Code Name X

7-In which Christmas is cancelled and I am a terrible liar.

"Oh yes, the past can hurt. But, you can either run from it, or learn from it." - The Lion King

Esme

I didn't like to admit it, but seeing Lisa Friedrich again scared the hell out of me. Sure, I'd never really liked her, but I'd thought that I could trust her.

And well, we all know where that got me.

We discovered, a couple of days later, that it was only thanks to Veronika that Angeline hadn't been fired on the spot. According to Pierre, by being out on the streets in broad daylight, we could easily have been seen by any government official and destroyed the entire operation before it had even begun. We'd put everyone involved in danger and if we weren't important, we'd have been kicked out in an instant.

It was intense.

We carried on with training the day after, and Veronika was in such a good mood that she said "None of you are completely useless anymore," which was just about the nicest thing she'd ever said to any of us. She was really getting into the Christmas spirit.

Talking of Christmas, that year was a really bad one. Not that I'd been expecting it to be great, but if anything they worked us harder on Christmas Day. Not training or anything useful to us, but cleaning centuries worth of dust from an attic.

"That was our punishment, wasn't it," Emilie said grimly, later.

"Yup," Ben said gloomily. "You know, I think that was the most miserable Christmas I've ever had."

"What about prison?" Maren asked.

"I didn't have to talk to anyone there," he said, like it was obvious. "Err, no offense."

"Don't worry, none of us want to talk to you either," Maren said, smirking. "But, they definitely seem out to make our lives miserable."

"Aw come on, they were pretty miserable before," Hacker said.

"Yeah, but still," she said.

I'd spent last Christmas wandering the empty streets of the city. My ex-neighbours had said I could join them, but I could see in their eyes that they didn't want me there, so I left them. They weren't bad people, I just didn't fit in with their family. After walking around for hours, I'd ended up sitting on someone's roof a couple of streets away.

So really, I didn't think think this was so bad. At least there was something to do, and I wasn't on my own, feeling like I didn't belong anywhere.

"When was the last time anyone got a Christmas present?" Maren asked suddenly.

"Other than free food, five years ago," I volunteered.

"How old were you?" Maren asked.

"Eight."

"That's awful!"

"It's not that bad. Besides, I never needed one," I said.

"Free food's pretty good," Hacker added.

"And it proves people aren't completely heartless," I said.

"Does it?" Cameron asked.

"No one wants to give up food," I said. "So yes, it does."

Our general moan about how miserably unfair our lives were was cut short by Veronika demanding to know why we thought it was acceptable to be having a loud conversation at one o'clock in the morning. She had a long argument with Maren, which almost ended in a fist fight, Max pointed out that they were now making a lot more noise, and she glared at him before telling us to get some sleep. Read that as forced us to.