Chapter 10

A/N: Some of my reviews say that they story is going too slow. I have noticed this before as well. So, I'll be trying to make the story progress after without it seeming to be rushed ok. Hope you like the chapter :)

Alex had seen Medeia while in the gym when he was finished playing. While the other guys on who had played were panting and sweating, Alex was calm and didn't even break a sweat during the match. When he had noticed Medeia observing the match, he noticed that her eyes were always following him. Analyzing his moves and actions.

This didn't bother him. What did bother him was the complete focused and intensity of her eyes. She was entirely engrossed in the match. Her eyes followed everyone's movements, but Alex couldn't figure out what she was thinking.

This confused Alex because he thought of himself at being able to read people efficiently. He could always tell when someone was lying or hiding the whole truth from him. He was able to read a person's body language as well. It came in handy when he was on a mission and when he met a person for the first chance.

When Alex met Medeia for the first time, he thought of her as one of the perky blondes because of her excitement to attending school. Later on, he realized that Medeia was different than the other people he knew or was acquaintance with.

At first, Alex thought of her as just another new student entering the school. Other times, when a new student arrived at first they might have tried talking to him and Alex would have ignored them because he knew what was to come afterwards.

The rest of the students would converge on the new student surrounding her or him, asking question as to where they came from and the general questions about them. After the class had some more information about them, then they would tell them about the school.

When talking about the school it included gossip, teachers, who was dated who, and of course let not forget the one person needing to be included in the conversation. Alex Rider.

Once the student learned about him, they ignored him like everyone else. The one's who first tried to talk to him in the beginning turned their backs on him not trying to speak to him again.

Alex thought Medeia was going to do the same thing as the others.

She didn't.

She was different than the rest. Even when the other students warned her about him she still tried to speak to him. She even asked him to be her partner for the project in English. No one had come up to him and asked to be his partner since the beginning of the year. Tom would always be his partner, but then he moved away and Alex was left alone.

Medeia had asked to be his partner and had even talked to him afterwards. Alex may have been such a conversationalist, but Medeia kept trying to make him respond or offer a comment.

They only had a few classes together so Alex couldn't see her all day, but even when they weren't in the same class Alex found himself thinking about her. He had no idea that Medeia did the same.

Once Alex was out of the school grounds he started walking towards his house. After the death of his friend and now deceased Jack Starbright, MI6 were made into his official guardian and caretakers. Of course, nobody lived with him or actually took care of him. Alex didn't even know how MI6 was able to fill out the paper work to become his guardian.

Alex didn't care.

Alex was left alone by the secret government for four months now, nearing five months in a week. If his class had a field trip or and out of school activity he was able to attend if he wanted to. Most of the times Alex chose not to and took the day off of school for the day. None of the teachers questioned him about his life at home, so Alex was clear of answering any unnecessary questions.

Alex was use to being left alone and being overlooked. The MI6 haven't called him for a mission or blackmailed him into one ... yet.

Alex was still waiting for it to happen. His house phone ringing while he's at his house, him answering already knowing who it was because no one called him or knew his number. It would be Ms. Jones calling in to tell him that he was needed yet again for a mission that was supposed to be safe, but in reality wasn't.

Mr. Blunt was still in office even though he wanted to retire. His superiors had said that they didn't want to lose one of their most brilliant employees and kept him on the job. It wasn't easy to retire once you have been in the organization for years. Ms. Jones was still in the position of being second in power to Mr. Blunt. With Mr. Blunt in charge, Alex knew sooner or later he was going to be ordered on another mission.

They just hadn't found anything to blackmail him with yet. They could have used their status as their guardian to place him in foster care or something, but they knew that Alex wouldn't are as long as he was far away from them. That was one reason why Alex didn't want any one near him. In some way they would be pulled into his problems and be in danger. It already happened twice. Once with Jackie, the other time with the Pleasures.

Alex didn't want a repeat of that incident to happen, so he wasn't very welcoming when Medeia started to hang out with him and try to speak to him. He didn't want anyone else to be hurt because of him. Alex was focused in his thoughts, but his sixth sense warned him that someone was following him. Alex was used to situations where he was being followed or watch and could tell when someone was doing so.

The Mi6 had hired a few of their agents to watch over Alex for the first three weeks once he returned to London. He was able to detect them by the first week and let them continue following him. It didn't bother him at first. He knew that Mr. Blunt might have been worried that he would do something crazy like committing suicide after Jackie's death. Alex may have been depressed, but he knew that his own death wouldn't solve anything.

After three weeks passed, Alex became fed up with the stalkers following him. He marched up to Blunt's office without alerting him and demanded that he order his agents to stop following him where ever he went. It didn't show, but Blunt was surprised of Alex's outburst.

The agents he had hired were professionals and had informed him that Alex didn't know he was being followed. Blunt told Alex how he knew, but Alex didn't offer any answer to Blunt's question. After that, Alex didn't feel as if he was being pursued anymore, but he became more paranoid and careful.

Alex knew that the person who was behind him wasn't purposely following him. If they were, they would have hid themselves better and try to muffle their steps or become silent. Alex could hear their footsteps. if he concentrated hard enough. He didn't think the person was a danger to him, so he turned around to see who it was.

His eyes widened a bit when he saw who it was.

It was Medeia.

Medeia's eyes widened as well. Alex had stopped walking and was staring her. Their met. It only lasted a minute. Alex's eyes were blank while Medeia's eyes showed surprise. After a minute, Alex turned away and started walking again. He didn't say anything to Medeia nor turned to face her. Medeia ran a little to catch up to where Alex was.

She started walking along side Alex. Neither spoke to each other for a few seconds. Medeia glanced a few times towards Alex, while Alex kept on ignoring her. Medeia heaved a sigh. Alex wasn't going to start a conversation, so Medeia decided that she would even if there was a high probability that he wouldn't respond.

"So... Are you going home?" Medeia asked. Medeia kicked herself mentally. She wanted answers to her questions which making her unable to focus during the whole day and here she was asking him if he was going home. Alex was quiet for a moment, but then gave a nod in her direction.

Several minutes passed between them without another interaction or words to each other. Medeia knew this was her chance to ask him questions, but she was wasting her time by not doing so. The silence between them wasn't awkward, but it wasn't comfortable either.

Alex himself had questions he wanted to ask Medeia. Why was she walking him? Where was she headed? And other question which were floating in his mind. Medeia noticed Alex's eyes glance at her as well and came to the conclusions that he wanted to ask her something too. Her mind came up with a brilliant idea.

" Hey, how about we play twenty questions since we don't know a lot about each other. That way we can get to know each other better," Medeia stated with a smile .

Alex pondered this for a bit. He was familiar with the game. One person would start by asking a question which the other has to answer and then the second person would ask a question. It would continue like this until twenty questions were asked or until they wanted to the end the game. If Medeia asked a question he didn't want to or couldn't answer he'll just offer the minimal information and try to avoid the question. With this in mind Alex nodded to playing the game.

While Alex was thinking, Medeia was making a list as to what questions she would ask first and which ones were more important. Once she saw that Alex agreed she smiled at him and asked her first question.

" So, why do the students avoid you in school?" Medeia asked bluntly. She was never great in being subtle and was very interested in knowing why. During the whole day she noticed how everyone ignored him and pretended that he wasn't even there. She was interested in why that was.

Alex just raised an eyebrow at her question. He knew that she wasn't going to hide what she thinking, but to ask a question of that matter immediately was straight forward of her. Alex sighed knowing he would have no chance, but to answer her question.

Without looking at her Alex explained " I've been absent a lot during the school year. My attendance record at school is actually four months. Every time I return to school I guess I seem different to them or something. They started creating rumors as to where I was. Some of them were that I was a drug dealer or a druggie. Or sometimes part of the Mafia gang. People started to believe and rumors and started avoided me."

Once he was done, Medeia was quiet. It answered her question at least. People didn't like not knowing and when they don't know something they created their own stories about it resulting in rumors. Wher was he when he absent? Medeia already knew what her next question was going be.

Medei was brought out of her thoughts when Alex asked his own question.

" Why did you move to London?"

" I came to London because of my father's job. His job makes us move a lot. I've been all over the world because of this, but I've never been in one place for a long period of time. I hope this time we'll stay here longer. Besides, there more interesting people here than where I was before," Medeia answered looking at Alex when she said the last sentence.

Alex thought about her answer and noted that she said " father" instead of "dad" or "daddy". Although "daddy" may have been a stretch. Either Medeia was formal with her father or her father was strict. I wonder where she has traveled to?

" Why were you absent in school?" came Medeia's next question.

This is where Alex's invasive skills came. " Different places," was all Alex informed her.

Medeia frowned at his answer, but didn't try to push him. She just nodded to him, while Alex asked his question.

"Where have you traveled to?"

"I've travled all over the place. I went to the US and saw the Statue of Liberty and I once France to the Eiffel Tower. I've seen almost all the sights in the world and the seven wonders of the world," Medeia recalled.

She remembered at one point where she went to the Great Pyramids of Giza and was able to actually enter them when she tailing someone. She shivered at the memory. The Egyptians placed a multiple booby traps in the pyramids. Some of them were close to killing her or beheading her! She was just glad that she was able to escape from their alive, but the person she was following wasn't so lucky. Right now, his body must have been turned to dust and brittle bones over the years.

Medeia turned her thoughts to forming another question to ask Alex. She decided to ask an easy question.

" What's you favorite color?"

Alex was surprised, but didn't show it. " Black or dark green or brown," he answered shortly.

In this manner they continued with the game, until Medeia remembered his reaction to the question she asked before entering the gym.

" Who was your uncle?" she asked curiously.

Alex abruptly stopped walking and stiffen. Medeia stopped too. By now they were only five blocks away from Alex's house and had stopped at the entrance to a cemetery where there was shortcut to his home. Alex turned and faced Medeia. Medei stilled.

Alex's eyes were dead, but held a tiny bit of emotion in his voice.

" He's dead," answered Alex in a pained voice. Once he answered, his eyes fell to the ground and he didn't move. Medeia was about to answer when someone interrupted them. A few someone's.

Neither of them had noticed five people surrounding them while they were talking to each other. Medeia cursed. Alex had noticed the people and raised his eyes to the people which still held no emotions even in this situations.

All of the men were taller than six feet and were well muscled. They wore black suits which made them look intimidating if it wasn't that they looked like people in the movies hired to kill the protagonists. They were dark sunglasses as well hiding their eyes from Medeia and Alex.

Medeia analyzed their appearance and came to a conclusion. They were trained. This people weren't like the jocks that Alex had defeated in the corridor at school They were trained and each one was able to kill them. Medeia noticed that each one had an item bulging out of their suits resembling a gun. Medeia cursed again.

She glance at Alex. He was analyzing their opponents as well. Except for their black suits and appearance something else stood out from them.

Each one had a golden scorpion stitched into their black suit where there hear was.

The one in the middle started to speak in a low gruff voice. " Hello, Alex. We were searching for you a long time. I'm glad we were able to meet. I'm here to greet you on the behalf of Scorpia."

Medeia's eyes widened. Everyone in her family knew who Scorpia was. They were in trouble. She couldn't think of a reason as to why they were here for Alex, before the men started towards them. Preparing herself to fight, Medeia waited.

A/N: End of the chapter. I promise to update soon, but it'll probably be in a week or so. Review please! :)