“I walked into class, like, five seconds late!” I indignantly whisper.
“Actually it was more like 5 minutes, and can you please not yell?” the boy sharing my lab table whispers.
“Well sorry I was held up at Champ’s stupid decoding class. Maybe next time I’ll just leave early and get fired.” or you could just quit I think.
“Don’t even think about it” he whisper-shouts as though he can read my mind.
Which at this point I wouldn’t be surprised if he could. I roll my eyes and put my finger to my mouth, motioning him to be quiet and point at the teacher like I’m trying to listen. He rolls his eyes at that, I could beat the dope standing in front of the room any day on a quiz about valence electrons, and Jason knows it. 
He cuts me a look and says “We are not done discussing this.”
I raise my eyebrows and turn my head back towards the teacher. Jason can say what he wants but if he knew how seriously I was thinking about quitting the agency he would lose it.  He pokes me and I brush his hand off my shoulder and turn back to Mr. Perdue. He blabs on about the amount of electrons in each shell and I do my best to look interested as I let my mind wander.
That is one of the many perks of being thrown into the agency at the ripe age of seven; It made school a breeze. I had been in labs experimenting with Francium and Zirconium before all my baby teeth were gone. I could speak four different languages fluently and was debating a fifth; Arabic would be useful. I already knew English, Russian, Spanish, and Chinese. The first book my mom ever read to me had been America: Past and Present. I had been reviewing United States relations with foreign nations since eleven. When I was ten I had my first quiz on the politics section of the Newspaper, if I got one hundred percent my dad would let me stay up an extra half hour. I probably knew more about the situation with Pandemonium than the President. Pandemonium was a radicalist terrorist group within the Russian government, the Russian officials were fully aware of it and were continuing to make no efforts to uproot them from their spots as government officials. There were several suspected spies within the U.S. Government that were dealing top secret information about technology that the US is trying to develop. That was all I knew about it. l had been decoding the chatter between the Russian diplomats for weeks now. So far I hadn’t been able to crack their system. It was a complicated series of code words and not having Russian as a first language made it hard to understand slang, and double meanings. Like ratchet, that word just like happened. Like people just started saying it and the dictionary definition has nothing to do with how people really use it.  It officially means a toothed bar with which a pawl engages, whatever that is. So anyway Pandemonium was stumping me and I didn’t like it at all. I hated losing and so far that was basically what I was doing. I wasn’t the only one on this case or anything but it was my job. 
Suddenly Jason whipped my iPad out of my hand. I looked up in shock, Jason was overreacting and besides I wasn’t even using my iPad, and see my teacher looking down at me.
“What are you looking at on there Mr. Rhemes?” Mr Perdue asks in a bored tone, like he already knows the answer.
Jason pulls an innocent face and says “I was just getting something from Allie’s notes that I missed.”
He holds up the iPad and shows typed notes that I’m sure are a word for word copy of his lecture. Looking closer I even see a diagram. I barely repress a snort. I can hardly recall a word he said, let alone have cared enough to write notes.
Jason hands my iPad back with “Sorry, I should’ve asked first.”
At that I can’t hold my snort in. Jason has never asked me for anything, we’ve been bestfriends for our whole lives. We’ve argued just as much as we’ve agreed, if not more. I’ve been known for being stubborn. Mr. Perdue shoots me a look like he doesn’t understand what just happened, but understands that he just got duped. I’m just as confused as him so I just shrug. He returns to his spot in the front of the room and continues his lecture. I do my best to listen but just end up staring at the space between his eyebrows that frowns when he talks.
When the bell rings, Jason practically jumps out of his seat and whips out of the room. He’s gone before I’ve even closed my notebook. I pack and go to my locker that neighbors his. As I walk up I see him staring at his locker like it’s done him a serious grievance. I start putting in the combination on my neighboring locker. He continues to glare but this time at me as I unpack my bag. I don’t know what he’s mad about but I am pointedly ignoring him.
“Are you two twins or something?” I hear to my left. “Because I always see you together.”
I turned to see who this girl was talking to and realized that she was talking about Jason and I. “Us? No we are not twins.” Jason responds.
Jason and I share a dumbfounded look, other than our dark hair we share no features, and even our hair isn’t that similar. My hair is jet-black with a little wave, but not enough to be called curly.  Jason’s hair on the other hand is more of a dark brown that curls onto his forehead. His eyes are a dark brown, whereas mine are ice blue. I’m a full foot shorter, and his arm is as big around as my thigh. His skin is tanned as though he’s spent his entire life under the sun, which he hasn’t. My skin looks like I’ve been sitting in a classroom under fluorescent lights my whole life, which I have.  How this girl thought we were siblings I don’t know. I’m politely explaining that we’re just really good friends, when Jason slams his locker door shut and mutters “You mean were.” and storms off.
I rush after him, struggling to keep up in the crush of the busy hallway. Finally I grab his hand and wrench on it until he’s yanked around. 
“What’s your problem?” I demand.
He raises his eyebrows and spits out “Don’t play the innocent card. It really doesn’t suit you.” “What’s that supposed to mean? I haven’t done anything!” I practically yell.
“Oh and your stunt with the iPad? What was that?”he asks accusingly.
“What stunt with the iPad? I was just logging into my grades when you ripped it out of my hand! I didn’t do anything!” I screech exasperated.
“I knew you were thinking about quitting but I didn’t know you were planning on taking the whole agency down with you.”  he retorts acidly
“How would I do that? By having a B? Whats the big deal?” “Allie you weren’t on your grades and we both know it.” My look of confusion finally convinces him that I might be telling the truth.
He looks at me skeptically and asks "you really thought you were checking your grades?"
"Yeah, I was thinking about the Pandemonium thing and I was just checking my grades to give my hands something to do."
Both of his eyebrows go so far up his forehead, for a second I'm afraid they're going to disappear.
"Wait. What did you think I was doing?" I ask, confused.
"Allie you were pulling up all the files with your notes on the chatter between the diplomats. That's why I took your iPad. So that you wouldn't get caught and give up all the secret information to our chem teacher and out yourself and the agency."
"Really?" My mouth is practically on the floor.
"Yeah, c'mon Allie that wasn't an accident."
"No it was I swear, I would never wanna ruin the agency! You know that! That's my parents, everyone I love is in it."
"Then why are you thinking about quitting?" He asks, annoyed.
"Maybe the danger and thrills are fun now, but is that what I want to do for the rest of my life, ya know?"
“Al, you couldn’t sit behind a desk for more than five minutes and you know it.”
I stamp a bored look on my face and stare at him blankly, trying to hide the thoughts swirling like  a snow storm in my head.
“Obviously I’m not gonna get through to you today so I’ll see you at the agency later ok?”
I nod nonchalantly as I walk away.
When I pull into the parking lot of the Ramsey Sportsplex, I drive around the full lot trying to find a parking spot. The sportsplex cleverly hides the headquarters of the agency. No-one suspects anything of different people going in and out of it all day, and if any civilian tried to get a membership they just tell them that we’ve already reached membership capacity.  I pull into my spot and start walking towards the glass doors that show none of the inside. All I can see is myself. I do a quick self assessment and notice the bags under my eyes and the scowl I’m currently sporting.  Seein my sour face I’m instantly reminded of all the times my mother told me to stop frowning. She’s worried I’m going to have frown lines before I’m twenty. Looking at myself now, it looks like she might be right. With a sigh I attempt to reassemble my face into something of a smile. It fails miserably. It looks like I’m baring my teeth as I await the perfect time to pounce.  Realizing that I’ve been standing in front of a one-way mirror making faces I rush in the door and look around the room, hopefully noone saw that.
“What’s up with the ugly faces Smith?” sneers a voice behind me. Of course, I think.
In a voice that’s practically dripping with venom I quickly snap back “Sorry, were you looking in the mirror Richie?”
I step into the decoding room and see that it’s full of people. Wait not just any people, the heads of the agency. “Sorry” I manage to stammer as I turn and head back to the door as fast as I can.The door opens before I can reach it and swings open to reveal Richie wearing a satisfied smile that’s probably in response to my shocked expression.
“Allie Smith can you come over here?” I hear a deep voice ask from behind me. [4] Turning I see my dad, the VP , with the president of the whole agency staring at me.
My dad waves at Birmingham and says “Allie meet Mr. Birmingham, he has a task he needs you for.” In shock I bring my shaking hand into his and shake it as firmly as I can.
He nods at Richie and says “You too boy.”
      He steps forward with a smug grin and shakes his outstretched hand with a swagger I wish I possessed. I hear the door open and Jason walks in, looking a bit nervous but I doubt he was sweating bullets like me. I raise an eyebrow, silently asking if he knows what this is about. With a barely perceptible shake of his head he walks past me to shake Mr. Birmingham’s hand. With a nod towards the door he says “This needs to be private. Everybody out except these three and Smith.” The guards shuffle out he turns to us expectantly.
“Yes, they’ll work perfectly.”
  Hours later, I’m still sitting in that same seat in the decoding room with my mouth probably still hanging open. I didn’t want to do another mission and I definitely didn’t want to do a mission of this caliber of danger. I wanted to retire and get married and have kids. Not die in Russia at the hands of Pandemonium thugs. We don’t even know where to start looking for the people who stole the files from the embassy. Their ‘plan’ was to go scout out russia and try and find out where they have the files, before they crack our codes and have unrestricted access to the secret files. The thought of snooping around Pandemonium headquarters has me queasy. I’ve seen their ‘enforcers’ as the call them. They could probably kill me with just their pinky fingers. I’m not doing this. Richie and Jason will just have to--- wait Jason. He can’t go to Russia to retrieve a top secret file with only Richie to back him up.  I shoot out of my seat and hear it clatter to the ground behind me but i don’t even look back. I have to find Jason and tell him not to go. I sprint down the hallway and turn around a corner and slam into a hard body. Falling to the ground I swing my arms behind me to catch me as i hear a clatter. I quickly get up and reach out to help the person I knocked down when I freeze with my hand still extended.
    I’m staring at a broad shouldered man, probably six foot eight man, on the ground below with hard drives and iPads scattered on the floor around him. His ski mask obscures his face, making it impossible to tell what he looked like but judging by his panting and wide eyes I’d caught him in the midst of a getaway. Suddenly I realise that I should probably do something. I turn to run at the same time that he kicks my feet out from underneath me.  I slam into the ground face first, a metallic taste enters my mouth as I scramble back to my feet. I can’t fight this guy if he’s standing above me. When I turn back I assess my opponent and realize I can’t win, period. He’s got at least a foot and a half on me and probably a hundred pounds. I realize that when I fell he positioned himself so he was between me and the only way out of this hallway except back to the storage room which he had clearly ransacked. He reaches in his belt for something but I don’t stick around to find out.
I turn to sprint but my combat boots skid across the floppy disks and iPads that are strewn across the floor.  I finally get my footing and run through the door, slamming it behind me. I quickly assess the room and look for a heavy blunt object to try and hit him with. The door handle jiggles behind me and I grab the closest thing to me, a folder. He smashes through the door holding a ten inch long knife. Spotting me he makes his way across the room yelling at me in russian, but my brain is way too frantic to try and translate it. Suddenly the alarms start going off and realising he’s been caught he rushes at me. I grab the swivel chair next to me and try to throw it at him. I didn’t hit him with it but he tripped over it which is good enough for me. I start to run past him and am almost past him when a hand  reaches out and grabs my ankle and then drags me to the ground.
I’m slowly being pulled backwards on my stomach towards my assailant, while trying unsuccessfully to grab onto something, anything. My fingertips scrape against the carpet while my nails rip out trying to grab onto the one inch carpet. My fingers grip an iPad but before I can think of anything I am flipped over so I am face to face with the furious russian man. I see a flash of silver and throw my hands up, closing my eyes. Confusion enters my brain because instead of hearing my own screams as I am stabbed as I expected, I hear the shatter of glass and feel a prickling in my right shoulder.  I look down and see that the iPad i had been holding absorbed the knife and held it less than an inch from my chest.
Quickly I grasp that the knife is stuck at the hilt in the iPad. I twist the iPad, ripping the nefarious looking knife out of his hands and kick out my booted foot as hard as I can.  Seeing the black that is my foot make contact with his face he falls of from where he was holding my legs down. I scramble to my feet and dash across the room, ripping the knife out of the iPad as I go. I slam the door shut and bring my right hand down to cut the door handle off. When the knife makes contact with the stainless steel handle I feel the jolt up my right arm and a searing pain consumes my shoulder.
[7]  Looking down I see my once hunter green shirt is now a dark sickish red and that the amount of green on my shirt is quickly diminishing. My skin feels damp and too warm as I try to piece together what happened to me. I gingerly pull aside my torn shirt and gasp at what I see. I slowly slide down the wall as I realize that the red on my shirt is my own blood. I faintly hear yells from down the hallway but the dark blood that is seeping from a jagged wound where I can see a large piece of glass protruding from my too pale skin. I try to pull the shard of glass out of my skin but with each slight tug that my clumsy fingers make have me clenching my teeth and groaning. Finally after the fourth try I decide that it’s not even worth it.  My fingers are too slippery with my own blood and I think I ended up pushing it deeper into my torn flesh. I hear yells of “I found her” and then a series of gasps.
Through the haze clouding my vision I see Richie in front of me, he’s saying something but I can’t tell what through the pounding in my head.  I try to tell him that the man is still alive in that room, but even I can’t understand what I’m saying. I try to lift my right arm but give up and point with my left hand at the door that is smeared with my blood.Richie turns to the door and seeing the blood a murderous expression flashes across his features. Richie’s face is replaced with Jason’s then my father’s then  a stranger’s then finally my mother’s. All of them show varying faces of anxiousness and fear. Then there was just an expanse of white and grey and occasionally other stranger’s.
  Blinking awake I look around my room only to realise it’s not my room. Everything is white and smells of antiseptic. Looking down I see tubes sticking out of my arms connecting to a clear sack. Hospitals, ew and needles, even worse. I reach my left hand to feel where there used to be glass tearing me open. It’s been nicely bandaged and I probably had to get stitches. I shudder at the thought of the needle going in and out of my skin. The hospital gown that I am currently adorning doesn’t provide much warmth and my shudder of disgust turns into a shiver. A large nurse, old enough to be my grandmother bustles in and starts checking my tubes. She starts when she sees me watching her.
“Oh! I didn’t know you were awake!” Then in a hushed tone like she’s talking to a wild animal she asks “Sweetheart do you know where you are?”
“Ummmm the hospital I think.”
“Good! That fall didn’t mess you up too much.” she says, relieved.
Fall? If the agency is already lying about my ‘accident’ then I’ll be fine. I think, almost as relieved as the nurse.
Two Weeks Later
“Guys you don’t have to sit next to my bed! I’m fine, it’s been more than a week since they admitted me from the hospital!”
My parents sigh and my father says “Allie we know that as soon as we leave you’re going to get back on that iPad.”
My mother continues his argument and says “Honey you need to be resting. You’re going back to school tomorrow.”
  Ugh school, that was one part of my life I didn’t want to go back to normal.  I wasn’t ready to go back to school and have to lie to everyone who asks about how I fell down a flight of stairs and then magically tumbled through the window.         School was as terrible as I thought it would be, especially since I have to wear this terrible sling, which is like a light blinking on my head.
    But straight after school I head back to my favorite Sportsplex and stepping out of my car I hear “Hey stranger, I thought you were quitting?” With a wide smile I throw my arm around my best friend Jason and say “Then who would save the agency?”