SandScript 2023 [Digital Exclusive]

“You little jerk. I thought you hated school, but here you are doing fantastic in a subject like
history. You are a nerd, admit it!” Brigid stood abruptly.
Before responding, Aidan stood up and towered over the girl, smugly stating, “Over my dead
body, woman! I’m not a nerd!”
“You so are!” Brigid put her fists in the air, pretending to threaten him. “Hey mister, please, oh,
please, will you do my history homework for me.” The girl mocked him, lips pouting, eyebrows
wiggling.
“Get help from someone else, Squeaker,” the boy teased, adding the old nickname he had
given her when they met, pretending to stride away.
Brigid grabbed his arm, stopping her friend in his tracks. “You are now involved in this as much
as I am, sir.”
“Volunteering me for this was not part of the plan.”
“I can’t go to Pandora alone. It’s scary there and a damsel like me would never make it alive!”
Brigid feigned swooning and collapsed on the loveseat.
The two laughed for a moment before Aiden took a seat next to her on the sofa. Brigid took
that moment to really look at the person she thought she knew so much about. Had she never
looked at him before? They were supposed to be focused on discovering the truth of the old
maps, but she couldn’t help noticing he had a strong aura to him that held a lot of history, like
an old soul. Brigid knew he took the death of his mother the hardest, as she was the one to
help him through his bouts of anger whenever things changed, and part of Brigid thought he
blamed himself for the woman’s death. Logically, everyone knew that she had died protecting
her family, but emotionally the unanswered questions of the case lingered and took a toll.
As a result, he was typically more standoffish than his siblings and played his cards close
to the chest. It was hard to know him sometimes, yet their friendship felt real. Growing up,
Aiden always had things to say to Brigid, casual chatter between friends but they never really
talked seriously. That was somewhat terrifying to her because her gut feeling was currently
screaming that this boy was meant to help her.
“Are you okay?” the quiet question interrupting her thoughts.
Brigid mentally shook herself back into reality and smiled, “When this mysterious map
business is all figured out, let’s celebrate with dinner at that one place with BurnBerry cobbler,
because I know this is going to be something big. Who knows, maybe we will find a hidden
island that’s remained unexplored or something! All I know is that those maps don’t match,
and the official seal indicates that it isn’t a fake. I found it for a reason, and we just need to
figure out what that reason is. So, let’s get busy because I hear a cobbler calling my name!”
“That, Brigid Dean, sounds like a most delicious plan.”
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