The project

I am not associated with Kyle XY in any way.

Nathan was laying on the floor in his room in the pose the girls left him. He has truly hit rock bottom. He has been awake for several hours now pondering where it all went wrong. He was always the smartest, the slickest, the best. Nathan was the smartest kid in class for as long as he could remember yet here they were, Kyle and Jessi so far beyond his level he could not even tell if Kyle is actually smarter as Cassidy kept saying. And then there was Amanda. A nice, cute, innocent girl should be easy enough to play to get closer to Kyle. Yet it was Amanda who played him yesterday.

"Could it get any worse?" Nathan wondered. "Oh yeah I got knocked out cold by two girls."

"Somebody kill me now!" He said out loud.

"I think that would be premature mate" Michael Cassidy was standing in his doorway with a stranger

Nathan got up and walked towards Cassidy.

"You look like hell" Was all Nathan could say. Cassidy was covered in bruises and cuts. And quite frankly he needed a shower.

"You are not exactly prince charming yourself" "Meet Bryan Taylor your new boss" Cassidy said with apprehension.

"Boss? What job did I get?"

"Mine" Cassidy gave Nathan some time to process "I am leaving for England in a few hours. My presence here has become dangerous..." "Bryan will tell you everything you need to know"

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Back at the Trager's house breakfast was tense. Their window was still broken from last night's fight. Kyle and Jessi would not say a word about what happened. Nicole was watching them for clues. Josh could not think about anything other than Andy and wasn't paying attention. Only Lori seemed undisturbed by what happened, and was updating the family on the latest high school gossip. Finally Nicole could not take it anymore

"What happened with Cassidy?" She asked with concern

"I would not worry about him anymore" Jessi said looking at her waffles.

"Jessi did you..?" Kyle could not finish the sentence. Did Jessi go after Cassidy and finish him? And if so, could he truly blame her for something he would have done himself?

"Did I kill Cassidy Kyle?" Jessi looked up with a sudden expression of anger on her face

Josh's fork made a loud noise as it dropped to the ground. "Sexy and deadly" he thought to himself.

"You know that is not what I …."

I cut myself off. I could never lie to Jessi. This was exactly what I meant.

Jessi looked around the room. Everybody was staring at her. Most of the family was concerned about her, but Lori seemed to have "I knew it" expression on her face. Jessi grabbed a knife and slowly, methodically cut her waffles into little pieces as she spoke. Stephen started choking on his orange juice.

"I get it, the evil girl went psycho and killed Cassidy. That would make so much sense. That is what everybody expects me to do. So why don't I just do it?" Jessi angrily looked around the room again. Lori was staring at the exits. Nicole was gathering all her experience as a psychologist to figure out what to do. Kyle was looking at her with pain written all over his face.

After an uncomfortable pause Jessi continued: "Well I did not. I did not even try, but I ll tell you who almost did" With that she stared Kyle down, ran upstairs and locked herself up in her room.

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"Hello Jessi" Said a message on her screen

"Latnok?"

"Yes. We have your first project. If you are smart enough." Whoever this is, they know me well – Jessi thought with a slight smirk

"What are you making? Dirty bombs?" Jessi was really not in the mood

"Have you heard of the swine flu?" Why would they want to give pigs flu? Jessi thought. Thats just stupid

"We are developing a new low cost vaccine for the epidemic. It could save thousands of lives. We think you could help" I wonder what the catch is – Jessi thought instantly. Those guys are not humanitarians.

"So what do you want me to do?"

"Come here in an hour. And don't tell Kyle" Like I want to talk to him right now!

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Jessi opened the door of her room to head out and she bumped into Kyle.

"Jessi" Kyle looked at her full of regret "I want to apologize. You have helped me yesterday. I had no reason to doubt you" His deep blue eyes were full of warms that would make a rock melt.

"Kyle" Jessi started "I still cannot stay mad at him for long" she said to herself, "Why didn't you come up yesterday?"

"I did not know what to say" Kyle confessed

"You always know what to say to make me feel better Kyle" Jessi let out a slight smile "But why do you never defend me in front of the family?" Kyle seemed at a loss "I gotta go" she said as she walked away.

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Kyle went downstairs to face the questions of his family. "Why did Jessi say Cassidy was gone?" he kept asking himself. Suddenly a familiar melody entered his mind. Amanda was playing her piano. Kyle has always enjoyed her music, but today the melody sounded especially intense and powerful.

Almost hypnotized Kyle started walking towards the Bloom house.

"Oh he has his Amanda face again!" Lori exclaimed. "Its adorable"

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Nathan was sitting at Latnok gathering his thoughts. He was told the truth about Latnok, it's goals and methods. It was a lot to take in at once. And now he was supposed to work with Jessi – that annoying clone girl.

Splash! His soda spilled all over his laptop for no apparent reason.

"I wonder how that happened" Jessi said with a grin from across the room

"Jessi" It took all of Nathan's will power to keep his composure "I want to apologize – I was a jerk. I know the truth about Kyle and yourself now and I am here to help you"

"Help me?" It was hard to read Nathan. At least some of what he said was true

"I was told to meet you here. Here are the files you need to see. A research group will meet you in room 307"

Jessi took a glance through the papers. "Research group? I only need one person to take notes"

"God she is cocky!" Nate thought without the usual sense of disgust.

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Kyle walked over to Amanda's house. "I heard you play" he said as she opened the door.

"I forgot about the superman hearing" Amanda smiled slyly. "Come on in"

I watched her play for a long time. There was something soothing about her music about the way she felt every note she struck. Her music was inspired today, it felt even better than before. It took me to a different time, a simple, peaceful time in my life – when my biggest concern was how to eat a banana, before I had to lie about who I was, before I had to take life and death into my hands, before Latnok and Madacorp, before Jessi... This last thought hit me like a ton of bricks. I cannot blame Jessi for my problems, yet I could not seem to push the thought away.

"Kyle" Amanda stopped playing "Are you day-dreaming?"

"Just having a moment of nostalgia" Kyle smiled "Kind of silly for someone two years old?"

"Not at all. You have been through a lot" Amanda said with understanding. "Kyle, would you like to go to Mark's party with me?"

Kyle knew enough about dating by now to know what she was asking. He was still unclear about his feelings, about who he wanted to be with.

"Kyle" Amanda looked into his eyes "I understand that Jessi is a part of your life, and she always will be. And... I just want you to know that I am ok with that. She saved my life you know."

"She did?"

"She is a much better person than people give her credit for" Kyle looked at Amanda in surprise "And so are you"

"Amanda, I am really glad I told you the truth"

"Me too, I missed you Kyle!" she said and lost herself in Kyle's warm embrace.

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Nathan was carrying his lunch as he slipped and ended up on the floor of the U of Washington cafeteria covered in tomato sauce.

"You alright Nate?" asked Mark with poorly concealed enjoyment.

"Oh Nate there you are" Jessi approached cheerfully. "We are done"

Nathan did not believe in coincidences. But how could Jessi cause his fall from across the room? Wait done?!

Behind Jessi a group of three middle aged professors was staring at her. Finally one of them broke the silence.

"Jessica, you are by far the most brilliant student I have had the pleasure of working with. I hope you will consider biochemistry department at U of W." Jessi did not respond but winked at Nate. She liked the attention.

"I am standing right here professor Steiner." Nathan was losing his patience

"Oh Nathan, hello" The middle aged professor finally looked at Nate "You should go clean up"

"This girl will be the end of me!" Nathan thought to himself and walked away

Chapter 3 coming soon. Mark's dorm party. Spoiler: Jessi gets drunk. Hilarity ensues. First action scene of the season as well.