A/N: I have a pounding headache that's so bad I can't even tap my teeth together without it hurting. And yet I'm still writing. So be grateful.
Also, today is 3/4/11. Three cheers for 3/4!
I don't own the Kids Next Door. So don't sue me. I don't need the stress.
POV: Numbah Three-Sixty-Two Rachel McKenzie
Everyone knows about the Change. It happens when you turn thirteen. You lose all your childhood memories and experience a change in personality. Apparently, kids know of the Change too, but they have a different name for it. I've heard them call it 'decommissioning.' Rumor has it, kids were even the cause of it. That they wiped your mind clean on your birthday. Well, not completely. You still remember people's names and whatever you learned in school, but you don't remember anything else, not even your friends. The Change is when you're first considered a teenager. Everyone knows about the Change. Mainly because it happens to everyone. Everybody but a select few.
I am one of them.
I am Rachel McKenzie, Numbah Three-Sixty-Two of the Teens Next Door, former Soopreme Leader of the Kids Next Door.
The Kids Next Door is an organization of kids designed to battle adult tyranny. The Teens Next Door is the exclusive part of the KND for teenage operatives who proved their loyalty before turning thirteen. TND operatives later end up adult spies. Other teens believe the TND exists to solve teenage problems and know nothing of their connection to the KND. TND missions are missions too dangerous for kids to handle. There is only one sector in the TND right now, stationed at Gallagher High because it is the center of adult tyranny at the moment. There are only four TND operatives at the moment, but we have recently looked into recommissioning an old KND sector.
Sector V. The best of the best. Better than even the KND founder, Numbah Zero. Sector V consisted of Numbahs one through five. Numbah One was Nigel Uno, the leader, son of the legendary Numbah Zero and nephew of Father, the KND's worst enemy. Numbah Two was Hoagie Gilligan, the two by four expert and older brother of The Tommy, one of the KND's greatest allies. Numbah Three was Kuki Sanban, the divisionary tactics expert and the once-leading expert on Rainbow Monkeys. Numbah Four was Wally Beatles, the only member of Sector V to be accepted into the TND and the KND's best fighter. Numbah Five was Abby Lincoln, the second in command of Sector V and the younger sister of Cree, the leader of the KND's enemies called the Teen Ninjas.
KND command arranged to have Numbah One sent back to live in England after his decommissioning, while Numbah Two went to Texas, Numbah Three went back to Japan, and Numbah Five went back to France. Numbah Four would have been sent back to Australia if he hadn't been accepted into the TND.
As secret operatives, we had to act like we really had been through the Change even though we hadn't. We had to create our own teenage personas.
Since I was alert and commanding as a kid, I had to act ditzy and complacent now that I was a teen. Numbah Eighty-Six, or Fanny Fulbright, was a loud boy-hater as a kid, so she had to act like a flirt despite the fact that she still hated boys. Numbah Sixty, or Patton Drivolsky, was stern and harsh as a kid, so he became laid back. He and Fanny had come to an uneasy truce in the beginning that he would pretend to be her boyfriend so she wouldn't have to flirt with every guy, but had eventually ended up dating for real. But Numbah Four, or Wally, probably had the most difficult persona yet.
"She told you that?" I told him on the day of his decommissioning. He was the last of his sector to turn thirteen by a whole two months. It had only been a month since the beginning of the school year and he was the currently telling me what Sammi Benners, the most popular girl in our school, had told him this morning.
"Yeah," he mumbled angrily. I stayed silent for a few seconds before continuing.
POV: Numbah Four Wallabee Beatles
I woke up this morning in the worst mood of my life. It was my thirteenth birthday and the day of my decommissioning. I went to school, crankier than ever.
"Hey, Wally! I see you found another reason to come to school today, even though no one wants you here!" Sammi Benners exclaimed, starting in on her daily teasing. Thanks to her, everyone in the school hated me. But despite that, I never broke.
"Shut the crud up," I growled, fed up with her already.
"I know you don't like it, but you've got to accept that you're unwanted. I'm sure it'll be easier to endure once you stop fighting the truth," she continued, despite the fact that I was glaring and prepared to attack. Too bad I don't hit girls. That witch is cruddy lucky. "I hear it's your birthday today. You ready for your Change tonight? I can't wait! A loudmouth like you will most likely end up a quiet, agreeable, little loser." She beamed at me, then walked away. I, of course, went ballistic (I love that word, it makes me sound smart) and got into a fistfight with her guy friends.
Later that day, after serving my detention, I went to Kids Next Door moonbase to be decommissioned.
"Congratulations Numbah Four! You've been selected to become a Teens Next Door operative!" Numbah Three-Sixty-Two exclaimed. I stared in shock. Teens Next Door? That explains why she was here even though she's thirteen and a half already. "Come on! You gotta meet the others! Although, I don't get that because, I mean, you already know them from the KND already, so I really don't get why you'd be reintroduced, but oh well," she rambled. Looks like that ditzy act she showed at school was rubbing off on her. After we said hi to Numbahs Eighty-Six and Sixty, she pulled me aside. "Alright, listen. You need to convince the others at school that you've had the Change. Unfortunately, we will be unable to help you since it would be suspicious if we suddenly started talking to you. Sorry about ignoring you by the way, we aren't supposed to make friends with active KND operatives. Anyway, we need to come up with a way for you to act around them." Seems she's still bossy. Sighing, I told her what Sammi had told me.
"She told you that?" she asked, completely flabbergasted (another smart sounding word that I love) that Sammi would say that.
"Yeah," I steamed silently. She stayed silent for a moment before speaking.
"I hate to say it, but that might be how you have to act. You'll have to be nice, too," she told me sadly. I scowled.
"Fine," I grumbled. "But I'm gonna be as loud and rude as I want here at the tree house. Got it?" She grinned at that. Her grin was contig... conta... ugh, I can't pronounce it! It was spreadable, okay? I smirked at her.
"They ain't gonna know what hit 'em," I boasted. "I'll show them not to pick on me."
POV: Numbah Three-Sixty-Two Rachel McKenzie
At school the next day, I was eating lunch when I heard the commotion. Sammi and her friends were picking on Wally again.
"Wally! You actually came to school again! What an unfortunate surprise!" She laughed cruelly. I watched as Wally winced and looked at his feet, remaining silent.
"So, little idiot, how was the Change?" her friend, Annee said and joined in on the teasing.
"It was okay..." Wally mumbled awkwardly, trying to back away from the popular teenagers, still looking at his feet. I wanted so bad to help, til I remembered that this was Wally. He didn't need help.
"Looks like I was right about him, huh Annee? I said he'd be like this, didn't I?" Sammi gloated over the fact that she had been correct in guessing his personality change.
"What?" Wally's face was the perfect look of confusion as he looked up at them, seemingly having no idea what she meant.
"Oh, don't you worry. We don't want you killing any more brain cells by thinking about it," Annee told him, a sickeningly sweet tone to her voice. Wally blushed and looked down again. He was a surprisingly good actor.
"I'm not that dumb," he mumbled quietly. The two girls just laughed.
I was momentarily distracted as someone sat down across from me. It was Steven. He was a teen who came to the TND for their fake identity as free-for-all workers. He usually came to us to track down his little siblings whenever they went missing to keep his parents from blaming him. Today it was both of his seven year old siblings that he needed us to find, Skylar and Terra. I had a hunch that they were at the arctic base for KND cadet training, but I just kept that to my self. Once he left, I texted the others using the code we had come up with for whenever we got a new mission, KND or not. I looked up to see Sammi and Annee still teasing Wally and I winced as they grabbed his phone when it vibrated.
POV: Numbah Four Wallabee Beatles
My phone buzzed as I got a text message.
Hi! It's Mom! Just telling you I love you!
It was Rachel's code that we had a mission. We all had codenames in our phones so people wouldn't get suspicious as to why we were texting each other when I supposedly had no friends. Rachel was 'Mom', Fanny was 'Aunt Fran', Patton was 'Uncle Pete', and I was 'Grandpa William'. Luckily, none of our real parents didn't know how to use a cell phone, let alone text, so it wasn't like we had two Moms in our contacts.
Sammi snatched the phone out of my hand, eager to get some dirt on me.
"H-hey!" I protested. Ugh, I hate having to act like a dumb wimp. And I had to act nice! It sucks!
"Don't worry, I'll give it back," she said with a sinister look that was supposed to look sweet.
"B-b-but... um... o-okay..." I stuttered, working my butt off to keep up this cruddy act. She and Annee read over the text and snickered.
"Aww... Look it! Wally's mommy loves him!" Annee exclaimed in a giggly baby voice. I blushed bright red as they continued to tease me, not acting this time.
This was going to be a long year.
Okay, don't start yelling at me that "Numbah Four's OOC! He is SOOOO not a wimp!" and stuff like that. He's ACTING, got it? ACTING. He's not actually like that. Also, the word he couldn't pronounce was contagious, that's why it was replaced by spreadable. The next chapter will take place a year from now, when he's fourteen.
Whew! That was long!
And now, a message from the Commander (Bilal, my 'little monkey brother'. We're not related): "BILAL IS WAY COOLER THAN YOU!...NUMBAH 7399!" (Yes that is his number)
He's Commander, I'm Chief. Together we make Commander-an'-Chief. Remember that Soldier!
-Numbah 827, signing out!