ILLEGAL

Chapter 8

I ended up going through another day of Chelsea's torture. This is how our conversation went over texts.

Would you be willing to try the air shoes again?

NO

Why not?

I ALMOST DIED

Calm down, you only received major injuries. Dramatic much?

>:(

Plz Cole!

I don't want to go through hell again.

But no one else will do it

That's probably because I nearly DIED

PLZ COLE! I wont ask you for anything ever again! This will be the last time!

No

I'll be your best friend!

I don't need friends

Cole!

Fine! Be there in like ten min.

And that's how I got stuck with another set of bruises all over my body. But, we did finally knock out the major kinks in the air shoes, with a little help of Cody. It was still super freaking buggy, but at least it didn't send you slamming against the wall every six seconds.

She was going to present them to the agents today, show them how it works and everything. I was going with her. It reminded me of the little booths people made along the streets in the piers in San Francisco, where people tried to sell their shitty merchandise or play a song on their guitar and hope people give them tips.

Although sometimes it wasn't so shitty, when I went down there to find some paid assassin before he killed the owner of a giant business corporation, I stopped in San Francisco. There was this guy who did artwork with spray paint in like five minutes. It was really cool, actually.

But anyway, Chelsea set up a little booth thing. She borrowed a plastic table from somewhere (Or stole it, I don't know what she does in her spare time) and a chair and set out her product. I stood next to the table like a parent watching their child make two dollars off of a lemonade stand. When they made the lemonade.

She pressed a button and then over the intercom-thing, a message went out,"Field workers report to the lab in four minutes. Product display in showing." The woman's voice was sweet, like a stereotype secretary.

The empty corridor began to fill up a little bit as the crowd surrounded us. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up when I spotted Jack Chance in the front. I thought of when steam pours out of a characters nose in cartoons. If we were a cartoon, that's what I'd look like right now.

I still couldn't believe he had figured it out like -I imagined a snap of the fingers in my head- that. I've been in this program for three years and then he comes along with his gorgeous eyes and hot body, wait what was my original topic? Oh yes, and his asshole personality.

A buzzer on the table went off and Chelsea started her demonstration. "Hello everyone. This time, I've made a new model of a jet pack. I was thinking and hoping this would change the future of jetpack technology-"Someone interrupted her.

It was Jack. He had his arms crossed, and I could see the muscles in his biceps. He rolled his eyes saying,"Ya, I'm sure we all get it. Cut to the chase. How does it work?"

Chelsea immediately got pissed off. Since I had lived with her for the past two years, I think I was the only one that could recognize it. Her eyelid gave a slight twitch, and her expression was frozen. She had a dangerous smile plastered to her face, and she gave a small laugh that seemed to be resting on a bomb. The wrong movement and it would explode.

"Um, alright, basically it sucks in air from the top and blows it three to four hundred thousand times harder out he bottom. You wear them around your shoes,"She turned to me."And now we will have Agent Cole Skeete demonstrate the inventions."

I gave her a poor smile. After slipping in the air bands, I walked out onto one of the mats. Grinning, I said,"On."

Nothing happened.

I sighed and rolled my eyes."Not again!"I practically yelled.

Apparently they had a slow reaction because all of a sudden they burst into action, making me shoot several feet into the air. I quickly rightened myself, basically levitating in mid-air. Like I said, freaking buggy. The crowd gave a slow clap that sounded unsure, before it speeded up to a normal pace. I glanced down. Jack didn't clap.

I flew around a little bit, showing the stability, speed, and balance of the product. I let myself softly hover to the ground until I was a few feet up beige touching the mat. I said off, and I dropped those last few feet. The crowd gave one last round of applause. I took a bow. Chelsea beamed.

"Question,"Jack shouted, raising his hand like he was still in elementary school.

Chelsea looked unsure, debating whether to take a chance or not. She took it."Yes?" She answered.

"Do they...work underwater?"Jack said in his smart ass tone, smirking. I did a face-palm. He was going to make her product look bad.

"Um,"Chelsea began."I suppose so. Anyway, G.O.E.S. will give you each a pair of the bands. If you would like to buy them for personal use-"

"Another question,"Jack interrupted again. He had a smug smile on his face, I wanted very badly to slap it off."Do they...work in outer space?"

Chelsea looked flustered."No,"She stammered."There is no air in outer space, so therefore they would have nothing to take in and push out. As I was saying, would anyone like to-"

"Do they..."

"Shut up!"Chelsea yelled. I thought she'd lost it. She stood up and marched over to Jack. She stood nose to nose with him. Her eyes narrowed as she whispered,"I see what you're doing. Trying to embarrass me in front of other agents. It's okay if you don't like my product, you don't have to receive one at all. We will just see how you're doing without it when you are falling out of a window with nothing to save you."

He started to speak but she shushed him."In fact,"She chuckled."I don't care if you live or die. Your life has no importance to me. And if you die because you don't have my air shoes, because you were acting like an asshole at my presentation," She held out her hand as if she wanted him to shake it."Well, then I'll see you in hell."

The stupid grin disappeared from his face. I stood with my mouth gaping like an idiot. I had never seen Chelsea act that way, so pissed off. Damn, I had rarely heard her cuss. She's always been so bubbly and joyful, her happiness was contagious. This was a new side of her.

She just calmly walked back to her chair and sat down. The crowd was silent. The corridor was silent, except for that stupid sixties music playing over the loud speaker that you would hear in a hotel lobby or an elevator. I decided to break that silence."Can we get some butter over here, 'cause you just got toasted!"I exclaimed.

The crowd erupted in laughter. Chance stormed off. Dumbshit. Chelsea laughed and then got the crowd's attention."As I had been trying to say, would anyone like to buy a personal pair of air shoes?" She announced as people raised fistfuls of money in the air.