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"part heaven, part hell"
***
Andi had no idea why Master Lin pulled them all aside after AP Black Arts. Yet here they were, the ragtag group selected from a variety of the school's gangs. Like some kind of bizarro-world version of the Breakfast Club. She stood in front of Master Lin's desk along with Saya, Maria, Willie, and Billy.
"I have an assignment for you all," Master Lin stated. "Should you fail to complete it, you will be removed from King's Dominion, permanently." No one needed him to elaborate; we all knew what he meant. Lin set a photo out on his desk.
Saya stepped forward to grab the photo, examining the boy in it before passing it on to the others who had gathered around her. Master Lin continued speaking as it was passed from person to person. "The subject's name is Marcus Lopez Arguello, wanted by law enforcement for blowing up the Sunset Boy's Home where he lived, killing the other orphans inside."
"You want us to kill 'im?" Willie asked, giving the photo to Andi to look at.
The platinum blonde girl would not mind the task of killing him. Just the thought of him killing all those kids caused her blood to boil. Long ago, she had set her moral limits, and she drew the line at innocents like kids. Granted, yes, some kids could be just as psychotic as some of the students in this school, but most were not. Most were vulnerable, easy prey for the predators of the world. She would gladly give those predators a taste of their own medicine.
"No," Master Lin said, snapping Andi out of her dark thoughts. What did he mean 'no?' "I want to recruit him; therefore, I need you to bring him to me. Alive."
Andi passed the photo to Maria who looked at it and smirked, nudging the blonde's shoulder. "He's kinda cute," the Mexican beauty whispered to her blonde friend. Andi agreed to an extent. The boy was attractive, and the scar over his eye did nothing to distract from that, simply adding to the allure. It gave him that essence of danger that usually made Andi go weak in the knees. A reaction she typically refused to acknowledge as it was sure to land her in trouble someday. Now was one of those times. His appearance was not enough for Andi to forgive his past crimes.
Shortly after the group finished examining the photo, Master Lin finished giving them the information necessary to begin their search and dismissed them. The group was excused from the rest of their classes for the day in order to begin their assignment immediately.
They left King's Dominion to start their search and surveillance efforts. Saya, unsurprisingly, went for a more stealthy approach while the others stuck to more hands-on methods. As much as the group was meant to work together, their natural competitiveness with each other made them split up, the search becoming more like a game.
Thus, why Andi sauntered down the San Francisco streets on her own, heading towards the area where she knew there was a large homeless encampment. Walking past a street corner shop, she stopped in to swipe a pack of gum and a medium-sized bag of chips. Stashing the gum in her pocket and the chips under her studded jean jacket, she waited until the cashier was distracted and snuck out of the store, the cashier none the wiser about the stolen goods. As she continued her walk down the street, chewing away at a piece of Hubba Bubba, she spotted a boy, about her age, picking a half-eaten Big Mac out of the garbage. His blue jacket worn, his face coated in a layer of grime, yet she could still recognize him as the boy from the photo.
