RANK 11

I had cried myself to sleep last night, and I woke up with a jolt when the alarm started blaring. I had gotten used to the alarm, but it still was kind of nerve-wrecking. 

I followed my mundane routine of classes, but at the end of the lecture, Mr. Rodriguez started talking about something unusual. 

"Both of you have worked really hard the last year, and you have obtained the title of Level 11 assassins. I believe that you are by far, the finest works of the society. Now, it is time for you to pay the society back with your deeds."

Archer raised his hand, "Sir? Where are you going with this? What is level 11?"

"Basically, the chancellor wants you to start taking on missions." Mr. Rodriguez finished. 

I countered, "But we're only sixteen! Doesn't an assassin have to be like twenty five, to finally be able to take on missions?" 

"Watch your tone, Ms. Collins. The academy didn't invest so much money into genius assassins just to have failed outcomes. If you don't want to be disposed of like Mr. Valdez and Ms. Demonté, I suggest you do as we say." 

"You're going to do something to Chloe and Oliver?!" I said, furious. 

He waved me off, "They're not important. We have a responsibility to-"

"We'll do it." Archer cut him off. 

"Excellent, Mr. Johnson. You both may report to the chancellor's office in five minutes. You are dismissed."

Mr. Rodriguez walked out of the class. I angrily turned to Archer, "What are you talking about? We don't need to do it! Why should we do anything for them?"

Archer turned his back to the CCTV camera, and swiftly signed in the code that we'd developed. 'We can get out of the society like this! This is for our freedom, and our future."

He sounded so much like Caleb, I could almost kiss him. 'Okay.' I signed back. 

We walked back to the chancellor's office, and he greeted us. "Aurora, Archer! It's been a whole year now! How are you doing?"

"Cut to the chase, chancellor. What mission?" Archer said. 

"I don't want you to assassinate anyone, not yet." He chuckled, "I want intel. There's this school, where the kids of top-tier millionaires go. I want you to infiltrate, and gather intel about their illegal businesses. We'll go ahead with that for now, and use the information to blackmail them. Any questions?"

"So the usual info-blackmail mission. But why us?" I asked. 

"All the graduates of Assassin Academy are around twenty four or twenty five years of age. These millionaires all keep low profiles, and the usual information mission won't suffice. I need their deeds in depth. So the best option was to send children, who are themselves more qualified than freshly graduated assassins."

"Okay. When do we leave?" I asked, standing up. 

"Tomorrow, at noon." He said, handing us two thick bundles of papers about the mission. "Go through the details by then, and directly come and ask me if you have questions. This is strictly confidential."

Archer and I went back to our rooms with one bundle each. I went through my bundle, and god, the info was super thorough. It was especially focused on a millionaire named Jaylen Blackwell. 

His son, Rafael Blackwell attended the school we would infiltrate. I went to Archer's room to exchange our bundles, but he was still reading his bundle. 

"You're already done?! I have about half left!" He exclaimed. 

I chuckled, "Superior reading skills, remember?"

I sat beside him, and read as he read, and I finally got a full picture of what we were supposed to do. 

Jaylen Blackwell seemed to have ties with the Italian mafia, and the Academy was not sure how. His fake fortune built of owning popular chains of hotels and restaurants was supposedly only a front to hide his illegal business. 

Next, the single mother, Marceline Avila. She was considered homeless two years ago, with minimal education, and she had surprisingly grown to be a multi-millionaire in the past six months. 

Lastly, Kylan Griffith. He was involved with Jaylen, and was said to be his childhood friend. His profile was just darker than Jaylen's, and he operated in the shadows. He had no front to justify his pooling bank accounts. 

"So our targets are Blackwell's son, Avila's son and Griffith's daughter?" Archer asked after I explained him everything. 

"Yes. But before all of that, we'll need to secure ourselves a scholarship. There's no way that the Academy is paying $60,000 for each of us to attend the school." I told him, handing over the page in my bundle that explained so. 

"When's the test?" Archer asked. 

I grimly replied, "Day after tomorrow."

"But... We don't know anything about the American schooling system! Don't you think we need to prepare?" 

"Not really. We're taught everything." I said uneasily. "If you want, I can go over the basics with you."

"Mathematics. Let's start with the Riemann Hypothesis." Archer said. 

"Give me a pencil and a paper. Wait, make it two papers." I said. 

He handed me the papers, and I knew he watched in awe as I solved the Hypothesis. 

"So you used the Riemann Zeta function to reverse engineer the problem? And then used Euler's equation? This is amazing!" He delighted said. 

"The questions on the test can't get harder than this, can they?" I asked, and he shook his head. 

We spent the entire night studying, and both of us were super tired. At 4 am, when we finally had covered every single topic. 

"Finally!" I yawned. 

"We should get to sleep now. Don't you-" Archer was saying, but in my weariness, I drifted of to sleep. 

Strong hands lifted me from the chair, and laid me down onto something more comfortable, and I rolled to the side, and let myself sleep contendly. 

"We're late!" Archer yelled and I snapped awake from my deep slumber. 

I rubbed my eyes, and asked him, "Time?"

"11:30, we have to report by 12." He informed me, and I saw that he was tossing his clothes and belongings into his suitcase.

"I haven't packed!" I realised, and ran to my room. I packed my suitcase in a record time of twenty minutes, and got ready in the next ten. 

Archer was waiting for me outside my room, with his suitcase. "Today is our liberation." He said, and I closed my eyes and imagined what our lives would be like from now on. 

We were taken to the train station by a golf cart, and we boarded the train to out of the society. I fell asleep in the train, as I still needed to catch my sleep. We stopped at Society 1, the only society with an airport. 

Isn't that were Archer is from? I thought to myself. "Archer is this your-?"

"Yeah," He cut me off, as though he didn't want to talk about it.

We were taken by a car to the airport, and as it were basically on the other side of the society. This society was a lot bigger than my society, probably because it was the most important one. The residential area of the society had huge houses, but the car stopped when we crossed an enormous mansion. 

"Why have we stopped?" I asked the chauffeur, but he didn't respond, and instead opened my door, indicating me to get out. 

I looked over at Archer, and his face had gone pale, as we walked to the mansion. He gulped and said, "Welcome, Aurora, to the Johnson family house."

This was his house?! It was at least ten times bigger than the house I had grown up in. The chauffeur rang the doorbell, and a butler opened the door. 

"Young master Archer!" He said cheerfully, "What a pleasant surprise!"

"Are mother and father home, Curtis?" Archer asked formally. 

"Yes they are. Would you like to sit in the living room while you wait?" He said in his super fake cheerful tone. 

Archer said seriously, "Alright."

If the house was splendid from the outside, the interior was splendidly marvelous. It took everything in me not to gape at the house. It felt like I was in the house of some royal family. 

"Archer?" I asked. 

He replied in the same formal tone, "Don't talk to me in front of my parents. In fact don't talk at all. Let me do the talking."

"Okay." I said, taken aback by what he had said. He never talked to me like that!

We waited in the living room uncomfortably on the super luxurious sofa for around fifteen minutes. 

The door opened and Archer immediately stood up. I followed in suit, and stood up too. A man in regal clothing walked in. A very pretty woman clung to his arm, and Archer greeted them, "Father, mother, how do you do?" And bowed.

I bowed too, as I had never felt so self conscious around anyone before. Archer lifted his head, and so did I. His parents took a seat, and Archer only sat down a few moments after they did. I also sat down when Archer sat down. 

"Archer, we have heard about your progress from Benson. We must say, we are very proud." His mother said sweetly, but the formal barrier around him and his parents still held strong. 

"Graduating in one year, eh? You could've done better." His father said. 

"I'm sorry father, I'll try to do better next time." Even though his eyes showed immense hatred, his voice remained neutral and polite. 

"You better. Who is this girl?" He asked Archer, like I was not sitting right there. 

"This is Aurora," He said calmly, "She also graduated the Academy with me."

"She reeks of Genius. What is she doing here?" He said. 

I opened my mouth to speak, but I closed it as Archer started defending me. "Aurora is an exceptional student, and she deserves to be a rank 11, more than I do. Her-"

"Rank 11?! You both are rank 11?" His father said, like he didn't believe it.

"Yes, father, both of us possess the title of rank 11." Archer said, trying to be as calm as he could. 

His father rolled his eyes, "Like hell you are! No one has ever, possessed the rank of 11. To be that, you must not only be a normal assassin, you must be a genius too!"

"Father, I assure you, I'm stating the truth. You may call the chancellor to clarify this." He said. 

"Curtis! Ring Benson, and get him on my line." His father commanded. 

I looked around at the room, and I could feel the growing tensions. And I thought my childhood was horrible. Archer's parents were beyond horrible. In fact, there was no word in the english dictionary that could define what they were. 

Sure, they looked perfect, but they were far from perfect. It was hard for me to believe that Archer had such a terrible childhood. If I had never seen them like this, I would believe that they were a perfect couple, with a perfect set of twins.

We watched in silence as the chancellor picked the call up. 

"Good afternoon, Mr. Johnson. To what do I owe this pleasure?" The chancellor said.

"What is my son's rank?" He asked.

"If you must know, he's a very accomplished young man-"

Archer's father cut him off, "His rank, Benson." 

"Rank 11, sir." He said, and Archer's father cut the call. 

He said after a pause, "So you weren't lying, son." 

"I wasn't, father." Archer curtly replied, "Excuse me, I need to use the restroom." 

He got up, and subconsciously, I got up too. He gave me a quizzical glance, and that's when his words fully registered in my head. He wanted to go to pee, and I had almost followed him to the bathroom. 

"I also need to pee." I stated, and followed him to the restroom outside the room. 

"I'm sorry!" I said, as soon as we were outside the room. 

He titled his head, "Why're you sorry?"

"I made a complete fool out of myself and you." I said, looking down. 

"I should be sorry because you have to deal with my parents." He said, and put a finger under my chin, till my eyes met his gaze again. 

His eyes captivated me, and I felt something I hadn't ever felt. My hands felt clammy, and my breathing staggered. My heart seemed to beat wildly, all I could hear was the loud beating of my heart in my ears. 

He brushed my bottom lip with his thumb, and I felt a heat rise in my cheeks. He crashed his lips onto mine, and god, it felt so good. So right.   

He didn't kiss gently or softly, he kissed me harshly, but I loved it. It made me crave more. I kissed him back, with nearly the same intensity, and suddenly he pulled away. 

"Sorry." He said, clearing his throat, and went inside the bathroom. I couldn't wrap my head around what had happened. Archer kissed me? I kissed him back? I had feelings for Archer?