A/N: I'm back! I know, it's been forever since the last update and I know I said I'd have this chapter up sooner, and I really wish I had, but my life's been a bit hectic. Try watching your 8 year old brother and 6 year old sister after school almost every weekday and see how much time you have to write after that. It's not a lot, what with homework and, on Tuesdays, watching NCIS. But I'm back now, so let's not dwell on the past! Here's the much awaited chapter 10! Double digits people! Yay!
Disclaimer: blah, blah, blah, I don't own NCIS much to my dismay. I do, however, own any unrecognizable characters from the show. Everything else belongs to DPB and CBS.
Biology was easier than I thought it would be. In European schools, the curriculum is a lot different and a bit more difficult than American schools, so I didn't really find any of my classes difficult until I got to history fourth period. I'd never been a history person, so I always found the class a little difficult. And now I had to learn about a whole different country's history, as opposed to the history of Italy and the surrounding European countries I'd learned about my whole life. But the class wasn't so bad and I only suffered through fifty minutes a day for five days, so I could handle it.
The class I had after that was Italian, which was pretty much a joke for me. They had kept me with my grade level in all of my classes, even though I was a bit ahead academically than my classmates. I was in all of the higher classes, at the honors level, so it was enough to keep me at least a little challenged.
"Buon giorno," I heard when I walked back into my homeroom, this time for class. Mrs. Cooper greeted everyone who walked in the same way and some said it back, some just smiled though.
When someone sat down beside me, I looked up to see who it was. It was Sam.
"I did not know you took this class," I said, smiling. It was good to see a familiar face again after half a day of knowing no one.
"And this class is just an easy A for you?" she guessed. I nodded.
As class went on, I only half paid attention, answering a question when I was asked, but otherwise keeping quiet. It was a lot different from my class back home, but these kids were only in the beginning of their third year of Italian, while I was almost in my sixteenth.
When Mrs. Cooper assigned us group work from out of the book, Sam turned to me and confessed, "Okay, so I'm really not that great at Italian… Do you think you could help me out?"
I smiled at her. "Sure, what don't you understand?" I asked.
She explained what she didn't get and I told her, as painlessly as I could, how to do it and even did a few examples for her.
"So, that's it? It seemed more complicated than that," she said, looking at the answer I'd shown her.
"No, it's simple really. It's almost the same in Spanish," I said.
"Ah, that would be it. I take French. I have no idea why I take two foreign languages, I suck at both of them," she told me.
"Yeah, it is a little different in French. My French is a little rusty, but I think they do it backwards or something," I said.
"How many languages do you know?" she asked, looking at me, astonished.
"Four. And a friend of my brother's told me that she might teach me more, like Hebrew," I told her. "It is not uncommon in Europe for people, especially young people, to speak more than one language fluently."
"Wow, that's kind of cool though, there are a lot of job opportunities for people with linguistic skills," Sam said. "Like my dad; he has this weird affinity for languages. He knows like five or something like that. He's in the Army and he translates stuff for them. And when he gets deployed, he's not always gone as long."
"My brother's boss was a Marine and his friend, her name's Ziva, she's Israeli and she was in their Army, or something like that, for a while before she got the job that led her here." I didn't want to mention that my brother's co-worker used to be an assassin. Usually it makes people back away in fear, not necessarily in Tony's line of work, but normal people with normal lives. Ha. Normal. My life had been anything but normal since coming to live in the States.
"How does your brother know Ziva?" Sam asked.
"They work together," I said. Tony told me not to tell a lot of people where he worked, not because he wasn't proud of it, but because if I ever said something to the wrong person, they would know where to find him. Like if NCIS had really pissed someone off, but they didn't know who it was directly, they could get to him. I guess this was what he meant when he said he had a high risk job.
The rest of the school day was pretty boring. I met the rest of my teachers, learned nothing new, so, the usual school day. When I walked out the front doors after the last bell, I saw Tony's car parked almost right where he'd dropped me off.
"Hey," Tony said when I slid into the passenger seat. "How was your first day?"
"It was alright, I guess," I told him.
"Anything interesting happen?" he asked as he started to drive away from the school.
"Um, I have a new friend, but that pretty much covers it," I told him.
"What's this friend's name?" he asked.
"This friend's name is Sam," I said.
"Does this Sam have a last name?" Tony asked.
"Yes, she probably does," I said. "I just do not know it."
"Wait, Sam is a girl?" he asked.
"Yes…" I said. "Why do you ask?" Tony just laughed. "What?" I asked.
"God I thought guys were already hitting on you. I hate to go all big-brother on you, but I don't want that. At all. Can I tell you something about me?" he asked.
"Um, sure," I said.
"When I was your age, hell, what am I talking about, I was still this way up to a few years ago. Anyway, when I was younger, especially in high school, I hit on practically all the girls. I was known for it. And there are always guys like that at every school and I don't want you to fall into their traps," Tony told me. "You're a very pretty and very smart girl and I don't want you falling for some loser."
"I promise I will not," I said honestly and thought of my best guy friend back home, Niccolo.
"Um, okay, um, I really don't want to be the one to bring this up, but have you had the, um, talk yet?" he asked really awkwardly without looking at me.
"The talk?" I asked, feeling as though I was missing something.
"About boys?" he asked.
It was my turn to laugh. "Do not worry, Tony, you are off the hook," I told him.
He breathed a sigh of relief and muttered, "Thank God."
"I do not think God has anything to do with it. But, just so you know, I do not go after stupid boys. I left the only boy I really like in Italy, so you are all set," I said.
"What's his name?" Tony asked.
"Niccolo," I told him. "Though I do not think he likes me back."
"Can I tell you something about boys?" Tony asked. I nodded. "Boys sometimes have a hard time expressing their feelings, so they just leave the relationship where it is, whether you're friends or he doesn't know you. Sometimes you have to be the one to make the first move," he said.
"Thank you, Tony," I said.
"Hey, as long as he's worth it," Tony said.
When we got to NCIS, I went up to what Tony called the Bull Pen with him, though I was sure they were not keeping any bulls up there. He got me a chair and put it next to his desk so I could do homework and he could work on whatever he had been doing before he left. We all sat in silence until Gibbs' phone rang about half an hour later.
"Yeah, Gibbs," he answered and then listened for a little and then said, "Okay, we'll be right there."
Tony, Ziva, and McGee all looked up when Gibbs hung up. Tony was the first one to say anything. "Boss?" he asked.
"Grab your gear," was all Gibbs said. "Ziva, take Alyx down to Abby's," he said before walking to the elevator with Tony and Tim flanking him, attaching guns to their hips the same ay Ziva did and hoisting backpack over their shoulders.
"Grab your things," Ziva said to me. I quickly closed my notebook and put it into my backpack and slung it over my shoulder.
"Do you guys have another case?" I asked Ziva as we waited for the elevator that would take me to Abby's.
"Yes, we do. I am so sorry to leave you," she said as we got out of the elevator. "Abby?" she called into the lab.
"Hey, Ziva!" Abby said, coming into the front room.
"Abby, we have a case," Ziva explained.
"Say no more. Alyx can stay," Abby said.
"Thanks. I will see you both later," Ziva said, rushing out to the elevator again and jabbing at the button, as though that would make it come faster.
"So, squirt, what are we gonna do today?" Abby asked me once Ziva left.
A/N: Okay, I admit, it wasn't very long, but hey, a chapter's a chapter, right? I'm so sorry that there hasn't been an update in a while, but I've been a little busy these past few weeks. Please review and tell me favorite lines/parts/parts you didn't like/things you want to see/anything else. I'm gonna try really hard to get another chapter of this up again because I really like this fic and I have a few ideas for it! Thanks for reading guys!