Chapter Text
Gabriels POV
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Ade and Ede some how got into a 10 minute mini battle about which code is better Java or binary and started using all sorts of technical jargon that left the rest of the group confused I mean it’s lunch on the first day back they couldn’t save it till later I just went through coding like an 45 minutes ago
“It’s not that hard to understand if you pay attention in class” Penelope said from the table behind us seeing out confused faces
“ItS NOt THat HaRD tO UnDerSTand iF yOU PAy aTtEntIon” I mock in a high pitch voice which earned me a glare I better get use to this shouldn’t I
“Thats a horrible imitation Gabriel” Amira looked over at me before saying.. no sqeaking “it’s more like It’s NOt tHAt hard-“
“Thank you for that wonderful imitation of my voice and by the way you have 15 minutes until lessons, so instead of practicing your ‘amazing’.” She said while adding speak marks with her hands. “Infiltration starts soon so you should probably start getting to class.”
“Is this heaven sorry hell we would want you to get your hopes up” I say before rudely getting cut off *flips non existent long hair*i mean the nerve
“Get to the point.”she said
“Right I forgot we just are good enough to be graced with your presence-”
“You still haven’t got to the point.”
“you still haven’t let ‘em get to the point.” Amira says
“You’re all insufferable.”
For what? stating basic facts I thought you were the one who pride themselves on ‘being factual’ or were you lying you’re not supposed to lie to your friends thats just wrong”
Jia catching on to the gist of our conversation decided to echo me adding fuel to the fire and said
So wrong I mean how could you lie to your friends thats breaking the rule and our hearts”
Amira piling in too “ just breaking our hearts” and making a heart over her chest before breaking it
“I-I”
“What at a loss for words at how handsome I am.“
“You all are incredibly insufferable I hope you all know that” she said before turning to ede and Ade “and javas the better script more versatile” before turn in around and practically sprinting at the door
“Yes I told you.“Ade screams
“Who knew she was so sensitive to jokes”
“not me”
“I thought she was gonna scream at us instead of leaving.”
“How did the conversation even get here,”
“I honestly don’t know but we’ve probably got to go to infiltration”I say as me Jia and Amira start getting up
“Hold up wait for us.” Ede says
“Don’t leave us behind gabster” I hear from behind me I wait for them all by the door
As we walk down the corridor “honestly why is she so sensitive about teasing I mean we barely even said anything besides I thought she would be nicer after the whole my parents tried to kidnapping me and tried to kill her oh I hear it now I get it.”
“If that is the case but I don’t think it’s entirely that but that would be unfair if it was.”Amira says while going through the corridor
“Yeah,” Jia adds “we all went through the we are not our parents/family members were our own person and if she treating you like that because of who your parent are them thats just wrong”
“Yeah gabster if that is why, totally wrong.” Ade adds
“But they did try to KILL her to be fair.” Ede says before getting death glares from both of the girls and a shove in the shoulder from Ade
“Again IF that is the reason why she’s avoiding you.”
“It’s the reason half the school is avoiding me and the other half are just staring at me like a science experiment the only people who don’t do that is you guys and our class and I’m pretty sure they got threatened if they did the only one not taking that seriously if they did is Edgar is it wrong that I just want things to go back to normal.”
“Look thats completely normal-“
“we’ll finish this conversation later because here we are infiltration.” Ade says while pointing to the door
“Thank you captain obvious” Jia says which and I try hard not to crack a smile crack a smile
“Come on I don’t think miss Jericho will be very happy with us if we’re late.” I say opening the door
”Ah nice of you to finally join us your lucky you were about to be late” mr Jericho says not looking up from some schematics for a door with 8 locks
“Sorry were late we were-“
“My excuse is what ever Gabriel says.” Jia cuts me off while going to sit down what is with people cutting me off, wait your turn this isn’t Starbucks.
“Same here.” Amira adds
“Us too.” Ade adds while him and ede goes to sit down
“I feel betrayed and you do realise how much power you’ve given me I whisper to them while sitting down next to Amira and Jia while Ede and Ade are opposite me
“What do you mean?” Jia whispers back
She’ll find out
“Sorry miss we were eating breakfast and lost track of time and while walking to class they joined a secret alien organisation not me because I’m just a perfect poster child.” I turn back to the rest of them and Amira ede and Ade all have horrified looks because there terrified of miss Jericho and to be fair she is pretty scary and then there’s Jia she doesn’t look that bothered but then again she’s at the top of the class with me behind and then Penelope so she has nothing to worry about will I forever flaunt that I have a higher grade to Penelope of course I will but then because someone had to ruin it I mean seriously
From the back of the class somebody whispers “ more like the nameless organisation.”
Miss Jericho head snaps to the back of the class and gives a glare before saying “the next person who mentions… that will be losing 20 crooked point understood.” Before turning to me and giving what looks to an apologetic smile
“Right moving on.” she says trying to move the topic along “Today we are going to be working on a door with 3 locks and a dead bolt”
“Three locks!” Edgar exclaims
“Yes is there a problem with that mr Delacombe.”
“But last year“-oh I am so quoting him on that “we only had 1.”-I do not think he thinks about what he’s saying or he does and like the rich bastard that he does he sees nothing wrong with it
“Yes most of you were first years who were still getting adjusted to the school and life here in Crookhaven but now that you all are second years you should be put to more challenging things,” she said and then looked at Edgar and said “unless your saying you can’t do mr Delacombe.”
“No I can do it-“
“Good then there shouldn’t be a problem.”
Edward opened his mouth before closing it a few times looking like a fish out of water before deciding to give up and then he turned to me and gave me a death glare like what did I even do to you it’s the first day get over yourself
after that mrs Jericho said she was leaving to get some more stuff to do because one of the other classes had to use some of the stuff for a drill I mean seriously it’s a school for crooks and this happens anyways after Mrs Jericho left everyone started talking and I assume gossiping about first day stuff I just hope that I wasn’t included in that.
I turned to my friends and said “alright who you betting on other than Jia to win this thing.”
“why am I being excluded this is racist you know.” Jia asked looking annoyed
“Because, miss ‘I set the standards unnecessarily high’ we all know you’re coming first guaranteed but the rest of us are all fair game.”
“Yeah you make the rest of us look like even more of an amateur than the twins are.” Amira said
“Excuse me I did not sign up to be attacked and I’m better than ede.” Ade replied defensively
“Hey I’m marked in the middle of the class just because I don’t go cracking safes on my free time-“
*cough* “Gabriel” *cough cough* Jia said urging ede off
“Yeah yeah I hope you choke mrs prodigy.”
“Anyways,” ede continued “just because I don’t go cracking safes in my free time doesn’t mean I’m bad at lock picking, and besides in coding I’m far superior.”
“We’re” Ade corrected
“We’re“ Ede repeated
“But anyways bets?” I questioned changing the topic cause if we continued talking about this it would turn into a full on debate I mean I would be surprised if we even made it to fake court for fraud or something
“Penelopes definitely in the running.” Amira responded
“As always” I said back
“Don’t sell yourself short gabester you’re up there too.” Ade said
“Thanks Ade but I was thinking what if we betted something real this time.” I said
“Like what?” Amira asked skeptically
“Like… how do I put this favours yeah favours basically.” I answer
“Like what kind?” Jia asked
“Any but we have to establish ground rules for all that-” thats all I get to in my explanation before I cut myself off when miss Jericho comes back into the room
“Alright crooklings settle down so I’ve got for half of you 2 key padlocks and for the other half double code brief cases you will be swapping half way through the lesson if you don’t finish well … tough luck I guess, you would be in the back of a cop car if it was real life” she was cut off by a groans of horror as she handed out the brief cases and padlocks
“So think of it as an extra challenge.” She pulled out a list before saying
“Oh and you will be pulled in alphabetical order to have a go at the door don’t worry if you don’t get it you will get another turn but only one so think carefully about how you would do this since it goes to your final grade.”
Another wave of collective groans go through the class before everyone starts working on their task
I got a padlock first it’s sleek and black with small ridges going up and down it has two key holes it looks more intimidating than it is as long as you know what your doing
and at this point it’s practically muscle memory at this point just doubled add the pick to apply pressure on both then push one pin up on the left then one on the right
I make my way through each of them and by the time I get to the last pin and unlock it I stop my timer 7:13 seconds when I look up I can already see Jia done and lounging in her chair
“Hey you wanna swap.” I ask
“Yeah is it just me or are these surprisingly easy? I mean I thought they were suppose to take all lesson?” Jia questions while handing me my brief case
“Yeah but I think it’s more about adapting your skill rather than technical ability.” I reply taking the suit case
“Alright mr genius.” Ade says
And I hear Amira mutter “Easy for you to say.” While not looking up at all
I take a look at the briefcase and it’s pretty much like any other briefcase to crack it shouldn’t take too long but before I can start my name gets called out
“Gabriel avery” I hear miss Jericho call out
I get up and walk over to where she is standing with a door and a bit of dry wall surrounding it I assume it was suppose to be a fake wall there was a keypad next to the door an normal lock and of course and extra dead lock chain from the inside
Alright so I start with the key pad I use one of ruined lock picks as a makeshift screwdriver and open the panel and I look for the power cord and cut one that seems to be it I hear a click and boom thats lock one down
Lock number 2 is the same as the padlock pressure and then moving each one of the pins to unlock and there you have it lock two conquered
And lock three I just reached inside and grabbed the chain and moved it
“Done” I say as I open the door
“Impressive time Gabriel 12:52 well done” miss Jericho says
I walk back to my table and sit down before Amira asks still not locking up what did you get?”
“12:52” I say back
I get a couple of congrats before I hear Amira grunt of annoyance
before she goes “damn it” I look over and remember what she was doing earlier one lock at a time instead of them both at the same time she was treating them like two separate locks instead of just one.”
“You need to do them at the same time not one at a time.” I tell her “thats your problem“
“Thanks” is all she says before going back to her lock which reminds me of my brief case
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——time skip by bob enterprises——
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Half an hour later at the end of the day I had a cracked suitcase and a plethora of questions about my beating system I had promised to answer once I got back to the dorms
I was packed up when Penelope surprisingly talked first and not just to insult me it’s a miracle
“Avery what did you get on the door test.”
“12:52 how about you?” I asked back
“Huuuhhhh” I gasped “did I just beat Lockett at something”
“Well don’t get cocky I’ll be happy to beat you at something to lower your ego.”
“Jokes on you I don’t have one just self doubt and humour to cope with the pain.” She gave me a horrified look and her body seemed to tense up I tried to back track it and said
“Relax take it as a joke.”
“Take it as a joke” she repeated
“Dont say it like that I mean it’s a joke a very bad one since you don’t seem to have humor especially the dark kind that I’ve developed from Jia and Amira honestly they seem sweet but they genuinely have the funniest jokes that will either make you question your mental heath or die laughing.”
Her shoulders seemed to relax but she still looked worried before saying “you really never just get to the point?”
“Why make sense when I can annoy the hell out of you” at that she just rolled her eyes
“Why are you being nice to me and not being all ‘you’re dead Avery’ cause that seems like default mode for you when it comes to me.”
“It’s not my default”
“Yea it is you tried to acuses me of being a spy.”
“OK well….”
“Haha gotcha now if you’ll excuse me I’m gonna ho explain something that will probably benefit me.”
“What you make no sense Gabriel.” She said
“Thank you.” I said as I was leaving
“That not a compliment Gabriel .” Sure it isn’t denial is awesome.
As I make my way up the stairs to my dorm I open the door and I see Jia handing out uno card for what looks to be the start of a game
“Deal me in.” I joked as I came in and placed my bag down next to my trunk
“Oh you’re finally here.” Jia said placing a stack with seven cards near an empty space
“Oh I’m offended aren’t you exited to hear me explain.” I ask as I sit down and pick up my cards
“Yeah yeah now sit down play the game and explain.”
“Alight alright how it works is…”