Once Upon A Teenage Life

Back To Planet Earth

I stared out of the window and looked down at earth. It started to get bigger as the rocket headed towards its direction. Behind me Flint, Rob, Emma and Kurt were maneuvering the control and Caroline was fingering with her suit as she stared at her computer. I pulled at the seat-belt which was tight enough and closed my eyes. Another mission accomplished. I thought. I wonder if my uncle and my aunt would be waiting for my arrival. "30 minutes till landing," Emma announced and she didn't bother to mask the excitement in her voice. Its been 6 months of staying in space and all of us were happy of finally getting back to civilization. I was happy of finally getting back to a normal teenage life. Well, almost. I fingered at my hair which was nearly shoulder length and thought of how much I needed a haircut.

"Look at you, anyone can mistake you for a girl," Caroline mocked at me when she noticed me absent-mindedly fingering my hair. "Do I look pretty?" I asked and pouted as I bathed my eye-lashes in a girly way. Caroline laughed in a humorless way, "Not as pretty as me, you don't," she said in her thick southern-accent. I was about to give a snarky remark but one look from Flint shut me up. "What's the matter hot-shot? Cat caught your tongue?" she mocked. "That's enough Carol," Flint barked and I looked at the window to hide a smile. "20 more minutes!" Emma sang. I groaned. 20 more minutes felt like 20 more decades. I heard Caroline groan too. I looked at her as she furrowed her eye-brows and typed anxiously on her computer. She looked awkwardly young for a 18 year-old with her porcelain skin and fair blonde hair in spiral curls. She was currently doing her masters in ASTRONOMY in Harvard until MI5 called her in. You can tell how pissed off she was. Yet, once you swore to serve MI5 there's no backing off. She looked up from her computer and I didn't bother to hide that I was looking at her. I heard her mutter something unintelligent and heard her fingers tap fast on her keyboard. I looked out of the window as we neared earth. I closed my eyes. Instantly, a picture of a man with half of his face made up of metal gasping for oxygen whispering in a ragged voice flashed in my mind."I'll get you! Just like I did to your father!" My eyes flew opened. I sighed and rested my chin on my fist and stared ahead. I finally knew who had killed my father when I pressed the self-destruct button on metal-man's ship and saved the nexus before he could use it to destroy the sun. His raspy voice was still stuck in my head as his words kept repeating in my mind as if someday I may forget them.

"8 more minutes! Um...Rob? I think you've stopped the blood-circulation in my hand." Emma said. I chuckled and stared out of the window again. Emma and Rob were married a week before they were assigned by MI5 for another butt-kicking mission. Guess they had to cut half on their honeymoon. I stared at the window again but this time I caught my reflection. Geez, do I REALLY look that bad? I stared at the eyes first which had black circles in the shape of a crescent beneath each of them. My eyes which were in a lighter shade of green than they used to be looked haunted. My lips were nearly pale-white and the bruise marks were unattractively bright over my awkwardly pale cheeks and along my jaw-line. And there was my hair sticking out in all different kind of angles in a sick shade of brown. My nose on the other hand hasn't stopped bleeding. I sighed and thumped my head on my seat. "3 more minutes! Oh my god, I can see the landing spot!" Emma squealed. Robert laughed and Flint and Kurt cheered. Caroline just grumbled a little 'yahoo' with a hint of sarcasm. At that moment I pitied her. I mean, who would ever back down from completing their master's when they were just a month away from finishing it?

I hated MI5 for that. They make you do things you don't want to. Like, I never wanted to take part in this stupid mission anyway. But they made me do it since my uncle was the co-director of MI5 and my dad was one of their best spies. I sunk in my seat lower as I allowed the air pressure to fill me up. "This is it guys! We're landing in 10...-" I glanced at Caroline and found her staring at me instead, weirdly. " Eight....seven......six-" She looked away and stared at her computer again. Wait...could it be true? About what Emma said? " Three...two...one! YAAAAYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!" The whole crew cheered but I was staring harder and harder at Caroline , rethinking Emma's words.