I'm back! Enjoy this chapter! Peace!
Tony was woken for dinner that night with a clash. He jumped a few inches off the bed, looking around wildly, and sighed when he saw what happened.
Riley was holding two pots (he never did figure out where she got them…), and was looking very pleased at the startled expressions on the three boys, all of whom wore startled expressions, and had a very odd case of bedhead.
Evan's hair stuck up on the side, frizzy and hanging in front of his eyes partly. Jace's was stuck straight up in the back, looking solid, like he had frozen it that way. Tony's was just...Everywhere. Riley, who appearently always had crazy hair accourding to Jace and Evan (who was starting to talk to Tony more), was smiling smugly at all of them, still holding the pans in front of her at arms length.
"Waky-waky boys! No eggs and baky yet, not until Sunday mourning anyway, but tonight is… I can't remember… Anyways, ten minutes until dinner! You know what happens when we're late!" She stated cheerfully, somehow grinning wider when all three boys scrambled out of bed. Tony wasn't sure what happened when they were late for dinner, but judging by the other two's reaction, he figured he didn't want to.
He was ready first, as the other two had to use the restroom, and sat next to Riley, legs swinging on the edge of the bed. He listened to her, as she sung a song. It was a little weird, but she was pretty good.
Round and round like a horse on a carousel,
We go.
Will I catch up to love I can never tell?
I know,
Chasing after you is like a fairy tale.
But I;
Feel like I'm glued on tight to this carousel…(I don't own the song 'Carousel' by Melanie Martinez)
Tony hummed along absent mindly once he got the basic tune down, and waited. In grand total, it took them around seven minutes to get ready. Which let to the mad sprint they were doing down the hallway, and sliding into the cafeteria at exactly 6:30. They sat down just as the food for each table came out.
Tony observed the surroundings, and surrounding people. Everyone was in basic training clothes like the ones he got, but the assassins wore stripes of their chosen color(s) on their sleeves and pants. Each had weapons on them, and were talking and laughing with each other, waiting on the food.
The food was being brought out on trays, just enough for each person, no more no less. Tony and the group of other kids were sitting at a table on their own, which Tony figured was for trainees. Riley was still singing that song happily, and Jace and Evan were staring at the trays coming toward them. The man who brought them their food sat it down in front of each of them, winking at Tony, saying; "Welcome to the den, kiddo. Names Jackel, if you need anything. Oh, and make sure to wipe your face!" He said cheerily, smiling, and bouncing away, waving at Riley with a smirk, who smirked right back.
"Don't let those two psych you out, they are having a prank war right now, no matter what, don't get involved unless you are prepared for the madness that is Jackel and Riley." Jace said seriously, looking Tony dead in the eye, but a little amusement in his features as he warned him. With a word of thanks, Tony turned to his food.
It seemed filling, for sure. Two huge pork chops, a heaping pile of broccoli, an extra large serving of mashed potatoes, and a massive mound of macaroni and cheese (hehe...massive mound of macaroni...hehe..) (homemade), along with a large glass of ice water. Tony blinked slightly and wondered how in the world they expected him to finish this. Evan giggled at his confusion.
"Dude, if you don't eat it all you get in trouble. It's good though." He giggled, and as if to prove his point, took a huge bite of his mashed potatoes, happily chewing. Tony grabbed his fork, and started eating. Evan was right, the food was great. Tony had often had only what the staff could get him, as his mother and Howard forgot to feed him. Sometimes the staff that would cook had a day off, and Tony had to make food for himself. Needless to say, he didn't eat too much.
So it was a struggle to get all the food down, but he managed, and lifted up him napkin to wipe his face, and realized there was a tootsie pop under the napkin. After a second, he remembered what Jackal said, and smiled, shooting the man a grateful look across the room, and received a thumbs up in response.
After finishing dinner, Tony headed back up to his room with the other trainees, and ran into Tiger on the way.
"Hey, kid. How's it going?" He asked, pulling Riley up onto his shoulders, who was giggling like mad as she scrambled around.
"Good, dinner was… Big." Tiger laughed at him, pulling Riley off of his back by her ankles, causing a fresh round of giggles from the girl. She grabbed his shoulders with her hands, and pulled herself around the back of his neck, her legs still in his grasp. He smiled fondly at the girl, before putting her back on her feet, where she skipped away happily.
"I'm going to go make sure she doesn't blow anything up again." Evan said exasperatedly, Jace not far behind. Tony blinked.
"Did he just say blow something up again?!" He asked incredulously. He had blown things up many times (no where near Howard of course), but here there appeared to be nothing that could blow things up. No machines besides the electronics, which would take a kid like Tony to blow up, and no obvious chemicals, which would be easier to blow up, yet more dangerous. Tiger nodded, grinning in amusement, which seemed to be an emotion associated with Riley constantly, and began to elaborate.
"Kid grew up on the streets, and she learned to make a few bombs out of cleaning supplies, in self defense, good at it too. Anyways, she made a glitter bomb a couple weeks back, went off in a dorm, Jackal's group's actually...Hey!" Tiger said, suddenly, realization dawning on him.
"Those little shits are having a prank war without me!" He waved goodbye, and walked away, muttering to himself angrily, leaving poor Tony extremely lost and more confused. He wandered the halls, every once and awhile bumping into someone, and following instructions…
But got even more lost. And then he heard it. A large BANG, swearing, evil cackling, smoke, and coughing. He found Riley with makeshift earplugs, a few adults laughing or glaring, and Jace and Evan berating said girl as she cackled.
"What happened?" He asked, walking over to the group of three. Evan glared at Riley, but the girl smiled at him, and his eyes were filled with conflict, to be annoyed, or not to be. He lost in the end, and smiled. Jace was smirking, shaking his head at her.
"Riley, tell him." Jace said, pointing at the mess. Said girl bounced in eagerness, she was proud of her work, and wanted somebody to see what a good job she did, she wanted to please someone. She was like him, looking for the approval and attention from people who neglected them.
"Ok, so I've discovered that different drain products mixed go BOOM, so I put them in a container that would burst and mix them when it made contact with the floor, then added baking soda and vinegar in separate chambers to add an extra kick. If I had something with a higher concentration of ammonia in it, and more hydrogen peroxide, I could blow a hole in the wall, to the gym, then they'll have to make a zipline down there!" She finished her explanation, and moved to another topic in a matter of seconds. Tony brought her back on track, and Evan, seeing what Tony was doing, started walking, Tony and Jace following, Riley continuing babble, with a few questions.
"How'd you make the chambers to release at impact?" She stopped babbling, and answered.
"Plastic wrap applied around the edges with a pencil, tape so the chemicals won't mix, but when contact with the floor happens, the velocity of the impact caused the plastic to rupture, and the chemicals to mix, and boom goes the dynamite. Well… Not dynamite. It takes more things and a lot more time to make that…"
She and Tony had a very lengthy conversation about the mixtures of chemicals, explosions caused by them, how to improve Riley's disperse technique, and Tony realized how street smart (and school smart) the girl really was, and the school smarts were impressive due to the fact she lived her whole life -until four months- ago on the streets.
Tony learned a lot about the wild haired blonde. She wasn't as trusting as she seemed. Her eyes, while appearing to be cheery, would flicker with suspicion on occasion, scanning him before the bright happy look came right back. The suspicious looks came much less frequently, and Tony actually hadn't seen one in over twenty minutes. She loved to read, just didn't have too much patients to sit still, she loved animals, she had found a rabbit a few years back, and raised it, but then it got hit by a car, and most definetly had a morbid sense of humor.
Jace had called something over from his bed about Riley getting killed for blowing more things up, and she only grinned and laughed lowly. When Tony asked what was so funny, she calmly stated; "I'm imagining all the ways I could kill them, or they could kill me!" She carried on with her chuckles, and the other two didn't even spare a glance at the dark comment. He shrugged it off, and they all took showers, before crawling into bed at lights out, which was nine o'clock.
Tony slowly drifted off, listening to the sounds of the others breathing, and Riley's ever constant humming, a different tune this time, and let the darkness surround him.
He woke up thrashing in fear at three o'clock in the morning, and panted to catch his breath.
"You ok?" He heard from the other side of the room, female voice.
"Yeah, just… My dad." He could vaugely make out her nodding. "What about you?"
"My nights on the streets, voices of people telling me I'm not wanted, that I'm nothing more than a cheap whore, someone who is being overdramatic about her 'horrible home life', and is fake running away, telling people lies." Riley said softly. He nodded too, no need for detail.
Riley was singing again, and he listened.
Places, places,
Get in your places,
Throw on your dress,
And put on your doll faces.
Eve-ry-one,
Thinks we're perfect,
Please don't let them look through the curtain...
Picture, picture!
Smile for the picture,
Pose with your brother, won't you be a good sister?
Eve-ry-one,
Thinks that we're perfect,
Please don't let them look through the curtain…
D-O-L-L-H-O-U-S-E,
I see things that no one else sees… (Don't own Dollhouse by Melanie Martinez…)
Listening to Riley sing calmed him, and he sighed, sinking back to sleep.
The next morning he woke falling. He hit the floor with a thud, groaned, rolled over on the cold hard floor, and wasn't at all surprised to find Riley standing over him, arms still outstretched.
Jace had facepalmed, and Evan was rolling his eyes, giving Tony an apologetic glance.
"Sorry, Tony. Didn't realize she was going to do that…" Jace muttered, helping him to his feet.
"You didn't? Really?" Evan asked, pointing to the topic of the conversation, who was spinning crazily, before sitting down laughing. Then scrambling back up again, grinning the whole time, and running into the bathroom with her clothes in hand.
"Well, not this early into his stay here…" Jace defended weakly. Tony shrugged.
"Whatever. It's cool. What time is it?" He asked, stifling a yawn.
"Six-thirty, breakfast is a seven, and training starts at seven-forty five." Tony yawned, and stumbled into the bathroom, pulling on his clothes, and got ready, the other boys on his heels.
After a filling breakfast, having to track down a wandering Riley, and saying goodbye to Jackal (who Riley seemed fond of), who was leaving for a hit, murderer in Bejing, the four seven-year-olds finally made it to training.
Tony was in awe as he watched a spar between a few trainees who were almost ready to recieve their names and masks, wondering how he would ever be that good when their lesson started.
Later that night, Tony collapsed onto his bed, groaning in exaustion, and slept the best he had in years...
Review my minions! Seriously. I need the moral support. Also, what do you think of Riley? More of less crazy, or stay the same. I kinda like her this way. Hehe... Glitter bomb...