6:59 by Nonye Acholonu, Kelechi Acholonu Page B

crash.
    Seeing them all unconscious, I tore into their secret hideout, grabbed the two bags of money, and catapulted myself back out the door.
    â€œWhat’s going on?”
    At the sound of her screech, I nearly had a heart attack. I had no idea Olive was still there.
    She was ducking behind the car, tears pouring from her eyes. Olive was breathing heavily and I knew she was about to pass out.
    Why did she have to follow me and muddy things up? If she weren’t here, I would’ve been able to drop down onto the money and then get out of there. Now I had been forced to kill two guys and leave the rest unconscious. Not to mention suffer a couple blows to the head.
    â€œJust get in the car,” I said as evenly as I could.
    But she didn’t hear me. She had already passed out.

Chapter Fourteen

    Cameron
    Today I was able to wake up and get my stuff together in record time. However, my books were spilled all over the ground, my bag zipper was broken, and my shoes were dirty. I scratched my head trying to remember why it was so. Last night I had gone straight to bed after practicing my piano. Everything was in order and not even close to broken. So why was my room all screwed up now?
    Deciding to figure this all out later, I tossed my stuff into my old backpack and ran down the stairs to find workers cleaning up our house.
    â€œWhat happened?” I asked, walking into the living room where Mila and Dad were monitoring the workers. Looking around, I saw that the living room was a complete mess. Windows were broken, the coffee table smashed, and walls were crumbled.
    Dad stared up at me with a confused expression on his tanned face. “You don’t know? Or are you too trashed to remember?” His words made me take a step back. Where was the hostility coming from?
    â€œI have no idea what you’re talking about,” I said firmly. “And I am in no way trashed, Dad.”
    Dad rolled his eyes and went back to directing the workers. Mila stood up and walked over to me. “There was a peculiar earthquake in our home last night, sweetheart. It seemed to rumble the furniture and break windows. But we’re all safe now.”
    I nodded, knowing I slept through the whole thing. Great. What if a bookshelf had fallen on top of my father and I was idiotically sleeping like a baby. I really needed to get this whole blackout thing checked out.
    â€œGet on to school,” Mila was saying. “We’ve got this place taken care of.”
    I nodded and gave her a hug and a kiss on the cheek. “Sorry I wasn’t able to be of any help, Mila,” I said with a frown.
    Mila shook her head. “Don’t worry about it. You were just busy sleeping, honey,” she said.
    ****
    Olive was at her locker when I turned the corner. She wore a hot pink sweater and dark jeans that made her legs look as if they went on for miles. I smiled to myself, popped in a breath mint, and then walked over to her.
    â€œHey, Olive,” I said with a bright smile.
    Olive wouldn’t look at me. She kept her gaze on her locker and continued shoving the books in forcefully.
    I didn’t know what to do. I knew for a fact that she’d heard me and was ignoring me. Desperately I tried to remember what I did wrong. As I searched my brain for answers, Olive slammed her locker door shut and headed down the hallway.
    â€œOlive, wait!” I cried out, hearing the desperate crack in my voice. Why was she treating me like this? What did I do wrong?
    Olive spun around and marched back up to me, allowing me to finally exhale. But my face immediately froze when I saw the look of pure anger on her brown face.
    â€œYou scared the crap out of me last night, Cam,” she snapped, jabbing her finger into my chest. “The sound of constant gun shots kept running through my brain and I couldn’t get the image of three gangsters whaling on you out of my mind.” She stepped up closer to me. “