Yo! So I don't really think this chapter is much of anything, i suppose it's almost like a filler chapter. Almost. Anyways, Enjoy, Love, Comment...Whatever it is people do :]
<3
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I stood outside Novosi’s classroom reluctantly. Adrian had already left, so ditching at an epic speed wasn’t an option; I’d let him take my car. And Mrs. Jones, finding out I already had detention, made sure the hall monitors knew about it. She probably had the cameras trained on me; just so she could make sure I didn’t hide in a bathroom.
I sighed and knocked on the door.
“Enter.” I almost choked on my spit. He made it seem like I was in some cheesy movie. I walked in slowly, afraid he was going to run at me, again, with his stupid knife.
Strangely, though, he was sitting at his desk, staring at a two inch thick pile of papers. He held a red pen in his hand but he wasn’t grading. I snickered.
When I he looked up, I almost jumped. I was still very nervous about being around him. I didn’t exactly want to be attacked every day, more than once. Hell, I didn’t want to be assaulted by my teacher-slash-enemy.
“Seeing as you missed yesterday’s detention, you’re going have another one this coming Monday.” Just as I was about to protest, he added, “I’ll make it a Saturday detention if you don’t come.”
I snapped my mouth shut. I sat down at the table a couple of rows away from his desk. When I sat down, I dropped my head into my hand, staring up at the ceiling, still clutching my bag. I felt him staring at me.
“Do you need something, Mr. Novosi?” I asked, huffed. The look in his eyes gave me the feeling that what he was about to say wasn’t what he wanted from me. I doubt he’d want anything other than to kill me. But I pushed that thought out of my head. If the worst came down, I’d just knock him out. I’d brought knockout gas disguised in a bottle of pepper spray.
“Why are you just sitting there?”
“That’s usually what we do in detention, sir,” I said, slumping in my seat.
“See this pile here? Yeah, it’s not happening with only one person. I need to grade all of these by tomorrow.” Novosi gestured for me to come up, I rolled my eyes, complying. “Take this half,” he said dumping it into my hands. “You can grade these, and I’ll grade this.”
He set a pen on top of the pile and shooed me a way. I just gaped at him. Me, grading? Ha! He had to have been an idiot to think I would grade these. Wait he was an idiot.
“You’re trusting me with these?” I asked skeptically. “I would most likely put a big, fat ‘F’ on all of them.”
“So would I, but I’d get fired for that. So get cracking, you’re not worth getting fired,” he grumbled. I was about to sit at my desk when I spun around to face him.
“Why the hell are you teaching at my school, anyway? You’re supposed to be some big arse assassin, but you’re here. If you’re targeting me, then hell yeah, I’m out of here.”
“What makes you think you’re the target?” Novosi asked, there was a hint of anger in his voice.
“Hmm, well, I don’t know, the fact that, like I said, it’s the third time you’ve tried to kill me in two days. And even risked your job to maul me at school. No, I don’t know why I would think I’m a target,” I spat. For some unknown reason, he laughed at that.
“Well, lucky for you, you’re not my target. I just happen to hate you.”
“Then why are you working here?” I almost yelled. He seemed to lose the laughter in his eyes, and strangely, it bothered me. He looked better when he smiled. Shit. I slapped myself. How the hell did that thought get into my head? I slapped myself again for double measure. Novosi narrowed his eyes at me.
“I was requested to work here,” he said. He seemed to be holding back something.
“Doesn’t sound like you’re too happy about it.”
“Who would be happy to work at a school with crappy kids? I sure as hell don’t,” he said raising his hands and shrugging.
“So you were forced here, but not by your boss or whatever,” I stated.
“Something like that.” Then he said, “Get grading or I’ll keep you in here all day.”
Immediately I sat down and began grading the labs. He’d put a guide sheet to help me grade, and the answer key to refer to. Seeing as I didn’t want to stay there all day, I graded furiously, finishing long before Novosi had even gone through half of his pile.
“Can I go to the bathroom?” Novosi looked up.
“Finished already?” he asked, surprised.
“Well, I wasn’t planning on spending the rest of my day with you,” I scoffed.
“Yes,” he said. I paused.
“Yes, what?”
“Go to the freaking bathroom, girl. I still have to finish my grading. In fact, when you come back and you will come back,” he added threateningly, “You can help me finish my half of the pile.”
“Why?” I whined. “I hate grading!”
“But you’re fast. Now go, and make sure you come straight back here.”
I ran as fast as I could to the bathroom. The second I locked myself in a cubicle, I launched myself at the toilet, my face hovering above it. Vomit spouted out of my mouth. I’d been holding it back while in detention, not realizing how strongly I’d felt sick.
My body was acting up. I retched into the toilet, holding my hair back. Once I was done, I felt like I’d thrown up my intestines. It was nasty.
The poison must have been taking effect. I’d almost forgotten about it. I guess Adrian’s “cure” was gone now. I washed out my mouth, and then stared at myself in the mirror. My face looked pale and hollow, my eyes somewhat red. I didn’t want Novosi to find satisfaction in this; his poison affecting me again. Despite him being a lot nicer during detention, I still didn’t trust him enough.
I walked out of the bathroom, after washing my face several times, heading towards the water fountain. Water would help me. I gulped down as much as I could before returning to Novosi.
He didn’t question my timing.
I finished grading the labs that Novosi couldn’t finish himself, and the second he dismissed me, I was out of the room, leaving papers billowing behind me. I didn’t stop running till I was about a mile away from the school.
I sat down on the curb and rested my head on my knees.
What the hell was I doing? My effing Chemistry teacher and I had been socializing; the Chemistry teacher that also happened to try and kill me these past few days. Why was he being so much nicer now?
Maybe he was bipolar. It would explain a lot.
My head began spinning. Involuntarily I lay across the sidewalk, pressing my cheek against the cool ground. I lay spread-eagled; I was surprised that nobody noticed, I was probably the most insane person here. Although the road was rather empty…
My eyes drooped shut, the cool sidewalk still pressed against my feet.
I heard the song “Good Girls Go Bad” playing from somewhere near my stomach, interrupting my sleep. The cool, hard surface against my cheek reminded me that I was on the sidewalk. Oh crap, I never got home. I leapt up, pulling my phone out of my pocket.
“Adrian, I’m so sorry –”I began but was cut off.
“Did you have plans?” a woman’s voice asked. I stopped mid-apology.
“Byron,” I whispered. I cleared my throat. “Is there something you need?”
“Yes, Tanya. I have another task for you.”
“Shall I meet Sarah in the usual place?”
“No, no dear. I’ll tell you right over the phone,” she said. “I have a special target that I need you to eliminate. A young man, a boy rather, has been robbing our warehouses of weapons and doling them out to the enemy. A tracker has been sent out to watch him. I will send you the code so you can track him yourself. Once you find the tracker, send him back to me. Then I want you to kill the dealer.”
“Yes, sir.” I paused. “Do I have a deadline?”
“Midnight; seven in the morning at the latest,” Byron said. The line went dead. A few minutes later I received a message with a bunch of random numbers and letters. I typed in a password on my iPhone map and then entered the code Byron had given me. A red dot blinked on the center of my screen, slowly moving along a side road.
“Great,” I muttered. “How do I get there?”
I debated on calling Adrian but it was only six in the evening. He was probably still with the team. I walked down the road a bit. I was still about a half hour away from home.
I guess I better start walking, I thought. I’d just have to take my car from the cottage.
I drove down the highway, heading towards Dansville. My music was blasting, and I kept my windows rolled down to help cool down the car. I sped in between the cars, hoping to get to my destination faster. Every few minutes I glanced back at the GPS on my phone.
When I was a half mile away from the blinking dot, I parked my car in a small plaza’s parking lot. I walked the rest of the way to find the tracker. He was hiding behind a rack of women’s clothes in the mall’s H&M. I tapped on his shoulder, causing him to jump around.
“Tanya! What’s up? I haven’t seen you in a while,” Matt, the tracker, said enthusiastically.
“I’ve been off the radar. Damn, you look pretty hot, Matt. Been working out?” I asked, laughing.
Matt flexed. “Definitely. You know, a couple hours in the gym. Hey, where’s Adrian?”
“He’s got some lunch with his soccer team. Didn’t think I needed to tell him I was here.”
“Seems like he’s got more of a social life than you do, Tanya,” Matt said, wrapping his arm around my waist and walking with me.
“You know what, you don’t have one either. I mean look at you, you trying to be a woman? I didn’t know you were like that,” I teased, poking his side.
“Don’t judge. Look at me now, I have a hot chick in my arms and I’m at the mall. I think that just proves how straight I am. Besides sometimes girl’s dig guys wearing their clothes.”
I gagged. “Yeah, they do in your world up there.” I tapped his head. “Oh wait, it’s empty. Whoops!”
“I am not stupid!” he protested. I nodded sarcastically. “And I’ll prove it to you. I bet you I can get that girl, by just pretending to be smart.” He pointed out a blonde that was standing with another friend of hers. She could’ve made for a model.
“Pretending to be smart doesn’t prove that you are,” I stated.
“Well, then let me prove to you I can at least get the girl to go on a date with me.”
“You probably can’t even get her number,” I laughed.
“And why not?” Matt asked, sounding hurt.
“You have a bra tucked into your pants,” I said, pointing to the back of his jeans and then to the store. The alarms were blaring and a store clerk was angrily shaking his fist at us. Matt blushed.
After returning the bra and apologizing profusely, he returned to me, scowling. “You put that in my pants!”
“You mean that lump in the front of your pants? Mhm, I definitely think I did that,” I whispered as I stepped in front of him, wrapping my arms around him and stick my hands into his back pockets. He got this dopey grin on his face for a moment before coming to his senses.
“You temptress,” he mumbled, flushing. “Any guy would want you, maybe even girls.”
“But I don’t want them. Besides, that girl you were going to ask out, she left. I watched her give you a weird look and leave. In fact, almost all the girls in this are right now thinks you’re insane and that you’re going out with me,” I said.
“Will you go out with me?” Matt asked, getting down on his knees.
“Hey, when I said all girls, that included me. You’re insane.”
“I’d take you out to that Lil’ Wayne concert this weekend and dinner after that,” he said, still pleading.
“Tempting as that sounds, I can’t date my tracker. What if things get awkward? I don’t want to be you’re next personal target.”
“That will never happen,” Matt assured me. “You’re way too damn hot for anyone to kill. They’d probably beg you to give them the time of day rather than try anything with you.”
“Like you’re doing now?” I asked, raising my eyebrows. He slapped my back. “Hey!”
“No tracker would hunt you down unless it was to do something dirty and scandalous,” Matt said seriously.
“Thanks, I feel so much better about you now. Speaking of trackers, I came here for a reason. May I know my targets’ location?”
“Fun sucker.”
“Dip shitter.”
“He’s in Hot Topic. I’d wait for him to leave the store before doing whatever it is you do.”
“Come on,” I said, grabbing his hand and pulling him with me to the store. I made my way to the section that was loaded with Harry Potter collections. Standing at this angle, I could see the counter where the boy was working. Byron had sent me a name and picture and some other info as I drove my way here.
Pretending to be admiring a shirt with Ron Weasley on it, I assured myself that this was the right boy. He looked to be about my age, maybe a couple of years older. I pulled the shirt off the rack and turned to Matt.
“I’m going in,” I said seriously. “And I can bet you, he will ask me for my number.” Matt nodded, seemingly holding back his chuckle. I walked up to the counter; I crossed off swaying my hips. From the look of him, I didn’t think he’d go for the super girly type. More of a badass guy.
“Excuse me,” I said, speaking a little quietly. “Could you help me find something?”
The boy, Walker, looked me up and down. I leaned forward onto the counter bringing his attention to my body. “What do you need help with, Miss?”
“Call me Tanya.” I smiled sweetly. I could see a spark in his eyes. He was interested. “I’ve been looking everywhere for this necklace with the Deathly Hallows on it. I’ve checked so many different branches and they don’t have it.”
“Ah, a Harry Potter fan. Well, lucky for you, babe, we do have that here. Follow me.” Walker came out from behind the counter and led me to the back of the shop where there was a wall covered in different kinds of funky jewelry. He reached up and grabbed a chain that had exactly what I’d asked for. I had been legitimately looking for a Deathly Hallows necklace; I just never bothered to look for it exactly. Never went out to search the stores.
He handed it to me. “Thank you so much,” I gushed. I admired the necklace. I glanced up at him, looking up through my eyelashes. “Do you think you could put it on for me?”
Walker didn’t even hesitate. I turned around and lifted up my hair, staring at him through the small mirror on the wall. He dropped the necklace around my neck and clasped it. I let go of my hair and fingered the necklace.
“You look beautiful,” he said, staring at me in the mirror. I smiled and thanked him.
“What’s your name?” I asked.
“Walker,” he responded.
“Sexy name.”
“Are you busy tonight?” he asked quickly, as if he had to do it before he lost his courage.
“Yes.” I watched the hopeful look in his eyes diminish. “But I think I can do some rescheduling.”
The grin was back on his face. “How about we go down the road to this amazing Thai restaurant? I hear they have great soup.”
I almost laughed. He was so excited about the soup. “Sure, I’ll meet you here then?”
“Yeah, I get off my shift at eight, so drop back by here and we can head out.”
“Alright, I guess I’ll see you then,” I said as I walked back towards the exit.
“Wait!” he called out. I turned back to him. “Can I get your number?”
I grinned. Guess I won the bet. I knew exactly what I wanted Matt to do for me since he lost. I caught his eyes at the front of the door. His frown told me he’d heard.
“Sure,” I said to Walker. I punched in my number and gave myself a missed call so I had his number. “See you at eight.”
“Yeah, see you,” he said dreamily as I waved. A woman in a black suit came out from a door behind the counter and yelled at Walker for not manning the cashier. I snickered.
Matt and I walked out of the store. “You lost Matt.”
I heard him sigh. “What do you want me to do?”
I smirked, rubbing my palms together. “It’s gonna be good.”