Me and Aaron went back to New York. I told him that he can stay with his parents if he wanted but he insisted on coming with me for an unknown reason.
âSurprise!â Lilly yelled opening the door for me.
âWhat surprise?â I asked her excitedly instead of saying âHiâ.
âIâll tell you... wait, whereâs Aaron?â She stopped asking.
âIn his flat with Erik.â I shrugged.
âBut Erik is here. He wanted to tell you too.â She pouted. Erik came from behind her.
âAaron isnât with you?â He asked disappointed.
âNo, guys. Just tell me whatâs the surprise.â I told them still standing at the door.
âNo, Erik call Aaron.â She told him. And he took his phone out calling Aaron.
âCan I at least get inside?â I asked her. I was extremely exhausted.
âSure,â She got into her room smiling and leaving the door open.
âWhatâs wrong with your sister?â I asked Erik after he hung up with Aaron.
âYouâll know, but tomorrow. Aaron asked if it could wait till tomorrow and I said yes so weâll have to wait till tomorrow.â He shrugged.
âGood night, Amber.â Texting away on his phone, Erik mumbled getting out of the flat not even looking at where he was walking.
âSo youâll leave me suspended like that till the morning? Okay fine, I donât want to know anyways.â I yelled at these two who were driving me crazy.
I sat on my laptop for sometime before I sleep. There were so many news about the strange phenomena that happened to the Earth and how it made the most famous scientists look so helpless and couldnât do anything about it. I looked at the screen scrolling down and looking at the celebrations in many countries.
âYouâre welcome.â I mumbled smiling then shut the screen.
âWill you tell me now, please.â I begged Lilly for the hundredth time today.
âJust wait weâre almost there. Five more seconds wonât kill you.â She rolled her eyes. Erik was ignoring us typing on his phone.
âUgh.â I rubbed my face with my hand. âYouâre the worst friend ever.â
âYea, yeah,â She kept walking to where we were supposed to meet Aaron. Erik didnât say anything since we met him in the morning.
âWhoâs he texting since last night?â I asked Lilly.
âYouâll know.âShe was grinning at me.
âWill I ever get a solid answer for anything today?â I whined feeling extremely annoyed.
I found Aaron standing on the other side of the street. I crossed the street quickly standing in front of him.
âOh, thank god youâre finally here. These two were driving me insane. They refused to tell me anything till youâre here.â I talked super fast.
âUhh... Hi?â I think Aaron wasnât that excited about the surprise but his reaction made me laugh.
âHi.â I answered Then Lilly and Erik came giggling together.
âCan you tell me now, your majesty?â I asked dryly. I hated being kept suspended like that.
âYes.â She said laughing. She opened her mouth when I heard someone says.
âHi.â Professor Cyril was standing there smiling.
âHey, professor.â Aaron greeted him and we all looked at him perplexed.
âWho said you were the only ones having a surprise here?â Aaron asked smiling.
âWhat is it?â Lilly asked quickly.
âWell, Do you know whoâs this man standing right in front of you?â He asked.
âYes, professor Cyril.â Erik answered like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
âHe is also the general manager of CFE scientific exploration company.â He told us.
âShut. up.â Lilly gaped.
âWhy didnât you tell us that when we first met?â I asked him.
âI was interested in professor Hendrixâs research about the island. So I wanted to be the sponsor of the expedition but didnât want to compromise the name of the company.â He explained.
âOkay.â I shrugged so heâs only here to say this? But whereâs the surprise?
âI was impressed with all of your work together. Specially Lilly. And, of course, the team work was amazing.â Turned out that he had more to say than I thought.
âSo, I decided to give you a place for a team in the company. Free exploring team.â He announced and my mouth fell open.
âBut what about the interview and the CV papers?â I asked.
âI saw more than enough for the interview and Iâve got all of your CV papers. Iâm sure youâll be a great team.
âBut sadly Erik canât work with you till heâs finished the college first. But heâs won his place in your team and will stay that way.â He said.
âThanks, Professor.â Lilly said. I think her mouth was going to fall off from smiling so much.
âDonât thank me, this is not a favor you didnât surrender on Radssoda so youâve also won it with your effort.â He pointed out.
âAnd most importantly, stop calling me professor. Iâm not a professor.â He told us smiling.
We hung around with him for some time talking about the details of the new job. I canât believe that Iâve finally got my dream job. I felt so amazing from the inside.
Mr. Cyril said that heâs got some work to finish and will come back to have dinner with us in a near restaurant.
Aaron bought us some ice cream as a celebration of the new work and we sat eating it on the shore watching the sunset.
âCan I tell you now?â Lilly asked. I didnât ask her anymore so she did.
âNo.â I teased her laughing.
âOkay, Tristan has called.â She considered it as a yes.
âReally? Thatâs great but I thought they werenât allowed...â I was stopped by Erik.
âThey are, but before I got into the plane, I gave him my satellite phone and told him how to use it.â He was grinning widely.
âSmart.â I said licking the melting piece of my strawberry ice cream.
âWhat did he say?â Aaron asked leaning on so heâd be seeing Lilly.
âHis father agreed on him leaving the island on some conditions, of course, but he said yes anyways and asked if we can come get him.â
âWeâll tell Mr. Cyril about it. I donât think heâll mind.â Aaron shrugged.
âWhat else?â I asked because she looked like she was going to explode from the excitement.
âHe told me that Periwinkle is still alive.â I stopped eating and looked at her.
âReally?â This day was just getting better and better.
âYes, he said and I quote âIt certainly wasnât easy to stop the Radharcs from killing a big shark who suddenly appeared on the shore but when they realized that it was wounded and needed help they let me keep him after he shifted into a hamster of course,ââ She stopped looking at me I was smiling so hard, it made my face hurt. All of them looked so happy with the news too.
âWhat about Eossoda? We canât leave it like that.â Aaron said after some time.
âI totally agree with Aaron.â I told Lilly and Erik.
âThen what can we do so it wonât come back to the surface?â Lilly asked. I kept thinking but nothing came to my mind âWe can explode it. Itâs not that big.â Erik suggested shrugging.
âCan you make bombs? Or know someone we can buy them from him?â I asked him hopefully.
âNo.â He shook his.
âToo bad, itâs a good idea and couldâve worked if we know someone who can buy us good bombs that can actually work under the water.â I finished eating my ice cream and got up.
Me and Aaron were walking behind Lilly and Erik.
âYou didnât sit or talk that much with the Radharcs, right?â I told him.
âYeah, maybe Iâll do that when we visit Radssoda this time.â He grinned.
âAnd I was wondering, when were you going to meet your parents?â He asked.
âMaybe next week, I donât know. Why are you asking?â
âI wanted to go with you. You know, see your town and meet your parents.â He said casually.
âOkay.â I answered him simply. Smiling to myself, I wondered...
We met Mr. Cyril at a pizza restaurant and sat talking and telling him the news about Tristan. He was so happy with it and didnât mind going for another trip to Radssoda.
A girl in a baby blue dress and straight black hair came sitting with us. She introduced herself by the name .
âAmber this is my daughter Iâve told you about and Faith this is Amber. We ate our dinner chatting and laughing. Faith was a really nice and quiet girl. I liked her instantly.
âI study the explosive engineering in Cornell University.â She told us about herself making me, Aaron, Erik and Lilly stop eating and look at her. Erik had a melted piece of mozzarella cheese dangling from his mouth.
We kept exchanging looks till I knew their opinion then I talked.