Guild of the Guardians

Chapter 1- The Final Curtain

~Anna~
"Ahhhhhhh-meeehhhhhhhnnnn"
The final pitch sung by the chorale rang through the theatre, followed at first by a beautiful silence, then thunderous applause.
The heavy red curtain closed on our smiling faces and the lights dimmed. The show was over. Freshmen year was over.
Everyone shoved themselves backstage in a teary-eyed crowd. As soon as I got into the light of backstage and found Christian, Gavin, and Ian, we threw ourselves into a crying heap.
"It's over-" I sobbed.
"I'll miss them," gasped Christian.
The seniors would be leaving. Off to college or jobs or whatever they had planned. So many friends we made, we wouldn't be able to see every day anymore.
"We'll all stay in touch with them," Gavin pulled away. "Instagram, and kik, and everything."
"Should we go meet everyone?" Ian asked, also pulling away. "I need something to cheer me up."
We agreed, and left the back hall to greet everyone who had come to watch the show.
Kyra and Jenna were first to find us.
"That was so cool! You guys did so well!" They hugged us all in turn.
"Front row seats were pretty awesome, huh?" I asked.
"Uh, yeah," said Jenna. "Especially with your black teeth right in my face in act two."
I laughed. For our medley, the freshmen mixed choir had been cavemen. My costume was complete with eyeliner on my teeth. Gross, but effective.
Christian, Ian, and Gavin ran to greet other people. Macki and her boyfriend Zac came up to me.
"That was awesome! Mayshow's like a second musical!" Macki threw her arms around me.
We talked for a while. I occasionally would spot other friends from school and thank them for coming.
"Hey, what time are we leaving?" Jenna asked, slightly cracking the upbeat mood.
I paused, taken aback by the sudden seriousness. "I have to clean up the dressing rooms but we'll leave in... a half hour?" I guesstimated.
Jenna nodded and went back to the others. I left the main hall and headed back to the girls' dressing room. I quickly changed out of my long black formal into my street clothes and began to wipe down mirrors.
*********************
Forty minutes later, I was running down the hallway, two costume bags over my shoulder. I skidded to a halt when I saw the others in the school lobby.
"Sorry," I said. They were used to me being late by now though, and they shrugged it off.
"Alright then," Ian said. "If everyone's ready, let's do this." He and I exchanged a glance.
"See ya Mackenzie," Zac pecked his girlfriend on the cheek and headed for the east exit. He was oblivious to what was going to happen after the rest of us left.
"Bye," she called, then turned back to us. "Ok then."

We had a little less than an hour to get to the airport.

The seven of us headed out the west doors and into the warm May night air. Our large black van, nicknamed by Gavin "The Rapist Van," waited for us in the back parking lot. None of us were old enough to drive yet, but I was the oldest. An FBI issued false ID and two years of experience fixed the problem.
We piled in the van (it comfortably seated eight) and arranged our belongings around us. I pulled onto the road.
The drive to the airport was awkward. Not the quiet awkward. The kind of awkward where everyone tries to be light-hearted but deep down, we all know the seriousness of the situation.
"You nervous?" I asked Christian.
"Nope, not really," he lied well, but I could tell it was a lie.
Oh yeah. I guess to understand what's going on, you need a little backstory here. Remember that whole we-harbor-foreign-officials-when-the-government-needs-it thing?

Yup.

A few weeks before this, the FBI contacted us. They had strong suspicions Russia was planning to attack Albania, in an attempt to kidnap the crown prince. The King had requested US aid in this and the FBI called out to us.
That's where Christian came in. He was supposed to pose as a guard for a few weeks during the rehearsal for the prince's coronation: the most logical time for attack. If Russia made an appearance, Christian would retrieve the prince and he would be our custody until it was safe again. Or that was the plan.
Three weeks ago, Macki, Jenna, and I had flown to Albania and worked all of this out with the King and his advisors. Everything seemed in place.
The thing was though, no one seemed to know why Russia needed the crown prince of Albania. Either that or they weren't telling us.

But anyways...

I merged onto the highway, thinking about every possible thing that could go wrong. Not very effective at calming myself down, but something to do.
Finally, I signaled to exit as we neared the airport. We parked as far away from the entrance as we could, as to avoid attention. I looked over at Christian in the passenger seat next to me and remembered something.
"Hey," I said, making him raise a stage-makeup-covered eyebrow. Reaching into my bag, I pulled out a navy blue scarf.
"How come your scarf was in the girls' dressing room?"
Jenna burst out laughing, Ian said "Oh" in his deep base voice, and Kyra was half chuckling, half scolding him.
"Oh," Christian said. "I honest to God don't know."
"Cushkins..." I accused him, using his old nickname.
"I don't know!" He said. "But let's go with 'I get around' ok?"
That was it. Between the fact that it was eleven at night, we were all tired, and it was just a funny joke, we all lost it.
Sometime later, Christian straightened up. "I'm going to miss my flight."
Our laughter died down as we realized he had to go soon. I handed him his scarf.
"No, keep it. For now, at least," he said. I got it. In case something happened, he wanted us to have something of his from that night. This was our most dangerous assignment yet, and he was highly at risk.

Christian smiled. "It'll all work out, though. I'll be fine." I semi-smiled.
He grabbed his bag and opened the van door. As he climbed out and went to shut it-
"Hey, Cush," I said. He paused. "You're my best friend." Similar declarations came from the back of the van.
Christian nodded. "I love you guys. You mean a lot to me." Then he shut the door and strode towards the airport entrance.
We watched him walk through the doors and disappear, then I started the van, and drove home.
******************
Our house, my parents' old house, is pretty big. We had to knock down a few walls and make a few additions to accommodate everyone, but it turned out pretty nice.
The first floor was pretty normal: family room, kitchen, dining room, living room, foyer, laundry room. The second floor however, was composed of one guest room, one storage room, and two huge dorms. On the right of the stairs was the guys' dorm, and a little down the hall to the left was ours.
Grabbing a carton of orange juice from the fridge, this was where I headed immediately. Gulping the tangy amazingness, I headed straight to my sink in our bathroom to take off my thick stage makeup.
When I was done, I found Kyra and Jenna each drawing at their own tables and Macki on her laptop. We usually didn't go to sleep until one or two in the morning, and tomorrow was Sunday so only a few of us went to church. I didn't, and I usually am one of the last ones to fall asleep, but I crashed on my bed and wrapped my blankets around me right away.
"Shouldn't you take care of that?" asked Jenna, pointing to my two bags full of Mayshow stuff.
"Later," I groaned, but I maneuvered my blanket-entangled self over just close enough to my bags to reach Christian's scarf. I threw it onto my nightstand.
"Be safe, Cushkins," I mumbled before I passed out from exhaustion.