A/N Hey everyone, thanks for the reviews, favourites and alerts, greatly appreciated :D Hope you enjoy this chapter just as much and like the last chapter, any criticism or advice is welcome, anything to help improve my writing :D

Disclaimer: All Alex Rider characters don't belong to me, only Adrienne. (This goes for all chapters)

CHAP 1

"Well, if he's as smart as everyone thinks he is he will make the connection between you and me. We look the same."

It was true. I had keen blue eyes like my fathers, our hair was the same blonde colour though different lengths obviously. Our faces look almost the same. If I cut my hair I'd probably look like he did when he was my age.

"Adrienne, he might recognize you but you've changed your last name and can easily deny it. I've seen you become someone else. You're very good at it."

"That's a pretty good compliment coming from you, Yassen." I teased before being serious again, "Are you actually going to, you know?"

He grimaced, "You just leave that to me Addy. Go on. Just don't get in too much trouble."

I grinned and grabbed my pack as I stood up. Walking over to Yassen I gave him a quick hug.

"Don't get caught." I said before walking out of the motel room.

I pulled my sunglasses out of my bag as I stepped outside. It was a hot day and the sun was shining brightly overhead. The London streets were swarming with Sunday afternoon shoppers. I put the sunglasses on and pushed my way through the crowd.

Wandering around the shops I decided to spoil myself before buying my school books. Some new clothes, a laptop, mp3, a bike and shoes. Then I went to the stationary shop and did more serious shopping. All my school books; Science, Maths, English, P.E., Japanese and Computing. Afterwards I grabbed some brownie and a milkshake from the nearest café and got a cab to my new home in Chelsea.

It was enormous for only me and the housekeepers. Two storeys, ten bedrooms all with en-suites. My room had a walk-in wardrobe and was between the game room-complete with pool, table soccer, and Xbox – and the gym. Below my balcony was a crystal clear, heated swimming pool with a diving board. The cobbled drive was at least a hundred metres long surrounded by grass and trees. At the back of the brick house was a small courtyard with pebble paths and a fountain.

Honestly, I thought it was too much. I was being spoilt. After paying the cab driver I walked up to the front door and slowly opened it.

"Ah, Miss Kovac. It's good to see you, let me show you to your room." A housekeeper greeted me.

'Yassen's definitely gone overboard,' I thought before saying "Thank you."

We took the stairs to the second floor. The housekeeper walked down the hall and opened a door. Cautiously I walked in and stopped dead. The room was huge. There was a king-sized four poster bed, enormous desk, flat screen TV, couches and double French doors leading to the balcony.

I looked inside the en-suite. A large vanity, a toilet, power shower and a spa bath that was more spa than bath. Next room was the walk-in wardrobe. There was a six foot square mirror, more couches, drawers, cupboards and several bars to hang clothes on.

Walking back out I noticed the housekeeper had brought my bags up.

"I hope everything is to your satisfaction?"

"Yes, thank you. It's wonderful."

"Is there anything else you need?"

"No, thanks."

"Okay, I'll leave you be. Dinner's at seven."

"Thank you."

After the housekeeper left I pulled out my laptop and phone. Messaging Yassen I said, 'I'm at the house & got a laptop, you can send everything through.'

I opened the laptop and turned it on. Quickly I set it up and opened my new email. Several emails had already come through, all full of attachments.

My phone buzzed after I got the tenth email, 'Got them?' Yassen asked.

'Yup.' I replied.

'I'll try visit whenever I can.'

'Ok. Don't get caught. If you need somewhere to stay I've got more than enough room.'

'I know. Take care. Bye.'

I opened the files one by one and grinned. They contained everything I would need; places, people, contacts, contact details, people I could trust, information on everyone.

'Time for the fun to begin.' I thought before instantly feeling bad. This could be a kid's life.

"Miss Kovac?" the housekeeper turned the light on, "Miss Kovac, you left instructions for me to wake you at six."

I sat up, suppressing the urge to groan or kick myself, "Yes, yes, thank you."

The housekeeper shut the door as she left. Giving up, I groaned in annoyance and rolled off the bed. I was tired but promised I'd do this, no matter how many times I called myself an idiot. Changing into shorts and t-shirt I ran to the gym and started my workout.

Two hours later I was finished. After a quick shower I threw on black combat pants and a tank top before dawdling down to breakfast.

I sat at the eight person table, feeling quite alone.

"Here you go, Miss Kovac. What would you like to drink?" the house keeper put a plate of bacon and eggs in front of me.

"Bourbon would be nice."

"I'm sorry. Your father said you weren't allowed any alcohol before school."

"Of course he did." I grinned, 'typical Yassen,' "I'll just have a coke then thank you."

She left to get my drink as I started picking at the eggs and bacon. I wasn't really hungry. Soon my drink was placed in front of me as well.

"Thank you." I said looking up.

"Is everything okay, Miss Kovac?"

"Yes, yes, everything's fine, thank you. What time's the car getting here?"

"Eight thirty."

"Okay, thank you."

I finished my breakfast by eight twenty and ran upstairs to pack my bag. I threw in sports clothes, maths books, science books, Japanese folder and last, my laptop. A black Rolls Royce drove up to the door just as I stepped out. Slowly I walked down the stairs. All my clothes were completely new, except for my Nike's; I liked them too much to get new ones.

The Rolls Royce had comfortable leather seats and tinted black windows. I settled into the seat and watched the streets of London go by. The driver already knew where I was going. We pulled over almost a block away from Brookland School. I didn't want to get heaps of attention on the first day, I could walk.

The bell rang almost right after I got there. The principal had asked to see me when I got there so that's where I headed. The school was quite big but it wasn't hard to find her office pretty close to the entrance. I knocked on the door.

"Come in," came the answer.

I opened the door and sat at a chair opposite the principal. She looked like the average principal, bad fashion sense, bob cut and wrinkles. The office was just as boring and cliché; a desk, file drawers, chairs and horrible wallpaper.

"Ah, Adrienne, Ko-vac."

"It's pronounced Ko-vach."

"Sorry, Miss Kovac. So, where did you live before you moved to Chelsea?"

"I moved around a lot with my father. He's a lawyer, always going to one conference or another."

"That must've been hard, but it seems you're quite talented. So, if you like you can join class straight away. Tom should be outside. He'll show you around."

The principal opened the door and asked Tom to look after me.

"Hey. She's probably told you my name already, but anyway it's Tom."

"I'm Adrienne, Addy or Drie, whichever." I replied my Russian accent showing through slightly.

"Cool accent. Where you from?"

"Russia."

"Cool. Well, we're in Maths right now. Algebra; I'm horrible at it. Are you any good? My friend Alex is trying to help me, but I ain't doing so well."

I laughed, he talked a lot, that was good, "Well I guess I'm okay at it."

As we walked through the corridors Tom pointed out classrooms, until we got to ours. Tom had told me the teachers name was Mr. Donovan.

As I glanced around the room I took everything in; the teacher at the desk, the students scattered around the class, the sun streaming through floor-to-ceiling windows. My eyes rested momentarily on one boy sitting at the back with seats free on either side of him. He looked average, fair hair, blue eyes, athletic build, though he looked serious, too serious for a teenager. But I knew better, that was our target, one Alex Rider.

Tom had gone up to the teacher and told him about me. Mr. Donovan stood up, "Class listen up," all heads turned his way, "we have a new student in class. This is Adrienne. I hope you all make her feel welcome."

Mr. Donovan passed me a fat text book, "We're working from page 129."

"Thanks." I said, slightly sarcastically.

Heads turned as I followed Tom to the back of the class. I sat beside Alex as Tom introduced us then he sat on the other side.

"Hey," I said shyly, trying to cool my face down. I hated being introduced to a class.

"Hi."

"Okay class, back to work."

The class turned their heads back to their work as I opened mine. Page 129, simultaneous equations.

"You seem to have made quite an impression." Alex whispered.

"What?"

Alex nodded at the class; every now and then a head would turn and look at me.

"Normally it's my father that makes the impressions, not me."

Alex leaned back in his seat, "Have I met you before?"

I lied easily, since it was almost the truth, so then it's not completely lying is it. Okay, now I'm just confusing myself.

"I'm sure I'd remember you if I had, even if you'd forgotten me. Sometimes it's better when people forget about me."

Alex stared at me. I probably sounded like Yassen but with slightly more accent. He shrugged accepting what I said, "Okay."

I worked through the page of simultaneous equations and moved on to quadratic equations. Eventually I got to patterns. I hated patterns; I could never work them out. The question asked me to work out an equation to find out the number of hexagons from the pattern number. There were rows of hexagons, five in the first pattern, eleven in the second and nineteen in the third. 5, 11, 19. The amount between them increased by two each time. There was a rule to do with that, but I couldn't remember what it was. Multiply by two? Square it?

I sat there for what seemed like forever, chewing on the end of my pencil and occasionally flicking it against the page. I glared at the hexagons as though the answer would just pop out of no where.

"You stuck?" Alex asked.

"No. I'm fine." I didn't want help.

"Okay." Alex said before going back to his own work.

I sat there for another five minutes, trying everything I could think of, determined to get it, but getting nowhere.

Alex asked if I needed help again and this time I accepted it and was glad I did. The way he explained it made it seem so easy.

"Oh," I said, slightly embarrassed, "Thanks."

"No problem."

I went onto the next problem, solving it easily, then the next and the next. Eventually the bell rang. I had ten minutes before Japanese so decided to get something to eat and some fresh air. I wandered around the side of the building, a bar of chocolate in my hand.

Someone put their hand on my shoulder and spun me around. If I hadn't been so deep in thought I would've known there were people behind me. I looked around, I was in a corner where the two school buildings met and there were six guys about seventeen facing me. I cursed my luck and mentally kicked myself, knowing I had been careless.

"You got any money, pretty girl?" the lead boy asked, he was quite tanned with dark hair and a sharp face though his eyes were slightly bloodshot.

"No money for you." I growled.

"Come on. Give it to us. You don't want to get hurt."

"I won't be the one getting hurt." I settled into a ready position; feet apart, knees bent, arms bent but at my sides and resting on the balls of my feet.

"What? You think a girl like you can beat us, six guys?"

"She might not be able to by herself, but she can with me." Alex came up behind the guys.

"What, you're not scared of us are you?" I smirked

The lead boy looked worried, "You should stay away from him," he jabbed his thumb towards Alex, "he's crazy, and always getting sick."

"I probably should but I choose who my friends are and that's no concern of yours. And don't ever bully anyone for money ever again."

"Why?" he sneered, "What are you going-?"

I pulled my leg up and lashed out in a sidekick. It slammed into the boy's stomach. Pulling it back I flung my lower leg back out, connecting with another boys ribs, before I jumped back.

The remaining four rushed at me. I used moves taught in basic self defense instead of using the pressure points like I had been taught at Scorpia. Alex grabbed one while I shoved the heel of my hand into another's nose, it broke. Alex punched the third in the stomach and I took a cheap shot between the last boy's legs. The six bullies were either on the ground or had fled.

I glared at Alex, "I didn't need your help. I was handling it."

"You're welcome. Come on, we're late for next class. What do you have?"

"Japanese."

"Same. Let's go," he started to walk towards the door but stopped.

"What is it?" I asked.

"Nothing." Alex said and continued walking.

I looked to where Alex had. Now I knew why he stopped. There was a man with a large white dog. He had thinning hair, blotchy face and old fashioned clothes. I recognized him just as Alex had. His name was Crawly. I knew what he did and who he worked for. MI6.

Glaring at him, though he was probably too far away to see, I jogged after Alex.