She Will Persist

29

Adira

"If you think I'm going to spend hours trussed up like a damn turkey in this dress, while lying my ass off to rich sex traffickers and trying not to be noticed by fucking terrorists, all while dead sober, then you can shove—"

"You can drink when we're there Bristol, calm yourself, it'll be like a little self care," Blitz suggested. He placed his elbows on his knees in the back of the van.

"My kind of self care is chugging apple juice and permanently damaging my eardrums with music," Jinx told him with a glare, "definitely not this." She dropped her head back against the car headrest. "God, I miss my econ class."

"Uh, if I'm not mistaken," Harrison adjusted his bow tie next to her, "you were literally jumping for joy begging to come with us."

Jinx looked exasperated and annoyed with the smirking agent as per usual. "Yes, but here's the problem —I'm shit at thinking things through. Exhibit A —I'm here right now."

The colorful and decorative bracelets that usually decked her wrists were gone, leaving her tan arms to be dipped in the delicate black lace of her dress.

"Eleven wanted spies show up on my doorstep and now I'm letting them drag me into an international domestic terrorism case. Okay. Yeah. Why not. It's fine I'm fine," the Nez Perce girl rubbed her face down in stress.

"You need to calm down," Zach said lowly. He had his arm clutching the handle that was fitted into the roof of the van we were all in.

"But I'm nothing like you guys!" Jinx cried. "I'm the blandest person you could get, I'm normal, how the hell can I offer anything to this mission that you guys can't?!"

"What do you mean?"

"'With great power comes great responsibility,'" she quoted. "I don't have any powers!"

"Neither do we," Quinn pouted in his eyepatch. "If we did though I call flight!"

"We don't have superpowers," Zach said dully.

"They would help," Lautaro muttered.

"And trust me, we are not superheroes," Zach continued.

"Oh yeah right," Jinx scoffed. She pointed behind her to the driver's seat.  "Lautaro could probably beat a Mercedes in a beat up smart car in a street race, all while wiring bombs and tossing them out the window like in fucking Mario Kart. Owen speaks 12 languages flawlessly. Cal could stitch up a gunshot wound with some dental floss. Harrison could sweet talk someone into giving him their house if he was dedicated enough. Lucky could go freehand rock climbing in the Grand Canyon. Zach could probably literally rip someone's head off. Blitz and Quinn could start an undercover drug ring with their combined knowledge. James can crack the Pentagon's firewall, like fucking Tony Stark. Adira probably knows how to kill someone with a paperclip. And Axel is basically Sherlock when it comes to reading people, innovative thinking, and ingenious survival techniques —he's un-killable."

"Yeah, but you're smart," Harrison rolled his eyes at her. "Kind. Mature. Pure —nothing like us at all."

Jinx sighed, then rubbed her cheeks with her hands so they bunched up. "Thanks Hot Head. But—"

"But shut up and be a badass," he told her.

Jinx whimpered a little bit.

Blitz smirked at her. "The lady doth protest too much methinks."

Jinx's eyes immediately brightened. "You read Much Ado About Nothing?"

"Sure."

Jinx glared at him. "Trick question dipshit, that's from Hamlet."