The way the other children were staring at her so intently made Eve more than a little uncomfortable. Ruby had laced her fingers together and was staring into her eyes. Or, well, sunglasses.
"Ok, first question, are you a spy or an assassin or an agent of enemy lines?" she asked. Eve shook her head.
"Nope. Not as far as I know anyway." she replied, unable to help the slightly sarcastic tone that seeped into her voice. She was just more than a little annoyed at being strapped down to a chair god knows where, and interrogated. It was understandable, but still annoying. Ruby seemed to notice, and glared slightly.
"Alright, that's true. Next question, if you're not a spy or an assassin or anything of that type, how did you get those skills we saw?" She asked. Eve groaned, rolling her eyes.
"My family likes having me well prepared. I've been doing martial arts and weapons training practically since I could walk. You have a tendency to get those skills when you have to do wall sits and plank for multiple hours every day with no breaks." She answered. That made the group of kids all cringe with sympathetic looks on their faces.
"Dang. Even we don't go that hard with our training usually." Matilda said. Eve shrugged.
"You get used to it after a few years." She said, waving it off.
"Okay. Truth. Next one. Did you share those photos on your phone with anybody else?" She asked.
"Yeah, one. My little sister. I was already talking to her about the weird things here before anyway." Eve replied. Ruby's eyebrows furrowed, looking at the others.
"Nobody else? How about your parents? Are you sure your sister didn't tell anybody?" She questioned tensely. Eve shook her head.
"Definitely not. Mom's too drunk off her...butt to even really hear what we have to say, or at least make any sense of it anyway. We don't tell her much of anything. And my dad is always caught up in business and crap, barely has any time to call or do any of that." She said, a slightly harsh tone in her voice.
"As for my sister, she's the most tight lipped person I've ever met." she finished. There were another few sympathetic glances from the group, although for different reasons.
"Fine then. Do you-" Ruby began, but Jackson suddenly butted in.
"Why do you say y'all?" He asked. Matilda rammed him with an elbow, making him double over in pain.
"I was gonna ask that!" She said. Eve snorted, rolling her shoulders.
"I grew up in texas, and my mom is from there too, so I picked up on it a bit." She explained. The others made a few noises of understanding, although Ruby seemed a little less than amused. She rolled her eyes, looking back at her.
"Great. Now that that's out of the way, do you-" She started, but the door on the other side of the room suddenly opened, and in stepped the janitor. Except he was wearing a sharp grey suit and held a long white cane in his hand, using it to help him hobble along. Eve raised her brows at him in a confused manner.
"And what, may I ask, are you doing?" he asked to the group. They started talking over eachother all at once, but eventually Ruby held out her hands, stopping them.
"Sorry boss, we got found out. We were interrogating the suspect." She said. The janitor glared before rubbing a hand on his face and through his hair with an exasperated look.
"Have I not told you that you can't perform interrogation without my knowledge? We've been over this." he said. More confusion piled onto Eve. She was starting to get a headache. The group and the man all began to talk at once, a flurry of attempted explanations and scoldings. Her headache began to build even more. She felt the conflicting emotions of the two parties as they argued, making her tenser by the second. She couldn't stand it. Her cool facade dropped for a moment.
"CAN EVERYONE SHUT UP AND PLEASE EXPLAIN WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON????" She cried loudly. The talking stopped immediately, all attention suddenly drawing to her. It was completely silent for a moment, as the other parties looked between the other. The janitor sighed, rubbing his face again.
"Alright. All of you, out. I'll deal with this for now. Benjamin, stay and help me." He said, waving his hands at the others. They quickly exited after he gave them all a harsh glare. He took one last, long sigh, before he looked back to Eve.
"I'm sure you're confused, so let's start at the top. My name is Mr. Brand. I am the director of the national espionage rescue and defence society. Otherwise known as the NERDS."