Four.


She was back. And, for the life of her she couldn't stop staring. 

Anna couldn't tear her gaze away from the mammoth-sized fountain in the centre of the open field, as she headed towards the female dorm building. Neither could she keep her mouth from hanging slightly open at the variety of students that passed by her. A few of them seemed to ve members of a band, carting around large instruments. She even passed a few cheerleaders cooing at the track team jogging around the perimeter of the field. 

All of them looked rich. This was so different from the world she was used to. It was as if she stepped into a parallel universe filled with money tissues and coins falling from their eyes as tears.

As she continued past the field to the dorm buildings standing behind it, a voice in her head whispered that she had nothing to worry about. She was a NPA agent. It didn't matter that this was an environment she wasn't accustomed to. She should be able to adjust for the sake of the mission. Seeing peeing statues beside the entrance of the dorm building shouldn't deter her, because nothing came in the way of her mission.

With that thought, Anna passed the threshold of the very first building. The entrance was nothing but a screen door, with black modern fixtures. The receptionist rounded the corner, pointing out the different communal rooms such as the TV room, the washroom and the kitchen. Up the stairs, she said, were the rooms.

There were a few girls lingering around here, as well. Two blond-haired girls walked by Anna, dressed in their pyjamas. They ran their gazes down the length of her as if she was were an unusual creature, despite their sleepy eyes and bed hair. Anna paid them no mind. She continued up the stairs, following the receptionist until they came to stand before a room marked Room 34. The receptionist knocked but waited no less than two seconds before heading inside.

"Hey, what are you doing?!"

Something flew towards Anna's face and she dodged it, easily. With a quirk of her brow, she looked at her attacker.

"You can't just barge in here without knocking first!" the girl sitting on the bed screeched. "What happened to privacy?"

The receptionist seemed unbothered by the girl's accusations. Instead, she chose to cock her head to the side and smile brightly. "But I did knock," she replied. "You just didn't hear it."

"Then you should have knocked again!" The girl was obviously not comforted by the receptionist's wide smile. She picked up another pillow from her bed and threw it. This time, it hit the receptionist in her face. Anna huffed a small laugh to herself, watching the lady's smile distort into a small grimace.

"Mina," the receptionist started, calmly. "We aren't alone, as you can see."

Mina's eyes shifted over to Anna and the previous anger was immediately replaced with curiousity. She sagged on her bed, the rage flowing out of her and she pointed one long manicured finger at Anna. "You are?" she asked.

"Annabelle Ferguson," Anna answered automatically.

"She's your new roommate," the receptionist gestured to Anna with her hand, "and the headmistress wants you to show her around the school."

"Aw, but my classes don't start until one!" Mina flopped over on her bed with a groan.

"You don't have a choice," the woman said stiffly, all bubbliness and perkiness gone after Mina's angered attack. She lingered for a moment, clenching her hands at her sides. It seemed as if she wanted to say something more but then decided against it. With a lift of her chin, the woman turned and left the room, leaving Anna and the two men alone with Mina.

Anna turned away from the girl. With a simple gesture of her hand, the men started forward with her bags and placed them down gently at the foot of the other bed that occupied the large space. She nodded at them when they turned back to her and, without another word, they left.

"Those men looked scary," Mina commented from behind her. Anna paid her no mind. Pulling out her disposable phone, she contacted headquarters, reporting in that she was on mission site.

"Oh, you're telling your parents you're here?" Mina went on. "Tell them your new roommate says hi!"

Mina's words merely floated around Anna's head and she ignored them as if it was just a small fly buzzing in her ear. She threw the phone down on the bed and stood still, finally taking a look around.

Mina shifted on her bed, pulling yet another pillow before her. "It's a nice room, isn't it? Perfect for sleepovers."

It was certainly a nice room, but Anna said nothing to the girl. She scanned every inch of her surroundings, in mission mode. She took in the two large double beds on either side of the room. That means a glock taped under each bed. 

There was also a large bookshelf, two desks with the lamps on top, and closets, also on either side of the room. In the very centre was a big dark mat, bringing the two halves of the room together. Anna was starkly aware of the bareness of her side of the room but she knew that, soon enough, her side will be generously decorated with hidden weapons. She'd already gotten a general idea of how she hide them.

Anna picked up her weapon suitcase and laid it on the bed.

"Not much of a talker, huh?" Mina's voice floated in again and this time Anna paused. "No problem. I'm friends with lots of introverts."

"You talk too much."

The unmistakable sound of bare feet on the wooden floor sounded behind her. Anna sighed inwardly when Mina jumped on her bed.

"I get that a lot," Mina said, waving her hand dismissively. "People always tell me that I don't have much control over what comes out of my mouth. But I don't mind. I actually think it's pretty nice. Helps me make friends and such."

Anna looked over at her. Mina was actually very pretty, if the messy bed hair and the dried drool on her cheek wasn't taken into account. She had black hair that fell just past her shoulders, her eyes an emerald green. Those oversized eyes stared up at her, filled with intrigue.

"Stop staring at me like that," Anna commanded lightly, turning away from the girl. She hauled her next suitcase onto the bed, right on top of the school handbook that had been put out for her.

"Was I staring?" Mina asked, sounding genuinely surprised. "Oh, right. Well, I can't really help myself. I was just admiring your face. You're super gorgeous."

"Thank you," she replied without thinking. She opened the second suitcase, pulling out regular items like her lotion and her deoderant. She'd contemplated bringing along her few bottles of perfume, but she decided against it. It might normalize her, but it wasn't truly necessary.

As she put her things out into the room, she could feel the intensity of Mina's stare bearing down on her. Anna knew she should just ignore her. She had a feeling that threatening her wasn't going to work very well on a girl like this. 

"I love your hair," Mina complimented suddenly.

"Thanks."

"And your eyes."

"Thanks."

"And you're –"

"I get it," Anna said abruptly. She stopped paused in the process of sorting her clothes. "You have to show me around the school, remember? Don't you have to go get ready?"

"Oh yeah, you're right!" Mina sprang up from the bed with a loud clap of her hand. She tugged on her pink pyjamas top. "Can't really show you around the school in this. I'll just go take a shower."

Anna answered with a simple grunt, only because she knew she had to. This girl definitely wouldn't leave otherwise.

Mina took the grunt with a wide grin and rushed over to her dresser, where she drew out her underwear and disappeared into the adjoined bathroom. Then Anna got into action.

As soon as the door closed behind her, Anna dropped what she had in her hands and rushed over to her weapons suitcase. Unzipping it in record speed, she pulled out her glocks and tape and set about hiding the weapons around the room. She even tucked one inside her pillowcase. Anna left the rest of the weapons, gadgets and mission clothes inside the suitcase. There was no more space to hide anything else. Though, now she didn't need to anymore she could draw for her weapons anywhere in the room. Zipping the bag shut, she shoved the suitcase far under the bed.

At that moment, the bathroom door opened. Anna went over to the closet, pretending she had been rummaging through all along.

Mina entered the room with a towel wrapped around her body and her hair pinned up on top of her head. She frowned at Anna. "I thought you were unpacking," she said.

Anna pulled out one of her uniforms from her closet. "Just checking these out," she supplied. Her face remained impassive and she laid the uniform out on the bed. "I'll finish unpacking later."

"Right, right. Well, the bathroom's free so it's all yours."

Anna nodded, picked up her stuff and disappeared behind the door of the pristine white of the massive bathroom.

***

It turned out that Mina was much worse than she had stated. Anna knew she talked a lot, had even conditioned her mind to block Mina out. But, she had not been prepared for this.

Mina's words were like a bullet train, impossibly fast and not ready to stop any time soon. The moment Anna left the bathroom, in a white towel, Mina began talking. And she'd been talking ever since, without a break to even take a breath. 

She went on and on about nonsense Anna didn't care about. She told Anna all about how she'd felt when she first came to this school, how she'd made friends, her experiences, everything. For one explicably long ten minutes, Mina even delved into her family history, although how the conversation took such a turn was beyond Anna. Still, Anna said nothing. She held her silence, staring out the window while Mina got dressed.

As time passed, Anna became more adept at blocking Mina out. She got to her feet and picked up the uniform she had laid out on the bed. The first thing she pulled on was the skirt, aware that the pleated material barely brushed her lower thigh. The skirt was a bit shorter around the back but not so short she thought she might be called out for it. Anna left it alone and picked up the white shirt. She faced the standing mirror as she buttoned it up, her mind drifting in and out, focusing – then not – on Mina's words. She was talking about her pet cat now. 

The shirt fitted easily over her generous breasts, sinking in at her waist to emphasize her tiny waistline. Anna wrapped the blue and burgundy tie around her neck, her fingers moving deftly and tying the knot easily. She pulled it up and picked up the one of the last items of her attire. Instead of the blue blazer, she pulled the blue sweater vest over her head and down to her hips. It clung to her curves.

"Oh my God, that uniform looks so good on you!" Mina's face popped up beside her, her mouth hanging open. She was dressed the same too but chose to wear the blue blazer, buttoned from her breasts all the way down. She had a pink clip stuck in her hair, which she had put up in two cute pigtails. She grabbed Anna's arm. "You're absolutely killing in that uniform."

Anna pulled her hand out her grip and turned away from the mirror. "I like your pink clip," she complimented falsely, pointing to the hair accessory. Mina touched it, beaming.

"Oh, you do? Thanks! Give this dreary uniform a little flair."

"I don't think the uniform needs anymore flair."

"Oh, come on. Blue and burgundy?" Mina rolled her eyes and plopped down on the bed. Anna faced the mirror again, running a brush through her hair. "That's as dreary as you can get. Well, excluding what you had on when you came in. I mean, no offense but all black means funeral and you can't get any more doom-y than that."

"No offense taken," Anna replied lightly. She turned away from the mirror and sat beside Mina, pulling on the white socks and folding it at her ankle before pulling on the black school shoes. As soon as she was done, Mina rolled her eyes again, leaned down and pulled the socks back up. Anna watched as Mina gave her a stern look, telling her not to pull it back down and, after a moment's thought, decided to comply. She stood and looked down at Mina. Time to get this mission started. "Shall we?"

Mina sighed, the rush of exhaled air transforming into a loud groan. But then suddenly, she stopped and she looked up at Anna, frowning slightly. "Wait a minute," she said, getting to her feet. "If I have to show you around the school then that means no classes, doesn't it?"

Anna didn't answer but she didn't need to. Mina already came to her own conclusion, evident from the wide grin that graced her lip-glossed lips. Her green eyes sparked with excitement and she squealed in glee, grabbing Anna's hand and pulling her out the door.

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