Harpers POV
    Lena, Elisabeth, and I are all standing in a tight circle. Every one of us are talking over the other. We've rallied to discuss what had happened the day before. Will of course was immaculate. Anybody can see that. We have already tried several times this morning to talk to Skye about what we observed, but she seems uninterested. Every time I look at her, I get this feeling that her mind is somewhere else.

    " Guys, guys!" I wave my hands in the air, and they both fall silent, " One at a time, sheesh, Lena you go first."

    She takes a deep breath to calm herself and begins, " So we all know that Will hasnt done a single thing wrong-,"

Elisabeth cuts her off, " Except for breaking off their friendship."

" Yeah, well none of us know what that was about," Lena continues, " He was fairly normal yesterday though. I mean he didnt really talk to Skye, but he wasnt mean or anything, plus he's using this time to get to know his team, which i think is commendabale."

    Elisabeth and I both nod in agreement. It's true, Will isnt moping about his situation, but using it for the better. Yet another thing that claims he isn't in the wrong.

    " But the problem is, Mark just doesnt do anything interesting. Like he's annoying sometimes, is pretty cocky, and isn't the best counselor I've ever seen, but what does that tell us?"

    " Nothing." I sigh.

    " That's exactly what I gathered too. Lena pretty much summed it up." Elisabeth says.

    " Same, maybe we should just keep a watch out again today, who knows maybe something will happen."

    Lena and Elisabeth both agree, but I can tell by the looks on their faces they are feeling just as despairing as I feel

                                        ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

                                   Will's POV

    This morning marks the beginning of possibly fixing this whole mess. I asked Ava if I could call in my team early to work on something. To my relief, she agreed, not even imagining what I had in mind.

    We are at our normal meeting spot in the nursery. The kids are sprawled out on random chairs and baby toys. Caleb keeps yawning with his mouth wide open making this noise that sounds like a low siren. All of them are bleary eyed and sleepy. Well, all except for Evelyn. She is sipping some sort of concotion from Starbucks and walking around the room, shifting through pieces of pink notebook paper. I just sit and watch her, to emotionally and physically exhausted to ask what she's doing. Finally, she seems to decide on something, then starts handing out a page to each member of the team. " Each of you will take down notes as the day goes on, on your paper you will see that I have created category's. Each section is a level of importance."

    " What does that mean?" Nolan asks, fiddling with his paper.

    " I was getting there. Each category is divided by levels of importance, all the way to the right it says, ' sus' that means when you see Mark doing something just sort of suspicious, write in the section what it is then report back to us. "

" It's like among us in real life!" Caleb actually gets excited for once.

" Sure, do you guys understand the other categories and what they mean?"

I look down at the pink. note in my hands. Evelyn's loopy handwriting goes on to spell out, ' sus level 2' and 'sus level 3'. It's pretty straight forward. I mean, it got across to Caleb, which is a skill to accomplish. " These are great Evelyn, but I thought we agreed Oliver will be doing the chore of watching Mark."

" He will be, but we will get way more work done with all of us working at it. Plus, Oliver will probably end up having more notes then all of us combined anyways." Evelyn explains.

" I get it, but I have one simple question," Arthur says, looking down at his paper.

" What?" Evelyn snaps, her annoyance showing through her professionalism.

" Why do these have to be pink?" He waves his paper in the air for emphasis.

Evelyn opens her mouth to anwer but Oliver speaks instead, " Study shows that pink is an excellent color to calm the nerves and even generate feelings of confident and ease. That's why you chose it, right Evelyn?"

" Absolutely!" She says enthusiastically, though we all know that she got none of what Oliver just said.

    We all sit in silence for a bit. Then Oliver bores his eyes into me. " How are your emotional levels right now Will?"

    How does he know? " They suck." I know I'm supposed to me strong for my team and everything. But at the words of Oliver I break.

    Arthur looks at me sympathetically. " I'm sorry bro."

    This is surprising. I thought Arthur only cared about his looks. " Thanks." I give him a slap on the back and stand up. " Alright are you guys ready for the day?"

    " Are you ready for the day?" Oliver asks, peering through his glasses at me.

    " I don't have a choice Oliver." He nods solemnly at this, " plus this is about Skye and-."

    " And Bet!" Evelyn adds in.

    I chuckle, " I was getting there, yes and Bet..." I trail off. We all look at each other with serious expressions on our faces. Without speaking, we all slowly gather our things and head out the door. Each of us clasp our pink notebook papers, knowing that the life of Bet, and possibly Skye weighs on

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

                                   Evelyn's POV

    Well that went well. I think as we all head down the hallway. I was nervous that they would think my idea was stupid. Or immature. Maybe they do and are just being nice. I push the thought from mind and steal a glance at Arthur. His gorgeous brown curls are falling into his eyes and the way he walks is just-just, I don't know but it's hot. He catches me staring at him, and I look away, blushing.

    Focus on the bigger task at hand. I keep telling myself. But it's hard when the cutest guy on the planet earth is here, in my presence. I shake my head furiously, willing my thoughts to go away.

    A few people give us the side eye when we enter the auditorium, but nothing more than that. We do look a bit strange I suppose, all of holding pink papers and looking as if we're headed into battle. Which we are technically. Harper comes up to us and smiles, " What are y'all up to?"

    " Team project." Will blurts. Real smooth there buddy.

    Harper scrunches her eyes together for a moment but shrugs and walks away. The whole team releases a breath. Will runs his hands over his face and tells us to sit down while he makes sure Skye is okay. " You aren't going to actually talk to her right?" I ask in a hushed voice.

    " No, but after that episode with Mark, I need to keep tabs on her." Mark says quietly. Poor guy, dark circles are under his eyes, and he's starting to look desperate. He leaves without saying anything else. Each of us stare after him in sympathy.

" Bro that guy is lovesick." Arthur says.

" Everything gets complicated when it comes to matters with the heart." Oliver speculates.

" Guy's look!" Nolan points his finger at the entrance to the auditorium. Mark is walking through it, and he's looking straight at us. I step in front of Nolan to hide his pointing finger, but it's to late. Mark is walking toward us with a confident stride. Crap crap crap. My mind tries to quick come up with a solution but it jams in crap mode.

" What are you guys up to?" Mark says, smirking. The smirk is kinda hot, in a toxic sort of way.

" Nolan here was telling us you can play basketball." Caleb says brightly.

Well that was unexpected.

" Yea, I told them about that dunk you did." Nolan says with a plastered smile.

" Oh that? That was nothing." Mark states.

You cocky little-

My thoughts get interrupted by Oliver, " Actually dunking is one of the most complicated and hard to complete act in sports, I read in ' Toughness: Developing True Strength on and off Court' that-."

Mark cuts him off, " Your a smart one aren't you?" He gives a nervous laugh. Then he gives Oliver a 'friendly' punch in the shoulder and walks off. Oliver winces.

We all raise our eyebrows and immediately pull out our pens. " What category would that be in?" Arthur asks.

" Just sus." I sigh, looking Oliver up and down with concern, but he seems to be fine, scribbling down a note in tiny, perfect, words. " Will that punch leave a bruise Oliver?"

" Perhaps, my family does tend to bruise easily, I always hated it, but now it seems to be working in my favor." Oliver pulls at the collar of his shirt till it exposes his shoulder. We lean in to inspect it. And indeed, there it is, a light discoloration of the skin, but not enough to cause any concern.

" That won't work." Nolan sighs, plopping into a chair.

" Oh, this will develop enough in time to look like a real bruise, I can tell already."

So we have our first complaint to bring to Ava. That's progress I guess. At least we have something. Surprisingly our team is working like a well oiled machine.

But we still need so much more evidence than this. We need so much more till we can accomplish our goal.

Authors note
Guys I'm back. It's a miracle😆
I read this whole book over again after a year, and realized I really want to finish it.
So if you need a refresher read the last two chapters, it will explain a lot!
Thanks for all the comments, votes, and support!!

-heavengrace55