Throughout the following week, Ivy would frequently be pulled out of school for 'family emergencies' and 'personal problems' which caused lots of suspicion around her fellow classmates as Caleb was also being pulled out at the same times, and for similar reasons, but people were too afraid to question anything.
Ivy was being pulled out because she had to meet with her allies, the other gang-leaders, to discuss plans of attack against those monsters. The day they would finally strike back was getting closer and closer, and Ivy could hardly contain herself. In less than 3 days, she would have her brother back with her.
The day before they were to enact their plan, Ivy didn't even bother showing up at school. She stayed at the house the whole day, getting constant calls from Sierra, Levi and Lily, each of them taking turns to ask her how everything was going. Caleb was with her as well, and he laughed each time she got a phone call and scowled as she picked it up.
Then, when her phone rang for maybe the 10th time in the past hour, she groaned and picked it up, speaking before the other person could. "I don't know if this is Sierra, Levi or Lily, but please, for fucks sake, stop calling. I love you all, but I do need to concentrate, and if this fails, I'm coming for you." Then she hung up, tossing her phone across the table, where Carlos caught it and tucked it into his pocket, grinning.
The gang leaders around her all laughed at how frustrated she was, and Caleb nudged her playfully, causing her to scowl and shove him back. A moment later, Carlos frowned and pulled Ivy's phone out of his pocket, lifting it up and showing everyone that it was ringing. Ivy groaned and dropped her head onto the table with a thump.
Carlos tapped the green icon and put the phone on speaker, allowing everyone to hear Levi yell "IVY WE LOVE YOU!"
Then in the distance, Sierra could be heard, saying "LEVI! STOP CALLING HER!"
Before there was a beeping sound and the call ended, causing everyone to burst out laughing. "That Levi is a funny one Ivy, you should keep him." Devin grinned.
"I won't if he keeps calling me." The dark haired girl scowled in response. "But never mind about the idiots I keep around me to feel better about myself." Cue the laughs before she continued, "Lets focus on this, tomorrow's the day."
"Indeed it is. And Jacob will soon be back here, under your protection and ours." Devin nodded his head firmly, thinking back of when Ivy and Jacob were still young children, both of them playing brave warrior to rescue their sister, Demi, from trouble. And now, Ivy had to play that role alone to rescue her little brother.
"When Jacob gets back, I don't want all of you to overwhelm him with the gang stuff. I'll ease him back into it. He got trained a little bit before everything happened, but the kid was 11, and I was 12. I don't know what they've done with him, for all I know he could have forgotten everything, even me. But I'm still going to get him back." Ivy scanned the table, looking her allies in the face.
Caleb brushed his knee against hers reassuringly. "Don't worry V. It'll be fine, I'm sure he's fine."
"I hope so." Ivy stood. "Excuse me." She pushed her chair back and left the room, her head hung low, and hair hanging over her face. She pushed past the guards stood beside the large double doors, and headed down the flight of stairs to the basement.
Once there, she headed right for the training room and grabbed a handgun, and shoved a mag into it before stuffing another mag into her pocket. She smacked her hand down on the hardest option and began firing at the targets as they moved around her. As soon as she ran out of bullets, she replaced the empty mag with the full one in her pocket.
As soon as that one was done, she dropped the gun on the steel table and slid down the wall, pulling her knees up to her chest and resting her head on her knees. A sigh escaped her mouth and her hand itched for a cigarette but she couldn't smoke inside the house, unless it was the dining room, or the balcony.
Caleb walked into the room with her phone and turned it so the screen faced her, and she was greeted with her three friends. Levi frowned when he saw her expression, Lily smiled at her gently, and Sierra had a loving look on her face.
"Hey V." Lily greeted.
"Hey guys."
"You alright babe?" Sierra asked.
"No."
"What's up V? You can tell us anything." Levi reassured his friend.
"I just wish my parents, Demi and Jake were still here. I wish I didn't have to plan a whole fucking invasion to get back my own blood from psychopaths." Ivy dragged a hand through her hair, pushing it back before looking back at the screen. "I miss my family."
"Hey, V. Listen. You'll get Jacob back tomorrow, and you may not have your parents and Demi, but you have me, and Levi, and Lily. You have Carlos, and Devin and Caleb and all those other people helping you get Jake back. And by tomorrow, he'll be home, safe, and those bastards will be dead."
"Thank you Sierra, now if you'll excuse me, I need to get back to work. And don't take this as a sign that you can call whenever you want. Actually, I'll give you one call only, because I won't answer any others until after I have Jake back. So use it wisely, bye, love you and thanks." Ivy brought the phone away from her ears and tapped the red icon, hanging up. she tucked the phone into her jean pocket and looked up at Caleb, who smiled down at her and held his hand out for her.
She reached out and took it, allowing him to help her up. "You alright?"
"Absolutely. Let's get my little brother back." Ivy grinned. She let go of his hand, before frowning inwardly, missing the warmth of it. But she shook her head nonchalantly and started walking back to the rest of her allies. She looked back at the dark haired boy stood behind her, "You coming or not?"
He hurried towards her and they made their way back to the others and sat down, continuing going over all the details for tomorrow, for they couldn't afford any mess-ups and mistakes, this was serious and they would likely only have one shot at it. if they failed, who knows what could happen to them, or worse, what could happen to Jacob as a retaliation.