The Program

Chapter Three

About four days ago, I found out that John's parents were part of the reason I was sent to the test. They wouldn't really tell me what was going on, why they are working for Reid. I mean, they wouldn't even tell me why in the world they thought it was a good idea to send their sons to the test. But I had to leave it alone, being told more than once by Natalie that it was something I didn't need to know.

Yeah well, the last time she kept something from me Reid almost killed me and all my friends. But sure, I don't need to know what's going on.

And, well, John has been hanging out at my house more since that day, trying to keep as much distance between him and his parents as he can. I leave him alone and let him hide here. After all, given the fact that Jack's dad is Reid, i'm sure he's over a lot more. And we both have our reasons for not wanting to be near him.

"What are you doing?" John asked me, walking into my room unannounced and taking my book from my hands.

"What do you think? I was holding a book and my eyes were looking at it. Not that hard to figure out, John." I said.

"Ah, okay then. So, what is it about?" He gave it back to me.

"Don't you have something better to be doing right now instead of bugging me? But if you must know, it's about these teenagers with cancer who go to Amsterdam to meet their favorite author and fall in-"

"Okay, that's enough. Forget I even asked." He cut me off. "Besides, we have better things to be doing than reading."

"You did not just say that. Reading is one of the most important things."

"Whatever, just put the book down and come with me." I did as he said, following him out of my room.

"And where are we going?"

"To my house." He must have caught the look I was giving him because he explained. "My parents aren't there and it's boring here. So, either you can stay here and read your precious little book or we can go to my house and search through my parents stuff and maybe find something useful."

Okay, he had a point. But i'm sure they were smart enough to not leave important information just laying around. I mean, they helped make the test, they had to be smart. Before I could bring this fact up, though, John pulled me out of my house and out the door. At least this time I had my phone with me.

"You know, I am capable of leaving my home without your help. I have these two things called legs and I know how to use them." I yanked my arm away from him. He shrugged it off and we got into his truck. "Why is it that it's cleaner in here right now than it was the night of our date?" I asked as I noticed the floor clear of papers of any kind.

"Because I was purposely ruining everything that night."

"So, you mess up your truck to do that?" I asked. "I mean, me coming home soaking wet seemed to be what I mainly remember about that horrible night. That ruined the whole thing, even if you had no chance when I met you anyway." I said, remembering how he pushed me in the water toward the end of our horrible date. It was disastrous.

"Huh, that's mainly what you remember? And yet you remember that the truck was filled with junk." He smirked. "And it's actually not my truck, it's Jack's. So, he had to deal with cleaning it out the next morning."

"You're a horrible brother, you know that? And if it's his, why do you have it right now?"

"It's called brotherly love, Lexi. I take things without telling him, he get's mad, I do it again." I roll my eyes and buckle up. 

"Just drive." I told him. He let out a small laugh and started up the car. I was starting to learn more and more that Jack and John were very similar. I know, they are around each other all the time and pick up on things the other one does, but seriously, I don't need an annoying jerk bothering me when I only want an annoying  guy with green eyes and a great smile to remember me.

"So, you okay with that?" John asked, pulling me from my thoughts. I must not have been paying attention and it showed. "God, Lexi, listen for once, will you?"

"I'm listening now. Tell me what I missed." I said, feeling the bumps of gravel on the road as we pulled into his driveway. 

We got here quick. How long did I zone out?

"Jack's here. He just called me, said he had his amazing friends over." He replied. And that's exactly what I saw, Jack and Danny standing in the front yard, staring upward toward a tree. 

"He's your brother, he's going to be here. Why would I have a problem with that?" I asked.

"Because it's difficult for you to be around him?" He said as if it were obvious, getting out of the vehicle as I did.

"And why would it be hard for me to be around him? I saw him a few days ago and was perfectly fine." I pointed out.

"You like my wacky brother of course. And it's because you do that you weren't fine the other day when you saw him. I'm pretty sure you were barely breathing."

"You make me sound like a freaking girly chick from a romance novel." I said.

"I didn't hear you disagree with me." He added. "So, you must have some kind of little crush on him. But just remember, if you two weirdos get married, Reid becomes your father in law. And my beautiful parents will be in there somewhere too, making me the uncle to your future kids. Looks like Jack's not only the whole package but his family is too." He said sarcastically, laughing as he did. I smacked him in the head and walked with him over to where Jack was next to Danny.

They were both still staring up. "Um, what are they doing?" I whispered to John.

"I'm gonna go ahead and say that my prediction was correct and you two are dating now." Jack suddenly said without looking at us, probably hearing my question. "I mean, this is the second time you've brought her here this week, John. That's got to mean something."

It means we're trying to figure out what's going on with you not remembering. And why your adoptive parents are working for Reid. But for some strange reason we decided not to tell you about this information and now you think i'm dating John.

So, yeah, that's all it means.

"Trust me on this one, Jack, she's probably way more interested in you than she would ever be in me." John said. 

Got that right.

"Really?" Jack asked, turning to me and letting his head drop for where he was looking. "Interesting, very interesting." I ignored it, trying to make my now red cheeks from getting worse.

"So, uh, what were you staring at?" I wondered aloud while moving my hair behind my ear.

"That would be me." Someone yelled, causing me to actually look up for the first time. Jack's other friend, Clay, was sitting on a branch holding something.

"You got the furball yet, Clay?" Danny yelled back. I minute later, Clay was out of the tree and that thing I saw him holding, it turned out to be a cat.

"Yeah, right here, Danny. You wanna take it." He said. "The thing scratched my freaking arm up, I don't want to touch this little bundle of evil again."

Huh, someone who understands how I feel about Reid.

Danny took it only to give it to Jack. "Here, take your cat. God, it sheds, i've got fur all over me now."

"Sure thing, buddy." He said, walking in the house. "Hey, you coming, John? You too, princess. I know John's not the biggest gentleman in the world so i'll step up and invite his girlfriend in."

I couldn't even object to the whole girlfriend thing before Jack was out of earshot. "Why does he keep saying that?" 

"Who knows with him. He's just being Jack." John answered. "But he'll get over it once he realizes his true feelings for you. Seriously, that's the second time he called you princess. I say things are looking up for you and him being a, well, you and him." I let out a tiny laugh.

"About that, you're right, okay. I do like him, Jack I mean. But can you blame me, we freaking kissed in the test and now, now everything is just so confusing." I told him. "But something I don't get, why haven't we told him about the test?"

"Because. Natalie told me that if he found out it could be very bad for him, especially since he's Reid's son. If Reid thinks something is off, who knows what he'll do. So, we figure out what's going on and then do something about it. And just in case it comes up in the future, Reid is actually going by Ben out here."

"But didn't he tell us his name was Thomas Reid?" He nodded. "Maybe it has to do with Jack's dad's name being Ben Harrow, that's what Reid told me when he thought it was okay to tell me about my friends' lives. What's with all the changing of names out here though? First, it's Natalie with the whole Elody type deal and now this."

"Not sure." We walked into the house, seeing Jack still holding the cat and it purring away. John leaned in close to my ear and said, "But you wanna hear something else kinda strange?" I nodded. "We don't have a cat." I gave him a look and he again did his normal shrug and went up the stairs with me behind him. We were probably going to his mom's and dad's room, ready to look for anything that would show up what was going on.

"Where you two going?" I heard Jack ask, causing both of us to whip our heads to him. "Going somewhere so you can kiss in private?" He teased.

"No, in fact, I was just telling Lexi that I was going to go up stairs for a bit and she should stay down here with you guys." John responded.

"Uh, okay." I said.

"Come on, princess, we don't bite." Jack told me. "I can't say the same for the cat though." He patted a place on the couch. And guess where it was, next to him. But my stomach was fluttering and I felt like I just might puke when I heard that nickname yet again that he had always called me.

John was so right, it was actually kinda hard to be around Jack while feeling this way. But I sat down anyway, feeling that heat that had been so reassuring in the test radiate from Jack's body and hope that John found something that would help us put together the mystery that was his parents.

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So, ten days since I last updated, or was it more? I don't really know. But I hope you enjoyed this and I again feel the need to bring up the fact that they are outside now. So, not as much action and stuff just yet. Give it a little more time and bam, something great will come along. And I wanted to share something with you guys.

So, I got in this mood the other day where I wanted to see what each of my characters names meant. So, I searched the name Lexi in Google. It said that Lexi means the defender of man. And then I looked up Jack and do you know what I found? Jack was used in the Middles Ages as a slang word meaning man. Lexi is defender of man and Jack is man. And Lexi did kind of save Jack's life so...... Yeah, I thought that was a cool coincidence to share with ya'll. If it's wrong, blame it on Google. I know I am not smart enough to know what their names meant without this beautiful thing we call the internet, even if I am now graduated. Yeah, blame Google if i'm wrong :)

Vote and comment if you like and if you don't then, um, have a nice day to whoever you may be. Bye :)