Hi! It's pretty short, but I had fun writing it. Enjoy!

Summary: In which Alex makes a scene, and Joe is left to clean up the mess. One shot.

~oo0oo~

Running From History

It was deathly silent except for the sound of pencils scratching against paper, and the tick of the clock.

Alex bit his lip as he stared at his test.

Yes, he had studied, but coming from England, he had a slight disadvantage here.

Who was the bloody second president of the United States?

Alex groaned under his breath as he scribbled down a random answer.

Abraham Lincoln.

He was a president, wasn't he?

It wasn't Alex's fault that all the other students had been fed this information since birth. America seemed to take great pride in having their students know all about their history.

He flipped through the test a bit more, answering the questions that he was sure he knew the answers to.

Honestly, he could fail this test and it wouldn't bring his grade down that much (one of the advantages of having a 67% in the class). However it would be nice to not completely fail something.

Ping!

All the students looked up as the familiar sound of the intercom echoed throughout the room.

"Front office. Is this Mr. Smith's room?"

The teacher in question looked up from his book, annoyed.

"Yes."

"Could we have Alexander Rider for checkout?"

Hope flooded through Alex. If he had an extra day to study….

"No. He's taking a test. I'll release him at the end of the class period."

His hopes were squashed and Alex dejectedly looked back down at his half empty answer sheet. There were only twenty minutes left in the class, and Alex just knew that he couldn't finish in time.

"Apparently it's important." The front office lady spoke in a dull voice, clearly uninterested in the entire matter.

"This test is important."

Static played throughout the room as Alex strained to hear the muted voices on the other side. Someone, it seemed, was eager to check him out, and Alex was beginning to assume that it wasn't Mr. Pleasure.

"Mr. Smith, he's insistent."

Mr. Smith scoffed. "If it's really that important, send down his guardian to talk to me about it."

The intercom beeped off, and the test resumed. Alex nibbled the tip of his eraser, ignoring the looks he got from his fellow students.

A sharp knock echoed on the door.

Alex slowly slipped his hand in the direction of his backpack. If it was an enemy…

If it was Scorpia….

The door was opened to reveal Joe Byrne, director of the CIA.

Alex groaned. Suddenly, the test seemed very appealing.

He watched intently as his teacher exchanged words with Joe, cringing when the director pulled out his badge.

Mr. Smith grew deathly white and took a step back.

"C'mon Alex, we got a meeting to attend." The words were short and clipped, but Alex sensed a certain warmth to them that was so unlike his former boss, Alan Blunt.

But still…. did he really want to return to the life of espionage?

"Sorry sir, but I… uh… I'd rather not."

"Alex." Joe's eyes flickered around the room, taking in their audience. "How about we discuss this outside?"

And of course, Alex played his last card and looked towards the only other adult in the room.

They made eye contact.

Help, Alex silently pleaded to Mr. Smith.

But of course, the teacher had been properly told off by Joe, and was now sitting at his desk, slightly pale.

Mr. Smith shook his head at Alex and motioned towards the door, beckoning him to leave.

Alex groaned.

"Alex…we really have to go."

"No."

He knew how this worked.

It had been used on him so many times before. 'Just a simple meeting' or 'just scout out this certain place' and you'll be home before supper! And before he knew it, he'd be roped back into some deadly mission.

Every. Single. Time.

Joe locked eyes with him, clearly foregoing all attempts to be subtle. "We have to discuss organization 64820, and currently, you're the leading expert."

His heart beat wildly as he recognized the organization. It was Scorpia. Of course it was. Who else would it be?

Curse the OSA. Curse the government. He honestly just didn't care anymore.

Alex stood up dramatically, throwing his pencil into his backpack, and slinging the worn bag (that really was more like a sack) over his shoulder.

"Joe, honey. As I told you before, I need some time away for this relationship to work itself out." Alex smiled deviously at the man as he marched to the front of the classroom.

"I'd really love to stay and chat, but I have places to be, and people to see!" Alex paused. "If you really need to talk, please make an appointment with my therapist. However, you'll be stuck in cue behind Blunt and Jones and you know their requests have been pending for quite a while."

"Wha-"

"Adios, amigos!"

And Alex leaped through the window, shattering the glass, and falling two stories to the ground below. He broke out into a sprint the minute his feel touched the grass.

The classroom erupted into a fury of shouts as students ran to the window, searching for the boy.

Joe Byrne just sighed and pulled out his phone, dialing a number.

"Hello, Sam." He frowned.

"It happened again. I'll need a new location for person 9273."

Joe paused as he listened intently to the person on the other line.

"Yes, that's Alex Rider. Yes, I know this will be the seventh we've had to move him. No, I doubt he'll be at the meeting."

Joe walked over towards the window, peering out of it, and then seemed to take in the panicked students around him.

Sighing, he dialed another number.

"I think we'll need several copies of the OSA."