This chapter is dedicated to the mah friend @learosie10 who just turned 16! Everyone go check out her new story "New Beginnings" Vote for the first chapter and I'll love you forever.
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The following morning I woke up and sat up on my bed. I immediately lied back down after I felt a horrible pain in my stomach. I lifted my shirt to reveal several bruises from last night's event.
After we had tidied up the classroom Cassie had fought in, we had made our way swiftly back to the white van and gotten the hell out of that school. I didn't know where we were going to go from there as I left as soon as we arrived back at headquarters since I had to get home before my Mom took note of my long absence.
I pushed myself the sit up on the bed with my hands slowly as I tried to ignore the pain. I reached over to my bedside table and picked up my phone, dialing a number.
After a few rings, I heard an answer "Hello?" Debby asked groggily. I knew I must have woken her up but I didn't care.
"Debby, it's me, do you think you could get here within the next half an hour?" I asked her as I slowly stood up, again trying to ignore the pain.
I heard her yawn from the other side of the line. "What, why?" she asked
"I need you to come down to the RUA and sign a contract," I informed her as I limped over to the bathroom.
"What for?" she asked. I could hear her getting up.
"You know how I told you about everything on Sunday?" I asked her.
"Yeah, what about it?"
"Well, I wasn't supposed to." I replied as I grabbed my hairbrush and started running it through my hair. "You're going to need to go down to Headquarters with me and sign a few contracts just saying that you're going to keep the information to yourself."
She groaned. "Really? Right now?"
"Yes," I said firmly as I put down the hairbrush and limped into the bathroom, clutching my stomach. "Please, it's important."
After a few seconds silence, I heard her sigh. "Look, okay I'll be at your house in a moment."
"Thank you" I sighed in relief as I pulled out my toothbrush and toothpaste. "Take your bike" I added before hanging up and placing my phone down on the sink.
I glance up at the mirror and groaned when I took in my appearance. Eric wasn't wrong about that bruise. A small portion of my cheek was covered with purple swollen skin.
I decided that foundation was the best option to hide it and quickly grabbed a tube, squirting the liquid on my skin and layering it while trying to ignore the stinging pain. I felt relief flood me as I watched it disappear, becoming harder and harder to see.
By the time I was ready to leave, Debby had arrived so I made my way outside. I had decided not to tell her about last night's incident just in case she freaked out too much and told someone but overall, I just didn't want to her to worry.
"Hey," I said smiling as I met her outside. "Come on, we better get a move on."
She gave a quick nod of understanding and glanced up at the sky. "God, so this is what 5:30am looks like."
I laughed but as soon as I did, I felt pain run through my stomach so I stopped. I decided not to tell Debby about last night's fiasco because I knew she would only worry. I hopped on my bike along with Debby who jumped on hers and we rode off.
The ride didn't take too long usually but today, it felt like an eternity as I tried to hide the aching pains I was feeling all over my body after that attack. By the time we arrived Debby looked confused.
"You're kidding me right?" she asked as she stared at the abandoned building. "An old factory?"
I shook my head smiling lightly knowing that she had no idea what she was in for. As we put our bikes away behind a bush. I entered the pin to gain access to the building. When the doors unlocked, I walked in with Debby walking closely behind.
She scoffed. "Are you kidding me?"
I rolled my eyes. "Shut up, just wait" I walked up to the elevator and heard her still criticizing things from behind me.
"An elevator? In an abandoned factory? This is ridiculous." She complained as I pressed the button and waiting for its arrival. A few seconds later the doors opened up and we walked in.
Debby moved her hand near the buttons. "Okay which floor?" she asked.
I grinned as I got down on the floor, slowly, because of my stomach. I lifted the tile and pressed the red button underneath it.
"Oh." Debby said sounding a bit less judgemental. I placed the tile back in its place and grabbed onto the rail in the elevator to help pull myself. I closed my eyes tightly to try and not react to the pain.
A moment later the doors opened and I heard Debby gasp in awe. She stepped out of the elevator and turned in every direction to look at everything.
"Pretty cool huh?" I asked amused by her sudden excitement.
Just then, I saw Eric enter the main office and notice me, he walked over.
"This is your friend?" he asked.
"Hi," Debby squeaked quietly as if she was star struck by everything she saw.
He nodded. "I'll go get Agent Troy to talk about the contract with her." He said as he walked off.
As soon as he was out of sight Debby turned to me with an excited look on her face. "Was that him?"
I sighed, grinning at her. "Yeah," I admitted.
She squealed "Oh em gee Becca! He is so hot!" She said loudly almost jumping out of her own skin.
"Shush, they're coming back," I said quickly as I saw him walk back into the room with a tall scrawny man behind him.
"Agent Troy will help you with everything if you follow him." Eric said to Debby. She nodded and followed the man off down the room. She turned around giving me an excited wave as she walked off and I smiled waving back.
When she was out of sight, I turned to Eric and walked with him to the gym. As we entered he shut the door and I began to speak.
"So....last night..." I began not knowing what to say.
"How are you?" he asked interrupting me.
"Oh, me? Fine I guess, I mean my stomach kind of hurts but I'll be alright." I said trying to assure him I was okay.
"How bad is it?" he asked.
I awkwardly lifted my shirt to show him the bruises along my stomach. He walked over towards me, crouching down on the floor to examine them more closely, tentatively letting his fingertips trace the marks. I winced as he did so, feeling my stomach ache all over. He noticed me do so and stood back up, removing his hand from my stomach.
"You're not going undercover today." He said.
"What?" I asked in frustration, pulling my shirt back down quickly. "I am so going undercover today. Eric, it's nothing. You're the one who can come back from being full on attacked from some mission and act like it's nothing." I argued. "Besides, I've already missed a full day of work last week so I can't afford to miss anymore."
He stared at me for a while as I tried to hold on my brave face before sighing in defeat. "Okay fine, you can go in today but if you feel like you can't handle it later on in the day, contact me."
I nodded in agreement. "Okay."
After a moment of silence, I spoke again. "So, any ideas on who..?"
"No." he replied, knowing what I was asking straight away. "We're still trying to work out who the two attackers were from last night." He informed.
"Do you think they knew it was me who they were attacking?" I asked worriedly.
He shook his head. "I don't believe so, it was pretty dark."
He was probably right. I breathed out in relief knowing that my identity was likely safe.
"But I've never seen anything like this before." He continued as he began pacing, which I noticed he seemed to whenever he was thinking hard. "I mean, for a high school mission."
"Yeah, I wasn't expecting anything like this to happen" I added. I guess I had no idea what I signed up for when this all started. I had no idea things could get so serious.
"How about this whole Misty situation?" I asked remembering the girl from yesterday.
"She's all set for a police interview this afternoon and that's all I know right now." He answered.
"Did we do alright with the security cameras?" I asked nervously. "You know before.."
"We managed to get most of the school inside and outside but missed a few areas like the cafeteria and library, but we should have enough to keep us busy" He informed.
We stayed silent for a while before I decided to speak up. "Um, hey." I began nervously.
He looked up towards me.
"I just wanted to say thank you, for uh saving me last night," I said shyly trying my best not to come off awkward.
"It's just part of my job." He said humbly but the way he said it upset me. Like he meant to say that he only did it because he had to.
I thought back to last night. I remembered him almost yelling at my attacker with his teeth gritted.
Don't.You.Ever.Touch.Her.Again.
The way he had said it made me feel special. Like he cared about me and was trying to protect me. It didn't sound like something he would say to about anyone else.
Just then, the gym door opened and we both looked up to see Agent Troy stick his head in the door.
"Uh sir, we're done." He said to Eric as he pushed his glasses back. The door opened wider and revealed Debby still looking around, now at the gym and at Eric and I. I walked over towards the door and exited the gym with Debby leaving Eric and Troy to talk.
"How was it?" I asked her watching her happy face.
"Yeah, it was good. I just signed a few things saying that I would keep everything you told me, to myself." She explained. "This is so cool!" she squealed.
I smiled at her before noticing the clock behind her. "Debby! You better get a move on, or you'll be late to school." I said pointing at the clock.
"Worth it!" She said still looking excited as ever. I walked her to the elevator and gave her a hug goodbye.
"Have a great day," she said waving at me as she entered the elevator.
I waved back to her as the doors began to close. "You too!" I yelled back.
After I said goodbye to Debby, I got ready with Cassie who was treating last night as if it was nothing.
"We'll get to the bottom of it soon." She said casually. I had assumed that she had been through much worse which is why both her and Eric and didn't seem too concerned at all. Me on the other hand, I was still mortified.
"How's your back?" I had asked her while I got changed in the changing room for the day.
She groaned. "It's fine. But damn when did teenagers get so violent?" she asked as she rubbed her back remembering the desk incident.
I assumed it was a rhetorical question so I laughed with her.
When I got into the limo, Turner was already inside ready to start the engine. I said hello to him and then sat back in the car enjoying my last moments of security before the day would begin.
"So... last night was,' he began before I interrupted him.
"Terrifying," I said.
He laughed as he drove out of the factory car park. "High school missions have never usually been this dangerous."
"So I've heard."
By the time I arrived at school, the bell had rung so I hurried to get to my first class. The hallway began to empty as students walked off into different rooms dully. As I entered my classroom, I took the spare seat next to Tasha that she had probably been saving for me.
"Hey," I said out of breath as I sat down, placing a pile of books down on my desk.
"Hey!" she said smiling at me. "You're a bit later than usual." She noted
"Yeah, sorry I had..stuff," I said simply. I mentally face palmed myself for coming up with the stupidest excuse ever. I was just glad no one from the RUA heard it otherwise I would have looked even more stupid.
Tasha accepted my answer though and continued curling her hair with a pen.
"So, what happened to that chick yesterday?" I asked, "You know, the one who went to hospital." I tried to act as clueless on the matter as I could.
"Oh yeah," Tasha said remembering, "I think she's still there but okay now."
I nodded. "I wonder why should took the drug," I said trying to get her to add to what I was saying.
"I think it probably had something to do with Henry. I want to kill him for this, now the police are getting involved."
I smirked, she had no idea that the police were the least of her worries. We had a whole undercover SWAT team ready. Wait a sec- "Henry? Your brother?" I asked, actually not knowing what she was talking about this time.
"Yeah," Tasha said looking at me like it was the most obvious thing ever. "They're dating you know? He was supposed to be with her the night she took it."
Bingo. Things were starting to come together now. Henry was the one that was making Misty cry when I bumped into her last week and if I knew him well enough, he was probably the one that made her take the NT. It seemed like Tasha thought the same thing today.
"Is he going to get interviewed by the police or something?" I asked curiously.
Tasha thought about it for a second. "I don't think Misty will dob him in," she said simply.
Tasha was probably right. That poor girl wasn't going to get her boyfriend in trouble, which meant that nothing would come of this police interview this afternoon.
The teacher suddenly entered the room so I turned to face the front of the class to pay attention, or at least pretend to as I spent most of the lesson thinking about Misty and Henry. Boy, was I glad I showed up at school today.
When classes for the morning ended, I walked out of the room to see Brad leaning against some lockers.
"Oh, hey," I said smiling and pretending to be casual.
"Amanda right?" He said pointing at me.
Not really, but I nodded anyway.
"Hey." He said calmly still leaning against the lockers.
"What did you just have?" I asked, trying to strike up a conversation with him. The closer I got to him, the better.
"Nothing, I just skipped class." He said simply as if it was a casual thing to do. It probably was for him.
"Oh," I said not expecting that answer.
"You?" he asked, showing interest.
"Uh, English," I said gesturing to the classroom I had just walked out of. It was also the exact classroom I had been in last night with Cassie, Turner, and Eric, but of course, I didn't mention that. I was happy as it seemed like nobody had noticed anything wrong with the classroom either meaning that we were in the clear.
"Walk with me." He said as he began walking down the hallway.
"Oh, okay," I said as I began awkwardly walking alongside him. I didn't really know what else to say.
"So...." I began. "This drug, that's going around... seems to be a pretty big deal." Obviously Becca, you idiot, I thought to myself.
"Yeah," he said "You tried it yet?" he asked.
I shook my head instantly. Never have, never will. "Oh no, not yet," I said trying to sound hopeful even though I wanted to get as far away as I could from anything to do with the drugs. "I wouldn't even know where to get any," I added.
"Me neither." He said. Crap. He seemed like the kind of person who knew exactly where to get it from. I started to suspect that he was lying to make himself look innocent. Even though he had no idea that I was a spy.
I was about to reply to him when I felt someone hug me from behind. It was Charlotte.
"Hey girl! Haven't seen you in like forever!" She complained as she squeezed me. I would have usually just stood there annoyed at the fact that she thought 16 hours was forever, but I was too preoccupied with the sudden return of pain in my stomach as she clung onto it.
I bit my lip, holding my breath trying to not react to the pain as she continued hugging me. Brad watched the scene for a moment before walking off. When Charlotte finally released me, I let out a huge breath of relief but still felt the pain.
"Uh, I need to go to the bathroom," I announced, barely trying to hide the painful look on my face anymore.
Charlotte noticed it and gasped. "Oh no sweetie, do you have cramps?" She asked.
I nodded as I limped over to the bathroom. "Yeah." Let's go with that.
"Do you need a pad? Tampon? Midol?" She continued, looking concerned like I was going to die from these supposed period pains.
"Nope. No, I'm fine," I managed to say as I walked to the bathroom door, using the last of my strength to push open the door and walk into the bathroom leaving her standing outside confused and still concerned.
I continued limping until I entered a cubicle and locked the door as I got in. No one else appeared to be in the bathroom so I gave in to the pain and collapsed on the floor in pain. I felt silent tears fall down my face and quickly wiped them away.
Boy today was going to be tough.