Dakota was sitting on the floor of her bedroom with thick textbooks opened and her written notes spread out in front of her. I would have considered her a pretty girl, as she had a curvy hour glass figure, but she had quite a lot of piercings. Her right ear pierced seemingly all the way from lobe to cartilage, and her left ear had two piercings in the lobe. She had the left side of her nose pierced, along with her right eyebrow. As she sat and studied, I could hear the sound of metal rubbing against the inside of her teeth, and once and awhile she would bite down on the stud pierced through her tongue. Everything about her screamed college-kid-rebellion, and it was quite annoying.
Dakota ripped her fingers through her black hair with a heavy sigh as she flipped through her notes, mumbling to herself as she read. I was standing in the doorway to her bedroom, a little hesitant to disturb the stressing college student.
I tapped the door a few times.
"Yes?" She asked snidely without looking up.
"Studying for finals, I see."
Dakota nodded, "pretty much."
"For nursing, was it?"
"Indeed," I could hear the annoyance in her tone.
"Why did you choose nursing?"
With a sigh, Dakota looked up from her notes with a half-sneer-half-frown. "Nursing can pay well and it's a field I'll actually get a job in. Plus, I get to help people and hopefully make a difference in their lives."
I smirked, "so you like to help people, is it?"
Dakota shrugged, "yeah, I mean…I guess. I'm outgoing and get along with a lot of people, so why not work with them?"
"There are other ways to help people, you know."
She caught on, and shot me a look, "yeah, running around stabbing people seems like a lovely opportunity."
"I don't think you understand the power Templar's inflict on innocent people."
"Can we talk about this some other time, Colt? Please? I'm trying to study for my last final tomorrow."
"Just one more thing, Dakota, please? Just one more thing to think about?"
Dakota eyed me, "and what might that be?"
I smirked, "you know your precious Facebook…Twitter…Instagram?"
"Uh-huh," Dakota nodded.
"They're all Templar based."
Dakota's mouth opened slightly with her eyes squinted at me. She was mulling something over in her mind for a quick second before closing her mouth again.
"What do you mean?" She snapped accusingly.
"All of the social media you have integrated within your lifestyle as a teenager has only provided Templar's with critical information. They see everything that you post. They know all of your entered information."
"You mean like hackers?"
"No, Dakota. The Templar's record everything everyone in the world puts on social media because they control social media. Its how they keep an eye on everything in the world; you all put information out so willingly on the internet. It makes their jobs easier," I shrugged.
I left Dakota on that note, trying to find a new approach and convince recruiting her. I moved through the house to the kitchen, where Dakota's mother was cooking dinner. Tabatha was a pretty woman, still dressed in her work clothes from the accounting office with her blonde hair pulled in a tight bun. The kitchen smelled of pesto and chicken, and as I neared the stove I noticed she also prepared pasta noodles.
"Smells good, Tabatha," I smiled.
"Oh, thank you, Colt. It's actually Dakota's favorite pasta dish, and not my own recipe."
"Oh? Wouldn't happen to be from the Italian side at all," I mused.
Tabatha gave a small laugh as she pulled plates and wine glasses from the cabinets.
"You must be very proud of your daughter; she seems like a very determined young lady. I was just speaking with her, but she was studying."
Tabatha huffed, "I am proud of her…she reminds me of her father. But, I wish she would stop going to those college parties."
"Parties, huh?"
She nodded and looked at me sadly, "I think she got mixed in with the wrong crowd. Before starting college she was fine. Beautiful, laid back, and incredibly smart. Now she has two tattoos, a habit of getting drunk, and she wastes her good looks on some guy I've yet to meet. I think she's even messed around with using marijuana; she sometimes reeks of it when she comes home from parties."
"Rebellion at its finest," I said, leaning against the wall.
Tabatha nodded, "has she come around to listening to you yet?"
I shook my head, "she's been brushing the subject off. But, what do we expect from someone that finds out about the Assassin's?"
"Just keep trying…she needs the Assassin's."
Dakota returned home late in the afternoon the next day with a smile on her face. I had never witnessed the girl smile so brightly since my arrival, and I must say it made her appearance look better. She stood in the door way, her hourglass yet small and delicate looking frame showing through her tight pink shirt and black skinny jeans. Her brown eyes are bright, even under all of the black eyeliner she had on.
"I passed my finals!" She announced, her black hair bouncing from side to side.
"Congratulations, Dakota!" Her mother said with a smile.
With a dramatic huff, Dakota continued, "I thought I bombed my test for Anatomy, but I got a hundred percent!"
I raised an eyebrow, ah, so she is smart. "Congratulations, that's quite an achievement."
Tabatha smiled, "Dakota you always put yourself down. You're incredibly intelligent; I don't understand why you think you'll do horrible."
Dakota rolled her eyes.
That evening at dinner, I decided to try to sneak some more information out of Dakota on any hidden skills passed down her thick Assassin bloodline.
"Dakota, have you ever had anything weird with your eye sight?"
She shrugged, "when I was a kid, I guess."
"Oh? How is that?"
"Well…I had this thing I could do that made everything go…almost like the negative strips of camera film."
My interest peaked, "Really, Dakota? What happened when you had this vision?"
She laughed a little, "I cried. I was only maybe five years old when it first happened. My dad told me it was okay, and that I just needed to focus. Like I would hear things and it was just…weird."
"Hear things?"
"Yeah, like a metallic noise. Like I heard objects and saw sounds. Oh, and stuff would glow."
"Do you use this ability often?"
Dakota laughed again, "Only when I get high- uhh," her face turned red, "hyper. Too many Monster drinks, ya know?"
I smirked, knowing that was not what she meant at all. "Why don't you use your skill?"
"Well…I had told some of my friends in elementary school that I could do it. They didn't believe me, but they made fun of me for it for years. The teasing didn't stop until high school ended."
"Oh, how…unfortunate."
Dakota shrugged again, "I got over it. I guess the kids thought my dad's death was more of something to tease me about then my blue-vision issues."
"Oh…," I wasn't sure what to say; to be supportive or to be quiet was the question. "Well…the vision ability you have is actually a helpful tool for an Assassin. It is called Eagle Vision."
She snorted, "Eagle vision, eh?"
"You should try to use it more often."
"No thanks, that crap's so weird."
I rolled my eyes; Dakota was an impossible young lady.