Disclaimer: I do not own the Alex Rider series.

Chapter Three

"You alright Alex?" Ben asked.

Alex took a calming breath. "Yeah. Just, nervous, you know?"

"I know," Ben said, "Don't worry, you always get nervous before missions."

The two were currently driving over to Bayswater Camp in a rented car that was slightly beat up looking. They had spent the first hour or so quizzing each other on their new identities, before falling silent into their own minds. Now, it appeared they were speaking again.

"Now remember, if you see any need for backup, call immediately. I won't be around you that often, so I won't see what you do. But remember, Rose and the others won't mind coming for a false alarm, okay?" Ben reminded.

Alex sighed, rolling his eyes in the process. "Ben. I don't know how to tell you this, but I know. Stop badgering me."

"I know you know," Ben said, "But despite that fact, you still manage to avoid calling in backup. Remember three missions back?"

"I try not to," Alex muttered. That had been completely his fault. He'd thought he could deal with the psychopathic terrorists himself. Apparently, he'd been wrong. If Rose hadn't managed to break out of her restraints, incapacitate her guards, and come find him...well, let's just say he would've lost an eye if he was extremely lucky.

Ben chuckled. "Don't worry, you've learn your lesson. Or so you keep telling me, anyway. But just remember to never hesitate to call in back up. Got it?"

"Got it," Alex said, and the topic was dropped.

Soon Bayswater High Boarding House, where the camp was being held, came into view. It was a small but tall and boring looking structure with pale cream walls and rows of neat and highly polished windows. The two could spy the corner of what looked like the Bayswater Oval, and from what they could see, it looked very green and neatly maintained. A tip of one of the soccer goals came into view, before it was blocked by a row of trees.

"Well, this place certainly looks...different," Ben mused, turning into the staff parking and pulling into parking bay number 12.

"It looks nice and boring at the same time," Alex said, "How is that possible?"

"It's just your imagination," Ben snickered.

"Ha ha, very funny," Alex said sarcastically, rolling his eyes for the effect as the two got out of the car and grabbed their respective bags which contained all their needs for the mission, as well as a couple of presents from Mr Smithers.

Ben looked around, before pulling Alex in a random direction. "I think you get in this way..." he said, trailing off as they walked. Alex struggled against the older man's grip every step of the way.

"Ow! Do you have to pull that hard?" He exclaimed, trying to pull his arm out of the bruising grip it was currently in. Ben ignored the twenty year old, instead walking the two around the building where he found the entrance to the Boarding House.

"Aha!" He said triumphantly, before dragging Alex in.

They walked up to the brightly lit reception, taking in their surroundings and all the exits that could be used. Subconsciously, both MI6 agents began slowly immersing themselves into their respective aliases, so that by the time they reached the reception they were no longer Alex Rider and Ben Daniels but rather –

"Hi, Professor Saunders here to sign in my nephew John Saunders," Ben said, gesturing towards Alex who gave the receptionist a shy smile.

"Hello John," the receptionist smiled kindly, "My name's Betty and I'll be in charge of timetabling which master classes and lectures you attend while you are here. If you ever need some help, or just someone to talk to, I'll be right here. Okay?"

Alex smiled and nodded shyly, which was harder than it looked.

"You'll be living with the other boys in the East Wing. The girls are in the West Wing. Bear in mind that if there's another person in your room, whether they be a girl or boy, the door must remain open for security reasons. Also, you may bring food into your dorms but please don't make a mess. You'll have to clean it up otherwise," Betty added, before handing Alex a thin purple booklet,

"Here's the rest of the rules as well as a map of the place. You'll be getting timetables of the activites tomorrow at breakfast. For now, I suggest getting used to the general area, perhaps meeting some of your fellow campers. Dinner will be in approximately two and a half hours, in the mess hall which you should find on your map. Any questions?"

Alex shook his head, making sure to add another shy smile. Betty nodded encouragingly, before pointing at the set of stairs off to the left of the reception table. "Just climb those stairs and turn right and you'll find the boy dorms. You're in room 19.7, and here's your key. Don't lose it, we don't have any spares. You can go now; you're uncle's arrangements are slightly different. If you have any questions, make sure to ask!"

The now brown haired spy nodded, sending his "uncle" what he felt was a shy departing smile (though it could have turned out to be a grimace if the look on Ben's face was anything to go by), before setting off for the stairs. He made a show of dragging his bag lightly across the ground to further credit his role as a professor's nephew. A couple of boys poked their heads out of their rooms, giving the newcomer welcoming smiles. Alex smiled back at them.

Room 19.7 came into view. It took a couple of tries for the key to fit into the lock on the door. Alex pushed the rather heavy wooden door open, latching it to the wall, before dumping his bag onto his bed and surveying the room. A single bed took up most of the room, with a study table opposite, as well as a small closet. He had a small balcony that could be used for getaways if necessary. He dearly hoped that it wouldn't come to that though; he wasn't willing to test how well his bones would fare against a storey high drop.

With a sigh, Alex turned and began to unpack his stuff, neatly hanging up his clothes and arranging the stationary and books he'd brought on his desk. He was, after all, the "nephew" of a professor, so he should technically be quite neat. That done, Alex decided to go out exploring, and more importantly, out to find the shared bathrooms.

Just as he finished locking his door, someone yelled for his attention.

"Hey, new kid!"

Alex turned and watched as two boys came pelting down the corridor towards him. One of them was blonde, the other a red-head. Both were quite tall, and probably very athletic judging by the way they sprinted towards him. Sensing no malice in either kid, Alex decided to wait to see what they wanted.

"Hey," the blonde said once the two boys skidded to a halt. Alex returned the smile they were giving him with one of his own, albeit a hopefully shyer version.

"Hi," he replied.

"I'm Robert," the blonde continued, extending a hand which Alex took, "And this is Colin," he added with a nod at the red head.

"Howdy!" Colin said cheerfully, "And what's your name?"

"John," Alex said, shaking his hand too, "John Saunders."

"You sound different," Robert said, looking at Alex thoughtfully, "It's like, I don't know...French? No, um...Italian? No that's not it..."

"Australian? No, my cousin's Aussie, and he's not like that..." Colin said.

"Try English," Alex grinned.

"English? We're all speaking English John," Colin said, "We're trying to place your accent, not your language."

Alex raised an eyebrow as Robert face-palmed himself before slapping his friend on the back of his head. "No, you idiot, he says his accent's English. Like, as in England!"

A look of realization dawned upon Colin's face, a moment before he blushed deep red. "My bad."

Robert just sniggered at his friend's idiocy, before turning back to the amused Alex. "So, had the grand tour yet, John?"

Alex shook his head. "I only just got here."

"Ah, well in that case, let us be the first to welcome you to Bayswater High Winter Camp!" Colin said grandly, spreading his arms out and almost knocking off Robert's head in the process, "Here, in the fabled halls of the...erm...school-like-building, you shall expand your knowledge of the world to beyond what even you could possibly ever imagine!"

"Colin, you're not being paid to advertise the camp," Robert said, "So what the hell are you doing?"

Colin shrugged. "Dunno...I think the sugar high may have kicked in though..."

"Yeah, I'm going to kill Anthony for ever giving you all that sugar," Robert muttered, before realising that Alex was staring at the two. "Anyways, come with us, and we'll give you the grand tour of the...ah..."fabled halls"."

Alex grinned before following the two boys down the corridor, patting his pocket to make sure that his key was still there. Colin was in the lead, and he was talking at a hundred miles an hour. Robert fell in step with Alex, rolling his eyes at his friend while supplying the spy with information that would be more useful than Colin's verbal regurgitation.

"There are about twenty rooms on this corridor. Perhaps about fifty or sixty rooms altogether on this floor..."

" – and then there was this really high pitched scream, so of course I had to go and see if anyone was hurt, you know, since I'm so selfless and all – "

"...Bathrooms are spaced every four or five doors apart on the right side...well right if you're looking at it from this way. And they painted the doors blue...like that one, see?..."

" – and there was this massive spider like thing crawling along her books – "

"...Toilets are on the left, and usually opposite the bathrooms but there are exceptions, like on the fourth floor..."

" – and Emma was freaking out, like fully hyperventilating, you know? So anyways – "

"...The toilet doors are grey, apparently to differentiate from the bathroom doors, but at night you can't really tell the difference...Oh, yeah, you did bring a torch didn't you? Okay, good, because it's seriously not fun wondering around the corridors when they're pitch black. Trust me, keep your torch on you twenty-four seven..See, here's mine!..."

" – so I emptied my coffee out the window, oh by the way don't tell my mum I drink coffee or she'll kill me. Anyways, so yeah, I emptied my coffee out the window –"

"...Oh, and there's Brody – Hey Brody! This is John, he's a newbie – anyways, that was Brody, he used to go to my school before he moved, used to go out with my sister too, and that was really weird let me tell you..."

" – and then I snuck up on the spider and BAM! I caught it underneath the cup! – "

"...My room's just 'round this corner. For some reason, it's been turned into like the gathering room, so it's like twice as hard for me to keep it clean. I think I gave up like two days ago, so you might want to beware of the mess..."

" – then I put the spider on the tree that was outside Emma's window, and it crawled away, and I was like, "see not too hard!" And Emma was like all over me for being her hero, and she sent me off with a really awesome kiss! Like, I mean awesome! – "

"...Me'n that idiot blabbering away had just come back from the toilet when we saw you down the hall, and obviously we knew that you were new since we'd never seen you before, so we decided to come and join you...or rather, invite you to join us. Hope you didn't mind, by the way, since I'm having second thoughts of bringing Colin out..."

" – so have you ever kissed anyone John?"

It took a while for Alex to realise that Colin was talking to him. It took even longer for Robert to realise that his hyper friend had ended his rant. Colin stared at Alex, waiting expectantly for a response.

"Erm, yeah I have," Alex said.

"Who?" Colin asked eagerly. Before Alex could answer, even though he was about to tell Colin to stuff it anyway, Robert intervened.

"Colin you idiot, you don't go around asking people that!" Robert said with a roll of his eyes as the trio turned the corner.

"Why not?"

"Because it's prying and it's rude and it makes you sound like a paedophile. Not to mention that John might not want to tell you, because just maybe he wants to keep it a secret. Because you know, most normal people do have secrets, and don't go blabbering on at a hundred miles an hour when they've consumed a bag of Skittles. Just maybe, you know."

"Oh, right, got it. Sorry John."

"No worries," Alex grinned.

It was going to be a very interesting mission.

Does Colin remind you of anyone else, or am I just imagining things?

Anyways, so my awesomely loyal readers and reviewers, how did you all like that chapter?

Please review, it so makes my day.

Love Chariots99

IMPORTANT NOTE: Just to let you all know, I've decided that this'll be the last story in the series, unless someone gives me an amazingly awesome idea (yeah, coz I'm actually out of ideas). So, this is what I'm planning for when this story is over. I'm going to write a reader's choice, which is basically going to be short stories about scenes that you want to see, scenes that you always imagined should've been done, but I never did due to lack of imagination or whatever. So tell me what you want, and I'll post the "winning" ideas on my profile and buckle down to write that scene just for you! xox