Ch. 2: Noticing Things

Christmas was right about the boys. I thought it was kind of gross with how they winked at me and tried to talk to me to get me to hook up with them. I had no interest in that, plus I was just fine on my own. They always joked saying that it was "crystal clear" in what I wanted. I always dismissed them with dirty looks and if they got up close and personal if I glared at them long enough they left me alone. I just wanted to focus on school and not trying to sneak boys into a room and have sex, which I thought was absolutely gross and degrading for any girl. I was walking out of school, when I saw a boy walking towards me. I gave him a glare and he continued towards me, so I decided to walk away from him.

"Hey pretty girl." He said in a cocky voice.

"What do you want?" I demanded.

"Only a little piece of this." He stated proudly and slapped my butt. I noticed some of his friends cheered at that. Freshman had a reputation for being weak and the girls were desperate to get attention to anyone they could find. I guess it was a super bonus if they got an upperclassman's attention. I must have been the one in a million girl who wanted no part in the social expectation of high school. "Nice." He said excitedly and went to grab me again. I snatched his wrist and pulled it down so I was able to slap his face hard with my free hand. His group of friends all went "ooooh" when I did that. When he pulled his wrist free he went to slap me, only I ducked and swiped his legs out from under him so he went falling. Just as he fell I bolted because I certainly didn't like the idea of getting jumped on.

Once I got to my street, I went into a walk so I wouldn't be out of breath when I greeted whoever was at the door. I saw Gunner, Road, and Caesar playing cards. They all turned and nodded towards me.

"Hey pretty girl." Gunner said to me. His arm was still in a strap from where dad had shot him when he snapped a while ago.

"Hi Gunner, how's the arm?" I asked as I walked over to them.

"I'm doing ok." He answered, then gestured me to come over to him. He showed me his cards and smile he had four of a kind. Then I looked over all the boys. I noticed Caesar looked more than pleased.

"I'd watch out for him if I were you." I said to Gunner.

"Hey you little sneak, get your silly butt out of here." Caesar joked at me and I laughed. They all showed their cards and groaned Caesar had a four of a kind too, but it was of Jacks even though Gunner had four nines. He happily laughed at his victory.

"Man, pretty girl he's been like that all day." Gunner groaned at me. Pretty girl was the nickname he had for me. I sometimes joked that he said that only because he would forget my name at times.

"Hey it's been a good day for me." Caesar said proudly.

"How do you do that? Tell which one is trouble?" Road asked me.

"Not all of you have poker faces." I replied.

"Yeah, we should kill you because you know too much." Caesar muttered and they all laughed.

"Hey you're old man's upstairs looking at stuff." Road added and I nodded thanks.

"Have fun with that boys." I said to them before heading upstairs.

"Get out of here silly girl." Caesar said again and I laughed before going up in the elevator. I put my stuff away in my room and started my homework. I heard dad talking to Yang about something in the next room, but I didn't pay attention to it. I was a little bit into my homework, when Yang came in my room.

"Hello Crystal." He said to me.

"Hi Yang." I said back to him. "You guys got a new mission?" I asked.

"No he's just looking over stuff from old ones." He replied to me before he left my room. I put my stuff down and went to the computer room, where dad was. I found him leaning over a computer and looking at pictures of stuff, but he closed it when I walked in.

"I thought once a mission was over you moved on." I said to him.

"We do it's just this one guy has my attention." He answered me.

"What guy?" I asked curiously.

"No one for you to worry about." He said to me.

"Did you see Trench by any chance?"

"He's still the same." He replied to me. Trench was a big guy too and he was always nice to me. It was an interesting interaction now when they met. Trench split and got his own team, but that didn't mean never got his own calls. He left the team a few years ago, and Dad always told me when he saw him because he knew I always like him. He gave me a small kiss before he turned the computer off and we walked out of the room. "Causing trouble?" He said to me.

"Just watching the poker game." I replied and he laughed knowing how that always turned out when I watched. "Want me to make something after I'm done with homework?" I asked politely.

"Nope don't worry about it." He said to me and left me alone to do my school work.

I noticed that something was defiantly up, when dad picked me up from school. I noticed that same boy tried to get near me again, but when he noticed who I was heading for he instantly backed off. I jumped in the truck and we drove off.

"Ok now you're being cautious so what's up." I said to him.

"I think I might be getting a tough mission soon and I'm just trying to look out for you." He said to me.

"Why is this different from any other mission?" I asked confused.

"I don't want this guy finding out about you. I just don't want you to get hurt and I won't tell you who he is because the less you know the better you're off." He explained to me. I leaned back against the seat and let out a sigh. I always got nervous when he did this because he was hardly ever nervous about anything.

"The guy must be big if you're acting like this." I muttered.

"I'm just looking out for you Crystal." He said to me.

"Love you." I said to calm him down.

"I love you too." He said to me before we pulled into the building. Nobody was out, so I went upstairs to do my homework.

I went to sleep for a little bit, but I woke up when I heard dad come upstairs and go to bed himself. I couldn't fall asleep right away again, so I snuck down using the stairs and saw Tool smoking his pipe.

"Hey look who's up." He said to me as I came down. "Shouldn't you be sleeping?" He said to me.

"I'm just thinking about stuff." I said to him as I walked over to him. He wrapped me up in a bear hug and gave me a confident squeeze.

"Yeah dad's been doing some stuff." He said to me.

"Is he going to be ok?" I asked him.

"Oh he'll be fine the lucky man." He said confidently. "He's just worried about you." Tool said pointing to me.

"Yeah I know." I muttered back.

"He takes good care of you Crystal, don't forget that." Tool stated. I looked at him while he smoked his pipe and as he looked at me I smiled back.

"Sometimes I wish he would let me do the same." I said back.

"Hey don't worry about that, you do that every day in ways that you just don't see and frankly you don't need to." He said gently to me. I only nodded at that, while I thought about what he said.

"I guess in a way we all need to look out for each other right." I said to him and he nodded.

"Go back to sleep Crystal and keep thinking about that tattoo offer ok sweet cheeks." He winked at me as I giggled and walked back upstairs.