Sagittarius' POV

As punishment for ditching the Elites, crashing the truck, and ignoring Orion's calls last night, we all had to work out in the gym for 4 hours straight. Without water.

Orion was a tough boss, and I'll give him credit for that. Though I didn't mind working out, I was pretty sure I was going to pass out from dehydration. I can speak for all twelve of us on that one.

"Twenty-five more push ups," Orion bosses, whistling his whistle as if he were a high school football coach.

Everybody groaned and dropped to the floor to do push ups. Now was only our second hour. My arms were burning and weak, and I could only taste the saltiness of sweat that dripped from my forehead. The whole gym started to smell like body odor which made everything even worse.

Taurus, Gemini, and Scorpio were all doing push ups as if it were the easiest thing on earth. Aries, on the other hand, barely showed off any strength due to the fact he was completely hung over and would flinch and scowl whenever Orion blew his whistle. Libra and Aquarius were trying their best, but looked rather frustrated with our boss than determined to do any exercise today.

Leo and I were doing push ups, although we complained, ached, and struggled to get up during the last few. We were hands down the toughest girls here by strength. Only Leo was just a bit more stronger than me. Cancer, Virgo, and Pisces were all cheating their counts and probably did 10 and nothing more. Capricorn would stop whenever Orion wasn't looking in her direction.

Once everybody finished all 25 push ups, Orion blew the whistle again, causing Aries to flinch and grunt. "5 minute planks," he orders now.

"Five minutes?!" Gemini complains, shutting his eyes.

"Can we just take a break? I'm pretty sure I'm going to drop dead if I do one more thing involving moment," Cancer suggests, setting a hand on her hip.

"You say that like it's a bad thing," I snark quietly to myself while tying my short hair into a ponytail.

"A break? You guys want a break, but had the best break of your lives last night!" Orion shouts, livid with the suggestion. He didn't even take it for consideration.

"Not the best," Aries mumbles, pulling at the sweat of his red hair. He then wipes his sweaty hand on Aquarius, but he was to busy staring daggers at the old man to notice.

"C'mon, man, can't we just have a break?" Libra argues, catching bubbles of breaths.

"No," Orion simply states, folding his arms across his chest. His whistle fell down to his forearms.

"This is bullshit!" Libra shouts with a clenched jaw. "We're all going to die from dehydration. Especially Aries!"

"I appreicate your concern, but can you stop yelling?" Aries frustradely asks, rubbing his temples.

Orion ignores Libra's comment and looked at the watch on his wrist. "Two hours left. Five minute―"

"Break? No need to tell me twice," Aquarius says, flopping down to the floor with his arms spread out.

"Planks! And I would do them now if I were you," Orion warns us, giving all of us the vulture eye. No one budged a muscle due to Libra's next comment.

"Man, just let us have one break. Just one!" Libra pleads, not taking no for an answer.

"Fine!" Orion gives up. "Have your break." He goes towards the gym door to open it.

"Finally," Pisces breathes out, laying with Aquarius on the floor.

I was going to lay down too until Orion started hysterically laughing. "What? You guys think I'm going to allow you twelve to have your break inside?"

Taurus squints his eyes at him. "What?" It sounded more of a statement than a question.

"Outside. Now," Orion demands, holding the door wide for all of us.

I couldn't help but let out a short laugh. "You're kidding, right?"

"Does this face looks like I'm kidding, Sagittarius?" he rhetorically asks with a straight face. My lips turn into a scowl.

"But it's, like, a thousand degrees out there," Capricorn reminds him. She uses her thumb to gesture outside the window.

"Thanks for notifying us, Miss Cloudy-with-a-Chance-of-Obvious, but I'm sure he does not care," Aquarius sarcastically intervenes, his lips also turning into a scowl.

Capricorn stares daggers at the sassy brunette before Orion rushed us some more. "Get out. Now," he orders again.

Usually when Orion was mad, it was hilarious. Now he was actually torturing us. What are the odds of the discipline?

Aries rolls his eyes up to the ceiling and breathes out through gritted teeth. Usually, he or Gemini would say anything at this time, but instead he was the first to lead the way out the door. The obvious explanation for that is because he was tired of everyone yelling due to his terrible hangover.

The rest of us follow him out, take the elevator down the penthouse, and walk outside in the blazing sun. It was bright. Blindingly bright. And it was so damn hot too.

"Good. Now stay out here for two hours. I'll be inside taking a nice, hot shower," Orion tells us with a mocking smile on his lips as he swings the door and locks it from the inside.

Leo groans and turns to Libra. "You just couldn't keep your mouth shut, huh?" she spits. Her eyes were either squinted to glare at him or to block away the sunlight in her eyes. Maybe both.

"What?" Libra questions, stitching his eyebrows together toward the center.

"'Why, can't we take a break? Now I'm going to die from dehydration,'" she mocks in a horrible low and deep voice to imitate his. "Now we're all going to die from hyperthermia!" her voice was loud enough for Texas to hear it.

"Leo, calm down. It's not like he purposely meant for this to happen," Taurus tells her, backing his blonde best friend up.

"News flash, Taurus: I do not care!"

"Ha!" Aquarius laughs at Taurus and Libra.

"Can you guys, I don't know, shut the fuck up?" Aries seethes, closing his eyes while sitting on the street.

"If only someone didn't destroy the truck, we could sit in there with air conditioning," Virgo says, sending a certain someone a look.

Aries rolls his eyes while holding an arm above them. "Don't start that shit with me today, Virgo. I wouldn't."

Aries was usually angry whenever he was drunk, hungover, hungry, losing...the list goes on. That's just what everybody knew him for. Even I knew when not to get on his bad side.

"God―y'know what? It's fine," Leo says, running her hands through her long, pink and now wet hair. "It's fucking fine. I'll just let myself boil and burn in the sun."

"Now you're just being dramatic," Gemini tells her, looking for anything with a shade.

"For once, I agree with Airhead," I intervene, nodding my head towards Gemini. I was kind of annoyed with everybody's voice as of now.

"It's Airheart, Sagittarius! Air-fucking-heart," he corrects me as if I didn't know.

"My bad. Won't happen again, Airhead," I shrug. He sighs and rolls his eyes away from my direction.

"But Leo's right. We wouldn't have been here if it weren't for Libra," Scorpio intervenes, throwing a hand towards the blonde.

"Oh, so we're playing the blame game now?" Libra stares daggers at Scorpio. He responded with a forced smile and nod.

"It's seriously not that deep, bro," Aquarius intervenes, laying in the grass with an arm over his eyes.

"Exactly. Can't we all just shut the hell up and get over it? Fighting isn't helping anyone," Virgo tries cooling down the situation.

Scorpio scoffs. "You're to talk."

"Excuse me?"

"Miss I-had-to-argue-with-someone-for-a-parking-spot. Yeah, remember that?" Scorpio raises an eyebrow at the platinum blonde woman.

"Ha!" Aquarius laughs again.

"And not to mention that because of that, Aries totaled the truck," Scorpio finishes.

Aries groans at the voices and blame on him. "It was just a scratch, okay?!"

"'Just a scratch' my ass," Aquarius chuckles.

"You guys are all being childish," Cancer shakes her head with crossed arms over her chest.

"Some more than others," Libra sends Scorpio a look.

"Says the one who's trying to win a girl like it's some teenage middle school crush," Scorpio tells him. It was in evident that he was talking about Capricorn.

Capricorn's mouth dropped as she stares daggers at Scorpio for being an asshole, something that was not at all a surprise. "Scorpio, stop being such a dick," she tells him.

"I'll show you dick."

Many of them continued arguing with each other like children while the rest just sat and listened. Aries seemed the most pissed off due to his hangover and his intial anger.

I, on the other hand, wasn't one of those people. I knew a way to get back inside and away from this hot weather. I turn on my heels and walk away from that scene.

The sun blazing was beyond extreme. It was about time Orion showed us who's boss. It only sucked for us because it was our punishment to be left with the hot sun for two hours. You'd think New York's weather wasn't too bad in the summer.

Everyone's bickering was now faint due to my distance away from them. I got behind the penthouse and see our huge pool. Except it was locked with a key. Nice move, Orion.

I find a ladder and rake it on the side of the penthouse, trying not to break a window or make too much noise. It's going to take a lot of balance to climb all the way up to the 6th floor.

I start climbing the ladder up to the 6th floor. It took about two whole minutes to climb. Though, I wasn't sure on which window to get inside of. I wasn't even sure which room I could land in. I made a decision and open one of the windows―which was, thankfully, unlocked―and land inside Orion's office.

Orion's office was pretty huge. It was so much room for an old man for a lot of shit. Lots of paintings on the wall, Newton's cradle on his desk, and a few plants that I doubt he takes care of.

I wander around it for a bit and even lifted a ball from Newton's cradle to drop it. Of course, the pattern amused me. Those were always cool to me.

All of the sudden, I felt bored. Extremely bored. I was easily amused yet easily bored at certain things. I tried looking for something. Something to make living here not boring.

I rumage through some of Orion's things, trying to stay clean from my tracks. Most of his drawers were filled with paper. How the fuck does he keep up with a single page?

I walk behind his desk and crouch down under it to look some more. Orion would always have something in a drawer. Alcohol, more specifically. Knowing us, he sure did need it those three years ago.

"C'mon, Orion, c'mon," I mumble to myself, frustrated with finding absolutely nothing.

I continue searching until a voice shocks through the room.

"For someone who just got back, you sure do remember your way around the pent," the voice speaks.

Startled by hearing a voice―specifically, a male's voice―I accidently bump my head under Orion's desk. I immediately put my left hand on that burning spot and used the right to pull myself up off the floor. When I did, a certain redhead gave me a confused look.

I was calmer knowing that it was Aries and not Orion. "What the hell? Were you following me?" I question, rubbing my aching head.

Aries' eyebrows were still lowered from when he first saw me. "Actually, I was taking a leak in a bush and then I saw Miss Dora the Explorer climbing up a ladder. I didn't follow you until I saw you make it inside," he explains.

I blink once. "So what I'm hearing is: you had your pants down behind a bush...watching me," I tell him, taking my hand off my head.

Aries' face turned into something that was either scared or shocked. He opens his mouth and quickly closes it. He opens it again. "I―wha―No, stop, you're just making it sound weird."

"You said it, not me," I raise a brow.

"Well, yeah, but I didn't make it sound like that."

"Like what?" I ask with a teasing smirk.

"You know what I'm talking about."

"I'm not sure that I do. Wanna explain?"

"Stop playing dumb with me."

"Still don't understand..."

"Sagittarius..." he warns, closing his eyes and balling a fist to his side. That's how I knew he was angry. I didn't want to make Aries angry. It would just get too out of hand.

Instead of answering again, I shrug my shoulders and step away from Orion's desk. But that didn't stop him from asking a question I was trying to avoid since I've encountered him.

"Why were you under Orion's desk?" he asks me, stepping further away from the window.

I smile at him. "Well, getting cooled off of course. Under Orion's desk has the best air conditioning." My statement was intentionally made to sound more of a joke than a lie.

Aries seemed to get my sarcasm. "You're looking for something, aren't you?"

I make my brows knit together with the steady teasing smirk on my face. "What do you mean?" I play dumb again.

Aries rolls his eyes this time instead of warning me anything. "Okay, y'know what?" he starts. "I'm about to go take something to get rid of this," he points to his head, indicating to his hangover, "And I guess I can get you something too while I'm at it."

My eyes widen in excitement. "Really?" I ask, stepping further away from the desk.

"Yep. But I'm not doing it for free," he tells me.

"What?"

"You owe me, sweetheart," he explains slowly. Though, I was sure what he meant the first time.

"I already did," I answer.

His face turned back into a perplexed look with low eyebrows. His expression said a lot more than his actual words.

I sigh. "How else would you be here―inside―with air conditioning and not pissing in bushes? So, yeah. Payment made. If anything, you owe me."

Aries pauses for a quick second and sighs between his teeth. "I suppose you're right," he tells me, causing me to grin. He walks toward the door and keeps a hand on the knob. "But if I get caught, you're going down with me."

I use my hand to shoo him away into a rush. Aries opens the door and walks out into the hallway to his room. I flop myself down on Orion's rolling chair and slide around in it.

I open one of Orion's drawers that has files of all of us and rumage through those. Gemini. Too stupid. Aquarius. Too awkward. Capricorn. Too sassy. Pisces. Too all of the above. Aha! Me!

I prop my feet up on the desk and grab the folder with my name on it. What does Orion keep track on me, I wonder.

9th Member Name: Sagittarius Archer
Born: December 2, 1998
Joined: June 12, 2016 (18 years old)

...

That was it? Just my name, birthdate, and the day I originally joined? And they say I procrastinate.

"Lame," I mumble to myself, throwing the folder back in the drawer.

I look through some more things of his and find a small ball. That should occupy me while Aries is gone. I throw the ball up in the air and watch it fall back down in my hand. It was only now that I realized how bored I was here.

Nothing was entertaining. At least not here. Libra really does owe me a plane ticket to Bahamas, and that, I refuse to forget.

The door opens again and the redhead sticks his head out before he walked in.

I groan. "It's about time. You've been gone forever."

"It's been 5 minutes."

Has it really?

"Whatever. What do you got?" I question, putting the ball back where I found it and putting my feet to the floor.

Aries had a small, white bottle filled with some pills and threw them to me. I caught them with one hand and read it. "Oberon? What the fuck is that?"

Aries shrugs his shoulders. "Does it look like I'm a pharmacist?"

"How much do I take?" I ask, looking at the really tiny white pills. I grab at least three in my hand.

"No, stop! God, are you trying to kill yourself?" he quickly warns me with panic in his voice. "Just take one."

"Have you done this before?" I ask him, raising a brow. He seemed so sure by the amount of intakes, so it really should've been obvious to me.

"Yeah. Pisces, Libra, and I all tried it a few months ago at a nightclub. It's pretty much like ectasy but better," he explains.

I look at the really tiny pill again and observe it. "Seriously, I've never heard of it before. Who's your dealer?"

"Mind your own business and give me one," he orders. I put one pill in his palm and put the other pill back in the small container.

Aries already had a water bottle in one hand as he gulped the pill down with it. He passed it to me and I do the same. He sits down in one of the couches Orion had in front of his desks for whenever he talked to us. I start tapping my fingers together as if they were going to ignite anything.

"So how much longer 'til it kicks in?" I ask, getting a bit impatient.

"Sagittarius, I'm not a pharmacist," he tells me again. My face deadpans before he sighs at me. "I don't remember. Just give it some time."

So I had no choice but to be patient. Hell, I'd take Aries' word for it considering that I know nothing about anything on what the fuck Oberon is.

I start tapping my fingers together, trying to distract myself before Aries spoke. "Hey," he speaks. I look up and I wasn't sure if he was watching me the whole time. "What if Orion walks in?"

"Then we make a rocket, fly to space, and never come back," I say sarcastically.

Aries lets out a short laugh. "You are highly annoying."

"And you ask stupid questions. If Orion finds us, we're doomed. You act as if we can escape that," I say, letting out a tiny chuckle.

Aries throws his head back and groans. "Sometimes I wish Orion didn't recruit you back with us," he confesses, growing tired of my smart talk.

"Yeah," I agree, becoming a bit dizzy from the drug rather than the rolling chair. "Me too."

Aries and I sit in silence for what seemed like forever. The drug was a strong stimulant, and because I was sitting down because of it, everything seemed fast yet time went by so slow.

"This would be better if we were at a party," I mumble, spinning around in the chair as I feel my heart rate rise.

"Hey," Aries tells me, waving a nagging finger at me like he's some old lady, "be grateful." I scoff at his sudden behavior.

Though, I was grateful. I mean, it'll probably be much more fun with Leo or maybe even Libra, but I wasn't going to complain.

"Y'know, we're probably all going to get arrested," Aries starts, laying down on the couch with a leg over the other and his hands planted on his stomach. He was staring at the ceiling as if he were having a deep conversation with it.

"Why do you say that?" I question, spinning in Orion's rolling chair.

"Because we're all bad people," he whispers. He didn't have to get any louder. I heard him clearly.

I tap my fingers on Orion's desk some more. "I think you're a bad person," I joke. It wasn't completely a joke, but I was talented enough to make it seem like it was.

Aries scoffs and turns his head away from the ceiling to look at me. I could clearly see his pupils dilated, and I bet mine were huge too. I snicker a bit and he slightly chuckled.

"You're the bad person," he tells me, steadying a smirk on his lips.

"Y'know what I think?" I say, using the rolling chair to get from behind the desk. I swivel in front of it to have a better view of Aries' face and his eyes.

"What do you think, Sagittarius?" His laying down position moves into a sitting position, facing face to face with me. My nerves and hormones were going insane so suddenly.

"I think the police are a fucking scam," I tell him, not being able to keep a straight face. The muscles in my cheek area tighten due to my nonstop smiling. I just couldn't help but to smile at this point.

I also just couldn't stop paying too much of my attention on his hair. It had me distracted for a while. So I touched it. It was kind of damp due to the sweat from earlier, but I somehow didn't mind it.

He bursts out in full laughter, something I've never really seen him do before. "A fucking scam," he laughs, still keeping his wide grin on his face afterwards.

"A fucking scam," I repeat. It hasn't been much time until I stopped stroking his hair. My eyes fell down to his lips, and it made me realize how attractive Aries was. Like, really attractive. But that was the Oberon thinking. For sure.

Soon, another idea popped into my head. "You know what we should do?" I ask, still keeping the smile on my face that was impossible to get rid of.

Aries seemed so focused on my hand, so he took it in his and stroked the little bit of skin with his thumb. His smile was gone and he looked fully concentrated. He didn't answer my question until after a couple of seconds. "What?"

"We should march over to the police station," I begin, taking a couple of seconds to catch up on what I was continuing to say, "and tell them they're all a scam."

"A fucking scam," he says once again, his grin reappearing.

"Fuck the police!" I shout.

"Fuck the police!" he repeats, taking his hand from mine and raising that fist in the air.

"Fuck the law!" I laugh uncontrollably, throwing my head back towards the chair.

"Fuck everyone!" Aries laughs also.

"Fuck everyone!" I repeat this time. "C'mon, let's go!"

"But we don't have a truck," Aries reminds me, almost killing my whole vibe.

"Then we make one," I suggest, spinning around in the rolling chair. I wiggle my eyebrows until he got the idea.

Everything was going around and around and around. That was until a force stopped the chair from spinning which I noticed to be Aries' hands on the back of the chair.

"To the police!" he shouts, guiding me towards the door in the rolling chair.

"To the police," I repeat, opening the door.

Before we even hit the hallway, Aries starts sprinting behind me and we went fast. Super fast.

"Faster!" I cheer, holding onto the chair's arms so I wouldn't fall off. "Faster, Aries!"

The ride along the hallway seemed much longer than I remember it being so. I could feel the euphoric rush even more by feeling faster than time itself. The air conditioning in the hallway made it ten times better. I just couldn't help but smile.

At this point, we were headed towards the elevator. Everything inside me told me to just scream. So I did.

"Whooo!" I cheer, pumping a fist in the air.

We weren't even thinking about how fast we were approaching towards the elevator. Before I could bust my ass by slamming into the door, the elevator doors separated and Aries stopped inhumanly fast. Because of that, I fly out of the chair and roll inside the elevator with my back to the floor.

I hear Aries laughter, causing me to laugh too. My eyes were shut from laughing too hard. It was like I didn't care who or what was in the elevator. I didn't care enough to get caught at the moment.

Aries' laughter still fills my ears, and I couldn't stop. It was great like this. I felt great. So damn great.

Aside from mine and Aries' laughter, I hear no one but the voice of Pisces. "Jesus fucking Christ."

●○●

Taurus' POV

Aries and Sagittarius were still laughing their asses off as if they've seen a five star comedy. Aries was laughing more.

"Holy shit!" Aries laughs with a hand over his mouth. "Did you see that?"

"Yes, Aries. We did," Cancer says, walking out of the elevator.

"God, you two are so lucky it's just us and not Orion," Aquarius scolds, also walking from inside the elevator.

"Aw, c'mon. We were just having a little fun," Aries smirks, gripping onto the rolling chair in front of him. Aquarius smacked him in the head.

Sagittarius stands up and brushes herself off as if she rolled down a hill. Libra stared intensely at her as if she were a puzzle that were impossible to read.

"What?" Sagittarius rudely asks. It sounded more of a statement than a question.

"Are you high?" Libra asks her. It wasn't until now that I noticed how large her pupils were. Aries' too.

The raven-haired woman chuckled. "Yeah." She quickly corrected her happy behavior to be serious. "Sorry."

"What? Now Orion will be extremely furious. If he asks, I didn't see nor hear anything." Pisces walked out and covered her ears. Soon we all walked out of the elevator but stayed in the hallway.

"Oh, c'mon, Pi, I thought you loved Oberon," Aries smirks at the blue haired girl.

Instantly, Pisces reversed and walked back over to Aries. "Wait a minute. Do you have more?" she greedily questions.

So much for not seeing nor hearing anything.

"Pisces!" Cancer scolds.

The blue haired girl raises her hands up in defense. "I mean so he couldn't give or take amymore," she defends herself. The tone was quite weak and seemed more of a lie when she continued, "so do you?"

Aries takes out a white bottle from his pocket and continued smirking at the blue haired girl. Pisces almost grabbed it until Aquarius snatched it from the redhead's hands.

"First of all, I don't trust you," he states, causing Pisces the pout. "And secondly, as much as I would like to, I'm not. Orion let us inside earlier than he expected, and we could've died from dehydration today―well, some of us―" he looks at Aries and Sagittarius, "―and I'm trying not to get on the old man's bad side for the rest of the day. None of us are. Do I make myself clear?"

Sagittarius rolls her eyes. "You're just boring."

"No, I'm just smart."

Aquarius was one of the responsible ones other than Cancer, Virgo, Scorpio, and Capricorn. They're never uptight; just more prepared, cautious, and strategic than the rest of us.

"Speaking of Orion," Aries starts scratching the back of his head making his hair look a bit messy, "where is he?"

Gemini shrugs. "Beats me. But let's go to the Main Room. I really need some water." The brunette makes his way towards the Main Room with the rest of us walking behind him. Capricorn made sure to keep her eyes on Sagittarius while Aquarius kept his on Aries.

When we got into the Main Room, it was empty. Orion must still be with the Elites because I haven't seen the Main Room empty without the twelve of us in weeks.

Gemini and I walk straight to the refrigerator for a bottle of water. We start gulping like it was our last breath.

"Dude," I hear a feminine voice interrupt my time with the cold water. It was, of course, Leo. "Mind tossing me one?"

Gemini opens the fridge again and throws a bottle to her. Soon, everyone was tossing water bottles to one another. Congratulations to Orion who has succeeded on making us suffer.

Cancer, who I was sure going to pass out from dehydration, gulped like she's never drunk before. Aquarius saw this and puts a hand on her shoulder before she started gulping even faster.

"Hey, don't drink too much. Take small sips," Aquarius warns, his voice sounding calmer than usual. Cancer slowly nods her head and does as instructed.

Pisces wipes the sweat from her forehead. "Where the hell is Orion? We just saw him," she points out. I had a feeling she was more scared than worried about it. Not for Orion, but of what else he had planned for us.

"Maybe he's just with the Elites," I tell her, before taking another hard gulp. "I'm not sure, but maybe he's over last night."

Virgo scoffs and smirks a bit. "Yeah, right. Even I'm not over last night."

"That's because you don't let anything go, Virgo," I chuckle at the platinum blonde. Virgo simply rolls her crystal blue eyes at me.

And I wasn't lying. Virgo was a queen at holding grudges. She didn't let things slide so easily, and if she did, she was extremely cautious the next time.

"How did you two sneak inside?" Scorpio changes the subject, eyeing Aries and Sagittarius.

"Yeah, and how come you guys didn't allow me in?" Pisces asks, crossing her arms across her chest.

Sagittarius shrugs her shoulders, not seeming to answer any questions. Either she didn't want to, or she was too high to care. Aries didn't say anything at all as he seemed to zone out into space. They were so lucky that we covered for their asses.

The door to the Main Room opened to reveal Orion and three Elites behind him. Corvus was quiet, he didn't like to say much, and honestly, it gave me a reason why he was better than the other two. Cetus was annoying. I never understood how he could make it while working with his boss. And Cassi...Cassi was smart. She was manipulative, strong, and hot. We kept our eyes on her the most.

"Orion," Cancer says with hope in her eyes, "please say you found a way to get rid of them."

Orion didn't say anything for a while which meant it couldn't be good news. Instead, he signaled all of us over to the couch. We slowly make our way there, some sitting on the couch and some on the floor. I was eager to know what Orion wanted to address.

"Is it about last night? Because we learned our lesson. In fact, almost dying from dehydration made me realize that I should never—and I mean never—listen to any of these guys when they say we should sneak out. I also think—" Cancer was cut off due to Aquarius who nudges her shoulder and raises an eyebrow at her. Cancer tends to ramble when she was nervous. We all realized that.

Orion shakes his head. "No, it's not about last night. Though, you guys are lucky that I have enough money to fix the truck." Thank God he's rich. "This meeting is about the Elites."

Gemini groans. "Oh, come on!"

"You guys are watching them today while I do some work. And I mean, really, watching them. Don't let them wander off, no sleeping on the job, and don't let them out of your sight," he explains.

"That sounds boring," I mutter. Leo nudges my arm, indicating she heard what I said. She chuckled a little bit which made me smirk back at her.

"So groups are—"

"Uggghhh!" Sagittarius obnoxiously groans whilst throwing her head back to the couch.

"Aries, Gemini, Libra, and Virgo. You're watching Cetus."

"What? I have to work with the three most idiotic members in the group?" Virgo was almost close to shouting while staring down at Aries. Aries seem to roll his eyes and brush it off. Gemini and Libra, however, just snickered and smirk at each other. I knew they were going to give Virgo hell.

"And because they're idiotic, you get to set them straight," Orion smiles. The platinum blonde rolls her eyes and sinks down into the couch, mumbling incoherent words through her lips.

"Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, and Pisces. You're all watching Corvus."

I had no problem with it. For one, Leo is fantastic at guarding. She's the strongest woman I know. Scorpio is also one of the strongest people I know after myself, and Pisces was chill and laid back most of the time.

"Wait a minute. So that means—"

Cancer was cut off again as Orion continued with naming the last group. "Cancer, Sagittarius, Capricorn, and Aquarius are watching Cassi."

Cancer and Sagittarius looked like they were about to murder each other on sight. Despite Sagittarius totally being spaced out through most of it, she raises a finger and lazily directs it to the brunette. "I have to work with her?"

Cancer looked back at Orion, again, with hopeful eyes. "Please put me in a group where I'm not in the presence of psycho chicks."

Sagittarius stands up with anger in her eyes. "I'll show you psycho—"

"Enough!" a loud roar booms through the room. Orion eyes both of them before Sagittarius sits back down again. "I'm not switching groups for any reason. Now Cetus' watchers, you stay here. Corvus' are going to the gym, and Cassi's can go to the library on the 8th floor."

We have a library?

"And no complaining," he confirms, eyeing Cancer and Sagittarius again. Orion leaves the Main Room into his office, and finally, it was just us and the Elites. How interesting.

●○●

Leo, Scorpio, Pisces, and I were all in the gym upstairs. It still smelled like body odor due to our forever long workout this morning. I still needed to shower, I realized.

I sit on the floor with my back against the wall and my long legs spread out in front of me. Leo sits beside whereas Scorpio and Pisces were casually talking by a corner. Corvus, however, was fiddling with his fingers, refusing to say a word.

Leo sighs beside me, and I look at her. "Why do we get the boring one?" she softly chuckles, her green eyes not once allowing to get off of the fidgeting Corvus.

I scoff. "Who'd you expect to get? The less work, the better."

Leo shrugs her shoulders, but didn't hesitate to answer my question. "Cassi. For sure. After what she did to Virgo and Capricorn, it would be nice to rip her eyes out of her socket."

Leo was violent. Many of us knew that. She wasn't as violent as Sagittarius or Pisces, but she was. She believed in 'taking an eye for an eye.' It wasn't pure evil for her. She just liked keeping things fair and equal—something she most definitely learned from Libra.

Leo has been our greatest friend for as long as I could remember. She fit in with Lib, Gem, and me from the very start. She was quick to know what was going on and how she was feeling. She was never hard to read nor was she ever too easy. She was smart. And cool. We needed someone like her. Soon, our group of three turned into a group of four.

I softly chuckle at her comment. "Yeah, but V and Cap can take on their own enemies without breaking a sweat. You know that."

I expected her to laugh or even smile at my sense of humor. Instead, she shakes her head and her serious eyes were still fixated on the Elite. "Doesn't stop me for wanting her dead. Or any of them."

Before I could say anything as a response, Scorpio and Pisces make their way over to us, appearing to look taller while standing. "Taurus. Leo. Can one of you please tell Scorpio that watching this dude is a waste of our time?" Pisces asks us, keeping her arms crossed over her chest.

"Watching any of the Elites is a waste of time," Leo agrees, still keeping her eyes fixated on Corvus who was seemingly staring at the window.

Pisces sweetly smiles at Scorpio who rolled his eyes before Leo continued.

"But we can't keep our eyes off of them. If we do, that's just allowing them to take advantage to do something without us watching," the pink-haired woman states. She wasn't wrong. Like I said, she was smart.

This time, Scorpio sweetly smiles at the shorter blue-haired woman. "You were saying?" he smiles, being completely petty.

Pisces rolls her eyes with her arms still folded across her chest and looks at me. "What do you think, Taurus?"

I shrug my shoulders. "I just really don't care," I answer truthfully. That upset her even more. She frowns before walking away from our presence.

Leo turns to look up at Scorpio who was still standing. "What's her problem?"

Scorpio turns around to look at Pisces who was pacing back and forth in front of Corvus. "Well, for one, she had to wake up to do hours of exercise straight without water. She's just cranky, but she'll get over it."

I turn over to look at Pisces again. She was crouched down in front of Corvus, and I could see her lips moving. She was obviously trying to whisper, and I couldn't make out a single word she was saying I him.

Without realizing it, my eyebrows furrow and my eyes are squinted. I detach myself from the wall and floor to stand up. "What the hell is she doing?" I whisper to myself.

Leo and Scorpio follow me over to Pisces who was talking discreetly with the enemy. I shake my head as I stand behind the blue-haired girl. "Pisces, what are you doing?" I ask, finding any lips tug into a smirk.

Pisces sits on the floor in front of Corvus and sighs. "Just...talking," she admits.

"About what?" Scorpio asks, raising an eyebrow.

Pisces sighs again,except this time, it was louder. She turns to look at Scorpio while frowning. "Absolutely nothing. The guy won't talk."

Leo cracks her knuckles beside me. "I can get him to talk," she intimidatingly announces while approaching the taller and stronger, quiet man.

I grab her wrist, indicating her to stop. "There'll be no fighting today. Hell, I'm way too tired to stop you from getting your ass beat," I tell her.

Although Leo could handle herself, I didn't like the idea of her getting into a fight now. Especially with an enemy. Especially with someone who could injure me, Gem, Scorpio, and Aquarius in one night. Someone who's motive isn't to get rid of us, but to murder us. That wasn't safe for her. It wasn't safe for any of us.

Leo glares at me and yanks her wrist out of my grasp. She walks to the other side of the gym to sit down and watch from afar.

"So what the hell are we supposed to do with him? He talks less than Cetus and Cassi. In fact, he's just quiet," Pisces whispers to Scorpio and me. She turns to look at the Elite who looked rather bored than worried. "Too quiet."

Scorpio shrugs his shoulders. "I don't know, but questioning him obviously won't work. We'll just have to wait until Orion gives us orders."

Though, Pisces was right. Corvus was quiet. Too quiet, indeed. When we went to capture him, it seemed as if he were planning something before at the aquarium. And now that he was under our roof, it was as if he had some kind of social anxiety.

I was going to keep a closer eye on him from now on.

●○●

Aquarius' POV

Cancer, Sagittarius, Capricorn, and I all were in the library with Cassi. Many of us weren't aware that there was a library here, but I was fully aware. I usually come here. It usually helps me think and escape from the other 11 idiots here. Capricorn and I tried our best to keep Cancer and Sagittarius away from each other.

That didn't work as planned.

"Are you kidding me? I'm the useless one? From what I heard, Capricorn and Virgo were the ones who actually captured Cassi!" Sagittarius shouts at the curly brunette.

Cancer subsequently chuckles and shakes her head. "We all worked as a team! Plus, it's not like I would make out with her knowing she's the enemy!" she fires back.

"Well, Cetus is here, isn't he?"

"And you slut shame me?"

"Your last name is literally 'Crabs.' Sometimes, I can't help myself," Sagittarius shrugs.

"Yeah, well it's not my fault all you do is run from your problems! You left three years ago, and you seem to pretty much hate your life for getting high so early in the morning to escape reality. Grow up, Sagittarius," Cancer announces.

I can tell by Sagittarius' face, that made her angry. Whatever was going to happen next was not going to be good. Sagittarius immediately snatches a book from a shelf and was ready to chug it at the brunette.

That was until I insert myself in the arguing. "Okay, ladies, let's not fight today. It's the middle of the afternoon, and I really don't want any of us dying today," I say sweetly and carefully taking the book from Sagittarius' hand.

"I don't know. I was kind of enjoying it," Cassi speaks far from a chair. She stands up from the chair and brushes herself off. "But now that the show's over, can I go pee now?"

The four of us looked at each other before Sagittarius spoke up. "Fine. Let's go."

Cassi's chocolate brown brows knit together in confusion and/or disgust. "You're going in the bathroom...with me?" she carefully asks.

"You have the same parts I have."

"Yeah, but what if I had a dick?" Cassi asks, looking at me now. My face scrunches in disgust. There was no way I was going in the bathroom with her to watch her pee.

"Nothing I haven't seen before, now let's go!" Sagittarius points her finger where the bathroom was, seeming to be annoyed with everything as of now. Cassi sighs and walks into the bathroom with Sagittarius behind her.

Cancer and Capricorn both walk up to me. "Y'know, you two can't pick a fight every time you see each other," Capricorn tells Cancer.

"You think I'm the one starting fights?" Cancer asks, using her index finger to aggressively point to herself.

Capricorn shrugs. "I think both of you are the reason. I'm just saying, it's not worth it."

Cancer and Sagittarius have hated each other since the day they met. You'd think opposites attract, but those two didn't. They were completely opposite from each other.

Cancer was more responsible, premeditated, and subtle. In fact, she was the only one who has their shit together in this lot.

Sagittarius, however, was careless, impulsive, and slippery. She did things that made her happy, not caring who gets hurt along the way.

Did I think it was possible for them to get over their differences and make up? Yes. Of course I do. Do I think it would be easy? Fuck no.

"Fine. I'll stop coming for her first. But if she tries to come at me, don't forget that I know how to defend myself," Cancer assures, looking at both of us with seriousness in her eyes.

"Great. Now is it fine if I take a nap? That whole workout thing is still killing me," Capricorn asks, her eyes getting glossy and low. She looked ready to yawn in a minute.

"Go ahead. We'll watch Cassi," I tell her.

Capricorn nods her head and walks over to a corner to sleep in. Now, Cancer and I were alone, and I turn to her to speak.

"So are you okay?" I ask her out of the blue.

Cancer nods her head side to side while looking up at the ceiling. "Eh. I mean, it's Sagittarius. I should get used to these things, right?"

I somehow forgot about the whole Cancer and Sagittarius thing that I witnessed not too long ago. "No, I mean, are you okay? Y'know, you almost passed out on us earlier," I restate my question.

Cancer's eyes went huge as she figured out what I meant now. "Oh! Yeah, yeah, I'm okay. I'm fine. Just...smelly," she laughs while shaking her head again.

"Whenever you're dehydrated, never gulp like everyone else did. It'll make you feel some kind of nausea and you'd start feeling kind of dizzy. Just a useful fact to know," I ramble. I usually start rambling when I didn't know what to say at a specific time.

Cancer nods her head and laughs again. "Good to know," she tells me, smiling.

A door seems to open and close, allowing Sagittarius and Cassi to appear. Cassi was swearing some words under her breath with Sagittarius casually walking behind her.

"I'm going to watch Cassi now. Y'know, unless she tries to make out with the enemy again," she jokes before taking a step their way. My face deadpans, and I guess she could tell because she turned around to me again. "Fine. I'll be nice," she says with the fakest smile I've seen.

I roll my eyes and slightly chuckle. The members in our group were somewhat...insane. They drove me insane. Because of that, I go to a shelf and pick up one of the books. Book about Astonomy.

Whenever I needed to escape reality, I depend on books. They never make me bored nor feel like I was driven by a motor. It was just calming to me. Just me: reading a book on my favorite couch.

When I walk over to the couch, I could see Sagittarius laying on the couch with a book and ink pen in hand. She was drawing in one of the books, or from my vision, scribbling in it.

I've talked to everyone under the roof except for Sagittarius. I've seen everyone as my friend except for Sagittarius. But that wasn't my fault. She was difficult to keep up with. The only one I knew who could catch up with her and her plans was Leo, and I don't even think she considers her as a friend.

I decided to change that.

"Hey," I speak rather loudly than I intended it to be. Sagittarius slowly looks up from the book and stops scribbling. Looking at her now, her pupils weren't as dilated as before.

"I'm sorry, did you wanna snatch a book out of my hands again?" she sassily remarks.

I roll my eyes at her behavior. At this point, I just wanted to sit on my favorite couch. "Can I just sit down?"

She didn't answer until a few seconds. "Yeah. On the floor," she smirks while going back to scribbling in the book.

I push her feet to the floor. "I'm taking a seat," this time I announce instead of asking.

When I did sit down, Sagittarius put her feet on my legs, refusing to allow me to get away with it. "Fine. But I'm still going to get comfortable," she tells me.

"Help yourself," I mumble this time, setting my book on her shins. I turn to a page, but just before I could start reading, Sagittarius scribbles harder.

I slowly turn my head over to her. "What the hell are you doing?"

"Drawing," she answers, taking her eyes off the page. "And what the hell are you doing?"

"Reading," I bluntly answer. "Or trying to read at least."

"People still do that?" she jokes, seeming to laugh at herself.

"It's actually pretty cool. I mean, most of these books are pretty interesting to learn about," I tell her.

She blinks twice at me. "You're a nerd, aren't you?"

My face deadpans. "I'm not a nerd."

"Seems like only nerds would do those things."

"Just because I enjoy reading, doesn't mean I'm a nerd."

"Then enlighten me on something. Tell me something oh-so-exciting," she says, putting her book down on her lap and giving me a fake bright smile.

"Okay, fine," I start, turning to a different page. "So this book is all about the universe, right?"

"You mean the solar system?"

"Yes," I answer, continuing to flip through pages until I found one. "Like this one!" I point to a picture of Jupiter and it's red eye. Sagittarius moves herself to look a little closer at the picture.

"For instance, my favorite planet is Jupiter," I start.

"Ooh, that's the big one," Sagittarius says excitedly.

I point to her. "Correct. But everyone seems to like Jupiter because it's the biggest one. That and Mars—except Mars is popular because they believe there's life on it—but that's besides the point. Jupiter is more than just a big planet. It has moons, specifically 67, but most of those moons are captured asteroids that are ready to hit the planet in years, and when it does, it could fuck Jupiter up and get rid of some of its gases and dust particles to create a vivid ring. Except, Jupiter already has a ring, but it's faint, so really that doesn't mean shit to anyone since it's not as pretty or vivid like Saturn's," I explain.

Sagittarius slowly nods her head in understanding as I speak, and I realize I rambled a bit too much. My face deadpans again.

"You didn't understand a word I just said, did you?" I rhetorically ask, seeing how focused she was trying to be.

Sagittarius shakes her head this time. "Not a single thing."

I sigh and roll my eyes.

"Sorry, but you just have so much nerd talk. You lost me at when you said I was correct."

"Of course," I mumble. "But anyway, what's your favorite planet? I'll correct you if you're wrong."

"You'd correct me if I were right also," she jokes, before leaning back on the couch again.

"Are you going to inform me on your favorite planet or what?" I ask impatiently.

Sagittarius clicks her pen again and again before smirking and looking at me. "Uranus."

I nod my head in understanding. "Okay, that's good. Uranus is a pretty cool planet. Why's it your favorite?"

Sagittarius' smirk turn into a grin. "Because," she slowly says, keeping me on a cliffhanger. "Ur...anus."

I roll my eyes and close my book. "You're such a child," I tell her as she was laughing at herself. I heard the joke so many times, and I hate how I had to catch myself from laughing with her.

Although I did break into a weak smile, I wasn't hesitant to speak again. "Y'know, Cancer isn't all that bad, right?"

Sagittarius' laughter and grin disappeared as if it were never there. "Way to ruin my fun," she mumbles loud enough to hear, going back to scribble in her book.

"No, I'm serious. You guys really need to work things out," I say truthfully. "It's getting annoying."

Sagittarius didn't say anything. Instead, she puts her pen inside her book before closing it. That's when she decided to speak again. "Are you going to educate me more on your stupid planets or what?"

●○●

After about an hour later, we were all back in the Main Room. Orion still talked about how upset he was over the truck, but luckily he's rich enough to pay it off. There was no certainty when we were getting it back though.

He also seemed to have no idea what the fuck we were supposed to do with the Elites. It seemed all like a waste of time and space. Though, I wasn't going to pressure him into a rush. They've only been here for weeks. We still had time, right?

Currently, I was seated beside Aries and Scorpio, my two greatest friends. Aries and I became great friends over common interest. Scorpio was like a brother to me. I trusted those two with anything.

"So how was working with the wicked witch?" I joke, shooting an eyebrow out to Aries.

Aries groans and throws his head back as if I allowed a bad memory to his mind. "Virgo's a pain in the ass. All she did was complain about last night, but luckily Cetus was more annoying enough for her to avert her anger elsewhere," he explains.

"If it makes you feel better, my group was pretty nice," Scorpio blankly blurts.

Aries gives him a blank stare with low, dark eyebrows. "Yeah. Much," he sarcastically responds. "Luckily, Orion's getting the truck fixed, so maybe she can probably stop yapping about it."

"Luckily? I was hoping he ditched the truck and gave us one of his cars," I chuckle. But it wasn't exactly a joke. I would do anything to ride in one of Orion's personal cars.

"There is no way in hell Orion would ever give us one of his cars. If he had a choice, he'd probably get us an Uber somewhere if we're lucky," Scorpio shrugs. He wasn't wrong. The man was rich, but he could be so fucking cheap. It was like he hoards money instead of actually spending it.

Aries chuckles and leans back down on the couch with his hands caressing the back of his head. Before another joke about cheap Orion was brought up, the cheapskate himself arrived back into the room.

"Well, this isn't gonna be good," Scorpio mumbles beside me.

As of right now, it was just Orion. No Elites or anything. Which had me wondering, where were the Elites? He didn't leave them alone in his office, did he?

"Everyone," Orion speaks, catching everyone's attention from the Main Room. "I need you all to take a seat and listen closely."

Gemini was the first to say something. "Ah, shit. Are we going to have to do more push ups, or can I finish beating Libra's ass at pool?" Gemini uses his pool stick to poke Libra in the stomach. The blonde snatches the stick from him.

"Actually, it's not bad news at all," Orion begins, fixing his glasses on his face.

"Did you finally get rid of the Elites?" I ask immediately.

"Is the truck fixed already?" Virgo asks.

"Are we going to―"

"Sagittarius, we are not going to the Bahamas!" Taurus shouts. Sagittarius scowls at the brunette.

Orion, however, stood there bored. "Are you guys done?" he questions, also sending us a scowl. When nobody answered, that's when he continued with his news.

"You guys are all going to Times Square!"