G.U.A.R.D. Book #1: Clandestine

-10-

    The months passed in a blur. School started up again. Though I enjoyed winter break, it was nice to have something to do again. Dustin and I stopped talking about the business trips, and part of me hoped he forgot about his wild idea of finding out the truth.

I grew another inch, giving me a total of five feet and three inches. Still the shortest, excluding Conner.

Anthony and I grew increasingly closer over the months, possibly even surpassing my friendship with Winter. We told each other pretty much everything, and hung out all the time. Our conversation about his "powers" (or whatever they were) was just the tip of the iceberg. I helped him in learning how to control the strange abilities, though it grew harder when he gained more. He could now see in the dark, like night vision on a camera, only a million times better. Or so he said. And then there was that time when we were in his attic, looking across the neighborhood, and suddenly everything, to him at least, began to get closer, as if he were looking through binoculars. Of course, neither of us knew what was going on, but we soon figured it out.

There were so many times I wanted to tell him how I felt. But my feelings were like a corn maze, and I couldn't navigate my way to the end. I knew there was something there. Goodness, every time I looked at him, my heart went into hyperdrive! But Max...

I now sat on my bed on the twenty-third of May, mulling over what happened just the night before, when the parents revealed one of the most devastating piece of news yet. They called a family meeting, after Dustin and I had come home from school.

"We're going on another business trip," Mom said.

We stared at her, dumbfounded.

"Another... business trip?" my brother asked. "But... you went on one only a few months ago!"

Mom sighed. "I know, I know. But, kids, this one's incredibly important. If we don't go on it, it..." She looked hesitantly to her husband, who had a grave expression. "Let's just say bad things could happen."

"What's so bad that could happen?" I demanded. "Mom, you don't have a job. Why do you even want to go on these trips?"

"I can't give you all the answers, but-"

"Can't?" my brother demanded. "Or won't?"

He got up and began walking to the stairs.

"Dustin!" Mom called after him.

"I'll talk to him," Dad told her.

"Don't bother," Dustin interrupted, hand on railing. "I don't need your consoling, if that's what you call it."

My brother leapt up the stairs. I looked back to Mom, feeling my insides shake a little.

"When are you leaving?"

"Tomorrow morning," she answered. "You might want to get your things packed before then. The Hunters already know."

I blinked to get the flashback away from my mind, and continued putting my clothes in the suitcase, the one I used every December. Just in another hour, the parents would be gone, and I would be at the Hunters' house. Yay. I couldn't wait.

Eventually, I took a deep breath, realizing I couldn't go on without getting too frustrated. But what else could I do? Although I wouldn't admit it out loud, I really took a blow in the stomach at what Mom said: "bad things could happen." Part of me said she had finally lost it. What could be so bad that she needed to leave on the yearly business trip early? Seven months earlier?

But then the other part, the one that was usually right (and the one that I didn't listen to as often as I should) told me what if she's right? Who knows? My mom could really be a secret agent to a secret agency no one knows about. That would totally blow my going-to-the-mountains-to-do-married-people-stuff theory out the window.