Disclaimer: I do not own Men In Black. I do, however, own the idea for Jason, Jay, Kay, and Mindwork. (Jay is my boyfriend's name and Kay is my name. So. . .I didn't cop their names it's just sorta freaky we have the same ones. . .)
It was a normal
day. A day that had a brilliant sun shining and the wind just
perfect. And yet, in other ways, it was not "normal".
But
what is "normal"? The American Heritage DICTIONARY of the
English Language clearly states that normal is:
normal 1.
Conforming, adhering to, or constituting a usual or typical pattern,
level, or type; usual; typical.
That doesn't mean "normal"
is what you're used to. In fact for the OA agents, "normal"
is fighting aliens 24/7 and having no connections with any humans but
themselves and their partners.
Such was true for Agent Jay. He
worked alone, preferably, even though the boss constantly harried
after him to get a partner.
The OA agents wore working
clothes. Clothes they could get dirty and basically replace. Agent
Jay always wore torn jeans and a t-shirt reading: If I can't read
your mind, you're an alien.
That was his favorite shirt. And it
was true. All OA agents were forced to learn the arts of Mindwork.
Mindwork was a dangerous art used to modify people's minds.
Agent
Jay, a small American boy by the age of 12, had light brown hair and
faded blue eyes that bored into you. His eyes, in fact, were the
specially needed ones to perfect Mindwork. In his back pocket, he ha
a gun. Not just any gun, but a small, portable, G4xC3-Juvinator.
It
was his favorite weapon.
Agent Jay was running madly down the
street. He leapt into the air and somersaulted over a car. People
stared. He had no time to modify their memory. Running like the wind,
he reached the State Park. There, in the middle of the fountain, was
a lily pad. This might've seemed strange to other people, but not to
Jay. Concealing his gun in his hand, he moved over and nudged the
lily pad with his foot. Out of it sprung a tall, slimy, wet, ugly
worm with a thousand bony arms. A Gragitorn Worm. Its head was small
with five huge eyes divided into smaller eyes. It had no nose and no
mouth, but it had a tongue, with rather sharp teeth on it, on the top
of its head.
Now, Jay knew he wasn't supposed to harm the
creature, but he also knew if he didn't, it would start devouring
humans. "Hey! Hey, you over-sized grub! Yeah, that's what I'm
talkin' bout! Turn your slimy ass around!"
The worm swiveled
about and stared at Jay. "See my friend here?" Jay shoved
the gun closer to the worm. "You want to add laZer ammo to the
humans in your belly?"
The worm backed off. "Now, I
need you to accompany me, okay?" he called up. "So, lay
your ugly head right here," Jay growled, "and we'll be on
our way. The worm lay down obediently and Jay snapped an electronic
collar around its neck. The collar transported the worm instantly to
OA headquarters.
Jay looked at the big mess he had gotten himself
into. Humans stared at him from behind every rock they could find.
Sighing, Jay lashed out his Mindwork power and wrapped the people who
had seen him do this stunt in a large net. He modified their memory
and then gave them a new one. "There was no 18-foot tall alien,"
Jay sighed, uninterestedly. "Instead, it was a short tornado
that suddenly appeared by a freak of nature that took the shape of a
worm and then, just as suddenly, disappeared. There is no need to
alert the authorities, they have already taken care of it. There is
no need to worry your spouses, and it is best you leave this
information alone and forgotten."
He let loose their minds
and teleported back to headquarters by pressing a button on his
watch.
"Jay! Jay!"
Jay closed his eyes in pain
and grimaced. He recognized that voice.
"Jay! What is the
big idea of giving chase in public? You know we don't do that."
"Boss, it's okay, man. I took care of it. All their memories
have been modified."
Sighing in exasperation, the Boss said,
"Jay, you really ought to start following OA policy."
"One
day, I promise I will," Jay grinned.
The Boss, who was a
girl at age 14, was tall, strong, and slender. Her hair bounced about
and Jay thought she looked cute when she was angry. He wanted to talk
to someone about it; ask them what they thought, but he knew almost
no one. Basically he knew only their names so he could assign orders
to them. But there was no partners out there for him, he assured
himself. No one was like him in the least.
"I got two things
I want you to do, Jay." Said the Boss.
"Just two?"
he asked lightly.
"Well, four, but there's no way you'll do
the first two."
"I'll be the judge of that. Let's hear
them."
"Well, I want you to follow OA policy -"
"Nix that one."
"- and get a vacation."
"Okay, I might do that one. Now what are the ones you think
I can do for you?"
"Well, 1, interrogate the worm you
just caught -"
"No problem," Jay smirked
confidently.
"- and the other, I'll tell you later."
"Sure, Boss. Let's get a move on, shall we?"
"Okay
worm, we'll take it from the top. You are from planet Gragit,
correct?"
The worn shook its head.
"No, huh?"
Jay sighed in mock annoyance. "My pleasant little machine, here,
tells me that's a lie."
"The worm stared at the device.
Defeated, it bobbed its head.
"Okay. Do you have a
language?"
The worm nodded.
"What is it?"
The
worm began to speak in odd growls, clicks, and screeches.
"LaGragitian?" Jay asked. "That's fine." Jay
switched his Translator to LaGragitian.
"You have a name?"
"Knarl-Go-Ten," the creature replied in its language,
but this time, Jay could understand it completely.
"Uh-huh .
. . and do you have a nickname?"
"GoTen."
"Okay,
then, GoTen, will you care to explain to me why you landed in a
restricted area with a restricted vehicle?"
"I . . . I
heard Earth was lovers' first choice."
"Holy shit, you
got a wife?"
"No, a lover."
"'Lover',
'wife', what-fuckin'-ever!" Jay snarled. The point is: you
brought yourself and your 'lover' to make children."
"That
was the basic idea."
"But you weren't allowed!"
Jay yelled exasperatedly. "So, not only will you have a fine for
being here without permission and the fine for being in a restricted
area, you will have the fine for bringing your wife with you-who also
wasn't allowed-and the fine for intending to breed without an OA
agent's 'ok'! Whoo, you owe us a lot, man."
GoTen grumbled a
bit.
"Man, how else do you think we keep this organization
running? Church donations?"
The worm fidgeted and started
digging in pockets of flesh.
"Mmp. Urrgh," Jay tried
not to throw up. "You can pay me later, dude. For the moment:
Where the hell is your wife?"
"It was a one-passenger
ship."
"I know that GoTen but, apparently, your wife
came with. So? Where you hiding her?"
Shuddering
uncomfortably, the alien took a deep breath and threw up.
Jay
jumped back. "Dammit, that was my favorite shirt you slimy bas-"
Jay stopped in amazement; GoTen had thrown up his wife.
"I
had swallowed her to make the trip easier."
"You
swall-" he stopped his self and shook his head in incredulity.
No wonder the worm had seemed fatter than normal. Jay shook his
head again. "Okay man. You and your wife get your asses down to
the Fine Desk and I'll be with you in a moment."
When
they arrived at the Fine Desk, Jay was chewing on a pencil, lost in
thought. "Okay, that's four offenses to Earth, what do you claim
about it?"
"Not guilty," growled GoTen at the same
time his wife said, "Guilty."
"Just go along-it'll
be easier," hissed the worm's wife.
"Okay, then,
admittance to guilt: the cost of those offenses rounds to about 15
Gragitorn dollars."
"15!" exclaimed GoTen. He
cursed wildly in his language as he placed the money down.
"Okay,
I'll need both your names, just for the record, and if you have one
more offense we're hauling your ass down to jail."
"Wha-"
"Buddy, I don't make the rule. 3 offenses: probation. 5:
jail. You're going to be on probation for about a year and a half.
Now, if it's not too much trouble: names!"
"I'm
Knarl-Go-Ten. My lover is Knarl-Fen-Sha."
"Okay. Former
occupation?" Jay asked as he scribbled their names down.
"Umm
. . ."
"None," FenSha said quickly.
"And,
lastly, former residence?"
"We lived at Hunston Park,
5th street, the turnabout."
"Good. Good. Now you run
along to the Registration line, people."
The worms,
grumbling, slid away.
"Hello, sir. Fine day in the
galaxy?" the 9 year old agent behind the computer squeaked.
"Terrible. Nova storms everywhere."
"I'm
sorry, sir," the agent sighed as he typed out the figgin's
registration.
"Sure you are, you bastard," laughed the
figgin.
"Okay, I have your name, former occupation, your
number of offenses, and your former residence. The second part of
registration is the routine part. Can you work with that?"
"What is it?"
"You can't go outside at night,
so get a job with a daylight shift, you must wear this humanoid cloak
at all times you are within presence of humans, and you are
restricted to the Austin area."
"Yeah, yeah, that's
fine. I can live by that," the figgin laughed, stuffing the
humanoid cloak around him. The portly, demon-eyed, eleven-eared, 5
foot tall figgin instantly turned into a portly blonde, bushy haired
and bearded male human with glasses.
"Okay, sir, sign here."
Fewer aliens stood in the other line. The worms slimed their way
onto that line.
When it came their turn, a black, 11 year old
agent behind the computer took almost the same information as Jay
had.
"Names?"
"Knarl-Go-Ten and
Knarl-Fen-Sha," GoTen muttered.
"Former occupation?"
"None."
"Number of offenses?"
"Four."
The agent stared at them over his sunglasses. "Okay . . .
former residence?"
"We lived at Hunston Park, 5th
street, the turnabout."
"Okay, place of vacation?"
"Vacation?" FenSha asked, surprised.
"Yeah,
this is the vacation line, Ma'am."
"We want to live on
Earth!"
"That's the other line, then, Ma'am," the
agent replied, pointing to the long line of aliens. "Best you go
get in line now before more resident aliens come."
Jay,
smiling, had overheard. He led the aliens to the other line and took
the Gragitorn money to the office. 'Resident alien'? How true that
was . . .
Agents were required to use the word 'resident alien'
for the aliens. They had assured the aliens it meant someone from out
of town. Aliens didn't think of themselves as aliens. They were the
ones who had galactic treaties with so many alien countries and
worlds. They were the ones who knew technology far beyond he reaches
of humans. Humans still had treaties only with their own world. So
"immature", the aliens had called it. So "young"
and "inexperienced".
Humans were the aliens.
This
piece of logic amused Jay. Amused him to think that all these humans
thought that they were at the top of the food chain. That they went
running around their daily lives, never stopping to think, 'Is there
anything out there? Is there something smarter than us? Something
larger and more powerful than us?'
He slapped the money on the
office desk.
The boss smiled. "Thanks. You set that worm
up?"
"No, I set those two worms up," Jay
corrected.
"Two?"
"Mmm-hmm. The son of a bitch
swallowed his wife to fly down here unnoticed."
"It
didn't work."
"No, it didn't."
"So, go
ahead over to Herb's and get those turned into Earth dollars. They're
useless if they're not human."
That was another piece of
logic that amazed him. There were so many alien worlds out there.
They accepted all other sorts of alien money. They didn't have to
change them or exchange them; they knew what it was worth and paid
the person fairly. Here on Earth, nobody could accept each other's
money. That would be accepting that there were people different than
themselves out there. Humans didn't like different.
"Hey,
agent Jay. Find yourself a partner?"
"Not yet, Herb."
"Oh. I assumed as much."
"Turn these into
Human will you?" Jay asked, tossing the money onto the counter
of the pawnshop.
"Mmh-mm." Herb studied the bills. "You
got some money here, Jay." He hit the button and the cash
register dinged open. There were all sorts of bills in there, from
the Intergalactic Royal to the Gragitorn. "Each Gragitorn is
worth at least $360, Jay. You got yourself $5,400 right here."
"That's great. That money can go to newer weapons instead of
this outdated junk."
"I'll give you a
super-deal-discount anytime, Jay," Herb grinned as he handed him
the money. You've kept my name in those 'Earth Brochures' you made,
right?"
"Of course, Herb. No one else on earth can
exchange money like you can."
"Thanks." Herb
didn't pick up well on sarcasm.
"No prob," Jay said
casually as he headed out of the pawnshop.
"$5,400?"
the Boss cried happily. "Oh! Jay, I could kiss you!"
"Please don't," he mumbled.
"What was that?"
"I said, 'what was that other thing you needed?'"
"Hmm? Oh, yes. I need you to get a partner."
"What?"
"Mmm-hmm."
"What?"
"Yes, Jay.
It's OA policy and if you don't . . . I have to boot you off the OA
organization and Mindwork your brain."
"Dammit,"
he whispered.
"Jay, don't make me mad," the Boss said
kindly. "You need a partner."
"I don't need
anything," spat Jay angrily.
"I need you to take some
vacation time, Jay," the Boss said fervently. "While you're
having that time, I'd suggest you find a partner." She walked
him to the door of her office. "Otherwise you can forget about
coming back to OA headquarters."
The automatic doors closed
in his face.
In annoyance Jay walked down to the agent dorms
and into the boys' common room.
"Hi, Jay."
"Hello,
Jay."
"Yo, man."
He exchanged 'hi's and
dropped on the couch.
"What's eating you, Jay?" his
personal robot rolled out of his dorm.
"Nothin' man. You
made cookies today?"
"Yes, Jay," the robot replied
mechanically. "Chocolate drop cookies; your favorite."
He
walked into his room. "Thanks, pal." He plugged the robot
into the wall.
"Snooze mode," came the robot's voice.
He closed his door and stuffed some cookies into his mouth. He
got undressed and put on his pajamas. Laying in bed, he thought
quietly of how he would find a partner.
His dorm-mate came in.
"Hello, Jay," he squeaked in his always-whiny voice.
"Hi,
Jason, what's up?"
"Oh, nothing much. A little earlier,
in Ozone Cleansing Duty I thought I spotted a rip in the second
layer, but it was a crack in my screen. Talk about a shocker!"
OCD. Ozone Cleansing Duty. That class was for the 'babes', as OA
personnel called them. 'Wet-behind-the-ear'. They knew nothing of the
OA dangers; they had just come into the organization and didn't even
know what a Stunneralizer was. And it was for nerds. There were two
classes that newbies can go into training for when they first enter
the OA organization: Robot Duty and OCD. Robot Duty was sort of fun;
taking care of the robots and remodeling them. OCD was just plain
geeky.
Jason always annoyed Jay. "Right, Jason, 'a
shocker'."
Jason giggled a bit at what he thought was a
hilariously funny joke he made himself, then shuffled into the
bathroom to dress and brush his teeth.
Typical Jason. Still
following his mom's orders, even after he had cut all ties with her.
He kept a picture of her. Babyish, Jay called it. Jason goes to sleep
by 9:00pm and wakes up and 8:00am. He won't eat junk food. He never
watches movies that have ratings he's not allowed to watch. He always
brushes his teeth and combs his hair. And he always, always, eats his
veggies. What a mama's boy.
"Could you tuck me in, Jay?"
"Tuck yourself in," Jay replied, laying back down and
getting ready to dream of his two-week vacation.
"But it's
not the same."
"Jason, we've been through this every
night: You do not need your mother anymore. For god's sake, you are
eleven years old. Pull yourself together. I can not, will not, tuck
you in."
"What was that?" Jason whined. "I
couldn't hear you. Would you please raise your head so you're not
talking into your pillow?"
"What did I say to you
yesterday?"
"What? I can't hear you!"
"WHAT
DID I SAY TO YOU YESTERDAY?!!" bellowed Jay.
"Oh. You
said: 'Jason, we've been through this every night: You do not need
your mother anymore. For god's sake, you are eleven years old. Pull
yourself together. I can not, will not, tuck you in', right?"
"YES," he shouted through the pillow.
"Oh,
fine," sighed Jason as he tried as best he could to tuck himself
in.
Jay woke up, the next day, groggy. Jason was wide awake,
dressed, and annoyingly excited. "Hi, hi, hi, Jay."
Jay
didn't answer. He pulled his feet over to the side of his bed so that
they dangled two inches from the ground. He could tell the ground was
going to be cold this morning.
He stood up on his bed and deftly
jumped to Jason's, and jumped into the bathroom, landing on the rug.
He didn't have to touch the freezing floor once.
After getting
dressed and waking his face up by splashing it with cold water, he
went out into the boys' common room. Everyone said hi; Jay was an OA
legend. Unfortunately, that meant Jason worshipped him.
"Vacation
time, Jay," a black boy Jay's age grinned.
He nodded, though
it was more of a statement than a question. "You guys may not
believe this," Jay laughed nervously, "but I have never
taken a vacation; do you guys know where the vacation desk is?"
"Sure," a pipsqueak eagerly exclaimed. "Down the
elevator. Sixth floor. Down the hall. Left and another left. Two
rights and one more and there you are."
Jay took this all in
and moved towards the elevator.
"You want me to help you?"
"Umm, no thanks," Jay said. "I'm fine."
"The
name's Harold!" the pipsqueak called after him as the elevator
doors closed.
"Vacation, Agent Jay?"
"Yes,"
he squinted at her nametag, "Agent Sharon."
She
blushed. "Call me Shar."
"Oookay," Jay said,
staring at her strangely.
"Desk jobs are so boring. I want
some action," Sharon stamped his slip. "All weapons go
here," she held out a basket with his name on it.
He dumped
his weapons in.
"Tell that to the boss, though. Just because
I'm new, doesn't mean I can't handle what the pros handle."
"Sure," he said, nodding his head. "I mean, of
course you could."
She eyed him suspiciously. "Well,
you're ready to go. Just sign here."
He signed.
"Out
those doors, Agent Jay," Sharon sighed.
"Bye, Shar."
She giggled and blushed. As he left, he caught her waving at him.
"That girl likes you," the agent at the door grinned.
"All she talks about is 'Jay, Jay, Jay'. 'He never has a
vacation!' 'What if I never meet him?'" the boy mimicked.
"Shut
up, Greg," mumbled Jay.
"Have a good vacation, Jay!"
"Thanks," he called back.
Jay did have a
good time. He needed it. He mingled with people, playing with them,
but never making friends. He ate pizzas instead of steak day in and
day out like they serve at headquarters. He had ice cream instead of
flaky pastries that taste awful and stick to your mouth like the
headquarters serves. On his last day, he sat on a bench in the park
and stared at the stars.
He remembered the OA.
Work.
Those
stars weren't stars; they were planets.
Partner.
If he didn't
have one tomorrow, he'd be fired.
And what was he doing instead?
Sitting on his butt and staring at stars.
He stared some more.
"Hi."
"Hello-" he paused and turned
around to see who was talking to him. For a moment, he thought he was
back in the common room, agents saying 'hi' everywhere he went.
He
wasn't an agent in this place.
"I heard you mumbling about
'planets'. Are you okay?"
He tried to see the outline of who
had spoken to him.
"Do you believe in planets? I do."
Laughter bubbles. It belongs to a girl. "I know it seems
strange, but I do."
"I do too," he says quietly.
"You do?"
"No, I don't actually. I know there
are planets."
He can almost hear her smiling.
"Want
to come back to my place?"
"Sure."
"What's
your name?"
"Jay."
"Kay."
"They
rhyme," Jay said, partly to himself.
She laughs. "They
do!"
He stood up and she grabbed his hand. "Come on, my
home's this way!"
Jay beamed. He had just found his partner.
"That's just too weird."
Jay sipped his root
beer. "It's true, though."
"Why'd you tell me?"
"Because . . ," he had wanted to say 'because I need
you to be my partner', but his words had gone astray. "Because I
like you."
Kay looked at him in mingled surprise and
pleasure.
Jay turned pink. "I-I mean . . . aww, shit."
Kay laughed. "Thanks. I like you too. Well, you're going to
have to kill me now, aren't you?"
"No."
"No?"
"Well, I need a partner. OA policy. It-it would mean a lot
to me if you . . . if you became my partner."
Kay looked
thoughtful. "Okay, Jay, where's the catch?"
"Catch?
No catch."
"There must be."
"Do you have
a dad?"
"No."
"A mom?"
"No."
"A relative you're living with?"
"Mmm, yeah,
my Aunt Clarabelle. She doesn't know I'm here, though."
Jay
stared at her in confusion.
"I mean, she forgets who I am.
So I stay out of her way in fear that she'll call the police or
something."
"Well then, no catch."
It was
Kay's turn to gaze at him in puzzlement.
"Well, you have to
cut all ties with any human being you once knew; you were never
here."
"I was never here in the first place."
"Exactly."
"When do you go back?"
"Tomorrow."
"You can sleep here tonight."
"Thanks, Kay."
She stood up. "You're welcome,"
she replied, putting a hand on his shoulder and squeezing tightly.
Then, she lightly kissed him on the head. "This is where you'll
sleep."
As she left the room, Jay stared in amazement after
her. He touched his head. It felt all tingly.
Shaking his head he
talked to himself while he cleaned up the ziti and root beer cans.
"You amateur. You're letting a little kiss get to your head. It
doesn't mean anything."
The room was cleaned and he had
still not managed to convince himself that the kiss meant nothing.
"Sleep," he said warily. "That'll clear my mind."
"You have it bad," he told himself in the mirror of
the bathroom the next morning. "I'm only twelve, for god's
sake!"
He bashed his head against the mirror before
remembering that they weren't really 'there' to Aunt Clarabelle.
Kay
strode in. "Jay! What's all this racket?!"
"'M
sorry," he murmured. "I forgot."
"Are you
this loud at the . . . the headquarters thingie?"
"Only
on bad mornings," he sighed.
Her eyes softened. "I'm
sorry, are you having a bad morning?"
"Umm," he
wasn't sure how quite to answer.
She didn't wait for one.
"I'll
make you some hot chocolate. You like marshmallows?"
"Y-yeah,"
he admitted, absently.
"Great," she grinned, and headed
down the stairs.
"You're acting like a babe, Jay. A newbie,"
he scolded himself as he followed her down the stairs. "Get over
it and move on."
But he couldn't.
Damn, he hated
himself.
As they sipped hot chocolate on the top of Kay's
grandmother's house, Jay couldn't help but think of how magical
this was. The sun shone so brightly, even though it was barely over
the horizon.
The house top was flat, and Kay had a small
glass table in the middle of it. On it rested doughnuts and cookies
to dip in their hot chocolate.
They sat across from each other;
Jay couldn't stop staring at Kay's eyes. Like a black hole, they
sucked him in, a riveting green. Her lashes long . . . his hand
instinctively went out to touch hers, and she didn't flinch.
A
good sign, right?
He sipped his hot chocolate and scooted his
chair closer to hers. "So, how old are you?"
"Do I have to
be a certain age or something to enter this secret organization?"
"Umm, no, 'm just curious. . ."
She scooted her chair
closer to his. "Eleven and a half."
They moved closer.
And closer.
Jay saw something.
"Do . . . do you sleep
up here?"
That ruined the mood. He instantly regretted it as
she drew away from him. She turned to look at her sleeping bag in the
corner of the roof.
"Yeah. . ," she mumbled, turning pink.
"What's it to you?"
"Well, how come I got . . . a room?"
"Because you're a guest."
"You could've slept with
me."
As she turned to stare at him in horror, he realized what
his words had morphed into; what they had sounded like.
"Umm,"
he blushed a brilliant crimson, hoping the red rays of the sun would
hide it. "Umm," he stuttered. "I mean . . . you could've slept
. . . in the room with me . . . y'know . . ," he trailed off, not
knowing how to correct his fumble.
"So," she said, coldly
changing the subject, "when are we going to this OA thing?"
"If
you're ready? Now."
She softened. "Okay." She offered him
her arm. He took it and couldn't resist the temptation of deeply
inhaling her "scent". She smelled good, like honey with a tinge
of vanilla. He clutched her arm tightly without noticing until they
had climbed down the fire escape.
"Umm, you can . . . let go
now."
"Uhh, yeah . . ," he found it hard to unclench his
arm.
She smiled at him . . . adoringly? gratefully?
His face
felt hot. "Yeah . . ."
She giggled.
"We gonna walk?"
"Nope," he smirked. "Drive."
"Drive?" she
asked unbelievingly.
"Yep," he reached in his pocket
and pressed a blue button on a red keychain. Two minutes later a red
sports car slid up to the sidewalk.
"Nice," Kay
grinned.
He sat in the driver's seat and patted the seat next to
him. "You want to ride shotgun?"
"Umm, sure."
He handed her a folder. "Fill out that paperwork before we
reach headquarters."
She looked around, then stared at him.
"You're going to drive?"
He shrugged. "Yeah."
"Do you know how?"
"Umm," he paused, not
wanting to admit he'd never had a lesson in his life. "Sure, of
course I do."
She yielded, and he put in the keys.
After
four minutes, Kay interjected, "You're turning the keys the
wrong way."
"Oh," he laughed uneasily, and turned
the keys the correct way. "One of those new models . . ,"
he mumbled, trying to cover his gaffe.
They pulled up to the
large building. The sign read, 'Designers Decoration' with two huge
'D's overlapping.
"A designing company?" Kay asked.
"Yes, and everything is overpriced, so no one buys and no
one really investigates," Jay replied.
"Ah," Kay
said quietly.
The garage rolled open. Jay couldn't help but feel
pleased at the wonder on Kay's face as she saw all the cars lined up
and down the floor, ceiling, and walls. "The inside is even
cooler."
She looked at him, then beamed. "I can't
wait!"
After they parked the car (somewhere on the ceiling,
which led to a complicated conversation about the grip-tires the cars
were built with), Jay took Kay's hand and led her inside.
"Jay!"
a strict voice rang out, loud and clear. "You're fifteen minutes
late! Haul your ass down to the managing room."
"And a
'good morning' to you too, Boss," Jay teased.
The Boss
smiled at that, but chose not to reply; instead, she asked, "Would
you mind telling me why you were fifteen minutes late?"
"We
were having breakfast," Jay shrugged.
"'We'?" the
Boss said bewildered.
"Kay and I," Jay grinned,
dragging the awed Kay in front of him.
"Good morning . . .
Kay, was it?" the Boss had a strained smile on her face. "This
is your partner?" she whispered to Jay.
"Yeah?"
"Well, she's a . . . a girl."
"So are you,"
he observed.
"That's not what I meant; I'm sure she's
capable but, Jay, partners . . . sleep in the same room."
"Well?"
"Well, it's not proper!"
"Sure,
it's proper . . . it's not like we're going to have sex, or
something."
The Boss turned pink. "I didn't mean it
that way, Jay. I know you . . . two . . . are responsible but-"
Kay interrupted their hushed argument. "This is awesome,
Jay!"
"Yeah, well, tell it to the people who designed
it," he smiled. "I had nothing to do with the way it was
built."
"Did you see that?" whispered the Boss.
"See what?" Jay turned, his agent skills alert.
"She
just hit on you!"
"Wha-?" Jay turned pink himself.
"She did not!"
"Oh, yes she did."
Jay
tried to think of a reason that the Boss was giving him such a hard
time.
"Boss? Are you threatened by her?"
"What?
Me? Never!" the Boss's face went aflame and she turned away. "Go
to the managing room, Jay," she said icily. "And take your
'partner' with you."
Jay led Kay to the managing room.
"Do you know how to fight?" He tossed her some dirty
clothes.
"Umm, I watch the Judo classes sometimes," Kay
pondered, "but not really, no."
"You know how to
shoot a gun?" he asked, tossing her one.
"Umm, yes?"
"Was that a good yes or a bad one?"
"A good
one. I think."
Jay looked at her. "Well, change into
those clothes."
"Here?" Kay squeaked.
"No,
there." Jay pointed to the bathroom.
A minute later she came
out in a white t-shirt that read, 'I'm with stupid' and an arrow
pointing to her right. Jay had given her faded light blue jeans with
holes at each knee.
"Okay, I gave your paperwork to the Boss
and you are now officially my partner. You hold the gun like this and
press the button on the top to shoot. There are 2 settings: Standard
and Maulation. Keep it on Standard. We got to go; there's a mission
on 7 and 8th block."
"What's the Boss's real name?"
Kay asked as they started running towards the block.
"Umm,
she doesn't like it much."
"Please, Jay?"
He
grinned.
"Okay, it's Jubbie; but you didn't hear it from
me."
Laughing, they made it to 7 and 8th block together.
"That was
good for a first mission," Jay was telling Kay as he went
towards the dorms.
"Thanks," she smiled. "It was
pure instinct and luck-I had no idea what I was doing."
He
stopped, remembering they had not quite worked out the details of the
rooming. "Could you wait here for a sec?"
"Sure."
Jay walked to the other side of the boys' common room. He flipped
open his cell phone and called the Boss.
"What is it, Jay?"
the Boss sounded aggravated and upset.
"Have . . . did we
work out the rooming, yet?"
"Yes, Jay, we did. She is
to sleep with you, like all partners do. Jason has been moved to
another room. All his paraphernalia has been removed from the room.
You are to be . . . responsible, you hear me?"
"Of
course, Boss. I don't know why you're all worked up!"
END CHAPTER 1
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