My breath tightened as I held onto my survival bag to stabilize my state of mind and my numb body. It was a crowded little space with all of us forced inside. No one dared let out a breath and movement was restricted to small millimeters towards our closest neighbors. All of us were holding our individual weapons to ward of the bad man. Sharp lead and thin blades were the preferred, common item—

"Risa!"

I sighed and poked my head out behind my journal. "What, Cody?" I scratched my head with my pen's ballpoint and raised an eyebrow at the boy with dirty blonde hair and cerulean eyes.

He shook his head with a little scoff. "Been shouting your name like a psychopath since we got in study hall. You need hearing aids?"

"My butt's numb," I groaned, pushing off the floor of the school's hallway as I gave my crippled body a good stretch. Unfortunately, Cody reached up and jerked me back down.

"Stop it," he said through gritted teeth, "You just shoved your ass in the principal's face."

"Well good for him." I rolled my eyes as I picked up my journal again and gave him an evil eye. "Who told him to be here anyway, this is our study hall." I didn't literally do that, obviously. Cody's a bit dramatic.

The boy smacked me on the arm and I rubbed it automatically. "Listen," he emphasized with his hands, "Did you hear the news?"

I tucked a piece of my black hair behind my ears. "You mean.. last night?" I quirked, smirking at him as my ears perked up. People in the study hall were looking at me and Cody with strange glances. We ignored them.

Cody gave me a blank look. "What else?"

"Hm," I nodded, picking up my pen again as my eyes strayed to my journal, "Didn't watch the news. You know how much I gotta pay for cable? Shit ton, Cody, shit ton."

"Figured," he sighed, "Well, let me fill you in."

"Yes, enlighten me," I muttered sarcastically, slumping against the wall as I attempted to finish as much of my homework as possible before reaching home.

"They obtained another victory, another enemy sabotaged," Cody smirked, "Can you believe it was all done last night while we were all asleep?"

I gently rubbed my earlobe with that I-beg-to-differ expression on. "'All' is a bit of a presumptuous hypothesis that doesn't stand true for every—"

"—P. Strike was taken down," Cody's little play-on accent emerged to further his point, "It took weeks for T6-GEO@ to bring him to justice. Serves the damn jerk right for infiltrating their system."

"Very much true," I pursed my lips, absent-minded as I tried to find what the value of Beta was on my worksheet.

Cody leaned back on the wall and sighed a sigh of relief. "Imagine the sleep they lost."

"Harsh," I chimed in.

"They work so hard for the well-being of the world."

"You make them seem like superheroes."

"Basically," Cody winked at me. "Each has a different speciality. Everyone's been obsessed with them since this year."

I turned the page and bent the stapled corner to even-out the packet, "Wonder why.."

"Oh yeah, who's your favorite?" Cody nudged me. I looked up at him and pushed my glasses up my bridge.

"Favorite?" I tilted my head, "of them?"

"Yeah," Cody said matter-of-factly, "Favorite. Everyone has a favorite. Mine's LO1. Heard he helps around loads."

"Debatable," I retorted under my breath, racking my brain for a formula we just learned in class, "He's okay."

Cody looked offended. "Then who's your type?"

"Ergh.. Po?" I shrugged, "Pew? Whatever his name was?"

"Pooh," Cody corrected with a sigh, "Get with the program, Risa. Also, Pooh? Really? He doesn't even talk."

"That's offensive to the Pooh fans," I raised my eyebrows at him teasingly before I directed my attention back to my work, "He does talk Cody, he says something."

"You'd think the man learned a few more words considering he's a world-renowned hacker," Cody commented, tsk-ing.

"Does he even need to talk if he's a hacker," I laughed, "Let the baby live."

Cody turned to me with a weird look but he brushed it off when we heard footsteps coming our way. Looking to our side, the queen bees come strolling down the black and white tiled hallway. It was strange all of a sudden when I realized they seemed to be looking right at me.

"Look who's here," I whispered amusingly as I gazed at them innocently, "Three musketeers."

"Two bitchy musketeers," Cody scoffed silently, settling back to work as he lost his enthusiasm for our last topic, "and a drumstick."

"Yo, Reese's!" Drumstick hollered my supposed name.

"When will you get it right you bitchass motherfucker," I sang under my breath, whistling a sigh as I picked my head up and plastered on a fake grin.

"Jeremy, wassup," I winked, "How was dinner last night with the crew?"

"Boring without you Reese's pieces," he cooed, bending down to cup my face with a warm palm of his, "Why didn't you come? There was no exam or shit."

Serena next to him let out an exaggerated sigh and kicked a notebook a bit far out into the hallway back into this one girl's face. "Please, clean up your crap," she distorted her face, "stop polluting, Rebecca."

I didn't flinched along with the sudden outroars and murmurs from our classmates that quickly cursed out Serena's actions. I could feel Cody eyeing her beside me with a disgusted look before reaching over to make sure the wounded girl was fine.

"Chill," I grabbed Serena's arm, "School's about to be over. Do whatever to your heart's content after the bell rings." I maintained eye contact with her until she backed away with a scoff, fixing her hair.

Vanessa finally spoke, "Risa ditched us again." She pointed to my head and I sighed.

"I told you guys," I put my hands up in surrender, "packed-night schedule. I have a job outside of school anyway."

Jeremy arched his brows and crossed his arms. "Where is it? We'll come pay you a visit."

My heart jumped. "Aha," I smiled, "That's not necessary.." My eyes wandered to my phone for the time to check how much longer I could hold up this facade.

"Of course it is," Serena chirped, "If you're one of us we gotta know how you are outside of school. Who knows, maybe you're a maid and you're afraid to hide it? Cute."

Pft.

I held back a snort and waved the possibility away. A few more comments were exchanged between us under the watchful eyes of the entire classroom sitting outside before the musketeers disappeared. Jeremy added in just before they left that I had to call him tonight or he'd pay my apartment a visit. Somehow. The smartass didn't even know where I lived.

The moment they were out of sight, I silent-gagged and drooped my face into an uninterested expression. Cody eyed me with disapproval. "I..." he began, still irritated by whatever just happened, "still don't understand why the hell you're friends with them."

I glanced at the class losing interest in me and Cody, waiting for them to direct their attentions away before I turned to my guy friend. "Did you not see me gag?" I gave him a look.

"You're still associated with them, and they're horrible," he lectured, "I don't understand what's going on in that pea-sized brain of yours. You're not like them. Pretty soon your reputation's going to tarnish if you keep acting like you're part of their world."

I planted my lips into a thin line and patted him on the shoulder. "Don't question it. A girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do to survive school."

The school bell rang and everyone immediately got to their feet. Stampeding hoards of apes choked the corridor and forced the two of us against the walls so that they could catch their rides home. We waited for them to disappear before picking up our backpacks and hurrying out to get home.

"See you tomorrow?" Cody ruffled his hair as he spotted his car the moment we stepped foot on the slightly wet gravel outside. I nodded and gave him a smile. "See you, make sure you finish your Calc homework."

"Help me," he pouted as his eyes glistened for my favor.

"Nah," I flicked his forehead, "Should've been working instead of fantasizing T6-GEO@. Learned your lesson?"

"Bitch." Cody waved absentmindedly as he strolled across the parking lot to his car. I watched the boy leave dramatically and shook my head with a faint smile, walking home. It was true I could've carpooled with him. However, there was a reason I haven't since the boy got his car. There was somewhere I needed to be, anyway. Top secret.

I walked for a good hour, feeling the air humidify around my flesh, before turning into a dark alleyway that had lost all its light source. Typical typical. I come face-to-face with a gigantic, government official sent directly by the big man himself.

"President's new offer," was all he said when he handed me a worn-down folder containing our next piece of shush-shush information to work on.

I stared at the man's covered eyes through his black sunglasses with a suspicious squint. "How do I know you were directly sent?" I played with the folder, wobbling it in mid-air, "I don't recognize your face. Let me see your eyes."

He opened up his suit and flashed me his executive medal badge. Proof of the real deal.

Still suspicious, I tried another approach. "How are you so sure who I am?" I arched my brows at him, testing the man for any flaws, "You just handed this thing to me. I don't even know what it is." Lies, lies. But that's how we do business in this country.

"Enforcing law order 9b-3." The man recited like a distorted machine.

I reluctantly nodded and tucked the folder away in my coat. "Enforced, sir. We'll get it done in a week."

I almost didn't hear the deep voice through my ears as he sent me a message. "... Gone."

"Gone?" I repeated. But before I could get anymore words out of the man, he disappeared into the dark and I was left to ponder on our meeting. I peered at his silhouette as it seemingly vaporized before turning on my heels to head home.

What was gone? I glanced down at the folder before my fingers tightened around its rough skin. My legs dragged on the gravel for a while before I processed that I had stepped into a small puddle of rainwater. I decided to pull out my phone and check the time, fully aware of how dim the sky turned for that little detour.

"13:00pm. Time to call up the team and investigate."

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