Adventures in Babysitting ↠ Peter Parker [1] ✓

19 | Haunting Pasts

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ADVENTURES IN BABYSITTING
xix. HAUNTING PASTS

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  THROUGHOUT YOUR TRAINING AS an agent, it is extremely crucial to recognize the fact that one of the most important rules you are taught is to never show your true emotions. If you're facing some kind of terroristic threat, it is dire that you never show your trepidation. If you're pissed off at a team member in the midst of an important mission, you cannot show your anger for the sake of getting the job done. Everything you do, you do for the sake of the success of your mission. There is a time and a place to show your emotions, but the moments between success and failure certainly aren't it.

   There were only so many moments in Riley O'Dair's life where Riley had been so shocked that she couldn't help but show her true feelings.

   While the Academic Decathlon was no exception to this unwritten rule, Riley found that she could just barely keep it together. After all, she may have been highly intelligent, but being asked all kinds of questions one after another surely was a little stressful. Nonetheless, she overall could hardly focus, especially after what she had witnessed the evening before.

   "The Napster copyright dilemma differs from that of earlier technologies because...?"

   Pushing the button, Ned Leeds speedily said, "The internet is more difficult to regulate."

   "The Department of Transportation of a city has concluded that the mean number of accidents per day is 10. The mean number of accidents is an example of what?"

   Riley slammed her hand down on the red button in front of her. "Statistical interference."

   "Which parts of the eye are easily seen by other people?"

   "The cornea, pupil, iris, and sclera," answered Liz.

   Between wondering where on Earth Peter was after being absent from breakfast this morning and last-minute studying for the competition, Riley couldn't stop thinking about the figure that had approached her in her hotel room last night.

With the clap of a pair of hands, the lights flickered on. Standing a few feet away from Riley was a figure. It appeared as a shadow pressed against the hotel wall, but when Riley looked around, she was still alone. But how was it that there was another shadow in the room accompanying her own if she was alone?

"Who are you and what do you want?" demanded Riley, her voice just a bit louder in hopes of showing her dominancy.

Without warning, the shadow pulled itself off of the wall. It stood before the girl in the form of a normal human, reminding the girl of Peter Pan's shadow. A strange, dark aura surrounded the person. Confusion and surprise overcame the teenager.