The bell rings for lunch. Macie is waiting outside of Alex's English class, and Sketch, as always, has his notebook and a pencil in hand, tentatively doodling away.

Macie has been sending mixed signals for days now. She sits next to Alex and slightly rubs her hand against his, and the next minute she's avoiding eye contact. Every time Macie makes a move, Alex briefly glances over at Sketch. The physical contact and flirting doesn't bother him much. Sketch's sights are set on Kevin "The Cannon" Bakers, the kicker for the varsity football team, but also the biggest jackass in the school. He's heard rumors that they play on the same side, but Sketch never has the courage to verify those claims.

"I don't see why you don't just walk up to him and put your hand around his waist, wait for his reaction. If he likes you, he'll let it slide. Hell, he may even lay one on you right here." Macie jokes as she takes a bite of her ranch covered pizza.

"Lay one on me alright. He'll probably kick my ass in the middle of everyone." Sketch gives a nervous laugh.

Alex chimes in, "Macie is kind of right though man. You've been crushing on this dude for weeks. Go up to him and say something."

Sketch is sitting on the edge of his seat, rubbing his sweaty hands on his jeans and contemplating the thought of walking up to the muscular jock.

"Do it man." Macie and Alex say almost in sync. "Do it."

He stands up, holding his tray in his hands, and saunters toward Kevin Bakers. The lunch tray is shaking Sketch is so nervous. Not noticing the "Wet Floor" sign with soda all around it, he continues walking, right into the spill and lands flat on his back. The milk carton falls in slow motion as the creamy white liquid pours all over Sketch's face.

"Well that didn't go as planned." Wiping milk from his eyes, he sits up and looks around.

Alex and Macie rush to his rescue, trying not to slip in the same mess.

"Nice one weirdo!" Kevin says. Laughing as he walks by the group with two attractive women in his arms.

"Talk about The Biggest Jackass Award," Alex responds under his breath. Macie laughs and helps Sketch clean himself up with some napkins. "Let's go get you cleaned up in the bathroom bro."

Helping Sketch to his feet, Alex guides him to the closest restroom as Macie stands up.

"What are you looking at huh? Never seen someone fall before? Bunch'a idiots!" Making her way back to the table, she sits down and rolls her eyes.

"Not gonna lie, it looks like you pissed your pants bro." Alex is trying not to laugh, handing Sketch a handful of paper towels from the wall.

"Ha ha, laugh it up. Why does that guy have to be such a douchebag? He's so muscular and tall and everything I've dreamed of. Why doesn't he just admit to everyone that he likes the same thing I do?"

"I say just let him go. I'm sure you'll find someone way better that's actually worth your time man." Alex responds.

Sketch just stares at the wall, and in the mirror as he cleans himself up. The sour milk smell isn't going to come out with just water, but a halfway clean outfit is better than nothing. Sketch throws the used paper towels away and checks himself in the mirror one last time, rubbing his elbow from where he hit the floor. His once spiked green hair is now a slick dark green, like a punk Elvis Presley. He laughs for a moment.

"Lunch is almost over, I want to finish my pizza before Macie gets a hold of it," Alex says with a laugh, making his way toward the door. "Let's go."

Most everybody in the cafeteria has forgotten about the event already. A few eyes here and there looking up at the two of them. A laugh or two spotted from a distant table. They sit down, Alex splits his pizza in half and gives a piece to Sketch.

"Next time, don't let your pizza hit the floor."

Macie laughs again, her fondness for Alex growing as she realizes how protective he is over the ones he cares about. Alex knows how it feels to be bullied and humiliated in front of people, there's no way he wants to see it happen to somebody else.

"I've got a newspaper delivery route after school today. Probably just going to take my bike and get that over with." Alex says, taking another bite of his pizza.

"Newspaper route? That's almost as humiliating as what just happened to me. Don't say that out loud ever again bro."

"Yeah yeah, laugh it up. At least I'm making some extra money."

"Oh, I'm making extra money from all these drawings I do for people. Twenty-five dollars a pop. I've already made fifty bucks today." Sketch says with confidence.

The bell rings again, lunch is over and Macie stands up to dump her tray, waiting at the end of the hall for Alex.

Mr. Helkin is standing ominously at the edge of the hallway. He makes eye contact, throws him a smile, and watches Alex until he disappears into the crowd of students.

"Why is Mr. Tableu such a creep?" Macie asks with a look of distaste.

Alex puts his hand on Macie's shoulder and faces her forward as they continue their walk to class.

---

"The house, the school, the aunt's place. We've looked everywhere so far. Everything is clear. It HAS to be with them at the safe house they're being held," Mr. Tomley slams the brown folder down on the table. "We're behind schedule, and we NEED those coordinates!"

Seven armed men surround the table, wearing same military style equipment and uniforms from the house fire. The squad leader takes a step forward.

"I've taken every precaution and had my men search these places top to bottom. If they hid it somewhere, we would have found it by now. I agree, it has to be with them, at that property. How should we proceed sir?"

Derrick lets a smirk perch the corner of his mouth, a small laugh escapes him.

"We've been too nice about this whole thing. We need to let our internal asset know that we are moving forward, and hit that property tonight."

The armed men stand at attention, weapons at their sides and have their eyes focused on both Squad Leader Parrish, and the well dressed Derrick Tomley. Parrish grabs a large rolled up paper from behind his chair, lays it out across the conference table, and sets a duffel bag on each side of the paper to keep it from closing up again.

"These are blueprints of the property, provided to us from our inside man. There are four key entry points to the house, the entire property itself is surrounded by a nine foot privacy fence with a security gate at the end of the driveway. Our recon last night was only able to get a partial code to unlock that gate... Six One."

The rest of the men are standing around the table, scanning the large blue paper in front of them.

"What are we supposed to do with a partial code?" Tomley furrows his brow expecting an immediate response.

Parrish lets out a raspy huff. "There are only two people who know the code to the security gate. Neither of them being our mole, so we sent our friend from Hosgrow to set up a distraction last night. He was only able to get that partial code. But I have another plan, no worries sir."

"You better, because we can't move forward with the plan until we get those coordinates. I want your plans within the hour so we can get started." Mr. Tomley grabs his jacket from the back of the chair behind him, and storms out of the room.

His cellphone rings as he makes his way toward the double doors at the end of the hall. Derrick Tomley checks the Caller ID, glances around, steps through the double doors and answers the phone.

"Hey honey. I'll be home a little late tonight. I have a few things to get done at the office. What's up?"

The quiet, feminine voice on the other side has a comforting tone.

"Just thought I'd let you know that the test came back positive. We're gonna be parents!"

Derrick stands in complete silence for a moment, giving his brain time to comprehend the news he just received.

"That's... I'm just... Baby that's incredible! I can't believe this! We are finally going to be parents. I can't wait to get home and hold you and kiss you and truly appreciate the things that are coming our way."

"I'll see you when you get here baby." Mrs. Tomley blows a kiss through the phone and her husband gives one in return, and then hangs up the phone with a smile on his face.

He slides the phone back into his pocket, enters the elevator and takes it to his office on the fourteenth floor and shuts the door behind him.