Omg. I'm writing so much. I think the reason is that I'm making up the story as I go along, so I'm just as excited to find out the rest of it as you guys are. BTW, I'm not getting/using Beta. It's just too...techy. It's just me and Word 2003 with a broken spell check.

Chapter Four: Catching Up

Amy's POV

I had to ride the bus home, because Nellie had decided that Dan and I were mature and responsible enough to at least manage walking the short distance from the bus stop to our home by ourselves. To my great surprise (and slight disappointment), Ian was riding the same bus to his home. Oh, why does the world hate me so? I was starting to suspect that Ian was pulling some strings to create these frequent "coincidental meets".

When Ian saw me, his face lit up. He waved me over, calling, "Sit here, Amy."

I hesitated for a moment before going to join him. I decided to chance it and asked, "Could you tell me now? You know, your story?"

Ian shook his head. "Not safe," he whispered, glancing around nervously. He suddenly asked, "Would it be alright if I could stay at your house for a while?"

"Why?" I asked, my eyes narrowing with suspicion.

Ian flinched as he recognized the suspicion. "I just - we could talk there. Safely," he replied quickly. "It wouldn't take long."

I thought for a moment before deciding, "Okay. I suppose it can't hurt too much."

The bus stopped along a row of large estates. I stood to get off, with Ian right behind me. When the bus drove away, Ian turned to me in surprise and said, "You live here?"

"Yeah," I answered. "We live in the second house. Just until Grace's mansion is rebuilt, but it probably won't be finished for at least another two years. I suppose it's small for you, but -"

"No, no, that's not it," Ian cut me off. "It's just that...Natalie and I live in the house behind that."

Ian's POV

Amy stood there, her mouth wide open in shock. In my mind, I grimaced. What I had done to her in Korea had irreversible consequences. But did she really think of me that horribly? When I had found out that she would be transferring into my school, I was overjoyed. I'd searched for her for months without results, and here she was, in our school. So, naturally, I'd hacked into the computer system and moved her classes around so that it would connect with mine quite a bit. None of the teachers seemed to suspect, fortunately. Of course, I couldn't have all of my classes with her. That would have been much too noticeable. But, being the intelligent girl she was, Amy would most likely find out anyway.

"Well, let's go," I said cheerfully.

Amy led me silently to her door. She rang the doorbell, and her brother opened the door.

"Hey, Amy, you're -" he cut off when he saw me. His eyes opened wide, and he gasped, "Amy! That's the Cobra! Why's he here?"

She silenced him with a single look. She looked at me uncertainly and led me inside. "Umm..." she started uncomfortably. "Want to sit down?" She gestured to a quaint dinner table.

"Yes, thank you." I sat down.

"Hey, Dan? I think you should come too," she called.

Dan made an immature face at me and sat down next to Amy, glaring at me the entire time. It would be quite difficult to convince him to forgive me.

"Dan, stop glaring so much," Amy scolded. "You should probably get used to this. He's in the same school as me. And...he's our next door neighbor."

"WHAT?" he practically exploded. "THE COBRAS? Oh, no! Natalie's probably going to be at myschool, too! Aaaahhh, it's a disaster!"

"Dan! Ian's just here to explain things. Right, Ian?" she looked at me.

"Umm, yes. Of course," I said, looking at Dan. "Shall I begin?" Amy nodded.

"Well, after the clue hunt, Vikram and Isabel disowned us. We were left with no inheritance, only the four million from the gauntlet." Amy looked at me sympathetically, and I felt a flutter inside of me. "So we moved here. We couldn't spend too much money on housing, but Natalie refused to live in any building smaller than that one. I started going to public school," I said distastefully. "But Natalie insisted that she simply could notlive with such an embarrassment. She goes to a private school, so you won't be seeing her much, Dan." Dan looked relieved. "Even though our parents disowned us, I will soon be the next head of the Lucian branch, what with Isabel in jail and Vikram close to having to step down. There's really not much else to tell," I concluded. "Care to tell me your story?"

Amy looked at Dan, and I could tell that they were conversing just by looking at each other. I felt a twinge of envy. They were so close. If Natalie and I were very close, could we have done that? Somehow, I found it hard to imagine.

Finally, Amy looked back at me and said, "Okay. So, after we won, we immediately got Grace's mansion rebuilt, but, like I said, it's going to take some time, and we're living here in the meantime. Nellie, Dan, and I. Even though the clue hunt was over, Uncle Fiske insisted on having us properly trained, even Nellie. You already know that Luke, Katherine, Thomas, and Jane Cahill each got a portion of Gideon's serum, and the effects became a part of the DNA. But after the family split apart and Gideon died, Olivia Cahill became desperate to piece her family back together, so she gave her fifth child, Madeleine Cahill, the full serum, making the Madrigals good at everything. But the Madrigals welcome even those who aren't tied into the Cahill family, so everyone goes through the same rigorous training in order to make sure that all agents are equally skilled, more or less.

"So we went through the training process, which took roughly a year. There's an actual academy for it, and they teach the regular subjects, like math and science, so that we won't be behind when we go back to our normal schools. They teach us stuff like poison chemistry, hand-to-hand combat, foreign languages and accents, it's actually really fun and useful. Nellie's still our au pair, but now, she's more of a big sister/bodyguard to us. And Uncle Fiske will be stepping down soon, and I'm the next heir for head of the Madrigal branch. And that's pretty much what we've been doing for the past year," Amy finished.

I noticed that Dan was glaring at her. "Why'd you have to tell him all of that?" he accused.

Amy blushed. She looked so shy and cute when she did that. "Sorry, I wasn't really thinking," she said quietly. "Ian," she looked at me in the eye. "I can trust you with that information, can't I? I really wasn't supposed to tell."

My heart leaped. Amy was telling me that she trusted me enough to tell me quite a few Madrigal secrets. "You can," I promised firmly. "I won't tell. You can trust me."

Amy smiled and whispered, "Thank you."

I smiled back. I checked my watch and saw that it was already time for dinner. "I should be going now," I said regretfully. "Natalie will be expecting dinner. Thank you for having me over. I expect that I shall see you in school tomorrow, Amy."

Amy followed me to the door. As she closed the door, she whispered, "Good night."

What a wonderful day it had been.

Okay, so they're next-door neighbors instead of housemates. And, yes, by the end of the story, Amy and Ian will be branch leaders. I don't think that any of my chapters will be very long. Sorry! But I'll be updating more frequently. Hopefully.

Lovely Out! ~`'~