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Ok I have decided that my most often reviewers will get sneak peaks for new chapters. Let's say that I have a really often reviewer named Bob, Bob really loves my story and reviews every chapter, or just about. I would reply to Bob's reviews and give him a little sneak peak into what I have planned for the next chapter. This is my way of feeding the minds of those who really love this story as much as I do.

Disclaimer: I do not own Bones that much is clear.


Chapter 20

The secret of my success

School was something I found extraordinarily easy. Every school I went to I answered every question the teachers asked and got the highest grades in everything. But it all came at a cost. The cost I later realized was not my fault. I was made fun of. They called me super-geek, brain-freak and more.

Most of the students also seemed to pay attention to my lack of fashion choices. I thought the basic idea of choosing outfits to please those who look at us was incalculably stupid. I wore clothes that I enjoyed to wear, not what others thought of as the prime of fashion. My wardrobe through out my life consisted of large amounts of jean pants, shorts and skirts, which I wore my large collection of Marvel shirts with. I had a couple of skirts that didn't fall to into the jean category, I liked wearing those especially.

On my first day at Thornton High School as a Junior I had already managed to make enemies after my first period Algebra II class. Once again I had answered every question asked by the teacher and once again I was ridiculed for it.

I had made the mistake of wearing my Spiderman tee-shirt with my short red and black pleated skirt and black leggings followed by flat black shoes. My hair was down and had a braid in it and my glasses were freshly cleaned and shined brightly under the sun.

My locker resembled a puked on garbage can that had to be repainted, multiple times. It was long and narrow and just enough for my books and not much else. A girl came up to me. She had long strawberry hair that was under a headband. She wore, what I might have estimated to be one hundred dollar top with her two hundred dollar skirt and her three hundred dollar everything else. Pink, was obviously her color of choice. I tended to puke on pink.

"You're the new girl Alphabet or something?" she asked.

"My name is Althea." I explained quietly.

"Well…listen we were wondering if…you'd like to hand out with us. We're going to the mall around four. You know where it is?"

"Yes, I am aware of the location of the mall."

"Um…ok meet us at four infront of H&M." she said.

"Alright," I responded and she skipped off with a small girlish laugh. I was to naïve back then to realize just what I had agreed too.

Sapphire, my sister was a freshman. As soon as school ended I grabbed her and we walked home. James had decided to ditch the public school system and headed to military school, located on the base where we were stationed at. That meant I had lots of time to spend with my brother.

"Althy, why are we in such a hurry to get home?" asked Sapphire

"Saph, a girl actually asked me to go to the mall with her and her friends."

"Big accomplishment." she muttered under her breath.

"You know as well as I how hard it is for me to make friends."

"I know," she replied as we headed up the stair and inside the house.

For the sake of fitting in I decided to wear a plain white collared shirt. I didn't like it much, but figured it was worth the friends. I took a buss to the mall and waited at H&M.

The girl came and so did her friends. They smiled at me and said hello. The four of us entered the store and the girls instantly began throwing clothes at me.

"Not that I do not appreciate the fashion advice," I began "But I cannot afford these clothes, nor do I really want to pay so much money for something I do not even like."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean these clothes are so...nevermind." I replied.

The following day wearing my classic Captain America shirt and baggie jeans I entered the school. People were laughing and pointing at me. It didn't take a genius IQ to figure out they were laughing at me.

"Is your dad like a garbage collector?" asked a guy.

"No my father is Gunnery Sergeant in the US Marine Core." I replied and he just laughed.

"And it went on from there." I explained to Zach who lay next to me in our hotel room bed.

"What went on?"

"The humiliation," I responded. "They made fun of me because I didn't waste three hundred dollars on a pair of shoes. Things got worse from there. The name calling continued to the point that I….I…." I stopped. Was I ready to talk about something that happened so long ago?

"You do not have to tell me if you don't want to." explained Zach.

"I know….it got to the point where I considered doing things that I know are irrational and a cause for concern. However, I realized with some help from James that I didn't need to pretend to fit in. If I was comfortable with being myself nothing else mattered. So I figured out that normal didn't exist and I kicked butt."

"Define kicked butt,"

"My dad and James taught me some self defense moves and a little bit of karate and I learned to fight for myself."

"I didn't mean to pry…"

"It's ok Zach; you are the only person I feel this comfortable with." I told him.

The following day we headed back to D.C. I didn't want to face my parents again and we both missed home. Thanksgiving was coming up rather rapidly and the Jeffersonian team and Booth decided that since none of us had much family in D.C. we would all have a big thanksgiving dinner at Jack's place.

We arrived home and collapsed on my bed. Jack and Angela walked in an announced that there were going to have a wedding on February 14th of all dates. It was romantic.

"Althea, is something bothering you?" asked Jack hugging me

"No more than the usual." I replied. "Dad..."

"Enough said." replied Jack.

"Can I ask a question?" asked Angela

"Shoot!"

"Who's going to be doing all the cooking for the Thanksgiving dinner?"

"Jack, Zach and I, plus you guys can each bring something. Cam for example could bring the desert. You could bring the cranberry sauce and such…"

"Oh…ok…by the way Cam wants you to call her." said Angela.

"Why?"

"Something about students….I'm not sure…"

"Ok…" I told her "I'll call her now." I picked up the phone from the receiver and called Cam. "Hello Cam! Angela said you wanted to talk to me….what? No...No…no…NO! Cam, come on I can do everything fine I don't need….fine….yes, I understand. I will see her/him or it tomorrow." I hung up and slammed the phone back into the receiver.

"Something has disturbed you." said Zach "I do not like it." he came behind me and wrapped his arms around me. "What is it?"

"Cam says I have to have an assistant, an intern."

"Oh…"

"What is it?" asked Angela "Brennan had one…Zach…"

"Yes, but Zach is a genius and I do not need some snot nosed college girl who thinks she can do better than me."

"Isn't that a bit dramatic?" asked Jack

"Nope, I had three in Egypt. I was one of two lead archeologists at the digs. All three of the assistants thought they were too good to work under me."

"Your assistant will be a Jeffersonian student. He…or she will be more than qualified. I'm sure they will be sufficient." said Zach placing a kiss on my cheek.

"Ugh, fine. I'll try. I might ask Dr. Brennan for advice. She did have numerous assistants during Zach's….absence."

"Althy just keep an open mind." said Jack. "Your assistant will be great."

"I'll believe that when I see it." I told him.

Zach and I headed to work with Angela and Jack. We decided on one car. So I drove all of us to work.

"Promise me you won't apply any sort of harm to your intern." said Zach.

"Your mean…fine I promise not to hurt him/her and or it." He smiled and I headed to my office.

She sat in my office as I entered. Long perfect dirt colored hair. She looked spiffy and stylish compared to my black pants and my purple long sleeve top.

"Dr. Calloway I'm Haley Front." she said standing up over excitedly. "Your intern and let me just say it's really amazing to be working for you. I read your college thesis on the capriciousness of hair in Forensic Science. I thought it was brilliant."

"Well thank you Ms. Front. You are planning to be a forensic scientist?" I asked putting on my lab coat.

"Oh yes Dr. Calloway."

"I must warn you." I began sitting down at my desk. "This is not a job for the feeble hearted. You will see things that will leave you in nightmares."

"I'm ready." she said

"We'll see…" I told her. "How old are you?"

"Twenty-one next month." she said proudly. Her chest out, her head held high.

"Ok…well…currently we do not have any…" Booth entered my office "cases…"

"We have a set of remains that are well….weird."

"The word weird Agent Booth is a pretty vague definition." I explained,

"See for yourself."

The body was partially covered with flesh and all the organs were on the table coming out of the body.

"That is weird." I explained.

"Oh god it's so…" started Haley.

"I warned you." I came up on the platform and put on a pair of gloves.

"There is no pattern on the organs." said Zach

"Which means this was done with heist. The culprit was likely looking for something." I told them.

"The eyes were the first to go. Rats..." said Dr. Brennan. "Angela will you be able to put a face to this victim?"

"Yeah, no problem." replied Angela taking a snapshot of the skull.

"All DNA and fibers will be yours in a matter of minutes Dr. Calloway." replied Dr. Brennan

"Can I also have copies of the x-rays?"

"Of course,"

"Alright Ms Front, your first assignment is to get all the evidence from Dr. Brennan and once Ms. Montenegro finishes her sketch and gets a match get the victims medical records."

"Yes Dr. Calloway!" she said

"While you wait you might want to dress a bit more appropriately for this kind of work." I indicated the gloves and blue lab coat.

I walked over and saw Jack already examining some bugs. "Anything interesting"

"As a matter of fact." responded Jack "These are common fruit flies, meaning this guy was probably killed around large amounts of food."

"Interesting," I thought out loud. As I headed back toward the others I spotted Haley talking to Zach. I was never the jealous type, but something about her….

"So you're the famous Dr. Addy." she said as a matter of fact.

"Uh…I suppose, though I do not think I am famous."

"But of course you are. All the anthropologist majors read your papers. It's like a rule now." She said sweetly bashing her eye lashes at him.

"If you do not mind I do have work to do." said Zach.

"Oh of course, I'm sorry." she said in a sweet stupid voice. If she was attempting to flirt with Zach she was dumber than I gave her credit for. Flirting with Zach was like flirting with a tree. He listens, but that doesn't mean he gets what you're saying. I laughed at the thought.


OOH this chick is flirting with our Zach….is Althy going to kill her? Probably not, but hey you got to keep reading to see what Haley Front does next….