Nandoz Lab

Sneaking Out

Chapter 3

A buzz from her iPhone woke Lydia from her daze and sent nervous sparks to her worried heart. What was she going to say to her mother if she caught her out and about with thugs? Of course, her main role as Juliet was to be the medic of the team in case one of them were injured or to help an unfortunate victim. It was the simplest job really, compared to Dhiv's heavy role as the team's leader and multi-linguist, Nolee's role as the combatant and researcher, Nell as the brains and assistant combatant, Onyx as the bait, Liz as the "mistress", and Agnes as the interrogator.

Sometimes, she teamed up with Onyx and deceived criminals by going out with them. Onyx could handle them just fine on her own, but there were certain times when going solo wasn't the smartest idea. Though they were taking down the bad guys, she couldn't help but feel guilty for doing so in the first place. She shivered in disgust. She couldn't believe that her first date was with a runny-nosed jewelry thief who gave her a diamond necklace for being willing to "spend her precious time with him". Unfortunately for him, Nell and Nolee had crashed their "dinner date" and dragged him against his will to the underground organisation they worked with to do some business with him before dumping him at the front doors of Manchester Police Department.

The girl sighed and wondered how in the world did they get themselves into this mess. Two months ago she was just an ordinary secondary school girl who went to ballet classes every Tuesday and Friday after school. But now, nearly two months later in late winter, Dhiv was bringing them around the city in her not-so-subtle carriage, Liz was now hanging out in VIP areas in clubs massaging and feeding drug lords as if they were some god in order to obtain information from them, Agnes had been so far the most interrogating, well, interrogator she had ever seen to force the criminals they caught to cough up information, and their beloved Nolee had beaten up around twenty thieves, twelve rapists, and three drug lords. She even killed two men who had held Onyx hostage during one of their previous rendezvous.

Oh how she wished they had never gotten themselves caught up in this complicated world where they always had to watch their backs. They were lucky that the personalities they portrayed in the "underworld" as they liked to call it, were nowhere near their original ones that truly defined who they were. Lydia picked up her phone and was not surprised to see a text message from Dhiv.

We r here.

She twirled her freshly curled hair around her finger nervously as she read her best friend's message. With a huge amount of self-persuading, the sixteen year old straightened her favourite Mickey Mouse jacket draped over her baby blue dress and hurried downstairs to the front door.

"Lydia!" her government ambassador mother exclaimed when she bumped into her. "You startled me my dear, whatever is the rush for?"

"Oh, sorry Mum." she said, clutching her jacket tight in fear of her mother questioning the meaning of the dress she was wearing underneath that was not so suitable for a weather like this. "I was just going out to school."

"To school?" a confused frown stretched across Rina Wong's middle-aged face. "At this late of an hour?"

"They like to practice at night." she gave her mother an uneasy smile. "Said that they move better that way."

"They?"

"The cheerleading team." Lydia lied through her teeth.

"You joined the cheerleading team?" Rina looked unexpectedly pleased with this information.

"Well yeah," she shrugged. "Just thought that I should expand my dancing skills."

"That's a nice thought you had. Something different than your usual ballet huh?"