CHERUB: A new generation by Chie Matsuo
Chapter one
Ryan Sharma and his friends Max and alfie were sitting opposite zara asker's desk with a look of annoyance on all of their faces, beside them was a little red shirt kid that was holding a cold patch over his eyes. Zara was drumming her finger on the desk in front of her, the tapping got louder and louder until she finally snapped.
"WHAT! WHAT WERE YOU GUYS THINKING?" screamed zara making the cherubs jump in fright
"He stole my paintball, I tried to get it back from him and it accidentally went off!" explained max looking pale
"That gun was not a safety shooting gun that we normally use for paintballing or training, it was set on automatic and you're lucky Robert here was not fatally injured" snapped zara
"Seriously zara he was looking for trouble" whispered max under his breathe.
"What was that max?" asked zara coldly
"Nothing, nothing" cried max
"Since you have the cheek to answer me back I'm sending you on recycling duty and ditch digging duty for 2 months!" snapped zara, max placed a mortified hand over his face. Zara then turned to alfie.
"Alfie you will have recycling and recruitment missions for 3 months" zara said "And last but not least ryan another recruitment mission".
"Hey wait a second! How come I'm stuck with ditch digging and these guys get recruitment missions" cried max
"Because you created this gun, now you are dismissed max and I don't want to hear another peep from you until you've carried out your punishment" hissed zara. Max looked at zara in disbelief and anger for a moment but zara met his challenging look with her cold hard one, max in the end got grudgingly to his feet and left the office slamming the door so hard all the occupants inside were fearful that the ceiling would collapse.
"DO YOU WANT LAPS ALONG WITH THAT MAX?" roared zara but there was no answer. Zara sighed and looked at the two boys in front of her. She reached down and procured something from one of the drawers in front of her. There were two manila envelopes.
"Take these to the mission preparation building and don't you even think about taking any detours, your holding confidential documents" zara said.
Ryan took the one on the right while alfie took the one on the left. They stood up and left the office obediently and made their way to the mission preparation building. The doors allowed them access after the scanning machine had scanned the retinas of their eyes and they stood in a messy office with desks set in a curvy shape around the building that went around. There was a big screen behind the desks and cabinet full of manila envelopes. Alfie and ryan got separate seats and sat down and read their mission briefings. They could not discuss what they had been given because it was top secret information.
Ryan groaned, he was going to a run down area of London to a children's home. He cursed his luck.
"I'll see you in a few weeks then mate" ryan said when they exited the mission preparation building moments later.
"I guess so" alfie said looking pale as a ghost.
He had been assigned to go to a children's home called Nebraska, little did he know that a previous famous cherub had been founded at this same home. Ryan met Jennifer mitchum who now worked as a councillor as well as a cherub representative who kept an eye out for potential recruits.
"You've arrived here just in time, a young potential recruit arrived here just last night, he goes by the name of Joel Cohen, 13 years old, he has the required intellect for cherub potentials, not too below or above average, he has great reflexes and so far as i know is very healthy" said Jennifer as if explaining a good flavour of food.
"What is his family background details, where is he from?, has he got any known parents left that could start searching for him?" asked ryan professionally.
"No apparently his mother disowned her family and never spoke to them again, Joel barely knows his grandparents, uncles or aunts and it looks like they are not aware they have a grandson or nephew" explained jennifer.
"Okay apparently I am to have the name of Ryan Thompson, my parents died in a car crash, got it, when do I meet him?" asked ryan enthusiastically.
"You will stay in a hotel and I'll move you in to his room tomorrow" said Jennifer.
Ryan pretended to have arrived at Nebraska house when Joel was busy at school. He immediately bolted the door, unpacked his clothes and quickly took out a lock gun. Lock guns were used by cherubs to open any kind of lock so ryan went straight to Joel's wardrobe (which had a bolt on it) and juggled the lock gun around to unlock it.
Inside the wardrobe it was surprisingly nicely organised, Joel had a skateboard on the bottom of the wardrobe, his clothes were all hung up (his bags with valuables were at the front whilst jackets were at the back) ryan opened his rucksack which had the name "paramore" on the front, ryan did not find much because Joel had wisely taken out his mobile phone, his purse but ryan was about to lock the door when he saw a shoe box at the back of the wardrobe. Ryan had been trained to never leave anything behind so he grabbed the box and looked inside it, there was a photo of a small boy (about 5) with curly straw blonde hair in the lap of a similar looking woman with high cheekbones and a rather thin long face, there were passports with the star of David as a emblem on it, ryan immediately knew that Joel was Jewish. There were also sheets of music and headphones.
Ryan had searched the entire day collecting information on Joel and by 3 o clock he had already locked the door and was listening to his iPod when Joel came through the door. Ryan was quite shocked, Joel was quite skinny for a potential cherub, he was wearing a black hoodie with the hood faming his face, his crystal blue eyes however narrowed when he saw ryan in his bedroom.
"Who the hell are you?" asked Joel surprised.
"I'm ryan Thompson, I've just arrived here at Nebraska" said ryan standing up to shake Joel's hand. Joel did not shake ryan's hand but stood staring at him.
"I thought the house parents said I could have this room to myself, but oh well" Joel said and he began to got out his key to unlock its wardrobe. Suddenly there was a knock on the door.
"Who is it?" asked Joel loudly.
"Joel, it's me Rachel" said a voice, Joel groaned, the door opened and a furious looking house parent came in, she had purple hair and a lot of earrings decorating her ears.
"Hi there miss" began Joel
"I'm not having anymore of this Joel, you weren't at school today, why not?" snapped the house parent
"I saw those psychos from upstairs going so I decided to ditch it, I didn't fancy another of having my head dunked down the toilet" said Joel looking down at his feet. Ryan immediately felt sorry for him but Rachel did not back down.
"Joel all you have to do is avoid them, you either see a councillor and avoid those guys otherwise you will be expelled from school" said Rachel
"Okay I promise I will miss, I need to do some homework so do you mind?" said Joel grumpily. Rachel nodded and was about to leave the room when she saw ryan.
"You must be ryan thompson, hello my name is Rachel, I'll talk to you after dinner about school tomorrow okay" said Rachel shaking ryan's hand.
"Okay sure" ryan said then Rachel left the room.
Joel immediately grabbed his skateboard.
"Man you must love hearing her nagging" said ryan
"Skateboarding helps to settle my head, I'll be back at dinner, if she asks you where I am, say I left a few things at school" Joel explained and he pocketed his mobile, purse and his I pod, grabbed some big black headphones, tossed it around his neck, gave ryan a peace sign and left the room.
Ryan knew he should have gone along with Joel skateboarding but ryan was in a little bit of a rut, Joel and ryan were from completely different cliques, ryan's idea of fun was paintballing, playing football and working out whilst Joel was into rock music, reading comic books and skateboarding but in able to become closer and become Joel's friend ryan had to sacrifice his own interests and happiness and become a completely different person. But at that moment in time he had to go and meet Rachel in her office. Cherubs were expected to act completely like normal kids, that included attending school, school was another way he could get closer to Joel, Joel complained about being bullied ryan could offer him protection and it would get him a chance to become friends with Joel.
"Come in ryan" said Rachel who was smoking behind her desk, she continued smoking until a loud cough drew her attention back to ryan.
"You okay kid?" asked Rachel a little confused
"Your not supposed to be smoking" Ryan observed
"Well like I say to every kid that has ever scolded me over the issue, they can't sack me because they hardly have any staff, you want one?" said Rachel
"No I don't like the smell sorry" ryan answered but made his way over and sat down on the chair opposite Rachel's desk.
"So ryan you okay? Are you okay with the accommodation?" asked Rachel
"It's fine, it's cool" ryan said pretending to act his character's part well, pretending to be happy but grieving for pretend parents.
"So how do you feel about your parents? Are you holding up well" asked Rachel
"I'm okay right!" snapped ryan putting on a theatre performance of annoyance, he looked away trying not to let her see the tears (that weren't) in his eyes.
"I know it is hard, what has happened, but your not alone, all these kids here have lost their parents, many have been betrayed and abandoned, if you need to talk do not be afraid" said Rachel soothingly and came around to hug ryan, ryan hugged her swiftly back.
"I have set up details of your new school, you will be attending west road boy's school, here is some money for you to buy some uniform, there is a second hand uniform shop not too far from here, get Joel to show you the shop okay" explained Rachel.
"I will. Bye" said ryan and grabbed the money.
When Joel got back in at dinner he did not have dinner straight away but went upstairs, ryan reckoned it had something to do with a group of thug looking teens who had been asking around for Joel during dinnertime, ryan rushed his dinner and went upstairs to check on him.
"Are you alright? Dinner is pretty cool, do you want to come down for some?" asked Ryan, Joel was spread on his bed looking at the ceiling.
"No sorry, I'm not hungry" Joel said
"Is it because of those guys that were asking for you at lunch?" asked ryan
"Are they eating?" asked Joel looking panicky "They go out during the evenings, maybe I can go back to the skate park then come back when their not here"
"I'll tell you what, I have to buy some uniform at the uniform shop, do you want to come with? It was knock off a few hours" suggested ryan
"Brilliant idea ryan, let's go" said Joel, he leapt up, grabbed a hoodie, pulled on some skinny trousers and they both stealthily left the children's home and went down to the city centre. They had to catch one bus that took only 15 minutes; they came to a small shopping centre. There were a few unpopular shops, an old school food court, a bakery and stalls selling vegetables and the like.
"This way" Joel said and ryan followed joel to a shop that said "Second-hand school uniforms" joel went in and showed ryan the section that had all the clothes for west road school.
"Be careful though, west road isn't mixed, stick to this shelf, don't go over otherwise it can cost you" explained Joel.
"Thanks" Ryan said relieved.
Ryan brought a red jumper with a dark red and white tie, some black trousers that fitted him okish, black school shoes and socks. They left the shop and Joel looked anxiously at his watch.
"They're still not out" whispered Joel
"Listen let's grab a burger or something" said ryan
"Okay, I need a change from the crap they serve us at Nebraska" said Joel after thinking about it for a while.
Ryan managed to get Joel to open up after that, even though Joel dressed differently and was a little bit of a tall weed he was actually okay, he had a sharp mind and a hilarious sarcastic wit at times that made ryan laugh. Ryan told him he had a black belt in karate and it went down well with joel who said that he was actually comfortable with going back to school after hearing that.
"Can you do Jackie chan moves? Or Jet li?" asked Joel. Ryan was taken aback that Joel had even heard of those names.
"What? I like martial arts films, the first thing I did when I reached England was to grab as many dvds as I could, my mum wouldn't let me watch any when I was little you see" Joel said
"I'm not as good as Jackie chan or jet li but I'm not too far away from them, with one touch to the neck I can kill you though" said ryan
"Wicked" gushed Joel.
They returned back to the children's home that night.