(Rena's POV)

I stepped out of Isaac and Keith's dorm; he had just hung up on Melody and turned in for the night. Despite it being 9pm and a Wednesday night, I had no intention of turning in for the night anytime soon.

Instead of going back to my dorm room, I turned left and began walking down the staircase. The odds of Rhythimi worrying about me not being in my bed are pretty high, so I better make sure to be back before she wakes up at 6am tomorrow morning.

I pulled out my cell phone from my pocket and hit the number one on my speed dial, holding it close to my ear as I kept walking towards the front of the school.

Ring Ring!

...

Click!

"Hello?"

"Ice, I need a favor. How fast can you get here?"

"I'd say about twenty minutes give or take, depending on traffic. ...am I going to like this...?"

"Probably not."

"You want me to do WHAT?!" Ice dropped his jaw in shock, stepping out of the limousine out front of the Ranger School.

"You heard me." I quickly ran down the front steps to the school and slipped through the bars of the front gate, meeting up with Ice on the other side. "Did you bring what I asked?"

"Well, yeah..." Ice grumbled, shoving the duffel bag I had asked him to bring into my arms. "The boss is not going to like this..."

I stepped past Ice and slipped into the back seat of the limousine. "And that's exactly why you're not going to tell him."

Ice just gawked at me, getting inside and sitting in the seat next to me. He closed the car door hard. "What?! Are you kidding me? What am I supposed to say if he asks questions?" Ice panicked, a little paranoid. "Did you even think of that?!"

"I'm a pro, of course I did." I just scoffed. "If he asks, you just tell him that we snuck out to case out the Dazzle Mansion next door in advance."

"Yeah, except that we're not doing that at all and we're going to the Gram Bell Mansion..." Ice muttered curses under his breath, crossing his arms tightly across his chest.

I tapped on the window that separated the back seat of the limousine from the driver's front half. "Drive." I commanded the driver to get going.

The roar of the engine echoed through the air, and we swiftly slipped deep into the night.

I immediately opened up the duffel bag and grabbed the black jump suit out of it, starting to change into it.

"Wah?!" Ice gawked, holding his breath. "You're just gonna change right here?!"

I stopped pulling off my sleeves half way. "Yeah? Problem?"

Ice's face reddened, and he just shook his head. He covered his face with his hand and pressed his cheek against the car's window. "You're lucky I'm a gentleman."

I just scoffed. "If that's what you call a condescending prick, then yes you are one."

"Hey!"

"What? Just saying."

"Oh would you just get dressed already!"

"I AM doing that. Yeesh..."

I zipped up the front zipper to my black jumpsuit and grabbed the black boots out of the bag, then traded them out with my Ranger School boots. Folding my school uniform and boots into the duffel bag, I set it down at the bottom of the seat and slipped a pair of black gloves over my hands. I secured my hair with a hair tie, quickly braiding it into one long braid in the back that reached my lower back. What...? My hair is long...

"Are you done yet?" Ice impatiently inquired, and his sigh fogged up the window slightly.

"No, I'm completely naked, obviously." I rolled my eyes, being completely sarcastic.

"What?!" Ice violently choked on air, making sure not to turn and look.

I just stared at him with a deadpanned glare. "Seriously? It was a joke. A JOKE."

Ice reluctantly tore his eyes away from the window and looked over at me. "Oh. I knew that."

"No you didn't." I rolled my eyes, looking down at my phone in my hands. I was typing the address into my GPS maps so I'd be able to find my way back at the end of the night.

"What are you doing...?" Ice asked, looking at my phone.

"Pulling up a map so I don't get lost on my way back." I answered, not tearing my eyes away from the phone.

"What? Don't be ridiculous." Ice snatched my phone out of my hands, turning off the GPS. "Just text me when you're done, and I'll come get you." He plopped my phone back into my hand.

I just shot him a weird look. "Are you sure...? I can just walk, y'know."

"Yes, I'm sure." Ice sighed. "There's no way I'm letting you walk all the way from Pueltown back to the Ranger School in the middle of the night..." He shook his head at me as if I was a complete dolt. "I've got your back, even if I think what you're doing is completely ridiculous and unnecessary..."

"Well..." I stared straight ahead. "I guess that's what makes you different than me." I shot him a sideways glance, folding my hands into my lap. "...thanks, by the way."

"No problem." Ice let out a stressed sigh. "I assume you're doing this for a reason that will actually benefit your plan to con Keith, right?"

I just sweatdropped. "...sure. Let's go with that."

"Are you kidding me?!"

"I think this is important, so you'll just have to trust me!"

"Fine!"

"FINE!"

"FINE!"

"...glad we agree, then."

"And by agree you mean calling me in the middle of the night to break you out of a boarding school and sneak you back in for no particular reason."

"Oh shut up."

We were dead silent for the remaining five minutes of the car ride. Ice's driver drove up to the street way out in front of the gargantuan twin mansions that were built right next to one another, and I immediately was able to determine the mansion on the left was the Gram Bell estate, meaning that Keith's place was the one on the right.

I cracked the car door open very slightly and slipped through the small crack in the door. "I'll see you in a bit, Ice."

"Don't get caught."

"I never do."

Click!

I softly shut the car door, then watched silently as the black limousine drove away. I was easily 200 yards away from the front door to the mansion, but being this far away was definitely necessary, given the fact that I somehow have to sneek past all of the security with no plan in advance.

A wrought iron and marble fence surrounded the entire estate, which connected to the fence that entrapped Keith's estate. Keith's estate was the more glamorous of the two, but they were both so fantastic they were beyond my imagination. Out front of Isaac's front gate were two security guards, and several more were patrolling the perimeter. Security cameras were placed all over the yard, and small spotlights of light traced the ground of the mansion, looking for intruders...like me.

I immediately took off running towards the left side of the mansion, making sure not to make a sound. I climbed up one tree and leapt from branch to branch on the trees that framed the outside of the fence, that way I was up in the air and out of the security guards's lines of sight. When I saw one window in particular on the east wall of the mansion with its light on, I had a hinting suspicion it was to Melody's bedroom. I leapt from the tree I was standing in onto the marble part of the fence that was just wide enough for me to stand on. I quietly ran along the fence that was twelve feet in the air, passing by a few security guards without them seeing me along the way. I soon found myself standing twenty yards away from the window, directly in front of it. The pink curtains and pink interior of the room that I could see from here reassured me that of who the bedroom belonged to, and I quickly jumped over the fence and began sprinting towards it.

I looked left, then right. I probably have about two minutes and thirty seconds before I'm spotted. I quickly grabbed a few pebbles off of the ground and started lightly bouncing them off of Melody's window, and I waited for her to take notice.

After about thirty seconds, the figure of a little girl came into view. She stared down at me, then gasped.

Melody opened the window, then stared down at me in shock. "Big...sister? What are you doing here?!"

"There's no time to explain!" I whisper-shouted to her, paranoidly glancing around me. "Can I come up?"

"Well, yeah..." Melody looked to the side. "...but I don't have rope or anything for you to climb up with."

"There's no need for that." I reassured. "Open up that window further and get out of the way!"

Melody did as I asked, and I quickly latched on to the side of the house and started climbing. Lucky for me, the sides of the house were decorated by lattice covered in vines, which was perfect for me to use as a ladder. I carefully climbed up to the second story and sat up on the window sill, then slid into Melody's room and shut the window behind me.

Melody stood in the middle of her pink-themed bedroom and stared at me in shock.

I drew the curtains and quickly started to explain myself. "You seemed really upset earlier, so I came to check on you." I sat down in a chair at her desk right next to where she was standing.

Melody took a seat on her bed. "Whoa... No one has ever done something like that for me."

I just sweatdropped. "Well, that's because besides me there's probably no one in this world crazy enough to do something like that..."

That made Melody giggle. "Oh! Hehe..." She smiled, then ushered me to come sit next to her. "You can come sit here if you want."

I just shrugged my shoulders and sat down next to Melody, trying not to die from how pink and girly everything was. "Alright. So, tell me about these kids that are picking on you."

Melody frowned. "They just don't...like me." She crossed her arms across her chest tightly. "They're always saying that I'm a spoiled little brat, and that I'm privileged, or something like that..." She trailed off.

"Hmm." I pressed my index finger to my lips. "Well, have you tried to stand up for yourself?" I asked her.

Melody shot me the weirdest look ever. "Stand up for myself...? I... I can't do that..."

"Why not?" I interjected, a little irritated. "Why can't you stand up for yourself?"

Melody sighed, then stared down at the floor. "I'm scared they'll just pick on me more..."

"Nonsense." I shook my head, crossing my arms. "If you stand up for yourself right, they won't get meaner. They'll back off and leave you alone."

Melody warily looked up at my blue eyes. "What makes you so sure?"

My confidence was slightly smothered, and Melody noticed. "I was once in your shoes."

Melody's eyes widened in shock. "What?! Really?"

I just sweatdropped, having slight flashbacks of my tough times at the orphanages. Those kids there were just horrible to me, which is probably why I got fed up and ran away when I was nine. "Yes... Why is that so shocking to you?"

"Well..." Melody was trying to figure out how to put it into words. "You're just super pretty, and really cool! I don't know why anyone wouldn't like you."

I felt a slight blush creep up on my face at hearing that. I'm...cool? Well. That's a first.

"Well..." I trailed off a little, awkwardly scratching the back of my head. "I have more bad qualities than good." I sighed, disappointed in myself. "Like, I have a really bad temper... Also, I have trouble communicating what I really feel, and I'm terrified of commitment and relationships... The list just goes on and on." I sighed again.

Melody seemed to ignore all of that and just butted right into my explanation. "But you have a good heart."

...

What?

Now it was my turn to stare at her with a wide-eyed expression. "What...?"

"You do!" Melody smiled brightly at me, catching me off guard. "You just met me, and you came all the way over here just to see if I was ok!" Melody abruptly hugged me, catching me off guard. "You're the best big sister EVER! Thanks for coming to see me! It gets really lonely without big brother sometimes..."

I suddenly felt myself awkwardly wrapping my arms around the kid currently hugging me. "Uh-umm... No...problem." I stared down at the little girl, and I couldn't keep the smile that was creeping up onto my lips off of my face. I found myself absentmindedly running my fingers through her long blonde hair, enduring the vice-grip hug she was giving me. "Now, here's what you do about those bullies..."

I ended up staying with Melody a few more hours than I had intended, coaching her on how to stand up for herself. We spent the whole time together laughing and enjoying ourselves, having a pretty good time.

You know, maybe kids aren't so bad as I once thought.

"So how did it go?" Ice asked me, stepping into the limousine once again and shutting the car door.

As we began to drive off back towards the Ranger School, I stared straight ahead as I spoke. "Pretty good. I got done what it was that I wanted to accomplish."

Ice stared at me for a good minute. "Rena, I'm starting to worry about you." Well, that caught my attention. I turned to look at Ice, and a little worry was written across his face. "You're acting recklessly, and I'm worried you're growing soft because this job is getting to you."

I just scoffed. "Don't be stupid, I'm not growing soft. This job is not getting to me." Well, at least I think it's not...

Ice didn't really seem to buy it. "I'm just worried about what the boss will do if you fail him."

I just gulped. "Well... That's exactly why I'm not going to fail."

Ice's eyes grew wide in shock. "...so you're still going through with the job?"

"Of course." I turned my head to look at him, being completely serious. "That was the plan in the first place, after all."

Although I really don't want to hurt Keith and the others, there is just this one thought in the back of my mind that's really bugging me...

I'm definitely in way too deep to back out now.

^-^ done~! Even when sick, I still write for you guys. You're lucky I love you all XD

Guess what?

...this book is exactly 1/2 over 0-0

XD... I started writing it a month ago, and half the book is finished. Damn.

Well, time to get back to writing for me!

Read, review, and enjoy ^-^