Six Months Later-
Phil and I had reach an agreement: he wouldn't make me go to school, as long as I did my schoolwork online. I was perfectly happy with that arrangement, and after I had told three different teachers they were wrong, and proved it, so was Phil. After a lot of research, he found the perfect program for me. It let me go as advanced as I wanted, not holding me back like regular school had.
So, there I was, doing my homework, an essay on Shakespeare and his influence on the English language, when the door opened. I knew that only three people in the world had a key to the apartment, and the only one who didn't live there was Phil's friend, Maria, who checked up on me when Phil was gone. Phil wasn't due back from wherever he was for work, and Maria wasn't supposed to be checking on me until later that evening. Which meant I went into street kid mode.
As quietly as I could, I grabbed the heaviest thing I could see and easily move, though I wasn't sure why Phil had a rolling pin on the counter. It's not like he ever made anything other than grilled cheese sandwiches. Anyway, I sneaked toward the front door. I probably didn't need to sneak, since whoever had come in certainly wasn't worried about making noise.
As soon as I was in sight of the front door, I ran out, screaming like a banshee and brandishing my weapon. The guy didn't look like a thief, but then, I knew looks could be deceiving.
I nearly brained the guy, since he'd been crouching down to get something out of the bag at his feet. But faster than I thought possible, his hand flew up and grabbed the rolling pin, stopping it about an inch away from his head. "Who are you?" he asked, sounding very confused.
"Who are you?" Why was he confused? He was the one breaking and entering.
"Phil didn't say anything about a kid," he said, not answering my question.
"How do you know Phil?" I asked, one hand now on my hip, while the other gripped my trusty rolling pin.
"Well, how do you know Phil?" he countered, looking about as adamant as I felt.
"Phil's my dad," slipped out before I really thought about it.
"You call your dad by his name? And since when did Phil have a kid?"
"I'm adopted," I answered slowly. "Now, who are you?"
"I'm Clint, I work with Phil," he answered back. "My apartment's being fumigated, so he said I could crash here for a while."
"It would have been nice if he had told me," I muttered.
Just then, the phone in the kitchen rang. I gave Clint one last, mistrusting look, then went to answer it. Not many people had that number, so I had a pretty good guess who it could be. "Hello?"
"Hey, Em, I'm so sorry about this, but I'm going to be gone a bit longer than we planned. Things got a little… complicated, so I'm probably going to be gone an extra week. But one of my friends will be staying there. His name is Clint, and he needs a place to stay for a bit, so you won't be too lonely. He should be there soon," Phil told me, from wherever he was in the world. It must have been pretty remote, since the line kept crackling, though not enough to keep me from understanding him.
"Too late," I replied dryly. "He got here five minutes ago and I almost knocked his head off. You really need to warn me sooner, Phil, if this is going to happen again."
"I'll keep that in mind," he said, and I could tell he was holding back laughter. "Can I talk to Clint for a second?"
"Sure," I said, before turning back to the other guy. "He wants to talk to you."
Clint came to the kitchen and took the phone from me. "Hey, Coulson… Yeah, she nearly took my head off with a rolling pin… Good arm, sloppy with the yelling, though. The only reason she got close enough to almost hit me was because I was expecting to be alone… Yeah, you might want to warn a guy next time… She's Emily?! I thought you were talking about a dog! Hell, Coulson, you brought a girl home? Wow, you're braver than I thought… Yeah, I'll keep an eye out… Yeah, see you, Couslon."
As soon as the phone hit the receiver, I burst out with "You thought I was a dog? What was he saying about me?"
A slow grin crept over Clint's face. "I think you and I are going to have a lot to talk about."
AN: I know, it's a short one, but that was just too perfect of a place to leave it. The rest are coming shortly. Thanks to all who've followed/favorited, and a big thanks to KnowInsight, , and PurpleReader29 for the reviews!
