Page 36 of The Fall of Five (Lorien Legacies 4)

What was my role going to be here? John’s buddy from high school and plucky sidekick? I want to contribute more than that. I’m just not sure how I can.

I must’ve slept at least a bit, tossing and turning on the couch. The ornate hands of the ridiculously expensive-looking antique grandfather clock in the corner show that it’s early. I might as well get out of bed and do something. My hands are fidgeting. Maybe I can go down to the Lecture Hall, get a head start on some of the work my dad wanted to finish. I can’t exactly rebuild a mainframe or anything, but I’m pretty sure I could connect some of the severed wires on my own.

The penthouse is eerily quiet as I pad through it. The floorboards creak in the hallway and almost immediately Five’s door whips open, startling me. He’s still fully dressed, which is odd, like he’s just been crouching by his door and waiting to leap out at the first sign of trouble. One of his hands moves nervously, a pair of marble-sized balls turning over in his palm.

“Hey,” I whisper. “It’s just me. Sorry if I woke you. ”

“What’re you doing up?” he whispers back suspiciously.

“I could ask you the same question,” I reply.

He sighs and seems to back down a bit, like he doesn’t want a confrontation. “Yeah, sorry. I can’t sleep. This place weirds me out. It’s too big. ” Five pauses, scrunching up his face like he’s embarrassed. “Ever since Arkansas, I keep thinking one of those monsters is just going to show up and get me. ”

“Yeah, I know that feeling. It’s okay. I think we’re safe here. ” I motion down the hallway. “I’m gonna go work in the Lecture Hall. You want to come?”

Five shakes his head. “No thanks. ” He starts to close his door, then stops. “You know, I don’t really think you and your dad are Mogadorian spies or whatever. At dinner I was just playing, uh, devil’s advocate, I guess. ”

“Yeah. Thanks. ”

“I mean, if I was a Mogadorian recruiting spies I’d pick humans that seemed a little tougher, you know?”

“Uh-huh,” I reply, crossing my arms. “You really don’t know when to stop talking during an apology, do you?”

“Ugh, I’m sorry. That came out wrong,” Five replies, knuckling his forehead. “I’ve got really crappy social awareness. Do you think anyone else has noticed?”

“Uh . . . ”

Five smiles. “I’m joking, Sam. Of course they’ve noticed. I know I’m a freaking jerk. Like you said, I just ca

n’t shut up sometimes. ”

“If they’ve gotten used to Nine, they can get used to you,” I offer.

“Yeah. That’s, uh, heartening, I guess. ” Five sighs. “Good night, Sam. Don’t hatch any evil plans in the Lecture Hall. ”

Five shuts his door. I stand in the hallway, listening to him rustling around in his room. He’s a little off-putting, sure, but I can definitely understand why he’d be feeling anxious around the other Garde. I feel the same way.

I’m surprised to find the lights in the Lecture Hall already on. Sarah’s there, standing in the firing-range portion. She’s wearing a tank top and sweatpants. She’s also holding a crossbow, which might be one of the strangest things I’ve ever seen. I watch her get ready to fire off an arrow.

“Can I take your picture for the yearbook?” I ask. My voice echoes in the vast space.

Sarah jumps. The arrow she was about to fire goes whizzing wide of the paper Mog hanging at the opposite end of the room. She turns around with a grin, brandishing the crossbow and gritting her teeth menacingly. I snap a picture with an imaginary camera.

“The kids in Paradise won’t believe that one,” I say. “But you’re a shoo-in for the Most Likely to Maim award. ”

Sarah laughs. “God, we’re a long way from yearbook meetings, aren’t we?”

“Yeah, no kidding. ”

Sarah sets the crossbow down and surprises me with a hug.

“What was that for?”

“It looked like you could use one,” she replies, shrugging. “Also, don’t tell the others I said this, but it’s so nice to have another human around. ”

I realize that Sarah is pretty much the only other teenager on Earth who knows what it’s like to be friends with a bunch of aliens fighting an intergalactic war. We’ve never really talked about it, but we’ve shared a ton of the same whacked-out experiences.

“We should have like a two-person support group,” I suggest.

“You know, if you’d asked me last year, I’d say the scariest thing I’d ever seen was an AP chemistry final. ” Sarah laughs. “And now, just yesterday, I watched my boyfriend fight a giant worm monster. ”

I laugh. “Life sure got crazy in a hurry. ”

“No wonder we’re turning into insomniacs. ”

I wander over to the Lectern and start looking at some wires that my dad was working on before. Sarah sits down cross-legged next to me and watches.

“So you come down here and shoot a crossbow when you can’t sleep?”

“It’s as good as a warm glass of milk,” she replies. “Actually, I’ve been working on learning to shoot but I didn’t want to wake everyone up firing off guns. ”

“Yeah, probably not a good idea. Everyone’s a bit on edge, huh?”

“That’s an understatement. ”

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