Jenna

I can honestly say, I'm over the moon for new recruits. It's been so long since I've had my little initiation ceremony: first Zach "accidentally" getting locked in his room for a day and getting a lecture from Headmistress about punctuality, then Mitchell throwing up all over himself after I punched him, don't forget Brianna being dyed green for a week when I added too much Chlorine to my makeshift smoke grenade, and my personal favorite, me throwing Richie across the old Robo Dojo! Ah, the good old days. Now, what am I supposed to do to a girl who can go invisible and a guy who can teleport? Well, I've got a jet ride to figure that out. In the meantime, I'm trying my best to convince Richie of a new plan for breaking Brianna and Zach out of prison. But his stubborn butt won't budge. Lucky for him, I find his stubborn butt cute or else he'd be dangling outside this jet right now.

Papers and blueprints wildly littered the desk, making it difficult for the holographic table to actually work. A map of The Canyon floated in blue light. I placed my finger on the east wall, spinning the diagram to face me.

"How do you know they'll be here?" I asked, questionably staring at the hologram.

"The East Wing shows a high concentration of people in for interrogation which is Brianna and Zach's most likely first trial," Richie answered, although not directly at me.

There's the downside to dating the smartest guy on the team: he's normally so involved in something, you can barely have a coherent conversation with him.

For example, a few months ago when we were tracking Milton Isaac in Australia, I said, "Hey, there's a group of koalas outside! Check them out!"

He continued shuffling through tiles and responded, "That sounds like a great lunch."

Or, "Richie, it's 3 am!"

"Grease should know where the keys are."

Sometimes I like to see just how far I can take it. So far I've reached, "The Jester is downstairs experimenting on Mitchell."

He simply responded with, "That's great. I'll be done in a minute."

Pretty soon I'll have to slap him awake and though I love him, it's becoming dangerous. But right now is one of our better conversations! Still, I'm not settling for that today. I slid the diagram of the table, closing the program. Richie questionably stared at me as I made my way across the table.

"Find something?" he asked, obviously confused.

"I found you're doing the thing again! Talk to me!" I asked desperately, grabbing his hands.

He sighed, enveloping me in a hug. "I'm sorry. I've just extremely preoccupied.

"Just preoccupied?Two of our friends are locked in one of the most secure prisons in America, we're looking for a girl who can turn invisible and a boy who can teleport, and a psychotic scientist is trying to complete her mysterious evil plot; I'd be concerned if you were 'just preoccupied'!"

He let out a little chuckle and flashed that brilliant smile. At least those still work.

"Just another day on the job right?"

"Come on," I said, pulling him towards the exit. "You need therapy."

"Therapy?" He giggled. "You hired me a shrink?"

We silently walked out of Squad Tower, only making noise when he tried to pry my hand away from his eyes. Finally, he managed to regain his sight (only because I let him) as we entered Katherine's Cafe.

"Therapy of a sort," I smirked as our robotic chef, Katherine, served us. I whispered in her ear just the thing to make Richie talk and in a matter of seconds, she returned with two chocolate milkshakes. "Now speak." I demanded, not giving him any chance to escape.

"You know, normally on a date, you order one shake and have a Lady and the Tramp moment?" he asked pointedly, cleverly curling his lip.

"Yeah, but knowing you, I'd get no shake," I retorted before sharing a good laugh with the boyfriend I've missed. "But that's not what I meant by speak. Something wrong and you need to tell me."

Hesitantly, he stared out the window towards the newly remodeled Academy: the expansive library, the athletics field, and so much more before finally opening his mouth. "I'm not sure if I can do this."

"Break into prison?" I said with a startle. "You're gonna have all of us behind you! It's just another mission-"

Richie cut me off with a gesture of his hand and a slurp of his shake. He placed his other hand gently over mine as it rested on the table.

"I'm going back home, I mean."

I blankly stared in shock, trying to decipher if this was another ridiculous joke. At any moment, I expected that brilliant smile and an eruption of laughter. It never came.

"Oh," I said emptily, rendered speechless by the sudden surprise.

"The mission calls for it. I found strange activity on the radar we set up for the recruits after last year's incident. It leads back to my home town, to my old high school. I'm not sure who it s yet, but I'll know once I'm there."

"Is there anything non-mission related for you there?"

He bit his lip, still gnawing at the skin: his newest method for coping with stress and my newest way to tell when something's bothering him. "Yes. It'll be dangerous."

"When is family not?" I quietly responded. "You're the most resilient person I know. Go find your family. You won't be able to when they're gone..."

Way to ruin a date, Jenna! Don't bring up touchy subjects! Then again, how can I avoid this?

"Jenna, about your dad..."

Now it's my turn to cut him off. "Richie, it was a month ago. What happened, happened and there's nothing I can do about it now..."

We both stared out the window allowing our awkward silence to wash over the table. Leave it to alarms to jar us from our deep thoughts.

Both Richie and I jumped from the booth and sprinted for the Tower, not even finishing our shakes. We raced through the Tower doors and into the mission room where Mitchell and Grease were already in command.

"We got a hit on Sam and Nicole!" Grease said excitedly from the main computer.

I ran to her side, seeing a map of Chicago and two red dots jump down street blocks.

"Well, suit up everybody! We're going to Illinois!" Mitchell said, excited running out the room. Richie lingered by a monitor on the opposite side. When I approached he quickly closed the page and asked, "Ready for the Windy City?". We started towards the door, casually talking. Did he really think the girl who's been a spy since she was 12 wouldn't notice the page? Rookie mistake. The ride to Chicago was of no concern to me compared to what I saw on that computer: the name of Richie's home, Miami, and the picture of two girls titled Recruits Found.