𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐆𝐑𝐀𝐒𝐒𝐇𝐎𝐏𝐏𝐄𝐑 𝐂𝐎.

𝐉𝐄𝐍𝐍𝐘 𝐉𝐄𝐍𝐊𝐈𝐍𝐒 Ⅱ

Jenny joined Grasshopper Co. a little over 2 years ago. It was the night some of her older sister, Claudia had friends over. That night she was spinning herself around in her hot pink swivel chair— both feeling bored and jaded. As her mind was just about to shift into daydreaming about the next day of freshman year, the door opened reveling. Maddie, a friend of Claudia's she distinctively still remembers to this day, because of her vibrantly colored pink hair that had blond new growth at the top of her head. She remembered her busting into her room asking if she seen Claudia and Jenny responding with "she went to the corner store just a minute ago".

And Maddie ended up staying in the room of her best friend of 6 years at the time little sister to kill time while she was out. They lazily surfaced the internet, scrolling through Jenny's Instagram feed. Then Maddie got a pulsing avidly feeling. "Do you know what this is" she proceeded to type the words "bdsm" into the search engine. Of course she did, only being a freshman at the time she wasn't alien to porn or things that fitted into that category.

Then those feelings came on again— the feelings she got when she was around girls and boys that made her stomach churn. Before her mind could drift into a thought she didn't wanna have. Maddie had said,  she watched her bite her lip "me and my boyfriend did this the other night" boyfriend. The word still makes her fist wanna ball. Just as the the porno was gonna show on the screen. Claudia appeared holding two plastic bags in her hand. Jenny scattered for the mouse, but a black box apparently blocking all the possible nudity or action.

Now, Jenny sat and watched Chicago fly pass her, with occasional jumps from potholes of course as she reflected on pass moments. She couldn't find herself with ease lately. Claudia is leaving tomorrow for school, then after a couple days school resumes for Jenny. She pressed her temples against the cool glass— probably shouldn't do that Metro buses aren't always the cleanliest she thought to herself. But the cool sensation made her eyes lightly shut. Today she met up with Claudia and Maddie at the Almond Cafe on Jefferson, as they talked the roof of since the last time they saw each other was graduation.

She hadn't seen Maddie since the night she googled porn on her desk top and graduation when she squeezed her in a hug. Which was probably the most awkward thing Jenny experienced so far. Maddie left for New York with her father after that and started NYU that fall (the information Jenny gathered from listening to their conversation) and with that Claudia moved late that summer to Kentucky and attended Lexington University. She spent some time in the cafe switching between her and Langdon's Instagram, scrolling at the bottom of his page. A picture of him and Jenny in front of a brick wall they took on July 16th. I should throw his ass off a railing for keeping this photo, it looks just like we were together. And it's exactly what the picture was. A photo of them when they were together.

And she was on her way to see that exact person. Every now and then Grasshopper sends out another extension on select devices— either recruiting exclusives to the agency (not very often), or sending out a task that needs to be fulfilled by the exclusives. But like the Grasshopper scavenger hunt everything is not at the click of your mouse.

The bus came to a heavy stop that ended with a jolt, Jenny slung her bag on her shoulders and hoped off the bus and nodded a "thank you!" at the driver as the doors opened. Leaning against the payphone was Langdon, even in 77° weather with the clouds boiled over the sky from previous rain, he stood there with his black trench coat. "Aren't you fucking hot" she snickered and grabbed the phone off the handle but stopped, almost forgetting you had to pay and fished some quarters in her jean pockets.

"Hi Jenny" he dropped the cigarette he had between his lip and used his foot to stomp it out. She slid the quarters in and dialed the number Langdon and her spent 2 weeks to score for. "P.j? P.j there?" She asked tapping her nails against the phone. Langdon slid inside the booth to get a better hearing. It earned an odd snicker from Jenny, but Langdon passed it off because they were so close inside the booth. So close he can slip his arm around her waist and kiss her against the booth walls for whoever to see.

"There's this catholic church out in Saint Charles I believe-" Langdon dig his hands into his pockets and leaned his head forward to get a better hearing of the almost muffled talk on the phone. "Some exclusives in Ohio traced a drug line from some dealer who told them he got his supply from Indiana" Langdon could picture two teenagers almost like them holding a dealer at gun point asking where he get his supply from. "But then the Indiana exclusives found the supplier but the supplier got his supplies from Chicago". "So what are we supposed to do check every catholic church in Saint Charles?" Jenny blurted, and Langdon gave her a pondering expression as he looked up at her. "No. The Indiana exclusives, narrowed it down two 3, Saint Chris-"

"write this down, write this down" Jenny repeatedly said as Langdon pulled up the notes app on his phone. "Say what again" that earned an annoyed huff from the other end of the line. "Saint Christofers, Zion Temple of the Catholic, and Saint Mary's, you got that?"

"Yeah p.j" "this isn't p.j this is tommy" and with that the other line hanged up. "Have we ever done something like this?" Langdon stepped out the booth first. "Nope" she tighten the grip on her backpack straps. The last task Grasshopper gave them was to stop identity thieves from hacking into bank accounts. They did this by tracing each call they made, and in enough time blocked them the hacking. But that was done by computer and 3 summer sessions of coding Langdon took when he was 12 so he could potentially show off his computer skills in high school. Not knowing it would come to this much use today.

Both Langdon and Jenny felt nerves caress through their stomach and veins, making them feel fuzzy in the head. "So when are we going church hunting?" Langdon tittered fishing out his car keys as Jenny began to walk south. "Wait" he pulled her hand. "Where are you going" "why is it your business" she cut her eyes, then scoffed with a grin. She always had weird combinations of her emotions. "God, can we put whatever shit we have away. We're like business partners now" Langdon was right Jenny thought. If they weren't in a relationship anymore than they were business partners. "Okay" Jenny huffed. "Do you need a ride" a flashed a smile at her and jingled his keys. She couldn't help but chuckle at his idiocy. "Guess so". As they hoped in his blue jeep. Which Jenny could remember from sophomore year. Him calling her at 3 in the morning— talking so fast she couldn't comprehend shit he was saying about how his dad got him a car for his just-out-of-prison present.

They saw a boy walk up to the payphone, dialing a number from a white piece of paper. He didn't look homeless, or like he was a runaway trying to contact his family. "You think he's some exclusive" Jenny jeered. "Maybe" Langdon shrugged. No one really uses payphone anymore, thus why the city took down more than half of them and only left select ones near bus stops and stations. The boy— light brown skin and a head full of curls had the phone pressed to his ear. Langdon drove off.