I looked around my room and explored some random parts of it for the next hour or so. By the time I was done examining almost every nook and cranny of my room, I checked the digital clock, and it read 7:30 PM. I also couldn't help but wonder why Jasper left so suddenly, and dismissed the whole familiar thing. I knew for a fact there was something she knew that I didn't, and it drove me up the wall not knowing what it was.

I flopped onto the bed on my back, and closed my eyes for a moment, just trying to clear my mind. But as soon as I cleared my mind from these gang situation thoughts, they were almost immediately replaced with thoughts of my mother. Heart-breaking images of when her eyes were completely lifeless and how they slowly closed as her soul left her body. It really stung to think of my mom, so I tried avoiding the thought as much as I could - but I was never successful. 

I eventually fell asleep, but was woken up again by the door swinging open suddenly. I glanced at the clock, and it read 10:38 PM - I had been asleep for over 3 hours. I then saw Jasper standing at the door, looking at me with an expressionless face. "The boss wants to see you, now...to you know, assign you your first mission." She mutters, stepping to the side, gesturing for me to walk out. I hop off of the bed, rub the sleep from my eyes, and slowly trudge out, Jasper then taking the lead as we enter the hallway.

We walked in silence all the way to an old elevator, which looked really dangerous, but I walked in anyways. Jasper enters after me, pressing a button that had the letters 'UG' on it. I assumed it stood for 'underground' or something. I felt the elevator begin to descend, with a few low creaky noises here and there (which was not helping with my stress at all). After about a minute of awkward silence, the elevator stopped, and doors slowly slid open. As we walk, I look around.

It was like a huge underground system: Rubies counting money here, huge chicks with rainbow dreadlocks and blacksmith-style aprons building weapons there, more women that looked similar to Jasper playing poker in the dark part of the room, and there were many more people working, but I couldn't count them all. But in the center of the room, I saw none other than Lapis Lazuli sitting on a pool table, talking to some skinny girls with pointy noses - kinda similar to the girl I saw apart of the 'Crystal Gems'. 

"Ma'am, your Peridot is here to be assigned her first mission..." Jasper announces, silencing the girls Lapis was previously talking to. Lapis turns her head and looks me up and down, lighting another cigarette and placing it in her mouth. As soon as she's done examining me, she puts her lighter back in her jacket pocket, and puffs a cloud of smoke right in my face. I use all my strength to not flinch and start having a coughing fit. Lapis stares at me for a moment once again, then looks back at Jasper with disinterest. "That'll be all, cheeto puff..." Lapis finally mumbles. 

Jasper takes the hint, and walks away toward the other girls playing poker. The bluenette hops off of the pool table, and snaps her fingers, never taking her eyes off of me.  "Pearl! Gimme two cues!" She shouts, and Pearl immediately reaches under the table, pulling out the two sticks. Lapis takes them, and hands me one. I shakily take it, and she picks up one of those blue chalk things that you rub on the tip of the cue sticks off of the table. "So tell me, Peridot. What're your strengths and weaknesses?" the blue-haired girl asks, rubbing the thingy on the stick. 

"Well, I, um...I know martial arts, I'm pretty strong, I like to do math, a-and I work good with techy stuff..." I explain, spinning the cue in my hand nervously. She then hands the blue chalk to me, and I struggle to rub the thing on my cue stick, and I can tell that she is visibly amused by my inexperience. She thinks for a moment, then aims her stick at the white pool ball, and thrusts the stick forward, shooting it forward and knocking almost every colored pool ball into a hole. Was that good? I asked myself, having very limited knowledge on the game. By the satisfactory expression on her face, I assumed it was. 

"Well then, your first assignment will be to build a drone that can spy on the Crystal Gems and the other Diamond Authorities. Can you do that?" She asks. Now her voice sounded considerate, but her face told me different. She looked at me like if I said no, she would pull out an AK-47 and blow my brains out right then and there. I didn't wanna find out if she actually would do that, so I agreed to it. "Great. I want this done by the end of the week. And when you finish this, you will be assigned a much more important mission, understand?" "Y-yes, boss..." I mutter, walking up to the pool table, trying to figure out how to play this complicated game.

The bluenette chuckles, takes the stick from me, and takes my turn, once again launching every colored ball into a hole. "Figured you wouldn't know how this worked..." she mumbled with a smirk. "Now get to it. Jasper will show you where to get your tools and supplies and all that good stuff. Now get outta my face..." Lapis says, oddly in a happy tone. I quickly speed walk over to where Jasper was, and she looked up at me with a dirty look. What's her problem?  "Hey, I need supplies for the drone I'm building, and Lapis told me to ask you for them..." I explained coldly, hoping to send her the message that I'm not keen on socializing with her either.

Jasper lets out a grunt, then stands up out of her chair, towering over me. "Fine, come with me..." She mumbles, anger in her voice.