TSS: Teen's Secret Service

Chapter 6

The night passed peacefully, without interruption, until some unknown time, when I heard a muffled, "Abbie! Are you serious? Get out of bed!"

I rolled over and slowly opened my eyes. I remembered everything that had happened to my friends and me the day before. And I knew from my slight all-around soreness that it had actually happened.

I quickly got up, stretched, and pulled on a purple satin robe over red and black pajamas before going out to greet Bailey. And Colleen, if she was awake.

Bailey was showered, and dressed in black close fitting, but not skin tight spandex. Her slim figure was reclining on the arm of the sofa, her pianist fingers typing away at something on her phone. Colleen was indeed awake, showered, sporting a navy blue sweat suit and towel-wrapped wet hair, and was halfway through a bowl of corn flakes.

"About time!" Bailey sighed, waving me to the table, where sat two sunny-side-up eggs and bacon on one plate, a cherry turnover on a smaller plate, and steaming hot tea in a large "You can Do It!" mug.

Colleen looked up from the milk she was poking out of tired boredom and grinned. "We were beginning to think you had died."

"I'm sure you were sorely disappointed that I walked out." I winked mischievously.

Bailey, however, must have missed it. "Abbie! You know that's not true!" she said, actually sounding a little hurt.

"I'm sorry. I was just kidding," I turned to look at her seriously.

She giggled. "I know!" She grinned and went back to typing.

I sighed. Sometimes I have no idea what to do with my friends. The sarcasm level between the five of us is higher than any other that I have witnessed. This makes it very hard sometimes to differentiate between serious and sarcastic.

I sighed and sat down, trying to get everything down in ten minutes without choking myself. Just as I was finishing up, the back wall, where previously had been a lovely sunrise over the ocean, now featured a picture of a smiling, blonde haired, little girl, running through tall grass with a handful of daisies in her fist.

We all looked up in surprise. I was just about to ask who changed it, when an excited, happy voice echoed through the room.

"Good morning, new recruits! I am Crystal. I will be your on-site navigator and reference officer at any time while you are on site! Now, this is a recorded message. However if you need anything while in your room, I can be reached live by just hitting the button labeled "HELP" to the right of the screen."

I looked over, and sure enough, there was a huge assortment of silver buttons on a silver plate in the wall, each button labeled with a unique plaque underneath.

"Should you need me during the day, you simply hit the app labeled "HELP" on your new phones..." Before I could point out to the recorded Crystal that we didn't have new phones, there was a pop, and instantaneously, three squares of the wall pulled away from underneath the mounted TV. The three of us got up, walked over silently, and carefully looked through the gaps.

"Inside your personal compartments which have just opened," she continued, "you will find your new phones, as well as new backpacks, custom Kevlar vests, free of any insignia or tags, and wireless earbuds. The earbuds hide right inside your ear, and are barely visible unless you really look for them. These enable you to speak to the others on your frequency and hear your partners' conversations, if need be."

We all grinned. This was insane, but unbelievably cool! Where else would we get stuff like this? And they were just handing us hundreds of dollars of equipment right off the bat? Strange, yes. But looking back at the day before, I decided it was plausible.