Hidden Paradise

First (hopefully not last) supper

ATHENA'S POV

"Well that was unexpected" Amaris sighs before flopping unto the bed. Elena announced earlier at the breakfast table that we'll be taking a break from the mission. Diana was no where to be found, the guys are well, exploring and Amaris is complaining about yesterday's event.

"I mean, Bituin did have a point." She nods her head "But yesterday gave me a lot of questions left unanswered and like, I badly want answers" her eyebrows met before rolling on the bed. I, on the other hand, has nothing to do. "I honestly want to do something right now...anything" I sigh, ignoring Amaris' groans as I lay my head unto her stomach.

"We can...go explore the place" she suggest and I shake my head "I know" she suddenly sits up "We should go complain and nag Elena about taking a break from the mission" she quickly gets out of bed. A heavy sigh came form me as I watch her put on her boots "Don't you want to?" she looks at me while I slowly shake my head.

"Elena has her reason, alright. Plus, she's probably questioning herself right now too and like, making plans or whatever" I saw her roll her eyes at me before crossing her arms "You sure you don't want to come with me?" I shake my head one more time before lying down back in bed, slowly closing my eyes.

I hear a door shut as I tried to fall asleep. Amaris isn't serious...isn't she? For goodness sake, of course she could be. My body wanted to stay attached to the bed but that would mean that I'd miss the drama IF Amaris is actually going to nag her. Well, I guess I have to go out then.

I carefully close the door before putting on my boots. We basically have the same uniform boots too except that there are engraved names on the side. As usual, the hallways were dark, gotta make sure the ghost doesn't hear any secrets. Can it spread whatever it hears though? I should ask Chelsea about that later on.

As I approach the small kitchen, I could hear slight voices coming from it. I stopped for a while to listen, it was getting clearer and clearer in each second even though I didn't move an inch forward. "CAN YOU PLEASE BE QUIET?"

It sounded like Elena, and maybe Amaris was already nagging her. Usually, people wouldn't run on the hallways but I did anyways. I ran as fast as I could as slowly walked when I got near the kitchen's door. "Elena, I need answers" Judging from the tone, it was clearly Amaris' voice.

"How many times do I have to tell you that I.DO.NOT.HAVE.ANSWERS" Elena sounded like she was holding her anger inside her. Trying not to get seen by them, I tried to peek at the situation. Elena was holding a bowl of cookie while trying to get away from Amaris while Amaris tried to follow her around the kitchen, making sure she couldn't leave.

"Then where can I get answers? There's got to be a way" Elena shut her eyes and lets out a groan "Fine." She sighs "There's a library somewhere on the east wing...There should be books that can help you find your answers"

"I'm not good with directions so you have to at least guide me"

"You know what...fine" Elena hands her a rolled up paper, to which assume is a map? "Now, can you PLEASE get out of the way so I can go out?" Elena sounded desperate. I quickly tried to walk fast back to my room.

Amaris is good at convincing people to get what she wants. But I don't want to get involved. She sometimes gets TOO curious and mostly gets herself in trouble and there are several event where I got involved too.

I place my boots back quietly and quickly ran to the bed and lied down, as if I didn't follow her and I heard nothing. If Amaris trusted me enough, she'll burst into the room and drag me into the library and-

"ATHENA" there she is "Yeah?" she carefully closes the door before jumping beside me. "Let's go" I look at her and she smiles "Where?"

"You know where, the sound of your boots echoed throughout the entire hallway- that's probably why they don't say anything when walking on the hallways cause it gets echoed" I try to act neutral "If it was me, how would you know it was me?" she smiles wider.

"The boots may look similar but I heard they're actually designed specifically for each one and I happen to memorize how your boots sound ALSO, I saw your shadow behind the kitchen door"

What...? I-, she didn't even turn around how would she know I was there. "Enough questions, come on" she pulls both of my arms hard, forcing my body to sit up. "You can't just get away with not coming with me, especially since you said you didn't want to in the first place yet, followed me" Amaris crosses her arms "Fineee" she claps her hand and opens the door "Let's go" she motions me to go out.

I picked up my boots and turned it upside down. The pattern were waves; I took a glance at Amaris' and hers were criss-cross. Interesting...

"Now come on before someone finds and follows us" she opens the map as we started walking forwards. I lost count of how many stairs we had to take, probably a hundred. But I'm pretty sure that made me lose weight. Cause I sweat more than the time we went hiking.

"Are we even close?" I touch Amaris' shoulder and looked at the map together. "We're here" a door stood in front of us. It looked, a bit ordinary than I imagined. I mean, even our room's door is much bigger and fancier than this. "Well, this SHOULD be it" Amaris sighs in disappointment.

The door creek and slowly opens as Amaris pushes it. The place was full of books, as expected from a library but at the same time, it was also...very dusty. "Don't you have a sensitive nose and have severe dust allergies? Maybe we shouldn't go in here" I touch Amaris' arms and slightly pulls her back. She looked at it; I can't tell if it was in awe or in pure disgust.

"It's alright, I can manage" A few seconds after we entered the room, I saw her slightly rubbing her nose. She's going to have a bad allergy reaction after this. Amaris starts to slightly open her mouth and lets out a quick sneeze. "Nope. Nu uh" I grab her hands and pulled her back outside. She started to sneeze again; and I don't like that- cause she sneezes in rows.

I went back inside and grab a couple of the nearest books and carried them outside. Amaris was pinching her nose and tried not to sneeze as I covered the library door. "What kind of books are those?" she asks, reffering to the ones I was removing dusts on.

"I don't know but they could be useful" I carefully dust off the covers before stacking them again and handing them to her. "Thanks" I got the map and lead the way back to the room.

"Where were you guys?" Alex was already sitting in bed, closing the book he just read and stared at us as soon as we entered. As if he knows somethings up. And THIS, Is why greens are scary. I'm not even going to be surprised if he followed us. "Out...where were YOU?" Amaris quickly grabs the tissues as I placed both of our boots outside.

"Really? I was just in that old dusty library" a big grin formed on his face "Oh yeah? Us too" Amaris started to pick up one of the books and sat on the floor. "Aren't you gonna ask me?"

"What? I know you saw us and I'm pretty sure you heard the kitchen conversation I had with General Elena too" dust flew out from the pages as soon as she opened the book. "Well, what's that?" Alex quickly gets up and sat across her as they both examine the books together.

Well, forgive me for not knowing that everyone had to have a partner here. I flop unto the bed and watched as they flip along the pages. "I think it's in spanish" Amaris tries to read it closely. "Can you guys even understand Spanish?" I pick up on of the books beside her and opened it up too.

"Amaris' ancestors got colonized by Spaniards. I'm sure she can read it" Alex chuckles. My eyes went wide along with my mouth while looking at Alex. "Sorry..." he mumbles and touches her shoulders for a while. Someone's past shouldn't really be mentioned. Especially the fact that Alex KNOWS how bad Amaris' past is.

Amaris stayed silent at him and quietly flipped through the pages. "I know it was VERY VERY wrong of me-..."

"And it wasn't funny"

"Yeah, and it wasn't THAT funny but please do forgive me" Alex tried not to sound desperate. I eyes him up and down before throwing a suspicious look at him. Alex always does this thing where he goes and say or do something bad and KNOWS it would hurt Amaris. But then would beg for her forgiveness??? What? We're almost 18 years old...

"He can go into the library and find more books for you if these aren't enough to feed your curiosity" I whisper to her, which wasn't actually a whisper cause Alex nods his head along with Amaris. "I can do that. You have severe allergies, right? I can do that" he proudly says and stood up. "Not right now, of course. Later on if I need more" Amaris' eyes were still glued to the book as she turned the pages.

"What are you doing?" I curiously look with her.

"I can't understand a thing so I'm trying to look for clues from the pictures" she continues to flip them.

A knock suddenly came from the door as Alex got up to open it. "Elena asked everyone to be in their uniforms and gather up in the dinning hall" a soft voice was behind the door, it was Hope. "Okay, we'll be there soon" She glanced at us and gave a smile before leaving.

"Alright" Amaris shuts the book "Get out" she stands up and pushes Alex "What?"

"We'll be both changing"

"I should change first since I don't take long and I'm only one while you guys are two"

"Ladies first" she closes the door and opens the book one more time.

"Should I change first?" I glance at her "Look at this, it has the same pictures from this book" she shows two different books in front of me and flips them. The pictures did looks similar, even their positions looked similar too. Except the one was written in Spanish and the other one was...well I don't know but it probably wasn't from our world.

"Hurry up" Alex knocks on the door

"We're almost done"

"I heard you talking about a book, you can't fool me"

"And you can't listen to girls changing, you p*****t"

"We should probably change already" Amaris nods her head as we both got ready for dinner. Is it dinner time? I think it's just one of Elena's announcement.

After changing, we three decided to walk together to the new dining area. "I think we should ask Chelsea for another tour around the place or we'll get lost" Amaris whispers beside me. It was true though, we were still walking in the hallways and tried to be as quiet as we could.

"Use the map Elena gave you then" Alex crosses his hands and Amaris walked a bit much faster. "I think we should just stay quiet cause I'm pretty sure we're near" I look around the place. Since the windows were tinted, we couldn't tell if it was already dark or not cause it seems the same. All of the doors closed looked similar too so I couldn't tell where was where.

We continued to walk forwards until we saw Marie. "Hey" I yell-whispered and waved my hands around in the air. Marie approached us with a smile "Where were you guys? I've been trying to find you for the past 15 minutes. Dinner is going to start soon"

"Well, we didn't really know where we should go" I admit and she nods her head "Come on, follow me" she turns her back and walk back.

The walk to the dining area was a bit awkward and uneasily quite. When we arrived, I got blinded by the lights. They were everywhere!