Agent Crew

Erased from existence

Clancy was not having a good day.

As predicted, he arrived at school late, earning himself a detention from the (in his opinion) overzealous French teacher. From there it had only gotten worse.

He had been given five sheets - five sheets - of translations to be completed by the end of the week. He was so screwed.

Heading to the lockers, Clancy looked around for a certain forgetful best friend to grumble at. Ruby, however, was nowhere to be seen.

"Typical," Clancy muttered, yanking open his locker, which some bozo had decided to scribble 'klutz' on (really guys, really?). It was then that Clancy remembered he'd left his science textbook at Ruby's. She was supposed to bring it along this morning.

Mr Gruber, his biology teacher, was less than understanding. He made Clancy move seats so he could share with someone else. And the only free seat - of course - was next to Vapona Begwell.

Her face scrunched up in disgust as Clancy sat down, her expression suggesting that sitting next to Clancy was akin to sitting next to a giant slug.

Clancy tried a weak grin, which slid off his face as Vapona glared at him. He shifted on his seat nervously.

"Redfort decided she's too good for us, has she?" hissed Vapona the second Mr Gruber's back was turned. She stared pointedly as Ruby's empty seat across the classroom.

Eager to get through the lesson without another detention, Clancy didn't respond. He bent to his worksheet, and squinted at Vapona's textbook, which she had pushed as far away from Clancy as the desk would allow.

"Oi." Vapona poked Clancy's arm and he flinched.

With a satisfied smirk, Vapona continued. "You better tell Redfort..."

Clancy tried to drown out the insults and threats, all of which he had heard before. In spite of this, they made concentrating on cell structure extremely difficult.

One painfully unproductive lesson later, Clancy slid onto a bench beside his friend Mouse, and slumped forwards onto the top of the picnic table in exhaustion.

"Somebody kill Ruby for me," he mumbled into the table.

Del, sitting opposite, perked up at the suggestion.

"Sure thing," she said enthusiastically. "Were you thinking a quick hit, or slow and painful?"

In answer, Clancy just groaned.

"Oh dear," said Mouse, her voice soft as she rubbed Clancy's back sympathetically. She shot Del a disapproving look.

"What?" asked Del defensively, her hands shooting up in the universal gesture for 'don't kill me'. "Crew was the one who suggested it."

Mouse raised an eyebrow slowly, but didn't reply. Instead, she turned back to the prone Clancy.

"What happened?" she asked.

"Oh, you know," mumbled Clancy, still speaking into the table, "Ruby bailed on me. My French teacher hates me. Vapona thinks I'm a worm."

Del snorted. "So, the usual, then?"

Mouse sighed.

Clancy was just about to reply to Del sarcastically, when he was interrupted by a loud exclamation.

"Oh pancakes!"

Del spun round to find the cause of the strange outburst, but Mouse and Clancy didn't even move.

"Hey, Red," said Mouse, smiling at the girl approaching their table. Del relaxed.

Red waved at the gang, but it was clear she was distracted. She looked down at her feet and started to make confused 'hmm' noises.

"What are you - geez Monroe!" Del exclaimed. Being nearest to Red, she was the first to see the mess on the floor.

At Del's outburst, Mouse stood up, and even Clancy raised his head from the table. Their eyes widened.

Red's feet - somehow - were covered in a thick, black, oily substance. Del wrinkled her nose in disgust.

"That stinks," she said helpfully.

Red looked at her friends, her expression apologetic.

"It just came out of nowhere," she explained, shaking a foot experimentally. The goop didn't move. "I swear I was looking where I was going."

Her friends tried hard not to look disbelieving - Red never looked where she was going.

And it only took them a second to spot the dustbin rolling around just a few feet behind her...

"My mom's gonna kill me," Red commented, not sounding particularly worried. She sat down next to Del, who wrinkled her nose and shuffled to the left.

"Yeah, well my dad's gonna erase me from existence," grumbled Clancy. "I got my second detention this year!"

Tilting her head to one side, Del considered Clancy as if he were a rare specimen in a museum.

"Crew," she said seriously, "your dad needs to chill it. I've had two detentions this week."

Mouse raised her eyebrows, looking vaguely disappointed, and Red took the opportunity to poke her shoe. When she took her finger away, it was black.

"Seriously?" spluttered Clancy. "Yeah, I'll be sure to tell my dad that. You know - 'oh, it's okay, I may be failing French but at least I'm not Del'. Cos that'll go down well."

"All right," snapped Del. "No need to be a pain about it. I thought your plan was to blame Ruby, anyway."

"Yeah, no," said Clancy shortly.

"Where is Ruby today?" asked Mouse, clearly hoping to curtail the argument.

Clancy shrugged, suddenly on guard. "Dunno," he said. Even though he could take a pretty good guess.

"Maybe she caught Elliott's bug," offered Red. Their friend had been off for a few days now, and was still bedridden. (Although Clancy wasn't entirely sure he wasn't just milking it now.)

"Poor Ruby," said Mouse, ever the empath.

"Yeah, well," Clancy muttered. "She still could've called."

His friends sighed and moved on to the more interesting topic of Mrs Drisco's disastrous new haircut.

Since he was still in a mood with Ruby, Clancy kept quiet. He'd spoken to her just this morning. She didn't sound sick.

And Clancy knew something about Ruby that the rest of the gang didn't. A secret. The biggest secret. One that kept Clancy up at night (though he would never admit it) worrying about his best friend. Being a spy. Because Ruby was a spy.

Sure he trusted Ruby - well, maybe trusted was the wrong word. Admired would be more apt. And even if he didn't trust Ruby to stay out of danger, he definitely trusted Hitch to bail her out of it. That butler was scary (especially when you called him a butler).

So, yes, Clancy trusted that Ruby was safe. That didn't mean he couldn't worry. (It was pretty much the only thing he could do.) He also trusted that whatever crazy mission Ruby was on this time was important. But that didn't mean he couldn't be mad about it.

Of course Spectrum came first. He knew that. But there was a small, selfish part of him that wished - just once - it didn't have to.