Meddling

“Here we are…” Coral looked around. Nothing. “Here we go…” silence. “Great,” She said with a fake smile.

Coral led the peak of the formation, she had two people on either side of her, but no one seemed to want to take the first step.

In front of him he saw metres of greenish undergrowth, inopportune branches and almost inexorable stones, in the distance the sound of cars, also the sea and the occasional house with clothes lying in the sun.

"Nobody's going to move?" She continued looking straight ahead. At that moment he felt a small, not at all gentle hand inciting him, or in other words, giving him a push to go forward. "That's a no."

She glanced at his brother, but gave up immediately; he didn't want to ask him for more help, he had already done enough helping each and every one of them get down the small but steep three-meter wall.

“Alright…”

She gave up.

It was a little after noon and luckily the trade winds made the journey more pleasant; the one who seemed cooler (with fewer sweat stains) was Yuusuke, who from what he had said at this time of year, where he was from, a minimum of 32 C° and a humidity of 83% was normal.

That Sunday they had agreed to leave early, at the risk of receiving another murderous look from Coral, but it didn't happen. If there was anyone more unpredictable in this world than Adassa, it was her parents. They showed up without warning, not even to her, and they didn't know that now, their little nuisance, lived in another house, so, despite being warned, they preferred to wait at the Cuesta Ruiz house.

“I can't believe you lied to them.” Coral said into the air as she recalled the visit.

Nobody answered.

“Ada,” she said with a hint of irony. “I'm talking to you.”

“Dude, what do I know, everyone here lies.”

“Speak for yourself” Imobach replied

“If I told you what each of you searches for on your browser… But I won't, not for a small and modest donation.”

Imobach gave him a disapproving look, mixed with a small percentage of concern.

“Anyway.” Coral shook her head as she tried to remember if she had closed the page where she read those no-Christian fanfics. “why did you tell them that you got in on a scholarship?”

“Why did I do it? It's not my fault that they want me in a school to raise the average grade.” She shook his head while raising his palms and shoulders.

“Oh well! You're calling us donkeys.” Coral complained.

Teresa preferred to comb a large lock of hair to cover her face.

"I don't like to agree with her," Yusuke pointed out, "but I've seen your grades. Raising the class average wouldn't hurt."

“Outrage” Coral almost shouted.

"A scholarship in the third quarter?" Teresa wondered. "That's weird."

“Sometimes it is done in international exchanges, Canada and the United States are usually the preferred destinations.” added Imobach.

“But not between schools on an island of less than three thousand square kilometers.” Yûusuke agreed.

“Well, it's the largest in the archipelago, so watch out.” Adassa emphasized the syllables of the last word.

“And now she's acting like a patriot? Are you going to tell us how you did it?” Coral said with some despair.

She had stopped walking, to force Adassa to speak once and for all, which meant that the rest had done so too, although the others were less interested.

“You said it. We heard it. A scholarship for the best student.” she continued.

Not in an aggressive tone, but rather in an overly curious tone. She was the delegate and representative, if they hadn't told her about the scholarship it meant that they hadn't told her anything else, so she wasn't useful to them. Were they thinking of getting rid of her?

"I don't know that," Adassa's thin lips replied cheekily.

The curly-haired girl, who had recently increased the number of her facial piercings by two, specifically in her oral cavity, changed her argument. Lying was not as much of a problem for her as it was for Teresa.

“It's… because of a matter of… bullying?”

Teresa spoke in an almost inaudible tone, very carefully, in case she was embarrassed, in case she didn't want anyone to know, in case she broke down. Maybe that was why she didn't want to talk, maybe that was why she didn't want to say anything and her parents had taken the move so well.

The mother of her three kittens, Meowricio, Catherina and Luis, did not know many parents who were so lax. Her grandparents, although loving, were strict. There was no information about her father and it was better not to talk about her mother, if she could be called that, so sometimes she found it strange to understand certain reactions from the parents of other people.

“Is that it?” Coral ran in a fake hug. Fake. She knew that Adassa disliked physical contact and even more being sticky and she would be with the combination of exercise, summer and the body heat of both. “If that's it, why didn't you tell us? Is it hard? Of course, silly.” she hit herself on the forehead. “We're here.”

“No!”

“Do you really think that a profile like yours is that of someone who has been harassed?”

Yûsuke spoke while sitting, watching from a rock. A rock covered in mold. A mold that, against all his predictions, would make him relegate his pants to cleaning rags.

“It sounds more like someone who, if they were nearby, wouldn't notice it," Imobach said.

“And you sound more like someone who would like to have people sit on their face. Oh, there you go, you forced me to say it. For the record, I was going to charge you cheap.”

It took him a while to blink. Imobach kept the same expression for more than ten seconds without blinking, he tried not to make eye contact with anyone in particular, being the tallest he looked at the horizon without any heads interfering.

Silence would be best at such times.

He was certainly the most advanced of the group on that subject, but he did not expect his secrets to be revealed just like that.

When he came to, the rest of the people were staring at him, and all he could think of was to take a mouthful of water to rinse it off, turn his face and water the dirt. He wiped his face with his shirt.

“Shall we continue?” was what he replied.

He had messed with her and she had gotten back at him, all truthfully, fair and square, without retaliation.

“You've gone too far.” Coral was now a little angry.

“He attacked me!”

“Coco, it's not that imp-...”

His sister interrupted him by covering his mouth.

“You've gone too far.”

From outside, Yuusuke made a mental note to investigate later if incognito mode was sufficient.

“Okay… sorry” she said reluctantly.

“No. Your penance will be: to tell the truth.”

Why didn't she surprise her brother? She might not have been the quickest student, and she spent long afternoons studying, but she knew how to make the most of things.

"Ugh," she howled plaintively. "You're so annoying when you want to be." Adassa walked forward listlessly, letting her arms and neck hang loose, as if they weighed her down. "I logged into the school system and signed up. No waiting, no paperwork."

For a few moments Coral doubted if she had gone too far... but no, she needed to know, besides, she felt good, as if she possessed the Geass, would her left eye look totally different?

“But… that’s illegal,” Teresa stammered.

“Don't tell me.”

“The same was true of the hermitage, and we came out unscathed…”

“Now we are accomplices.” Yuusuke made a great effort to include himself in the sentence.

“Thanks Coco,” Imobach whispered, “Does anyone have any other crimes they'd like to mention? That's it.”

Yuusuke just watched.

“I usually go to the mall for a snack, with the free samples from the supermarket. Sometimes I bring a change of clothes and pretend to be other people…” Teresa looked for the acceptance of the others with her round eyes.

“I brought the pillow from the hostel on the end-of-term trip last year. It's very comfortable.” Imobach answered.

"Come on! Stop the nonsense," she cut his brother off. "How are they going to accept you just like that? The director, someone must have said something!"

“I told them that they had lost it and that I was still waiting for a reply. I made a false receipt.”

“Oh… you make things look so easy,” Coral mumbled.

“So technically it's all legal?” Teresa asked, relieved.

“Technically,” answered the one with the soccer boots. “Like when they sell more seats on planes than they should.”

The conversation took a different direction, some more skeptical about the subject, would have preferred to clarify everything, but it is difficult when you try to abstract yourself while making your way to a totally new cave.

After searching the length and breadth of the entire ravine and finding absolutely nothing, it was unanimously decided to explore the cavity.

In fact, the entire exploration had already been planned days before, but it was not the same to say it from the comfort of your living room as to be in front of a dusty, black rock cave. Coral took the step without thinking much about it; it would be better to distract herself with any conversation than to think about what could happen.

“That's when I found Tere's grandparents a bit affectionate.” Coral finished narrating. Whenever she could, she told the story, it was the funniest one that had ever happened to her and it was good for breaking the ice, or for forgetting that they were in total darkness.

"It's normal, they're young," the guy with the tie replied. Tere was beginning to suspect that he wore it out of fetish, or perhaps just for comfort, like Coral with pink. "They're 50 years old, right?"

"Almost," she replied proudly when her blush had passed. "Grandma is 46, and Grandpa Domingo is 47."

He shortened his family tree; if he named Dolores, Prospero and Angustias, he would almost reach a century.

Yuusuke preferred not to ask any further questions. He had never heard anything about the blonde's parents, nor their names, and, unlike the siblings' parents, he didn't think it was because they were too focused on their careers.

“Have you ever encountered anyone in that situation?” Coral continued.

“How disgusting!” Adassa interrupted Yuusuke's refusal.

“Maybe that's why he hates you.” said the brunette with delicacy. “Aisuke, I mean, maybe one day you interrupted him and that's why... I remember one time I saw…” she started laughing before finishing the sentence.

It was then that some growls emerged from the depths of the darkness.

“Stay still,” Coral whispered. She stood in front of everyone, wrapping them in a hug.

Her brother did the same in turn, standing in front of her, protecting her.

No one moved for a few minutes, they wanted to hear that noise again. Adassa, who curiously had the best eyesight of all, squinted to see beyond the blackness.

"I don't know what they're so upset about," he strutted, unable to see anything. He walked past the mountaineer. "It's nothing."

“Maybe… a mouflon?” Teresa dared to open her eyes. “Badly wounded…”

The growl they had heard a few seconds ago had evolved. It had evolved into a guttural snore that echoed against every possible plane of the cave, as if it were expanding ever more ferociously.

Adassa stepped back, positioning herself behind the rest. She had begun to sweat again, and a lot, but she didn't care about taking Teresa's hands to interlace them. It was not known which of the two was shaking more.

Imobach's flashlight went deeper into the darkness, and its owner cursed not having bought one of those Asian flashlights on AliExpress that, according to the ad, illuminated even the soul.

“You shouldn't do that, her sister warned her.”

He had tightened the circle even further, if possible, and had even sprouted eyes in the back of his head to make sure that nothing came near the other three.

"So what are we here for then?" he replied, not in a defiant tone, but rather in annoyance at wasting his time. And as his dear mini-me used to say, "Time is gold, or something like that."

He walked several meters, without losing sight of the group behind him.

“This is ridiculous.” Coral snorted when she saw that nothing was happening.

He followed in Imobach's footsteps. He took exactly one step more than him, in his mind, that would make him appear to have done more than his brother in the eyes of the rest.

"Will he be afraid?" Imobach wondered.

“She does.” Adassa pointed to Teresa.

“I do.” The one pointed out nodded.

“No.” he smiled and his whole face narrowed, he was one of those that wrinkled and gave a sincere smile. “I mean, the animal may have been trapped for days…”

“That's assuming it's an animal," Yuusuke insisted.

“A Marian apparition? Guayota?” Teresa's eyes sparkled.

“No.” He took away here illusion.

Closer. The sound had come closer and they still couldn't identify it. They weren't more than ten palms away.

Cold sweat began to fall, his pulse quickened, his head burned, and his muscles tensed.

“Do you see its legs?” Coral asked.

“What are we going to see if we can't see anything?” said Adassa from behind.

“A No was enough” Imobach replied.

“I'm going to use mine.”

“Your legs?” Yuusuke found it curious. They were muscular, yes, but the girl was not one to resort to violence as a first resort.

“Yeah... Let's get out of here, Smok-...!” She bit his tongue. “All!”

Coral began to escape with long strides. She grabbed Teresa by the wrist as best she could, and even though she was slipping, she pulled her along.

It was difficult to walk on the rocky path, especially if you look ahead, especially if the light moves with your arm. She opened the way for her friend, so she knew where to step, but that didn't exempt her from having her ankles dance a little.

“Hey!” was the only resistance the group put up. Imobach's tiny complaint.

After which, he carried Adassa on his shoulder, 51 kilograms were nothing, he tried the same with Yuusuke, but the latter stopped him, that... was frowned upon among boys, wasn't it? Besides, he was sensible, he wasn't in any real danger, he wouldn't have anyone carry him until it was strictly necessary.