Okay, so I have no excuse today for a late chapter, but I thought maybe I could let Chapter 4 sink in a bit before I put up Chapter 5. Haha, yeah right. Anyway, here I am with Chapter 5!

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Charlie Bone or any of its characters or settings. I only own my OC’s and the plot and possibly any settings that do not resemble anything in the books. Haha.

The next morning I woke up to the sound of thunder and a whole boat-load of crashing around in the dorm. I sat straight up to see not Elody, but her twin sister Emily instead. Even though they were twins, everyone could distinctly tell the two apart. Emily’s eyes had the sharper edge to them and her face was a little rounder whereas Elody’s was a little longer and almost heart-shaped.

“Up and at it girlies,” Emily sneered as she dropped her stuff on Elody’s bed.

“I thought you were away on a snowboarding tour,” Annabeth groaned as she rolled over and covered her head with her pillow. We had exams today, but our first one didn’t start till ten.

“Funding was cut short and I saw this as the perfect opportunity to drop in. Elody’s gone on one of her famous figure skating sprees or something, so looks like I’ll be taking her spot,” Emily replied hotly. “Now you better get up because I just talked to Mme. Thibault and she told me that she bumped your French exam to eight thirty... which is in five minutes.”

Annabeth and I shot out of bed and checked the clock, just to make sure Emily wasn’t lying. She wasn’t. It was twenty-five after eight, meaning we had five minutes to get ready and race down to the French room or fail the exam altogether.

“Shoot,” Annabeth muttered. Speed wasn’t so much a problem for me and I could get dressed, do my hair and brush my teeth in two minutes. Annabeth, well, let’s just say she was a little slower.

I quickly threw on a pair of ripped jeans and a multi-coloured tank-top before pulling my hoodie on over top. I slipped my feet into my black and white Adidas sneakers and ran into the bathroom, throwing my hair up into a ponytail and then proceeding to brush my teeth. I could hear Annabeth in the other room, probably changing into a pair of sweats and throwing a hoodie on overtop her pyjama top and Emily, cackling her pretty little head off.

Minutes later Annabeth and I were racing down the stairs of the academy and into Mme. Thibault’s room. I was half expecting it to all be a trick but I was rather surprised when Mme. Thibault only glared at us for being slightly late and continued handing out the exams.

I sighed as I received mine and took a minute to review the exam. It wasn’t going to be tough for me, but it made me mad to think that Emily had only just told us when Elody would have told us much earlier so we would have time to get ready. I had a feeling that this was going to be quite a long week without Elody.

The rest of the week flew by in a blur and the four of us (Annabeth, Thalia, Russell and I) were downright miserable. Elody couldn’t have picked a worse time to leave and I’m sure all of us were glad by the time Saturday morning rolled around.

I was packing my bag that day when Emily came sauntering over, swerving her hips as if I were a boy needing some reminding who was boss around here.

“Can I help you, Emily?” I asked, annoyed that she had interrupted me. Not that packing was entirely important, but I disliked Emily so I wished to show some anger to her.

“Actually, yes,” Emily replied. I looked up to her cold, grey eyes and watched as they gleamed mischievously. My brain began wracking, seeing recognition from it, but I couldn’t remember where.

“Well, what would you like then?” I asked as I shoved a few textbooks into my duffle bag.

“Stay out of other people’s business,” Emily growled lowly so that the others wouldn’t hear her before stepping lightly back to her bed. I realized we were treading on dangerous ground now. Emily controlled the opposite to what Elody controlled and we were all rather wary. It was hard, especially knowing that despite the four of us (and Elody) being so cheerful and good, it was evident we all had some darkness in our hearts and we worried that Emily would somehow figure out how to control us by using that against us.

I finished packing up as Annabeth strode in from the bathroom where she had been gathering her things. She tucked them away in her suitcase before smiling at me, signalling that she was ready to head out. I grabbed my stuff from the bathroom as well before following her out and down the hall to the stairs that would take us to the great hall and the busses that would take us home.

I was back in Greece by that night and I was quite happy. I stayed with Carli over the weekend so we could both head to the gym together and I was happy for her company, my thoughts only straying to the prophecy once.

That’s when it hit me like a tonne of bricks.

The recognition I saw from the glint in Emily’s eyes came from the prophecy. A glint within a heroes eyes should gleam.

But could you consider Emily a hero? How could you consider Emily a hero? She was the farthest thing from a hero that I could imagine, that and some other people I knew.

Carli was still staring at me like I was stupid or something and I realized that while I had been thinking up all this stuff I had been taking up precious minutes of my time in Greece.

“Sorry,” I muttered as I grabbed my gym stuff so we could head out. We could walk to the gymnastics centre from Carli’s house, which was pretty convenient seeing as she and her sister Danielle practically lived there.

“Whatever, you’re just totally lost today,” Carli teased before marching out of the house with her sister and me in tow.

It was good to be back at the gym, even if it meant I had to spend time with my trainer, Alex. We spent an hour every day working on routines and such while the other trainers worked with the other girls. I envied Carli who got Cobalt Nimmo, an eccentric girl who had won five world titles before she was twenty. I was stuck with Alex David, a man from Russia with a horrible accent that made it hard to understand what he was saying. Supposedly he was the best at the centre, but I doubted that often.

“That back tuck is looking better,” he commented as I strode back from my performance.

“Good, it’s a pain to hear how horrible I am at it,” I sniped back and Alex laughed.

“Whatever. Let’s just focus on your layout now. I want to see how straight you can get yourself. Straighter than Jade, I hope.”

I sighed as I joined him at the end of the mat. I took a deep breath before taking off at a run for a few steps and then launching into my round-off, back hand-spring, layout combination. I was surprised when Alex applauded me.

“Excellent. That needs almost no work,” he exclaimed proudly.

We took a quick break and I watched Jade on the beam. She was excellent, with a good sense of balance and excellent form. She had won many titles, most of them from the beam. I sighed. A lot of people said I would be going to the Olympics, but I often wished that it would be Jade going instead.

That night as I lay in bed next to Carli, I began to wonder what the heck was wrong with Emily. Why was she the hero and where did this tie in to the rest of the prophecy. I began remembering the different parts of the prophecy and trying to fit them together with Emily.

The one you trust is not as they seem.

Well, we weren’t sure who that was because nobody wanted to believe it was one of us. Nobody wanted to believe that there was a betrayal.

A glint within a heroes eyes should gleam.

Well, I already saw that and I was eager to share my findings with everyone else when I got back. But I still couldn’t understand the ‘hero’ part. I couldn’t see Emily as a hero, ever.

And reveal the truth of the two that know.

I realized then that Emily was one of the two, because of the glint in her eye, but who was the other person that knew? It was probably Leah, or Braelyn. She was good friends with them.

The answer to all is a sword in the stone.

That part made the least sense of all. A sword in the stone? What was it talking about? Was the prophecy actually referring to a sword in a stone, or was it a play on words, something masking the true meaning? I sighed and rolled over quietly so as not to disturb Carli.

This prophecy was getting harder and harder and we hadn’t heard any news from Theresa in a while, which meant that the future was still possibly good.

I’m sorry for all the short chapters but these are mostly fillers. I think things will begin to wrap up starting next chapter. That’s when more pieces of the prophecy will fall into place.

I also think I’m going to be taking a break from chapter stories after this. I’ve got a line-up of one-shots I have been meaning to write for a couple other sections and I don’t want to work on them while I’ve got this huge project going so... you can hopefully be looking at more frequent updates as I try and finish this off so I can work on some other stuff this summer.

Anyway, cheers ^^