Rejection hurts. It certainly doesn’t feel good, but we have to find a way past it. I didn’t want to show that I was upset, but I was walking around with my heart in my gut. I had my heart set on being on TV and getting a record deal with high-class producers. I could be doing shows every night for the rest of my life. But here I am in Charleston, South Carolina, waiting for a miracle to happen.
I felt a lot of emotions during that month: excited, anxious, happy. But by the end of the month I was feeling more upset, depressed, and embarrassed. Now, I really don’t care because I know there will be more to come…..
Chapter 7: In Time to Come
I know that this is only the beginning. I know there will be a lot more opportunities in the future. I hope to try out for American Idol in the future. More than that, I hope to go to a musical arts school some where in New York. I hope to make it big, but I know that doesn’t come easy. It’s a lot of work and a lot of effort that goes into all of this. I also hope to be on Broadway. I have to work my way up, but that starts with what I’m doing now. Right now, I’m trying to get as well rounded as I can possibly be. My dreams will come true in time to come.
Olivia Kinsinger
Chapter 1
Five years ago, Lucy Fray’s life had been perfect. You might even say she was perfect. Everyone adored and admired her for her natural charm and sweetness, her ambition, her work ethic, and her beauty. She had worked hard all throughout high school, and she went to Stanford, as she had always dreamed. It was her junior year there when she, Isabelle, Jane, and Kasey, as if by fate, became best friends. They were all smart, but Lucy was the top of the class, and the one the teachers praised. Soon, she became the leader of their little group. Lucy never even stopped to consider if they were jealous of her, and her success. Despite all of that, they all had the same dream: to be spies in the CIA. So, as they went into their senior year at Stanford, continuing to excel at everything, they began looking into working for the agency. After piles of paperwork, and many tests, they were accepted into CIA training for one year. They graduated Stanford, Lucy valedictorian, of course. Then they went into training for one year.
At training, they learned to work as a team. While they were there, Lucy met the handsome and smart James. They fell for each other, and made the perfect couple. They were both the best at training camp. The year passed quickly, and because they passed all of the tests and excelled at training, they became official CIA agents. Lucy, Jane, Isabelle, and Kasey were, of course, an official four-some attack team. They were moved to San Francisco, and James was placed at the same base with them there. For two years they worked as a team in their missions. They were the unbeatable attack team. Lucy had the brains, Isabelle was fierce and courageous, Jane was good with technology, and Kasey was good at interrogating convicts. On their first mission, Lucy wore a deep scarlet colored wig. So, they began calling her Scarlet, and then she decided to go by that name. James and Scarlet saw each other a lot over those two years, and eventually he asked her to marry him. She was so happy; she was the luckiest girl in the world. She had everything. She had James, the job of her dreams, and her best friends. Everything was perfect.
Not long after the proposal, Scarlet, James, and the attack team went on an important mission to take down America’s biggest threat: a man named the Belgian. He was an international weapons dealer, and he was becoming too powerful and dangerous. Scarlet and James weren’t focused, they were just happy and in love. However, in that one mission their bliss proved a fatal mistake.
Chapter 2
Scarlet was putting her engagement ring on her finger when there was a knock on her bathroom door. She opened the door and Isabelle was standing there wearing a long, midnight blue gown, her inky black hair swirled on top of her head. “Are you about ready?” she asked. Scarlet sighed. “Just about,” she replied while taking one last look in the mirror at herself. She was wearing a light pink cocktail dress for this evening’s mission, and her silvery blonde hair was in waterfall curls. She turned back to Isabelle and said, ”Isabelle, you are my best friend. We have accomplished everything we’ve ever wanted together. You are my partner on missions, and you’ve saved my life at least a dozen times. Will you be my maid of honor for my wedding?” Isabelle nodded solemnly, “of course, ” she said. The two girls giggled. “Thank you, this means the world to me!” Scarlet said. The tears were threatening to come. “I’m so happy! I’m getting married, and my best friend will be right with me,” Scarlet exclaimed. Isabelle smiled “Well lets focus on the mission for now.” Scarlet nodded and followed Isabelle out the door.
While Scarlet was driving she went over the mission in her head, as she always did. She and her fiancé James were to sneak into the Belgian’s party together. Then they had to find the computer they needed to get the information out of. Then they would get the information the CIA needed out of it, and then they would leave the party. The hard part was doing it with out being compromised or noticed. Isabelle, Jane, and Kasey would be at the party directing them where to go, and making sure the coast was clear, and acting as back up if anything went wrong. Nothing should go wrong though, Scarlet thought, this mission is totally safe, and it’ll be so easy I’ve done this a million times. She could see James’s car, and he was standing outside of it along with Jane and Kasey. She pulled up, and the two girls got out. “Alright, Scarlet and I are going to sneak in around back, and you all are acting as guests and you go in through the front,” James said. They all nodded, and he and Scarlet departed from the group. Scarlet and James walked for about five minutes, and then they saw the Belgian’s mansion. It was out in the quiet countryside of Russia, pretty much in the middle of nowhere, so the huge, grand mansion really stuck out.
Breaking in around back was simple; Scarlet couldn’t really remember that part of the mission. The mission continued, but she wasn’t even paying attention to what she was doing, she was dreaming about her wedding. The girls, who were in the banquet hall of the mansion with the all the party guests, were telling them what to do and where to go. James and Scarlet found the computer they were looking for, and were almost done downloading the information on a chip when they heard footsteps in the hallway. This shouldn’t be happening Scarlet thought the girls were supposed to make sure no one came to this floor. That’s all Scarlet could remember happening before she heard the gun shots, and saw her fiancé sprawled on the floor, blood pouring from his fatal wound. Everything else was a blur. The girls were suddenly there; there were more gunshots, a lot of punching and kicking. Then Isabelle was dragging her from the mansion, with out the chip.
By pure luck the four girls made it out of there alive. But Scarlet didn’t care; with James dead she didn’t want to be alive. She wept the entire plane ride back to California. She got home and wouldn’t leave her bedroom, she wouldn’t see her friends, she wouldn’t eat, and she wouldn’t sleep. She only cried. About a month after James’ death, Scarlet decided to try and start working again. She was cleaning out her team’s weapons and equipment, when she found a tracking device in Jane’s boot. This kind of tracking device was used to locate someone whose tracking device was hooked up to yours, and it was also used for communication between the two people. Scarlet, Isabelle, Jane, and Kasey used tracking devices to find and communicate with each other all the time on missions, but something was off about this one. Suspicious, Scarlet began examining the device. Scarlet soon realized this tracking device wasn’t hooked up to a CIA network, and she found it in the boot Jane had been wearing the night James had died. Could this be how the Belgian had found her and James that horrible night? Could Jane be a traitor? Scarlet’s heart was racing, and she turned and raced out through the door…….
Chapter 3
As soon as Scarlet had found Jane in the upstairs of the base, she began accusing her of treason which had resulted in the death of her fiancé. Jane denied betraying the CIA and her team, and she passed the lie detect
or test. Scarlet still knew there was something wrong; she knew there was a traitor among the team. The four girls became suspicious of each other, and they all threw accusations at one another, and were constantly fighting amongst themselves. Of course each girl had her own idea of who the traitor was, but Scarlet and Jane developed the most antagonistic relationship. A few days after Scarlet had found the tracking device, the fighting became too much for her and the girls. They split up, all moving to different parts around the world. All communication between the group was severed. They went from the best of friends to the worst of enemies.
Still looking back, it was not the mission on the night James had died, nor was it the discovering of the tracking device or the chaos among the group that had followed that Scarlet remembered. But, it was the plane ride to Rome, her new location that she remembered. She remembered that almost physical pain of loss. She remembered the words that went through her head again and again I have lost everything. Everything. Loss and emptiness were not the only feelings she felt, though. The sense of being betrayed, and revenge filled her head. To get back at whoever had done this to her, and I will never forgive them, she thought. They have taken everything from me. My life had been perfect. Perfect. And I shall never forgive them. And I will kill them. It was then that she built her resistance, and the walls went up around her heart her now cold heart. The events of the last few months, beginning with James’ death had left a scar on her life, and from that moment on everyone called her Scar. The girl who had once laughed, and was charming, and was adored by her friends was gone. The bitter, arrogant Scar took her place.
2 years later…..
Scar awoke to the sound of her alarm, and brilliant sunlight pouring through the window onto her face. Sighing, she rolled out of bed and stood in front of the window, another beautiful day in Rome. How contrasting to her usual unhappy mood. She dragged herself across her expensive, huge apartment to her closet. She put on her tight, black leather pants, a pink blouse topped with a black leather jacket, and black high heeled boots. After applying makeup and putting her silvery blonde hair into a perfect ponytail, she just stared in the mirror. She looked pretty, she thought, but not the beautiful happy girl she had once been. Now she looked dangerous, and distant, as if she was barely there. She had little to live for, revenge, and doing what needed to help her country, was her motivation. But she almost had no feelings now. She had learned to bury them, but with little success a week ago. Unconsciously, she lifted up her shirt and looked at the still healing wound on her side. She saw flashbacks of last week’s mission. She had seen the Belgian and rashly ran forward to attack him. He was caught of guard, but still managed to grab her and take a stab at her. Her partner, luckily, ran after her, and was able to drag her out of there, even as the Belgian and his men were running after them. The memory made Scar grimace.
Scar ducked out of her fancy sports car, and strutted into the lobby of the base. Her high-heeled boots making a clanking noise on the marble floor, everyone who was working in the room turned to stare. This was her first time back to work since the last mission; she had been recovering at the hospital for the past week. “They should have stabbed her harder.” She heard a girl named Victoria, who she disliked very, much whisper. As Scar walked by she made a sarcastic, snide comment back at Victoria. Victoria was used to Scar’s arrogant, rude attitude, but it still upset her. She always told herself, when Scar made a rude remark to her like that, that Scar had no one and nothing to make her happy. Today however, she had something to say to Scar that would make her seem the inferior one. “Oh and Scar,” said Victoria, a faint smile playing at her lips. Scar spun on her dangerously high heel, still positioned in her haughty posture. “Yes?” she demanded. “Your meeting with MI6 is in twenty minutes
Chapter 4
After staring at Victoria in pure horror for what seemed like a very long minute, Scar regained her icy composure. “Very well,” she replied, her words as sharp and cutting as shards of ice. “I’ll make my way down there with Joseph right now.” With that she stalked off out of the foyer, silently cursing Joseph. Why hadn’t he told her? Yeah, she had been in the hospital unconscious for the last week, but he knows how she hated M16. M16 is Britain’s equivalent of the CIA. Scar had run into them time to time at missions. The two agencies were always competing with each other, trying to find the confidential information or whatever else it was they were doing, before the other could get to it. Most of all it was the agents that she hated most of all. They were all snobs, extremely prejudiced and irksome especially one team of in particular. However, the enmity between the teams was mutual. That team and Scar’s were rivals, always competing, but not exactly enemies. The enemies were the bad guys. But Scar had a bad feeling about what must have happened to cause this meeting. All these thoughts and flashbacks of missions were swirling through Scar’s head. She was making her way to the end of the hallway where an old elevator read “out of service” on its heavy, metal door. She placed her hand on the door, and it immediately responded to her touch. The door opened, revealing a long flight of stairs for her to descend. She hurried down the stairs. Beneath it was a brightly lit space, which was what they called Castle. It had a meeting room, her personal office, a training room a weapons room, and a few imprisonment cells, which the CIA used as back up for holding convicts. She stood at the bottom of the stairs, glaring at her partner, Joseph, who was smiled at her nervously from across the room. “Good morning Scar, are you feeling better? I have your latte.” “Joseph, come here,” Scar, said her voice perfectly still and cool. Joseph knew this voice he called it scary calm. When Scar got so mad she would be so calm it could be scary. It was silly, Joseph was a CIA agent trained in combat and weapons, and his partner intimidated him. However, he probably knew Scar better than anyone, he was the only person she almost opened up to, and that was because they had been on missions for 2 years together. He knew that this wasn’t how she really was, that she wore this mask to hide her real pain. He didn’t know Scar’s whole story, but throughout the years he had unraveled bits and pieces. She walked toward Scarlet, and she took the latte, and peacefully sipped it. “So, we are meeting with M16 I understand, it came as a shock to me since I was apparently unaware of this situation. Would you like to explain to me what is going on, Joseph.” Scar said in a frighteningly soothing voice. “Well,” Joseph replied. “The General is concerned about the situation with the Belgian arms dealer. We have tried to take him down, but have failed and lost many of our agents while trying. We even almost lost our best agent last week.” A pain shot through Scar as she thought of James, and then as she touched her knife wound from last mission. “So,” Joseph continued. “The General wants to look into a direct alliance with M16, and by direct alliance, she means working hand in hand with our rival team. Scar’s heart dropped, why was this happening? Did the General believe Scar couldn’t do it on her own? And why did they have to work with them? “Alright lets get it over with, Scar said taking a deep breath. With that she and Joseph made their way into the meeting room.
Sitting at a long table waiting for them, was the other member of their team Colonel Patrick, and sitting next to them was the General, who assigned them their missions, and sitting across from them was the M16 team. She immediately recognized them: Camille, Robert, and him.
Chapter 5
In a failed attempt to conceal her horror, Scar gasped loudly. The members of the conference turned around to look at her. Scar quickly took her seat between the general and him. “How nice of you to join us Agent Scar,” the general said. “As I was saying,” she continued with whatever she had been discussing with the group. “This Belgian terrorist is a huge threat to us, he has already developed many powerful and deadly weapons the world has never seen before. He killed one of our agents two years ago, and a week ago he abducted and nearly killed our best agent.” Scar could feel all the eyes on her now. “So, the CIA will be attempt
ing a hand-in-hand special operation to take down this Belgian terrorist with M16. Scar, you and your team will be pairing up with M16’s Agent Walker and his team.” Scar regained her arrogance and replied, “My team and I will not work or be in any way involved with them,” Scar injected poison in those few words, and shot a murderous glare at Agent Walker. He was the one man, besides the Belgian whom she despised most in the world. He was the M16 equivalent of what she was, the leader in special operations. He was horrible, arrogant, and bitter. She couldn’t stand him, and now she was told she would have to work with him. “Yes,” he replied. “What good can she and her team do? We don’t need their help.” “Stop it, both of you! You are to work together, as co-leaders in this mission. Do you understand?” the general demanded. “Good. You will begin work tomorrow.”
“I can’t believe him!” Scar shouted for the hundredth time, as she delivered a blow to his stomach. Joseph grunted; he hated fighting Scar when she was angry. They had just come into the training room and were practicing their hand-to-hand combat with each other, and Scar hadn’t stopped complaining. “Who does he think he is, talking to me like that?” She ducked to avoid the kick Joseph had just swung at her. “I will not work with that man. You should have warned me Joseph, you know I can’t stand them!” Joseph said nothing; he knew this would be good for Scar. She needed someone who could treat her like that. Honestly, Jonathan Walker reminded him of Scar so much: alone, demanding, aggressive, sarcastic, independent, intense. “Well, lets just get through this and focus on what needs to be done,” he replied in a resigned tone.
The next day Scar was ready for business. She had convinced herself, that although she was furious she had to work with Jonathan Walker, he was on her side and they had to work together. She knew secretly that up against the man who had killed her fiancé and had nearly killed her, she needed all the help she could get, and Jonathan was a good spy. She walked into the conference room taking a deep breath. Jonathan was waiting there. He had blonde golden hair that spiked up at the front. He was tall and muscular, and was dressed in black spy gear. Nervously, she smoothed her silvery blonde hair, and straitened her black shirt. He looked up at her and she just stared back for a moment, then she tore her gaze away from him. He had saved her the seat at the head of the table. With a nod she took it. Then the members of her team and his team, well now their combined team, started filing in the room. Their team was Scar, Joseph, Colonel Patrick, Jonathan, Robert, and Camille. Everyone took his or her seats. Scar took the initiative to speak first. “Well this mission will not be easy, my fiancé died at the hands of this man, and last week I nearly did as well. We need to act soon, so Jonathan, how do you propose to go about this mission?” Scar’s voice was intense and hard. “Lets see what the Belgian has been up to lately, and well see if we can locate his whereabouts. Camille, pull up what you can about him,” Jonathan said. Camille pulled up his profile on the computer. “He was here in Rome last week, however it seems it was a trap of his I fell into. He had expected me to be there, but I have no idea how. If we act now he won’t expect us to come back this soon,” Scar said “Oh,” Camille gasped. “I found him, he will be hosting a weapons auction in his house. All of his secret new weapons will be there, and so will a lot of bad guys. We need to be there otherwise, these new kinds of weapons will be released to all sorts of terrorists. This is our chance to take down him, and prevent these deadly devices from getting into the wrong hands. But how will be able to get in, security will be very high, this will be extremely dangerous, and its in three days? We need more help this is almost impossible!” She looked at Scar and Jonathan for an answer. But it was Joseph who spoke. “Scar, I think you know who we need for help……..”
The Meandering Mind - Creative Musings of 7th Graders Page 17
