HQ

Day 1

              My alarm clock rings, and I roll over, picking up the alarm clock and slamming it onto my nightstand repeatedly. I hear my brother groan from the bunk above me. "Shut upppp." He says all whiney.  That gets me going. I sit up in my bed "I DIDN'T SAY ANYTHING." I yell at him and grumble to myself, dragging myself out of bed. "Come on, bozo." I say and open the door to my closet and pull a random shirt, assessing it. It's a Five Nights At Freddy's 2 shirt with the Marionette's face on it, the caption saying: "Happy Nightmares!" I yawn and step into my closet, replacing my pajama shirt with the fresh one. I look down at my flat chest and sigh, shaking my head and pulling on a pair of black leggings. Then I look around, eyeing my dull yellow converse and I slip on some socks, kneeling down and tying my laces. I stand, reaching for my Springtrap hoodie. It's 30 different disgusting shades of yellow, and there's strings instead of wires coming from random parts of the hoodie, the ears are attached to the hood and stand up on their own, even in the front, there's a big tear in the fabric outside, revealing another piece of fabric with a fake endoskeleton inside. It looks fairly like Springtrap, and I love it to the pieces it's already in. I walk out of the closet and drag myself over to the mirror, putting my brown shoulder length hair into pigtails on my head. I look at myself in the mirror then walk out of my shared room with my twin brother, Austin. My parents met in Texas, so I guess they thought it was a good idea to name their kids after cities in Texas. It doesn't bother me. I climb up a ladder onto the top bunk of our set of bunk beds and climb onto my brother's bed, slapping him on the face. He nearly throws me off the bed but I scramble away in time, leaping off the bunk and closing the door so he can get changed. I walk down the carpeted hallway and climb the stairs in the living room to the kitchen. The clock ticks on the wall and I look at it, looking back towards the fridge, and then double taking towards the clock. 8:24.
      School starts at 7:30.
      I gasp and rip the fridge open, taking a Gogurt out of the box and kicking the fridge closed, violently opening the pantry and taking out a cup of granola. I rush into the living room and shoulder my backpack, running into my room and screaming at my brother to hurry up. "IT'S EIGHT TWENTY FIVE, YOU MORON!" I slip a bowtie over my neck and clip it in the back, and it hangs limply from my neck, rushing over to my night stand and grabbing a disentanglement puzzle from my collection. It's doctor ordered that I have something to keep my ADHD in check. I slip a pack of gum in my back pocket and run out of my room, down the hallway, and out the door. I start running down the block, hearing the front door slam behind me and the click of the lock. Austin charges up next to me and we keep running. School is just down the block from us, so we don't need a bus. Our feet slam on the pavement until Austin shoves the front doors open, both of us out of breath. I walk into the main office and smile weakly at the receptionist, signing myself in late. I print as neatly as I can manage: Dallas Monsteller. I pant and trudge up the staircase, tripping on the last step and sitting there. I need to catch my breath. I'm not out of shape or anything, but my neighbors constantly have bonfires and I breathe in all the smoke. It's terrible.
       Austin yanks on my arm and pulls me up and we walk to our lockers. I open my top locker and Austin kneels under me to open his bottom locker. I pull out my English book and shove it into my backpack, slamming my locker and walking to my 2nd period class. My English teacher gives my brother and I a dirty look. I flop down in my seat in the back corner and pull out my metal puzzle and start to separate the pieces. The loudspeaker crackles and the same old lady voice announces something different than the weather and events. "Dallas Mosteller, Austin Mosteller, and Brink Geldstein please report to the A.P. office. Dallas Mosteller, Austin Mosteller, and Brink Geldstein to the A.P. office thank you." I look up at the loud speaker like it would explain why I needed to go to the office. Probably just because I was an hour late to school. Again.
      I shoulder my backpack and walk out the door, and open my locker, putting my English book back and taking out a Swiss Army Knife and a lighter, putting them into my back pack and closing the door. I walk towards the staircase and position my butt on the railing, pushing off and sliding down it, leaping off about 1 foot from the ground. I land on my feet and smirk. "Nailed it." I say to myself and jog towards the A.P. office. I come to a closed door and sigh. I'm so busted for napping in the air vents last week. I think as I open the door. The dean examines me as I shuffle in, flopping in one of the chairs. "Hey John." I say to the Dean, not bothering to address him formally. The Dean scowls as I strike the most unnatural position ever. Austin files into the room, head down and sits down next to me. Next to come into the office, I guess Brink, walks into the office goofily. Which is my thing. The Dean looks at all three of us and shakes his head a little. "You are all in no trouble." "Yea well that's great to hear." I say semi-sarcastically and prop my feet up on the coffee table in front of me. "You're all here because you've been selected." "For..?" Brink asks. "You might not believe this, maybe you will, I don't know. But you've all been selected to be part of the FBI." I blink.

         "You mean like.. the government?" The Dean nods. "AWESOME!" Brink and I exclaim in unison. I look at Brink and I know this guy is my new best friend. I stand up and Austin looks kind of shell-shocked. I shrug and pull out my Gogurt and open it with my teeth, slurping it quietly as Austin starts talking to himself. I take a break from my yogurt and look at him. "Big bro, we're going to be working for the government. How awesome is that? I'll be such a BAMF on the battlefield! Taking out terrorists, saving the world, riding on parade floats as everyone cheers my way..." I took Austin into the Buzz and Woody pose, sweeping my hand in the air. Austin shakes me off and nods his head. "Okay. I'll join. And I'm guessing this idiot will too." He gives me a noogie and I squirm under him, batting him with my hands. Brink seems as pumped as me. "Children, calm down. You must explain to your parents the situation and pack your things. You need pajamas, clothes, if you have a weapon you're skilled with, bring that, anything you think you need, toile-" "YEA THANKS BYEEEE!" I shout and I'm out the door. 
          I bolt down the block and open my front door. "MOM! DAD! GUESS WHAT!?" My parents are eating breakfast and they look startled to see me. "We're going to be working for the government!" Austin comes through the door as I'm explaining the situation. Our parents seem to get it and my mother starts crying. "Mam. Dun worry. I'll be okay." I start stroking her hair and walk down the staircase to the basement and open the bedroom door. Austin comes in after me, but I'm already in my closet packing a duffel bag with neatly folded clothes. Hmm. Shirts, pants, shorts, cardigans, band aids.. "Hey, look. It's my old play battle belt. I'll ask them to make me a real one." Placing that in my bag, Austin lets out a grunt of frustration. "What?" I ask and he replies. "I don't have enough clean laundry." I snort and shake my head. I pack socks and an extra pair of shoes. I also need this. A golden Freddy stuffed animal. I pack that and zip up my duffel, shouldering that and packing some blankets and my toothbrush. Meh. Good enough. I think. I carry my backpack and pillow and kiss my parents, walking out the door. "I love you, guys. If anything happens to me, make sure I'm buried with my Golden Freddy." I smile and walk down the block, playing Crossy road on my iPhone.
          We reach the main door about 3 minutes after we leave and I dump my two bags in the A.P. office. Brink is already there. "So, where's the HQ?" I ask smoothly and he walks over to a bookcase, pulls back a plastic "Best Teacher!" award like a lever and the bookcase opens like Narnia. "OH MY GOD IT'S NARNIA!" Brink and I exclaim in unison, again. I look at Brink and smile, picking up my bags and walking down the cement hallway. "This is awesome. So awesome." I murmur and Brink nods, mouth ajar. I reach a cement staircase at the end of the hall. At the end of the staircase, it's like a whole new civilization. Computer offices, people walking about and talking, a whole row of targets and weapons. Daggers in glass casing, bows, guns, ammo. It looks too awesome to be true. I pinch Brink and he pinches my arm back. I'm not dreaming.
          I bounce on my bed. We had bunk beds and a single bed. I claimed the single bed because: "You both take the bunk beds and I get the single bed because I'm the queen." I flop onto the bed and plug in my phone charger and begin playing Crossy road. It's not until 10 o'clock the Dean comes into our dorm and explains our curfew is 10 on the dot. "So we can do whatever we want, just have to be in our dorms at 10?" He nods. I shrug. "Okay." I say and he closes the door. I had been talking to Brink earlier, and he was kind of a technology nerd. We went exploring the compound while Austin was doing laundry. We went to the labs where they kept computers and where the forge workshops are. Brink managed to jimmy together a rave machine type thing, not too sure when we would need to have an emergency dance party. I put down my phone and sit up. "Brink. Let's rave." While Brink attaches the lights to the ceiling, I paint my nails neon colors and change out of my hoodie into a neon pink crop top and a neon orange skirt. The only time I'll be girly is when I'm screwing around with people. Brink grabs a remote control and turns on the blacklight, turning off the regular lights and turns on colorful lights that flash everywhere. I laugh and start blasting Spotify pop radio and we dance around like idiots. We laugh and flop on our beds, change into our Pajamas and we fall asleep.