For the rest of the day, Anna stayed by herself. She dedicated this day, her first day at school, to getting associated with what was around her. Getting to know the ups and the downs, the highs and the lows, both literally and figuratively. She watched the changing of the security guards at the front gate for a while before she moved on. She hid in the shadows, trying to blend in as much as she could as she observed the students, the teachers, watching their every moves, trying to decipher whether they will be a threat to her target or not.

She had to admit, she wasn't sure what she was doing. She followed her instinct, her mind automatically telling her that she should know the place inside and out before doing anything else. It was the standard procedure for any mission she was given. But the basic fact that this was a mission she wasn't used to put her on edge a little.

In fact, she wasn't just not used to it, she's never done it before. Thomas never gave her a mission to protect someone. She wasn't the regular, all rounded NPA agent, like spies. She was a trained, specialized assassin. She didn't take care of any odd jobs that needed to be clear up, nor did she escort any important officials to some bigshot function to protect them from an assassination attempt. She conducts assassination attempts. Thomas names the target and Anna takes care of him – or her – no questions asked. This wasn't something she was used to but she didn't question Thomas. She never questioned Thomas. She just did as she was told. But that part of her that still felt unsure was lingering. Maybe that's why she called still called Jessi her 'target'.

Anna avoided Mina like the plague. Every time she spotted the bouncy pig tailed rich girl, she swiftly turned the other way and got out of there. The same went for Dan and Jessi. Mina and the boys were never in the same place when she spotted them but for good measure, she kept her distance from them too. She would bet all the money in her suitcase that if Dan saw her, he would want to talk. She didn't have to time talk.

It was only until she was done with her personalized tour that Anna finally made herself known to Mina. The girl was in a classroom, one of the last to leave as she was still putting her things into her locker. Anna leaned against the door jam, waiting her out. When she turned and her big eyes landed on her, Mina squealed and half skipped, half pranced over to her.

"Oh my God!" she screamed, hitting Anna on the arm. "Where have you been? I've been looking all over for you!"

"Defined 'all over'?"

At her question, Mina scowled but she was more than willing to divulge. "I went to the nurse's office but I heard that you left, so I went back to the door rooms. You weren't there. I went to the cafeteria, you weren't there. I even went looking for you outside! You weren't there!"

"Yep," Anna said monotonously, turning on the ball of her feet. "That covers 'all over'."

Mina wasn't put off by Anna's parched tone. She scurried behind her, each step she took making her pig tails bounce as if she was an excited child and she was getting candy. Anna couldn't understand all that energy she had, especially when she was obviously not thrilled. "Where have you been" Mina demanded.

"Looking around the school," Anna shrugged. She weaved her way expertly through the throng of schoolchildren, Mina keeping up easily with her. "After I left for the nurse, I didn't know how to find my way back to you so I just went off on my own."

Which was a total and complete lie. Anna did know how to make her way back. She wouldn't forget something as simple as that. Mina, however, took the lie with a nod of her head.

"Makes sense, makes sense. Well, it's a good thing you found me or else you wouldn't be able to find your way to your chore site."

"I still have to do that? It's my first day."

"The Headmistress doesn't care. She wants everyone helping out with chores. She says it's because it helps us 'build foundation' and it's a 'learning technique' and we're 'put outside our social group to make new peers'." – Mina rolled her eyes – "But that's just crap. Crap, I tell you. She just wants to use us as the school's janitors so she saves money."

"You don't say." Anna's tone was so dry it could start a fire but Mina was either ignoring it, or not aware of it. Either way, she pressed on, fueled by Anna's simple and short words to gossip.

"I tell you she does," she said again. "Biggest cheapskate you will ever find. Which is so weird considering the fact that she's in a school filled students who has rich parents. She could use that to her advantage."

"Maybe she is and is just pocketing the extra money."

That thought obviously hadn't occurred to her until just now. Her hand shot out to grab Anna's, her mouth falling open as she stared at Anna as if she just declared that she was the President's daughter. "You are so right!" she exclaimed. "Why didn't I think of that before? She is so pocketing the money!"

"It was just a suggestion," Anna said, gently peeling Mina's hand off her arm. She didn't want to have to go to the nurse again. "We don't if that's true."

Mina wasn't interested in what she was saying anymore because she waved her off. "She is. Don't worry. It's so clear to me now." Then she walked off, ending any argument right there. Which was just dandy considering the fact that Anna didn't plan on saying anything else. She couldn't be bothered. Instead, she continued walking. Her pace was normal, unrushed, and up ahead, Mina stopped to let her catch up. She didn't hurry at all. She just kept her head forward, not in the least surprised that Mina clung on to her arm to pull her ahead and get her moving faster.

"How was history class with Dan?" Anna said before Mina could get a word in.

"Oh my gosh! It was perfect!" Mina launched into a detailed and very opinionated account of how that one class she had with Dan was, and to quote, 'the best class she's ever had in her entire life!' She started from when she walked with Dan to class and, according to her, they had such an insightful conversation that she felt she's known him for 'years'. Anna wasn't very sure how much of what she said was true but she nodded along, egging the girl on while she kept talking and talking and talking. She spoke all the way to the dorms and all the way to their rooms. Anna didn't stop her once. She kept her talking, pushing her with little mm's and 'is that so?' Once they were safely in the room, Mina plopped down on her bed, still talking while Anna simply sat and looked at her chore sheet.

"So what do you have?" Mina asked suddenly, cutting her tale short.

"Yard work."

"Oh, I have cafeteria. Cafeteria sucks! There's always nasty, dried food on the floor and rats seem to like that place the best!"

Anna glanced up at her. "Want to switch?"

The girl sighed. "I wish it were that easy but I have to register or else I'm dead." She fell back against her fluffy pink and white pillows. "Ugh, kill me now."

That made Anna smile while she tucked away her chore sheet. Kill me now. She couldn't count on both hands how many times she's heard a target say something like that. Kill me now. Poor little old Mina will never know the true meaning of that sentence until she's being tortured for answers by the most skilled assassin at the NPA. This time, Anna chuckled. Kill me now.

If she couldn't count the amount of times she's heard that sentence then double that and you'll get the amount of times she's heard the opposite. Please. Please don't kill me. Spare me. Save me. Have mercy. Didn't matter how they said it, it was all still the same. And it definitely didn't matter to Anna how they said it because, no matter what, after everything was said and done, their life will be over and she'll be stepping over their bodies and on to the next one. She never feels remorse, or sadness, or grief or even a little regret. She never feels anything. She doesn't have emotions. Emotions only mess up the job and a failed mission is not in her track record. She's done every mission impeccably and that was for one reason and one reason alone. Feelings never got in the way.

She laughed, yes. She was laughing now, wasn't she? But that didn't mean joy. She doesn't cry. Never did, never will. She doesn't get scared and she rarely ever gets angry. Only Thomas was able to bring out a bit of unease in her but that never affected anything she did. She went on with her life the same way she always did. Like a robot.

Kill me now. If only Mina knew how easy it was to grant her wish.

"Well!" Mina shot back up, instantly pulling the hair ties out of her head, her thick black hair falling down to brush her shoulders. "I'm going to go take a shower and head on down to the cafeteria. Did I mention that I wanted to die?"

"A lot, yes," Anna replied, hiding her smirk. Mina sighed, not noticing the small twinge of humour in Anna's voice, and rolled out of bed with a groan. She went into the bathroom after grabbing her things.

Anna fell back on the comfy mattress. Her mind went over the day and, for some reason, lingered on the three different and weird interactions she had with Jessi. The first time she didn't expect much. She didn't have much friends so she wasn't sure what the protocol was with gaining one, but she did watch enough television to know that the first meeting isn't normally anything special. So when Jessi talked to her while being preoccupied with something else, she expected it.

The second meeting was the one that held all the substance, the one where Anna was sure she would actually get to meet the real Jessi Beaumont. But the second meeting had been worse than the first. Her Intel really failed her there.

The third meeting was to be riddled with familiarity which, judging by how well the second meeting went, could be either a bad or a good thing. The third time she met Jessi was the first time they actually met. They talked, they laughed, and Anna was completely taken aback by the sharp contrast between the boy she met before and the boy she met in the nurse's office. Again she thought back to the fact that she's never done anything like this before. She was killer, not a nurturer.

Suddenly, breaking her train of thought, her burner rang. Anna snatched it up and accepted the call before it could make any more noise. "Wait," she whispered into the phone before holding it down and getting up. She hurried over to the bathroom door. She pressed her ear against the cool wood door, listening to hear the shower running. It was, and it was accompanied by Mina's off tuned humming.

"Talk," she said, sliding silently away from the door.

"Anna?"

"What?" she snapped. Now that she knew it was obviously not Thomas, who was the one who normally called her, she felt her patience wear a bit thinner when the person called her name. As if he didn't already know who he was talking to.

"I've got something for you." Immediately, Anna knew it was Roger. He was a spy at the NPA, the best one out of the twenty five spies in all. His fatal flaw however – or at least what Anna deemed the most annoying thing about the man – was that he loved beating around the bush. Anna hated talking to him. He took forever to say what he actually wanted to say and she hated having her time wasted.

"Spill it, Dumbass," she growled into the phone, sending a glance at the closed bathroom door. Roger's full name was Roger Dumas but Anna found she like her play on his last name a bit better.

"You really should stop calling me that," he whined. "You're making me look bad."

"I bet you're glad I'm not in front of you right now to rip your balls off since you feel like making me wait, huh?" The question was stated calmly but the underlying tone of venom was obvious to both parties.

Roger sighed. "Keep up with that attitude, and the other guys won't invite you to the Christmas party."

"You think I care. Sweet. Now stop beating around the damn bush and tell me what the hell you called for. I'm undercover here."

"Oh, that's right, I heard. Our little assassin prodigy is undercover. What a day, huh? What will the others think?"

She didn't answer him. Maybe he'll get to the point faster if she just kept her silence. Roger pressed on, "Imagine you always thought agents do the undercover work. And now here you are. Life has a way of turning itself around, doesn't it? Well, anyway, it turns out I have a little assassination project for you."

"I don't take orders from you."

"Yes, yes. The teacher's pet only takes orders from the Master, blah blah. This is an order from Thomas."

"Why doesn't he give me it himself?"

"Because it wasn't issued to you first. Sera got it first."

"So why doesn't Sera do it? Why are you bothering me like this?"

"Would you wait? I'm getting to that." Could've fooled me. "Sera's down and the target got away. And Jackie has another mission and is out the country. That leaves you."

Sometimes she wondered why the agency only had three assassins. "I'm on a mission too, Dumbass."

Roger groaned, obviously not pleased with his little nickname. "Stop calling me that. And it doesn't matter. This is Class B. They were good enough to take down Sera and now they're on the run. You gotta fill in for her."

"What makes you think I can take them down?"

"You're the best assassin in the whole agency. And don't ask about the agents either. As much as it physically pains me to say this, if you can't take this person down then we can't. We aren't trained killers."

It did give her a tiny bit of joy to hear him say that, although she didn't need his confirmation. She glanced at the bathroom door again. Mina will be coming out any second now. "This is an order from Thomas?"

"Yes, I said that already, didn't I? So are you going to do it?"

"Do I have a choice?"

"Great. I'll text you the deets. I'm already sending a car."

She clicked off the phone and had enough time to grab a magazine and act nonchalant as she flipped through the pages before the bathroom door opened and Mina's fresh scent rolled in before her. She sighed happily, rubbing her hair with a small white fluffy towel, her body wrapped in a bigger one.

Anna looked up at her. "You sure you won't catch a cold?"

"Nah," Mina answered. "The cafeteria's indoors. I'll be fine. You going in?"

Anna slapped the book shut with an audible 'Yeah' and grabbed her things before heading for the bathroom. She already had her plan laid out in her head.

Funny.

It was her first day on this new, important mission and she already had someone new on her hit list.

.