Warning: Vague mention of a disturbing event from Emily's teens.


CHAPTER 31

FIFTEEN

"Je suis fatigué de toutes les promenades." Emily found it weird to admit that, but after two hours of walking she was finally feeling a bit tired.

"Tu as faim, c'est tout." He said, reassuring her that she was just hungry and that was all.

"I guess you're right." She admitted, switching back to English.

Richard then looked around and remembered a really nice place he had once been to. He decided to take Emily there.

To her surprise, it was not a fancy five-star place. It was just a small, family-owned restaurant, with typical French food, from the region. Those were Emily's favorite types of restaurants, while Lauren was more of a fancy gal, always striving for the best, the most expensive, chic and fancy place.

They ordered some food and kept on discussing the weird little things that they liked. Emily even mentioned that one time when she had bought concert tickets to go see Celine Dion on tour and, possibly for the first time, she admitted that she quite enjoyed that evening. It turned out that Richard didn't dislike Celine Dion, either. He wasn't a fan, but he randomly mentioned a few of her old songs and Emily started chanting away, to the best of her singing abilities.

The dinner went by quickly, given that both of them were enjoying themselves. Then it was time to leave the restaurant and maybe go have some rest for the night.

However, Richard was not in a hurry to put an end to the second-to-last day with this woman.

"I don't know about you, but I feel like dancing." He said as they walked alongside the water.

"Yeah…" She said dreamily.

He then noticed how much Emily was enjoying the feeling of the water on her toes. Somewhere between walking along the beach and walking with their shoes on, on the sand, Emily had managed to go unnoticed when she kicked her shoes off and walked straight to the water. Subconsciously, Richard had followed her, but he hadn't realized that she was barefoot while he still had his shoes on. He was, after all, mesmerized and unable to think straight or see clearly.

"Oh, no!" He groaned once the feeling of wet socks took over him.

Emily giggled and went deeper in the water. She rolled her dress up, so she could easily go knee-length in, before she started splashing water at Richard.

"Stop." He said before he started laughing as well. "Ohh, it's cold. Haha, you are mean, Lauren!" He said teasingly and Emily suddenly stopped her teasing.

She turned with her back towards Richard, pretending to be kicking water around, in a direction different than his body. However, it was only to conceal her frown.

It had been over a day now that Emily was slowly coming to the realization that she didn't like him seeing her as Lauren. She also realized that what she was showing him was Emily, and that she was only using Lauren's name as a mask. But the woman Richard was spending time with, was rather Emily.

"I feel like dancing too, now." She said, turning around, only to see him standing right behind her, wrapping his hands around her waist and pulling her in for a kiss.

"Mmh, I feel like doing something else now." Emily thought to herself, but dared say nothing to him.

She was trying this new thing where she would actually hang out with a guy first, before she would end up in bed with him. It was a promise she had made herself recently, but she was now regretting. The promise itself was a good one, solid one, one that showed that she respected herself and her body. But, damn it, the timing of it couldn't have been more wrong.

For the first time, Richard felt how she melted in his hands. Each time he had held her, she had gotten to be less and less tense. She didn't know it, but he had definitely noticed it. Each kiss had been more passionate, more real. Each time they were close, she let him closer, she let him hold her for longer, she let herself hold him tighter. Emily was completely oblivious to this fact, unlike Richard.

At that very moment, he felt like he was holding a feather. They were only knee-deep into the water, but it felt like he was holding her floating body - light and easy to move around.

He picked her up and she squealed a little bit, because that feeling of being in the air was something she hadn't experienced since she was really young and dating a bodybuilder who liked to pick her up and carry her around.

"If you throw me in the water, oh, I swear to God-…" She started off, but got interrupted when he put her to the ground again and shut her up with another kiss.

"Give me your phone." She smiled, putting her hand out.

He didn't even think twice before he took it out of his pocket and placed it in the palm of her hand.

She switched the camera on and put it on selfie mode before she snapped a spontaneous picture where he was giving her a kiss on the cheek while she had a stupid little smile on her lips.

"God, we look like we're fifteen." She commented, laughing.

"Doesn't it feel that way?" He laughed as well, making sure the photo was saved properly before he put his phone back in his pocket.

Emily paused for a second. Fifteen hadn't been a great age for her. She had been struggling with her identity, with fitting in a new group of mean kids, a new city, a new country, a new lifestyle, but same old story.

At fifteen, Emily had hated being a Prentiss. Emily had hated being simply Emily.

At fifteen, Emily had cut school to go experiment with smoking cigarettes with the guys, no matter how much she despised cigarette smoke. She had figured, in order to fit in, this was the least she could do, since drugs and even just marijuana had always been off the table for her…up to a certain point in her life.

At fifteen, smoking cigarettes had not been enough. Emily had let herself get broken down under peer pressure. She had learned to deactivate the security system at home, allowing herself to escape, all those late nights.

At fifteen, Emily had a friend named Matthew. She would drag him to late night parties with her new friends and she would ignore his every attempt to tame her inner devil down.

At fifteen, Emily Prentiss had been a mess. An emotional wreck, an even bigger one than what she currently considered herself being. Hormones, the lack of parental guidance, the bad company she was stuck in - it all kept dragging her down.

At fifteen, nothing Emily did seemed enough. She would eventually cave in and do whatever she was told, in desperate attempts to fit in with the same people that she, subconsciously, couldn't even stand.

At fifteen, Emily Prentiss had a head on her shoulders, one that was empty and malfunctioning, when she needed it the most.

At fifteen, Emily Prentiss needed Lauren Reynolds' balsy attitude to give her a rude awakening and to bring her back on the right path.

At fifteen, Emily Prentiss was alone. And alone was the last thing she wanted to be at that age.

At fifteen, Emily had gotten involved with a boy with dark hair, dark eyes and dark future in front of him. Blinded by the promises he made her, dumb teen Emily Prentiss allowed herself to be used and tossed aside, like trash.

At fifteen, the drunk daughter of the ambassador in Rome had been weak…weak enough to be unable to shut down this boy's advances. She had let him fool her, let him use her, let him have her against her own will…

At fifteen, smart Emily Prentiss failed her first test. Two clear blue lines threatened to ruin her life even further.

At fifteen, Emily Prentiss had to make life-altering decisions that she didn't want to be faced with.

At fifteen, Emily Prentiss was a child for the last time in her life. But she was dumb and gullible for the first time. She was weak and uncontrollable, for the first time. So, a specific first time with this boy had resulted in a lot of other first times for her.

At fifteen, she had masked her face up with black make-up and tried to make herself ugly, so that people wouldn't notice her anymore.

At fifteen, Emily had created her first alias, going by the name of DarkPoison online, which was where most of her time was being spent, once she broke away from her new friends.

At fifteen, Emily Prentiss had no one to hold her hand, to walk her through what was happening to her. She had to make a choice and even then, it did not go as she had planned.

At fifteen, a broken, lonely and desperate Emily Prentiss had started experimenting with drugs, against her own will. She had figured, if her innocence had been taken away from her, who cared about her morals, her beliefs? What if drugs weren't as bad as she had been brought up to believe? What if alcohol really could take the pain away? What did she have left to lose, anyway? She had already lost a great deal of herself. She simply did not care about the rest.

At fifteen, broken and alone, since it was her friend Matthew's turn to spiral out of control, Emily Prentiss made a promise to herself: never trust a man again, never give a man control over you. And, so far, she had made good to that promise.

So, letting Richard hold her and make her feel so vulnerable, in a good way, felt absolutely nothing like when she was fifteen.

"Hey?" He tried to catch her attention, noticing how she had lost herself in her thoughts. Again.

"Hey, yeah. Dancing. Let's go." She forced a tiny smile, eager to let loose and to keep on working hard, perfecting this current version of Emily Prentiss.


"Good luck." Bryan whispered to Angela right before they were told to start their exam.

"Nah, I don't need that." She sad, absolutely confident in herself.

Two hours went by and the test was as hard as Dan had warned them it would be. There were so many questions about random things and examples that each teacher had mentioned, that if one hadn't been alert all the time during every single class, there was no way they could pass.

Angie hated the whole section that had to do with driving. However, being a very good listener, she didn't find it too hard to reply to most of the questions. And she was somewhat sure she had hit the right answers.

The other parts of the exam, especially the Criminology and Ballistics ones, she found to be way too easy for her.

Criminal law was a bit complicated, because just one word could change the whole meaning of a sentence and everything had a precise order of words and explanations and stuff. She spent some more time reading her options carefully before she would choose an answer to submit.

There were some questions about nutrition, which were things that their PFT trainers had mentioned to them very randomly while training.

At some point, Angie put her hand up in the air.

"Yes, Trainee Hunter." Dan sighed, allowing her to speak up.

"I'm done. What now?" She asked, as they were given no instructions whether they should leave the room after they were done.

"Now you sit quietly in your seat for the next fifteen minutes and wait for everyone else to finish. Once you submit your scores, at the end of the countdown, your individual test scores will appear on your screens. And then you can go do whatever you want." Dan explained calmly.

If Angie hated one thing, it was to sit and be quiet. She was definitely not good at it. For the next fifteen minutes she played with her hair, braided it twice and put it up in a ponytail three times before it ended in a messy bun, with the bow sticking awkwardly on top of it.

She also managed to make a small incision underneath the table, two lines that almost formed the letter T, or maybe an L. She then drew a little heart with a pencil, right next to it.

When Dan put his hand up and told them the time was up, everyone's test answers got uploaded simultaneously and their results showed up after ten seconds.

Angie heard people sigh unhappily and she rolled her eyes. They should have paid more attention in class, she thought.

"What!?" She gasped when her result came up.

"Oh, sweet. I got a 91%." Bryan commented, proudly turning his tablet to Angela before he noticed the number that was on her screen.

"Excuse me!" Angie stood up, furious. "Your system is having a glitch!" She informed whoever was listening to her, but really, she intended those words towards Dan.

"Our systems are fine, Trainee Hunter. Maybe your knowledge is to blame, huh?" He said in the rudest, most obnoxious way. Or at least that was how Angie perceived it.

"No!" She would just not let it go. "My knowledge is solid. I did way better than this on my exam and I demand a second look at my answers. A human verification, if I may suggest so. That human being anyone else, but you, preferably." She said confidently, but Dan gave her a stern look, so she felt compelled to add something to soften the blow. "Uh, Sir."

"God, you're so lame." Bryan whispered to her. "But damn, you got balls, girl!" He added, proud to know her.

"Yo, where are you going? I'm not done talking!" She saw how Dan disregarded her plea and how he was now walking towards the exit, so she made a run towards the door, blocking it with her body and placing her hands on her hips.

"This is not a result I would ever get on an exam like this one. Not even if I took it blindfolded, drugged out of my right mind, drunk into oblivion, hanging upside down from a tree, while the exam was held in Mandarin!" She raised her eyebrow and Bryan noticed something intimidating about her mouth. Her lips were pursed a little bit, she seemed angry, but also very confident in herself. If she were yelling at Bryan, he would have felt ill-at-ease, even though she was so slim and fragile-looking.

"I need to get to my office." Dan's hand waved, as if to urge her to move aside and let him leave.

"And I need a fair score on my exam! What makes your wish any more valuable and urgent than mine?" At this point, Bryan closed his eyes, hoping that Angie would just stop talking.

"I'm the Class Mentor. Are you sure you want to keep talking to me with this tone, Miss?" Dan had a smug smile on his face, like he was enjoying getting on her nerves.

"Positive!" She replied quickly. "And that's Trainee Hunter for you!" She added, because when people called her dumb nicknames, she just had to call them out.

"You got nerve, Trainee Hunter!" Dan's affirmation only met more of her wrath.

"And then some!" She added, not giving him the satisfaction of backing off.

"A score of 73 is not as bad as you are making it out to be, Trainee Hunter. You still did better than some of the other Trainees." Dan said casually.

"Some? No! I won't back down until I do better than all of them! I have to do better than my own self!" Dan noticed how Angie put her chin up as she said those words.

Pride. Intellect. Stubbornness. Insubordination.

Angela Hunter – the Academy's Wild Card this year.

Dan's personally picked trophy.

"Nothing can be done in regards to your test scores. Same cannot be said in regards to your status as an active Trainee. So, I would advise you to step aside and let me go now." It was Dan's turn to play hardcore. He knew that the one thing that Angela would not dare gamble with was her spot at the Academy.

Angie did step aside, but she was far from done being a bitch to him.

"Don't let the door hit you on your way out." She mumbled quietly, letting the door close itself as Dan walked out, making him trip on the other side of it.

She smirked and returned to her seat to grab her personal belongings.

"Why would you do that?" Bryan asked her, wanting to give her a nice slap for her stupid behavior.

"Because he needs to know he cannot mess with me." She stated calmly.

"But, you heard him, 73% is not that bad. You'll do better next time." He tried to calm her down.

"I can see how David never took part in the detective business." She smirked again, it almost looked to him as if she thought she had won this fight with Dan.

"Huh?" He said while grabbing his water bottle and following her out of the auditorium.

"Like you said, I heard him speak about my 73% score." She smiled. "However, after the test scores were uploaded to each one of us, individually, he never even looked at his tablet. So, how would he know my test score? I never mentioned the number."

"Oh, crap!" Bryan realized where Angie was going with this. "You think Dan messed with your test score, just to mess with your head?"

"I know so." She shrugged, as if it were normal.

"Ugh, it's like we're in a movie and there is a different twist in each scene. It's so confusing." He said while checking what time it was.

They walked to the notice board, wondering if their new weekly schedule would be on it. Last week they had received a printed out schedule, but nothing was given to them now.

"What? The FBI suddenly has no money to print our schedules anymore?" Angela rolled her eyes, noticing how the new schedule just hung on the wall, as if they were supposed to write it down in their own notebooks.

"What bothers me is that since the class got cut and we're already done with the exam…" He started off. "What is next on the schedule for today? It's only five o'clock now. I doubt we are getting our evening off. They must be planning something big."

"Like, the cuts maybe?" Angie supposed. "Oh, if I get cut today, based on a bogus exam result, I'm turning this into a national scandal. Just watch me! I'll go to every major TV station and I'll sell all the intel I have on this whole damn Academy!"

"There's the whole Privacy Agreement we signed before joining the Academy, but yeah, who cares, right?" He said sarcastically.

"Oh, Bry-Bry! Can't you just shut up and let me have my imaginary revenge on that asshole?" She said dramatically before they both burst out in laughter.


As soon as Dan had walked out of the auditorium, the young Agent who was a supervisor during the exam, spotted him and walked over.

"Well, you weren't joking when you said she was a firecracker." The guy stated.

"Nope." Dan smiled, because the way Angela handled the situation was exactly what she had expected her to do.

"What was her actual score?" The guy asked and Dan had to open his tablet in order to see that. He hadn't seen any of the results yet.

"Damn, she hit a 99%." Dan sounded surprised. He knew she would be good, but he didn't expect her to be that good. No wonder she was yapping at him with such confidence earlier – the girl clearly was sure of herself.

"You chose well this year." The younger guy said devilishly.

"I chose well last year, too, young boy! Jealous it wasn't you?" Dan laughed, messing with the young guy's hair a bit.

"I just hope she's ready for what's about to hit her." The agent commented, thinking of what he had gone through, a year ago, and he hadn't even been Dan's Wild Card himself.

"Oh, she won't be doing it alone. Her friend, the Ken-Doll looking guy, I'm dragging him along with her." Dan said and it was obvious he was talking about Bryan.

"No way! Two? Haha, this is going to be one Hell of a run of the Academy!" He said while fixing his hair.

Dan and this guy clearly had a good relationship.

"It would be one for the books, kid! We're making history here." Dan commented before he hurried towards his office, as he was already five minutes late to a very important meeting with his Superiors.