Sorry it took so long to get this chapter up!! I've been really busy for the past month, and I had really bad writer's block for some reason. But now I'm over it and newly inspired, so chapters will come more frequently now! Please review, and tell me what you think! :)

Chapter 8

The next morning dawned bright and early. I woke up at about seven o' clock to bright sunlight streaming in through my window. I could hear birds twittering happily outside. The warm bed was so comfy that I didn't want to get up, but I knew I had to.

I got dressed—in my usual jeans and Tee this time—and went downstairs. I wasn't exactly sure where I was supposed to go—I didn't know if anyone else was awake yet, and no one had told me where I was supposed to meet them—so I was relieved when I ran into Agent Finn.

"Good morning, Max," he said cheerfully.

"Mornin', Finn," I said. "How's it goin'?"

"Fine, thanks. Did you sleep well?"

"Like a baby."

"Good, good. I was just heading down to the dining room. Breakfast will be served shortly, and we need to discuss with you about your duties today."

"Got it," I said, starting to follow him.

When we got to the dining room, the first family was already waiting for us. The president was at the head of the table. Finn took a seat next to the first lady on one side, and I sat down next to Jamie on the other. He smiled at me when I sat down.

"Hey," he said.

"Hey."

"Good morning, Max," said Mr. Grant. He carefully folded the newspaper he had been reading.

"Good morning," I said, helping myself to the pitcher of orange juice sitting on the table.

"I trust you slept well?"

"You bet."

"Good. I wouldn't want you to be tired when you start your surveillance today. We need you in tip-top shape."

"Oh, trust me, we've all fought on next to no sleep before. Our bodies just don't require as much rest as a normal human's does."

"Really?" said Linda Grant. "That's very interesting."

"M-hm," I replied, sucking down my orange juice. "We're different from regular humans in a lot of ways."

"Like what?" Jamie spoke up suddenly.

"Um…" I began, suddenly self-conscious. I should have just kept my big mouth shut. I hoped they weren't expecting some big speech from me or anything. "Well…we're taller than the average human, obviously. And we're stronger and faster. Our bodies are mostly muscle. Um…we have air sacs in our stomachs…and our blood cells have nuclei. You know, like…well, birds. And, uh, we can breath in really thin, high air. Obviously." I felt my cheeks burn as they all waited for me to continue.

"Uh…that's about it, I guess."

"That's amazing," said Mr. Grant, shaking his head in wonder. "And this is all because of a bunch of—for lack of a better description—mad scientists did experiments on your embryos?"

"That pretty much sums it up," I said, nodding my head.

"So what was it like?" Jamie asked suddenly.

I blinked at him. "What was what like?"

"The School." His emerald eyes looked directly into mine. "Growing up at the School."

"Jamie!" Mrs. Grant scolded. She looked over to me. "Max, honey, you don't have to talk about that if you don't want—"

"No," I said suddenly. Jamie was still gazing at me intently, and I was gazing right back. I don't know why, but I found myself wanting to tell him about the School. For reasons I couldn't quite fathom, I wanted Jamie to know what I'd been through. What we had been through. "That's okay," I told her. "I don't mind.

"It was…bad," I said slowly, taking a deep breath and closing my eyes. "Really bad." I was vaguely aware that all the noise in the room had halted completely. "The earliest memories I have are from the School. They did so many awful things, to all of us…and not just us. There were other experiments, too. They kept us in cages, all the time—tiny cages. More like dog crates." My voice had lowered, almost to a whisper, without my noticing it. An edge of menace had crept into it. "They did awful experiments on us. They hurt us. Even Angel, when she was just a baby!" I choked on my words, trying to swallow the lump in my throat. "I'll always remember the smell. All of us remember it. Like Clorox, or bleach…it was so sterile. Like a hospital. Or a—"

"Or a morgue."

I whipped around in my chair in surprised. Fang, Iggy, Angel, Nudge and the Gasman were standing there in the doorway to the dining room. "Yeah," I said slowly, meeting Fang's gaze and narrowing my eyes suspiciously. "Exactly. A morgue."

"Good morning, kids! Come in, sit down, sit down," said Mrs. Grant. "Breakfast is about to be served."

"Good," said Gazzy. "'Cause I'm starving. I'm so hungry I bet I could eat, like, a whole horse. No, a whole Eraser!"

Nudge made an 'eew' face.

"You know, you are what you eat," Fang said with a straight face, looking directly at Gazzy. A horror-struck look crossed Gazzy's face. "Well, on second thought, maybe I'm not that hungry…"

Fang pulled out a seat next to me, and I raised my eyebrows at him as if to say, Was that really necessary?

He almost smiled.

After the rest of the flock was seated, breakfast was served. Eggs, bacon, toast, pancakes, fruit, cereal, omelets…there was a little bit of everything. We all dug in, naturally. Gazzy grabbed four pieces of toast and was layering eggs and bacon between the slices, and Iggy was shoveling bacon down like there was no tomorrow. Fang piled four omelets on his plate at once, and was already polishing off the second. Even Angel and Nudge, who were at least trying to use some manners, were talking to each other around huge honking mouthfuls of food. Normally I would have kicked them under the table or something, but I was too busy stuffing my own face. I noticed that the Grants and Mr. Joe Smith kept glancing up at us as we ate, "Good lord," expressions on their faces, but none of them said anything, thank God. I guess they realized that we weren't exactly used to getting food like this.

Once we'd all finished eating, Mr. Smith and Mr. Grant covered our duties with us one more time, making sure we were prepared. We all were. We knew how serious this mission was. They told us to meet back in the dining room in fifteen minutes.

I ran back upstairs to my room first to grab my backpack with all our supplies in it. You never know when you'll need to make a quick escape.

I walked through the door of the dining room, then stopped and stared. Gazzy, Iggy, and Fang were standing in identical positions next to the door, side-by-side, hands clasped in front of them. I put a hand over my mouth to stifle my laugh.

They were all wearing dark sunglasses.

"The name's James," Gazzy said to me. "James Bond."

I couldn't help it; they were just so darn cute. I burst out laughing. You would have, too, believe you me.

"No!" whined Iggy. "It's 'Bond, James Bond'. Not 'James, James Bond!'"

"Oops," said Gazzy sheepishly. "Sorry." I laughed even more, ruffling his hair.

I reached over and snatched Fang's glasses off his face. He was grinning at me.

"Nice shades," I said.

"I know, hot, right?"

I rolled my eyes, stuffing them back in his hand as I walked past him.

The boys were going to be a pain in my butt during our stay here, that much I could tell.

Please review! And a special thanks to wOnToNgIrL for the sunglasses idea. I hope you're satisfied with the way I wrote it!

Again, if anyone has any suggestions for the story or anything, I'd love to hear your ideas!