AN: Hi. So this is the first chapter in my new story. The title is up for change so fill free to review with a suggestion. For warning, I haven't read the books for a while so I'm sorry if characters are slightly OC or any mistakes in the plot. This fic takes place after Scorpia Rising and Alex wasn't sent to the Pleasures.

Chapter 1

For once it was a fairly ordinary day for Alex. In fact it had been a fairly ordinary week. He hadn't been on any missions since Egypt and was able to attend school now without getting many strange looks. He was actually surprised that MI6 hadn't bothered him yet, demanding that he went on a new mission. He guessed that thing s would be different since, Tulip Jones was now in charge, and actually treated him like a human being, not some top secret weapon. Alex was enjoying the normalcy of life, But knowing his luck, normalcy wasn't going to last for long.

He was currently in his GCSE history class, sitting next to Tom. Alex was trying not to get distracted by Tom's constant practical jokes and was ignoring the rumours spreading around school about an SAS camp. According to the school gossips, Maya and Kristen, it was apparently to try and convince kids to join the army or some other defence force. He dismissed these rumours. It was very unlikely to be true, as he knew from experience that SAS would never tolerate a whole class of maggots (oops. He meant kids). They barely tolerated him. Alex was currently failing history as he missed so many lessons when he had been 'sick'( aka missions) and now he was struggling to remember all the events and dates that resulted in the Russian revolution as well as the causes of WWII. The list went on. He had missed whole topics whilst dealing with Scorpia again and again. He flinched. Scorpia had caused him so much pain, both physical and emotionally. He hadn't been the same since he had lost Jack at the cause of one their ridiculous world domination plots. Ever since Jack had... no... was gone, he had been living on his own. MI6 had wanted him to stay with an agent for his own protection, but, he had refused. He didn't want them interfering in his life any more than they had to. Mr Cole, the history teacher, was droning on about something or other, so Alex, being an opportunist, decided to remember the time he met Jack

Ten year old Alex was sitting downstairs in the living room, waiting for what uncle Ian said would be his nanny. He was 10 and didn't need a nanny. He already looked after himself when Uncle Ian went on his business trips for the bank.

Ding. Dong. The doorbell rang, breaking Alex out of his thoughts. He bounced up and ran to the door before it wouldn't be Uncle Ian there, it would be his new nanny. He opened the door and on the other side was a young lady.

She had red hair, and was wearing shorts and a t-shirt. Completely the wrong clothes for the time of year, as it was winter. However she didn't look cold at all. Alex thought that this was very odd. Odder that his holidays abroad or uncles Ian's injuries that he has when he gets back from his business trips.

"Hello," Alex said politely. Uncle Ian had always taught Alex to be polite and give a good impression, even if he did not like the person and Alex definitely did not like his new nanny.

"You must be Alex" she said in an accent that he recognized from all the shows on TV. American, that's it. She continued to talk, very quickly and all that Alex got from it was that her name was Jack. Strange name for a girl. When she finally stopped, he asked, "Jack? Isn't that a boy's name? "

Alex was broken out of the happy memory, by Tom poking him.

"What" he hissed. He had liked that memory.

"It's the end of the lesson, Al. Who knew that a teen spy, who has saved the world seven times, can easily be defeated by one of Mr Cole's history lessons." Tom snickered as they walked out the classroom Alex glared and Tom immediately stopped. Just because he was Alex's best friend didn't mean he wasn't scared of his deadly glare, even if it was just a joke. He knew what Alex could do.

"Anyway, at the end of the lesson, Mr Cole said we need to go to the hall 'cause there is an assembly for the whole year. I think it's about the SAS camp."

Before Alex could question Tom, the two boys were ushered into the hall by a teacher, who also told them to be quiet. Alex and Tom quickly found their seats among the rest of Tom's friends. He had gotten to know them better over the past few months as he had actually been at school.

Alex was still confused about what Tom meant by a SAS camp. He thought that were just tales that had spread through the school rumour mill. He hoped that Tom was wrong. But Alex's luck had finally run out. He gazed upon the stage and watched the head teacher walk on stage. Mrs Laura Jones, who had the unfortunate luck to share a name with one Tulip Jones (even though they weren't related), was a short lady, with startling blue eyes and an obsession with the colour pink. She had replaced Mr Bray when he had retired at the end of last year. He was about to ask Tom a question about this supposed camp, when she began to talk.

"Hello students. As you have all heard by now, Brooklands High School is one of the few schools invited to be part of the government program to encourage more young people to join the armed forces. The 2 week camp will give you an insight to how the SAS works and what daily life would be like. As you all know there are only 16 places available for this once in a life time opportunity. So the people that are going are, Georgia Hale, Harry Walker... "

Alex began to relax. He had no need to worry. Was the likely hood of his name being picked out of the other 180 people in his year? The headmaster was nearing the end of his list. The people that had been chosen so far either seemed very excited or looked like they were going to their execution.

"And finally Tom Harris and Alex Rider." The head teacher looked back down at his list. That can't be right. Harris was a prankster and Rider was always ill. There wasn't much she could do about it though. Their names had been picked.

Meanwhile, Alex stiffened the moment he had heard his and Tom's name. He couldn't be going back to hell and he definitely didn't want Tom to experience what he had. He looked over at Tom. He looked extremely pale, which was unusual for the hyper teen. But then Tom had heard his tales about his time spent in hell. The only light amongst the sight of spending more time in hell was the fact that it was very unlikely that K unit would be training them.

20 minutes later and the assembly was almost over, and Alex hadn't budged an inch since his and Tom's name had been called.

"And on a final note," Mrs Jones said, "would all those attending the SAS camp, please stay behind once assembly has finished."

Soon after, the assembly was over, and as all the other students made their way out, Alex and Tom, along with Tom's friends Olivia and James (who strangely had been picked more the camp as well) made their way to the front of the hall. James was Tom's other best friend, for when Alex was absent. He had sandy brown hair, and basically looked like Alex's twin. Olivia had dead straight blonde hair, green eyes, and was very shy. But don't let her shyness distract you, Alex had learnt. She was very clever and had performed the most elaborate practical jokes on Alex. Over the last few months, he had become really close to them. Alex studied the other students who had been picked for the camp. He didn't know most of them. However, he recognised two of them. It was the school bully, Kyle and one of his croonies, Mark. They seemed to think that they were real big shots, and always picked on Alex because of his supposed illnesses. It would be fun to spend a whole 2 weeks with these idiots wouldn't it? Note the sarcasm.

Once they had all found a seat, Mrs Jones began to talk again.

"So I called you down here, as I wanted to run over a few things about the camp with the SAS unit that will be running it. However, it seems that they have got caught up, or lost or something or other and are running a few minutes late. So just talk amongst yourselves until they arrive. And talk quietly as there are still lessons going on. " She finished talking and left the room.

As soon as she said this, Alex turned round to Tom, Olivia and James and bluntly said, "What the hell is going on? SAS camp? Why did no one tell me?" He was fuming. He glared at Tom. Tom should have told him the moment the word SAS was mentioned. He guessed though, that Tom had his reasons for hiding it from him.

"We heard about it a month or so ago and we didn't think much of it. I mean what was the likely hood of us getting picked. Like 1 in a million." said James carefully. He didn't want to piss of Alex any more than he was.

"So why... "Alex started.

"I haven't finished yet mate. We didn't tell you as, one you were ill with... "

"Spanish Influenza" Olivia butted in.

"Yeah... That "James continued, "and two... we forgot"

"You forgot!" Alex roared. "How could you forget something as important as this?" That last comment was mainly directed towards Tom, as he actually knew the importance of knowing about the camp. Tom just grimaced. He couldn't tell Alex his reasons now, as there were over people around who did not know that Alex was a teen super spy who had trained with the SAS. He just signed to Alex that he would tell him later.

Just then, Mrs Jones returned followed by 4 rather buff men, whose muscles bulged under their shirts. Alex recognised them straight away. He began to sink down in his seat. This had just got a lot worse. They seemed very involved in their argument that they were having that they hadn't realised that they had entered the room.

"Why did you let Eagle have the map? You know he is useless at navigation?" one of them said.

"And why did we let you drive?" another said.

"Um guys, look around" the ginger haired one said with a Scottish accent. They stopped arguing.

"Oh, right"

They turned around to face students, who looked completely confused. Their response apparently explained it all.

"We got lost".

Mrs Jones walked up to the podium again. "As you can see, the SAS unit have arrived. Students, let me introduce you to K Unit who will be the unit in charge of the camp."

Alex groaned.

AN: So what did you guys think. Please review. I'll try and update every 2 weeks at the latest. Miss Starkweather over and out.