Raven avoided Aaron for three weeks before she could manage no longer. During that time, nothing seemed to happen. She didn’t have any more weird experiences, so she must have just been imagining it. School went as slowly as normal, and Raven found herself almost wishing it were true so that there would be some adventure in her life. I mean- who doesn’t want adventure?
Four days in, Raven ran into her best friend, Kaya Williams. Kaya was rather tall and unbelievably thin, but generally remained slightly slouched and almost bent over. Despite this, she still was considered by all to be quite beautiful, and was greatly respected and feared by most who knew her. This caused her to naturally have an arrogant manner about her that was not intended, but somewhat annoying.
Though only eighteen years old and lacking a college education of any sort, Kaya was the smartest person around and thus had won the admiration of all her peers. From a very young age, she had become very skilled at the art of thievery. When she turned fifteen, Kaya had been told about the gospel and had made a heartfelt confession of faith. She gave up stealing for a short time, but eventually it came back to her in a legal manner. At the age of sixteen, Kaya began to work for any company who would hire her as a temporary head of security. She had no official title, but her job was mainly one of perfecting the security system and making sure no one would be able to break in.
Kaya was the perfect example of the beautiful, intelligent, and deadly heroine who saves the day. Or she would be, if she were the heroine. But she is not the heroine of this story, despite all of her skills and knife throwing abilities.
When Raven happened to meet Kaya that day, she was somewhat broody. This did not have much effect on Kaya, because Kaya herself was naturally broody, but it did have some effect on their conversation. What normally would consist of Kaya quietly bragging about her newest security plan and Raven gently teasing her now was reduced to a couple of mumbled words.
Normally this would end a conversation and each person would go her own way. Unfortunately, in this case they were sitting in a car together on a trip to the mall, and there was no way of getting out of it. So they sat in silence for the entire trip until the ride back. On the ride back, the unbelievable happened and Kaya actually started a conversation.
“So-o,” Kaya paused, “what’s wrong?”
“Nothing.”
“That’s a pretty big nothing. Mind telling me how big?” Kaya smirked.
“Aaron.”
“Oh,” Kaya sounded like she understood, “who exactly is Aaron?”
“He’s my brother, and he’s a pain.”
“Wait,” Kaya looked genuinely confused, “isn’t your brother in Egypt?”
“He was.” Raven rolled her eyes, “I think the sun messed with his head a little bit.”
“Ah,” As if that explained everything.
Then they sat in silence for the rest of the trip. After that conversation, Raven found herself much more cheery and completely back to her old self, but Aaron was still scaring her and so she remained as far from him as possible. Instead, she spent as much time as possible with Kaya and any other friend she happened to meet throughout the weeks.
During one conversation with Kaya at the end of two weeks, Raven told her the entire story about the necklace and Aaron and his boss’ strange story. She expected Kaya to immediately agree with her that it was crazy, but she didn’t. Instead, Kaya went into a long and detailed explanation of every strange thing she had encountered through her job, and how they might just be putting an extreme label on a strange thing.
It was the most Raven had ever heard from Kaya in one sitting. Sure, Kaya was known for her witty responses, but not for her in-depth conversation. Immediately changing the conversation, she asked hastily about Kaya’s last job. Kaya, of course, relished the opportunity to brag about her work, so she did.
“Yeah, apparently the White House can’t take defeat.”
“Wait,” Raven was shocked, “when you were gone this last week, you were breaking into the White House?”
“Well, yeah. You know, their security isn’t as good as you would think. I’ve broken into drug stores more heavily guarded.”
“So, how’d you do it this time? Sneak in through the back entrance?”
“Actually, that’s confidential. I really don’t want to get on their bad side, seeing as they already don’t like me.”
“Ugh, what did you do this time?” Raven knew Kaya a little too well.
“Nothing! I just…” Kaya suddenly sounded sheepish, which was another first for her.
“What did you do?”
“I might have laughed at the President when he said he was unbeatable.”
“Wait,” sadly, this didn’t shock Raven too much, “you were standing and personally talking to the President of America, the most powerful man in the country, and you laughed at him?”
“Well, they cut my pay in half just for beating the system, which is exactly what they were paying me to do! I was upset, what else can I say?”
Raven couldn’t help it anymore, she started giggling. Kaya had been slightly tense and extremely broody as usual, but even she couldn’t help cracking a smile at Raven’s giggle. Before long, they were laughing so hard that they couldn’t speak. They just opened and closed their mouths, pointed at each other, and laughed. This could have gone on forever, but Raven had a date with a really cool alien in a movie, and Kaya needed to plan her next job. So, they shook hands and parted ways, completely forgetting their original conversation.