Black Widow's Daughter

Chapter 8

The halls were crowded with kids rushing back to their rooms. Sienna and I were hoping to run into Cassie Lang during the schools rush hour. So far we had been turned down by Daniel McCoy, Nicholas Parker and Vanessa Strange. They were the smartest kids I knew. Now we were starting to think of people who are smart and will actually believe that we are part of a team.

"Found her." Sienna was pulling Cassie along by her belt that hung loosely around her dress. It looked as though it was about to rip. Cassie had the look of pure ear on her face when she looked at the two of us. She would probably run away first chance she got.

"W..w...what do you w..want from me?" her voice trembled as she spoke. We couldn't possibly be that big a threat. It's not like we killed anybody or anything. The three of us were standing in the middle of the hallway, gaining the attention of a few students.

"Would you like to join our team?" Cassie's eyes widened as she heard the question. She just shook her head and made an attempt to leave. Sienna still hadn't let go of her belt and she came straight back. I could see some sweat dripping down her forehead and Cassie was continuously wiping her hands on her skirt. She looked as though she was about to go into a nervous breakdown.

"N...n...n...no." Cassie stuttered. I could see a big lump of saliva travelling down her throat. She licked her dry lips and quickly looked around for an escape.

"Do you know anyone else smart we can ask?" Sienna seemed just as annoyed as I was. Cassie wasn't even being slightly helpful.

"The Stark's and Richards." Cassie ran off with her books in her arms. Sienna was still holding onto the white belt that Cassie had previously been wearing. She must have unbuckled it while we weren't watching.

"I'm keeping this!" Sienna shouted hoping it would be loud enough for Cassie to hear. She stuffed it into one of her belt pockets and we both made our way through the crowd to the nearest seat. Sienna crossed Cassandra Lang off the list and put her notepad away.

So far we have not found anyone smart enough for our team. Everyone seemed to be either scared of us or thinking we were joking around. We had actually had the longest conversation with Cassie. Nicholas Parker had turned us down almost straight away. He seemed to think that he was too cool to talk to us. Hard to believe for the son of the biggest nerd of his time. Daniel McCoy was to worried about turning into a monster around us and Vanessa Strange told us that she was afraid of us. She had always been straight forward with people, but that was pushing the limit a bit.

Cassie had mentioned the Richards. Two of the smartest kids in the whole school. They were even smarter than James Stark who had managed to skip a year. Valeria was in the right year for her age, but she aced every test and completed her work in a matter of seconds. Some students believe that she is an alien which I find highly unlikely. Her father is Mister Fantastic and he is like the smartest person on earth.

Her brother Franklin is a year ahead of Nathaniel. He tends to hang around James which automatically ruled him off the team list. I don't care how smart he is. Any friend of Stark's is my enemy. That is just the way the world works.

So that meant Valeria Richards was now the person that we had to track down. The only issue was the timing. Every student had to be back in their rooms by eight which only left us with ten minutes before every student was back in their dorms.

"Who are these Richards?" Sienna scribbled Richards down on her notepad. Looking down at the notepad I saw the name Stark written down with a skull instead of an a. We lips curved up and I smiled. The best way to make me smile is by insulting someone I hate.

"Valeria is in my class. She is the kind, quiet and teachers pet kind of girl." What I said was true. Valeria was the kind of girl that liked to kiss up to her teachers. It probably helped with getting good marks on exams. Things I really don't care about.

Sienna crinkled her nose and then spat on the wooden floor. "Sounds like a baby to me." She wiped her mouth on her glove and then shook her arm around vigorously.

"She may be a baby, but we need a team." I stood up with my hands on my hips heroically. My gaze focussed on Sienna who stood up beside me with a grin on her face. The two of us left the seats and ran off down the halls. I looked out for Valeria because Sienna had absolutely no idea what she looked like.

There were actually a lot of blondes at my school. It made it extremely difficult to find anyone in the crowd. I would look out for a spot of blonde hair but most of the time it would be a random kid.

"All students have three minutes to return to their dorms." Agent Hill's voice called over the speaker, sending every student into a mad rush. One older kid even barged into me, knocking me straight off my feet and onto the ground. Like I hadn't had enough injuries today.

Sienna rushed to my side and helped pull me up. We earned the few odd looks from passing students, but most kids dashed past minding their own business. It was probably useless searching the halls. Valeria was most likely in her room hours ago, reading a book and behaving. What a boring life that would be.

I thought about sneaking into Valeria's room tonight before remembering that teachers always make students lock the doors and windows at night. When I was in kindergarten I left the door unlocked and the next day all of Danielle Cage's bracelets were gone. I still think that it was a teacher pulling a prank on us for leaving the door open, but of course no one believes me.

There would always be other ways to sneak in like through the vents but I've tried climbing into them before. It's basically impossible. I looked around in the hope of spotting Valeria. Except the only person I saw was Sienna, who was awfully close to me. I jumped backwards when I saw her looking directly at me. She had an intimidating stare. That reminded me about all of Sienna's past training. I may not be able to jump into a vent, but I'm sure that Sienna could.