The Assassin - a Denied Spies Novel Book 1

Ava

The bell rang and everyone made their way to the last two classes of the day. Leon was at class by the time I got there, Tina - luckily for him - wasn't in our French class. He was panting heavily but I could tell it was put on; it was in his eyes. Our teacher soon came in and surprisingly Leon talked instead of getting me to. That's twice. Leon talking was however the only surprise because once more he was told to sit next to me.

The rest of school dragged to a close and finally the bell rang. Home time. I made my way for the bus and just as I was about to get on I saw Leon talking to the boy from the roof again. I desperately wanted to go listen but the driver wasn't going to wait for me so I reluctantly climbed on and took my seat.

The bus lurched forward and I sat with my music blaring for three stops. When I got off at my stop I saw a small figure sitting on the wall outside my foster home. Charlie!

Charlie's my best friend ever - mainly because she's my only friend. Well beside her younger brother Craig. She's the only person in the world that understands me. I was lonely when I moved here and hadn't really had many friends - being in foster care meant that I was forced to move around a lot so I didn't like getting attached to people - so when Charlie asked to be friends I wasn't sure.

But no matter how hard I tried to stay away she kept coming after me. She was like stalker. Due to constant pestering I caved and hung out with for a bit. We ended up getting along really well and became friends.

"Hi!" said Charlie happily jumping off my wall. I smiled and said hi back. "Wow! What's wrong with you!?"

"What! Nothing's wrong with me, I'm just tired, it's been a long day that's all." Charlie thought this over for a few minutes before shaking her head. "Do I really look that bad?" When she nodded I sighed and looked at my door. "OK, I'll tell you later. Just let me dump my bag." I opened the door and ran upstairs to dump my bag before leaving; making sure someone knew I was away out with Charlie.

"So..." Charlie asked, her head tilted and eyebrows raised. I sighed and told her all about Leon or Alex or whoever he is - leaving out the whole bit about spies and the weird guy that kept appearing to secretly talk with Leon.

As I talked we made our way to the little park at the end of the street. Once I finished my story I perked my butt on a swing and tried to change the subject by talking about random stuff. Charlie, however, had other plans and wouldn't leave the subject alone.

"So there's a new boy in school and instead of trying to ditch you, he's hanging around with you?" she asked.

"Yes, but that's only because Mr Rite said so," I replied hoping she would drop it.

"No he didn't," Charlie stated. I looked at her puzzled; she sighed and carried on, "You said that Mr Rite told you to show him around but he didn't tell him to stay with you. The new boy chose to stay with you! Someone likes you!" I grimaced.

After a long conversation of me mostly saying 'no he doesn't', we finally managed to change the subject and time flew by.

I looked at my watch and freaked! We had been out for three hours just sitting and talking on the swings and I never bothered looking at the time. I was so in trouble. "Charlie," I said shakily. She looked at me and saw the fear in my eyes.

"OMG! I'm so sorry Ava; you're not going to get into too much trouble are you?" I looked at the ground before looking into Charlie's eyes and nodded. She flinched at the thought. We jumped off the swings and ran back to my foster home. "I'm really sorry Ava."

"It's fine, I'll be fine. It won't be that bad, I swear." I said giving Charlie a hug. "Promise, I'll be alright." Slowly Charlie nodded and crossed the road.