Thornriver || [on hold]

02

  “That’s bullsh*t, Soph, and you know it,” said Josie, raising her eyebrows up in challenge. This outburst was really unexpected – b*tchy was a colour that definitely did not suit her.
  Sophia looked up from where she was sitting on the rocky ledge. She rubbed a bit of dried mud off her trainers and tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear as she looked up from underneath her side fringe. “Jose,” she said absentmindedly, as though the girl was a bug that had found itself under the toe of her Adidas Gazelles.
  “Come on, Sophia,” the malice in Josie’s voice was coming out clearer now, “You, with a boyfriend?” The emphasis on the word ‘boy’ was said with a disbelieving tone. “I think we all know that hump n’ dump is more your style.”
  
  The colour in Sophia’s face paled, as Addison lifted her head up to listen. Esme leaned forward from between me and Frances, a cruel smile playing on her lips. Frances and I just sat there in some sort of shock, as though two of our favourite characters from a TV show were in the middle of a breakup scene.
  “Guys, we’re finished here, right?” Frances asked, breaking the deafening silence. “If we break any longer, the other groups are going to catch up.”
  “Yeah…” I agreed, but in a way that sounded like I didn’t agree at all.

  The pink flush returned itself to Sophia’s cheeks. “Good idea. Esme, Jose. Pack up.” She didn’t say it as though they had a choice – it was obvious now that Josie had broken Elite Code as well. She didn’t say a word after that, just zipped up her bag and swung it onto her back, looking off at the view from the mountain. Me and Frances exchanged dark looks; somewhere between ‘what did Josie mean?’ and ‘what the bloody hell just happened?’. Josie didn’t speak either, instead glaring at Sophia from time to time. She and Esme hung at the back now, seeming less than concerned that one of them was our group’s navigator. Addison slunk along towards us like a stray cat, pursing her lips as she looked towards them.
  “Jose? Can’t you at least, like, give us the map?” Sophia snapped.
  “Rude,” Josie said tauntingly, throwing the map towards us. Addison caught it and turned to us, rolling her eyes visibly. She passed it towards me, and our eyes locked for a moment. Her hard face seemed to soften as her brown eyes looked up at me through her lashes, looking like a scared fawn in the middle of some headlights. I took the map from her and turned away. She might be Queen Emo, but at least she didn’t seem to hate us like Josie and Esme did.

  We (being me, Frances and Sophia) tried turning the map this way and that, until I could hear Addison’s quiet voice go, “Look, I used to go hiking with my family. I can read it for you.” She had quite a nice voice, actually. I think she was Scottish, but she had a posh way of pronouncing her words like most of the girls in Thornriver.
  “Uh, yeah, sure,” said Frances, who was as unnerved as the rest of us to hear Addison speak for what felt like the first time.
  “Lead the way,” added Sophia in her usual enthusiastic tone. She sounded almost patronising, but Addison either didn’t notice or didn’t care. Considering the amount of stick she got at school, I have a feeling in was probably the latter.
  “Guys,” Sophia called to Esme and Josie, despite them being no more than five metres behind, “Addison’s going to lead us. Just follow her and we’ll be fine.”

  Esme and Josie giggled to themselves about something or other, and Sophia rolled her eyes. “Pair of wh*res,” she mumbled to us. “Clearly they don’t understand us.”
  Us. There it was again – the subtle b*tchiness that she was famous for.
  We turned around and started setting off yet again. Addison still didn’t say much other than directions that were coming up, and Josie and Esme stayed back a bit, clearly sensing the less-than-welcoming nature of the rest of Team Four.

  ‘Pair of wh*res’, as Sophia had so eloquently put it.

  Their behaviour had no place in the world of the Elites.

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Sorry that this chapter was a bit short, should be something VERY interesting in the next one (or maybe the one after that, depends how long it ends up).

E.

Word Count: 723