"Cora?" I ask her, she lets go of me, "What the hell are you doing? You just left for two, three years, the hell did you go?" She asks, I gulp, "Oh, haha, thing is, my mum died so I was put in an orphanage, these are my new siblings, that's Marc, Kerry and Lauren. My name's now Nat Prince," I tell her, I was fiddling with my fingers behind my back, "Sorry Cora but we've got to go now, we were only meant to go out for a quick surf and head back in, see ya next time okay," Marc pushes me with the side of his board, "Yeah, see ya!" I wave and put on a cheery mask, she waves and heads off, "Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck." I hold my head, Marc held on my board for me, I was rubbing my temples, did I just mess up the entire mission? "Mum!" I shout as I run into the house, "Hey Nat, what's up," I tell her everything, how I grassed myself up to keep this a secret, she was a little flustered, "Okay, you dealt with it well, made a believable story. Just keep this Natalie Prince thing up and that your mum died," She says, I nod, "I'm so sorry," I look at the ground, "No, don't be, you did the right thing and made sure to rebound off that, I'm sure people around will recognise you as well, just keep up this act and you'll be fine," She holds my shoulders, I nod, "Now head upstairs and take a shower, you're freezing," She whacks my back lightly, I smiled and went to my ensuite to wash my hair.
"Haha... you're shitting me... again." I look up at the school gates, "Hey, what's wrong now?" Marc asks, "Um, well, you see... this was my old high school," I say as I stared up at it, "WHAT?!" Kerry shouts, "Okay, okay, no need to panic, we're just going to enrol you all in, Natalie Prince, you're still Natalie Prince, it's fine okay," Abigal reassures us, we were all taken in by the school, through a little help of ASIS and to organise classes, Kerry and I were in year ten, Lauren was in year eight and Marc was in year twelve. Abigal had to drop around, we spent A$2,550 on just the uniforms alone, she almost choked on air when she was the total, Kerry, Lauren and Marc's eyes seemed to bulge out, I was gobsmacked, every time I just wore my uniform I was basically walking to and from school in a Gucci priced outfit, she put her card on and we got our clothes. "Holy shit, this stuff better me made of gold for it to be so expensive," Kerry looks at the bags of clothes we were holding, "This better be bulletproof," Lauren nods, Marc was still shocked, he was just silent the entire time. On the way home, Abigal bought Lauren a bike.
We headed to the wharf for dinner at some fancy restaurant. The food was Mexican and we ate at a private function room overlooking the harbour full of yachts, powerboats and motor launches. John met up with us there alongside a psychology professor from the University of Sydney called Miriam Longford, that name struck a chord, I remembered her name in the book John gave us to skim over which I read on the flight. She had counselled hundreds of ex-Survivors who'd been traumatised during their involvement with the cult. Recently she was involved in a legal wrangle with Survivors over a book she wrote about them. She's been doing criminal profiling work for ASIS and the New South Wales Police, she'd only been sworn to secrecy and informed about the existence of CHERUB a few hours earlier. She was fascinated by the psychology behind using children in undercover operations. The meal stretched through dessert, coffee or tea and three extra rounds of drinks, she answered dozens of questions from us and threw dozens back. By the end of our chat we felt like we knew a much more about the Survivors, we drove back home in an E-Class Mercedes Benz, we arrived home and instantly fell asleep, I felt like I couldn't sleep, I was stressing about how I'd go back to my old school. I went down to the kitchen and got a glass of water, "What are you doing up so late?" I see Marc walk into the kitchen with just his boxers on, "I'm honestly scared about school tomorrow," I tap the glass, he gestured to pass me the glass, "I'm sure it's fine, after all, CHERUB's got your back and if anything ever happens and you get grassed up we can get you out," He took a gulp of water, I try to tackle is legs, he chuckles and grabs my waist and flips me upside down, "I swear, you need to get stronger, I mean Large's beaten you guys to a pulp during basic training but you need to get stronger, especially your upper body," He walks up the stairs, "Just go to bed," He throws me on my bed, I laughed quietly, "Look, if I buy you lunch tomorrow will you go to bed?" He tries to strike a deal, "And get under the duvet," I grab my hands up and down, he chuckles and lies in bed with me, "I just realised, is it weird? You're technically an adult, ew, pedo," I giggle to myself, "Fine then, the pedo will leave," He starts to get out of my bed, "No, no, I'm kidding, come back," I grab his leg, he chuckles and pulls his leg, pulling me out from the bed, "Jesus Christ, your leg can legit pull my entire body out of bed," I let go, he chuckles and gets back in, "Go to sleeeeep," He smashes my face in a pillow, I could hear the smirk in his voice.
