Author's Note: Chapter 9 :) Enjoy and review!

9. 100

Ayla crawled backwards on her hands and knees, terrified as the red eyes blinked once, and then moved away. Everyone else was obviously awake by now, and trying to grab Ayla to check that she was alright. Rose's voice was the highest.

'Ayla? AYLA!'

'I'm ok! I'm fine!' Ayla panted, still staring into the darkness ahead of her. She could not see anything whatsoever.

'What happened? Where are you?' Rufus was yelling.

'I'm right here! It's ok!' Ayla called, waving her arms around and hitting Rufus on the knee.

'Oh, you're there.' he grabbed her hand and held on. Eventually the four found each other and Ayla was able to calmly tell everyone what she had seen.

'Oh my god! So there's some red-eyed thing in here?' Rose exclaimed, sounding thoroughly freaked out.

'Yeah…' Ayla confirmed.

'I say we move back to the beach. We'll be able to see anything coming from there.' Ed told them.

Everyone slowly agreed.

'Wait a second.' Rufus said.

'What?' Ayla asked him.

'Which way is the beach?' he groaned. Rose swore.

'Let's just wait here. Try and sleep. Maybe if we can't see them we won't freak out.' Ed decided.

'Ok.' Rose said in a small voice.

'Right, I need something to cover my face with.' Ayla laughed.

'Just curl up, or something.'

As they settled down again, everyone could clearly hear the cracking of sticks coming closer to them.

'AHHH! JUST DON'T LOOK UP!' Rufus yelled.

It worked and everyone laughed, breaking the spell. Ayla covered her face with her hands, and luckily within a few moments she had fallen asleep. Not everyone was so lucky, however. Ed felt like they should not all be asleep at the same time and decided to take the role of guard upon himself. So when he first felt something furry brush against his back he yelled out.

Once again, everybody woke up, frantically thrashing their arms about until they were all holding on to each other.

'What happened?' Ayla asked first.

'Something brushed against my back.' Ed sounded completely petrified.

'Okay, this isn't going to work. How about we stay awake until dawn? Talk about things?' Rufus asked.

'Alright, then.' Rose agreed, and they moved closer together so they were sitting in a circle.

'Pinch me if I fall asleep.' Ayla told Rufus, who was holding her left hand.

The four teenagers sat cross-legged on the forest floor and talked about life, training, people, campus, CHERUB, missions, boys, girls, animals (they had to get off that topic quickly because the red-eyed thing was on their minds), tans, school work, classes, teachers, TV shows, books, films, music, bands…They discussed everything they could think of until the sun crept over the Eastern horizon. A pale lilac colour spread across the sky and morphed into blue as the sun came up. They let out a sigh of relief upon spotting the sea and the beach through the trees.

'I thought we were going to fail, last night.' Ayla said.

'Me too. Hey, guess what?' Rufus grinned.

'What?' the others asked.

'WE'VE PASSED BASIC TRAINING!' he hollered out into the cerulean sea, and about fifty birds flew off the rocks on the edges of the beach.

'Not so fast, Tell.' said a familiar voice, as Speaks and Smoke came around the corner of the island in the boat and stopped at the beach.

'Why are you using my last name not my number?' Rufus asked, confused.

'Because you're now a CHERUB agent.' Smoke said with a perfectly straight face, and threw them four grey T-shirts.

'OH MY GOD!' Ayla screamed at the top of her lungs.

'WE SURVIVED!' Rose shrieked at the same time, and they hugged each other so tight they each thought the other would suffocate them. Their new grey T-shirts were clutched in their hands. Ed just shook his head wearily and smiled at Rufus, who gave him a high five.

'Nice work, partner.' Ayla grinned, and hugged Ed as Rose and Rufus did the same.

'Shall we get back to campus now?' Speaks asked them, and everyone ran back onto the boat. 'No, no.' he grinned, and pointed skywards. A silver military helicopter was descending on the island, almost directly above them.

'We have a new ride.' said Smoke, laughing at their faces.

The trip back to the Egyptian shore was much quicker, mainly because they were in a helicopter, and because most of the way Ayla and Rose were modelling their new grey CHERUB T-shirts. Unfortunately, Speaks revealed some information that the ex-trainees were completely disgusted about. The instructors had used red torches and fur to scare them when they had been on the island. There was no red-eyed beast and the cracking twigs had been the instructors walking around. Ayla was so annoyed with them that she personally kicked Speaks in the shin, which hurt her toe much more than his leg. To make up for their prank, Speaks and Smoke gave them all hoodies saying 'I survived for 100 days.' on the back to cover up their new shirts on the flight. Ayla spent the entire flight listening to Jay-Z and Kanye West on Rufus' iPod.

The return to campus was the best part. All four of them got to be congratulated by Zara personally, and then they had a week off before they went into normal CHERUB mode. It was now early November, so everyone else was either thoroughly into the school year or on missions. On the first night, Rose invited everyone to her room to watch some films and finally relax. By everyone, it meant Rose, Ayla, Lydia, Rufus, Ed, and finally Theo, who Ayla had never met. It was great to see Lydia again and Theo seemed nice. They were both extremely impressed by how brown the new agents were. Ayla could not wait to get on the athletics track, and the very next day Theo showed her it in the evening. He had to go back and do his homework but as she had a week off Ayla ran for almost three hours; until she got so hungry she had to go back inside.

The rest of her week off consisted of bubble baths, running, reading and going into the town with Rose to watch a film. They needed permission from their handler but it was completely worth it. So by the time the end of the week came about, all four agents were ready for the heaps of school work that was about to be piled upon them.

They could do anything now. School would be tough, but Cherubs were tougher.

Author's Note: Yay, back to campus! Please review :)