Ivan trodded to school; each step was dragged, each sling of arm was forced, his head bobbed slightly as he dozed off, and he was obviously already bored before even reaching school. He didn't even bother going to his locker. He creaked open the door to his form room and sat down unnoticed by anybody. It wasn't that he was a loner. His friends were just in different classes. His eyes flitted across the room as he began his routine personal training. He took pride in himself that he was never caught off guard. He was always alert. In his opinion, he was the strongest teenager in the whole school. His personal training consisted of moving around without presence, listening intently to the things going around him, and noticing the slightest details that might be out of ordinary. Well, the school was ugly as ever, everybody gossiped about the most superficial things, the teacher was late -as usual- and he was bored. One thing he did notice though was a slip of paper just out of sight under one of the legs of his desk. He didn't even try to hide his actions as he loudly moved the desk and with exaggerated movements swiped the paper from under the desk and waved it about to get rid of the dust clinging to it. Nobody took notice. Ivan smirked. the more you try to hide something, the more you attract attention. He glanced at the piece of paper.

Congratulations on your success last night 9-11. We will meet tonight once more at the alley. 25-7

Ivan felt a smile tug at his lips. He couldn't believe this guy. They were going to meet at lunch and he hides a note under his desk. He looked at his code name: 9-11. It was ironic that the emergency call in America is used for a teenager who commits crimes almost every other night. The numbers were taken by the number that their initials appeared in the English alphabet. Ivan had thought it up and since he was the only one with even the slightest bit of knowledge of the English language he gave all the numbers out. He was I, K, therefore 9-11.

The teacher finally stumbled into the classroom. He fumbled with his glasses for 5 minutes before with a raspy voice began his lecture. Ivan barely listened and dozed off. So this is how all the uneventful classes passed until lunch time came. He walked towards the cafeteria, his eyes searching for his friends. He spotted them at the most invisible table in the whole place. He slumped down on his seat.

"Hey Ivan," said the boy nearest him.

"Hey Yassen," said Ivan. Yassen, or Yassen Gregorovich, was the 25-7 that had sent him the note. Ivan briefly rolled his eyes before speaking.

"You know you didn't have to send me a note. Leaving evidence is one of the crucial mistakes that many people make," said Ivan harshly. Yassen scratched his head, a little embarrassed. Ivan looked at the other two boys with them. They were a year younger than Ivan and Yassen. Ivan recognized Yassen as his equal, but he didn't even bother learning the other two's name. He simply called them No. 1 and No. 2.

"So," said Yassen. "Last night went pretty well. Ivan managed to deliver the drugs on time and nobody was caught by the police," Yassen grinned at Ivan. Ivan only scowled.

"Last night only went pretty well because I managed to distract the police because somebody had to be careless and trip over a rigged wire," Ivan growled staring intently at No. 1. No. 1. whimpered and did his best to avoid the piercing gaze.

"Loosen up a little Ivan! By the way, we're going to have a party. You know, just the original boys, excluding the number members," said Yassen. Ivan thought about it. There were 5 original members including Yassen and Ivan. The other three were: Ludvig Ivanov (14-9), David Baranova (4-2), and Dmitri Ivanski (4-9). Ivan sighed. He knew it was a mistake to go to a party. But what the hell. He had nothing to do.

"Alright I'll be there,"

School had finally ended after the stubborn clock decided to push off and ring the bell. Ivan unhooked his beat up scooter from the railing and went off to the Alley. The Alley was the nickname for a street where the houses were built so close together that a motorcycle had trouble driving through it. The police didn't care about this place because once while patrolling one of their cars got stuck between two houses. It was still there like a dead corpse hanging just above the ground. If anybody was to look very carefully underneath the car, they would have noticed a hole in the ground. The hole could only be accessed inside the car. The hole lead to the basement of David Baranova's house. It was an escape route. It was also used so no one would notice 5 suspicious teenagers meeting up. Ivan swiftly, with agility threw himself down the hole and carefully tread the tunnel they took a month to make. At the end of the tunnel was a worm-eaten wooden door that Ivan refused to touch no matter how much his teammates protested they needed a secret knock. Ivan walked up to this said door.

"It's 9-11 open up," he announced.

There was a moment of silence. The door cracked open slightly and the muddy brown eyes of David could be seen. Once he saw that it was indeed Ivan, he threw open the door with a big welcome to our humble Alley. Ivan resisted the urge to roll his eyes and stepped inside. The basement was damp and what looked like week old moldy cheese was smeared all over the wall. It turned out it was a recent makeover to try and "cheer up" this place. Ivan wrinkled his nose.

"What have you done to this place?" he muttered. Everybody ignored him and pretended that the walls were the most beautiful thing they had ever laid eyes upon. Ivan turned his attention to the pathetic thing called a table. His eyes narrowed as he saw the bottles of liquor and little packets of drugs littered all over the place.

"What is this?" he pronounced every word painfully. All the boys flinched at his tone. Nobody dared to answer. Yassen plucked up the courage to speak.

"Eh, well since our last job went so well and we were paid money equivalent to about 1000 we thought we should celebrate with some good old liquor and drugs," his voice died as he reached the end of his statement. Ivan's eyes were colder than the night wind outside. Yassen at that moment wished that he was in the artic ocean naked than endure the gaze of his friend.

"You know what we agreed on about things that dull our senses," Ivan spat out every word. He glared at the bottles and packets before smashing them against the wall; ripping the packets, emptying them onto the spilling liquor, smashing the already broken table against the wall and smashing his foot down on the broken pieces of glass until they turned to powder. Ivan ignored the blood dripping out of his shoes as more glass pieces stabbed the sole of his foot. But through this temper tantrum, his face never once showed an emotion. It remained stoic and cold. It was what frightened his friends the most.

"Listen to me...you so called friends...if I ever...ever, catch you again with stuff like this, I will personally turn you into the police. I don't care if you kill steal or blow up the government, but I care if you stupidly and blindly throw yourselves away willingly by poisoning yourself," his voice had no emotion. But everybody trembled. Yassen was the only one unaffected. He had known Ivan too long to already know that Ivan would never turn in one of his own. Yassen opened his mouth to say something when loud sirens could be heard. Just above their hiding place.

Everyone froze. Nobody spoke. Nobody moved. The sirens were still there. Footsteps could be heard. Ivan's sharp ears concluded that the footsteps were walking towards the abandoned police car just 3 feet away from the basement. Ivan turned to his friends.

"We have to get out of here now," he whispered. Everyone nodded. They climbed out of the basement and into the main house. They tiptoed across the hallways and walked to the front door. Yassen peeked out of one of the tiny windows. He glanced at Ivan. He raised his hand and did a motion like he was tipping his hat. A sign for police. Ivan realized that everyone was in a tight situation here. Panic first rose in his chest. How did they find out they were criminals? How did they find the secret entrance? He didn't know but one thing was clear: they had a serious problem. Ivan looked at his friends for a moment. Fear was clearly etched on their faces. Yassen was the only one who remained calm and kept an eye on the polices' movements. Ivan sighed as he thought of a plan.

"Ok, here's what we do," he said. Everybody turned their attention to him.

"I will first dash out as the distraction. Then you will all run out at the same time and scatter alright?" before anyone could protest. He raised three fingers.

He silently gestured, 3, 2, 1...

He gritted his teeth tightly and burst out into the street. He saw as he whisked pass, the police had figured out the tunnel lead to this house and was walking towards it. Their eyes widened in surprise but understanding came quickly: he was a criminal. They fumbled for their guns. Ivan was already out of sight. He ran at top speed until his lungs squeezed in his chest and his heart threatened to burst. He heard gunfire at a distance. He closed his eyes and prayed for the first time in his life. God please let them be safe. Please don't let them be killed. He hid in the shadows and waited. How long did he wait? He didn't know. Maybe it was just a few seconds, maybe it was 10 minutes, maybe it was a whole hour. He waited until he was sure that every nerve in his body had calmed down. He carefully retraced his steps to David's house. The Alley was quiet once more. There was no sign of police or any police cars minus the abandoned one. He sighed with relief. Until he saw a slumped figure on the side of the street. His heart was in his mouth as he rushed to its side. His worst fear had come true. One of his friends were dead. He couldn't see who he was since his back was facing up. The blood seeping out of the shirt indicated that the bullet went straight through the heart and out of his back. Ivan prayed for the second time in his life. The desperate situation made him religious. Who else did he have to cling to? Please God, please don't let it be Yassen. It wouldn't matter much if it were those other disobedient idiots. But please not Yassen. Please, please... He turned the body over. He collapsed as he saw that the dead body was indeed Yassen. Yassen was always laughing and joking. Now, his eyes were like two bullet holes: empty and lifeless. It seemed to say: Ivan, it's all your fault that I died. Ivan it's all your fault that you lived and I died. Ivan gasped and backed away, suddenly afraid of the corpse. It was the first time he had seen a dead body. He knew it would haunt him for the rest of his life.

He refused to cry. He took off his school blazer, softly closed Yassen's eyes, and placed the blazer over his face. Then he slowly walked away.