The Earth Shifter

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.

“Surprise!” Lilly yelled opening the door for me.

“What surprise?” I asked her excitedly instead of saying ‘Hi’.

“I’ll tell you... wait, where’s Aaron?” She stopped asking.

“In his flat with Erik.” I shrugged.

“But Erik is here. He wanted to tell you too.” She pouted. Erik came from behind her.

“Aaron isn’t with you?” He asked disappointed.

“No, guys. Just tell me what’s the surprise.” I told them still standing at the door.

“No, Erik call Aaron.” She told him. And he took his phone out calling Aaron.

“Can I at least get inside?” I asked her. I was extremely exhausted.

“Sure,” She got into her room smiling and leaving the door open.

“What’s wrong with your sister?” I asked Erik after he hung up with Aaron.

“You’ll know, but tomorrow. Aaron asked if it could wait till tomorrow and I said yes so we’ll have to wait till tomorrow.” He shrugged.

“Good night, Amber.” Texting away on his phone, Erik mumbled getting out of the flat not even looking at where he was walking.

“So you’ll leave me suspended like that till the morning? Okay fine, I don’t want to know anyways.” 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 couldn’t do anything about it. I looked at the screen scrolling down and looking at the celebrations in many countries.

“You’re welcome.” I mumbled smiling then shut the screen.

“Will you tell me now, please.” I begged Lilly for the hundredth time today.

“Just wait we’re almost there. Five more seconds won’t kill you.” She rolled her eyes. Erik was ignoring us typing on his phone.

“Ugh.” I rubbed my face with my hand. “You’re the worst friend ever.”

“Yea, yeah,” She kept walking to where we were supposed to meet Aaron. Erik didn’t say anything since we met him in the morning.

“Who’s he texting since last night?” I asked Lilly.

“You’ll know.“She was grinning at me.

“Will I ever get a solid answer for anything today?” 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.

“Oh, thank god you’re finally here. These two were driving me insane. They refused to tell me anything till you’re here.” I talked super fast.

“Uhh... Hi?” I think Aaron wasn’t that excited about the surprise but his reaction made me laugh.

“Hi.” I answered Then Lilly and Erik came giggling together.

“Can you tell me now, your majesty?” I asked dryly. I hated being kept suspended like that.

“Yes.” She said laughing. She opened her mouth when I heard someone says.

“Hi.” Professor Cyril was standing there smiling.

Great, now I’ll have to wait AGAIN.

“Hey, professor.” Aaron greeted him and we all looked at him perplexed.

“Who said you were the only ones having a surprise here?” Aaron asked smiling.

“What is it?” Lilly asked quickly.

“Well, Do you know who’s this man standing right in front of you?” He asked.

“Yes, professor Cyril.” Erik answered like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

“He is also the general manager of CFE scientific exploration company.” He told us.

“Shut. up.” Lilly gaped.

“Why didn’t you tell us that when we first met?” I asked him.

“I was interested in professor Hendrix’s research about the island. So I wanted to be the sponsor of the expedition but didn’t want to compromise the name of the company.” He explained.

“Okay.” I shrugged so he’s only here to say this? But where’s the surprise?

“I was impressed with all of your work together. Specially Lilly. And, of course, the team work was amazing.” Turned out that he had more to say than I thought.

“So, I decided to give you a place for a team in the company. Free exploring team.” He announced and my mouth fell open.

“But what about the interview and the CV papers?” I asked.

“I saw more than enough for the interview and I’ve got all of your CV papers. I’m sure you’ll be a great team.

“But sadly Erik can’t work with you till he’s finished the college first. But he’s won his place in your team and will stay that way.” He said.

My heart was going to get ripped out of it’s place from the happiness.

“Thanks, Professor.” Lilly said. I think her mouth was going to fall off from smiling so much.

“Don’t thank me, this is not a favor you didn’t surrender on Radssoda so you’ve also won it with your effort.” He pointed out.

“And most importantly, stop calling me professor. I’m not a professor.” He told us smiling.

We hung around with him for some time talking about the details of the new job. I can’t believe that I’ve finally got my dream job. I felt so amazing from the inside.

Mr. Cyril said that he’s 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.

“Can I tell you now?” Lilly asked. I didn’t ask her anymore so she did.

“No.” I teased her laughing.

“Okay, Tristan has called.” She considered it as a yes.

“Really? That’s great but I thought they weren’t allowed...” I was stopped by Erik.

“They are, but before I got into the plane, I gave him my satellite phone and told him how to use it.” He was grinning widely.

“Smart.” I said licking the melting piece of my strawberry ice cream.

“What did he say?” Aaron asked leaning on so he’d be seeing Lilly.

“His 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.”

“We’ll tell Mr. Cyril about it. I don’t think he’ll mind.” Aaron shrugged.

“What else?” I asked because she looked like she was going to explode from the excitement.

“He told me that Periwinkle is still alive.” I stopped eating and looked at her.

“Really?” This day was just getting better and better.

“Yes, he said and I quote ‘It certainly wasn’t 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,’” 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.

No sacrifice has to be made.

“What about Eossoda? We can’t leave it like that.” Aaron said after some time.

“I totally agree with Aaron.” I told Lilly and Erik.

“Then what can we do so it won’t come back to the surface?” Lilly asked. I kept thinking but nothing came to my mind

“We can explode it. It’s not that big.” Erik suggested shrugging.

“Can you make bombs? Or know someone we can buy them from him?” I asked him hopefully.

“No.” He shook his.

“Too bad, it’s a good idea and could’ve worked if we know someone who can buy us good bombs that can actually work under the water.” I finished eating my ice cream and got up.

Me and Aaron were walking behind Lilly and Erik.

“You didn’t sit or talk that much with the Radharcs, right?” I told him.

“Yeah, maybe I’ll do that when we visit Radssoda this time.” He grinned.

“And I was wondering, when were you going to meet your parents?” He asked.

“Maybe next week, I don’t know. Why are you asking?”

“I wanted to go with you. You know, see your town and meet your parents.” He said casually.

“Okay.” I answered him simply. Smiling to myself, I wondered...

What was he up to? I just have to sit and wait.

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 didn’t 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 ‘Faith’.

“Amber this is my daughter I’ve 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.

This was such a beautiful day.

“I study the explosive engineering in Cornell University.” 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.

“Faith? Are you up for some underwater explosions?”