CHAPTER SIX: A TEAM OF 4! OR 5? (Draft 1)

"How do you expect us to steal it?!" Chloe Banker, Blaze Speed's best friend, exclaimed so loudly that even the Gemstones, who were sitting nearby, heard and turned to stare at them.

Flame winced and gave Blaze, who was sitting on the bench in front of him next to Chloe, a look that screamed, 'Please make her SHUT UP!' Blaze merely shrugged which caused Flame to roll his eyes and simply glare at Chloe, who had clasped her hands over her mouth after realising she spoke a bit loudly. Flame sighed and turned to the quadruplet sisters who were still looking at them, extremely confused. He immediately recognised Scarlet Garnet, the girl whom he had met the day before, the one who was strange but not that strange. 

He smiled awkwardly at her and her sisters, as if to apologise for the unnecessary noise his exceedingly annoying cousin's exceedingly annoying best friend had made and to assure them nothing was going to get stolen. That last part was a lie. Besides, it's not like any of them can read his mind or anything. The girl next to Scarlet, who had purple highlights in her hair, smiled warmly and uttered something to her three sisters which allowed them to return to the activities that they had been doing earlier - the girl with green highlights in her hair back to her book, the girl who's hair was as dark and navy as the rest to play with her rabbit, and Scarlet to her conversation with the girl with purple highlights in her hair. She was a savior. Should he ever learn her name, he should definitely thank her. 

He turned back to his cousin, her best friend, and his own friend - Gio Green, who was sitting on Chloe's other side lazily and had been grinning wickedly as he enjoyed the lovely show being put on. Flame took a deep breath and began, "I know it may seem strange Chloe, considering your dad is like in charge of the police force and all-" 

"What do you mean 'and all'? I don't think we should break into a police station in the middle of the night and steal a file on some criminal that's been 'dead' for 12 years and might still be alive! We could get in serious trouble!" Chloe hissed. 

"It isn't just some criminal Chloe, it's my mother!" Flame retorted, "My aunt refuses to tell me anything about her and I'm sick of it! This is my last chance at finding out what really happened 12 years ago!" 

"Come on Flame," Blaze tried to reason, "If my mother hates to speak on the topic, we could simply ask Mr. Banker about it. Like you said, he seemed to know a lot about Aunt Ashlynn in last night's conversation." 

"Blaze. I may have told you briefly what had happened last night, but you don't know all the details. He didn't seem that comfortable in talking about my mother either," Flame explained gently, "Why else would he have come in the middle of the night? Even though he had wanted to clarify what had happened to the Garnets, he still wanted the conversation to be confidential. They were being extremely secretive." 

Chloe and Blaze looked at each other sadly, realising that Flame was being serious about stealing his mother's file. They sighed and looked back at him as he continued speaking, "You girls have a choice in this. You could either help me with this, or not. But I'm begging you two, if you do decide not to go through with it, please don't tell anyone." 

He patiently stared at the girls while they thought about his offer. After a while, Blaze took a deep breath and finally spoke, "Can Chloe and I discuss this first? Privately?" Flame nodded as Blaze and Chloe stood from their place on the bench. Blaze walked towards Flame and rested one hand on his shoulder before she continued speaking, "I understand where you're coming from, Flame. I want to help you so bad, you know I do. But this is a big risk we're about to take. I just don't want any of us to get in trouble..." With that, she walked away, Chloe trailed behind her. 

He closed his eyes as he contemplated what his cousin had just said. He appreciated that she was willing to even consider the options instead of saying 'No' and taking the easy way out. She was a great cousin and an even better friend. They grew up together and know each other so well it felt like they're siblings. 

He opened his eyes again and glanced dismally at Gio, who looked at him empathetically. 

"G, you have the same options they have," Flame smiled sadly, "I'll understand if you said no." 

Gio sighed and beamed like a true friend would, "I know we've only been friends for like a day, but after getting to know why you're doing this, I'm in." 

Flame laughed, clearly relieved that he wasn't alone on this mission. If Blaze and Chloe wouldn't join them, he trusted them enough not to tell anyone. No one apart from the four of them would know what they were truly up to. 

Except he didn't notice that Scarlet had finished her conversation with her sister, Violet, and was looking over Sage's shoulder, pretending to be interested in her book. In reality, she was far more interested in the conversation that was going on between the four friends, although she never considered herself to be an eavesdropper or nosy or anything like that - she was curious. 

She hated herself for invading another's business, but she couldn't help but wonder. And wonder she did. She wondered how they planned to execute this mission. She wondered if Blaze and Chloe would even agree to this mission. And if they didn't, what will Flame and Gio do? She wondered if they would succeed at all. And if they did succeed, she wondered if Flame would ever regret looking into his mother's file and finding the truth. But most of all, she wondered if he truly wanted to discover the truth about a mother that was absent for his whole life and was supposed to be dead. 

She turned to look at Flame and Gio. Flame had finally seated himself next to G and had buried his head in his hands, rather appearing like a middle-aged man who was stressing about financial issues. Her story was different from his. 

She and her siblings had both their parents love and care for them for the first 12 years of her life - even though they mysteriously disappeared on the Gemstones' 12th birthday earlier that summer because of their uncle. 

The Gemstones believed that their parents had died, however, the twins tended to disagree. They held out hope that their beloved mother and father were still alive, much like how Flame probably believed he's going to find something good about his mother in her file. But it was a criminal file for goodness' sake! Blaze and Chloe were trying to convince him not to continue with his ridiculously clever, but stupid, plan because he would get into trouble. But Scarlet didn't think Flame and Gio even cared about getting into trouble. Someone needed to explain to Flame that he might not like what he would find in that file. But who? 

Scarlet thought about it. He seemed to take his cousin seriously - but not that seriously. He clearly wouldn't listen to Chloe. He might listen to Gio, but even he was dead set on the plan. She could ask Sage to hypnotise Gio to tell him, but Flame would probably notice something was wrong - even though they barely know each other, it seemed like something Flame would notice, or would he? Her head began to hurt. 

She wasn't normally the type to think things rationally through. Among her siblings, she would probably be around the middle if they were ranked on sensibility. That would be her sister, Cherry. Or even Violet. Sage was often quiet, but that was because she was plotting something. Blue, or Crystal she supposed, was always pranking people and talking to everyone - it was hard to believe she could ever be sensible about anything or even keep a secret. James would be mature at times, but he could rarely control his temper. She recalled her older sister, Rose. She was probably the most sensible out of all of them. She and Scarlet weren't terribly close and she didn't remember much of her. Only that she would always have her nose buried in a book, much like Sage. Except she wasn't manipulative like her. 

She sighed and rolled her eyes, what was Sage reading anyway? 'Forget it,' she told herself. She would rather be wondering what to do with Flame and his, once again, clever but stupid plot even though it was none of her business (as she kept telling herself). About five seconds later, she was sick and tired of pondering over whether to snap some sense into them or do the reasonable thing and mind her own business and stick her nose into her siblings' business instead. Oh, forget it! She refused to do the reasonable thing. In her opinion, the proper thing to do was to snap some sense into them before she goes mad arguing with herself. 

She groaned and stood up abruptly. Her sisters didn't seem to notice. She raised an eyebrow and concluded they had gone both blind and deaf. She stormed towards Flame and Gio and crossed her arms and smiled what she hoped was a friendly smile. 

Flame stiffened and G tilted his head, nonetheless, he smiled back and nudged Flame to do so as well. Flame smiled nervously, clearly shocked by her sudden arrival, "Hey Scarlet! What's up?" Just then, Blaze and Chloe came sprinting to them. 

"Count us in!" Chloe declared happily. 

"Even though it's stupid." Blaze added. 

That was when they noticed Scarlet. 

She turned back to Flame and looked him right in the eye, "I'm in too!" 

The four friends stared at her, curious as to whether she knew what she was agreeing to. Scarlet merely crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow, "So? Will you or will you not let me join in your mini adventure to find out what's in your mother's criminal file?" 

Their jaws dropped and they looked at each other, wondering who else knew. She recognised the fear in their eyes and quickly reassured them, "Don't worry! No one knows! Not even my sisters know. It's between the five of us, and I can give you my word that it will STAY between the five of us." 

Finally, they could breathe again. But was she telling the truth? Flame thought to himself. Could this girl, whom he barely knew, keep a secret without blabbing it to her huge family? He looked at her once again. He should give her a chance, he knew he should. He looked at his friends. He knew what was going through their minds then and there. Trusting Scarlet Garnet might be an even bigger risk than breaking into a police station to steal a highly confidential file with, possibly, valuable information - to them, the police, and even his aunt. But something inside him told him it was a risk worth taking, perhaps someday proved to be beneficial. 

He stood from the bench and took a step towards Scarlet as the others watched, baffled. He extended his right arm to her and smiled a warm smile. 
"Welcome to the team, Ms. Garnet."