One time, in fourth grade, I got to take the class hamster, Rascal, home for the weekend. It was something that I had worked for weeks to earn. I was so happy that I finally got to take the class pet home. Rascal was home for two hours before Aiden, my two year old brother, decided that Rascal wanted to be his friend. Long story short, my baby brother broke Rascal's back and for the rest of the year I was the girl who killed the hamster. Every one of my classmates condemned me and nobody talked to me for three weeks. For three long weeks the only interaction with another child my age that I got was weird looks from the other kids.
Those weird looks were a lot like the ones that I was getting from the majority of the restaurant. I was even getting one from Lexi.
"Paige?" she muttered as the entire cafe froze. It was a question. She wanted to know if I knew what was going on. The answer was no.
Lexi's muttering seemed to break the jacket man out of whatever trance he was in. He rushed towards us, a gun in his hand. Where did that come from? I did the only sensible thing that I could think of. I ran. I ducked behind a trash can as he fired his first shot.
As Lexi ducked beside me, a van full of men holding guns pulled up to the curb. The table where Miss Wilson sat jumped in to action. Her two friends, both tall men in black suites, pulled out guns and started fighting at Nice Jacket and his friends. If you could call it fighting. They were both outnumbered seven to one. But for some reason, that didn't seem to bother the guys.
"Now I really want to know what's going on," Lexi said.
"I have no-" what I meant to say was 'I have no clue', but I didn't get to finish my sentence.
"Girls," Miss Wilson's voice interrupted me, "there's a van parked around the corner. I need you to go there and wait. Okay?"
"No." I shook my head, "I want to know what's going on. Why is there an angry Russian shooting at us?"
"They told me that you'd be a handful." Miss Wilson smiled a little bit. It was weird to see her smile. I mean, of course I'd seen her smile before, but the middle of a firefight was not the time or the place for my AP chem teacher to be smiling.
"They?"
"It doesn't matter," she said, "get to the van. My friends will take care of this."
It wasn't good enough for me, but apparently it was good enough for Lexi. She grabbed my hand and pulled me out from behind the trash can. I glanced at Miss Wilson as we ran off the patio and in to the street behind the cafe. She was a taking a gun out of her pocket. A gun? Why was Miss Wilson carrying a gun? Ideas began racing through my mind when Lexi stopped short, causing me to bump in to her.
"Oof," I looked to where Lexi was staring. She was looking at a big black van, the one that Miss Wilson had told us to run to. But it wasn't the van that had caught her attention so much as the logo on the side. It was an eagle of some sort. I couldn't recall seeing it before, but Lexi looked as if she was about to pass out.
"What is it?"
"If I didn't know better," said Lexi, "I'd say that this was a dream. Or some sort of really bad fanfiction."
"Really bad fanfiction?" I glanced at the symbol again, "You mean that's-"
"The symbol of the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division, also known as-"
"S.H.I.E.L.D."
"Yep," Lexi swallowed, "What's it doing out here?"
"I don't know, but Miss Wilson..."
"Paige," Lexi said looking at me, "I think that Miss Wilson's a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent."
For once, I didn't disagree with Lexi's theory.
