Child Services

Alex left the hotel early with plenty of time to get to school. He walked slowly, doubling back on himself to make sure nobody was following him (because caution equals a longer lifespan, Alex). When he arrived at Brooklands he headed straight to tutor and sat in his empty classroom for tutor, just waiting for the day to start.

Finally the bell rang and the tutor room started to fill up. To some degree Alex wished Tom was there, but on the other hand he wasn't really feeling like talking – if there was one thing his friend would have been doing it was talking. So Alex just sat in silence, leaning against his elbow. He let the sounds of the room wash over him.

He had been spending a lot of time thinking recently. For a lot of the time he found himself back in the past; not just with the boss but back further, to his very first missions. He would close his eyes and he was standing in front of Sarov, the general holding a gun to his own head pulling the trigger. He could feel the warm blood splatter against his face and the adrenalin pounding through him. Or he would be hanging over the crocodiles, about to die, his arms burning as lactic acid built up. Every time he closed his eyes it was different.

Sometimes they weren't horrors though – he could close his eyes and find himself up in space, Earth spread out beneath him; or he would be looking out over the beautiful beaches of Cuba, a iced drink in his hand (and he could taste the sweet strawberry and feel the sun and smell the sea).

Alex had seen a lot of things. He had lived more in his life than most adults would in the entirety of theirs. In a way he was grateful – he had travelled more widely than he ever would have (because, come on, he would never have been to space if it weren't for MI6). But the pain stood out more strongly than the experiences – space was tainted by a knife fight, Cuba by murder and sharks, Africa by being hunted down… every place he had visited had involved fear and close shaves.

Worst of all was what had happened with the boss. Alex didn't know if he would ever be able to function normally after that. He just felt so broken, all the time. He flinched at contact and loud noises – there were so many things he now associated with pain. He had always thought that pain could be forgotten, but now he didn't think so; not when so many things were tainted by it.

"Alex. Alex Rider." The repetition of his name pulled Alex back into the noise. He realised the teacher was calling him, and looked up.

"I'm sorry?" Alex replied.

"You need to go and visit the headmaster, right now."

"Alright," Alex said with a sigh. He should have known – Mr Bray wouldn't have been satisfied with the way things had been left. Child services would have been contacted. He hoped that they would have just spun some rubbish and lied to Mr Bray, and that this whole thing would just go away.

As he left the room his classmates stared. Laura, who hadn't said a word to him since he had shouted at her, muttered something under her breath that sounded rather rude. Alex ignored her. He ignored the rest of the whispers too – he didn't care about what a bunch of stupid children thought. They had no idea what the world was, and their opinions were irrelevant to his life.

There was an even larger gap now between him and his classmates – the problems was that Alex felt so angry, all the time. Holding it in was a constant struggle; half of the time he just wanted to hit something. And even more deeply he could feel the hurt pushing through – he wanted to stand up and scream, let every frustration out ; he wanted to kneel on the floor and cry and scream like in a clichéd movie. He wanted to tear at the world like it had torn at him. But that wasn't an option – he had to at least try to pretend; he had to talk to the children who called themselves adults, and smile like everything was alright.

The corridors were empty and Alex took his time walking to the head's office; he didn't feel like there was any point in rushing to something that was going to be very awkward. He didn't particularly feel like dealing with social services. What could they do? They worked for the same people as MI6 – the government could not be trusted. Child services would probably take all his details, pretend they understood; then they would do some research and be told to back off – that would be the end of it. MI6 would probably make something stupid up like him being the victim of a crazed kidnapper due to his rich parents.

He arrived at the office and knocked twice sharply; he didn't want to seem afraid or nervous (never let them see weakness, Alex, or they won't pause before they tear you down).

"Come in," Mr Bray called from inside. Alex closed his eyes for a second, steadied his expression (he didn't want to seem as cold as he felt inside) and opened the door. Inside, Mr Bray was sitting at his desk – two people were sitting with their backs to Alex, and Alex assumed they were child services. They were hidden behind their chairs but he could see their legs under Mr Bray's desk. He shut the door behind him, and stepped into the room.

"You wanted to see me sir?" Alex said politely, pretending not to notice the people from child services (it was better if they thought he wasn't smart – it was always best to have people underestimate you).

"Yes, Alex. Take a seat," Mr Bray said. Alex moved forwards to the chair beside the child services people, pulling it out and sitting down (still looking down at the floor – early eye contact means you believe this deserves attention).

"mmmmm," Alex affirmed in a non committed way as he sat down.

Mr Bray took that as a positive and continued. "This is Alan and Tulip. They're from child services."

Alex froze as he realised who was in the office with him. Despite all he had done to avoid them, they had finally taken off the kid gloves; Mrs Jones and Alan Blunt were in his school office. Alex looked up into the faces of the two people who had put him in this position and he didn't even feel angry; he felt afraid.

"Hello Alex," Blunt said coldly, "I think it's time we talked. Don't you?"

And that's all for today. I hope you enjoyed this chapter. As you can tell the plot is moving forwards a bit. Alex couldn't stay away from MI6 for long after all. Some other characters are going to be introduced in a bit – but the plot is really not fixed so if you have anything you really want to happen or any characters you really like, let me know in a review! And even if you don't please review anyway because it will make me happy and let me improve and update quickly!