The Unsolvable Equation

Chapter Seventeen

Alexia got the news about the senior's bonding outing while on the phone with K.H. Initially, she automatically declined, then somehow, found herself being coaxed into it by K.H.

"Let's go, Alexia! It'll be fun, trust me," K.H had said

"No," was her response.

"You're impossible," K.H had groaned. "But I think I know just how to make you go. I could spend some time coming up with some incredible Alexia-standard argument but I'd thought I'll just let you know that Almier will be there."

"So?" Alexia had persisted, but inside, she was swaying.

K.H then dove into a whole list of reasons why this trip could do wonders for her relationship with Almier, and when Alexia still resisted, she started guilt tripping her. K.H's emergency photographic memory had suddenly arose and she brought up every little thing that Alexia had done to her that was less than decent and eventually, Alexia found herself packing her bags and waiting for K.H at the front door.

There was a long, loud rap at the door that was obnoxiously K.H, and Alexia sighed as she hoisted up her bags. K.H threw the door open and grinned so widely at her, the triumph of her persuasion still written all over her face. "I knew you'd agree!" K.H proclaimed. "Trust me, it won't be so bad. Besides, the two most significant men in your life are going to be there!"

Alexia eyed her warily. "Who's the other one," she asked, already knowing the answer.

"Caden, but if that's going to make you change your mind, then I'm lying," K.H said quickly.

Alexia rolled her eyes and loaded her bags onto K.H's borrowed car. "Let's just go and get it over with. But I swear, K.H, if this little outing makes my IQ drop by so much as half a point, you can consider yourself dead."

"Oh, Alexia you're such a sourpuss," K.H remarked, with a mixture of amusement and fondness.

As it turned out, the outing was held in some woody area near the lake, with a few tents set up and a huge campfire. There was a barbeque pit next to it and a bunch of people Alexia had seen before but never bothered to get to know milling around. Alexia followed K.H, who was suddenly the social butterfly, to a tent to dump her belongings then, much to her own disgust, couldn't help scanning the place for Almier.

She spotted him, standing around next to some guy she remembered as Ray, glancing cautiously at the others as if they carried some incurable disease, probably in the form of their stupidity. He caught her eye and waved, but before she could reply, a voice suddenly came up and whispered in her ear, "Wow, this isn't this just the perfect place for a perfect date with the perfect boy?" The voice was so overwhelmingly faux-sweet and mocking and unmistakably Caden.

Alexia whirled around and looked him in the eye. "Well, fancy seeing you here, at a social gathering."

He smiled in return. "Could say the same for you. Since when does Alexia Lee mingle with the lowly majority?"

"Since her best friend got scarily good at guilt tripping."

Caden raised an eyebrow. "K.H? Ahh, it's probably all part of the plan to lure you into the dark woods at night to murder you and fulfil her name legacy."

Alexia levelled him with a glare. "Except I'm not a guy, so if I were you," she poked him in the chest and smirked. "I'd sleep with my eyes open, just in case."

Caden snorted. "I'd like to see her try." He flexed his biceps and went down the cringeworthy route of pretending to kiss them. "Did you forget who's the star athlete in this school?"

"Um, that would be Chris," Alexia joked. "You're a little short on the fake tan, which probably explains why Natalie is no longer attracted to you." They both turned to where Natalie and Chris were making out on a bench near the barbeque pit and Alexia felt her appetite disappear.

Caden laughed bitterly. "God, they're practically asking to be filmed at this rate!"

"If you're so jealous, you could always join them. I'm sure Natalie would very much enjoy having two tongues stuck down her throat, and hey, while you're at it, could you keep it there long enough so she suffocates?"

"I'm not jealous," Caden snapped. "It's just revolting, don't you think?"

Alexia laughed. "Please, her mere presence is enough. She didn't have to go through that much trouble to repel me. It comes quite naturally, since whatever goes in her mouth is no better than whatever comes out."

Caden threw his head back and laughed. "I always knew you hated humanity, Alexia, but a sense of humour? This is new."

Alexia imitated Natalie's hair flick. "Please. You're just too dim to understand my comedy. And most of the time, I'm laughing at you, not with you," she teased.

Caden pretended to falter and faked a hurt expression. "Ouch."

Then, his expression quickly cleared and he was smirking at her once again. "Look who's coming over," he sang, and Alexia turned around to see Almier greet her happily.

She fell into conversation with him and out of the corner of her eye, noticed Caden silently slipping away. They chatted until K.H called them both over to the barbeque, and Alexia was reminded of how much she loved conversing with Almier.

Throughout dinner, she felt as though she was a part of a sappy chick-flick novel as she, K.H, Almier and Caden laughed, chatted and acted like normal human beings. Then, they gathered around the campfire and Alexia was transported back to the time when K.H made her read her summer camp books, and Alexia realized that for the first time in a long time, she was really having fun.