argh I know! I'm a very horrible person for not updating sooner! I solemly swear to try harder! =) but I have been doing this very strange thing, lately, called reading. Yup, so I've read Inheritance now (if you guys haven't read it, or any of the other ones in the inheritance cycle, you toatlly should- they're awesome. The movie isn't though. That's crap. "It's an egg!" no shit, eragon! give yourself a clap on the back you moron!) and then i read the first in the Morganville thignamoboby series, but i cant read the second cos my friend is still reading it -_- then i had to read this book of a friend called Small Blue Thing (the book, not the friend) which was really hard to get into and really quite pathetic. It did pick up more towards the end, but there were other books I woul rather have been reading- like the rangers apprentice 7-10 that all came out at pretty much the same time in england; ie; nowhere near my birthday and a couple of months before Christmas- the exact point where I've run out of money to buy all of the books I really want to get -_-

this was why i liked the skulduggery pleasant seriies- THEY CAME OUT IN APRIL! ISNT THAT AMAZING! but now they don't -_- now they come out in september like everyother unoriginal book in the world... eternal hate...

anywho, rant about when books come out aside, here's some more of the story =)=)=)

Chapter 67~Emma

I trudged home, feeling downhearted. My first day, and already I was feeling sick of it here. Paula, I decided, was the most annoying, horrible person I had ever met in the whole entirety of my mostly fortunate life.

After Geography, although it had been the last lesson of the day, and other people had a life outside of school, Paula and her pack of hyenas had stalked Sophie, Jan, Tina and I around the school. From our form room, where we'd sorted out our books, to the small after school club the school had, which no one seemed to actually go to apart from Tina, Jan and Sophie, to the library, where we'd gone after fifteen minutes of angrily trying to ignore the loud giggling all around us, then to the computer room (Jan needed to make a poster on the computer), to the form room once again, to drop off our remaining books, and then all the way to the school gate!

It was ridiculous! And how could any set of girls giggle for that long? It must've been over an hour! The lot of them deserve medals for the amount of loud, annoying, off-putting giggling they did. And maybe a slap for it, too.

God, it was soooooo annoying! I stomped onwards, having decided that catching a bus would only make me feel more annoyed, since everyone stared at me weirdly 'cos I wasn't American. The streets were still pretty busy, although it was about half five-ish now. My stomach grumbled hungrily so I walked a bit faster.

I arrived back in one piece, and dunked my school bags in my room before coming downstairs to help Mel- I mean- Yvonne and Chloe make dinner, since the men of the Hestford family seemed incapable of cooking. Lee/Tam sat and attempted to chop carrots while talking to us.

Apparently, he'd made an appearance at school, and spotted his target; Nathaniel Farrow. However, the guy was amazingly popular, and didn't seem to have noticed him at all. But that was what everyone had expected; that was why Mel and I were here; we were supposed to set up a meeting for the two of them, using Nathaniel's sisters, Sophie and Danielle, as an excuse of some sort. We hadn't got planned much on what we could do to set up a meeting good enough to get Chloe's permission, but then, I'd only been friends with Sophie a day, and Mel hadn't even met Danielle yet.

Mel was going to be the main person in this part of our 'operation', I was just a backup, and I couldn't get myself too involved- it would be a bit suspicious if three kids the exact same age as Sophie. Nathaniel and their sister Danielle moved here and all of them made friends with each other. I was going to be just a general friend to Sophie, Tina, Jan and maybe a few other people in my class. Mel and Lee would be trying to be best friends with Nathaniel and Danielle.

Nathaniel was the most important out of the three children, however. Their father- the one we wanted to 'bring to justice'- was going, as every other man in their family before him had, to hand down the family business to the eldest son. A daughter had never yet managed to inherit the family business. Which, Mel, Chloe and I totally agree, is sexist.

However, Lee argues that its traditional, and it's not exactly his or Nathaniel's fault, is it? So we're not allowed to complain in front of him. Frank doesn't seem entirely bothered by it all, but the guy doesn't seem entirely bothered by anything, really. Apart from hovering. Let me tell you, Frank Hestford is a man obsessed.

So if we wanted to get to Gareth Farrow, the big cheese of his little family empire, our best bet was Nathaniel. Gareth would obviously be teaching Nathaniel some stuff about their family business, but the question was whether or not Nathaniel, if he and Lee became good friends, would tell Lee about it.

So, basically, Lee was main in this mission, Mel was the side-kick and I was the backup. But that was all fine; it meant I had plenty of time to spend on finding Mum. I talked to Chloe and the others about it, suggesting that I could go and check out the house she was supposed to be staying in- Meryl had given me the address. Chloe had told me I could do whatever I wanted, but I couldn't approach her until A) I knew that she wasn't likely to tell the whole world that I was her daughter and B) I was sure that no one who would recognise me saw me talking to her. Both would most probably blow my cover completely, therefore it would screw the rest of us too.

So I was planning to go tomorrow, and have a look around. I hoped this wasn't all a complete waste of time, and that Meryl had sent me on a wild goose chase. It would suck to have gotten my hopes up so much, and then for them to be crushed. Because I don't think there was any other trace of my Mum that I could follow. If she wasn't here, I'd probably never see her again.

I realised how screwed our situation was; our Dad wasn't dead, which meant that there had to be some point where we found him eventually. And then I'm not sure he would be so keen on letting us stay here and become secret agents. And if I found Mum, too, then that would mean we were officially not orphans and had parents who wanted us back. Would CHERUB allow us to stay still? Or would we have to go back to our normal-ish lives? I knew the rules- no contact with people outside of CHERUB. So would we be allowed an exception? Would we still be able to meet up with all of our friends?

I had no clue what would happen to our lives, and I hated that. I guess no one likes not being in control of what happens to their own lives. There were so many questions and so many 'if's and 'maybe's right now. I didn't know what would happen if we found Mum and Dad. I just know that I have to try to get them back, because, well, they're my Mum and Dad, and, well, families, even ones as messed up as ours seemed to be, should stick together through everything. Otherwise, how can you call them your family?

Shaking my head to clear myself of my overly-deep thoughts, I turned back to peeling the potatoes- we were making Shepherd's Pie.

The others were talking animatedly about all the possible ways to hide or destroy the dreaded hover Frank was obsessed with. It was actually quite a funny conversation, and some of the ideas were so insane they were worthy of Anna.

Finally, the Shepherd's Pie was ready, so we dished it out and sat down to enjoy it. Frank wouldn't be back until ten, Chloe had told us, so we were able to talk more freely about CHERUB- mostly, though, it was just Lee complaining that the food there was so much better than this, and Chloe telling him that if he didn't like it, he could always quit the mission and go back to CHERUB. Lee shut up complaining so much after that. Of course it helped that Mel and I pointed out several times that he had only chopped the carrots so tomorrow he could cook everything, and see if it tasted any better.

After we'd finished, we nominated Lee to do the washing up and headed upstairs to our different rooms. Sophie had told me that the teachers never collected in their homework, or were bothered about it if you didn't do it, so there was no real point in doing it, unless it was for a project, or work you were supposed to be doing in lessons, in which case, I should, apparently do as much as possible so I could do nothing all lesson. I decided to take her advice and leave my homework. I couldn't be bothered to do any of it anyway- it was stuff I'd covered already at my old school anyway, back before CHERUB.

I rang Anna, for want of something better to do, mentally calculating what time it would be in England. To my annoyance, she didn't pick up; her mobile was off, apparently. I was at loss with what to do. There were no friends a couple of rooms away, no one to hang out with until ten every night, no one I really wanted to talk to here. I had no clue what to do right now. I had no clue what I'd done with my life before CHERUB, either, apart from study and do work. I was going to have to work on getting a life.

I brooded darkly about my now non-existent social life for a few minutes before picking up a few things and heading out. Screw it all, I thought, checking the time. Only six o'clock. There was a swimming pool about a mile away- seven or eight minutes if I jogged- which would still be open, and I decided that I may as well work on keeping my fitness at the same level, as well as improving my swimming.

"I'm heading out to the swimming pool," I yelled as I grabbed my keys off the counter and opened the door, "Be back in about an hour," I shut the door and headed off, counting the coins in my pocket and hoping I had enough money to get in.

Fifteen minutes later, I was in, changed and sitting at the side of the swimming pool, dangling my legs in the water. It was amazingly warm. Much warmer than that hideous lake we'd had to swim as part of the assault course in Basic Training. I slipped into the water and started swimming. I was still appalling at swimming, but I was definitely improving on what I'd used to be like. I no longer almost-drowned and I was getting the weird breathing techniques right. I wasn't doing that badly.

I did thirty laps- it took me an hour and a half, although I'm not sure whether that's good or bad, then got out and got changed. The pool closed at eight, anyway, so I wouldn't have had much longer anyway. I was slightly ashamed at how tired I was feeling. I guess swimming took more energy than I had realised, and I probably had been getting lazy during my brief stay at campus.

I arrived home three quarters of an hour later, having decided to walk back slowly. I was not really in any hurry to get back home where I'd be bored to death within minutes. I decided that missions weren't really all they were set out to be.

Chapter 68~Emma

The next morning it was painful to get up. My alarm clock blared for a full five minutes, right in my ear while I hid under my duvet, until Mel got sick enough of hearing it that she turned it off and dragged me out of bed. I splashed my face with cold water to wake up properly, then dragged on a fresh pair of jeans and a t-shirt. I padded downstairs and helped myself to a cup of orange juice and some cereal, muttering a brief greeting to Chloe who was nursing a cup of coffee and looking half asleep still. Frank was hovering in the other room. Mel was miming strangling him. Lee had headed off already.

I didn't hang around at home for too long- I was running late after my sleep in, and I didn't want to be late on my second day at school! I shouldn't had been so worried, though; some moron sixth former- or 12th grader or whatever you American's call them- had set the fire alarm off by burning some toast in the toaster, so the whole school was in chaos when I arrived.

I made my way through the crowd and found Tina and Jan. Sophie was nowhere in sight.

"Hey guys," I waved as I elbowed my way some rather rude- and absolutely terrifying- year seven's, who yelled abuse after me.

Jan and Tina waved back and started towards me. Both of them were obviously trying not to laugh.

"We just saw Paula over there," Tina explained, seeing my confused face and waving randomly to the left.

"Her hair got singed in the fire! She's livid! Not to mention her eyebrows have been burnt off completely! And her makeup bag's still in the building that's on fire," Jan laughed.

I joined in. I'm not usually one to laugh at something like that, but Paula really did seem to deserve it. It was good to know that fate hadn't let her get away entirely unscathed. Sophie found us a few minutes later, looking slightly hassled, but cheered up immediately at the news about Paula.

"That's brilliant!" She shrieked with laughter, causing several people around us to give us weird looks, "That is pure genius! I need to hug the person who burnt that slice of toast! It's even better than the time that they hid Ms Taylon's keys! Brilliant!" She cackled.

I looked to Tina, "Who is Ms Taylon?" I asked.

"She's the Geography teacher, but she's evil and really strict. Last year some of them went around the school 'redecorating' and hid her keys," Tina supplied, an amused glint in her eyes.

"Did they have a death wish or something?" I asked, astounded.

"Nope, no one ever found out who it was," Jan told me.

"When we all get to 12th grade, we've gotta do something like that," Sophie suppressed her grin, "Just thinking about the pranks we could play on all of the teachers makes me laugh,"

"We'd swap all of Mr Harvey's cigarettes with rolled up pieces of paper, and nick off with his lighter, steal Ms Taylon's rule book, pour out all of Mrs Grenda's whisky and replace it with water, use Mr Brandon's beer to set fire to the art department and tape all the teachers' car keys to the undersides of random cars," Tina listed.

Before I could laugh at the sheer hilarity of it, even though I didn't really know any of the teachers, a stern looking teacher rounded on Tina.

"What did you just say, Miss Evans?" He demanded, looking furiously.

Tina played the small, young and frightened child act, "I'm s-sorry M-Mr Brandon, i-it's what I heard Paula say she was g-going to do,"

Mr Brandon didn't say anything further, just stormed off, probably trying to find Paula. Tina was cracking up laughing before he'd even gotten out of earshot, "I hope he gets Paula for that! And maybe he'll remember it when we play all the pranks on them during our final year, and blame it all on her!"

"That would be beyond awesome. It would probably be the best day of my life," Jan agreed.

Sophie nodded enthusiastically, "Maybe we should deliberately frame her or something," She pondered, some plan already forming in her head.

I suddenly felt a bit as if I was intruding in the conversation- I wasn't going to be here more than a few months, let alone until sixth form! Even Carinthia wasn't supposed to be staying that long! I kept quiet and the others didn't notice. Or at least, if they did, they decided not to mention it, to save me from feeling more awkward. The subject changed quickly, though whether or not it was deliberate I couldn't tell.

We ended up talking about whether or not we'd get out of doing ICT, Geography and History since the whole building was probably smoke-damaged. We were still standing around in the school yard talking, almost an hour later, when, finally, the head teacher turned up and apologised for the wait, told us that the fire had finally been put out, that only one floor had been damaged by the actual fire. However, he went on, the whole building stank of smoke, so there would be no lessons today as they were still sorting it all out, and, unless we had stuff inside that building, we should go home. None of us needed any further invitation- we all but ran home.

Since I had a whole day to myself, and Sophie, Jan and Tina had declined on the idea of heading out to do some shopping on the basis that their parents would kill them, I decided that now would be as good a time as any other to go check out my Mum's supposed house. I set off slowly, unsure I wanted to really find out whether my Mum was there or not.

What if she was there, but didn't want to see me? Or if she was drunk off her face still? What if she just wasn't there at all? My doubts assaulted me the whole of my fifteen minute walk, and I was getting quite close to having a complete meltdown before I found the address I'd been looking for.

It was a detached bungalow, with a small, overgrown front garden and vines crawling all over the walls. It was quite creepy, to be perfectly honest. I wasn't really sure I wanted to go anywhere near it. Why would Mum want to go live there? I asked myself. I was coming up with the one clear answer almost as soon as I had asked; it was probably cheaper than most other houses, and Mum hadn't exactly been rich, so it was unlikely she would be able to afford more than that.

I hid myself- feeling rather stupid and self-conscious- behind a bush and sat down to wait. No one came out of the house or went into the it, in the hour and a half I was there. The trip had been entirely pointless, I thought. I chided myself immediately; what had I expected? It was half ten! My Mum had either got herself a job and was out right now, or had gotten a drink and had a hangover. And had I really expected to see her the first time I went loiking for her?

I still felt upset though; it seemed like such a waste of the day, and I felt like I had come so close to finding her. I didn't know at the time that Mum had left the house less than an hour earlier, but I was about to find that out...

Chapter 69~Emma

I was plodding slowly home, feeling deflated and depressed, wondering tiredly what I would actually be able to do for the rest of the day, when I hit the midmorning rush-about-crazily traffic of the busy streets. There were people everywhere, car horns tooting loudly, people yelling and so on. I got barged into several times, once elbowed hard enough in the shoulder that I was sure it would leave a mark, and several more times I got pushed forward, narrowly missing falling off the pavement in front of a car.

It was impossible to look down in the crowd, as I felt like doing in my mostly miserable state, since if I did I wouldn't be able to see a thing of who was gonna run into me next. I had to look everywhere at once not to get squished completely. So I saw her straight away.

My jaw dropped open and I came to a very sudden halt in the middle of a massive crowd, everyone else surging forward to cross the road while the green man was still flashing. It was my Mum. And I realised I had no clue what I was supposed to do. I had actually seen her! I'd never expected to get that far, never planned the conversation we were going to have, I had nothing! I was completely unprepared!

I was knocked about in the crowd until, finally, I snapped back into action, and started diving forwards, yelling at people to move and elbowing people like crazy to get through the crowd. I looked frantically for the spot where I'd last seen my Mum, but she'd disappeared.

I freed myself from the crowd of people and turned slowly around in a circle, standing on my tip-toes to try and see further. To try and catch another glimpse of my Mum. Because I'd seen her. She might've changed an awful lot recently, but I still recognised her. However, she'd gone completely now. She'd disappeared out of sight in the mass of people all around me, and now I'd lost my chance to talk to her.

I cursed quietly to myself, feeling my frustration build up. We'd been this close to talking to each other. If only I'd managed to get out of the crowd quicker. If only I hadn't frozen when I'd seen her. If only she'd seen me!

But I knew, although I hated it, that I hadn't really wanted to see her. Not right now. I was completely unprepared. I didn't know what I would've told her, or how I would've reacted to anything she had said. It was like meeting a friend you've known since nursery, but haven't spoken to in years, and realising you no longer have anything in common. Since when had finding Mum become so... hard? So difficult?

I gritted my teeth and got moving again, my disappointment and anger at myself and my Mum getting more and more as I moved further away from the place where we could've seen each other again for the first time in months.

Chapter 70

Lola cursed herself from where she stood, hidden by a wall of passer-bys. She could see Emma as she looked around the street desperately, then her disappointment when she saw no sign of Lola. How could Lola have run from her own child?

She'd panicked. She hadn't expected to have seen Emma quite so soon. She hadn't expected them to meet quite like this, like strangers bumping into each other in the street, or long lost friends meeting up again for a reunion. This was not how she'd planned it.

But she'd definitely not planned to run from her own daughter. To hide from her own daughter! She felt a wave of self-pity wash over her, then a wave of anger and annoyance. How could she have been so ridiculous? Why hadn't she... why couldn't she have done something braver than run away like a coward?

Self-disgust and self-pity raged inside her as she turned away from her daughter and started walking to the Bridge Office. How could she even do that? How could she walk away from her own child, who was looking so desperately for her?

Lola had never felt more ashamed of herself in her life. More ashamed, and more angry.