The Bonnies by Nicole N. King
Chapter Thirteen
Before we knew it, three months had passed quickly. We spent most of our days juggling school work, and practicing for the heist. Since Taylor and Kerry were new to this, we gave them a couple of practice runs by having them heist a couple of stores in Atlanta. It wasn’t long before they caught the hang of it and we could move on to the next part of the plan. We each had a part to play. Taylor took care of surveillance. Yuri took care of the social aspect by flying to France on the weekends and hanging out with security. One look at her face and a couple of drinks, they were spilling gossip as if they were high school girls. Kerry took care of the physical aspect by having us practicing from rock climbing to martial arts. As for me, I focused on contacting any and every person that my father knew. The whole thing had become pretty exhausting.
My love life however, was going great. Micah and I had gone on a couple more dates before deciding to date officially. I didn’t know whether if it was because I liked him so much, but spending time with him made me very happy. When I was with him, I didn’t worry about the heist or the family problems that seemed to assault me daily. Our days where filled with nothing but each other, though there were other forces that were trying to fight their way in. Paige hadn’t been shy with how she felt about the situation. She made up rumors about the fact that I’d stolen Micah from her while they were dating. Since I didn’t care to respond on the rumors, many had believed it to be true. The fact that Micah and I ignored her seemed to sting her even more. If she hated me before, she really hated me now.
I wasn’t the only one doing good in the romance department. Yuri had officially moved on from Mark to Simon Knoll. Simon was one of Mark’s friends who’d been the only nice one out of the group. The two of them had stopped being friends two weeks before Mark and Yuri broke up. After being assigned to work on a school project together, the two of them clicked and before anyone knew it, they were a couple. Though she had a bit of trust issues after dealing with Mark, she put in an effort with Simon. Taylor experienced her own romance after going back home to Korea for her mother’s birthday. She ended up bumping into an old classmate that she had a crush on back when they were young. Though the two haven’t made it official yet, she’s been smiling like a love struck fool, every time he calls or text her. Kerry on the other hand had us all beat. While attending a Halloween party in West Hollywood, Kerry ended up bumping into teen heartthrob Cree Smith. Well it was more so, Cree knocking Kerry in the head with the door. He stayed with her for the entire weekend at the hospital and as the blogs say, the two became quite close.
But now, it was time to put our relationships to the side. In two days, we would be going on thanksgiving break. The story of the painting was getting more and more coverage to the point that even the President would be attending. This heist would have to go off without a hitch. I couldn’t even imagine what would happen to us if we were caught. We hadn’t received any more threatening messages which left us worried. Every spare minute we got, Taylor checked to make sure the painting was still in the museum. The Queen had spoken of a duplicate, so it was hard to determine if the one being held there was real or a fake.
Lying across my bed, I stared at the copies I’d made of the book and the letters. The map that was drawn on one of the papers, I was pretty sure had something to do with the lost treasure of Lima. I’d done some more research on it to find out that after Thompson killed the guards, he and his men headed to Cocos Islands where they believed the treasure was allegedly buried. There had been reports of researchers and archeologists going to find it, but ended up leaving without it. I flipped to the next paper which was a copy of a letter from someone named G. L. Ross. There wasn’t much to the letter. He only thanked my father in for believing his story. He then went on to warn him to give up the mission of finding the painting. Unlike the threatening messages, this one was written in care. This G.L. Ross guy must have known my father well, because a line later he wrote that he knew he would go ahead to search for the painting, which was why he was giving him the map and the list of names. He didn’t explain what the names meant, only that my father would know what to do with it. The letter ended with him warning my father to be careful who he trusted. There were many people after this painting and they would kill for it.
I stared at the paper with the list of names. I had gone about typing them into the internet to see if anything would come up. Nothing did. Taylor had wanted to look them up in her database but I stopped her. I didn’t know if anyone else was watching for when these names popped up. In fact, I had rebooted my computer to completely new.
The door to the room opened as Yuri stepped in. Her face was flush red and her hair was in a tangled mess on her head. By the look of awe on her face, I knew she’d been up to no good.
“How’d that paper go?”
“Huh?” Yuri said snapping out of her daze. “Oh it went good. Really good.”
I smirked to let her know I didn’t believe her. She gave a sheepish smile and made her way over to her bed. “What are you doing?”
“The same thing I’ve been doing every night. Trying to figure out what these names could mean. It’s annoying the crap out of me. I have a feeling I know this, but I can’t seem to figure it out.”
“Well you’re not going to figure it out tonight so you should take a break. Go hang out with Micah. The two of you won’t be able to see each other over the holidays, and if this heist doesn’t work out, the two of you won’t be able to see each other anymore at all.”
“Way to have faith in the mission Yuri.” I said sitting up from the bed.
“Hey, I have faith in the mission. But I’m also a realist.”
I crawled off my bed and placed the letters in a lockbox I’d bought one summer while in New York. Climbing back up on my bed, I stared up at the ceiling. “Do you think the other girls are going to chicken out?”
“Not Taylor. The girl loves anything illegal. Kerry is a skittish but, I don’t think she’ll tell. We have too much on her now for her to back out.”
“That’s true.”
A knock sounded at our door as I turned to glance at Yuri. She made no moves to get it so I guess that left me. Pushing up from the bed, I headed towards the door and opened it to reveal Heather.
“Hey Heather.”
“Hey Autumn.” She smiled up at me. She seemed really happy to see me and I instantly felt bad. Due to us having to get ready for the heist, I didn’t have much time to hang out with her or give time to the clubs I had joined. I’d abandoned her and it wasn’t cool of me. But by her expression, I don’t think she really cared. “I was coming to invite you to a thanksgiving dinner that I’m throwing on campus. A couple of students aren’t going home for break, and someone mentioned that you usually don’t go home as well. I figured we could hang out together.”
“Oh. I’m sorry Heather. I have plans for thanksgiving this year.”
“You do.” She said in a small voice. I felt as if I’d just kicked a puppy. Her expression was so depressing that I couldn’t stop myself from trying to explain.
“My grandmother invited me down to Georgia. My mom figured it was time for me to get to know that side of the family.” I wasn’t exactly lying. My mother had advised me to do that in a detailed email letter she sent me. I had no plans on going to see the evil old witch.
“I understand. We can’t control the choices our parents make. Have fun and I’ll see you around.”
She hurried down the hall as I stood in the door feeling like a total jerk. I finally shut the door and turned to face Yuri.
“God I’m so awful.”
“Oh don’t stress yourself. Heather will be fine. You two needed a little break. She was becoming too obsessed with you. It was scary to watch.”
I rolled my eyes as I climbed back on my bed. “What are you talking about? She’s a nice girl.”
?
“You’re being dramatic. I admit she comes off a bit weird sometimes, but that’s only because she’s shy and have a hard time making friends. You should give her a break.”
“Whatever.” Yuri said standing up. She walked towards the bathroom. “Don’t come complaining to me when you’ve been turned into a puppet at one of her birthday parties.”
I shook my head as she went into the bathroom. I wasn’t going to stop hanging with Heather just because Yuri was threatened someone might be taking her place. But as I lay back on the pillows, I wondered just why Heather had been listening in at the door.