CH. 2
Cassie is sitting on the couch in the She Spies' living room, reading a magazine and waiting for Amy to arrive. The doorbell rings and she looks up. As soon as she realizes that the doorbell has just rung, she closes the magazine and puts it on the coffee table. Then she stands up and goes to the door.
"This'll be interesting," she speculates as she puts her hand on the doorknob.
She opens the door and is in immediate shock when she sees Amy standing on the doorstep. She had figured the girl would look a little individualistic, but she was still Cross's niece, so part of Cassie was expecting her to be dresses kind of preppy. Amy has brown hair, just past her shoulders, with purple streaks on either side of her face. She is wearing a black fitted shirt with the logo of her favorite rock band on it, jeans with a chain on the right pocket, and black combat boots.
"If you take a picture, it'll last longer," says Amy.
Cassie snaps out of her shocked state and comes back to the current moment.
"Sorry, it's just that you're Cross's niece. I expected you to be-" begins Cassie, trying to explain her earlier state.
"More like him?" finishes Amy.
"Yeah, kind of."
"I get that all the time. Everyone expects me to be preppy and perfect. No one seems to think I can be my own person."
"Really?"
"Yeah. So, uh…can I come in?"
"Yeah, sure. Sorry," says Cassie, stepping aside to let Amy in.
Amy steps inside with a small bag over her shoulder that carries her laptop in it and a small suitcase. Cassie shuts the door as Amy sets the suitcase beside the couch.
"So," says Amy, setting her laptop case on the couch and turning back towards Cassie, "which one of my uncle's stooges are you?"
"Stooge?" says Cassie, curious as to why that particular word was used.
"Sorry, which one of my uncle's agents are you?" says Amy, correcting herself.
"I'm Cassie," she begins. Then she realizes what Amy just said.
"Did you just say agents?" she asks.
"Yeah, so?"
"How do you know what we do?"
"Simple. I know what my uncle does. And besides, he probably thought an agent would be more strict and watchful then an average person would."
"You and Cross don't get along, do you?" asks Cassie, noting the tone of Amy's voice.
"Not anymore," replies Amy, looking away.
"Cassie can tell that she doesn't want to talk about it, so she kindly decides not to push the subject. An awkward silence follows, causing Cassie to glance around to the room, trying to figure out something to say. Amy just stands there, looking at the floor, lost in thoughts of the recent past. Finally an idea comes to Cassie.
"You hungry? We just went shopping, so the cupboards are full," she suggests.
"Cool, thanks," says Amy, happily smiling.
"No problem. You like chips?" asks Cassie.
"Who doesn't?" says Amy, smiling again.
Cassie smiles, thinking to herself that Amy didn't seem nearly as bad as Cross had made her sound. But, she reminded herself as she took a bag of chips out of the cupboard, she had only just met the girl and Cross had know her for her whole life. This implied that things would almost definitely get worse. They always did.
Several miles away, Shane and DD are finding this out the hard way. They have accepted the fact that they were going to have to do some cleanup work and were in the process of doing some now. They were in the ladies room of Magic Eight Billiards, the pool hall and bar where they were supposed to wait to see if Gavin showed up. Since Shane was so adamant about no cleaning toilets, DD agreed to take the job. In turn, Shane was supposed to clean the mirrors, sinks and floors. Everything was going fine until DD got to the last stall. She stops in her tracks and stands there, disgustedly gazing down at the mess before her.
"Ew, that is so gross," she says.
"That bad?" asks Shane, stopping in mid wipe of a mirror and turning to look at DD.
"Oh yeah," she says, looking away, disgusted.
Shane casually glances at her watch, yearning for the time when she'd be able to stop cleaning and begin playing pool. She knew DD would ask for help cleaning the bathroom stall, and she really didn't want to. Luckily for her, it was that time. She tosses the rag she had been using into the sink and wipes her hands together.
"Well, I'm done. Time to play some pool," she says, smiling and turning towards the door.
"But wait!" says DD, looking towards Shane, "Could you-"
"No," says Shane.
"But-"
"Nope," says Shane, walking out of the bathroom.
DD sighs in frustration at Shane's desertion. She glances again at the disturbing mess before her. She's not looking forward to the job ahead of her, but she knows it's necessary to complete their mission; that and the fact she knew she'd be helping to sanitize and keep people from getting sick.
Shane walks into the main part of the building, ready to begin a game of pool. She's happy to no longer be cleaning because she'd never been a big fan of it to begin with. She was one of those kids who usually had a messy room and it took a lot of effort for her parents to convince her to clean it. They even started to briber her though after a while it stopped working.
Shane looks around, searching for the empty pool table that she had been promised would be there for her and DD. She smiles when her eyes fall on it. She walks over to it casually, ready to start playing. Luckily everything had already been set up for her. She's glad because it had been a long time since she had played last and she couldn't quite remember how to set it up.
As she removes the rack from the balls, one of the patrons of the pool hall watches her. He's taken an interest in her because he thought she was very pretty and something about her made him suspect that she wasn't' a very good pool player. His suspicion is confirmed when she takes her first shot with the pool cue. The balls weren't broken very well and there wasn't as much force behind the thrust as here could've been. He smiles to his buddies and walks over to Shane's table.
"Looks like you could use a little help," he says, leaning on his pool cue.
"No thanks," says Shane, aiming her cue, "I'm doing fine by myself."
Shane takes her shot and misses.
"Oh really?" It looks to me like you just missed that shot. And you didn't break very well either," he says.
"So?" she says, not liking being corrected.
"So if you give me a chance, I could give you a few pointers."
"Oh really?" says Shane sarcastically, not sure if she could trust the guy yet.
"Yup. Watch the master at work," he said, smiling.
Shane smiles sarcastically as the man determines how he is going to take his next shot. He finds one to his liking and sends the cue ball flying into another ball, causing it and one more ball to fall into the corner pocket. Shane's eyes go wide because she wasn't expecting the guy to be so good at playing the game.
"Good shot," she says, impressed.
"Thanks. Now will you reconsider my offer?"
Shane is silent, contemplating the situation, knowing that her job didn't allow her to trust strangers. In the end it was in fact her job that drover her to her decision.
"Sure, why not?" she said, shrugging, "I guess I could use some pointers."
The man snorts.
"A few pointers? Honey, you need skill period," he says.
"Excuse me?" she says, glaring at him, "you better watch what you say. I may be a girl, but I won't hesitate to kick your butt."
"Who, hold it there," he says, putting his hands up while leaning his cue up against the inside of his elbow, "I didn't mean anything by it. Let's just play some pool."
Shane looks on skeptically as the man lines up for his next shot.
A few hours later, DD and Shane return home, happy that the night is over and that they can put all thoughts of the day out of their mind. DD especially is looking forwards to putting the thoughts or the dirty bathroom stall out of her mind. Shane wasn't in as much of a hurry to forget the night. She had actually had a fairly decent time. The man's name had been Brian and he turned out to be a nice, though very flirtatious, guy to hang out with.
Since it is so late, DD tries her best to open the door as quietly as she can, not sure if Cassie and Amy are sleeping already or not. As DD opens the door, she sees Cassie sitting in a chair, reading a magazine.
"Oh, you're up," says DD.
Cassie puts the magazine down and walks over to DD and Shane.
"Well I figured I'd stay up so when you guys got home you could tell me about the mission. Then we could get a good night's sleep before starting over again tomorrow," she explains.
"Hold on," interrupts Shane, "Where's Amy? I'm sure Cross wouldn't want her to over hear this conversation."
"Relax, she's sleeping on the couch," says Cassie.
"You sure she's asleep?" asks DD.
"See for yourself," she says, motioning to the couch.
Shane and DD look over the edge of the couch. Sure enough, Amy appears to be sleeping.
"Well, okay," says Shane, as she and DD stand up straight once again.
"It's another stolen contraband case," starts DD.
"Yeah. We have to find another cartel kingpin," continues Shane, "or in this case his son."
Cassie sighs.
" What's the name of the cartel this time?" she asks.
"The Black Star," says DD.
Amy's eyes fly open at the mention of the cartel's name. No one notices, so they continue the conversation.
"Yeah. And since the kingpin is so hard to find, we have to find his son, Gavin, in hopes that he'll lead us to him," continues Shane.
Still unnoticed by the She Spies, Amy strangely knew the name they were going to say and mouthed it along with them. What they don't know about her is that she's Gavin's girlfriend. They may not have known it then, but they'd find out soon enough.