Suzie Elliot, Evil Genius?

Chapter 8

Monday morning found Suzie's tears all dried. She was all bright and bubbly when she entered the school, and she made her way to class with her fake smile plastered to her face. That changed to a real smile when she saw Simone seated at her desk and they exchanged waves. She almost stared giggling when Simone pantomimed eating a fish eye. Simone was truly starting to grow on her as a real friend. It was a strange feeling, and she kind of enjoyed it. She wondered if Simone would like to go for a ride on a submarine!

The morning was devoted to math and science, which were pretty basic by this point to her. She was looking forward to some more history in the afternoon, since she knew that this week they would be covering the fall of the Roman Empire and what happened to the remnants. That was one aspect of history that she hadn't had a chance to read ahead on yet, so she couldn't wait to hear Mr. Kelly talk about it.

In the meantime she paid partial attention in class in case Mr. Kelly asked any questions she needed to answer, but for the most part she was thinking about what she could do to thwart a Special Forces unit. From the research she had done online, most units like that seemed to be well trained and armed with superior intelligence and communications. They would be very hard to neutralize, but she just might be able to since they wouldn't be expecting anyone to know about them.

The first thing she decided, is that she would arrange a buy with another dealer for something small, using her Petra alias to see if they would interrupt it as well, or if she could still operate. She obviously couldn't use Jonathan for it, but she had several other agents that she had used in the past that could supply arms and ammunition. An order for artillery shells could be just what she needed to bring the NATO troops out in the open and let her learn more about them. Even better, she didn't have a lot of the shells she needed, so if the sale went through it would still work out in her favor.

While Suzie had tried to make sure she was still aware of the classroom activities, she ended up so deep in thought in ways she could move forward with her plans, and she completely missed everyone else going to lunch. It wasn't until Mr. Kelly tapped her on the shoulder that she realized she was the only one left in the room.

"Are you okay Susan?" he asked.

"Oh. Yes, I'm fine Mr. Kelly. Sorry. I was just thinking," she replied hurriedly.

"About school I hope," he said with a smile.

"Oh, of course!" she said with a grin, fooling neither of them. Then she gathered her lunch box and raced off to the cafeteria.

By the time she got to the class' assigned table, most of her classmates had found their seats and were busily eating. A few stragglers were coming back from the lunch line with trays of food that never looked very appealing to Suzie. She definitely preferred the lunches Yilin packed. Today she had lovely summer rolls with a light sweet and sour sauce with just the amount of heat. Once more she reminded herself she needed to learn how to cook from Yilin.

Across the table Casey had her side of the table completely covered. She had a cloth placemat laid out, and her lunch box converted into a tray. She had a personalized paper cup that she bragged was custom made by the hundreds for just her with her name in pink all over it, into which she poured some of her bottled Evian water. Only because she had seen it every day for several years did Suzie manage not to snort in laughter at the ostentatious display.

Casey was busy dipping sushi into soy sauce and popping it into her mouth with obvious relish. Suzie had tried sushi a few times, and never liked the flavor. She decided she liked her fish cooked. How Casey could eat sushi but be disgusted by the fish eye she just didn't get though. Simone, sitting next to Casey, winked at Suzie as she opened a sealed plastic container. In it were dozens of marble sized spheres, with black dots. Suzie watched with interest as Simone made a big show about sniffing them and making sure everyone saw them.