An Awkward Move

When I woke up on the morning of the second missions meeting I would attend, there was an envelope inside my room. Someone had obviously pushed it under the door while I was asleep. As I wiped my eyes, I opened the letter inside and read it.

Dear Ms. Fronter,

Since you have been assigned to a partner, it is evident that you will soon be leaving your living arrangements at the safehouse you currently live in, and moving into your partner's abode. This letter is to inform you that this move will be taking place in just over three weeks, so please be prepared to move all of your personal belongings at that time. Your new home is apartment 035, and the pass code to get inside is 356AF, plus a fingerprint scan. Your fingerprints have already been scanned into the apartment so that you may enter at any time. Please feel free to visit the house before your move date; we would like you to do anything that would make you feel more comfortable. We understand that it may be awkward living with someone of the opposite gender, but we are confident that all will work out fine. Good luck in your move and future missions!

Sincerely,

The Council Members

Great. Another reminder of how my life was going to be very awkward in just a few short weeks.

I got up and began to stretch, a recently added portion to my daily morning routine. I found that it helped with the soreness a little bit. After brushing my teeth and hair, putting on clothes, and applying makeup, I went downstairs and popped some toast. Unfortunately, Daniel wasn't here to make another good breakfast. The house was still very quiet. The boys almost never woke up before eight on their own.

I smeared some smooth peanut butter onto my toast, wrapped it in a paper towel, and left through the hallway. As I walked and munched, I listened for footsteps, indicating that I was not alone in the hallway. Thankfully, none sounded and I ate in silence. Once I entered the school, I headed for gym since that was where Zach and I had decided to meet before the meeting.

As I neared the gym doors, I saw Zach leaning against the wall. He stood up straight when he saw me and waited for me to reach him.

"Morning!" I said as I stopped next to him.

"Good morning," He responded. "Are you ready to go?"

I nodded and we began moving off towards the large council room. We walked through the main hallway of classrooms to an elevator that Zach had to punch a code into. The doors slid smoothly open and we entered the large elevator. I saw the two female partners outside the doors and held open the doors for them.

"Thanks hon," The pretty brunette said to me. She turned to Zach and gave him a wide smile, "Heya stranger."

Zach gave her a small smile back, "Hey, long time no see."

"I understand," She said, flipping her hair back. "You've been busy." Here, she tossed me a look.

I decided that I didn't like the flirty, attractive brunette who was making eyes at my partner.

"Tiff," The brunette's blonde-haired partner said. "Concentrate."

"Tiff" gave Zach one last smile and turned to face the doors of the elevator. I glared at the back of her head as the elevator quickly descended further into the ground.

When the doors slid open again, Tiff looked back and gave Zach a little wave.

"See you around," She said with a wink.

"Bye guys," The blonde lady said.

While all four of us stepped out of the elevator, Tiff and her partner branched off to the left while we turned to the right.

"This week, they're on info duty," Zach said as we made our way through the dark hallway. "It's their turn to go out and collect information on specific targets. Once you've graduated, we will be given that duty as well."

I nodded and we continued our walk in silence. When we reached the meeting room, we once again found a place in the back and waited for our names to be called. This time, our names were called with everyone else's, and we were given only one mission.

On Friday evening, Zach had let me go from training a little early since we would be leaving for our mission the next day. I quickly took a shower and packed my stuff for the trip and found that I had nothing to do since all the boys except James were all still at class. James was apparently napping. I decided that it was about time I went to visit Zach's apartment and see what my future living space would look like. Hopefully, it wouldn't be a bad time for Zach, and he would just be busy packing, or maybe not even in the apartment.

I found the number tacked onto our small refrigerator for our safehouse matron and called it with our house phone.

"Miss Rachel speaking," A voice said on the line. "How may I help you?"

"Hi," I said. "This is Ally Fronter from safe house 012. In less than a month I will be moving to my partner's apartment and the council members said that I was welcome to visit the apartment now, but I don't know how to get to them."

"Hold on one second Ally," Miss Rachel said. "Give me a second to verify your information."

I heard typing in the background before Miss Rachel came back on the line, "Alright, I would be happy to give you the information but I need you to come into the matron's office so that we can confirm that it's you we are giving the information to. Please bring some sort of identification to our office. Our office is right next to the entrance to safe house 006. Feel free to visit us whenever you like."

"Great," I said. "I'll be there soon. Thanks!"

I grabbed my purse with my wallet inside and slipped out into the hallway. This time, I turned the opposite direction of the school and began counting down as doorways passed by. In between door seven and six, there was a door with a lock code pad above the door handle. Above the numbers, it said "S-house lock."

Our house had a pad like this one on the inside and outside of the door to get into this hallway that we always had to enter our special number into in order to get through it. I quickly typed in ours: 4208. The door clicked and I opened it and went inside.

There was a large couch with a coffee table sitting right in front of me. To the right, there were a few desks and chairs, one of which Miss Rachel was sitting at.

"Ally, can you come here please?" She asked, waving me over.

I walked over to her and sat down in the chair in front of her desk.

"You've grown a lot since they took the picture they have in the system right now," Miss Rachel said, smiling at me. "You've grown up quite well."

"Thank you," I said quietly, hoping she would get to the directions quickly.

"As you probably know, the location of the apartments is very secretive since we don't want students wandering over there on accident," Miss Rachel said. At my nod, she continued.

"So what I am going to tell you now, you cannot tell to anyone else, understand?" She said. I nodded once more.

"Alright," Miss Rachel said, taking in a deep breath as if she was about lay a large burden on me. "I assume you know how to get to the council room. You have to head as if you were going to the council room. Only, you go past it and keep going until the corridor dead ends into two pathways: left and right. If you go right, you end up at our underground training centers. If you turn left, you will see a bathroom and an elevator. You must take this elevator to get to the apartments. The password for this elevator is the same password as the one to get into your apartment, plus a fingerprint scan. Once inside, click the only other button on the side of the elevator. It will take you to the hallway to get into the apartments. The doors have numbers on them so you should be able to find yours very easily. Can you remember all that?"

I nodded and stood up, "Thank you for your help Miss Rachel. I'll be on my way now."

"Of course," She said, smiling at me. "I hope you don't get lost!"

"Thanks," I said, and walked back into the hallway.

My trip was fairly easy until I saw the first elevator I would have to ride in. It was then that I remembered that I didn't know the password to get into this elevator. I began to slow my walk as I considered my options. Should I go back to Miss Rachel? Should I just wait for another time?

When I saw that a guy walking ahead of me was heading straight for the elevator, I sped up, hoping I would be able to catch a ride. He punched in the password and got into the elevator. When he saw me coming towards him, he held the door open for me.

"Thanks!" I said, glad that everything had worked out so well.

"No problem," The guy said. "Hey, you're Zach's new partner, right?"

I looked at him fully for the first time, "Yeah hi, I'm Ally." He was actually pretty cute.

"I'm Jake," He said, extending his hand. "Nice to meet you finally."

"Nice to meet you too," I said, smiling at him.

"You know, you're kind of a legend, and you haven't even graduated yet," He said, grinning back at me.

"What do you mean?" I said.

"Well, you've been placed with a partner of the opposite gender, something that is done very rarely, and you're only seventeen," Jake said. "The other two women who were assigned to men partners had already been with partners and were very experienced. You are the start of a new age."

I was kind of stunned. I hadn't realized that my partnership had caused such a stir in the slayer world.

"I didn't realize that," I said, not really sure how to respond.

"Let me tell you, there are a lot of guys beating themselves up over not getting you as their partner," Jake said. "I can see why."

I smiled at his flirtation, "And that is probably why none of them were assigned to a girl in the first place."

"Ah yes," Jake said. "Supposedly, they choose Zach because they think he can keep his libido in check." He gave me an appraising look, "We'll see about that."

Thankfully, the doors slid open and put an end to our conversation.

"Well, once again, it was nice meeting you," Jake said. "I'll see you around?"

"Yeah," I said quietly. "See you around."

Jake turned left while I kept to the right. I walked straight to the end of the long hall and turned left, as Miss Rachel had directed me. There was, as she said, an elevator at the end with a keypad and fingerprint pad. I quickly typed in 356AF and place my thumb on the finger pad. After a few seconds of whirring, the doors to the elevator opened and I stepped inside.

The doors shut quickly and, once I pushed the apartment-floor button, the elevator shot up. When the doors opened again, my mouth dropped open in awe. While the pre-graduate slayers were stuck with dark and dreary halls, the fully-trained slayers were treated with more light and painted yellow walls and cappuccino brown carpet. There were even pictures and paintings on the walls, making me feel like I was walking into a hotel hallway. The first apartment door came up on my left. It said APT 1, APT 2, APT 3. I guess I was going to have to walk a ways to get to my apartment.

I passed by one pair of guys who each gave me a smile and a nod. I smiled back and kept moving. The passage was never truly straight because there was no way the school would be able to maintain enough apartments in a straight line. I had to pick my way through a couple forks and turns before I finally found myself in front of the door saying APT 34, APT 35, APT 36.

I punched in the code and scanned my finger as I had at the elevator, and the door unlocked. I opened it and poked my head inside. This wasn't the door to the apartment, but rather the door to the hallway that contained the door to my apartment. I realized that I was under a staircase. I crept into the stair well. Opposite of the stairs I had been under was a door that probably went outside. It also had a keypad and finger pad.

I went up the stairs and saw that this door was labeled "34". 35 must be on the next floor. I went up another set of stairs and saw the door to my future apartment. I paused before it and just waited for a minute. I didn't hear any sounds of movement inside the apartment. I knocked lightly. No answer. He must not be in the apartment at the moment. Well, as long as I didn't mess with his things, he probably wouldn't mind if I just checked out the apartment.

I bit my lip, weighing my choices. I had come all this way. I might as well go inside. My fingers hovered over the keypad in another second of hesitation. And then they typed, and my finger was scanned, and I heard the door unlock. I opened it slowly.

The first thing on the left was a living room area with a TV and couch. It was decorated very tastefully in greens and browns. Behind the large couch was a dinner table with four chairs around it. There was also a little kitchen on the other side of the table. Even though the sink had a few piled dishes inside, the kitchen was pretty clean. On the right, there was an open door which, I discovered, was the bathroom. I was about to move to the two closed doors further into the apartment when I heard a very feminine laugh. I froze, staring at the room the noise had come from.

Before I could move, the door swung open and a woman dressed in a towel came out, looking back into the room. When she turned towards me, I immediately recognized her as Tiff. She stopped walking and her smile disappeared.

"What are you doing in here?" She asked snidely, quickly pulling her towel tighter around her body.

I was speechless for a moment. I was about to ask her the same question. Then Zach appeared.

"Hey can you—," He broke off, seeing me standing there. He looked gorgeous, as always, and he was also only wearing a towel, which made me blush even more.

We both stared at each other, our mouths slightly open. I don't think either of us could believe the current situation.

"Ally," Zach said, still looking confused.

I took one more look at Tiff and then turned around and walked out of the apartment. I sprint-walked down the stairs and through the hallways, stopping only for keypads. How could I possibly face him tomorrow? We were about to go on a mission, but how would it work if I wanted to avoid him as much as possible?

"Ally!" I heard Zach call just as the first set of elevator doors slid shut. Once I was in the council room hallway, I sprinted to the other side, hoping that Zach wouldn't be close enough to catch me. I certainly earned some strange looks from a few slayers walking around. I knew that once I was at my house, I would be safe because Zach didn't know the password to get inside. So once I was out of the main school area and into the hallway to the safe houses, I started to sprint again. God knew what I was going to do tomorrow.