Chapter Text
Alex Rider was going back to school. For the typical adolescent, it’s a day that’s dreaded. But for Alex, it’s a relief. His “job” along with the usually scarring aftermath of it tended to keep him away from his education for weeks at a time. It wasn’t really being at school that relieved Alex, it was the whole being recovered enough to even go to school that he enjoyed.
When put not so vaguely, Alex is a spy. The thing a lot of kids want to be, and he’s forced to be. At 14 he’s been through more than most grown men would ever experience. His most recent assignment had even gotten him admitted to a special hospital reserved for undercover agents: St. Dominic's. So in defense of his absence, this time he actually had been hospitalized. It’s just that it had been for life threatening injuries and not a poorly functioning immune system.
As Alex rode his bike to school, he wondered what his fellow year 10 classmates were thinking about him. It wasn’t that he actually cared about their opinions, but they had been getting more and more suspicious as his missions continued. It was inevitable as the constant excuse of him being sick made no sense, since Alex wouldn’t show any symptoms of sickness in the days leading to his abrupt disappearances. Some of the students that disliked Alex or just didn’t know him well had even been spreading rumors about him joining a gang or being a general delinquent. Alex found that to be one of the more infuriating parts of his absences. Whenever he did happen to come back to school, teachers who had heard the rumors would be far less accommodating. Needless to say, his grades had taken a severe nosedive.
Alex pulled the handbrake and stopped his bike with the front wheel sliding into the bike rack. He dismounted the bike and bent over to lock it, wincing every step of the way. His back was still sore from the burns he received on the last mission. He clicked the padlock shut before slowly standing back up. He stretched out his back as much as he could without shooting intense pain across his body.
"Alex!"
The yell was faint and sounded too happy to belong to a teenager this early in the morning. Yet a teenager was exactly who the voice belonged to—Tom Harris, to be precise. Tom was Alex’s best friend and one of the very few people who knew the truth about what he did. The only others that knew were Sabina Pleasure and Jack Starbright. Respectively, one of Alex’s closest friends and his legal guardian.
Alex turned to Tom at the exact moment the overly excited teen crashed into the ground. The culprit of Tom’s tumble: an out of place stone. Alex didn’t laugh much, but even he chuckled as he walked over to greet him.
I'm ashamed of you, Tom." Alex scolded when he reached the fallen boy. "We've known each other for such a long time and you never told me about your close relationship to the dirt."
"Shut up," Tom grumbled. Alex reached out his arm to help Tom up. Tom grabbed it and pulled himself to his feet. After he brushed himself off, Tom began to question Alex.
"Where have you been? Were you out with a fever or something?" The “or something” had been said in a sly tone. Clearly indicating Tom knew he hadn’t been sick.
“You know why I was out Tom.” Alex sighed. He tried to avoid thinking about his forced employment, but it didn’t help that Tom constantly wanted to talk about it. Alex understood why. For Tom, being a spy was living the dream. If only he knew the nightmares it gave Alex — awake or asleep.
"Does it have anything to do with why you disappeared during the Greenfields trip?" Tom continued. When Alex hesitantly nodded Tom added, “You will tell me about it, right?"
"I’ll tell you later, but I don’t think you’ll like what you hear," Alex said, grimacing. He heard other students approaching and decided it was best to switch to a less classified topic of conversation.
"We better get inside. I don't want my first day back to include being yelled at by Mrs. Cod for being late to Maths." Alex said to Tom. He nodded in agreement and they walked together into the building.
Of course there was still plenty of time to get to class, Alex just wanted an excuse to go inside. They took seats next to each other, among the few students that arrived early for extra studying. The rest of the class trickled in within their respective clumps of friends. Mrs. Cod walked into the classroom and was starting to close the door when Steven Johnson burst through it, arriving seconds before the bell.
"Mr. Johnson, please learn to get to class on time without having to run. It's a safety hazard to the student body." Mrs. Cod said, prompting most of the class to stop their chatter and turn towards them. The reprimanded boy’s face turned redder than a nasty sunburn as he sheepishly made his way to an empty seat.
"I was told by Principal Bray to say that you'll be having an assembly instead of fourth hour." Mrs. Cod announced as she walked to her small desk. The students began to murmur amongst themselves and Mrs. Cod shushed them immediately, telling them to do the warm up written on the board.
Mrs. Cod was the perfect example of the stereotypical maths teacher. She wore a plain white blouse tucked into a long brown skirt with a cream colored cardigan that only had the middle button done. For shoes, she always had sensible brown flats. Her graying hair was pulled into a tight bun at the top of her head although a few strands had fallen out, framing her stern face. She wore no jewelry but did have a chain around her neck holding her reading glasses — which she placed on to call roll.
In her slow and monotonous voice, she called out the names and just as slowly, everyone responded. She looked down at her list and almost skipped past the name due to recent absences.
"Alex Rider." She called out. Almost right after she called it she started saying the next name before-
"Here"
At least two-thirds of the class stopped doing their warm up and turned to face the voice that rang out. Alex, the owner of the voice, hid his slight surprise and whispered to his friend.
"Tom, they’re staring."
Tom responded with a shrug and said, "Maybe they just didn't expect you to be here today. You are absent an awful lot." Alex only sighed and rolled his eyes. 'What had MI6 done to him?' He thought.
"Druggie Rider? I thought the dude had finally gotten himself arrested." One of the more arrogant teens in his class sneered. A few of the students around him snickered at the comment.
"There will be no name-calling in my classroom!" Mrs. Cod snapped, "I will see you after class Brian! You too, Alex."
"What did I do?" Alex asked a bit wide-eyed.
"Nothing." Mrs. Cod said in a voice that almost sounded reassuring. "I need to make sure you’re keeping up with the rest of the class now that you’re better."
"Oh,"
Even though Alex had been out for two weeks he understood the basics of what they were doing. Tom sent him the notes and it’s not like there was much to do propped up in a hospital bed. After another hour, the class came to an end as the bell rang. Brian tried to unsuccessfully sneak out of the classroom, only worsening his punishment.
"See you in history. " Tom said as he left to go to his next class. Alex nodded and walked up to the teacher's desk hearing the end of Mrs. Cod’s lecture.
" -since you decided to pull that escape at the end of class I’ve decided you deserve a week of detention." Mrs. Cod announced, "You are dismissed."
Brian just scowled and purposely bumped into Alex on his way out.
"Alex," Mrs. Cod said, "Has he said things like that before? Have other students been calling you names?"
"No ma’am." Alex lied, trying to sound shocked at what had happened. In reality, the name 'druggie' started being used after the science wing exploded months ago. Maybe it had even been before then, but that was the first time Alex heard the name calling.
"Alright Alex," Mrs. Cod sighed, "If it happens again please tell me. Based on your work you seem to be keeping up okay. You’re still a bit behind for the test next week. I can’t give you any sort of extension but just do the study guide and you’ll be fine. If you’re having any problems I’m having a Q and A session after school the day before the test. You can go ahead to your next class now.” Alex thanked her before heading out the door.
"Rider." A voice growled behind him as he left. Alex sighed already knowing the owner of the voice.
"Long time no see, Brian," Alex replied sarcastically, not turning towards him. He just continued walking as Brian followed him through the halls.
"Look at me when I talk to you." Brian snarled. When Alex didn't reply to this he continued, "What? Do you think you’re better than me or something? You skip school to get high. You have as much value as the shit in the toilet."
"I’d suggest not cursing, you’ll just get yourself in more trouble," Alex said, continuing on his way to class. Unfortunately, the halls were empty by this point so there was no sea of students where he could lose the nuisance.
"You smug little—" Brian started.
Alex stopped walking, turned around, and faced Brian. He took a deep breath and calmly replied. "My next class is around the corner. All I have to do is take a couple of steps, the teacher will hear your filthy language, and you’ll be in trouble again. To avoid that misfortune, I suggest you walk away. You’re not worth my time and surely I can’t be worth yours.”
Brian looked like he was going to spit a retort before huffing and brushing past Alex, shoving through him on purpose for a second time that day. Alex didn’t bother looking after Brian as he stomped away like a two-year-old. Instead, Alex continued to his class on the other side of the school, far off from being around the corner.
The next few hours passed quickly for Alex. Second period began, ended, and before he knew it, the end of the third period was quickly approaching. His third period was a history course taught by a man named Charles Yarrow. Mr. Yarrow elected to have his class line up a few minutes ahead of time so that they could efficiently head to the auditorium. Unfortunately for him, he decided to mention that the order the class lined up in would be how they’d be sitting.
As soon as those words left his lips the class was in chaos. All the students were pushing, shoving, and squirming; trying to get to where all of their friends stood. Alex was just going to stay where he was when he was pulled to the back of the line by two students. One was Tom and the other was James Hale.
"The assembly is going to be boring, I can already tell." Tom explained, "I forgot my earbuds so that means that I'm going to want to talk to you and James the whole time. The only way we can manage that is if we sit in the back."
James looked as though he wanted to say something but was cut off by Mr. Yarrow, "Alright class, settle down and we can head to the auditorium."
When Alex’s class got to the auditorium they happened to be one of the last classes to arrive. The first thing Alex noticed was Mr. Bray standing on the stage attempting to adjust the mic stand. Mr. Yarrow ushered him into his seat before he could ask about the assembly’s purpose. He sat down in the aisle seat of the back row of the center section. James sat next to Tom, who sat next to Alex. Other students filled in around them, everyone chatting loudly.
"Quiet down." Mr. Bray said weakly into the mic. He repeated the order a bit louder and the feedback caused the auditorium to go silent.
"Thank you.” He said, proudly. “To explain why this last minute assembly was called I would like Mr. Gilbert to come up. You all are very fortunate to have this assembly today and I would like you to give the utmost respect to every speaker."
Once Mr. Bray finished, he stepped away from the mic stand to allow Mr. Gilbert to speak. Mr. Gilbert was not one for fancy introductions, so he went directly to the purpose.
"A couple of scientists heard about how the year 10 class's field trip to Greenfields got cut short. So... they decided to come here to inform us about genetically modified organisms! Isn't that great?" There were a few scattered claps but for the most part, everyone stayed silent.
Mr. Gilbert looked apologetically over at the scientists standing offstage. He cleared his throat and repeated, "I said, isn't that great!" Everyone clapped louder. A few sarcastic “whoops” were scattered amongst the crowd.
"Good enough." Mr. Gilbert muttered too quietly for anyone to hear, "Let's give another hand to the scientists!" The auditorium was filled with another round of clapping from the less than unenthusiastic students as the scientists came out onto the stage.
"And here I thought it was going to be boring…" Tom whispered, "It's going to be way worse." Alex and James nodded in agreement.
It was then Alex noticed that it wasn't just the two scientists that were new. There were burly and stoic guards dressed in black, blocking all possible exits out of the auditorium. Alex knew they weren’t there when his class entered so where had they come from? Alex nudged Tom and motioned towards them. Tom noticed the added people and furrowed his brow in confusion. No one besides Alex and Tom seemed to have noticed them.
“Maybe they’re like, really important scientists?” Tom whispered.
“Even you know the unlikeliness of that, Tom.” Alex responded. He looked back to the stage, watching the scientists for any signs of what was going on.
One was male and the other female. They both had green eyes with golden flecks. They also both had hair the color of a starless night. Alex thought they might be related, but something was just… off.
"Thank you for having us here today. My sister and I couldn't be happier." The male said. Alex noted that he didn't say their names. Actually, no one had mentioned their names, not even Mr. Bray or Mr. Gilbert. Isn’t that typically the first part of a speech, the introduction? So far he knew nothing about them except that they were GMO scientists. A vague job description within itself.
"He's right. Science is amazing! Science… is life." The second scientist added with a giggle. She had a large smile plastered on her face.
"It’s fake," Alex whispered. As he said the word it made more and more sense. He knew something was off about them. Everything about them was just… fake.
"Now before we start talking about genetically modified foods we'd like to call up a student who we heard about from our friends at Greenfield, This student is incredibly passionate about the study of GMOs and we’d love them to come join my sister and I up here on stage. They’ll be a big help to our presentation." The male said, his voice displaying fake enthusiasm.
The female cleared her throat before saying, "We'd like to call up… Alex Rider." The house lights came up as they waited for the lucky student to come up.
It was then a crack appeared in the facade. Both scientists still held almost comic smiles, but their eyes were narrow slits that scanned the audience full of loathing. Alex groaned as he sank lower into his chair, scraping his injured back.