Lola's P.O.V.
It had been a while since I had had anything to drink. Or had any fun really, but I should have known I had become a lightweight in the joint. And with it came a wicked hangover. Luckily we had the day off so I was able to recover. I spent the day in bed, ate cup noodles, since neither my parole officer or the BAU had extra cash for pizza. I was slumping around when I heard a knock on my door. Standing there was no one other than Spencer. I smiled and let him in, he was holding a pizza box.
"You shouldn't have." I said smiling, before taking the box out of his hand. He smiled and I let him in to my one bedroom apartment. I got some plates and glasses, before setting it all down on my floor.
"Sorry, I don't really have anything besides the bed yet." I said apologising but he just shrugged it off.
"While the science behind the hangover is still actually unclear. The reason we want junk food is that fats suck up the alcohol. Also because even though you're drinking you're getting dehydrated so that is why we want salt." He said smiling at me. I put a glass and a plate in front of him.
"I think I am too tired for facts like that. But thanks for the pizza anyway." I said smiling and opened the box to see a greasy pepperoni pizza. I put some dressing on a slice and dug in.
"Why are you putting salad dressing on your pizza?" Reid asked looking at my slice curiously. And I smirked putting a little on the end of another slice handing it to him to taste it.
"The salty and spicy of the pepperoni goes really well with the mild taste of dressing. That is why." I said proudly.
It was a guy named Tony who had introduced it to me. He also taught me my first trick. A real great guy, if it was not for him I would have probably turned to crime way earlier in life. And I would probably not be here, eating pizza in my own apartment, with a cute doctor. He looked at it curiously before taking the bite. He nodded his head, and shrugged.
"Okay. That is not that bad actually." He said. I smiled and took another bite of the slice.
"So what's up doc? While I do appreciate you coming by, I know people always have an agenda." I said smiling kindly at him. Might as well get down to business, not that I did not enjoy him coming by. And it would be awesome if he had just come by because he wanted to. But there was always an agenda.
"I have been wondering something about last night. Remember Margrete? Well she texted me this morning saying that she would let me go and that me and Rose were clearly great together." He said smiling and I smirked and shrugged.
"That is good to hear Spence. I am glad that you're rid of your little stalker." I said smiling and he nodded smiling at me.
"Yeah, well I wanted to thank you for that. And to ask you something." He said looking down a little, like he was embarrassed.
"You're welcome, besides I know you would do the same for me if someone was creepy to me. Well not that I would need it, I could whack them myself. But we did some great acting out there. Maybe you would be a good criminal after all." I said smiling and giving him a small wink. He chuckled and shrugged smiling.
"What did you want to ask me?" I said smiling and taking a bite of the pizza. He opened his mouth, but drew back and shrugged.
"Nothing important. Just how you've been settling in so far and stuff." He said. I knew that people do not come around bringing gifts to ask how people are settling in. But I liked Spencer, and I did not want to push him since he clearly did not feel like talking about what was really on his mind.
"It has been good, I might be confined to a mile radius outside of work, but I like it. I can do what I want again. Having a little trouble with my sleep schedule, having been woken up the same time every day for 5 years." I finished smiling.
"That is good to hear." He said smiling slightly.
We sat there and small talked for a while, it was nice, not talking about work for once. And I really liked hanging out with Spencer, now I would just have to figure out why he was acting so weird. He seemed a little sad, and I wanted to help him. But I also knew not to push him, so I did not.
The next day, we were called in on a case. Everyone looked normal however Reid did not sit beside me in the briefing like he usually did. I put his weird behaviour in the back of my mind and tried to focus on the case.
"So far two 16 year olds had been killed. Not from the same school or neighborhood, but they do have one common denominator. They are both from the wealthier families of New York. They came in the same social cycles. Still no one knows what happened, or who will be next. They were dumped in a dumpster in the poorer area of New York. We have a lot of very wealthy and worried parents and kids waiting for us there. This is something that needs to be dealt with delicately. Wheels up in 10." Hotch said finishing his sentence.
I stood up and went to my desk where my over night bag was lying, it has been a while since I was in New York. Will be a nice revisit. We were getting on the plane and JJ started talking about media coverage, there was no bigger medias that were covering the story yet, but these parents would go to the press soon seeing as though these kids lived in the spotlight as well.
"So a model and a socialite gets kidnapped and murdered." Emily started, Morgan going after her.
"Would not be easy to isolate if it was not someone who was usually around them." He said and Rossi elaborated.
"Still would not be someone you would suspect." He said and Reid commented.
"The killings suggest anger, maybe jealousy, there is a lot of damage to the corpses. However the kidnapping seems too sophisticated to be sloppy angry revenge." He said. I shrugged.
"So it is organised revenge, maybe the guy only looses his temper when they have the victim alone." I said and he shrugged, but furrowed his eyebrows.
"How do you know this is a male unsub?" He asked and I shrugged.
"Ever been in a fight with an upper east sider?" I asked and he shook his head and looked at me confused.
"Unless they're using chloroform or something like that, there is no way another girl could pull this off. Those socialites may be bitches, but they know how to throw a good punch." I said shrugging and smiling.
"We will check with the autopsy for the toxin report. This proximity and the dumping area also gives us a clue that they are from this poorer area, but somehow goes to their school." Reid said and I nodded.
"You would need a car to get anyone out of the city without being seen. And he can't kill in the middle of New York, especially upper east side. There are security guard, cameras all around." I said smirking.
"Well the school isn't that easy either, you have to use a key card everywhere, plus cameras everywhere." Emily said, I heard myself scoff, earning a weird look from them all.
"Please that is childs' play. You sneak in through the back avoid the cameras. And you don't even need a student card to get in anywhere, just cover the censor with some gum, and you're in." I said, knowingly.
A friend of mine had done exactly that to get another friend out of school. It was a mess. They all looked at me I imagine impressed and probably a little scared. I sank a little into my seat embarrassed. Sometimes I forget that not everyone is a criminal, and that knowing those kinds of things is not normal. I tried to sink into the seat shamefully.
"So can't be that poor. Plus you would need tinted windows to make sure the vehicle doesn't attract suspicion." Morgan said and I nodded in agreement.
Thankfully no one commented on it either. But I tried to keep my mouth shut during the rest of the flight. Not wanting to attract that kind of attention again.
When we landed in New York, we drove to the upper east side to interview some of the parents and the kids at their school. We split up Rossi and I going to the school. As soon as I walked in I hated everything about this place. The way they looked at people like me, they saw my tracker and judge me instantly. Rossi and I went to talk to the principle. She looked me up and down and sighed giving Rossi all of the files we needed.
"I will let you interview all of my students. But I do not know what you expect to find, we are very selective. Also, I will not let my students be endangered, so I am not letting a convict near them like this. I hope you understand." She said looking disgusted at me.
I wanted to return the look but tried to hold back my anger. I knew these people looked down on people like me. I hated them, judging me before they even knew me. Rossi nodded and thanked her for her cooperation. We walked out in the hall and she told me to wait here on a bench out side, while Rossi did interviews.
She left us, and I crossed my arms walking over to Rossi. He sighed and picked up the file.
"I hate this as much as you do. And believe me I know how they look at you. But we needed her to cooperate and catch this unsub before another person dies. Here is a notepad, try and write down anything you see. It might not all be useful, but it will help your profiling skills." He said smiling kindly at me and handed me the notebook.
I knew he was right but that did not mean I had to like it. I sat on the bench outside and started writing down as the different students walked by. They all looked me up and down and then at my ankle. Then came the disgusted look and then they were gone. Only a small group of girls stopped in front of me.
"Have our schools standards really gone so far down that we are accepting cons now. Wait till my dad hears about this? Can't have this trash going to the same schools as me." This girl said looking at me disgusted while her group of friends laughed. I put down the notebook.
"I would not do that if I were you." I said cooly, looking back at my notepad ignoring her. And she chuckled and rolled her eyes.
"Or what? I know you can't fight me, because then you'll get sent back to juvi." She said smirking. Oh this girl had it coming.
"You wanna do this with witnesses or alone?" I asked smiling slightly at her, finally looking up at her.
"Witnesses, duh, I am not an idiot. And anything you say or do to me my friends can hear." She said putting on a brave face. Oh that is just great.
"Well, don't say I didn't warn you." I said smiling slightly and she laughed a little.
"I am not scared of you. All you will ever be is trash, even if you make anything other than more jail time. After that, maybe I will let you pick up my trash for a living." She said smiling and I shrugged.
"Gee golly, thank you miss, I am so grateful. Grateful that I am not you. Let me see, first of you clearly have dependency issues seeing as your daddy has to fix everything for you. Secondly I would say that your friends here does not know, like the fact that you seek approval by putting others down. Which is a defence mechanism, used by people whose parents did not love them enough. So I am guessing even if you called to tell daddy that trash went to this school he would not care. I know you have an older sister who you're jealous of, maybe because daddy loves her, and just tolerates you. Shall I go on about you being a bedwetter till you were 10?" I said smiling at her. She stood there opened mouth looking at me angrily.
Finally she boiled over. She slapped me across the face and her and her possy walked away. I rubbed on the mark but sat back down rolling my eyes.
I smirked a little to myself as I rubbed my now sore face. I knew I should not have done that, but it felt like a little bit of social justice. Good thing I had seen that she had a sister and the bedwetting note on her file earlier. I felt a presence beside me I looked up to see and awkward kid sitting beside me. I noticed his shoes, they were not as expensive as all the others I had seen.
"What you did to Brooke just then, was really cool. You're gonna be on her shit list for the rest of the year, but I thought it was really cool. I'm Cameron." He said extending his hand to me. I smiled at him and took his hand shaking it.
"Anna." I said, I did not want to give him my real name.
Seeing as he somehow fit our profile, he was clearly from a poorer neighbourhood than the rest of these students. Only two or three of these students were like this. And I did not want to rule anyone out.
"So Anna, can I ask what you did to end up with that?" He said smiling. Polite, he was either raised well or a bit of a sociopath, which could be expected.
"If I told you, I would have to kill you." I said smirking at him and he chuckled.
"Well, seeing as I am currently a poor kid on a rich kids high school, you would probably be doing me a favour." He said smiling at me.
"So you wanna die?" I asked looking at him shocked.
"God no. I wanna get out of here. Prove them all wrong, that thing." He said, Rossi came out telling me he was done with the meetings and that we were ready to go. He glared at Cameron beside me.
"I gotta go. But I think that sounds like a great plan Cameron." I said smiling at him.
"Too bad, you have to get bullied to want a revenge motivation like that." He said and I shrugged padding his shoulder.
"If you want to grow some roses, you need some sh*t." I said winking at him and grabbing my things walking away from there.
Rossi looked at me smiling and I rolled my eyes, we stopped at the car and I asked what he had found out.
"Well there is a few suspects, including my new friend there. Seeing as sociopath might fit the profile pretty well, I wouldn't get too invested in him." He said and I shrugged.
"So what did you do?" He asked giving me the disappointed dad look. And damn he was good at that.
"I was minding my own business, when a group of kids asked why they let trash become a student there. Apparently they think I'm a student. She said some bad things, and I may or may not have analysed her and told her some of those things. Nothing too bad, just bed wetting and daddy issues. Then Cameron came and told me he thought what I did was cool." I said and Rossi sighed.
"You know you shouldn't have done that? Now let's get back to the precinct and see what we can find." He said and I nodded and got in the car.
We walked in to the precinct and met up with the others for a quick brief on everyones findings.
"We have localised the killers inside of this geographical area considering where the dumpsites are." Hotch said pointing at the map.
"I have kept the parents and therefore the media quiet, but news is gonna break soon and the school certainly knows by now. A gossip blog posted a memoir to the two victims. The kids are gonna be scared, meaning we need to find the person quick to avoid mass panic." JJ said and we all nodded.
"The killer can't know that we are here, it will just disturb him. Right now he thinks he has the upper hand. He is most likely a teenager, so he will be emotional, meaning that he will freak out and become sloppy if he knows were here." Morgan said.
"The lab came back, no toxins sheer overpowering. Looking at the wounds I would also say that they are deeply personal. Notice anyone being severely bullied while at the school?" Reid started and I shrugged letting Rossi answer.
"I have 10 suspects all male. This school has 20 students from poorer neighbourhoods as a form of community help. 10 girls and 10 boys. Considering their socioeconomic background matched up with these killings fits a motive. These kids all described our victims as "Cruel" Where as the other kids took a liking to them." Rossi said and I nodded in agreement.
"I talked to one myself, they feel suppressed and get bullied because of how much money they make. I understand these kids. They feel invisible, have an inferiority complex and feels as though they are at fault for being bullied. We should check if anyone has been severely bullied, check cyber but also send someone in to surveillance the school." I said and they nodded in agreement.
"I will talk to the detective to see if they have anyone who could do it." Hotch said however Reid stopped him.
"But while very good, these detectives does not know which signs to look for in this unsub, and like Morgan said if we try and grab the wrong guy, he will panic. We should send one of our own." Reid said and sighed Hotch closed the door again and looked around the room.
"A new teacher without an explanation in the middle of these murders would course suspicion. Needs to be a student going undercover." Emily said and Hotch nodded.
"That leaves Reid and Charlotte." Hotch said and I nodded looking over at Spencer.
"Since I have much more experience convincing people off, well anything, I figure this tasks falls on me. Besides some of the students already think that I am a student." I said smiling. Rossi shook his head at me.
"The principle would not let me have you with me while I interviewed her students. There is no way she or the bureau will let you do this alone." He said I sighed knowing he was right.
"Just send in the both of us. If I am supervising her then the bureau and the principle might let her go. And she will help me with the interaction part. Plus I have a lot more experience with profiling, we should be a good team." Reid said and I smiled at him.
"I will set it up. The rest of us will see what we can find." Hotch said and left the room to make some calls.
I guess to clear matters and set things up for us. I smirked and rolled my chair over so that I sat beside Reid. I poked at him smirking and he looked up from the file.
"Thank you for helping me there, I really wanna help this kid." I said and he shrugged and smiled.
"No big deal. It is always sad when someone young gets killed." He said looking at me in a comforting manner. However I scoffed and sighed.
"I was not talking about the victims. Not that anyone deserves to die. But it is bullsh*t, last week it was street kids getting killed, and that story barely made the news. Now one rich kid dies and we have to hold back the media. When a rich kid dies it is a tragedy and the loss of an angel. When a poor kid dies it is for the best, they would have ended up a criminal anyway. So I wanna find this guy, because I wanna help him." I said annoyed.
I hated how the upper class treated the lower class. It was sickening, and everything was always about them. There was some justice to this, not that I would ever condone murder. But my inner kid who begged on the streets for food, she thought it was karma for those rich bitches.
"I understand where you're coming from. I will need a lot of help with this undercover thing, because I am a terrible liar and terrible at social cues. Which is why I got bullied when I was in high school." Reid said and he got into a thought and wrote it down on the board then sat down beside me again.
"Well, that and I was the only 12 year old there." He said, and almost cringed a little, I couldn't help but chuckle slightly before patting his back in a comforting manner.
"When I am done with you, you will be a master of disguise." I said and gave him a small wink.
Hotch came in a little hour later and dumped some files and boxes beside us.
"These contains your new identities, the boxes should have everything you need for school tomorrow. I want you to study these roles and be ready for tomorrow. You are already enrolled in the school, you are in the same classes to ensure safety, you need to stay together. Take care of yourselves." He said smiling a little at last.
Well as much as Hotch smiled, really it was more of a softening of features than a smile. We nodded and got to work.
I studied my file till I knew it backwards. We decided to quiz each other to try and see our progress, also because it was getting late, and it got boring reading the same sentence over and over again.
"My name is Anna-bell Morse, I am 15 years old. I live at home with my mom and dad and twin brother, we just moved here from New Jersey. I live in South Bronx right now. I like sports and I got my anklet on because I stole a car, but it was only because of bad influences. Which is partly why we moved from Jersey." I finished it was all so boring I knew all of this, I just built up my personality in my head while I was talking. Reid nodded and closed my file and handed me his.
"My name is Caleb Mores, I am also 15 years old. I live at home with my mom and dad and twin sister Anna. We moved to New York from New Jersey because my sister got in trouble and stole a car. I live in the south bronx. My dads name is Russel my mothers is Julia. I spend all my time with my sister, because I am very awkward and bad at social interactions, because I am mildly autistic." Reid said and smiled.
I snorted a little and he shrugged.
"I understand why he added the autism, it will be a good excuse as to why I am so awkward and bad at interactions. Also this was dumb. I have a photographic memory, of course I am remember all of this. Will you help me sound convincing though?" He said looking at me worried and I smiled at him nodding. I scooted closer to him and put my hands on his shoulders making them come down from their tense position.
"Relax. Think of these things you're saying not as facts, but as truths. You won't have to list these facts all at anyone. Just say what comes natural to you. And what I like to do is build their personality. What is Caleb's favorite dish? What kinds of things is he into? Answer all these questions about him and you will know who the person you're pretending to be is. And when it comes down to it, try and think of it like letting a good friend take the wheel. In a metaphorical car of sorts." I said and he nodded and smiled at me.
We went to our hotel rooms to get a good nights rest till the morning.
When I got up that morning, I put on the clothes that the detectives had bought for me, and did my hair a little. I took the backpack and put in the school books they had so kindly picked up for us. I got out and ate some breakfast with the team before heading to the police station.
Rossi was taking us to school because the kids had seen him with me the previous day. Also he looked most like he could be related to both me and Reid. We did not drive in the fancy Rover like perusal, we drove in a small and worn down station car. We were instructed on our bugs and how exactly this was gonna work. Rossi dropped us off and hugged the both of us goodbye telling us to be safe.
I slouched with the heavy backpack on my shoulders and looked up at Reid sighing. He smiled at me and we started walking into school.
"You know, this is my first day of high school." I said quietly to him and he chuckled.
"I can never seem to attend it at the right age. I'm either way younger or older than everyone else." He said smiling at me and I chuckled.
"Never fit in, did you Spence?" I said and he shrugged.
"I think I'm good. I do pretty well with the team don't you think?" He asked, sounding genuinely anxious about me answer. I smiled at him and nodded.
"Yeah, much better than I do with them." I said a little sad.
He put his hands comfortingly on my shoulder, but we pulled apart as we started walking closer to the school and other kids. Not wanting to seem weird. Plus it would be stupid to talk about our BAU team, that could definitely blow our covers.
The administration gave us our schedules and we went to our first class. I figured during classes we would not learn much besides who was severely bullied. Maybe who would be good to talk to at lunch. I had ten names in my head on the kids Rossi had deemed as at risk, these were the kids we needed to target and become friends with.
We came in and Reid handed the teacher a note from the office telling her that we were new and she nodded and told us to sit down. The kids walked in, I had sat in the back because that is usually where the at risk kids sat, Reid was uncomfortable. I subtly put my hand on his arm to comfort him. There was light chatter and a few kids who just sat down while taking a little torment. A lot of the rich kids also cast dirty looks my way. Brooke recognised me from the day before but did not say anything just gave me a dirty look. I smirked a little knowing that I had put her in her place.
The bell rung signalling the beginning of class. The teacher stood up and gained the attention of the student.
"Good morning students. As some of you may have noticed we have some new students, why don't you stand up and say a few words about yourselves? But keep it a few I don't have all day" She said firstly sounding kind of sweet then turning stick at the end of her own sentence.
Reid and I stood up from our seats and I cleared my throat. Reid stood frozen still clearly scared of talking in public. I figured I would take the lead, seeing as he was pretty frozen up.
"Hi, I am Anna Morse, and this is my twin brother Caleb, were 15 and just moved here from Jersey." I said smiling and Reid nodded and waved awkwardly at the class.
We sat down and the lesson commenced. I took out a notepad and wrote something then passed the note to Reid.
It said: "You are gonna have to say something eventually doc. Remember to relax." I said and he smiled at me seeming comforted as he read the note then put it away.
I spent the majority of class bored out of my mind. None of this was useful in the real world. And seeing as the teacher had a firm grasp on her students attention. I was not able to see anything about anyone who was bullied. I followed my ten names closely during rolecall. A little late a smug looking kid walked into class. He smiled at me confidently and winked. He barely even noticed the teacher and just strutted in. I hated these types of people.
I did however notice him rolling his eyes widely when one of the girls we had deemed a potential target talked. He looked deeply disturbed whenever one of these girls in this class talked. Like a deep hatred, not stemming from some high school bullshit. From what I could see of his interactions while small, he was well liked in this school. So he should not have any beef with this girl.
I wrote it down on my notebook for later thought. Sadly I did not catch his name, but made a small behavioural note and left it for later. The next class the students kept studying and we kept on studying them. I kept taking notes of a few suspicious kids. We went to the hallway before lunch to put our books in the locker, I put my notebook in my backpack and turned to Reid. Only to see Cameron come up to me.
"Hey Anna. I thought that was you. Glad to see that you have joined hell." He said smiling at me, I smiled back.
He seemed nice, I knew I should not get attached but he seemed like a great kid. Like someone who could go places, have a good life. And even if he did go bad, he would not end up doing crap, he would be an old fashioned wise guy.
"Thank you. Can't wait to spend a few years in this hole. Oh and this is my twin brother Caleb." I said pointing to Reid. I knew I put him on the spot, but he would be introduced eventually, this way I controlled it. They shook hands much to Reids dismay, but he kept cool and gave Cameron a smile.
"So if you aren't scared of ruining your reputation, wanna come sit with me and my friends?" He asked looking back to me. I shrugged and smirked.
"Depending, are they a bad crowd? I do have a knack for getting myself in trouble, and this is supposed to be a fresh start." I said and he just chuckled and shook his head.
"Unless not owning a yacht is a bad crowd, I think you're good." He said smiling and I nodded looking and Reid who shrugged. I looked back to Cameron.
"Lead the way then." I said and he smiled grabbing mine and Reid's arm leading us outside to the lunch tables.
A bunch of richer kids glared at us as we walked by. This was the poor kids table, we naturally sat by the trash. I smiled and waved at the guys who sat at the table.
They introduced themselves, some of them a little shy, but mostly they studied while they ate. Occationally they would glare at the kids who walked by. They must be tough surviving in this kind of environment. I respected them for that, it must be really hard both having a hard time at home and at this school. Reid seemed oblivious to this, and just small talked science with them. He would never understand that background. I am certain he had his own struggles, but it was nothing compared to what many of these kids go through.
None of these kids seemed to be able to go violent. Seeing them study and how they interacted, even how they reacted to the bullying from these peers. They resented them, but there was no out right anger. I looked around the other kids who caught my attention before, seemed to still be agitated by one of the bitchy girls from class. I cleared my throat and caught Camerons attention.
"Hey Cam, who is that guy over there?" I asked nodding my head in that guys direction. He snickered and I looked at him confused.
"Surprised you haven't heard yet. That is Noah King. He is practically the richest person here. Lives in a big mansion and is driven in on a limo each day. He is also a total douchebag who acts like he owns this god forsaken place." He said practically rolling his eyes.
"You're not gonna be one of those girls who swoon over him are you?" He asked, this time it was my turn to snicker.
"Oh god no." I stopped myself from saying he was way too young for me. Which would have been strange as my alias was 15 and was probably the same age.
"I hate rich assholes." I said instead and Cameron smiled at me approving.
"Good. You seem too smart for that." He said and I looked at him and smiled.
"Yeah, he is probably into boobs and no brains anyways." I said and he shrugged.
"Sadly no, he recently asked out Sara from the bitchy crowd over there, and she rejected him. It was awesome." He said laughing at his failure. I understood that, there was something right about your enemies not getting what they wanted.
"Well it was awesome until he caught you laughing about it and beat you up." Sid said from beside him and he just shrugged.
"It was worth it." He just said and I smiled at him.
He was a good kid. I liked all of these people, and while it did not seem to get us any closer to the killer, seeing as they all seemed innocent. I still liked hanging out with these people. They reminded me of my own crew.
The rest of the day went by pretty quickly and when school was over, we were luckily not assigned to any after school activities so Rossi picked us up from school. He hugged us and smiled asking how our first day was kids. We kept up the smiles till we got in the car.
"The news broke to the media, tomorrow everyone in that school will know that there is a killer loose. What did you find out? Were our leads any good?" He asked and Reid explained a lot about the dynamics at school and the types of people our little friend group was. I only interjected him when he finished.
"Also this guy named Noah King. He seems suspiciously angry at his rich peers. I think we should look into him as well." I said and Rossi just shrugged and we drove to the precinct where we worked our case.
Seeing as we would have to pass as school kids and none of the teachers were ruled out due to not wanting to rule out any suspects. We actually had to do our homework.
I sat beside Reid who was also doing his homework and discreetly copied all of his answers.
"I know you're copying me you know." He said after about an hour, he did not even look up from his papers.
"I am not." I said defensively but he just chuckled.
"I was 12 when I went to high school and was smarter than everyone there. I know when people are cheating off me, trust me." He said looking up at me with a smug smile.
"Fine. So what if I was cheating? I never went to high school. I don't know half of these things. Or see why I would need them in the foreseeable future." I said trying to be as sly as possible with my comeback. Before Reid could say anything I heard surprise from across the room.
"You never went to high school?" Emily asked and I just shrugged.
"I dropped out to "work" and you know, become a criminal when I was 14. Because guess what? I was homeless unless I would go work for uncle Eddie. So yeah, I dropped out of eighth grade. I was failing most classes anyway. " I said annoyed that I had to offend myself.
"Who would hire a 14 year old? Even if they were poor." Morgan asked also confused.
"No one did. I earned money the only way someone from south side can make money. You either steal it or scam it." I said looking down at my homework getting on with it.
I could sense that they wanted to ask more into it, but I did not want to get into it. I did what I had to do to survive, so what if it was fucking illegal, that is the only way to survive on the South side. Rossi stepped into the conversation.
"Let's leave the kids to their homework, and do our jobs shall we?" He said as he practically pulled Emily and Morgan away. I looked up at him grateful and he just gave me a small smile and a little nod.
Reid cleared his throat from beside me.
"You know instead of just cheating off me, I could actually just help you with it. If you would like?" He said, I looked at him and he smiled at me kindly.
I shrugged, I would normally never accept help from anyone. I do perfectly fine on my own, I did not need anyones fucking charity. But when I accidentally glared at him, he looked so sad and genuine that I decided to accept.
He was nice and patient as he actually helped me with our homework. I liked working with him like this. By the end he said that I was a fast learner and I smiled and shrugged.
"Maybe I would have done great things." I said and he smiled at me and nodded, seeming almost proud of me.
"I have no doubt that you will." He said.