Chapter 5:
A/N: I don't own CHERUB. Pauline is going to be referred to as Piper from now on as she changed her name to Piper Ariel Lambert in the last chapter.
Piper stepped outside into the quiet morning. The compound was still asleep—windows dark, the air heavy with dew. The silence was eerie, but also peaceful.
The next morning, Pauline was woken up by the phone beside her bed ringing. The person on the other end told her to go to her handler's office, giving her instructions on how to get there. Ten minutes later, she stepped outside into the quiet morning, still not having seen any of her cohabitants. The village was still asleep - windows dark, a peaceful silence.
On the way to Emiko, she finally decided on what her name should be: Piper Anouk Lambert.
After she and Emiko had gone through a few things, she returned to her cottage. There she finally met her cohabitants, who were getting breakfast ready: It quickly became obvious that August and Evie were a couple, both of them very welcoming and energetic. Christian, the eldest, was not really interested in her, keeping more to himself. Isabella, she was told, was on a mission. Reuben was the one she got along with best, with them quickly starting up a conversation during breakfast. After they were done cleaning up, he invited her to play cards with him.
"My parents are still alive," he explained as they shuffled a deck of cards on the kitchen table. "They were CHERUB agents once and decided to send me here because of their jobs". Piper felt a flicker of envy at those words, though it quickly abated.
Soon, the conversation turned to school and languages - he spoke English and Korean and was learning Mandarin.
Suddenly, a girl burst in and started talking to Reuben. She stopped talking when she saw Piper.
"Hi, I'm Emilia. Who are you?"
"I'm Piper, I arrived last night, I was recruited by Holly."
"Cool. Are you interested in science?"
"Kinda. I like other subjects, like language arts and history, more though."
"Oh, okay. Do you want to see what I built?"
Emilia spent some time explaining the way her small device worked. It quickly became clear that Reuben and Emilia had similar interests and were close friends.
Suddenly Emilia shot up, saying, "...Oh no, it's already 10:25, I've got to go!", and rushed out of the room.
Soon after, Evie popped in.
"Do you want to play football? Oscar is looking for people to play. You'd have 5 minutes to get ready."
They both agreed.
"Do you have football stuff, Piper?", Evie added, which Piper quickly confirmed. "Then get ready quickly, Oscar is waiting!"
Piper quickly got dressed and followed Oscar and Reuben to a football field. There were about ten kids, all between the ages of six and ten. The game was fast, muddy, and chaotic - really wicked.
About a hour later, Reuben and Piper returned to the cottage, exhausted and in good mood. They found August, Evie and Christian standing in the kitchen, having a discussion and waiting for them.
"What is going on?", Piper asked.
"We're voting to see if we should go to the canteen or cook something ourselves", Christian answered.
Everyone voted to go, so that Piper could meet some new people.
Upon arriving, Reuben took Piper to a table where Emilia and four others, who introduced themselves as Lillian, Brooke, Jonah and Henry - sat. At a table nearby, Piper recognized Holly from the recruitment trip, sitting with - as the others told her - her friends Jasper, Luis, and Megan.
While they ate, Piper got to know everyone. Everyone was friendly and curious. Piper learned that Jonah was the chairman's son and had a sharp sense of humour. Lillian and Henry were thoughtful and liked reading, while Brooke and Emilia were more into STEM and building things. Reuben was sort of in between, unable to choose which side he liked more. It was a Sunday, so they ended up hanging out the entire afternoon, showing her what the campus had to offer. Piper fell asleep that night, awaiting the next day's excitements.