Recruit

Chapter 17

Chapter 17

'Hallelujah, hallelujah. Righteous man, that's what they said. But still awake you'd lie in bed; and listen to the shadows, knife clutched tightly.' I make out to the he tune of 'Hallelujah'.

I put a blue and purple under armor hoodie, with long sleeves that cover my hands, over my plain black tee and change into long purple and black leggings. I put on thicker socks before I put my tennis shoes back on, then go downstairs to see Sam in a thick, plain, gray sweatshirt and similar gray sweatpants. Baby follows me to the door where I greet him.

"Ready to go?" I ask.

"Yup, Deans seriously sleeping?" He asks suspiciously.

"No I murdered him- yes! He's sleeping why is that such a big deal?" I exaggerate.

"Sorry, he just never just sleeps, it's weird." He shakes his head and opens the door.

"NAT! I'm going for a run!" I yell before walking out.

"You better work your ass off!" She calls from what I'm guessing is the laundry room.

"Always! I'm taking Baby!" I assure with a laugh, shutting the door.

I recall that Kaylee and Cole live close- ish. I decide to do two ten mile laps, the road did an eight shape almost, making it easy. We started down the drive and I'd figure we'd run the ten miles past Kaylees and Cody's, they live within the same part of the loop. Causing us to do an extra mile to get home.

"How far are we going? Can you handle five?" Sam asks after I finish my mental math.

"I was thinking twenty one." I suggest and start off.

It takes him a moment to catch up, due to being caught off guard. We run in silence, the cold tightens my chest but I push through the struggle to breath. Every once in a while Sam would get slightly a ahead of me, my competitiveness didn't allow that and I'd sprint until I was ahead or we ran side by side. I motioned for Sam to slow to a jog before we reached Kaylees house, I saw her getting into a nice black minivan with other girls. She's probably going to the mall, judging by her purse but not weather appropriate clothing. I start running again, faster than before but not a sprint. I see all the pre- teens gawk at Sam as we run by, he smiles goofily and waves awkwardly. They don't even notice Baby and I. I hear them say something about 'adorable is the new sexy' gross, he's my cousin. After we've cleared the block Sam stops me.

"What?" I gasp.

"What the hell was that?" He asks, similarly out of breath, he puts his hands on his bent knees and I grab my wrists and rest them atop my head.

"That was a possible team member." I explain.

"Team?" Shit! He didn't know.

"Part of my mission, it's classified from the public at the moment, I'll tell you later." I take an educated guess that it's classified.

"Mkay, let's go we're only like five miles in." He stands.

"Four and nine sixteenths." I correct, doing the math mentally.

Thanks, math wiz." He says and starts a jog.

"I'm good at it. Always liked math, dad never really let me join mathletes, said I needed to learn how to fight not divide decimals in four seconds." I laugh dryly.

Realizing I was rambling, I break into a run to avoid talking about it. Sam gives me a shocked look. His face reads more than that but I look away quickly and pass him by a foot and start reminiscing; something I tend to avoid. I think about asking my dad if I could do GT math and reading. I was in third grade when my teacher was dead set on getting me in. I brought the paper with the recommendation home, showed it to daddy, the day was done and I was going shower. I had it all planned out, don't say anything, see what he says, let him think about it over night.