AN: You know what, I can't be bothered with these on every chapter as probably very few people read this and even less will review. Thanks to Fi3Fi3 who is reading and reviewing so cookies and a free annoy Matt Ainley pass for the next Monday we are in after SL Enjoy and I do not own any of the MI High characters and to those who are reading but not reviewing, it will get better I promise. A lot of background stuff however in this but more humour in the next one. Please please R&R. And I wasn't going to update until after my exams but I got bored of revision.
Chapter 5
Oscar's POV
Urgh Lessons are so boring. I know Frank said after assembly but he changed his mind, possibly from the phone call he got from someone called…Tristan. I looked around. Scoop was playing around with rubber bands and rulers along with his 'posse', and most people were looking bored; who can blame them? I wonder where the new girl is. I've had two lessons with her so far. She's been really quiet and only answered when she's had to. Maybe if I have next lesson with her, then I'll sit next to her, so she has a friend or at least someone to talk to, someone who knows what it's like to be new.
I looked around again and saw both Carrie and Rose had their arms up, trying to get Mr Flatley's attention. I guess that means, oh, wait. I looked at my communicator and cursed slightly, inwardly of course. I was supposed to notice the little things like this. 'And you call yourself a spy' I heard my mum say and I shook my head angrily. There was no way she was going to interfere with my school work. I stuck my arm up too and waited for Mr Flatley to notice.
"Another meeting with your social worker, Oscar?"
I nodded and shrugged as Avril looked at me. It was a great excuse and Frank made sure no-one checked and found out that my 'social worker' that I saw was a Latvian spy here on exchange.
Mr Flatley sighed and shook his head. "Why does she keep organising them during school hours? Never mind. Off you go and don't be too long. Make sure you fill in the sheet for homework."
I nodded before sliding my stuff into my rucksack and I walked out of the classroom, down the corridor and stopped outside Frank's cupboard, waiting for Carrie and Rose.
I gazed up and down the corridor in a bored manner, knowing that the security camera down the corridor hadn't ever worked properly since the whole issue with the 'child-allergic brainiac' Mary someone. I don't think Mr Flatley ever bothered to replace any of the cameras after Rose short circuited them all. I smirked, knowing she would have loved it. The only ones around here that worked now were our ones so it didn't really matter. I stopped short, my eyes wide and alert. At the edge of the corridor I thought I saw the new girl talking to Frank but she couldn't be, could she? Frank was…Frank was downstairs, waiting for us like he always did. He'd be breaking the rules seeing as he called us, well not really seeing as it's not in writing. No, Frank was waiting for us, just like always. Although, I was sure it was her but was it really? She looked at me with her big grey eyes. I blinked and she was gone. I shook my head. I must have imagined it; no-one can disappear like that. Out of the corner of my eyes I saw a flash of blond and I immediately thought of Honey. I felt so sorry for her. Her friend had died and she had looked mortified. She looked so beautiful with her blond hair blowing slightly in the breeze and her brown eyes filled with tears. Oh how I wanted to go and hold her and tell her it would be alright. I really envied the guy who had been with her, holding her, comforting her, her small frame nestled into him. I hate him. Okay, so that's a little harsh. I don't like him. Wait, why am I jealous? I don't know her.
Behind me I heard Rose and Carrie run down the corridor. I turned and saw Rose bent over slightly. Carrie was smiling and I would be too if I were her: after we got back from the mission on Friday, she got a partial apology from Stark. I hope Honey did as well, I mean come on, her friend died because he was running late. I hope he was just a friend, otherwise I stand no chance yet and I don't want to be the rebound guy. I looked up at Carrie and Rose and realised they were waiting for me. I shrugged and Rose shook her head as she opened the cupboard. Carrie shot me a quizzical look and I shrugged again. I wasn't going to tell her. The lever was pulled and the lift whooshed down. I wonder if Honey went to a place like this, not the school but the spy thing. I wonder if there are schools for spies. We've heard rumours, snatches of conversations in MI9, the name of a file left on a desk, Stark having messages on his computer. But then I guess it's not real, they would say, right?
The lift doors opened and I saw Frank stood in the centre of the room, talking on his phone. Rose walked straight past him, sat at one of the computers and started loading a bunch of files. Carrie went and watched Rose, muttering various comments about timing and positioning. I suppose they were planning where the GM might be next and who SKUL's going to go after next. Frank shut his phone with a nod and glanced around at us.
"Rose, Carrie, can you two stop that a minute? I want to talk to you please."
I looked at him confused. He never said anything like that. Come to think of it, he'd been so weird recently, ever since he got a call about two weeks ago, and then with Honey a couple of days ago…
"Frank, we're trying to find the Grand-Master. Can't it wait? We're really onto something here."
Her eyes never left the screen. Frank sighed.
"No, it can't wait. We've all agreed you should know."
"Know what? Frank, you can't just say that then stop!" Rose exclaimed as she pushed her chair away from her desk, narrowly avoiding Carrie's feet who squeaked and stepped to the side.
"I am going to tell you, just be patient. You all know there's different divisions at MI9, Rose there's your friend in MI38. You also know that other countries have their own spy networks, CBI, FBI to name a few. What you don't know, or shouldn't know is about them." He pulled a small remote out of his jacket and several images appeared on the screen behind him.
Two were of schools, one a girls school, the other a boys school, both in America I presumed seeing as we didn't have palm trees or anything here. One photo was a bunch of young spy's like us, about 8, all of them acting like, well a family; one guy was holding a boy of about 13 upside down, another guy had his arms around the blond girls waist, his head resting on hers, another girl on a tall dark-haired guy's back that looked rather like Johny when he'd been here a couple of weeks ago, the others close by and everyone was laughing and smiling, looking really happy-I reckon they'd just completed a mission or were just having fun but probably the mission idea if Frank was showing it to us. The second to last photo was a bunch of kids sat in a tree-house, some of them looked like the people from Friday but that's just silly. There were rather a lot of them in the photo and they were looking at maps and books and charts on the wall. I wonder how Frank managed to get hold of that photo. The last photo was Honey, Jesse/Alan, a dark-haired guy and a strawberry blond, her boyfriend or maybe her brother seeing as he was looking at her slightly, fear showing in his eyes. I thought I recognised the dark-haired guy slightly, but only slightly.
"This," said Frank, pointing to the girls school, "is the Gallagher Academy for Educated Young Ladies in America, and along with its boys equivalent Blackthorne," he said, pointing to the other, "are two of the best spy academy's in the world, and are the biggest rivals to our own three: Danvar in south Cornwall, Eyreheart for 'Educated Young Ladies' in London and The Myretaugh Academy in Nottingham, not to be confused with the notorious criminal Murdaug. Those are England's top three spy academies, not divisions, excluding The Barclay Academy which is strictly off-limits and you shouldn't know about it and isn't really a spy academy." Frank got quieter and quieter and I chuckled. He really did mess up stuff sometimes.
"This is a group from MI6 who have worked with NCIS, MI9, MI7, the CBI, the FBI, Irish and Scottish agents and are one of our most accomplished and best teams we have. I'll come back to them in a second. These people you should have recognised as Honey, the girl from Friday, Alan, the boy who died, Alex who was also there and Sam although Sam is no longer with us. Like you, they work for MI9 and have done many things such as protecting several members of the royal family, rescuing captured operatives, and preventing and securing numerous plots, schemes and criminals. The last one in the tree-house is of the largest group we have and the main thing I want to talk to you about. As you may or may not remember, whilst threatening to kill the baby, the Grand Master mentioned his family was dead. He was wrong. Although his parents may be dead… yes Carrie?"
"His sister, she's in hospital, not dead or that's what the GM said. I presume you mean her?"
Frank nodded. I could see where this was going – another person to protect and follow all the time.
"Yes, I do mean her. She's not in hospital, she's… I don't really know how to explain. She's lost so much recently and with her family being in danger…"
"You want us to protect her, right? Did Stark put you up to this Frank? This is so a typical thing he would make us do," Carrie asked.
Behind me, I thought I heard a noise on the stairs but I heard nothing else after that small squeak so I dismissed it. Frank shook his head.
"No, no. Her Uncle, Tristan Mann, head and leader of their group," he said, pointing to the smiling family, "asked if she could stay here with us for a bit, away from everything."
"Right, so when is she getting here?" I asked.
"Hold up Oscar," said Carrie as she moved forward, her hands up in the air, "Why should we accept her? She's new, we don't know anything about her and we will not babysit some wannabe spy."
"You have no choice Carrie. And you won't be babysitting her. She's incredible; you just don't know her so you can't say. You don't know what Rose and Oscar have to say about this but it doesn't matter. Idon't have any choice in the matter. None of us do. Even she has no choice. Right, end of discussion as none of us have any say and she should be here soon."
Carrie glared at Frank and Rose sat looking a little unsure of what to say. I clenched my fists.
"Frank, the stairs need fixing. I nearly broke my neck when one of the steps broke. I guess it's a good thing I'm a spy else I'd probably be dead right now or bleeding heavily. Maybe it was a one of your booby-trap things you like to set up. The metal really needs to be um de-rustified as it could kill someone even without slicing off their leg Frank! It's not safe!" came a girl's voice off to the side. I cursed realising that her falling was the noise I had heard earlier. In front of me, Carrie and Rose looked shocked. I turned to see what the two were staring at. I gasped.
The girl who was stood in front of me was the new girl, but she looked so much more… wow! She wasn't in uniform or spy gear but in a short dark blue and white flowery dress and short-sleeved white cardigan, and her hair was pinned back in a business woman type style. Man, she looked beautiful. She smiled and I couldn't help smiling back.
"Hi, I'm Kittie but I guess you already knew that. What are you guys doing? Please say you're doing something. I hate being bored and not doing anything."
She stood there and fiddled with her necklace. I gawped at her and stopped as Carrie elbowed me. Rose shook her head and walked back over to the computer. Carrie followed and the two resumed their work from earlier. I rolled my eyes at them and started to move towards Kittie.
"Oscar, why don't you help Rose and Carrie with their investigation whilst I brief Kittie on our progress last Friday? If she's going to work with us, she needs to know what happened."
"I wouldn't call it progress," muttered Carrie.
I disagreed with her. For one, there was the little black box which Frank knew what it was but wasn't telling us and secondly, it meant I had met Honey. I desperately wanted to talk to Kittie, but I decided it could wait. A few minutes wouldn't kill me. I nodded and moved towards the girls who looked at me and rolled their eyes as Frank led Kittie off to the side. They talked quietly; Kittie insisting something and Frank being, well Frank and worrying, checking that she was sure. I smiled and shook my head. Frank was so protective over us but then he was our team leader.
Kittie's POV
As Frank led me to the side, I saw Carrie mutter something and both of the girls roll their eyes, presumably at Oscar who was staring at me again. I know they didn't want me here but I didn't want to be here either. I had left everything and come to a new school and new team in year 11, about 8 months before my GCSE's, left to make new friends, when everyone else probably had their own friends and didn't want someone new here.
Frank coughed and I looked up at him. He looked nervous. Maybe he didn't want me here either.
"Kittie, are you alright? I know you don't want to be here."
I laughed slightly and he carried on.
"But we have a job to do, and so do you. All that aside, how are you, I mean really? Do you need any help with your younger siblings?"
I shook my head, allowing the few curls that were down to bounce around. "I don't need any help. I can take care of my family, Frank. You right, I don't want to be here. I want to go back to Barclay, to be with my friends. I want to have a break but I can't. Spies don't get breaks. When someone dies, we just have to carry on like nothing's happened, but sooner or later I'm not going to be able to do that. My younger siblings are left without parents who shouldn't have died. They retired Frank. My mum retired when she found out she was pregnant with Cal and my dad when Sophie was born. This isn't fair Frank. I have done so much and yet I'm still left with nothing. Life's not fair Frank, I have to live with it. You of all people know I'm not going to let anyone else look after my family."
"I know, I know Kittie. You're too stubborn for your own good, too like your mother. If there's anything we or even I can do to help you…"
"There is one thing, well two. Can you get Michael home? I haven't seen him since Friday and I want my brother home. Stop MI9 giving him so much work, please."
"You know I can't do that," he replied sadly. "I'll see what I can do but I can't make any promises. What's the second thing? Kittie."
I sighed, knowing he knew exactly what I was going to say. "I don't need to be babysat. Please don't let them follow me everywhere. I can look after myself and you know it."
"I know, I know. I'll…no. Kittie, you're not being babysat. You're part of this team, for now at least, so you'll be working with them. Please try and make friends with them or at least be civil."
I nodded reluctantly. I would be nice. I know Oscar's nice, if a little defensive and quick tempered and the girls, maybe I could do something. Rose is scientific and technological and I was alright I guess. I'm quick and I can fix lots of things and I can generally hack into anything but being able to use a computer without crashing it or causing it to freeze, well I can't do that. She might like me and my slightly odd skills. Carrie on the other hand, I was sure I could either please her or make her hate me. But, c'est la vie. I looked over at then and smiled. I wanted to be friendly even though I wanted to be by myself. I get lonely and I was used to everyone being well, nice. I frowned, remembering Stark. He didn't like me but then he didn't like anyone. Well it was my fault why he was working here, I mean I got him fired from MI6 and then reduced here. I grinned evilly. Oh those were happy times and I'm sure plenty more could happen if he doesn't behave.
"Kittie, please, no running off and just be good."
"Why does everyone think I'll run off? That's not my style at all. I'll be good Frank. I can't promise anything but I'll try. Be warned, I will want to keep myself to myself and I will be keeping contact with the others. Family comes first with me, okay?"
Frank nodded. "Of course, of course. Why don't you go and see what they're doing whilst I call Stark and tell him that you're here. That may make him come on time for once."
I nodded and bounced over to them. "Whatcha doing?"
Rose looked at me patronizingly then looked back at the screen. If she thought I was childish, I'd definitely be. I opened my mouth to speak when Oscar looked at me and smiled. I smiled back, a little shocked. I knew he was nice but I thought he didn't talk to new people. When Johny, my cousin was here, he wasn't spoken to by Oscar at all.
"Hi, I'm Oscar. Sorry, you probably already know that. Of course you do, you're a spy. Well at least you should do if you're working with us. Well uh, welcome to MI9 or this division at least."
I smiled wider. His babbling was cute, no sweet, no, argh! I didn't know how to describe it without sounding like I liked him because I didn't or at least not in that way. Although, I did prefer his hair curly rather than gelled back. No, bad thoughts, bad thoughts.
"Don't worry. So what's St. Hopes like? Are the teachers any good?"
He nodded, "Yeah, they're alright I suppose. I could be worse but we have to live with it. Where did you come from? I'm sorry about uh Alan by the way. I take it you knew him? Did you know the others that were there? Uh, Honey, for instance."
That was it; he wanted to know about Honey Harper. Hmm, what could I tell him?
"I went to Barclay, not that far from here really, which may or may not be the Barclay academy which Frank was talking about earlier but isn't the one in Stevenage."
I grinned and he looked a little confused but soon caught on.
"Ah, who knows knows. Of course,"
"As for this Honey that you mentioned, do you mean Honey Harper?"
He nodded and I smiled. This may be fun, but I couldn't lie to him.
"Sure, I know her. We're really close, despite the fact I don't work with her or Alex or um the others. She's privately tutored along with her brothers but does attend classes at Barclay sometimes. Why? Did she leave anything there on Friday?"
I was pleased-nothing given away and he looked flustered.
"No, no, I just wanted to make sure she was alright. When I left, she was crying because of Alan. Was he her boyfriend?"
I shook my head, mentally cursing the crying and wondering if it did look like he was her boyfriend.
"No, he was a friend, a close friend. Her boyfriend Sam died a few weeks ago in a car crash along with my, my boyfriend Robin, and Robin's brother Tyler."
I regretted saying that immediately as tears stung my eyes. I brushed them away furiously. Next to me, Oscar shuffled nervously, unsure of what to say.
"I'm sorry," he said quietly.
I nodded. That's what everyone said. "It's alright."
We stood there, staring at each other awkwardly, unsure of what to say. There was silence aside from the clicks from the mouse Rose was using.
Frank walked over. "Alright, everyone. We'll leave it there for now. You better go and get back to class. Kittie, take this," he said, handing me a key. "This is for your locker, G18. It's your reason for being out of class. Just be careful when you open your locker. Oscar, will you show her where it is and will you look after her, for today at least?"
I glared at him, my hands tightly clutching the desk top behind me. Oscar nodded, smiling slightly.
"Sure, come on then." Oscar walked towards the lift and stopped. "What's wrong?"
"I don't take the easy way, ever. I use stairs. They're better, more eco-friendly and healthier."
He shook his head. "Are you sure? You did fall through earlier, and your dress is rather short. Plus we'd have to change in a room as the auto-changer is in the lift, not on the stairs."
He blushed slightly, maybe from what he'd said or having realised how it sounded, and I laughed.
"Yes, it's fine. I have shorts on underneath and it'll be practice if the lift breaks again. Come on,"
I grabbed his hand and pulled him towards the stairs, ignoring the heat from my face. I looked back at the others. Carrie was glaring at me, Rose didn't care and Frank looked a little worried. I didn't care; I knew what I was doing. I felt his hand tighten around mine and I smiled, glad he didn't drop it and we began climbing the lots of stairs.
