An Agent's Story

Thinking About Taylor

It wasn't even fifteen minutes into English and I was already falling asleep. I hated that there was a quiz on this stuff Friday. I started copying down what was on the board into a notebook I pulled out of my backpack. “Don’t worry Chris,” Taylor said in the middle of my copying. “Lieuan never makes the tests hard, he just quizzes us to make sure we know something about Shakespeare. All you need to know are his most famous plays and their basic plots.”

“That’s a relief,” I said putting my notebook away. “Now all I need to do is find his most famous plays.” I smiled because I knew she would laugh at that. Sure enough, she did. Over the last week, I'd really gotten to know Taylor. What she likes, doesn’t like, her flaws, her habits, what makes her laugh and stuff like that. She is a very nice girl. Makes me wonder why A.S.S. would attack her. What’s even more interesting is that they haven’t even attempted to attack her yet. Is it possible that Silvia got the wrong target?

“Hey Chris,” Veronica whispered to me. “You don’t have to act stupid to flirt.”

“I’m not trying to act stupid Veronica,” I whispered back. “Besides, shouldn’t be thinking of ways to win back Dan, not that it’s any of my business.”

“You’re right, but I’ll worry about that next period,” Veronica replied, smirking.

“Alright class clear your desks!” Mr. Lieuan suddenly blurted out.

“Veronica, what’s going on?” I asked. Why would we need to clear our desks? He was just giving a lecture.

“Looks like Lieuan is giving us the quiz today instead of Friday. He’s never done that before.” Veronica looked at me with confusion in her eyes, and a slight hint of horror.

“Class, when you are done with your quizzes, quietly pile them onto my desk and then go back to your seat,” Lieuan instructed.

As soon as I got my quiz I put it down on the desk and got out one of my pencils. The first question was simple, What was Shakespeare’s first name? William, easy. The second question then related to one of the scenes from Macbeth Lieuan had been lecturing about for the past week. At the beginning of one scene Macbeth starts by saying, “So foul and fair a day I have not seen.” Who was Macbeth saying this to and what are they discussing? I thought that this was tough. Especially since I hadn’t even read one part of the story. Then I remember that Lieuan was talking about something like this on Monday. He mentioned something about Banquo and a victory, so I put that as my answer. If all the tests and quizzes were like this, I would need to read the actual plays just to keep up my grades.

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Art today was so easy. We just made collages by cutting out pictures from magazines. Seems like art should be for smaller kids instead of high schoolers. Well, at least I can enjoy it. Just have to make sure no one does anything to Taylor. At first, I didn’t even know what to do for my collage. Then as I started looking through the magazines, my hands got a mind of their own. They cut out all the red, pink, cream, and green pictures that they could find. Then cut out some white, pale, and more green pictures. Before I had time to even realize what my body was doing, my hands had finished gluing the cut outs to a large piece of paper. I looked at it and realized what I had made. The picture contained a bouquet of red, pink, and cream colored roses. A bride was holding them, I assume she was on her way down the aisle. Why had I made this? I mean I was thinking of Taylor, but that would only explain the roses, a rose was Taylor’s favorite flower. Why had I made a bride? I didn’t want to marry Taylor, or anyone else for that matter. I had better keep this for later examination. I didn’t know why, but I needed to know why I had made a bride.

After lunch, I went to science with Taylor. Chelsea showed up four minutes after the bell rang, as usual. I had grown sick of seeing her face, she was such a bitch. I could see it anywhere she was. Every person she saw, she victimized, it was torturous for me to watch. “Let’s hope the queen bee can leave us alone today. It’s torturous enough being her lab partner,” Veronica told me, bringing me back to reality. 

“Doubt it. I just want her to not do anything stupid, like always. If that is even possible for her,” I said.

“I just don’t want to hear her comments about everyone,” Taylor chimed in. Taylor was my science buddy as Mrs. Gullen put it. A lab partner when we did labs every so often. Contrary to my first thought, we only learned about chemicals, atoms, and other boring stuff that regular people would never need to know. We rarely did anything with chemicals, gases, or even labs. The only reason that I actually paid the slightest bit of attention during class was that she was able to bring in a model or sample of what we were learning about.

When I was growing up with Diego at SECRET I learned more than just fighting. I learned about chemicals, how to combine them to make bombs, what gases were flammable and how to avoid death or injury if I ever encountered one. I learned that a lot of gases and chemicals had certain smells, I can even name some off the top of my head. Hydrogen sulfide smells like rotten eggs, Dimethylamine smells like ammonia and Trimethylamine smells like fish and ammonia. There is also a long list of flammable gases that smelled sweet. I had trained so much in the ‘chemical field’ that I was one of the only agents able to identify a sweet smelling flammable gas instead of just knowing it was flammable. I knew all of the gases, Methyl chloride, Acetaldehyde, Cyclopropane, Chloroethane. In fact, I think I just heard Mrs. Gullen mention Chloroethane. 

I looked at Mrs. Gullen and saw her writing the properties of the gas on the board. The first scribble of writing I saw was Chloroethane has a faintly sweet odor. I figured I didn’t need to pay attention, after all, I had already learned about the gas. I could still remember the odor. Sweet with the smallest traces of chlorine. I inhaled through my nose and the sweet smell got stronger. I sniffed the air and the smell became even more intense. It was then I realized that I wasn’t just remembering the odor, it was actually in the air.

I looked at the jar at the front of the room to see if there was a leak in it. Sure enough there was a hole allowing the gas to escape into the air. I had to warn the teacher that there was a leak because if you continuously inhaled Chloroethane, you could potentially damage your lungs. Although, there were a couple of windows open, so most of the gas would probably get swept outside. Now all I had be on the lookout for were things that could start a fire. As I scanned the room, my eyes landed on Chelsea. She had a lighter in her hands and had just started messing around with it. I whispered to her from across the aisle, “Stop messing with that lighter Chelsea. You’re gonna get us all killed.”

Chelsea retorted by sticking her tongue out at me and whispering, “F**k you.” She continued messing around with her lighter. I knew that in a few short seconds, the lighter would spark and there would be an explosion. So, trying to act like the hero I yelled, “Get down, NOW!” in my most masculine voice, trying to sound like an adult. Most of the class listened and got down including the teacher. Only a few guys and Chelsea remained standing, Chelsea still playing with her lighter. 

In a flash, I crouched down dragging Taylor down with me, hoping to protect her. In less than a second, I heard a fire rushing through the classroom. I dared to look up and saw a wave of flames above me and Taylor. Then there was screaming coming from guys and girls all around the classroom, but I only concentrated on Taylor. She was laying motionless on the floor, excluding the rise and fall of her chest which indicated she was breathing. I think she may have become unconscious due to the fire overwhelming her. In a matter of seconds, the fireball of an explosion ceased to exist. Some people were still screaming, but I stood up to look at the damage. 

Everything was blackened. The door had apparently been blown off its hinges and now lay outside the classroom. Some wires hung from the ceilings, threatening us with their sparking ends. Parts of the walls had been blown away. All of the science equipment was either charred or shattered. People slowly started getting up and looking around. A crowd of teachers and students had gathered outside our room. Some of them whipped out their phones and called what I think was 911. I decided to check on Taylor, make sure nothing was wrong. The paramedics, accompanied by policemen, arrived within five minutes. 

Taylor was taken aside by two of the paramedics, one trying to wake her up and the other checking her vitals. A couple students had some minor burn injuries and were bandaged. Chelsea’s injuries were the worst of all. Her face had what looked to be second degree burns on it. Her clothing was burned a little by the fire. She was unconscious when the paramedics found her. They had to take her to the hospital and the principal had to dismiss the school early. Once Taylor was headed home, I called Diego and John to let them know what happened. Then I went to SECRET headquarters to inform Silvia.