I walked up the stairs into the chapel and immediately regretted forgetting a jacket that morning. The air was biting my nose, and a light rain was making my hair flat. I closed the big wooden door behind me and everyone was already at the table waiting for me.
"You guys didn't have to wait," I said, wiping my feet on the floor mat we have in front of the door.
"Wouldn't be a team if we didn't, kiddo," Jenko said as he sat at the head of the table and shuffled some papers around.
I walked up to the table and Tom glanced over at me and smiled.
"What?" I asked, pulling out my chair and sliding in. I put my backpack down at my feet and let it rest against the leg of the chair.
"Hey, Hanson, pay attention." Jenko snapped his fingers. Tom's head whipped back to Jenko and he apologized.
I sat down in my usual chair and Jenko began handing out the files with our assignments in them. I opened mine and started to read through my backstory as Jenko was describing our assignment.
I had grabbed an orange before I left for work this morning and put it in my backpack. I wasn't running late, but if I had stopped to eat it then I would have been. I unzipped my bag and pulled it out and started my attempts to peel it but I just couldn't get a good grip on it.
"I'm going to have Gregg and Ioki over at Georgetown High School—" Jenko pointed at the two of us, "—counterfeit money has been found on lots of high school students in the area. I want you two to figure out who is printing, and where."
"Will do, Cap," Ioki said.
"McFly?" I raised my upper lip in disappointment after reading my fake name. "Mickey McFly?"
"It doesn't say that," Tom said while taking the folder out of my hand. He raised his eyebrows and laughed, "what do you know... it does."
"Mine is Castle," Ioki said, "Dirty Dancing... might as well call me Swayze."
"You watched Dirty Dancing, Ioki?" I asked, remembering the girls night out that Judy and I had when the movie first came out. I can't even remember the plot.
"No," he said quickly, "but I've seen the trailers."
I was still having trouble trying to peel my orange, and I exhaled in frustration. The orange juice was leaking out and making my fingers sticky, and I just happened to look up and see that Tom was watching me struggle. He silently held his hand out, and I put my orange in his palm.
"What about it?" Jenko asked, rifling through papers in his hands.
"People are going to start getting suspicious," I pointed out as my folder was circling the table.
"It's fine," Jenko reassured.
"Should I change my first name to Lorraine?" I asked jokingly. Doug and Tom started snickering under their breath.
Jenko replied dryly, "no."
"How about Marty?" Tom suggested. He got the entire peel off my orange and handed me the ball of fruit. I smiled softly, and thanked him in a low voice. He returned the smile and gave me a little head nod.
"Stop," Jenko said.
"Or George," Doug encouraged.
"Or mix the two, call her Baby," Ioki laughed.
"Hey, Baby," Tom put his hand on the back of my chair. The blood rushed to my cheeks as he and imitated Patrick Swayze, "wanna work on our dancing?"
"Can I pull up to the school in a DeLorean?" I asked semi-seriously as I ate a slice of my orange.
Tom raised his hand. "Can I take Ioki's place and say I'm Doc Brown?"
Jenko eyed all of us immature officers and threatened, "I'll stop making fun last names if y'all keep teasing me about them."
"Okay, okay, we'll stop," Tom's lips flexed together as he tried not to laugh and he put his hand down.
"Thank you," Jenko said. He turned to Judy and Tom and Doug and gave them their next assignments. We were promptly dismissed, and I officially became Mickey McFly for the day.