Agent's Revenge

Chapter Two

“Liv, this is Ben we’re talking about here. We all know what he’s like. Just give it some time and you guys will be back to normal, I’m sure of it.”

I threw a sharp punch into the punching bag, letting out an aggressive grunt as I did so. Normal. That wasn’t exactly a word I was too familiar with. “I don’t know, Lisa,” I sighed, wiping the sweat off my forehead with the back of my hand. The stench of the gym room was overwhelming; with three people all working out and with one fan and air conditioning that didn’t seem to help all that much, I was finding it hard to breathe. “Ben and I have never exactly been normal.”

Lisa was at the punching bag next to me, her tiny hands inside a pair of bright yellow punching gloves. Her freckled face was flushed, from the heat or the working out none of us were sure, but her face was nearly as red as her short, ruby red layered hair that shaped her angular face.  Lisa was a couple of years younger than Kaine but just as mature, and her petite body type was deceiving against her strong, fiery personality. I could see it then and there, with the way her tiny arms were pounding against the punching bag like it held every answer to every problem she ever had.

“She has a point, Lisa,” Kaine piped up from the chairs, a bottle of cold water in his hand. Unlike Lisa and I, Kaine had decided to take a ‘break.’ “Ben and Olive are as about as abnormal as it comes. Actually, no. Ben is kind of normal, Olive is completely bonkers.”

I rolled my eyes, but couldn’t help but laugh. This is what it seemed to be these days. Ben and I would be completely ‘normal,’ then I would do something to flare him off, which would flare me off. So I would take it out on some punching bag, and Kaine would join me. Then Lisa would join both of us, and we would all work out and have a laugh together. Because that put me in a good mood, Ben and I would be okay again. But the cycle proceeds as it had previously followed.

Lisa joined our HQ last year, when she once had been a shy red-headed girl who was known for exactly those two things; being shy, and her naturally fiery hair. It wasn’t until I saw Kaine helping her out in the gym did I realize that her personality was just as fiery as her hair. She was passionate; you had to give her that. Nobody knew why she joined S.A.O.A, but she definitely had a natural talent for it. Since then, she’s been the first female friend I’ve had, since…well…since my friendship with Zoey. Friendship would be an understatement because Zoey was my sister, until I watched helplessly as my mother was murdered and my whole world turned upside down. It was nice to have a friend again, one that I could share my frustration about boys with, and she could do also.

And she often did. I glanced over at Kaine, whose eyes lingered on Lisa for a second longer than it normally would have. I quickly looked away, hiding the smile that was playing at my lips. That was for them to figure out and me to watch with amusement.

“I’ve met people who are far more bonkers than Liv,” Lisa laughed, looking over at me. Every time she did so, a sharp pang would go straight to my heart, because they were the same forest green eyes that Zoey had. Every day I came up with more reasons that Lisa reminded me of Zoey. For example, only Lisa called me Liv. Before Lisa, only Zoey had called me Liv.

“Thanks Lisa, I’m glad I’m not ranked at the very top of your list of crazy people,” I replied with a grin, nudging her with my boxing glove. She grinned, the skin around her eyes crinkling. There goes that pang again.

“Okay, maybe I lied; Olive isn’t that bonkers,” Kaine admitted, wiping his forehead with a pale yellow towel. “I mean there have been way crazier secret agents. How about the guy that got transferred to the HQ way up north? What’s his name, uh…Agent 24?”

Lisa and I immediately laughed, recognizing his name instantly. Agent 24 was definitely one of the crazier ones. “Oh him!” Lisa exclaimed, taking off her gloves. So it seemed to be break time, officially. “He was obsessed with apple cores, remember? It used to reek of them up in the computer rooms.”