Hi Everybody! Thanks to everybody who reviewed Chapter 1. Just to make something a bit clearer - in my version of MI High, at this time Rose is 14 while the other agents are all 16. This just makes the rest of the story flow better. Again, reviews are very welcome!
Here's Chapter 2!

I do not own MI High.

For the next three days, Rose was in a frenzy of getting ready. Not that moving to the SKUL orphanage required it – Lennie and Frank had made that incredibly easy for her - she was in frenzy, as she was allegedly getting ready to go to the 'University of Toronto' and her dad was also incredibly excited for her. Rose was studying more than ever – getting straight A's her father expected at a world-famous university was going to be harder than getting them at St Hope's – and the team barely saw her as she studied her mission briefing before school, after school and during breaks. Not even Frank followed her down into HQ every time.

Rose's joy at seeing her old teammates was diminishing only very slowly, and in the meantime they had made great friends with Carrie and Oscar. The boys were always comparing notes on missions and had become great friends – Blane already knew about Oscar's family history, and while it could be argued that Oscar told him because they were spending a deep cover mission together where it was best to know your teammates very well, Rose felt that it was something more than that – trust. It had taken Oscar a while to trust her and Carrie with that information, but it had only taken him two days to tell Blane.

On the morning of the third day, Rose left her house before her father had even woken up. She left a note on the table saying goodbye, and at only 5.30 in the morning she walked up to the school gates with three big bags in her hands. Immediately making her way down to HQ, she dumped all these in a corner, unpacking only her favourite books (with the bookmark in one of them) and some hair bands. This took a while, as she had a separate bag for her books – it looked as though she was bringing a library with her! Frank had packed everything else that she would need into a much smaller and tattier suitcase, suitable for her cover story. Rose was playing Rose Patel, a shy young girl whose parents had died in a mountaineering accident only a week ago. Her family had never been very well-off, and so she didn't have many possessions past her clothes that she wanted to bring to the orphanage.

At seven, the lift doors opened to reveal all the team coming to wish Rose good luck. "You be careful out there Rosie Red," said Blane, his voice only very slightly teasing when he said her nickname, "there's no-one to protect you for two weeks."

"Thank you for the concern, Blane, but I do not need protecting," said Rose's voice, muffled due to the fact Carrie and Oscar were hugging her as if their lives depended on it. Blane's tone made Oscar raise one eyebrow. Was this how they had always treated Rose - as though she was a solely Tech Agent, not capable in the field? She must have hated it.

"Can't hurt to have a partner, Rosie Red, don't forget to check in often," said Oscar, coining Blane's nickname for their youngest and smallest teammate. At that moment Frank came in, dressed as a council lawyer in a smart suit, indicating to Rose that it was time to go. Disentangling herself from the group hug, Rose picked up Rose Patel's suitcase and walked to the lift with her mentor.

Once Rose had left, the remaining four spies started chatting down in HQ, reluctant to go back to class. "So Blane, why do you call Rosie 'Rosie Red'?" asked Oscar, a grin on his face.

"Well when we were all in training, one lunch we played Truth or Dare. Rose's truth was to tell us her most embarrassing nickname. Turns out her mum called her Rosie Red when she was little, and she made us promise not to tell anyone. Unfortunately for her, she didn't make us promise not to use it…" Blane grinned wickedly and did his best evil-villain-laugh impression. Daisy shoved him, making him stop abruptly, and hissed "Blane, they already think you're mad, don't make it any worse for yourself!" Giggling, Carrie and Daisy shared a glance that clearly said 'Boys.'

"Does Rosie seem any different to you? As in different to when you were a team before?" Carrie asked Daisy, wanting to know what the old Rose Gupta was like.

"Yeah, she does. More emotional, definitely! But maybe that's because we haven't seen each other in so long… otherwise, she seems quite a lot quieter, but somehow more confident, and since when did she start getting to school so early?"

"Since Oscar and I first arrived, she's been at school earlier than everyone else, but it's getting earlier and earlier." Walking over to the screens, Carrie quickly and expertly hacked into the school surveillance system. "So the morning before you arrived, she was here at… whoa, she was here at 5.30! What on earth possessed her to get out of bed that early? And look Daisy – she's been here at 5.30 for days and days and weeks!"

"What needs so much research? That is such a Rose thing to do, I bet she's over studying for some project or report Mr Flatley's asked her to do."

"No, I don't think so…but I'll zoom in on what she's reading.`' Quickly manipulating the video in front of her, Carrie enlarged the image, while Daisy brought Rose's early starts to the boys' attention. Walking over, they all crowded behind Carrie's chair as the image grew, to reveal Rose reading a book about the history of Macedonia. Hushing Oscar, who was pointing out that he spoke Macedonian, as well as the other common languages used there, Carrie enlarged and enhanced the picture. She knew that she was being nosy and that Rose would not be doing anything bad – researching was what she was good at – something was bothering her. Sure enough, the resulting picture of Rose's face showed that she was crying. Not hard, but crying nonetheless. Quickly flicking through the other days Rose had been in so early, Carrie realised that in all of them, she was reading seemingly random books, and in most of them, she was crying.

The four spies spent until break time discussing this, worried about Rose and wondering what she was crying about on so many days. Then they heard the bell, and quickly got into the lift. A second later, dressed in school uniform in various states of smartness, the four walked out of the caretaker's cupboard and grinned at each other. Carrie whispered "Its nice to have a bigger team," as they all trooped off to Mr Flatley's office to explain that the reason they were late is that they had been seeing Rose off to the University of Toronto. As they had expected, Mr Flatley had no trouble with that at all, gushing instead about a 14 year old being invited to spend a year there from his school, muttering something that sounded suspiciously like 'That will show Mrs King."

That day at lunch break, Daisy and Blane were standing in the playing grounds listing the ways in which St Hope's had changed since they were there. Daisy's main one was "Less order", and Blane's was "That freaky woman who thinks she's Headmistress". Then they started joking – "They fixed the door I lasered down on our first mission," "There are no army people running an army day," "There are no turtles creeping around with truth serum on their backs"

"Talking of the truth serum…" said Blane looking at his teammate craftily, "were you about to say that you fancied me before Lennie gave you the antidote?"

"No!" said Daisy, her sudden blush telling a different story. "We're…we're teammates, nothing more…"

"S'alright, Daisy flower," chuckled Blane, amused at her obvious confusion. "I feel the same way – or I wouldn't have asked you." Smiling, he reached for her hand and entwined his fingers with hers. He had been waiting to get back to St Hopes to ask her, as it was where they had first met.