This chapter will be the past week from Rose's POV. Please review!
I don't own MI High.


Rose came to slowly, her head swimming and a mental fog clouding her thoughts. The first thing she noticed was that the bed she was lying on was a lot more comfortable than she was used to - then the events of the afternoon came rushing back to her and her eyes snapped open as she tried to figure out where she was. Quickly taking in her surroundings, Rose could see that she was in some kind of infirmary, although almost definitely not in a hospital - there was a complete lack of the sharp, offensive smell of disinfectant that characterized hospitals, and the bed was far wider and more comfortable than a hospital would be able to afford.

In the middle of her contemplation of the room, a door swung open to admit a woman in a long black doctors coat, with her blonde hair pulled up into a neat bun and heavy black makeup. When this woman saw that Rose was awake, she smiled, before walking over to the opposite wall and pressing a large button on it. "Finally awake I see. Poor girl, who left you lying on the pavement with a broken leg? They can't be very good friends - I have to say that from the x-ray it doesn't look like a natural break either..." Rose remained silent, observing the woman as she walked around the room adjusting things here and there. "Just as Helly said - you are a quiet one, aren't you? Never mind. The doctor will be along shortly to have another look at your leg, young lady." With that, the woman turned and walked out of the room again.

Rose lay on the large bed, her mind working through what must have happened. She must have fainted from the pain of Max flicking her broken leg, and the gang must have left her on the pavement. Then somebody must have found her - not somebody from the orphanage, as this was definitely not the infirmary at Penhallows, but seemingly not somebody from the village either, as it didn't look at all like a hospital - and if it was, she wouldn't have been given a private room. The people here had already x-rayed her leg, and somebody had told them about her - Helly. This could easily be a shortened version of 'Helena', which was Miss Franklin's first name, but she didn't want to jump to conclusions.

At this point, a man who was also wearing a long black doctors coat entered the room. "Ah, Rose. My name is Dr Stevens, and I'll be looking after that leg of yours. But first, you must have a lot of questions, and it is important that you feel safe and comfortable or you might fight the sedative we will have to put on you, as your leg is unfortunately going to need an operation. So, fire away."

Very quietly, Rose asked "Sir, where am I?" It was important that Dr Stevens thought of her as everybody else in the mission did - quiet, withdrawn, shy, and definitely no spy training.

"Good question. You are at a private medical clinic that is very well-funded and will look after you until you are ready to return to the orphanage."

"Sir, why didn't I go to the local hospital? I can't afford private treatment, and neither can Penhallows..."

The doctor looked very slightly uncomfortable. "Well..." he stuttered, "A ... benefactor who saw you in the village decided to pay for your treatment. Now that your questions are answered," he rushed straight on, "I'm afraid we're going to have to drug you for the operation. Don't worry, the operation isn't long and you won't feel a thing, but now I'm going to need you to relax. You can do that for me, can't you?" When Rose nodded in response, he walked over to a drawer in the table by her bed and pulled it open, revealing many doctor's tools. Choosing a long syringe, Dr Stevens ripped open the sterilised packaging and returned to next to the bed. Rose helpfully pushed up her sleeve, baring her forearm, and the doctor nodded his thanks before injecting the anaesthetic into her vein. The room started to swim, and Rose dropped once more into a deep sleep.


The anaesthetic wore off slowly, and the first thing that Rose was aware of after the injection was a low muttering coming from the end of her bed. Aware that she had company, Rose tried to throw of the grogginess that was a side effect of the general anaesthetic, peeling open her eyes and clearing the heavy fog in her brain. She was aware of a dull ache in her leg, which was encased in heavy plaster, but it wasn't nearly as bad as it had been when it was broken - Rose knew that all the pins were in and the bone was on the road to mending, which was great. She didn't want it affecting the mission more than it had to - after all, if this mission was withdrawn for any reason she would be off active duty for ages while it healed.

Finally, full consciousness returned and Rose could make out who were standing in the room with her. Raising her head slightly, she saw both the blonde nurse and Dr Stevens, as well as a very tall woman with long red hair. This woman was striking - she towered over the two other staff, her hair didn't look dyed at all and easily reached past her back meaning that if she had desired to sit on it she could have done so with ease, and she was wearing a lot of silver jewelery. With a jolt, Rose realised that on her right hand, which was holding a clipboard, there was a collection of rings set with many different stones, and that one bore a familiar ensigna - the skull that stood for everything she and her teams had been fighting against.

That was when Rose fully knew that SKUL had kidnapped her - forget any 'benefactors'. Nevertheless, Rose Patel would never have recognised the symbol...but maybe she would...after all, the Grand Master did enter a general election. Deciding that knowing the name of the organisation would not be out of character for the intellect that she was emulating, Rose asked quietly "Excuse me, but is that the same sign that the Grand Master had? The person in the general election?"

Looking startled as they realised she was awake, Dr Stevens and the nurse rushed over, asking a flurry of questions as to how she felt, whether there was any pain, et cetera. But the red haired woman didn't move from the spot, regarding Rose with an impressed expression on her face. "Oh, the girl's evidently fine now. Leave us alone to talk," she suddenly snapped out at the other two, who immediately went out of the room when she asked them to. "Now then," she said, lowering herself gracefully into the chair by Rose's bed, "In answer to our question, yes, this," she held up the ring and also pulled a necklace bearing the sign out from under her jumper, "is the sign of SKUL. I'm very impressed that you recognised it - not many girls your age feel the need to follow the general election."

"I like politics," said Rose quietly, acting pleased that the woman was impressed.

"As well as science, I hear. On reliable information I am told that you are incredibly clever, Miss Rose. Is that true?"

"Well, I like to read a lot, so I know a few facts."

"More than a few, I believe. But you must wonder how I know of you?" When Rose nodded, the woman got up and moved over to an intercom system on the wall. "Would Helena please report to the medical room. Repeat, would Helena please come to the medical room immediately." Then she sat down again. Rose looked at her questioningly, but the woman merely shook her head with a small smile.

Then there was a knock at the door, before it opened to reveal Miss Franklin in another long black coat. The enthusiastic young science teacher nodded at Rose, who was looking surprised that her teacher was part of a political party - that was all Rose Patel knew about SKUL, after all - before turning respectfully to the red haired woman. "You wanted me, Stephanie?"

"Yes, would you please explain to Rose here what is going on? The poor girl looks incredibly confused as to why her science teacher is also part of a political party."

"Of course, Tess," said Miss Franklin, moving over to sit on the end of Rose's bed. "Well, Rose, SKUL found you lying on the street, unconscious and with a broken leg, and they brought you back here, to their headquarters, so that you could have proper medical care. Of course, they don't so this to every person they find that needs medical attention - our funds need to be directed to other purposes than running an hospital - but you are rather special. I'm talking, of course, about your intelligence. At the age of 14 you are clearly already far cleverer than anybody at the orphanage, including the teachers, and myself! SKUL were very interested when I told them about you, and they asked me if I thought you would mind coming in for a chat. I was planning on asking you the next science lesson, but when my team and I saw you in the village we knew that it would serve our interest to bring you back here. I hope you don't object, but here at SKUL you will get much better treatment and we also have an offer to make you."

Here, Stephanie interrupted Miss Franklin. "You see, Rose, SKUL needs help. Our operations are not running as well as they used to - we have the brawn, but not the brains, you might say. The Grand Master needs intelligent people to help plan and run his operations, and although you are so young, when Helena here brought you to our attention we thought it would be worth seeing if you were willing."

"But wait..." said Rose, "wait a second...isn't SKUL criminal? That's what the media were saying after the Grand Master stepped down..."

"Yes, Rose, SKUL do have many criminal operations running. But here, we would really value your cleverness. Are you valued at Penhallows?"

"No," whispered Rose.

"Do Max, Oscar and the rest of them think you are worth anything?" asked Miss Franklin.

"Worth anything? I'm nothing to them," replied Rose with a slightly angry edge to her voice.

"Well then, Rose, would you like to prove to Max and Oscar that you are worth a lot to many people?" continued Stephanie.

"Yes, I would," said Rose, her voice stronger. "They don't respect me. It's not my fault that I like to read and am cleverer than they will ever be."

"Quite right," Stephanie said, an edge of triumph lacing her words, "quite right. It's shocking, really, how little they really know about you. So can I report that you are willing to give SKUL a try? You will, of course, have the option to back out or leave us at any point, but that would be very disappointing - we need you, Rose."

"Yes," said Rose. "Nobody's ever needed me before. I'll give it a try."


For the rest of the week, Stephanie and Miss Franklin visited Rose every day. She had to stay in bed for most of the week to allow her broken leg time to heal, but didn't mind this at all - they brought her new books every day, which she devoured, and also puzzles, tests and quizzes to keep her occupied. Whenever Stephanie - who was clearly in charge of the Penhallow Operation, as she called it, visited, she would bring some kind of problem that SKUL needed solving - such as the most strategic way to enter a building. Then, five days after Rose woke up at SKUL, she managed to get Stephanie to reveal where the base was located. "Well, to allow ease of access to the orphanage, Rose, we are actually located underneath it. You know the door with no door handle in the school building on the first floor? The hole where the door handle used to go is actually a DNA coded lock. You have to insert a hair into it, and it reads your DNA and either lets you into the lift, or sparks an alarm down here." Rose was shocked at the similarities between the set up beneath Penhallows and the one under St Hopes. Once she was allowed to hobble around using crutches, she was taken to the main operating room. Here, she was shown the school-wide surveillance system that SKUL had set up.

To impress Stephanie and maybe get some revenge, on the sixth day Rose hacked into the security system and had some fun with Max. While he was walking back to his dorm block with his gang all around him, Rose sparked a pipe to burst just as he passed, drenching him in water. He ran all the way back, while Rose and Stephanie laughed down in SKUL HQ. Then on the last day, Stephanie showed Rose the inventing room. Here, there were all the instruments and materials that anybody could need to create a new gadget. Stephanie left Rose there to explore, and when she came back at the end of the day she was shocked to find Rose still in there, having created from scratch a pair of goggles that allowed the wearer to detect laser beams such as the ones used in security systems.

After that, Stephanie worked even harder to try and persuade Rose to join SKUL permanently. Rose acted more and more enthusiastic each time the subject was brought up, which was about once every 10 minutes. At the end of the day, however, Stephanie pointed out that Rose would have to return to Penhallows the next day or people would wonder what had happened. Sighing, Rose agreed as though she was really disappointed to leave, although in reality she couldn't wait to see Oscar ... her team again. Stephanie spent the rest of the evening filling her in as to what her cover story was - basically just that she had gone to hospital.

When Rose returned to the ground floor of Penhallows for the first time in a week, she made her way immediately to the dining hall, as she would miss dinner if she went all the way up to her room first. Miss Moscow intercepted her before she could get there, however, and after asking how she was and whether she was feeling alright, proceeded to walk with her to the hall. When they entered, a dead silence fell over the room. Rose knew exactly what had caused it, and looked at the floor, embarrassed at the attention - after all, she was used to being invisible to everybody at Penhallows. Then she heard a high voice break the silence. "Well, isn't anybody going to help her?" Chancing a glance up, Rose saw Daisy walking quickly and gracefully up the hall, to the shock of everybody. Then Daisy embraced her, before pretty much ordering everyone to go back to what they were doing before.

Rose sat with Daisy, Carrie and their friends for the whole of dinner. They were all very enthusiastic about making friends - the difference between her secluded table in the corner and the table that was considered 'the popular table' was enormous. After, all the girls walked her back to her room, on the pretext of carrying her bag but in reality to protect her from Max and Oscar. When they reached the room, Daisy and Carrie came in with her, and immediately started asking her questions about where she had been. Hearing a voice outside that didn't belong to any of the girls, however, Rose instead allowed herself to be pushed gently onto the bed, before the door opened.

Oscar stood in the doorway for a split second before jumping forwards, but this split second was enough for Rose's breath to catch in her throat as she realised just how much she'd missed him. Then all sight was obscured as he hugged her gently, avoiding her cast leg. After too short a time, Daisy and Carrie pushed him away, and repeated their questions as to what had happened. Resolving to talk to Oscar later on, when they had left, Rose began her story of the past week.

Ooh, does Rose have a little crush on Oscar? Wait till next chapter to find out!
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