Tolerating The Intolerable

Prologue

Prologue

I woke up around 8:30 am to the sound of the annoying ringtone that's set for my best friend, Melanie's number.

Annoyed with Melanie's voice repeatedly screaming at me to answer the phone, I angrily picked it up and the pressed the answer button. "What do you want? I was dreaming of Dylan O'Brien, so this better be worth it," I snapped, irritated.

"So you'd rather dream about marrying some hot actor over talking to your best friend. I'm hurt, Mack," she said in a fake, overly dramatic, hurt voice.

"It's freaking dawn, Mel. I'm not in the mood for random crap. What is so important that you had to interrupt my beauty sleep for?" I grumbled.

"First, it's not dawn, it's 8:45 in the morning. Second-"

"Well it's dawn to me," I argued pathetically.

"As I was saying before I was rudely interrupted, Chief wants you in his office ASAP."

"Fine," I sighed, too tired to argue.

After hanging up, I left the pone on my bedside table, sluggishly walking to the bathroom. Stripping off my clothes, I stepped into the shower and let the refreshingly warm water run down my body. After about 30 minutes, I was ready to go; dressed in a pair of fitted sweatpants and a white hoodie.

I walked down the hall to the elevator and pressed the button that lead to the top floor, where Chief's office was located. Using the few minutes I had in the elevator to my advantage, I attempted to look at least a little less zombie-like. Once, I reached the door, I softly banged my fist three times against it.

"Come in."

I twisted the door knob and entered the spacious office. "This better be important enough to take me away from my beautiful dream, Tyler," I said, sitting cross-legged on the comfortable chair in front of his desk.

Now, I know it might seem rude to sit cross-legged in front of my Chief and calling him by his first name, but Tyler was like a dad to me. When I was about 7 years old, my parents suddenly disappeared and I was taken to an orphanage. Around a year later, Tyler came into the orphanage, looking for strong, tough looking kids to adopt or recruit, whichever is best in this situation. I was picked, along with a 14 year old boy. I was only 8 at that time, so he took me to live with him and treated me as if I was his own daughter. Every morning, he would take me to training and sit there, watching me intently. Apparently, I was way stronger than the majority of the kids my age were.

"I see you still prefer sleep to human interaction, Mackenzie," he chuckled. "You have a new mission. I'll discuss the details when you're partner's here, he'll be here any second."

As soon as the words left his mouth, there was a knock at the door and in, strode my partner. When my gaze landed on his face, my eyes immediately narrowed to hate and anger- filled slits, directed to the person standing in front of me. However, judging from the laid back expression on his face, he hasn't noticed me yet.

"Hey Chief, what's up?"

"Hello, Alexander. Take a seat. So, as I was telling Mackenzie, you two will be working together on a new mission¬—"

"What?" Alexander exclaimed. "There is no way I'm gonna be able to tolerate this annoying brat for as long as this mission lasts."

"Oh, stop being such a whiny little baby; you're not the one who has to work with an egotistical, overbearing jerk, but unlike some people, I'm being professional about it."

"I'm egotistical and overbearing? That's coming from a—"

"GUYS!" Chief shouter. We both turned our heads back to him, remembering that he was in the room too. "Listen; you two are some of the best fighters I have and you're the most suitable for this mission. It's pretty dangerous, but I know you guys can handle it just fine if you get along. So just suck it up and stop acting like 5-year-olds."

"Hey! I was being the mature one here." I stated.

"You call throwing childish insults at me mature?" He asked incredulously.

"Are you saying I'm not?" I answered with a question.

"This is gonna be a long mission," I faintly heard chief say, elongating the 'o'.