AN: Two chapters in a day, I am on a roll here, guess I just need to get all my ideas out. By the way, I should have put this in the first chapter but this story takes place shortly after Maximum Security for two reasons. 1) I didn't want the age gap between James, Lauren and Will to be too big and 2) I wanted Will to go through basic training with Mr Large (because of the whole spade incident with Lauren, small spoiler). Anyway, please review, reading reviews make me happy.

Chapter 2

Will woke up sunlight streaming through his face. Looking around he saw that he was in a bed in a fairly nice room. 'Okay,' he thought. 'So I'm definitely not still in the principal's office. Where am I?' Will pulled himself up and suddenly remembered what had happened. So dad and Patrick really are dead he thought. He had been praying it had just been a really bad dream. He found an orange t-shirt and a pair of cargo shorts in plastic at the foot of the bed and decided to change into them, they fit perfectly. He hadn't been given any shoes so he put his trainers back on. The door opened and a tall, dark woman stepped through the door.

"Hi, William," she said giving him a sad smile. "I'm Meryl Spencer," she said.

"Where am I?" he asked looking around the room. "And please, call me Will."

"That's kind of a delicate matter," she said. "Glad you're up, I didn't want to wake you."She looked at his attire. "And you're already changed," she said. "You pick up fast."

"What time is it?" he asked.

"A little after eight," she answered.

"I've been sleeping all day?" he asked shocked.

"Sort of, you were tranquilized," Meryl explained. "It's a long story, care for some breakfast?"

"Sure," Will nodded, knowing that he wasn't going to get answers anytime soon.

The two of them took the lift down to the dining room where a bunch of other kids were getting food and eating. "Help yourself," Meryl said as she made her way to a table. "Meet me when you've got some food."

Will shrugged, picked up a plate and went over to get some food. He helped himself to some eggs, two strips of bacon, a breakfast sausage and a slice of toast. He saw a boy with blonde hair helping himself to some sausages.

"Excuse me," he said. The boy looked up, he had blue eyes and was wearing a navy coloured t-shirt and strangely looked a bit like Will. "What is this place?"

"Can't talk to orange," the boy gave a sly smile and walked to his table.

Will went to the table Meryl was sitting at, she had two pieces of toast and a coffee. "Why won't the people here talk to me?" Will asked. "Is there like something bad about wearing orange of something like that?"

Meryl chuckled. "Orange is for visitors, the others aren't allowed to talk to visitors unless they have clearance from Mac, otherwise it could earn you some serious punishment laps."

"And Mac is..." Will asked taking a large bite of some bacon.

"Mac's the chairman," Meryl clarified. "Basically he's in charge of everything."

"So what's your role?" Will questioned. "Are you in charge of the kids in orange?"

Meryl laughed again. "I wish that was it. But it's not. Actually I'm your handler if you choose to join. I'm the handler of every kid on campus."

Will shoved a spoon full of egg into his mouth. "And this place is what exactly?"

"I'll take you to see Mac when you've finished eating. He'll explain everything."She was quiet for a moment. "And I'm so sorry for your loss."

About fifteen minutes later Meryl took Will up to the chairman's office. It was nicely kept, very neat. There was a bald man sitting behind a desk, nest to him there was a blonde woman. Will took a seat in one of the chairs in front of the desk.

"Hello William," the bald man said. "I'm Dr. Terrence McAferty, but everyone calls me Mac, this is Zara Asker," he said addressing the blonde haired woman.

"Hello," Will replied unsure of how formal he should be. "And um please call me Will."

"Alright then, Will," Mac smiled sadly. "We're very sorry for your loss, by the way."

Will nodded. "I'd rather not think about that at the moment," he said. "Um, what is this place?"

"This is CHERUB," Mac said. "It's sort of like a boarding school with sports and fitness facilities, of course you're allowed to go out after classes and on weekends and we also train kids for Secret Intelligence work."

Will bit back a laugh. "Seriously? So what, you guys train kids to become Alex Riders?"

Zara chuckled. "Yeah, a bit like that. Most kids need to go through testing and things to be recruited to CHERUB but we've looked some files over and we've found some things."

"What things?" Will asked. "Did my dad come here or something?"

Mac shook his head. "No, he didn't, but we have a rule at CHERUB to never split families."

"I don't have any family," Will said, it hurt to say it because it was true. "My dad and brother were killed like yesterday and my mum didn't bother sticking around long enough for me to remember her."

Mac looked down for a moment. "That may be true but did your father ever tell you your mum's name?"

"No."

"Her name was Gwen Choke. She had two other kids. They're both older than you, but when she died they came to CHERUB."

"I have a brother and sister?" Will asked shocked. This was a lot to take in.

Mac nodded. "James and Lauren, James is thirteen. Lauren's eleven. They don't even know you exist."

"Wow," was all Will could manage to say. "So do you guys just randomly go checking into people's files to find out if they have any other kids that need to be recruited?" he asked. "Not to be rude or anything, I'm just curious."

"Understandable," Mac said. "When James came to CHERUB we did some research on his mother and discovered that she had a third child, you, obviously. But you were living with your father who was a perfectly responsible adult so we decided to let you be but we made sure to keep an eye on you."

"I see," Will nodded.

"I'd be happy to offer you a place here at CHERUB. You'd start basic training in a month and if you pass you could become an agent and go on missions."

Will's face brightened for the first time since he'd arrived. "Yeah, I'd love to be an agent."

"Excellent," Mac smiled. "Zara will show you around and maybe you can meet your siblings."

2ND AN: Thanks for reading, please review.