It rained heavily the days after Xaiden and his friends found the bunker, so they hadn't been able to return to investigate further. The awkward tension between Xaiden and Jax continued as the group met long enough to decide to wait out the rain on their own.
Xaiden passed the time by working on his web novel during class and studying at home while he worked out or played games on his imprint. Eliana called it slacking off, but he learned better this way. He needed to be a little distracted to truly absorb seemingly useless information. With the rain showing no signs of letting up and most of the group still avoiding each other, the weekend approached monotonously.
It was Friday when Jax broke the ice by commenting on Xaiden's latest issue. "Sick, dude!" Two words ended the feud between friends and they returned to chatting and goofing around without ever talking about that argument from the bunker. Xaiden wondered if Jax had told Eliana about it, but he never asked.
Things with Ewen hadn't ever been different, Ewen spent as little time at school as possible, and the time he was there, he had his hoodie up and his face down on his desk. Xaiden and Jax had tried to include him when they hung out between classes or at meal breaks, but Ewen asked to be left alone while they were at school. It was rare for him to set a clear boundary with them, so they tried to respect his wishes.
It's no surprise that Xaiden would have no reason to see Eliana outside of their "Study Group", so things felt calm for him again once Jax let it go. It was already awkward before, so who cares if she is even more angsty than usual when we go back out next. Xaiden thought dismissively.
"Yo, wanna plan for this weekend if the rain gives?" Jax asked after their last classes finished.
"Sure, let me know if the others are down." Xaiden agreed, more excited to work on the new mystery than worried about their group dynamics at this point. "And get to praying this rain stops! I know it's the rainy season, but still!"
"I will!" Jax responded, then joked, "You should ask your great grand to tilt us just a bit for tomorrow! Use that last name for something, you know?"
"Ha! We'll have a better chance asking God, trust me." Xaiden responded good-naturedly. There wasn't anyone at school who didn't know by now that Xaiden was far from favored by his royal bloodline. There were many theories and rumors, but Xaiden never commented on it or cleared the air, not even to Jax.
Thankfully, the rain did clear on Sunday morning, and the forecast for the day was promising. Planting rains tended to stir up unexpectedly and last quite a while, but with skies as clear as this, they had a bit of time at least. The gang met at the fence line and made their way to their base like usual.
"Did they fill you in on everything, Eliana?" Xaiden asked good-naturedly.
She shook her head, and responded. "No, I've been buried in exam prep this whole week. What's going on?"
Xaiden glanced at Jax who shrugged, then returned his gaze to Eliana's large black rimmed glasses. He didn't understand why she wore them when the imprint gave everyone far better than perfect sight. Was it a style thing? he wondered. "Well, we found a cabin out there that's in pretty decent shape," Xaiden explained. "Most of the structure is intact and stable, and best of all, there's a bunker too."
"Anything interesting this time?" Eliana asked curiously.
"Very much so, we're about to embark on an epic adventure," Xaiden responded dramatically. "Well, a more epic adventure since I suppose we're already on one at this point." He swept his hand across the illegal grounds they were standing in for emphasis. "This bunker is so rich with mystery and adventure, I was thinking, maybe we could move our base there?"
"I dunno," Eliana replied doubtfully. "I really like our spot now. It's close to the fence, gets good light, and we've got a lot of stuff here too."
"Wait till you see this place though," Jax interjected quickly, carefully studying Xaiden's face despite addressing Eliana. "Who knows, you may really like it!"
"Well, Eliana's right, this spot is pretty great. Maybe we can just have two bases and use both as needed." Xaiden said placatingly. He'd had some time to cool off and to think about what Jax had said. Maybe he was being a little too hard on Eliana, and it wasn't worth fighting over trivial things when there was a mystery to solve just a short hike away. More than just reading it in a book, living out his favorite genre was exhilarating to Xaiden.
Eliana nodded slowly, still thinking it over deeply. "Tell me more about what you found in the bunker." It was technically a question, but somehow everything Eliana said sounded commanding. Jax stiffened again and started to speak, but Xaiden answered smoothly.
"A book code, maps with portals that don't exist, and proof that we're not the first citizens of Zenith to enter these lands while they were forbidden."
Eliana's mouth hung open as she processed everything Xaiden had said. "You're not pulling a prank on me, right?" She glanced at Jax who gave her a reassuring nod.
"It's real, Eli," Jax confirmed.
"How come you didn't tell me right away?" Eliana asked, looking pointedly at Jax who hung his head. "Or at any point this whole week?"
"Well, we probably shouldn't talk about it outside of here, this is pretty big and it's going to cover ground out there too. We'll really need to be careful." Xaiden jumped in. "Sorry we didn't tell you sooner, we didn't expect it to rain us out till now."
Eliana sighed, "It's fine, I'm sure you weren't excluding me on purpose, I did choose to stay back that time too."
Ewen hiccuped nervously and Xaiden shot him a look he immediately understood. He quickly and quietly busied himself transferring items from his school pack to his go-bag as Xaiden met Eliana's gaze again and responded, "Jax said you'd be a big help on this one," He continued blithely, "looking forward to seeing your skills at work once again."
"Uhh huh." Eliana responded dryly, studying him intently as if to work out his motives or to find an angle. "Well, let's get going then. Not too often we get a whole day out here." She finally said, glancing up towards the sun with a hand raised to block the light from directly hitting her eyes.
"You took the words right out of my mouth," Xaiden smiled without it reaching his eyes, stoically concealing his frustration at her assuming control of the group once again. This began the delicate truce between the two strongly opinionated members of the group as they made their way to the decrepit cabin and its intriguing mysteries.
The cabin was in the same shape they left it in last Monday, so after a brief tour of their findings for Eliana's sake, they resumed their search for clues to connect the dots to the mystery they'd stumbled upon. It was quite a while later that Eliana broke the studious silence with,
"Guys, guess what I just found?"
Xaiden bolted up and rushed over to her. She was laying on the bottom bunk with books laying around her in piles forming an odd sort of halo. "What is it?" Xaiden asked impatiently.
"There's a book or a box or something in this bed!" Eliana continued, pointing to the bed above her. Jax leaned into the bunk near Eliana's head and tried to angle his head to see what she was seeing.
"Where?" Jax asked excitedly, oblivious to Eliana going stiff and her face coloring.
"U-um, right here," she said nervously as she placed her finger somewhere above her head on the mattress above her.
Standing behind them and out of sight, Xaiden shook his head at them. Jax can be so clueless sometimes, he thought to himself. Or maybe he wasn't, since there was truly no need to try to see things from Eliana's perspective when they needed to move the mattress out of the bunk regardless. Xaiden rolled his eyes and asked, "Ewen, help me grab this mattress, would you?" He moved to grasp the middle of the bed and started to pull it out, leaving the two to continue their needlessly intimate exchange at the head of the bed.
"Wait!" Eliana called loudly, seemingly forgetting how nervous she felt around Jax and deafening him in the process. "Let me move first and grab the books!" She sprung out of the bed quickly and started moving piles of books to the floor. "I don't want to get covered in this disgusting filth any more than I already have to. You have no idea how much laundry I have to do to keep all this from my parents." She muttered testily as she worked.
Xaiden took a deep breath, and forced another smile, "Sorry, I didn't think about that, Eliana."
Jax shot another furtive glance at Xaiden before jumping into action helping Eliana move the piles of books off the mattress. Xaiden pretended not to notice how on edge Jax had been since they got out here. What Jax didn't know was that Xaiden was determined not to let today be ruined by petty fights or needless drama, so there was no need to try to keep the peace today. Still, this wasn't a situation where Xaiden could explain that to him and Eliana was definitely pushing his buttons.
"No worries, I was just venting." Eliana said with a heavy sigh. "It's not your fault or anything, it's just annoying." She smacked the last pile of books down a little harder than necessary with the last word. She stood up, took a deep breath, then smiled as she said, "Thanks for waiting, I can help you move the bed now."
Xaiden's eyebrows flew up instinctively. He was genuinely shocked. This was the first time he'd ever seen Eliana smile at him. Was it really because I was a little more patient with her than usual? Even though Jax had said countless times that she wasn't as stuck up or rude as she sounded, Xaiden never believed it, but now he was starting to think he really had been misunderstanding her.
"Um, thanks." Xaiden said after grabbing the other end of the bed. She just nodded and lifted her side of the mattress out of the frame and upside down on the floor wordlessly.
Grinning stupidly, Jax bumped into Xaiden's shoulder, coughing the words, "Told ya." Xaiden shook his head dismissively, but returned the smile. It was nice to have everyone in a good mood on a day like today.
Ewen and Eliana worked on unzipping the deteriorating plastic bed cover, causing plumes of dust to poof into the air around them. "Should we just cut it open?" Eliana asked nasally, waving a hand in front of her face to clear the air. "I don't think this is great to be inhaling." The squeak in her voice at the end of the sentence confirmed she'd been holding her breath the whole time.
Jax handed her a knife from his pocket, and she flicked it open and started cutting around the rectangular imprint. "Much better," she said cheerfully, then while handing the knife back, "Thanks Jaxon!" He gave her a thumbs up and she grinned.
"Alright, let's see it then!" Xaiden said excitedly as Ewen pulled the crumbling plastic protective cover back to reveal the deteriorated yellow brown filling and the promised rectangular object. It was a vacuum sealed bag that had managed to stand the test of time and remain relatively intact, making the book inside seem all that much more promising.