Summary: Abby and the team now covertly assist a brand new Sector V, whose harebrained leader is bound to keep them on their toes. Cree and her Teen Ninjas are determined to muck up the works, bringing a whole new meaning to high school drama. On top of that, there seems to be a higher power, an invisible enemy, who has far more sinister plans in store for kids and teens alike.
Disclaimer: I don't own Codename: Kids Next Door. Mr. Warburton does. And the title comes from Pink Floyd's song, "Another Brick in the Wall." The song has much deeper meaning than I expect this story to have. I just thought "Leave Them Kids Alone" was a fitting phrase for the title--and my brother insisted when I ran the idea by him.
Chapter 1: Of High School Politics
"I nominate Rachel McKenzie!"
Abigail Lincoln chuckled to herself as her blonde friend sent her a look of utter shock and horror, followed shortly by her death glare.
"Oooh! I second the nomination!" Kuki, the Japanese girl sitting on Abby's left, squealed. On one hand, Abby was glad the boys were sitting between her and Rachel at this assembly. On the other hand, she was going to get whiplash for this sooner or later…
The teacher in charge of this assembly nodded, and with a smile, jotted the name down on his notepad. "Alright. Rachel McKenzie for president…any other nominees?"
Abby didn't hear if there were any others because at that precise moment Rachel leaned over the boys and hissed, "Nominate me for president?! Why?! You know full well I don't want—"
"You've got good leadership skills, girl, and proved it lots of times—maybe if you hadn't insisted on Abby taking second-in-command of a certain super secret teen club instead of you, she wouldn't feel the need to push you into this," Abby whispered back, leaning forward so that her head rested on her hand, her elbow resting on her knee. As a result of this motion, she felt a gap forming between her indigo tank top and jeans, revealing a few inches of coffee-colored skin, but she didn't care. The boys knew if they stared at it they were dead.
It was true. As soon as Abby had been supposedly "decommissioned" from the Kids Next Door, she had joined the Teens Next Door. At the time, the only other operatives in Sector V were Maurice, formerly Numbuh Nine, and Rachel, who had been Numbuh Three Sixty-Two as well as Supreme Leader of the Kids Next Door. Thankfully, it wasn't long before Numbuhs Two through Four—Hoagie, Kuki, and Wally—were also "decommissioned" and joined their sector. Maurice was technically team leader, but with his undercover position in the Teen Ninjas, it was too dangerous for him to actually participate in the missions. A decision had to be made as to who would take his place on the missions, as well as after he graduated, this being his senior year. He offered the position to Rachel, who absolutely refused, insisting he give it to Abby. Everyone knew Rachel hated the pressures of being in charge, even though she was one of the best leaders Abby had ever worked with.
"What—this is revenge?!" Rachel snapped at her, and Abby knew she needed to be pacified quickly before she blew a gasket as well as the cover of the Teens Next Door. She didn't know who to worry about yet, but this was a high school, after all—full of teenagers. This being freshman year, she hadn't much opportunity to identify the dangerous ones, so it was best to be extremely careful where and when you said anything about the Teens Next Door.
"We'll discuss this later, Rachel," she mouthed, giving the blonde her best "That is an order" look. She shuddered a little on the inside. She would never get used to giving orders to Numbuh Three Sixty-Two.
"Oh, we most certainly will, Abigail. I've just appointed you my campaign manager," Rachel answered with a hint of sarcasm in her voice before she leaned back into her personal space. Surprisingly, Hoagie and Wally hadn't complained about theirs being invaded.
Abby smirked to herself as she tried to listen to the rest of the assembly. Rachel would have been perfect for Nigel, she thought. If only he wasn't off with the Galactic Kids Next Door, doing whatever it was they did, wherever in the universe they did it.
It was only the second week of school. None of the other teenagers were causing them any trouble as of late, but Abby preferred to watch out for the ones that potentially would, anyway. From his undercover job, Maurice had provided two names: Jessica Jackson and Linda Ramirez. Both were seniors, cheerleaders, and, ironically, older sisters of Kids Next Door operatives. Unfortunately, because Maurice had to be very discreet in his communication with her, those were the only names he could manage to provide. Sometimes Abby wondered why he was called team leader. Most of the time, he couldn't even be present at team meetings due to undercover activities and any information he gave was usually through text messaging, again due to his undercover activities. Abby was the one doing most of the work involved with being team leader. Maurice was more of an informant than anything.
Then again, so were the Teens Next Door. Most of their work involved extremely covert investigations and somehow alerting the Kids Next Door to whatever dangers were in store for them. On a few occasions, the Teens actively assisted the new Sector V when the Treehouse was under attack, but once again, they had to do it without being seen.
It was aggravating, especially for Wally, whose reckless antics had almost exposed them several times. Abby wondered if the Teens Next Door would actually be of better assistance if at least the Kids, apart from the current Supreme Leader, knew they existed. Sometimes she considered giving Wally direct orders to blow their cover in the middle of the next operation, but the foreseen consequences kept her from doing so. She'd also considered giving him a direct order to confess his feelings for Kuki and get the drama over with, but decided against that, too.
Kuki, while Abby was lost in her thoughts, was chatting it up with Rachel at their lunch table. Her style had changed considerably since grade school. She didn't like oversized sweaters anymore, except maybe on a colder, sicker day when she really just wanted to curl up by a fireplace with a cup of hot chocolate and a good book. On a normal day like today, she wore things that fit better, though she was always modest. She did like shorter skirts, but she made sure those were layered with a pair of leggings. For example, this being a warm day, she was wearing a pale pink and black striped blouse with a gray pleated skirt over said leggings—these ones reaching only to her knees—all matched up with her favorite pink converse shoes and imitation pearl earrings. Part of her waist-length black hair was pulled into a ponytail and she also wore her black headband with green polka dots. The green matched nothing, but Kuki wore it on most days regardless, like how Abby always wore her red bandana in her hair regardless of whether she was wearing red anywhere in the rest of her outfit.
Glancing over toward the lunch line, Hoagie and Wally could be seen asking the lady if they had any nacho sauce to go with their fries. Hoagie had lost a considerable amount of weight over the years but remained slightly on the chubby side. He was now taller than the average fourteen-year-old at five-foot-eleven and frequently joked about wanting to hit "five-twelve." He ditched his aviator hat on most days and cut his hair shorter, always trying to style it into a fauxhawk and failing, so it just looked messy. He basically remained the dork they all knew and secretly loved.
Wally hit a growth spurt as well, now standing an inch taller than Abby at five-foot-eight. He always said he wasn't done growing, either. His family had tall genes and he never let anyone forget this. His hair wasn't in the bowl-cut style anymore, either. If anything, he let it grow a little longer and wilder. He now wore an orange zip-up jacket, even on this warm day. As he and Hoagie turned away from the counter with their lunch trays, Abby could see he had it unzipped so the white lettering on his camouflage T-shirt could be read: "Shh! I'm hiding from the flying monkeys!"
She chuckled to herself. Just replace the word "flying" with "rainbow" and truer words would never be read.
"I cannot believe a school cafeteria doesn't have cheese when they're serving fries!" Wally complained in his Australian accent, slamming his tray onto the table as if emphasizing his words wasn't expressing his outrage effectively enough. (Just as if using that many E's in that sentence isn't a clear sign that the author needs more sleep.)
"I know, right? You'd think it would be obvious," Hoagie added. "Lame sauce." He then lightened up. "Hey, that's kinda funny! Get it? We're talking about how they don't have cheese sauce so instead it's lame—"
"The only lame sauce at this table is you, Hoagie," Abby interrupted in a bored voice.
"There's no need to get all saucy with me, Abby," he teased, laughing, but cut himself off when he saw the look on her face. "I'm done now."
"Mmmm, hmmm." She nodded to him before taking another bite of her salad.
"Well, ketchup's okay I guess," Wally commented and started going through the little packets to drench his fries in the red sauce, as if it had not been as big a deal as he'd made it out to be only a moment ago. "Oi, Kuki…you know that story from lit. class…maybe you can help me with it later today? Cause I'm having a really hard time understanding it."
Kuki stopped mid-sentence in her conversation with Rachel and stared at him. "That was just assigned today and you've already read it? When?"
"Yeah, since when do you care about your homework?" Abby added skeptically, on the brink of teasing as he did just ask the cute Asian girl he'd been crushing on since grade school, after all.
"During that cruddy class meeting thing. I got bored," he told Kuki and shot a glare in Abby's direction. "And since apparently if I wanna be on the basketball team, my grades have to be—well, better than they were in middle school."
"Right," Abby said simply, and she could hear Hoagie stifling laughter from his seat next to her.
The discussion abruptly ended when Patton and Fanny came to sit with them. They were both former Kids Next Door operatives who had been truly decommissioned. Since then, Fanny's headstrong personality had been knocked down a few notches by the cruelty of teenagers. Kuki scooted a little closer to Wally so Fanny had room to sit between her and Rachel, while Patton, the former drill sergeant, sat on the other side of Abby, across from Rachel. The two of them, even though their childhood was now a blur, remembered hanging out with Rachel a lot and still preferred to do so. Kuki was also a really good friend to Fanny, remembering her promise to the crying ten-year-old even if Fanny didn't.
"Yo, Raych," Patton greeted, "congrats on the nomination! You're a shoo-in for president, especially with Jimmy McGarfield being your only challenger! I mean, after that snow day fiasco from fourth grade, there's no way anyone's gonna elect him again."
Another true statement: people didn't like Jimmy, but most of them quickly fell deeply in like with Rachel. She was just one of those easy-to-like people. Her cuteness and fashion style of simple elegance didn't hurt her, either. She was currently sporting a designer white V-neck shirt with a blue tank top layered underneath along with her favorite jeans and flip-flops.
"But…you guys don't get it. I don't want to win," Rachel sighed, as though she knew it was no use.
Wally was now using his teeth to rip open a particularly stubborn ketchup packet, probably torn between feeling annoyed with Patton and Fanny for cutting off his plan-making with Kuki and feeling embarrassed but slightly happy that she moved closer. Not that he was going to show any of those emotions. No, right now it was just him and his war with the ketchup packet. Abby would have to give him crud for this later, as a sort of older sister, but in the meantime, Patton kept talking.
"Aw, come on. I was just thinking, with me running for VP and Fanny here for secretary-treasurer, maybe we could all campaign together? If you don't mind, that is? I mean, I don't remember much but I'm pretty sure we made a good team back in the day. Maybe we still do."
Rachel seemed to brighten at these words. "Yeah, I think I'd like that, Patton. Great idea."
Just what the doctor ordered, Abby thought. Patton and Fanny had actually been nominated by Hoagie and Kuki, respectively, and seconded by Rachel herself.
"Oh, and I can help with the posters if you want," Kuki offered, always eager to lend a helping hand. This sweet personality of hers made her reasonably liked among classmates, though quite a few of them thought she was too childish. However, that trait made her a favorite babysitter in her neighborhood. "Of course, now that Patton's on the team, it's nix on the pink paper and sparkles," she threw in with a small giggle.
"Pink and sparkles? Poor Sanban seems to have forgotten we're not in third grade anymore, so allow me to give you a friendly reminder: posters don't win elections. Popularity does." This poorly disguised snide remark came from a brown-haired girl now standing by Patton. "Hey, Rachel." This one sounded a little more genuine.
"Hi, Shannon, how's it going?" Rachel politely returned the greeting but she was obviously unimpressed by the words directed at Kuki.
Abby rolled her eyes and kept eating. This was Shannon Rivers, the extremely popular girl from middle school who took no interest in their group other than to poke fun at them, all while eagerly trying to befriend Rachel. Clearly, the pattern continued into high school, despite all of Shannon's talk about growing up.
"Pretty good, Rachel," Shannon said casually, pointedly saying her name to specify she was only talking to her. "I couldn't help but overhear you're teaming up with these two for the elections and thought I'd offer some friendly advice: bad move."
"Oh? Please enlighten me," Rachel responded, still polite but with an icy undertone.
Missing that undertone, Shannon jumped right in. "Well, as Patton here said, Jimmy doesn't stand a chance against you. You're pretty much president already. Teaming up doesn't help you at all, it helps Patton if anything. Of course, there's no harm in that, since you don't need help anyway." As she spoke, she moved along the table, now standing behind Rachel and Fanny. They turned so that they could fix their gaze on her. "But I'd say throwing Fanny into the mix would be nothing but harmful to your campaign. Let's face it, people don't like her."
"Fanny is perfectly capable of the job. That's why I seconded her myself," Rachel interrupted, on the brink of impoliteness. Both she and Patton were frowning, while Fanny just looked hurt.
"Maybe she is, but that doesn't matter, Rachel. Like I said, popularity wins elections. No problem for you and Patton, but trust me, Fanny doesn't stand a chance. Especially with me running, who do you think would vote for this frizz ball?" Shannon actually took a handful of Fanny's bushy red hair and tugged lightly, making the girl yelp, probably more from the emotional pain than the physical. She smirked, letting go of Fanny's hair as if she'd touched something filthy, and concluded with, "I really think you'd be better off campaigning with me instead."
Kuki, her temper sparked by this action, pulled Fanny closer to her. "Don't—do that—again!" she said through gritted teeth.
"For starters, Abby's gonna vote for Fanny, since you're asking who." Abby finally spoke up, fixing her own glare on Shannon, though her tone was in calm contrast to Kuki's.
"Me, too," Hoagie agreed with a little more hint of anger in his voice.
Shannon, while alarmed by Kuki's sudden change of demeanor, scoffed at the two of them. "Right. Abby of the third person and Hoagie of the sci-fi conventions. I better start working on some better campaign strategies because that so increases my competition." She did, however, move to the other side of Wally at the end of the table so that she was out of Kuki's reach. Looking back on this moment, she might consider whether she was better off staying put.
Abby's expression hardly changed, if at all, along with her tone. If anything, she was even calmer. She casually pushed a few of her micro braids behind her ear. "I'm not gonna dignify that."
Hoagie, of course, wasn't as gracious. "Well at least we're not Shannon of the shallow—ha! Shallow Rivers. I'm gonna use that—"
She raised her eyebrows at him. "Come up with that all on your own, Gilligan?" she said with dripping sarcasm, leaning a little over the table to intimidate him.
Rachel, in the meantime, had gotten her bearings and she was as mad as Abby had seen her all day. She actually stood up and pointed a finger at the girl. "Now you listen here, Shannon—" she began, ready to lower the boom, but she didn't get to say anything further, because at that precise moment, Wally overcame his enemy. Unfortunately, since he'd been fighting it so zealously, the ketchup ended up squirting out, and landing, as fate would have it, in Shannon's hair. Some of it ended up on her face as well.
Not really noticing where the sauce had gone or at least not caring all that much, Wally's first response was to stare at the now empty packet and mutter, "Stupid ketchup."
Shannon's face was the epitome of horror and disgust, turning quickly into rage, which she didn't hesitate to level on Wally. "You little jerk! You did that on purpose!"
Everyone could tell he was taken aback by her outburst, but he quickly regained his composure since he liked people thinking he was tough and, obviously, letting a girl intimidate him would ruin that image. "I did not! That was for my fries!"
"Oh, really, wise guy? Then where's my apology?"
"Apology? Hey, I said it was an accident, not that you didn't deserve it!"
If it was at all possible for Shannon to grow angrier, that did it. "I thought so! It brought you satisfaction, didn't it?"
"What are you talking—"
"You know what, forget it!" she cut him off. "I'm gonna go rinse this crap out, but I swear, you're gonna get it for this, Beatles! I will make you pay for this!" With that, she stormed off.
As soon as she was gone, Rachel sat back down sheepishly and Hoagie and Patton burst out laughing.
"Nice one, Wally! I was just thinking, with things heating up there we really needed some cool sauce—ow!" Hoagie joked only to get smacked upside the head by Abby.
"It was an accident!" Wally started to argue, but this time Patton interrupted him.
"That was awesome! As of right now, you are the best person ever!"
Wally blinked. "…Alright, if that's the case, I did it on purpose. I was just saying it was an accident for good measure."
The boys continued on like this for a few moments while Abby snickered until Rachel cleared her throat, bringing everyone's attention on her.
"Okay, I say we start working on that campaign." She reached over and opened the notebook Fanny had set on the table in front of her. "Fanny, write this all down please. Patton, I want you to be thinking of some strategies and we'll discuss them after school. You, too, Abby, you're not off the hook yet. Kuki, as soon as you're done helping Wally with homework, run your poster ideas by us. I know you'll have several. Hoagie…aw, what the heck, try to come up with some slogans and we'll see. And, Fanny…don't believe what Shannon says. I seconded you and Patton because I think—no, I know you'll be amazing—and I'm behind you all the way. We'll just see who wins this election…"
Now that's the Rachel I remember, Abby thought fondly.
Just then, her cell phone vibrated and she checked it to see a text message from Maurice.
4 future ref- the chrleaders table 2 the rite of Lizzie. Jess & Linda. Keep ur eyes open.
She glanced over to a now slender Lizzie Devine, who'd stopped braiding her reddish brown hair since grade school and now wore contacts instead of those large, obtrusive glasses. Next to her was a pale girl whose shoulder-length light brown hair had been streaked platinum blonde recently, along with a Hispanic girl who was chubbier and curvier than the other cheerleaders. Her curly dark hair was pulled into a ponytail. Abby let her eyes drift over to a table where some of the senior boys and fellow African American, Maurice, sat, with his short dreadlocks and leather jacket. He returned the glance and winked at her, managing a slight nod as well.
This was going to be an interesting year, Abby decided.
Please review. I do very much enjoy all forms of feedback. :)
Keep in mind, while I've got several ideas rolling around in my head, I haven't quite solidified exactly where I want this to go...