Even Lionell seemed impressed.
"Well, you can definitely tell that there's a difference in your body, but you need to learn techniques too. That's how you catch the HIA agents off guard."
Armaan listened to Lionell's advice, sucking up every last bit of information that he could.
"You know what? I think that you might make it through the Ten Tests of Doom into the HIA now." Lionell said proudly. Armaan, however, knew that he needed more training. There was no way that he could make it through the booby traps without gaining agility. He knew, now that he had a fit body, that he would have to train with Angela before he could make it through the traps, along with training with Lionell.
***************
For Katie, this was refreshing. She was back at the HIA, doing the simple homework of a ninth grader. This was only a cover-up, of course, because she had a few friends that weren’t agents. She chewed on her pencil, looking thoughtful. Then she seemed to finally get the answer and jotted it down on her paper. Her eighth grade friend looked at her like she was a genius, and she smiled to herself. Ahh… she thought. Their ignorance is my bliss. This is the life.
****************
Rebecca sat in her room, curled up on her cot with her back against the wall. The cots were just for resting, especially after a hard mission, but she found she could think better when she was alone.
She wondered how Laura was doing with her trainee. She wasn’t worried about Kalyia learning everything that she needed to; Laura was a good teacher.
She wondered how Katie was doing after her trip to Tanzania. She wanted to know about what had happened, but she didn’t want to ask. Rebecca didn’t feel like talking to anyone right now. She just wondered.
She wondered how Tyler was reacting to Imraan not being good enough to join the HIA.
She wondered what Imraan was doing now that he had lost another chance. She bet he was wondering how many times he could retry.
She even wondered what Armaan was doing now that he had been cut off from the HIA. He had been an undercover agent on her mission, and he had done pretty well. Without him, they might all be dead or captured, even Kayia, the new recruit. He’d really saved them this time, but he hadn’t been rewarded for anything.
She knew Armaan would try again. He was probably practicing right now, getting better in his weak areas. Rebecca wondered who would be testing him. She wondered what she might do if it was herself, what she might do if it wasn’t.
What she wondered the most, though, was what Jace was doing, how he was handling things. She was tired of being his enemy, tired of fighting so much. She was telling the truth when she told him she could have been better. She could have stuck to the HIA instead of going off to the GCA on a mission that endangered so many people. She could have tried to be nicer to him from the beginning. She could have stopped Laura from being captured a second time. She could have saved Enver. At least, she could have tried.
She wondered if she should have told Jace that.
Yes. It was the truth. Right then, that was what she had needed to give, and now that was what he needed to know. She didn’t know what he would do with this, or what he would think of her.
She didn’t know.
That’s why she wondered.
****************
"Katie Hill, please come to the front desk." Katie looked at her 8th grade friend and shrugged, then left her desk and walked to the front desk.
"Adm. Taylor would like to see you." the receptionist told her. Katie nodded in agreement and quickly walked to his office.
"Ah, Ms. Hill, please close the door."
Katie did as she was asked, turned around, and saw Rebecca there next to Adm. Taylor.
"The agency can't decide who should test the next student, you, or Agent Stapley. It will be decided by a classic competition of arm wrestling. Sit down."
Katie did as she was told.
"Get into position." They did so.
"And.....GO!"
Rebecca was strong. Katie knew this; however, she wanted to take a little break from boring classes and actually teach a newbie. If not that, she could at least be the entertainment source. She hadn't been that for a long time. They arm-wrestled for a bit longer, then the winner was finally determined.
****************
"Hey, Laura! We're over here!" Xarissa called to Laura. It was lunch, and they were with the other Heritage students.
"So, how's the new recruit?" Sarah asked.
"Don't talk about that here, someone might hear you!" Laura whispered.
"Not if we're silent about it! Relax, no one will care! They won't understand what we're talking about!" Rebecca argued.
"Fine. She's doing really well; she's almost as good as Jace."
"You guys remember Enver?" Caitlin asked. Laura froze. Enver was possibly safe now, but could she be so sure?
"Oh yes, it's so sad that he..." Xarissa agreed. Laura couldn't stand her secret anymore. The beating up was one thing, she could share that secret with Rebecca, but her friends not knowing that Enver was still alive was something that she had to tell.
"Enver's not dead." Laura whispered.
"What?" Sarah asked.
"Enver's in hiding. He's not dead." Laura confirmed.
"You told us that he was dead." Caitlin reminded her.
"No, I told you that Enver was floating in the water. I was just making you think that Enver was dead, to protect him. "
"Why didn't you tell us until now?" Sarah asked.
"Because he's still in hiding. What would have happened if you were captured by the terrorists again and you told them that he was alive? They would chase him down again! I couldn't let you know of his survival." Laura replied.
Rebecca remained unnaturally silent. She stood up, grabbed her purse and her lunch, and left the table without saying a word.
******************
Laura had withheld another piece of information from her. Rebecca didn’t get it. They were pretty good friends, but for some reason she felt like Laura didn’t trust her. She didn’t know what it was. It could be the stress affecting her brain, or it could just be that Laura and Rebecca weren’t really as good of friends as she thought they were. Rebecca trusted Laura. She couldn’t think of a single thing she hadn’t told her. Who was in the wrong here? Rebecca couldn’t figure it out.
Then she had a random thought about Jace. She wondered if Jace knew—if he had figured it out, if Laura told him, or if he just didn’t know. She shoved her stuff into her locker and went to go find Jace.
****************