Burn My Heart and Hope to Live Chapter 2: DC Elevator Rides, a gallagher girls fanfic

Thirteen days later…A.K.A. day before new semester…

I spent days in the P&E room, training hard and long. I didn't stop unless I need to use the bathroom (really bad, though. We were trained to hold it), eat or sleep (though we were trained to, so far, go a day and a half without food and sleep).

Grant trained almost just as hard but ate just as much. Jonas…well, it was decided by Dr. Steve that he wasn't going to actually be on the field. Nick wasn't even going to be on the trip. He was going on an actual mission. Nick said that wasn't going to be near as much fun as living in an all-girls school for a semester.

The day before the semester ended and we started a new one, I was in the training room all day (they had given us the day off). Grant brought me lunch and trained with me all afternoon.

That night I went to bad, feeling more confident in myself than I had in a long time…

Morning…

I woke up to a blow horn. I didn't shoot up in bed, like most people would. Instead, I got dressed.

"Ready, men?" Mr. Lam asked fifteen minutes later as we gathered in the black and white van. Without waiting for an answer, Mr. Lam said, "Doesn't matter. We're on our way."

We rode for hours (eight hours, fifty eight minutes, 10 seconds, and 40 milliseconds) and finally came to a stop…at Washington, D.C. in our regular boy disguises. Hundreds of tourists were walking around, shopping, talking, and walking their dogs. Mr. Lam handed us the Comms unit and said, "See you next semester, men! You better be in shape or in you're in for trouble." Then left.

No sooner had we hooked our Comms unit up that we heard the voice of Joe Solomon.

"The girls will be arriving in fifteen minutes and twenty-eight seconds. You have that much time to find your documented papers on the girl who you shall be searching. Boys, In the morning/Out of bed/Who needs a drink/After they're fed/Something addictive/ Or something alive/We need it any which way…this will tell you where to go. Password: Gallagher. Good luck."

Static then nothing.

We stood there, like idiots, for a few moments.

"Where do you go in the morning…" Parker wondered.

"Food," Grant said immediately. "I mean, I got to the cafeteria to get food. That the first thing I do in the morning when I leave my room."

"But he said 'drink'," someone pointed out. "And it's addictive. What is it?"

"Coffee?" Parker suggested. "A lot of people are addicted to that and you drink it in the morning."

"Coffee shop!" I whisper-yelled.

"Let's go," Grant said.

"Wait, split up," Parker suggested. "It'd look weird if fourteen (Jonas was somewhere else, doing…whatever he does when he's not with us) boys are walking around. Five, yea. Ten, eh. Fourteen will look suspicious."

"Grant, let's go," I said to my best friend and we all split up. While the other boys tried to be cool about not going toward the coffee shop immediately, me and Grant walked like we had a purpose straight to the coffee shop. No one got in our way.

When we entered the shop, we went up to the front. We asked for the manager (because that seemed the logical thing to do) and said to him, "Gallagher." He handed over the papers.

We read over them.

(Picture) (Name of girl) (Code name of girl)

(Picture) (Rebecca Baxter) (Duchess)

(Picture) (Name of girl) (Code name of girl)

(Picture) (Macey McHenry) (Peacock)

(Picture) (Cameron Morgan) (Chameleon)

(Picture) (Name of girl) (Code name of girl)

(Picture) (Name of girl) (Code name of girl)

(Picture) (Elizabeth Sutton) (Bookworm)

(Picture) (Name of girl) (Code name of girl)

Four names stuck out to me and Grant.

First, Rebecca Baxter (Code name Duchess). Why? Because Grant said, "Oooh! Look! She's hot!" like a little kid with candy.

Second, Macey McHenry (Code name Peacock). Why? Because she looked like a real b*t*h…and because she looked like Nick's type.

Third, Cameron Morgan (Code name Chameleon). Grant thought there was nothing special about her but I thought she looked amazing.

Wow. Where did that come from? I was Zachary Goode. Don't let this girl shake you up your moves before you've met her, Zach, I mentally scolded myself. I'm probably better than this girl anyway but she must have been really good to get that kind of codename…

Fourth, Elizabeth Sutton (Code name Bookworm). Because she looked like the girl version of Jonas. Grant thought that was funny.

"I call Duchess," Grant smirked. "Jonas can have Bookworm. I'm sure Nick will want Peacock when he gets back…and what about you? What about this Chameleon?"

"Who said I wanted anyone?" I smirked. Grant raised an eyebrow.

"You always want one," he pointed out.

"Yeah..well…not this one…" I shook my head at the picture of Cameron Morgan. "Why does Morgan sound familiar?"

"I don't know," Grant shrugged. "Look, there's Parker and Andrew."

We handed over the paper to them and went to take a spot on a park bench. Seven minutes later, Joe Solomon came back on the Comms.

Static. "Well done. The girls just arrived. Your job now is to make sure they don't get to their destination alone." Static.

"Make sure they don't get to their destination alone…" Grant muttered as we scanned the area for the girls. "What's that suppose to mean?"

"Obviously we're suppose to make sure we are with them to where ever they have to go," I mumbled.

"Question is. Where is their destination?" Grant asked. I didn't answer because two girls in uniforms were now walking down the sidewalk.

One was dancing while the other was just walking, obviously a little annoyed but she covered it amazingly well. Upon closer look, I recognized them as the infamous Chameleon and Duchess. I could hear some of their words and other words I only knew because we had just finished learning how to lip read.

"And here the view is indefinitely better," said Duchess. "Oooh! I want one."

She was looking right at us. Or, more at Grant than me. Chameleon glanced over at us and I could have sworn she rolled her eyes. Just a little.

"They're not puppies."

I almost laughed but instead, laughed on the inside. Grant chuckled, though.

"Come on," Duchess whined. "Let's go talk to them. They're really cute!"

I would describe myself as 'hot', not 'cute'. 'Cute' does not do me justice.

"Bex, we have a mission," Chameleon glanced at us again but kept walking. I noticed her change her walking direction slightly so they were walking away from us. Duchess didn't see because she was talking again.

"Yeah but we can multitask," Bex purred and looked back at us.

"No, Bex. Talking to civilian boys during a CoveOps exercise is bad idea. Trust me," I heard Chameleon say as they walked away. I swear I could hear some venom in her voice she said, "It's all fun and games until somebody their memory erased."

"Wow," Duchess stopped dancing and blinked. "You're really…"

"What?" Chameleon snapped and looked away from her friend. "I'm really what?"

"Not—"

At that moment, they were well out of ear shot and we couldn't see their lips to read them. Frustrated but not showing it, I got up. Grant followed eagerly. Probably not because he wanted to know what Duchess had been about to say but because he wanted to see more of Duchess.

We caught up to them fast. Fast enough to barely hear Bex say, "You don't have to pretend, Cam."

Wait, what? Now I'm confused and interested. I had to know what's up with Chameleon.

"Of course I'm over him," Chameleon said in a suspiciously calm voice. Like she had a million things to say but could only force herself to say that.

Wait. Him? There's a 'him' involved? I thought they went to an all girls school! I sped up just as Chameleon sped up.

"Bex," Chameleon said. I thought she was changing the subject until I followed her gaze at a lady that was in a business suit and talking on her cell phone.

"I see her."

We followed them for awhile with them noticing, even found out that they had forty-seven minutes to get to their destination. They only saw us once they merged with a group a girls that had similar uniforms to them. I had to give it to them. They were good.

We were following them, as you already know, and they merged with the girls. The girls they had joined, however, thought we were following them. We were just barely in earshot. It was quite funny what they said.

"I love your bracelet!" Chameleon gushed like she had been there the whole time to see that bracelet.

"Thanks!" the girl exclaimed then looked at Chameleon and Duchess. "Hey, are y'all with the group?"

"Yeah," Duchess lied easily and with certainty. "Oh my gosh! I left my name tag in my senator's office—we took them off to have our picture taken."

"Really? That's cool. Who's your senator?" the girl asked. I thought this would stump both of the Gallagher girls but I should have known better.

"McHenry," both of them said automatically.

Then that's when they noticed us.

"Are they still back there?" one girl whispered to the other one. The one girl looked back and saw us. She winked, grinned and looked back.

"They are so following us!" she said to the other girls. The Gallagher girls must have looked panicked because she explained. "These two hot guys have totally been checking us out."

"Oh," Duchess said and both Gallagher girls looked back at us. I admit it. I panicked for a second (no, I didn't show it). I thought the Chameleon or even Duchess would figure out we were following them. But, no, they didn't put two and two together.

Only five minutes later did I realize the real reason why they had merged with those girls. There was some guy following them and they cleverly lost him with a train. Then they split up.

"They're splitting up," Grant said. "I follow Duchess, you got Chameleon."

And before I had time to argue (not that I would have) Grant was following Duchess up the escalator. I looked for Chameleon but she had disappeared. Then I saw her heading toward the elevator. I smirked. This was my chance. I caught up with her and just as she was about to hit the button, I hit it for her.

"Hey," I smirked at her. She looked at me, as if assessing me for being a regular annoying boy or a threat. I must have passed with regular annoying boy because she said dryly, "Hi," and pressed the button to the elevator again.

The doors to the elevator opened and she tried to cut me off so I couldn't get in but I sidestepped to the other side and got in the elevator with her. She seemed annoyed and impatient. Well, I suppose I did too. I hadn't eaten all day.

I looked for something to talk to her about. I noticed her uniform.

"So, the Guggenheim Academy—" I said, pointed to the crest on her chest. I messed it up just to see if she would correct me. She did.

"Gallagher Academy," she said. She glanced at me then kept her eyes on the elevator door.

"I've never heard of it," I lied.

"Well, it's my school," Chameleon said as if she wasn't really interested in this conversation. That irritated me for some reason.

"You in a hurry or something?" I asked her.

Then she said something that surprised me. "I'm suppose my teacher at the ruby slipper exhibit. I've only got twenty minutes, and if I'm late, he'll kill me."

"How do you know?" I smirked because she had slipped up. She wasn't wearing a watch and she knew the time.

But she mistook my question. "Because he said, 'Meet me at the ruby slipper exhibit.'"

"No," I shook my head. "How do you know you only have twenty minutes? You're not wearing a watch."

I could tell I shocked her but she didn't show it. I was just that good at reading her. Wait…when did I get so good at reading her?

Even though I shocked her, she shocked me a little by how quick she came up with a lie. "My friend just told me."

"You fidget a lot," I said and she was. She kept shifting her weight or moved her feet. I saw her fiddle with her hands and her eyes kept looking anywhere but me.

"I'm sorry," she said. She made it sound like she really was sorry but I knew that she wasn't. "I have low blood sugar. I need to eat something."

That was a good lie. Not something I could argue with as a regular boy. But, as a regular boy, I could be nice.

So I pulled out some M&M's I had gotten early but hadn't eaten.

"Here. I ate most of them already," I handed her the pack of M&M's.

She seemed taken aback and didn't know what to do. "Oh…um…That's okay. Thanks, though."

I took them back and shoved them in my pocket. "Oh. Okay."

The doors to the elevator opened and she left quickly, not giving me a second glance. I knew then I could have just followed her or beat her to her destination but for some reason, I didn't. Instead, I did something totally un-Zachary Goode like.

"Thanks again for the candy," she threw over her shoulder as she quickly walked away.

It was about ten feet before she realized I hadn't gone some other direction. She spun around and narrowed her eyes.

"Where are you going?" she asked in a demanding manner. I smirked.

"I thought we were going to meet your teacher at the wonder wizard of Oz."

"We?" she folded her arms over her chest.

"Sure. I'm going with you," I said and waited for her to tell me off because somehow I just knew she would.

"No, you're not," she snapped.

I came up with some good reasons. "Look. It's dark. You're by yourself. And this is D.C. And you've only got—" I pretended to do the math. "fifteen minutes to meet your teacher."

She considered it. "Fine," and turned, not waiting for me. I had to say, she had one sassy attitude.

Just to make conversation, I said, "You can really walk fast. So, do you have a name?" I wanted to see if she would answer me honestly (most likely not but she's really surprised me so far).

"Sure," she said breezily. "Lot of them."

That doesn't exactly answer my question but I didn't push it. We walked fast toward the ruby slipper exhibit. I wasn't lying when I said she could walk fast. She never glanced at me either, as we walked. For some reason, that miffed me. Most girls I see (which wasn't a lot since I practically live at a detention center for boys) always swoon over me. It was a real change to see her ignoring me.

I decided it was time to get her attention. So I asked a question I knew most girls don't want to answer to other boys.

"Do you got a boyfriend?" I asked.

And I knew I had gotten to her. I saw her features change. Her shoulders stiffened, her lips tightened, and she turned her face away from me. I waited for her to blow.

She spun on me again. I could see her fighting to control her anger or maybe she was just arguing with the little voices inside her head.

"Look," she said and I could hear venom in her voice, whether it be for me or for someone else, I didn't know. "Thanks for the chivalry and all, but it really isn't necessary. It's just up here," she pointed but didn't look that way. "And there's a cop over there."

I had never seen her look at the cop but somehow she knew it was there. I smirked.

"What?" I raised an eyebrow at the D.C. police officer who didn't look like he was up to anything tonight except sleeping. "You think that guy can do a better job protecting you than I can?"

Actually, I'm sure I could have done a way better job at protecting her than that police officer could.

"No," she said calmly. "I think that if you don't leave me alone, I can scream and that cop will arrest you."

Sass, I tell you. This girl has it.

I stepped away and smirked. She kept walking but she must have felt bad or something because she turned around and said, "Hey, thanks anyway." and without further ado, left me. I waited till she was out of site then I went around the back of the museum, snuck in and went to the ruby slipper exhibit. Joe Solomon was waiting.

"Zach," he sounded surprised then must have had an 'aha' moment because he said, "Hide."

Chameleon came in not a minute after I had hid.

"You're four seconds late."

"But I'm alone," she argued.

"No, Ms. Morgan. You're not."

I took this as my cue to come out. I stepped out, smirked at her and said, "Hi again, Gallagher girl."

She stared at me and I felt funny. Like I should make sure I looked perfect, was perfect under those eyes of hers.

"Nice work, Zach," Solomon said.

Then she said something to make me think Solomon had lied to us.

Something that made me respect her even more.

Something that made me irritated at her.

Something that let her have the upper hand.

"Hi, Blackthorne boy," she smiled.

How much do you wanna bet all of you knew I was going to end it there? How did you like the chapter? Good, yes?

~SnixX321