Sparrow Truman: April 29th,20xx

I waited in my car and impatiently tapped my foot on the gas while waiting for a text back from the Quads and Melissa. I could see them from my vantage point in my car and considered asking them to retreat.

Even though it was my plan, they looked downright ominous in their matching dark green jumpers and spray painted masks. The team of over enthusiastic minions crouched behind a bush in the large courtyard and laid in wait for the track team to finish their practice.

My phone buzzed and drew my attention back to its hard plastic screen. Melissa’s number lit up the screen and I quickly picked up the call.

“In position…. The target is approaching… The Quads are going in. Over”

There was nothing wrong with the connection, so I could only assume that she was taking so many dramatic pauses for her own sense of fun.

“The Target has been apprehended. Resistance was attempted but quickly abandoned. Over”

I heard a concerning sound come from the speakers and angry voices, but Melissa didn’t comment on it. I stuck my head out of the car, but they were too far away and there were too many obstacles in my way.

“The target has given up resisting completely. Expect drop off in T minus thirty seconds. Over.”

I started the car up properly and unlocked the passenger seat. After a moment of thought, I cleared out the obstacles in the seat and tried to push it back as far as it could go. He was a pretty large fella, after all.

Just as soon as I finished my hasty cleaning, the door slammed open, and a harried Jake whipped the bag off his head around and tried to confront me on why I’d chosen to do things like this. Sadly, his thoughts were interrupted by the sound of my engines roaring and me taking off out of the school parking lot.

He desperately pulled at the seat belts and triple checked their security before turning to talk to me.

“You know… you could just have texted me to meet you. If I hadn’t realized who was kidnapping me, I might have reacted a lot stronger than I did. ”

He was right, but doing that wouldn’t be nearly as fun as this had been. There was also the consideration that he might have had plans that weren’t aligned with mine.

“Well, it’s more fun this way, and you’re smart. I had faith that you’d relax and play along.”

His lips pursed together as he realized he’d done exactly that.

“Don’t worry about your car. Melissa will drop it off at your house. I’ll drive you back home, but I’m planning on staying pretty late. Tell me when you have to leave, and I’ll arrange something. Do you need to pick up the kids today?”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

He shook his head, but then brought out his phone and quickly texted his stepmother to confirm. I noticed a cute, sparkly baseball bat charm that hung off his case. There were a few others on there, namely a plastic pair of track shoes and a butterfly, but the bat definitely stood out the most. I couldn’t quite recognize the metal it was made out of, but it looked like some variant of copper.

“Where did you get that? And why a bat? Don’t you only do track? Oh… and your martial arts.”

He turned his phone around to figure out what I was talking about and let out a small sound before responding.

“Oh, Finn gave it to me when he came back from his trip. And I don’t know why it’s a bat either, but... you sure know a lot about me. Did you get someone to investigate me?”

He looked at me like he expected me to be embarrassed at being found out, but if I hadn’t wanted him to know I’d seen Will’s file on him, then I would have brought these things up. I’d wondered why Will was so interested In Jake, but I put my context clues together and figured Jake had become a subject of interest for the company. He would probably get a contract with them soon.

I was happy for Jake, but I couldn’t help but feel a little jealous.

Why was my older brother helping him get a job before helping me?

Well… It was probably my fault. When I was younger, Will had offered to get me a job, and I’d said that I’d rather die than get a job through connections.

I’d been a pretty dumb kid.

“Well, of course I wanted to know who was hanging around my younger brother these days. What if you had been a bad person?”

I redirected my attention to the road as we hit the interstate and tightened my grip on the wheel. While I was a great driver, I didn’t have as much faith in the others I shared the road with. While weaving through the traffic, I felt Jake’s stunned gaze on me as he tried to force me to clarify my earlier statement, but I didn’t feel like there was anything to clarify.

Without turning my head, I gave in to the urge to tease him once again.

“If you keep staring at me like that, I might blush.”

Unlike Finn’s more androgynous charm, Jake was very clearly masculine in his appearance. From his large athletic body to the rugged nature of his facial features, his sharp eyes that sat atop strong cheekbones and a solid jawline, and the bright green shirt that clung to his chest that was still damp from his shower at school-

“Sparrow! Look at the road!”

Jake broke my admiration by screaming at me and grabbing at the handle on his side of the car. I turned back to the road and calmly weaved around the truck that had randomly slowed to a stop in front of us. We pulled to a stop at an intersection, and I noticed that the road immediately ahead of us was in pieces.

I suspected construction, but I also didn’t see any of the familiar bright orange trucks that marked the government workers.

I turned into the residential area and matched the turtle-pace speed limit. As uncomfortable as it was to drive this slowly, I wouldn’t take any risks in a place with kids and potential pedestrians.

Jake used the back of his hand to wipe the sweat off his brow and finally gathered enough of a breath to scold me with a strained voice.

“How the hell have they not revoked your license?”

The same uncomfortable feeling that I occasionally got suddenly made my stomach hurt and my grip slightly loosened from the steering wheel. I wanted to pull over and stop the car, but I got the feeling that would be a terrible decision.

“Jake, hold on tight!”

Before he could ask any more questions, I floored the gas and sped out of the roundabout seconds before that same truck we’d narrowly missed earlier went barreling into the statue monument we had just circled.

My hands trembled and my eyes slightly blurred, but I didn’t stop driving until we were far enough from the accident site.

Jake and I sat in silence to recover from the near-death experience we had just shared. I was still rattled and confused, but I recovered much faster than Jake and thought to respond to his earlier question.

“For your information, I’m a terrific driver. You’re just so handsome I got distracted.”

The sudden compliment pulled him out of his daze by a bit, but then he went to actively ignoring me.