"Adrienne! Adrienne!" A tremendous pounding on her bedroom door woke
Adrienne with a start. She sat up, rubbing her sleepy eyes.
"ADRIENNE! WAKE UP!" A man's voice shouted, pounding ever more vigorously.
Adrienne dropped her head between her knees, moaning. "What!" She called,
yawning. She rubbed her head.
The door flew open with a heart-stopping crash. Adrienne shrieked at the
light flooding into her room. In the door frame stood a young man, no older
than twenty-five, with spiky red hair. He was gasping for breath.
"Adrienne! Get up! Now!" He cried, throwing one hand against the frame for
support.
"What's wrong Rob?" Adrienne said hurriedly, trying to forget that it was
one in the morning and that she was very tired.
Rob said, his words hard to make out due to a heavy accent. "I'll tell you
in my office. You have five minutes to get dressed and get down there.
Danny and Niko are already up." With that, Rob turned and ran down the
hallway.
Adrienne mumbled darkly about Rob and crawled out of bed. She began to
curse the night, after tripping over her slippers and other items on her
floor. Adrienne fought her way over to her closet, and hurriedly pulled on
a pair of jeans and a sweatshirt. She hopped, trying to get into her
sneakers and run at the same time.
Once she had everything on and everything in it's proper place, Adrienne
ran full speed down the wood floored hallways, her footsteps echoing
hollowly in the empty corridors. She fought to get her long black hair into
a decent ponytail and run to Rob's office at the same time.
Adrienne kicked open a large mahogany door and darted in. She found Danny
and Niko already seated on a large leather couch. Danny was dozing
fitfully; his red hair spread sharply contrasting the dark leather. Niko
sat shrugged up into a purple sweatshirt, her knees hugged up to her chest,
occasionally brushing short blond hair out of her face.
"What have I missed?" Adrienne asked, panting for breath. She was almost
doubled over, her hands on her knees, staring at the dark red plush carpet.
"Nothing," Danny said shortly, his eyes still closed. His fair skinned
seemed very pale. "Except the joy of being awakened from a comfortable
sleep at one in the freakin' morning."
Adrienne rolled her eyes and straightened up. She crossed the room to the
couch and plopped down into it, disentangling Danny's long legs from her
own. She survey Rob's office. It was as it usually was, dark paneled walls
spotless, the curtains across the large windows drawn. It was silent,
except for the occasional snort from Danny and the hum of the florescent
lights.
Niko said in a high-pitched voice, "Do you think something's wrong
Adrienne?" Her large eyes were growing in fear. She let her short, spiky
blond hair fall in front of her worried face.
Adrienne felt her face drain of color. She blinked her almond-shaped eyes
and shrugged. "I dunno Niko, I dunno." She rubbed at her freckled cheeks.
Danny opened his big blue eyes in annoyance. "Don't you two know anything?"
He said sharply, boosting himself into a sitting position. "There must be
something wrong. We wouldn't be dragged from our beds otherwise would we?"
Adrienne glared at Danny. He was scaring Niko, who was only twelve and shy.
"What then if you're so clever?" She retorted.
"Probably something with to do with our parents, since they aren't here.
And they usually get called up for emergencies, not us." Danny looked quite
smug at his brains.
Adrienne felt whatever blood was left in her face leave it. He was right.
As much as she hated to admit it, he was right. It was their parents that
were the secret agents, not them. Their mother's anyway.
Danny grinned at their reactions and stretched out to sleep again. Adrienne
kicked at his feet. Niko let out a small sob.
"It's okay Niko, Rob will tell us what's wrong," Adrienne said, attempting
to be comforting.
As if on cue, Rob burst into the office, red hair disheveled and sweating.
