She Will Persist

5

After Owen left, James, Adira and I went upstairs to the dorms to show Adira which one was hers and introduce her to the boys who she'd be sharing it with. The dorms were all off the same hallway, and had space for twelve boys in each, but the room Adira had been assigned currently only had five boys living in it.

"I'm gonna wait out here," James said, eyeing the door of the room once we reached it.

"Why?" I asked.

James folded his arms and leaned his back against the opposite wall of the door as if to seal his decision. "Because," he said, "Sam Harding is gonna get a black eye if I do."

"I don't really see a problem with that," I said.

"Who's Sam Harding?" Adira asked.

"An asshole," I replied. "He's got four toes on his right foot thanks to Harrison, and is partly deaf in one ear because of me so I'd say we've done our damage to his racist, sexist, homophobic ass, but the dude still has serious social problems and a dangerously high superiority complex."

Adira blinked.

"Story is that he ran away from a rich-ass family in Alabama," James continued. "That might have something to do with it. I'm from the south too, but come on --it's Alabama." 

Adira glared at me. "And you put me in a room with him? What the hell?"

"It has the least amount of boys in it!" I defended myself. "Isn't five better than eleven?

"Still," she growled.

"Did you think you'd be rooming with me?" I teased.

"Oh I was dreaming," she sneered at me.

"Jesus, is this all you've been doing in the basement?" James looked back and forth at us. "Borderline flirting?"

"I will spit on you carrot, don't test me," Adira snapped.

"Let's just go inside," I pointed to the door, "and you can hurt him later."

Adira hesitated. I was so used to seeing her in low light that I felt like she was shining now that we were upstairs.

"Come on," I said, "I'm not giving up on you."

Her blonde hair fell more into her face as she turned to give me a look. "Fuck it, yeah, let's go."

Each dorm room had six bunk beds, 12 single beds in total. In every room three were pushed end-to-end on the left wall and the other three in the same position against the right wall, and every bed was made up in black bed sheets and white pillows. The walls were white, and the short grey carpeting was the same as it was out in the hallway. Also in every room was a large window fitted into the far back wall, facing north to the city of Denver, which the agency sat about two miles south of. On clear days you could see the tips of the buildings in full color, but this morning wisps of mist had nestled low in between the urban settlement. But additionally unfortunate for the inhabitants of this particular dorm, an imprudently positioned oak tree was osculating in the wind directly in front of the supposed view. It's thick branches left cracks in the meak sunlight that was pooling on the carpet in front of us. Adira did her alluring slight head tilt again at the glimpse of freedom the window offered, sunlight reflected in her eyes and dying them lighter.

All five boys groaned loudly and turned over in their beds as soon as we opened the door and disturbed their last few minutes of precious sleep before morning training began. In the mornings, half the boys did combat training and the other half did lessons in the briefing rooms on the third floor, then after lunch we switched. Areas of skill were separated into "levels," level 10 being Director Flagg. Once agents reached level 7 they could be assigned missions, and those few who went to level 9 taught lessons and combat, or went on international missions for long periods of time, usually to do reconnaissance work.