That first day at school after the threats surfaced was stressful. I kept having to cover for Lana, she kept spacing out. She wouldn't talk to her friends or respond to her teachers. If they ever asked me any questions about her or what was up, I just told them that she was feeling under the weather and that she was starting to stress about final exams. After all, she apparently wanted to go to college. I kept having to corner her and remind her of our cover story. Keeping my own secrets while watching out for her. Keeping her secrets and keeping her from spilling them.
Good lord, teenage girls can be a pain.
When we get back to the house, Lana immediately goes up to her room, to read a boo. She was still too afraid to get back online.
I walk around the house to check up on the security system one final time. It's working great so at least that eases my worries.
Once I'm done, I tell Margaret and Albert that I had to leave as my boss asked me to give a mission report about the Carolina York case. Maggie and Albert are, of course, aware of this and tell me they'd keep a closer than normal eye on Lana. After briefing them, I quickly change into some more professional clothes than simply my jeans and t-shirt, grab my very typical dark sunglasses and head into my car.
I drive to a totally typical, inconspicuous building. 30 stories tall, grey, mirror-like windows that are actually bulletproof, and a very bright neon sign that claims this building belongs to PW Finance Group.
Once I arrive at HQ I get my ID, fingerprints, and irises scanned. Obviously, this place had a lot of security because of all of the sensitive information that is being kept here. Once my identity is confirmed I go to the 25th floor, the chairman's office.
Mr. Alan Rogerman was the director of Witness Protection. He is a tall, strongly built man who intimidated all who didn't know him as well as I did. To me, he is just a big softie who thought of all his agents as his children. Just looking at him would make you piss yourself if you didn't know the guy. I've personally seen grown men surrender as soon as he walked onto the scene. Honestly, it's kind of funny. For me.
When I enter his office, Alan is arguing with someone on the phone. Based on what I pick up from the conversation, it is probably another government agent, maybe FBI or CIA. He sees me, quietly and calmly tells the person on the other end of the line off, and hangs up.
"Hello Agent Carson, please state your report." Alan says,walking to stand straight in front of me.
"Over the last week, I've been secretly guarding Alana May Criston, formerly Carolina York, among others. I've been posing as her maternal cousin, just for the sake of staying close to her unsuspiciously. I've set up varying types of security around her home, as well as on her. I've also been going to school with her, so that I could be around her all day."
"And how is school going for you?"
"Fine." Why would he be asking this? It had nothing to do with the case and he most certainly wasn't my father, even though he sometimes acted like it.
"Well, considering you finished high school when you were 13 years old, I was just wondering how getting back into that felt. How does it feel to spend time with others your own age? If you don't act normal, it would be really bad if you were caught on your lie."
Of course, he anticipated my thoughts and questions. He didn't get to his current position just because of his looks. Of course, those didn't hurt his chances.
"I'm doing fine. I'm trying to blend in as much as I can. I'm getting to know Alana's friends as well as possible. I'm also avoiding hanging out with who Alana calls the 'popular bitches'. Even though I'm pretty sure one of them has been trying to seduce me the entire time I've been at school. I'm going to consult with Mia to see how I should deal with this situation."
Alan seemed satisfied with the answer I gave him.
"I heard there were some issues that came up."
"Yes, there have been threats. I'm working with a number of specialists to figure out how to solve the problem."
"Elaborate."
"Tech is building bugs for the house, Lana, and her friends as well as others she often comes into contact with. Archive is going through histories again. Hackers are hacking." Alan continues grilling me about what's going on and what I'm doing to remedy the situation.
The thing is that even I didn't know why Alan was asking some of the questions he asked me. I trust him completely and I know he never asks anything without reason, one that I'll probably find out later. Could be hours or could be months.
When I'm finally dismissed from his office I can not be more relieved. I immediately get up and go track down Mia, the person who I consider my best friend.
After walking around the building for all of seven minutes, I find her in one of the lounges. It's one of the two locations she'd hang out in if she is ever at HQ. The two hangouts just happened to be at opposite ends of the building. The kids' lounge as the older agents call it, got its name because of all the different games in here. We've got foosball and video games, among other things. And the oldies have nothing.
"Mia!" I call out as I come in.
"Blake! It's been a million years!" Amelia Something-or-other Dale is my best friend. Has been since we were children. These things sort of happen when your parents are both agents for the government and you are finishing high school at 13. Her own parents passed years ago so I've always been the one to give the classic "You hurt her, I hurt you" speech to her boyfriends. She's only had three and this one seems to be going well for her. I just can't seem to find out her middle name. And believe me, I've been trying to figure it out since we were seven.
"Crap!" I thought. As I look down at my watch, I realize I have to get back to Lana soon so I should get to asking Mia the questions I need to ask. I researched Carolina York and her various identities for this case, not how to deal with teenage girls.
"What did you wanna ask me, Blakey?"
"Well, there's this one person, Melissa Rains, who's constantly flirting with me."
"Ohhhhh... I never thought I'd help Blake Carson with girl problems!"
" Don't get me wrong, she's pretty and all, but she isn't my type."
"Ohhhhh... Does this one girl get Blakey all flustered?" My best friend exclaims, giggling.
"Shut up Mia! I can't keep up this......." I begin when I see him walk in.
Xavier Steel is the hottest person I've ever seen. He's a walking ray of darness, the most beautiful I'd ever seen. With his dark, obsidian black hair and gorgeous brown eyes, I instantly fell in love when I first saw him. I can barely get 5 words out around him, and I've known him for 3 years. And right now, he was coming straight towards us. I was planning on making a break for it but Mia anticipated it and stomped her foot on mine. As Xavier was near us, I tried not to show any pain. Considering Mia was wearing stiletto-heeled boots, it took a considerable amount of effort.
"Amelia, Blake. Good to see you again." He said in his dreamy voice.
"Hi, Zavy! How's it going?" Mia said coyly from my side.
I nearly gawked. When did she get onto such close terms with him? Calling him Zavy?!
"Mia, please, I hate it when you call me that. I've asked you to stop," He said.
"Yeah, I know, but I prefer it over Xavier."
Considering he punched the last person to call him anything other than Xavier or Agent Steel, I was shocked nothing happened to Mia.
Later, when I actually thought about this moment, I would realize that her safety may have been assured by the fact that Mia's father used to be the WP combat instructor and Mia herself has been beating up men 3 times her size since the age of 6.
She also wore heeled boots, which hurt, I can say from experience.
Xavier Steel sighs and responds "It doesn't matter. Director Rogerman assigned me to assist you in this case in any way. So what are the next steps?"
"Zavy, why don't you take a seat right over there," She tells him, pointing to two burgundy couches separated by a brown wooden coffee table a few feet away from us.
As he walks away she turns back to me and hisses under her breath, "You were asking about teenage girls? The way you act around Xavier is the way teenage girls act around you because no one knows you're gay. 'Not my type' my ass!" She rolls her eyes to emphasize her point, removes her heel from my toe and walks over to Xavier, leaving me with very little time to process what she just said. Is it true? Is that what Melissa thought of me? Maybe I should let her know my preferences instead of just ignoring her?
"Ugh!" I think to myself. Why does this situation have to be so difficult. Why can't I just bust some drug operation?
I wiggle my foot where Mia put her heel. As soon as I regain feeling, I walk over and go to sit in front of Mia and Xavier. Mia immediately gets up from her spot beside my crush and sits on the opposite couch.
I shoot an icy glare at her.
"I need to stretch my legs. Unless you want to be used as a glorified footrest, this is my couch." She says, smirking right at me.
"Fine!" I say, internally greatful to her. I know she's just trying to help me out.
I sit down beside Xavier, careful not to touch him. I may just faint if that happens.
"So far, I'm just keeping tabs on anything and everything Alana May, that is, Carolina, does. She's currently in the custody of two of our agents: Margaret and Albert Summers. They all use the last name 'Criston' now. I'm tracing any and all movement in this case, but I need to start identifying and narrowing down potential suspects." Although talking to Xavier still terrifies me, talking about work is easy. Fun even.
"I've already read Carolina's case file. This is the first time that there has been any significant movement in this case in 12 years. All the suspects from back then have already been dismissed. Blake, you've been with her for the last week, who do you think the potential suspects are?" Xavier asks me.
"That's the problem. I have absolutely no idea who it could be. Yeah, there are some classmates that Alana doesn't like, and they don't seem to like her but all of them are teenagers." I respond.
"That is a completely normal way for teens to act." Mia pitches in. "But it's a good place to start. I suggest you start investigating your classmates. The ones that don't like our girl, the ones who are super close to her, teachers also. Obviously. Anyone who knows her but shouldn't know her secrets. Just do background checks first and foremost. I might try to contact Maggie and Al to see if I could train her in more advanced martial arts."
"Not every girl wants to be able to kick ass as you do, Amelia," Xavier says with a smirk.
"It is exactly for that reason why we gals don't learn martial arts. Because hot guys doubt us. We gotta stick together!" The only girl in our trio exclaims.
I resist the urge to roll my eyes. "Fine, talk to Maggie and Al, and tell me when you figure out when you can come. I need to get Lana into shape before she starts with you. We don't want to kill the victim, uh I mean student, in her first advanced martial arts class."
"Stop it! I'm not that tough of an instructor... am I?"
The looks Xavier and I give her answer her question well enough.
Hours later, when I get back to the house, it's already 2 in the morning and everyone is already asleep. I go to my room and open my heavily encrypted laptop. I open a new file and start investigating all of my ward's teachers and peers.
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First Published July 20th, 2019
Updated September 9th, 2020