Celaena - The Lost Princess

19. The Famous Three

Ryan's pov

Days are going fast and whole college is fawning over Rhea Amari and she, fawning over Liarah. Whenever they are together, it's only Rhea talking and Liarah listening. It's like Rhea is the only person to ever have Liarah's attention wholly on her. Liarah looks content and peaceful whenever she's with Rhea.

They're dynamic is still a mystery. How do they know eachother so well? Why is Liarah the way she is? Why does Liarah look at Rhea as if she is the only person in the world? How can Rhea and Liarah be this close when they both are complete opposite of eachother?

I lift my gaze towards Liarah sitting at the corner reading a book with her hair covering face. Today she's wearing a big black hoodie at least four-five times bigger than her size and has covered her head with the hood. She's holding the book in left hand and hasn't changed her position since she has sat down.

Others have scattered around the team lab working in pairs, Thomas and Jamie working together on their presentations. Sophie and Johnathan working together since they're assigned same presentation. Well I've finished my task this morning so I'm free, that's the reason I'm observing everyone.

My eyes travel back to Liarah. She had to create a virus which is pretty tough task, given the expectations professor has voiced. But she doesn't look bothered or interested. I try to focus on the book she's reading, as I try to read the title my focus shifts to her fingers holding the book. She has long, slender fingers but that's not what I'm admiring, it's small tattoos adorning her fingers. They are small symbols on her knuckles, looks like Viking symbols. Her little finger though has a single red line kind of tattoo. I wonder if she has more tattoos.

"Good evening everyone, I hope everyone is ready with their presentations. If you haven't, there's the door you can walkout. With that being said don't disappoint me" Professor enters the lab and takes his seat at the back.

Presentation starts with Thomas. Thomas being Thomas covered everything about how to breakdown a firewall. Pretty detailed presentation, it took 15 mins for his presentation. Then goes Sophie and Johnathan taking 20 mins presenting about different types of virus. Lastly Jamie presents antivirus. All presentation were pretty good but I don't think it impressed Devil though. He only responded a single 'good' on Thomas's presentation.

Now it's our turn. With Liarah being the genius she is, I'm totally f*cked up. Professor turns his head towards me and asks "have you finished all upgrading?" I nod. He proceeds to get team back-up laptop and places it in front desk then turns to Liarah saying "you can proceed" he gives her the email id logged into the system and sits infront of laptop. Everyone else shuffles to the front to see if Liarah can break into professor's system.

Liarah still in the corner starts working. Laptop chimes and notification of an email pops up. Professor proceeds to open the email since it's from college's official ID. Must be from the dean from the look of it. Looks like an invitation for the National College fest. At the same time we all received the same email so everybody started checking the email. Seeing this professor opened the invitation and started looking through it.

A full minute has passed since opening the invitation, professor goes wide eyes and curses under his breath. He puts on his glasses and tries to log out of the system but nothing is happening. We all look confused for a moment and then suddenly it all clicked. This whole email thing was a trick. Liarah deliberately did this to breach his system. We all turned to check Liarah, who is furiously typing on her computer.

Professor is trying all he can to stop breaching. He seems frustrated, a nice look for a change. He lets out a frustrated huff and rubs his temple then try some other ways to block the breaching. Everyone seems on the edge, not knowing what is about to happen. Both Liarah and professor completely involved in working. Whole room is silent the only sound is of fingers hitting keyboard.