Agent Reptilian: Exploiting Gold|editing

Chapter sixteen: "Alaska Brooks, what are you?"

"Well this isn't embarrassing at all." I hissed as I gripped two plastic shopping bags with the words 'K-mart' print on each one. Looking over at Nix, she held similar bags but was too engrossed in reading a newspaper to worry about losing her dignity.

"What are the headlines?" I cocked my head in curiosity. I was more interested in crime section of the news whenever I did watch or read it. Now, more than ever, I realized it was important for us to keep an eye out, especially on any suspicious activity. Did I think anyone in Miami would attack us? No. How would anyone even know we were here? There were thousands of people traveling between New York and Miami and I recalled security measures being tightly controlled everywhere we went. If anyone was potentially tracking us, they would've lost us by now. But... I still wanted to keep an eye out. In case...in case something did happen.

My gaze fell on the cover page of the newspaper, my eyes reading the title, 'The Sunshine News'. I had a feeling the title of the paper was going to be very misleading.

"Well," Nix answered, "The first title here in the crime section is..." her green eyes scanned the page and she pointed her index finger at a title, "'Man Shot Dead by His Own Dog, A Story of Betrayal'. Devastating." She commented. I would've laughed had I not been concerned as to how a dog had managed to shoot his owner.

"Okay, um, next?" I heard the rustling of the thin and flimsy paper as Nix flipped over to the next page.

"Alright, this one says, 'Seventy-One Year Old Woman Walking to Grocery Store Slips on a Squash Left There by Local Priest'. Bizarre. How do you slip on a squash? And how'd they know it was the priest who left it?" I just shook my head at the headlines. Perhaps all the panic that I had felt, the knots present in my stomach since we'd come here were all just a false alarm. If the most harmful thing happening in this area was a lady slipping on squash, perhaps there was nothing to worry about.

I tugged on the bags in my hand. Nix and I were not holding plastic shopping bags because we had just stepped out of a supermarket or grocery store. Infact, the reason we had it in our hands was for us to keep our school supplies inside it. Our school supplies included a chewed up pencil and pen with barely an ink left in the tube, an eraser with 10 holes on each side which was kicking in my trypophobia. Mademoiselle Picket had given us two mason jars to drink our water out of instead of giving us proper water bottles. I had left my bottle in the car belonging to the Miami headquarters and didn't anticipate getting it back anytime soon.

"She might as well have let us go to school empty handed. I won't even be surprised if someone plans on starting a Go-Fund me page for us. Perhaps Malala Yousafzai herself will come visit us and fund our school supplies. Lecture Mademoiselle Picket in the process." I shook my head. Nix snorted.

We halted our trek on top of the grassy hill that overlooked the new highschool we'd be attending. While it didn't look...awful per se, I suddenly felt numb and emotional at the same time. I thought I'd be able to handle leaving behind our school, our friends, our life but looking at our new life ahead of us, something twinged inside of me. I focused on my breathing, my breath an anchor for my thoughts and memories flooding through me as we walked forwards.

A light breeze blew, swinging the palm trees side to side as they stood proudly in a linear pattern across from each other, starting from where the cars were beginning to roll up into the school, all the way to its front foyer where two pairs of double doors were wide open. Rusty red bricks were stacked upon each other, massive windows appeared every several spaces of brick. Thick, dark green vines crept up on the edges of the building like tentacles, altogether creating what was known as "Palm Woods High School".

At the entrance of the high school, right outside it's mouth allowing students in, 2 officers stood, dressed in their dark blue uniforms and armed with pistols and tasers.