident, but you don't have to take it out on everyone, especially since they don't even know who he is," Bear murmured to her. If only they knew just how much I really did know. Dix shrugged, an innocent look on her face.

"He's an i***t. A real i***t," she whispered.

"Yeah," Alex agreed. "He is." Well, thanks guys. Lovely to know you think I'm stupid.

"So, this tour?" Antonio suggested, trying to break up the pity party.

"Oh, yeah," Bear said. "Let's start at Gen-Sec."

"Since they already know where the most important place is," Alex said, a sad smile on her face. Bear grinned briefly, before it faded out.

"Yeah. No need to visit the cafeteria again."

"And why is that the most important place?" Antonio asked. I shot him a look.

"Dude, it's food. Don't question it," I replied. He raised his eyebrows, but didn't say anything.

"It's an...inside joke, you could say," Alex said slowly. Bear nodded, while Dix looked confused.

"Inside joke?" She asked.

"When you were still anti-social," Bear answered.

"I'm still anti-social now," she replied, eyebrows arched.

Bear shrugged. "When you were even more anti-social than you are now," he offered.

"I'll take that."

"So, Gen-Sec?" Alex prompted.

"Uh, yeah. Let's go," Bear said, and started walking towards the U shaped building.

Dix started talking. "So, this is Gen-Sec, where all of the academic classes are held, mostly-"

"All the boring classes," Bear quipped. Alex turned to him.

"Are you trying to re-create my tour, or something? Because you can quit it now, I get the point," she said.

"So that's what you were referencing," Dix mumbled.

I decided to play my part as the newbie and raised my hand. "So, um, I'm kind of lost here. And since we've only started the tour, I don't think that's a good sign."

"You're right. We're crappy tour guides," Bear stated.

"Hey, I'm not gonna disagree," I said, grinning.

Alex pointed at the Library. "Do we go there, or not risk it, since it's only been like five hours since we got back?"

Dix shrugged. "If you want to show them just how amazing our school really is, then sure."

"What's so great about a library?" Antonio asked boredly.

D.C. raised her eyebrows mysteriously, before saying cryptically, "you never know what kinds of things happen in a library," and walking off.

"What's up with her?" I asked, genuinely curious. I didn't know anything about what happened after they left for Kaldoras, so I was pretty in the dark when it came to how my being Claimed affected my friends.

Bear glanced over at her, then turned back to me and lowered his voice. "Our friend got-uh, he...went away, recently. It's hitting her pretty hard. If any of us start acting weird, that's why."

"Ah. Right." We trailed behind her, not sure whether to give her space or not.

"Hey, what dorms are you two in?" Bear asked suddenly. Antonio answered first.

"Some room on floor eight," he said. "Luckily, I don't have to worry about the stairs." At Bear's quizzical look, he grinned and vanished from sight. Bear bearly flinched. See what I did there? That's good humor right there, folks. I guess he was just used to me disappearing all the time.

"So, he can go invisible? Because I've had four years dealing with my invisible friend-"

"Oh, don't worry, he's not invisible," I said assuringly. Bear's eyebrows raised, and he opened his mouth to reply when Antonio popped up behind up.

"Tally ho!" Bear turned, and jumped back. I started laughing.

"'Tally ho'? What the heck, dude?" I exclaimed, grinning.

Bear turned back to me. "So, what dorm're you in?"

I held up two fingers. "Firstly, I think that was bad grammar. Secondly, third floor, room twelve." Bear froze.

"Really," he asked calmly. I just nodded, waiting for his reaction. "Marselle put you in with me?" Another nod. "Thanks Darrius. Really respecting my mourning process, aren't you?"

"So," I said awkwardly. "I'm not the dream roommate?" He glanced up at me.

"Right, sorry. Don't take it the wrong way, just...my old roommate...only moved out a couple weeks ago."

"Hey, whatever. I can change if you want-"

"No, it's good. Maybe it'll take my mind off of other stuff."

No one said much for the rest of the tour, so the next half hour was pretty awkward. I was actually glad when it was done, because it gave me an excuse to go write another list of why I should wallow in my self-pity. I was casually strolling through the forest when I heard someone running after me.

"Oliver!" I stopped and turned around, kind of annoyed. I was fine just enjoying the tranquillity of the nature surrounding me...who rubbed off on me to make me say that? Jeez, Jordan.

"Di-D.C?" I corrected myself, inwardly cringing. Why? Just...couldn't I be good at this whole undercover thing? No, I apparently could not. Dix didn't look happy. Her eyes were narrowed at me, and an angry Dix was not something I liked to see. She was seriously scary.

"You were going to say Dix, weren't you?" She asked accusingly.

I shrugged. "Well, you never know. Maybe I was going to say 'dig', or 'dinner'." She looked at me for a second, before dropping her eyes and sighing.

"Okay. Look, I'm pretty stressed out right now, and I've been really angry lately, and I hate it. So sorry about that. But even if the others don't see it, there's something...weird about you. Suspicious." I raised my hands, and lifted an eyebrow.

"Yeah? What makes you think that?" I asked casually, scratching my neck.

She held up her fingers, and ticked off her points. "For one thing, you somehow knew about my nickname. Second, I had a dream the other night, and you were in it-"

"Dreaming about me, huh?" I winked. She scowled at me.

"I'm prophetic, but I bet you already knew that, didn't you?" I didn't answer. I mean, I didn't actually want to lie to her. "Also, you just held up your hands, which probably wasn't a very genius idea." I looked down at my hands in puzzlement. What was she-?

Oh.

The glowing silver scar.

Why the hell had I not covered that up? You i***t, Jordan!

"So, do you wanna explain before I tell Marselle?"

I took a deep breath. "You won't believe me. Or you'll kill me before I can get a word out."

"And why's that?" I stepped forward and put both my hands on her shoulders.

"You have to promise not to tell anyone. I'm completely serious right now. I swear as long as I can, I won't let you get hurt." I stared into her eyes intently. She furrowed her eyebrows, but nodded.

"Whatever. If you say you won't kill me, I'll roll with it." I grinned briefly, before sighing.

"Okay. So, I'm just gonna get this over with. Um, yeah," I began awkwardly as she rolled her eyes. And then I took out the contacts.

"What-" She stopped talking when I took off the wig. "...Jordan?" She whispered.

"That would be me." I watched her closely for her reaction. I wasn't prepared for the shove.

"You got Claimed! No, scratch that, you asked to be Claimed! Why the hell would you ever do that, you i***t!" I just stood there, not talking, waiting for her to finish venting. "Oh, stop smirking, Sparker."

"Then stop hitting me! There's only so much a guy can take, you know." Her face morphed into a confused expression.

"Wait...if you're Claimed...why-how are you here?" She questioned cautiously. I glanced to my left and right, mainly for the show, because I'm secretly planning to be an actor if I ever get un-Claimed. Yup.

"Okay. So, I'm on this mission from Aven to find out as much as I can about how Alex's training's going, because he's a creepy weirdo stalker, and I'm allowed to use...whatever means necessary to achieve that. Antonio's Claimed too. I guess I'm kinda in a good position because Aven won't kill me, since he needs me as a kind of bait to draw Alex out, because she's all gung-ho about coming to save me," I finished bitterly. Maybe I was safe, but it was a pretty crappy kind of safe, really.

"You're not joking, are you?" She asked. I shook my head. "And you don't want me to tell anyone? Not even Alex or Bear?" I nodded. "Why not? I mean, I won't tell as long as you don't want me to, but...why?"

"Well," I drawled. "See, Aven doesn't really want anyone to know, otherwise he might just be tempted to kill me anyway." Her eyes widened.

"Seriously? If you'd just said that, I wouldn't of asked in the first place!" She paused, then added, "I won't tell. I promise. I mean, I've been keeping the whole princess gig a secret for years now. What's one more thing to the mix?"

"Thanks, Dix," I said sincerely. Then something occurred to me. "You know, last time we promised something to each other, I ended up getting Claimed."

She cut me an unimpressed look. "Why, exactly, did you bring that up?"

"Just reminiscing the good old days, when our biggest worries weren't actually that big."

"Well, I have something to ask you. I know the last time you promised me something, it backfired, but this time I'm serious."

"You weren't serious the first time?" I quipped.

"No, I was just joking," she drawled in response. "But, Jordan...don't get caught. If you don't want me to tell Alex or Bear, don't get caught."

"Is this another one of your dreams?" I asked. "Because if it is, I wanna know this time before something bad happens-"

"Maybe I should've mentioned my dreams earlier, but I was scared. And...I haven't had a dream, but...I've got a feeling. And generally, my feelings aren't wrong."

"Don't worry. I'll stay away from black cats and not step on any cracks. I'll be fine," I emphasized.

"As fine as you can be when you're Claimed by an evil Meyarin bent on destroying every human in existence," she said understandingly.

"You got it," I replied, winking.

"You're gonna be the death of me, Jordan Sparker." She leaned forward and kissed me on the cheek before turning around to face the academy. "See you at dinner." I stood there and contemplated my existence. Dix knew about me. Oh, screw that. That wasn't the main thing on my mind. Dix had kissed me. Okay, so maybe it was on the cheek, but still! It counted!

Carefully re-applying the wig and contacts, I started making my way back towards the academy, resolving to find some gloves.