Fire And Ice

14. Assignment.

I walked back as I saw everyone sitting on the bleacher as the coaches shouted something to them. I hurriedly made my way to the girls side and sat at the end.

As I spotted Nathan and Gabriel sitting at the end of the boys group. They smiled when they saw me. We were told to run laps around the gym and then we were allowed to play basketball.

Both of them along with other guys got to play with the girls side of th court as the court was seperated into two and not everyone was intersted in playing. Gabriel and I tried to beat Nathan, but since he was taller, and I had a damaged hand, he won. I was laughing or smiling the whole time, forgetting about other people around me.

"I had so much fun, thanks." I said looking at Nathan and Gabriel smiling. After a little talk I said bye to them and made my way towards the changing room.

After changing, I walked towards the school bus, but stopped when I felt the vibration of my phone. I walked towards the empty bleachers and took my phone out, attending the call.

"Hey, kiddo. Are you free?" I heard Dr.Phil ask.

"Um... No. Why?" I said furrowing my eyes.

"Great! I'll pick you up from your school." He said. God no! What if Marie saw me getting into a car.

"I'm... Not in the school, yes. I'm actually on the bus going to my house. Maybe we can met at the old church?" I asked as my voice cracked at the lie.

I felt the air shift and Phil's scent of strawberries and candies floated to me, I sighed, turning and saw Phil standing a few feet away. I got up from the bleachers and walked towards him.

"Whats up, old man." I said, still worried but masked it with a smile at his nickname, which only made him laugh.

"I'll tell you on the way." He said as he motioned for me to get into his car. I looked around and saw the bus had left, having no option I got into the car. Phil sat at the drivers seat and looked at me.

"Its like a practical interview, to assess your skills, basically." He said and started the car, pulling out of the school parking lot.

Phil stopped at a pumping station, handing me the case file to read. It said that there were a few children at the old broken down shop near a motel. I handed the file back after he got in. He frowned at my hands and then looked at me.

"What happened?" He asked his eyes looking very concerned, putting me in the verge of tears. I put on my emotionless mask as he removing the bandage, not waiting for a reply. His eyes widened as he saw the burn.

"It's just a burn, and I'm okay." I said, pleading with him to let it go. He just shook his head as he took his phone out and dialled someone.

"Do you know what happened to Sang?" There was a pause as the person on the other said something. "Her hands. The burns!" Another pause. "Keep me updated, no matter what." His voice was stern at the end.

He looked at me after getting off the call. I gave him a confused look as I asked, "Who was that?

He just shook his head and said, "We can do this another time. Right now you need to take rest, I'm dropping you off at your house."

"I'm doing this assignment today! I'm okay, I can do it. You don't need to baby me." I said folding my arms and looking directly at his eyes.

He stared back, but after a few seconds he gave up, making me smile. "Thank you. Now, can we continue with the assignment?"

He nodded once, still looking worried as he explained the what I read in the file. "I want to find this group of 4 children and make them come with me, right?"

"Yes, you need to make sure that they know they're not going back to their home. As you have already read the file, they ran away because of the abuse in their house."

"If you're not going to hand them back to their parents, then what are you going to do?" I asked warily, I don't want them to go back to their house, if they are being abused!

He looked surprised that I asked the question but answered it, "The academy runs a shelter for children's like them. You don't need to worry, we'll take care of them."

I nodded and relaxed at his explanation, looking out as he drove through busy streets. We didn't make any conversion as the silence was comforting to me.

People were getting back to their house, children walking around with their friends, old people sitting around talking. I wanted to do the normal things, and the pleasure in these normal things like going for a walk or goofing around with friends, without the fear of my mother punishing me for it.

It's never going to happen. I closed my eyes, wishing Rick was here to encourage me. "We're here." Phil's voice brought me out of my spiral.

I nodded as he parked the car, I got out and looked at the old dingy motel. To its right was a broken down shop with wooden slabs nailed to the door to prevent breaking it.

The glass window was broken around the back, through which the children might have entered. Phil gave me nod and I slowly got in through the broken window, trying not to scratch myself. It helped me that I was small.

The room was dark, I pulled my phone out and turned the flashlights on. The room was filtered with dust, cobwebs and plastics. I walked towards the only other room, from where I could here sounds coming.

The voices stopped once, they saw the flashlight. I didn't regret turning it on as I know it would have startled them to pop up infront of them without warning. They would have run away, without even waiting for me to explain.