She's Stronger Than You Think

The Date

BRINGGG

Without opening your eyes, you blindly stretch your hand out, turning off your torturous alarm. Slowly sitting up in bed and rubbing your tired eyes, you look at your phone, 6:00am. It was still dark outside. Lifting yourself out of bed, you groggily walk over to the bathroom to get ready. Looking at yourself in the mirror, you see the same person you saw yesterday morning and all the days before. You didn't expect to see anyone else, you were you, but something inside of you expected to see something special about you. After your hard work on the case yesterday and with James asking you out, you thought you would find someone worthwhile staring back in the mirror. Instead, you found your dark eyed, tall, sad reflection looking back at you.

Brushing your teeth you thought about the day you were about to have. You should feel more excited and thrilled about meeting up with James, but instead you felt the same wave of sadness and dread you normally had when you woke up. This feeling usually drags on with you throughout your day but occasionally lifted when you were excited for something. A strange feeling in your gut made you uneasy about today, but you couldn't pin what it was that bothered you.

After changing into black skinny jeans and a gray hoodie, you grab your school bag full of homework you still need to do along with a go bag, filled with clothes and necessities you may need if traveling out of town, and then head downstairs.

Hotch asked you the night before to bring a go bag with you. He doubted you needed one, but concluded it was better to be prepared.

Your mom who somehow naturally wakes up early everyday made you breakfast. Sausage, egg, and avocado between an English muffin. Walking towards the kitchen the smell of food cooking on the stove makes your stomach growl.

"Mommyyy!" You say, walking into the kitchen.

Standing over the stove, your mom looks up from stirring her eggs. "Good morning Bubba. Your food is on the table. Do you know what time you'll be home tonight?" She asks.

Between a mouthful of food you reply, "Thanks mom. Not sure when I'll be home but I'm guessing late." Your mom doesn't mind you coming home late, she worries of course about you being on the case because you aren't trained, but trusts you know your limit.

You and your mom sit down together, eating breakfast. You tell her about your contributions to the team and even show her the FBI jacket Reid gave you. Unable to explain the details of the case, you tell her about the team instead. You mention how great they all are and how they were nothing like you expected.

"How many words per minute?" Your mom's eyes wide with shock.

"20,000! Impressive, I know." You say back, referring to Spencer's genius abilities.

Not too much later you get a text from Sr. Chido. "Outside" It read. Since you both live so close to each other and would be going to the same place, you both decide it would be better for you to get rides from Sr. Chido. Plus it would avoid suspicion having your car parked at school until late at night and on the weekends.

"Coming!" Hitting send, you quickly put your dirty dish in the sink, grab your bags, hug your mom and head for the door. "Bye mom, love you!" You yell, walking out of the house.

"Love you more!" She calls back before you close and lock your front door.

Climbing into the passenger seat of Señor's car, you instantly bombard him with questions. "Señor, are you an FBI agent? How do you know Hotch so well, did you two work together?..."

Looking over to you, Sr. Chido tilts his head down, showing his eyes that hid under his black Ray Band sunglasses. "Good morning to you too." He chuckles.