2. Chairman
Charlie put her calm head on and put on some clothes laid out for her, an orange T-shirt, camouflage trousers and combat boots. She looked down at the T-shirt it said CHERUB, with a winged baby holding a bow and arrow. She looked around and saw a note it said "Take the lift to the first floor, people won't speak to you, it doesn't matter, ask the receptionist, she'll tell you where to go."
So, a very confused child made her way to the reception. She passed children her age in red shirts and older children in grey, navy and black T-shirts. In the lift she met an adult in white T-shirt, where he pressed the first floor button for her. The receptionist saw her and simply said "Hello Charlie, Dr McAfferty wants to see you in his office."
Charlie went down the corridor, until she reached a door, which said "Dr.T.McAfferty", Charlie knocked and waited a few seconds. "Come in." She heard a male voice with a Scottish accent say. Charlie entered the spacious office with the walls lined with books. Inside the room was a man sat at his desk, he stood up immediately and leaned over his desk to shake Charlie's hand.
"Welcome to CHERUB Charlotte! I am Dr. Terence McAfferty, as you might've gathered, the chairman of CHERUB, but if you want you may call me Mac. Sit down; I've much to tell you!"
Charlie had been too dumbfounded to speak up until then, she sat down and nervously, "I'm here for is to introduce you to CHERUB. You may be wondering how you got here, well, Owen, you know Owen right? Well Owen injected a minor dose of sleeping pill, are you having any side effects?" Charlie simply shook her head, Mac continued "We, on the CHERUB campus, have more than three hundred pupils, just like you, four swimming pools, six indoor tennis courts, an all weather football field, a shooting range, a gym, a school on site, where each class focuses on individual abilities and everyone learns at least two foreign languages. So that's CHERUB's facilities for you. How do you feel, do you want to come and live here?" Charlie found herself opening and shutting her mouth, rather like a goldfish, finally she said "Yes please, but why did you choose me of all people, I'm…I'm a…I'm an orphan! What do I have to do to get into CHERUB? It sounds so much better than Bennits Children Home!"
"Well, you might feel glad to know all the people on campus are orphans or have unfit parents or whatever. We picked you, because you are smart, brave, tough and like creating a little trouble. To get into CHERUB you have to pass an exam and you well…you have to agree to work for the British Intelligence, as a spy as you might call it. Do you want to?"
"YES PLEASE!" Charlie yelled excitedly. Mac smiled and told her "Great! You will be a red shirt, because you're 7, I'll explain later. For now go to the room you were in before, take a short break and meet me outside, if you're lost ask the receptionist. It's time for you to take your entrance exam!"
So Charlie went back to the room and lay on the bed, trying to gather her thoughts. Then she remembered…Jason!
Charlie made her way outside where Mac was, he was quite old, but he seemed the type that had been there, done that. She decided to ask the question "Ermm…Mac? I was wondering if you could make my friend a spy too." Mac's face went very straight for a while; he asked her back "Why? Who is this friend?"
"His name is Jason Reeves, he's 12 years old and just like me, smart and tough."
Mac's lips spread into a wide grin. "You must mean Jason Gallagher, well, he's a CHERUB too and he recommended you actually." Charlie took a few seconds to register what'd just been said. She then grinned even wider than Mac. Mac looked at his watch and told Charlie "We should be getting a move on we need to finish this exam by today." Mac led her towards an oriental-styled building, which Charlie knew was called the dojo, as her sensei had mentioned them many times.
Mac brought her inside and told her "This is called a dojo, we train martial arts here. Do you do martial arts Charlie?"
"Yes, I do Karate; I'm on my green belt." Charlie replied. Mac looked at her and said "You're something special, aren't you?" He then turned toward the sensei and mumbled something. The sensei shouted over a tall boy with a blue belt around his gi. Mac explained to Charlie "Take off your boots and socks; you'll be sparring with Kyle, who is 8. There are two rounds, there are no rules, and the aim is to make the other person submit."
Charlie had done this a lot of times before, but her opponent was usually the same size and standard. Kyle was much taller and better than her. They bowed to each other, Mac shouted "Begin!"
Kyle shot a perfectly aimed roundhouse kick at Charlie, whilst Charlie blocked it by grabbing his leg. It wasn't exactly karate, but it proved effective, as Kyle fell over and was put into a deadly arm lock by Charlie. Kyle submitted, as he didn't want a broken arm.
Mac beamed at Charlie "Well done! Now Begin!"
Now that Kyle knew not to go easy on Charlie he used his height as an advantage by simply grabbing Charlie's legs and tripping her up, he then grabbed her left leg and held it above his head. He looked down and said "Give up! Or I'll leave you hanging!" Charlie felt blood rush to her head and submitted. Charlie got up and bowed to her partner. Mac said "Excellent! If you do as well on this as you do on everything else, you'll become a fantastic Cherub!"
