The Rookie & Tom Hanson: A "21 Jump Street" Story

Chapter 1: "Genesis"

It's such a hard thing to enter the Police Academy, not only because of all the rules that you have to learn but also because of all the physical requirements that are needed. That was something that was very hard for me because I was never athletic in the first place. Another thing that I disliked was that, as a woman who was 5'9, there weren't that many uniforms that I could put on or use. Meaning, more often than not, I had to wear parts of my uniform that wear actually made for the men's uniform.

Despite my height, I was regularly teased by the other cadets because I had an extremely youthful appearance, and it was like I was frozen to be 17 forever. Another thing is that one of my brothers, Solomon, is a Rabbi, and the other one was a rock star who toured throughout the country with his band. Given that all three of us went in completely different directions career-wise, people asked if we were estranged or if none of us were biologically related. However, when they saw us standing together, they saw our distinctive Israeli Mediterranean looks and resemblance, although Josh is much darker due to not using sunscreen that much. Between you and me, this is surprising given how Josh is the vainest of all of us, I don't even use that much hair product, and I'm the only woman of the three of us.

Anyway when graduation came and we were all given our units and assignments, I saw that most of my peers had become patrolmen or were assigned to desk jobs. However, I was assigned to a special branch called "21 Jump Street Chapel" due to my appearance. But when I asked Captain Briody what he meant and what the program was about, he said that Captain Adam Fuller would explain to me better. All I know is that I hope that this isn't the type of unit where I would be an undercover cop pretending to be a hooker because finding clothes for that type of assignment was annoying due to my height, plus it gets really cold here in Pacific Northwest.

As I drove my 1978 Blue Volkswagen Beetle to the address that Briody gave me, I saw what appeared to be an old abandoned chapel but with lots of cars using up most of the parking spaces. "They literally took the hiding in plain sight thing from Edgar Allan Poe too seriously," I muttered to myself as I parked the car and closed the door. I took a deep breath before going up the steps and opening the door. Since I was told zero about what the program is or what it does , I decided to wear my Police Uniform just to make sure that I was in dress code and that I would be taken seriously as an Officer instead of being shooed off as some punk.

When I opened the door I was amazed at the amount of people and organization throughout the entire space. I realized that it was more colorful, yet more organized than Downtown HQ. I was looking all over the place to see if I could find this "Captain Fuller" and get an assignment that would help me save lives. I was so busy reading the folder that Briody gave me that I didn't realize that I had collided with someone until 3 seconds later.

"I'm sorry," we both said at the same time. "I wasn't paying attention," we said in sync once again, to our confusion and shock, so we both looked up, and I saw someone who looked like a teenager staring back at me but was like an inch taller than me and had deep brown eyes.

"We get it! You both act and think alike," a tall man who was built like a football player said as he put his arm around my collision victim.

"Hi, I'm Tom Hanson," said the collision victim.

"And I'm Doug Penhall," said the football player one.

"I'm Rebecca Asher, and I'm looking for a
Captain Fuller. Can you please tell me where he is?" I asked.

"Why? Is he under arrest?" Penhall asked.

I immediately went into panic mode as my eyes widened. "No, no," I stuttered, "I'm just here because I was assigned to work in his program and to learn what the program is about because nobody told me. All they would tell me was that 'Captain Fuller will tell you', but they never included a photo of him in this folder, so I don't know what he looks like—"