8: The Recruits

"Sunshine mixed with a little hurricane."

C H A P T E R 8

L U C I A N A

Today was Monday. Again.

Meaning the recruits were coming in today.

Oh joy.

I had a whole week to watch Miranda and all I'd gathered from watching her was that she was an incredibly sweet girl. Luckily for me I didn't like sweet people.

And I talked to Alex and Amber as well. It was a little hard for them to wrap their heads around the new piece of information because little miss perfect had them wrapped around her perfectly manicured fingers. But after hearing that David had personally come to my room to tell me this, they believed me.

But even after our secret meeting, I kept getting the stink eye from Amber. I deserved it, but I'll get her to forgive me. Eventually.

The recruits were coming by 12 so I still had a half hour to relax before going into 'teacher' mode, I decided to make the best of my time by spending it in 'bonding' with Miranda.

I actually thought she might be getting sick of me considering we were basically attached to the hip most of past week, maybe I'll leave her alone for now.

I went to the training room a little early to get my muscles moving and saw that Miranda was already there. Great, another morning with Ms. Sparkle-pants. A wide smile spread across her face when she spotted me and I tried to smile back, hoping I didn't look like I was grimacing.

"Hey Luce, check these out! I made a few cookies this morning for the newbies, figured they would want to have something tasty before all the gory stuff starts." she said, looking very genuine.

"Yeah, that's a great idea." A great idea you did not think of, Luce.

"Poor kids would have lied to their parents and come here, so I thought maybe these could cheer them up." she said with a thoughtful look.

I turned away, trying the hide the grimace on my face and made my way to the changing room, where my workout clothes were. My phone buzzed in my pocket and I saw that I'd gotten a text from David.

The recruits are here. Keep your eyes open and your ears alert.

Did he really have to send that to me? Did he think I wasn't taking this seriously enough?

I shoved my phone back in my pocket without replying. If he thought I wasn't serious enough, he had another thing coming.

By the time I was done changing, Alex was already there, talking to Miranda like he didn't find out she was an enemy agent just a few days back. He was a pretty good actor.

To my surprise, even Amber was here. My surprise must have been evident on my face because she rolled her eyes and said. "Don't look too surprised, did you really think I was going to let you deal with the newbies by yourself? Besides, we don't want any of those new kids dying here because of you."

I grinned at her. "I'm not making any promises."

"Oh those poor kids, what did they do to deserve to be trained by you?" she said, feigning sadness.

I rolled my eyes once again and looked at my watch, they would be here any second now. I grabbed Amber's hand. "Come on, they're here."

As if on cue, the door opened and 7 people came in. My eyes scan their faces, some are scared, some excited and the last one looked at me with concerned eyes, as if saying 'Don't be too tough on them, they are just kids'.

I just looked at him with a raised eyebrow. What does he think I'll do with them? Peel their skin and wear them as pajamas?

Now David, why would I do that?

He sighed and comes to a stop a little further from me, I was totally getting the feeling he was reconsidering this whole thing.

His eyes gave me one final warning and he turned to the recruits and said. "Okay, everyone listen here, this is Agent Crest, she will be in charge of your training and if you have any questions, feel free to talk to her."

They murmured a few hellos to me and look at David.

And they are scared. Perfect.

David walked out without sparing me another glance, probably thinking if he warned me too much, I might do something to the kids to aggravate him. And I might.

Totally kidding.

Now that David was gone, they had taken up to staring at the floor. I cleared my throat and they looked at me shyly.

"Hey guys, as you know I'm Agent Crest but you can call me Luciana. Could you all tell me your names?" I said, trying not to scare them.

The boy at the end seemed to have gotten over his fear. He said, "My name is Cole Grant."

Encouraged by this, the others also told me their names and seemed to be a little more at ease now.

I gave a little glance to the place where Amber and Alex were sitting and they walked over to me, "This is Agent Harris, and this is Agent Ronald but you can call them Amber and Alex, they will take you to the changing rooms where you will find your training attire so please follow them and get changed so we can begin with the training."

I smirked as I conveniently 'forgot' to mention Miranda. I turned around and see that she is fidgeting with the cookies she made, looking like a kicked puppy.

Then I realized that I was supposed to be her 'bestie' right now, and ignoring her wasn't really helping my case.

I was so out of it.

Aren't I always?

So, I called out to her. "Hey Miranda, get those cookies here! Let's give 'em to the kids when they come out."

On hearing this, the sad look on her face gets replaced by a bright smile and she nodded, coming over to stand next to me.

She held out the tray to me. "Do you want one?"

"What kind are they?" Please be chocolate chip, please be chocolate chip.

"It's raisins." she said. "Here, take one."

I hated raisins with a passion. I really did not want one.

But, not wanting to upset her anymore, I took one. "Sure, why not."

One by one the recruits came out and grabbed a cookie, Amber saw me eating mine and raised an eyebrow, mouthing 'Raisins?'. I gave her a look that said 'Don't ask'.

After everyone was done eating, they turned to look at me expectantly.

Oh right, I was the one in charge.

Yup, totally out of it.

They wanted me to start their training, that was why they were looking at me.

I sighed, I absolutely hated Mondays.