Two Schools Out - Forever

24

"Okay, let's see what we have here," I muttered. The six of us were in "my" room. The notes we'd gotten from the Institute in New York were spread out on my bed. When we'd found the files in the computer and printed them out, some of the information had been readable. Now those pages were gone, leaving us with lines of numerical code. What had happened to the readable pages? Dunno. Was it another test?

So basically, we were looking at reams of numbers. Every once in a while a real word leaped out at us. Some of the real words were us, our names. Somewhere in these pages was info about our parents.

"How about we each take two pages and comb through them," I suggested. "Figure out what we can. See if anything about the numbers looks familiar or has a pattern."

"Sounds like a plan," said Iggy. "Except for me."

"I'll read you out some numbers," said Fang.

Iggy nodded, and I passed out the sheets. Fang started reading softly to Iggy, who concentrated hard, nodding every so often.

I took my two sheets and sat at the desk. For the next hour, we tried every basic code-breaking technique we knew. We looked for patterns, hexagons-and came up with nada, nothing.

Another hour later, I dropped my head into my hands. "This is impossible," I said, ready to scream in frustration. "This is probably a computerized code. If it is, we'll never break it."

"But isn't everything a test?" the Gasman asked, his small face tired. It was almost ten. I had to get these guys into bed. "Didn't Jeb tell you that everything is a test, back at the School, when we were rescuing Angel? So that would mean we're supposed to be able to break this somehow."

"I thought of that," I said. "That's what's so irritating. I've tried everything that would occur to me. So I guess I'm flunking this test."

A tap on my door interrupted us. The door opened a bit, and Anne poked her head around it.

"Hey, guys," she said with a smile. "Sleepy yet? Krystal? Want to get ready for bed?"

"Yep," said Nudge. "I'm beat."

Gazzy looked at me, and I nodded at him.

"Yeah," he told Anne. "We were just about to crash."

"Good," she said easily. "Anyone need anything? Before you crash?"

"No, we're fine," said Angel, following Anne out. They walked down the hall, and I heard Anne say, "Ariel, how about letting Total out one last time?"

"Okay," said Angel.

I stood in my room, feeling a little bad, feeling as if someone else was taking care of my flock.