In the Night Sky

Chapter 3

Summary: Alex is starting his time in San Francisco with the Pleasure family, a new house, a new school and a new life. But can he go from international super spy to normal school boy?
He once got thrown into a world he didn't belong and now he's gotten pulled back into a world he's outgrown. Is his wish for normality what he really and truly wants?
Alex Rider is on his toughest mission yet where his cover is an ordinary boy and his objective is to be ultimately normal, will he succeed or will this be his biggest failure of all?
But the biggest question of all, is: Can he well and truly forget not only the past but also the past him; the spy that he's been and might very well still be?

Disclaimer: I do not own Alex Rider. Simple as that.

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His first day had been a breeze, Alex had met Scott's girlfriend, Jean, who had insisted that he call her 'Jay' because she liked it better. Jay was quite the smart girl and although Alex had been behind at Brookland, he had been put into some classes for the accelerated students. Alex had been surprised when he entered his first class and got told by Jay that he was in the extended maths class.

At first, Alex had found it hard to keep up with some of the teachers in his classes since he missed so much school, but he soon realised that he simply needed to go over some of the things he missed and he'd be able to keep up easily. Alex wasn't overconfident but he knew that he was generally smarter than most kids, maybe it was because of his old job or maybe it had been because of Ian, who had pushed him harder than any other parents.

Ian. His uncle had popped up a total of four times on his first day of school. The first had been when he entered French, his second period class, and replied automatically to the teacher's French question "How long have you studied French?" in perfect French. His first thought after was 'Ian would be disappointed, my accent is a little off,' and then the force of his uncle's death hit him harder than ever before.

Alex had grieved for his uncle after his death but at that moment, he had lost everything and everyone, and the reminder that his beloved uncle had died and apparently lied to him his whole life, hit him hard. To say that his French teacher had been surprised that an English boy came into his class and spoke fluent French that was near accent-less was an understatement. Mr. Cooper, his French teacher, had been astonished that a teenage boy could speak French as if he had grown up speaking the language when he clearly wasn't French.

Jay didn't take French as a subject so Alex had been left alone in that class but he had been invited by the girl, Carlie, to sit next to her. He found it amusing how she was in advanced French and yet seemed to get many things wrong, apparently she had studied French since primary school but she never could get the hang of the accent and pronunciation.

Interval hadn't been too exciting, Alex sat with Scott, Jay, Carlie and their friends. It had been interesting to learn that Scott and Carlie were family friends and that their dad's were like brothers. What Alex had found even more surprising was that Carlie was adopted but spoke of it as if it didn't bother her at all. Alex's jaw had been on the ground by the time Carlie had explained that all her brothers and sisters apart from one brother were adopted. He had finally understood why Scott had been so excepting of his explanation of Jack's death and how he hadn't questioned him further.

In general, Alex's first week wasn't a bad one, things went along as smoothly as it should for a boy who just moved to a new country and Alex was generally a lot happier by the end of the week. Spending time with his new friends caused him to remember many things he would rather forget but they were his past and he couldn't get rid of them. Ian, Jack and Tom's face were the ones he often saw when something his friends did or said reminded him of before… everything.

Sabina and her parents had been particularly happy with him. They took him out to the beaches they started relaxing more around each other. Edward and Liz Pleasure had been glad that they had made the right choice to send Alex off to school and they started to try and give Alex some space by not watching him as closely as before since he seemed to be getting better. They couldn't have been more wrong.

To Alex, the year he spent with MI6 felt too long, as if it had been his entire life. He tried to fit in at school, he really did. But somehow he just couldn't feel as if he did fit in. The kids at the school all seemed to like him since he was polite and friendly, only Matt, the school bully he had encountered and his gang didn't really like him. Some of the kids in the higher years had been jealous that he had got Sabina but when they had explained that they were more like brother and sister, they had left him alone.

Maybe it was because he hadn't had enough time to adjust, maybe it was because he was still trying to get over Jack's death, maybe it was because he had been trying too hard. But to Alex, these weren't really the problems he was encountering, but he couldn't exactly say what the problems he was encountering were… he just knew that it wasn't the time part or the trying too hard, and although Jack's death still stabbed him in the heart every time he thought of her, he knew it wasn't that. He couldn't figure everything out until the second week of school…

But by then, everything was too late.

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He was half a step in the school when Jay ran towards him and nearly drove him to the ground.

"Oh my god! Oh my god! Alex! Alex! Alex! Oh my god! Do you know what today is?"

Alex hardly got the word, "No." out before Jay screamed, "The S.E.A.L.s are coming to talk to us at lunch today! The navy! I mean, I've always wanted to meet a soldier but the navy! And not any navy but the S.E.A.L.s!"

And then there was the excited scream that made Alex wince and cover his ears as if they might combust if Jay didn't stop.

A hand shot out of nowhere and closed over her mouth, muting her screams. Scott's head popped out from behind her and Alex gave him a grateful smile. Scott grinned at Alex and then turned to give Jay a mock stern expression and said seriously, "Jay, be quiet before I am forced to silence you." He ruined the affect by laughing at the glare Jay sent his way that clearly said 'You're not funny, now stop being an idiot' Alex smiled at his new friends and wondered why the navy coming for a short visit would have Jay so excited.

Carlie walked up behind Scott and looked at Alex's confused face, she grinned at the weird expression Alex was making and calmly stated, "Jay wants to join the navy when she grows up." Then she turned to Jay and said in a teasing tone, "If you ever grow up."

"Hey! I resent that! I may not be the most mature person on this world but that doesn't mean I can't be mature!"

Both Scott and Carlie gave her a look as if to say 'Really? You sure about that?'

"Why are you guys looking at me like that?"

"Oh, nothing sweetie just spaced out a bit is all."

"Like what? We're not doing anything."

Alex grinned at the mock innocence behind their words and he watched as Jay scowled and stomped off towards god knows where.

Alex wondered what he got himself into when he became friends with these crazy people.

"Sorry 'bout that mate, Jay's admired the S.E.A.L.s since she was a kid and now that they're visiting, she won't shut up about it."

"Oh it's not that bad, you should have seen her that time we were in history and our teacher, Mrs. Morgan, said we were going to visit the CIA. Jay had been so excited, and then she sulked for about a month when the teacher said that the CIA won't allow it."

Carlie winced at a particular memory and Alex thought that he was probably better off not knowing what trouble Jay stirred up because of that.

Scott groaned and then added, "Yes, Jesus, that was the worst month of my life. Jay's been having these fantasies that she'll get picked to join the CIA and she always says that when people ask her what she wants to do when she gets older, she has to say 'join the Navy' because she doesn't want to blow her cover."

Alex stiffened and half his mind screamed 'NO! NO! NO!' while the other half screamed at him to relax before his new friends realise something is wrong.

Carlie's laugh helped him control his body and force himself into a relaxed posture, he was suddenly glad that both his friends weren't focusing on him.

"Yeah, I don't really think that Jay's gonna get picked, I mean, she's not the most… spy like person and I doubt she'd actually want to be a spy if she knew what they truly did. She just reads too much action books, I doubt they actually do the things the books suggest they do."

Scott grinned, it was almost his signature, he always grinned and it was always that weird overly cheerful type grin that Alex was slowly getting used to.

"Well, I definitely hope not, have you read all those books about how a girl spy seduces all these men and then sleeps with them all?"

Carlie laughed and then pointed out, "So you're saying that you read all these books about girl spies seducing hot, sexy men?" She winked at Scott and then burst out in laughter again when she saw the expression on his face.

"Scott… is there something you want to tell me?"

Alex grinned slyly at Scott and hoped that he hasn't lost his skill in acting. He was glad that Carlie laughed again to help him keep up his act and this time she fell to the ground and tears flowed down her face.

"Goddess! It's not that funny!"

Scott exclaimed while throwing up his arms and making the whole scene even more funny. Alex chuckled at the sight of his two friends but a second before it happened, he knew something was wrong.

And then a bang rang through the courtyard.

One tiny piece of metal soared through the air.

Red blossomed on Carlie's white singlet.

Red.

All he could see was red.

Screams tore through the background, the world fuzzed in and out of focus.

But the red, the red stayed.

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Thnx to all those who reviewed last time! I'd especially like to thank Runningriver14, thank you so much for all the help you gave me about sophomores and how they organise the schools in America, however, I might still keep the blocks thing because it's hard for me to see a school without one so I hope you can adjust to it because it'll be hard for me to write the scenes if I have no idea where it's meant to be set. But thank you soo much for the info, I'll try to remember them all for the story but it'll help if you could tell me how many periods there are in a day cos we have 5 which are one hour long and you said they had lunch at about period 5 so if it were my school, they'd have lunch after school... I'm pretty sure that's not meant to happen. Thnx again for all the help and I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Also, many readers pointed out the tense changing thing again and I tried my best to pick out all the places I changed in this chapter but I think I still missed some so sorry if you read something and its annoying you cos the tenses keep changing, I'm trying, I really am!

Please review and tell me what you think, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter even if it is a bit short. Quick question of the day: Who wants Alex to stay a spy and who wants Alex to become normal? Personally, I think he can't leave the spy world but it's always good to see what other people would like to read. So thank you again to those who reviewed and I love you all heaps!

Ally xox :)