The Academy
Alina cursed inwardly as she heard her alarm go off, 6 Am as usual. She sighed and got up from her new bed. Her things as usual were put in identical places to that of her last house.
The Agency had set up the place themselves and they did their best to smooth out relocations as much as possible.
School never really bothered her. It was just the fact of making new friends and not getting attached. It had been her anti-social and in most people's eyes uncaring. She simply did not feel for other people for too long. Like her mother she always played hard to get with boys and none of them had actually ever earned her attention due to her isolationist attitude.
She grabbed a black hand bag with all her school supplies and books pre-packed by Agency menials and went through it to see what her classes were.
She sighed at her schedule as all her classes were of course high level, which meant tons of work .
She skimmed it again and noticed she had a zero period, yet there was no class name.
Alina shook her head and dismissed it as a mistake.
Leon knocked on her door.
"hey kid, its time for your first day of high school." He said with a hint of glee.
Alina sighed deep and got dressed quickly, not bothering to change much except her jeans and a pink hooded sweater.
She opened the door to her room and smiled as she saw her dad in his usual clothing instead of the clothing the clothing items the government gave him.
It meant he would be free from work for at least a month.
"You look a little happier than usual." He remarked, seeing her smile for the first time in weeks.
Alina flashed her blue eyes at him then grabbed his hand.
"Come on, lets not be late."
--
Alina said her goodbyes to her dad as she slipped her moms sunglasses on and joined the gathering crowd of teenagers at the schools gates.
A pair of security guards in all black drab riot police uniforms stood behind the gates right next to a white marble stone with THE ACADEMY inscribed in black on it.
Alina zipped up her jacket as the cold hit her blood.
The crowd was what you would expect from teenagers: skaters grinded on the benches and rails, paper airplanes flew around and hit people, small fights broke out, gaggles of girls sat around in the grass talking, the occasional potheads smoked in isolated areas.
As Alina got closer she noticed they were all freshmen.
Where are all the upper-class men...
She looked at the gate and saw a pair of black males trying to talk down the guards, the only response they got out of them was a quick draw of a digital camera and a picture.
Later Alina would learn why they did that.
"Hey you." a voice addressed her.
Alina turned around and saw a long haired brunette in plad shorts and a blue sweater.
"Me?" Alina returned neutrally at first.
"Yes, you, come here!"
Alina walked to her a little edgy.
The girl put out her hand.
"Your schedule, let me see it." Her voice was that of someone who was used to being in charge.
Alina gave her a challenging look.
"And why, would I, do that?"
The girl rolled her eyes and took out hers.
"I have an unmarked zero period, you?"
Alina nodded slightly, tipping her sunglasses a little bit, looking at the schedule. Her name was Amberley.
"Something is going on, and we are going to find out." Amberley stated.
Alina gave her this 'And what the hell is that?' expression.
"Don't talk much do ya, well thats cool, helps maintain stealth."
Another girl walked up to the other two.
"Ahh yes, do you have it Dom?"
The new girl had her black hair draped over her shoulders and wore a pair of squared glasses.
"Yes, the place is run by something called the BOA, Black Operations Agency, the mysterious zero period we have seems to be some kind of military run program." She spoke with a French accent.
Amberley raised an eyebrow.
The other girl continued.
"When accessed the mainframe I saw a lot of things pointing to this, serial numbers, physical requirements, ammunition supplies, uniforms...."
Alina spoke up.
"Does everyone have this period."
Amberley shook her head.
"Only us and a few other girls...."
Alina looked at the crowd of people at the gate.
"Then what are they there for?"
The French girl pitched in.
"They all said that their parents dropped them off here early because of...uhh discipline reasons, I'm Dominique by the way."
It sounded plausible. The crowd wasn't large enough to be all the freshmen in a high school.
"My name is Alina, and I guess your right but..who are they?" She replied and pointed.
A formation of black uniformed boys marched in from nowhere, each one had a night stick which made the crowd depart.
Amberley watched them with slight interest.
"No insignia or markings except for the cap badges... an eagle in front a shield holding a rifle...." Dom went on with her observations.
Alina tipped her sunglasses again. The main body, like her were freshmen, a few taller and older boys walked about and fixed the younger ones.
"Come on Four we are already late!" yelled what looked like the leader. A tall, dark browned almost black haired, officer. Slight traces of acne were around his face and he wore glasses, but like the rest of the unit he looked like he was in enough shape to fight a lioness and win.
The platoon spread out in two ranks and lined the side of the gates. The boys stood straight forward, their marine style caps hiding most of their eyes.
The officer walked down the ranks with four other boys, two who looked like sophomores and the others more freshmen.
As the sun came up more she saw that all the teenagers in uniform had military style name tags on their uniforms along with the unit designation that simply said: CCC
She also started to see clearly how beat up they were: blood, dirt, grass, mud, and cuts covered their faces and uniforms.
She noticed that that only a few had rank pins, and only two freshmen enjoyed a sergeant rank.
"Platoon, fallout and open this gate, listen to security personal and make this day smooth for the new people." The officer ordered his men.
"Yes sir!" They all said in perfect unison, then fell out.
Chatter immediately broke out as they talked about some kind of field exercise and secured positions around the gate.
"I guess thats our cue." Amberley started to walk.
"Maybe they can answer our questions." Dom went on.
"Some of them are cute..." Alina muttered.
The other two girls giggled.
"Were gonna get along just fine..." Amberley said with a smile
--
Talon watched the gate open and started to march in past the guards. David trailed behind closely like the aide he was and whistled an old Israeli song.
"So do you think you got picked?" David asked as they walked through the main courtyard's marble path that cut across the grass to the CCC barracks.
Talon looked back.
"For what?"
"You know!"
Talon rubbed his head.
"Being a Vigilant."
"Oh. I don't know."
Talon was walking towards the Four Platoon bunker.
"Do you even care...?" David asked with a sigh.
Talon shrugged.
"Who the hell wants extra duty?"
David rolled his eyes as he started to walk up the steps.
"Come on, who doesn't want to guard a chick?"
Talon turned around.
"You know...the whole 'I don't care about females' thing never got to you did it?"
David rolled his eyes again.
"The Vigilant program is a social/military experiment that the BOA conducts on us. They need field agents, you know real spies, not just soldiers."
Talon opened their NCO room and sat on his bunk, David went to his.
"So field agents usually have command of a staff that help them, the first thing they get is a guard dog, aka BOA troops since they are sent on dangerous missions most of the time."
Talon motioned for him to continue.
"We will get to see some action this year is what I heard, I mean not just training missions, REAL action."
Talon still looked at him confused.
"SO the Jr. field agents get to be escorted by us..... Now here is where the social experiment comes in." David said as if he were explaining something to a child.
He grabbed his canteen and took a deep drink before he went on.
"Ever since the BOA had to intrergate females into this program the connection between bodyguard and agent has grown close, very close. They need to keep testing whether this is good or bad......so they start now...."
Talon bursted out laughing.
"So your saying tha....that the BOA....is encouraging relationships wit..this..."
David shook his head.
"No but if it happens then they want to know what the effects are!"
"Yeah well, just look at a married couple if you want to ha. So let me get his straight." Talon leaned back.
"They want us cadets to guard a female."
"Yes, say girls Talon, more polite."
"Whatever. Anyway. They, the BOA/instructors, what us to go back on what they have taught us since....I don't know....when we were born!"
"You don't have to.....but they are just saying if.."
Talon sighed.
"Besides Talon, what has a little emotion done to hurt us? Aren't you and I like brothers? Isn't that some kind of connection?"
The other cadet shrugged.
"Well you are my brother in arms, thats different...."
David put a hand on his shoulder.
"That I am, and as your brother in arms I have to help and guide you, we only have four more years as cadets, then we will be soldiers fighting the evils in the world, take your duties as an NCO seriously but..." David hit his shoulder. "Have some fun while your at it."
Talon grinned and got to his feet.
"Lets get changed for zero period shall we?"
David laughed.
"Yeah we both look like shit from negative one and two."
