"You wouldn't believe what she's having me do, Damon," I whined for the third time since Damon had come to get me for lunch. For some reason, even though Rum was my trainer, Damon was the one ending my training and telling me when to start. He would drop me off at Rum's and then pick me up for lunch, but that was probably because I didn't know my way around and needed someone to guide me. Without him, they would be sending search parties for me every time I went to the bathroom.
"Don't forget to go see Ms. DeLuca before you go to sleep so she can show you the equipment and supplies you'll be receiving for the mission," Damon said clearly trying to change the subject again. He hadn't responded to anything I said, and most times I was having a hard time believing he was even listening. From how he responded it was like he was having a different conversation compared to the one I was trying to have with him.
"Damon, seriously. I just need you to talk to me about this. You know ignoring me isn't going to do anything, I will just keep going back to the topic until you listen."
He placed his tray on the table next to Raider before he sat down. "I told you, Sara, in this building you call everyone by their code name. It's Demon, just call me Demon." He groaned as he rubbed his temples together, clearly agitated by my refusal to call him by his code name when he still called me by my name since I didn't have a code name yet.
"I'm sorry, Demon, or should I say Hell's angel?" I growled as I took my seat next to Spit Fire. She moved away from me slightly, clearly uncomfortable by my angry demeanor, or maybe it was that some of my food had splattered onto the table and near her when I slammed my tray down.
"I don't appreciate the sarcasm. Call me Demon, that's it," Demon ordered. "Now what were you asking about tattoos earlier?" he asked, yet again trying to change the topic. He had been trying to change the topic since I brought it up in line for food, and I was getting annoyed with him.
"I don't appreciate you not listening to me and trying to change the topic. Can you go back to training me please? Your training at least made sense, her's doesn't!"
"I can't be your trainer, Sara." He sighed. "You need a constant trainer. Someone who will work with you for years to come if you decide to stay, a mentor to teach you and learn with you. You need someone that can help you practice the skills you already possess for your specific job. I am not a thief. I am nothing related to a thief. So therefore, I am unable to be your trainer, and I apologize for it, but no."
"Why can't you be my trainer though?" I whined, not understanding why I needed a trainer that was a thief when the last one died in the raid. We didn't have another thief to train me anyway, so really anyone could train me. "You said I would have many to help get a variety of training."
"Hey, Spit Fire, you have a tattoo right?" Demon asked, trying to change the topic again, but this time adding in other people so it would stick better. He clearly didn't know how determined I was to finish this discussion. I wanted him to be my trainer, not Rum. Her training didn't make any sense, between the breathing and stretching, most times with her on my back while I stretched, she had me practice ducking her stick. Most times I got hit more than I could duck and maneuver out of range. I could only imagine what she would have me do next.
"I do. It's a giant Phoenix, on my back," she said, speaking for the first time since we sat down, as she put a fork full of mashed potatoes into her mouth. This conversation clearly held no interest for her, and she seemed exhausted, but I could only think that it was because she was training. Her pale face was flushed, and her almond colored eyes held a hesitant gaze while her voiced seemed to be pushing back her emotions. Her mind was heavy with the days to come, and nowhere near this conversation.
"Why a Phoenix?" I asked curiously, playing along with the topic change so Demon wouldn't race off and try to ditch me like he had earlier when he handed me over to Sharp Shooter in line. He had gotten Sharp Shooter's attention, then gotten out of the conversation as fast as he could so that he could be away from me for a while. He really didn't understand how determined I was to have him hear me out about this, just to get him to reconsider.
"I was reborn from the ashes thanks to the agency," she said curtly. She pushed a few more forkfuls of food into her mouth, but when she glanced over to see my confused expression she took a moment to clear it up for me. She cleared her throat after she swallowed before saying, "You're not the only one with some sob story, Sara, and I just choose not to be open about mine."
"Will you ever talk about it?"
"I very rarely tell someone everything. It takes a lot for me to trust a person and I don't tell people about my past unless I trust them," she said bluntly. "Don't be insulted by that though, maybe one day I'll tell you. For now, all you have to know is that, I almost died. Actually, I died for three minutes, and then the paramedics revived me. I was reborn," she said, effectively ending that conversation because I was afraid to push her further than she was comfortable with.
"What about you, Raider?" I asked, knowing that he didn't enjoy talking to me after our sparing match or before that either as a matter of fact. He was still upset that I had beat him since he trained in hand-to-hand combat and I was a rookie. If I didn't know better I would say he let me win, but that wasn't in Raider's abilities to forfeit a match. Due to that, something inside me told me he also just didn't like me in general. Whether it was because I was an outsider, a rookie, or a girl was anyone's guess, but mine.
"I don't have any." He growled, as if he was upset with me for interrupting his lunch. "I think they are useless. They do not show the determination, acceptance, or allegiance to the agency and our cause as some consider them to," he said curtly, with a soft growl at the end of his sentence that finished that conversation quicker than Spit Fire had.
I glanced down at my food awkwardly, trying not to look up and accidentally offend anyone else while I shoveled food into my mouth. I was halfway through my plate of food when Demon finally took pity on me and pulled me out of the silence.
"Look Sara, I can't be your trainer because I scope out possible recruits. I travel around when not on missions to look for individuals that the agency has their eyes on. I determine if they have the potential and then bring them here. I'm the one that found you, watched you, and secretly motivated you to continue practicing to steal things. I needed to be there for you, as I will have to do for others, so that you can see your own potential and come to the agency."
"How so?" I asked him, uncertain of how he motivated me to continue to steal things. I had always just done it, and never thought of anyone secretly pushing me to practice the skill. There was nothing that I could think of when Demon had forced me to practice stealing anything, but then again, if I knew it I probably wouldn't have done it.
"Remember when I called you out on stealing everything you had ever taken from me?" he asked without hesitation. He glared me down, knowing that I remembered that day, but I wasn't going to tell him. I hated that day and refused to even think about it most times.
I offered a nervous smile to his question. "Of course not," I lied.
"Really? Because I do, quite clearly," he replied with a lifted eyebrow, calling my bluff.
I let out a nervous laugh because I remembered it too well, even though I tried to forget about it so that I could say I had selective amnesia. I used to take Demon's gum from his back pocket, his keys, and everything else when I wanted them or needed something and he refused to do it for me. There was one day I needed to go back home to get my history binder for my class next period. Having that binder was my grade for the week, because everything we were doing for the week was based off my binder. We had spent all week working on it and today we were supposed to give a presentation, a discussion, and a debate off of the work we did. I didn't finish the binder in class and had to take it home to finish, then spaced out when Alex and I were running late again. So, I tried to convince him to take me home to get it during the lunch period before my class, but he refused.
So I convinced, more like manipulated, a girl to help me distract Demon. While he was flirting with the beautiful blonde I had scoped out for him on his way to lunch, I swiped the keys from his backpack. Of course, the girl was more than willing to help since she thought she was taking Demon from me. I mean she would kiss him in front of me as if it was going to bother me, but really it helped me. I took his keys, grabbed Mark, and walked right out of the school building, after avoiding the school security guards that were supposed to keep the students from leaving school. After we got out of the building, we made our way to his car, and I gave Mark the keys. Mark took them gratefully and got in the car with a smile. I think he was just happy it wasn't his car I was taking this time and probably explains why he stopped driving to school after Alex and I took his car. We made it to my house and back without getting caught by anyone, although when I got back to school I had a very angry Demon waiting for me outside of my history class.
He spent the time before class telling me that he had planned to go get my binder during lunch after he realized how unfair he was being, but noticed his keys and car were gone. Demon started to tell me off for taking his car, his gum, his supplies, and literally everything I had ever taken from him in the almost sixteen years I had known him; it was a lot of stuff to say the least. By the time he was done yelling at me, I was ready to break into tears, but I held it back. I had never been good with dealing with people while they yelled at me, most times I just cried, but I refused to let Demon see me cry about it.
"I would put gum in my back pocket that I knew you liked even that layered fruit gum that no one else I know likes, so you'd steal it. Left my keys in places you could get to them and over time I made it more difficult so you could practice. I could see the determination in your eyes and saw you improving. You improved quickly and learned from experience, and that's what we needed. While you don't listen and rarely have an open mind about new ideas, you were going to be recruited. Unfortunately, you now have a high standard to meet and we are just trying to prepare you for it," Demon said, pulling me from my mental reverie.
"That made sense though," I said, catching up in our conversation. "You were honing my skills, this is just breathing! You made me practice stealing things without you noticing, encouraged me to try different techniques and motivated me to practice."
"Breathing is kind of an important factor in life, Sara," Demon pointed out with a smirk.
I groaned, he had basically repeated what Rum had said without knowing it and for some reason it really annoyed me. "But it's not actual training! When am I going to use stretching and deep breathing?" I asked, but when I looked at the mischievous gleam in his eye I stopped him from saying what I knew was about to come out of his thin lipped mouth, and it was going to be anything but PG rated. "Don't go there, and don't say that I use breathing every day either or I will throw these mashed potatoes at your head."
He rolled his eyes, but kept his mouth shut as he shoved a few more pieces of his sandwich into his mouth. I waited for him to swallow so I could hear his new answer, instead of the smart-ass answer I knew had been about to come out of his mouth. He took his time, even glanced around the room as if he was worried someone was listening to us, before he spoke.
"Everyone trains a little differently, Sara. They do it in order to enhance different aspects of their abilities, so even though she isn't a thief, she was trained by one. The best one we had for years, she trained so many recruits and was proud of every one of them, especially Rum. She knows what Hess had her do and knows what you will need to practice from listening and bonding with her mentor. You should go back to her training if you really do want the chance to stay at the home and make it through your mission in one piece."
"I just don't agree with her training ideas," I said. My eyes locked on Demon's as he opened his mouth to speak, but quickly shut his mouth and looked down at the table. I felt my face scrunch up in confusion, but before I could ask a new voice joined in on our conversation.
"You don't have agree with them in order to learn from them," I heard Rum's voice state sourly from behind me. I froze momentarily before I turned around to see the pure anger in her eyes. How long had she been standing there? "You'll thank me one day, but if you don't like it then don't show up to training after lunch. I have better things to do then put up with an unappreciative little prat," she said. From the way she said it, I could assume prat was an insult and I didn't like it. She glared down at me for a few more seconds before sauntering off and leaving me looking between my teammates. Each of them looking between the other awkwardly, unsure of what to say or do, but quickly Raider got up and left, followed by Spit Fire and others at the table.
Demon moved in his seat after Spit Fire and Raider had cleared out and seemed to be out of ear shot. "It comes down to your choice, Sara. Stay with her, or risk not having a mentor and teaching yourself everything. Your choice," Demon reminded me as he got up, tray in hand, and left me to make a difficult choice alone.