Life Knows No Loyalties
by Astorina
Disclaimer: Sandoval, Tate, and the world they live in belong to Tribune. Any characters you don't recognize probably belong to the author.
***
Rachel scrutinized the drawing in the margin of her notes. The caricature of Mrs.Sward was actually coming out pretty well. She smiled to herself, then erased the nose to enlarge it ever so slightly. An insistent poking at the center of her back made her turn around in annoyance.
"Whatcha doin?" Ah, Chris. One of those boys who hadn't matured beyond the point where bothering the girl in front of him was a sign that he had a crush on her. He was a senior. For some reason, whenever he asked her anything, his eyes reminded her of a puppy's. Big, blue, and innocent.
"Nothin' really. Tell me, how are you managing to stay awake?" Rachel glanced around the room to find half of her classmates asleep.
Chris shrugged and stifled a yawn.
Rachel stifled a yawn of her own, and narrowed her eyes as a piece of paper flew across the room and landed on her desk. From the opposite side of the half lit room, Lauren grinned and waved. Rachel shook her head slightly as she smoothed out the crumpled paper.
All those who teach 1st block AP physics deserve a slow and painful death
She laughed quietly at her best friend.
Meanwhile, Mrs. Sward continued to lecture from the overhead, completely oblivious to the fact that she had lost the attention of the majority of her students.
Rachel quickly scribbled a response, and launched it to Lauren's desk. Lauren paused her note taking and read the note.
Definitely. But I have a feeling we're going to get out of class- it may not be a good thing, I'm not sure.
Lauren looked questioningly at her friend, but Rachel simply shrugged in return.
***
He hated doing this, he really did. They were just kids- but hey, it was what his boss wanted him to do, what he paid him to do, so he had no choice. No choice at all. He was only doing what it took to get ahead in this life- working for the highest bidder. At this moment, it was Sandoval. He knew realistically that he would never get away from him. But for now, he had no time to think about that. He had a job to do. Tate sat down in the empty office's huge leather chair, and propped his feet on the desk in front of him. They would be here any minute, all he had to do was wait.
***
Volunteer Farber knocked quietly on the door to room 165 in the science wing. It had only been a couple of years since he had been a student at Coral Reef Sr. High himself. He knew this room all to well. If nothing had changed, it was Mrs. Sward's AP physics. The bright red door opened, and he was greeted by Mrs. Sward herself.
"Daniel! It certainly is nice to see you again. What can I do for you?" She seemed surprised, but smiled despite herself.
The students stopped what they had been doing, and stared openly with curiosity. Whatever this was it was big.
"Hello.... ma'am. I've been asked to take two of you students to the office..." His voice trailed off. All of those eyes staring at him was kind of unnerving. Clearing his throat, he spoke again. " Umm... Lauren Silver and Rachel Elbaum. They'll need to take their things with them."
The two girls froze, and looked nervously at the Volunteer. The class began whispering as they gathered their belongings.
"Hey, maybe they're trying to recruit you something." Chris laughed from behind Rachel.
"Those two? No way. They wouldn't last a week. Either one of 'em would break a nail and start crying or something." Felix grinned at Rachel. "It's always the quiet ones."
She laughed half heartedly, and bit her lip as she approached the front of the class room. Lauren was already waiting for her.
"You two have a good time, and not to scare anyone." She joked, trying to lighten the mood a bit. She failed miserably as the two started out of the room with grave expressions.
Volunteer Farber nodded towards the teacher and walked swiftly out the door. He maintained his quick pace a few feet in front of the two girls.
"Rachel's intuition strikes again." Lauren whispered to try and comfort her friend who had recently tined a few shades paler.
"I have a really bad feeling about this." Rachel started trembling slightly.
"Come on, it can't be that bad. Any clues as to what's going on?"
"No... I just.." Rachel calmed herself a bit and ran to the Volunteer. "Excuse me." She spoke in a commanding voice. "Can you tell me what's going on here?"
Lauren followed her quickened pace.
"I'm sorry, I have no clue what they want with you. I was just told to take you to room 38." He frowned slightly at the girls' confused expressions.
"Where's that?" Rachel asked Lauren.
"Student services hallway... Ms. Morris's office I think." Lauren shrugged.
"What would Ms. Morris want with us?"
"I don't know..."
Lauren and Rachel turned to Farber as they entered the Student Services wing.
"I already told you, I wasn't told."
The three stopped at room 38, and the Volunteer opened the door.
"Ms. Morris?" Lauren asked as both girls came into the office.
Tate took is feet from the desk and leaned back into the chair.
"Not quite."
He gave Farber a look and the Volunteer stepped from the room, closed the door, and locked it.
Tate looked the two up and down, and smiled slyly.
"It's about time you two got here. We've got a lot of work to do on you."
***
Tate took in the two girls in front of him. He could definitely tell why Sandoval had wanted them. Appearance wise anyways. The larger one, this Rachel Elbaum was a sight to behold. She was a bit on the chubby side, but her proportions more than made up for that. Her hair curled just past her shoulders, and was just a tad to red to be believable. Her exotically shaped hazel eyes took everything in, evaluating the situation. She reminded him a little too much of one of his ex girlfriends. In fact, if she were a few years older… Tate shook the thought from his mind as he noticed one thing that seemed especially unusual about the young woman. She seemed to be radiating everything she felt to those around her. Right now, she was very scared.
The other one, what was her name? Silver, right, she wasn’t bad herself. She was short, around 5’3. Her waist length blonde hair was freshly dyed bright blue at the tips, the color nearly matching her large cerulean blue eyes. She was thin, almost too thin- almost.
Why Sandoval wanted these two girls, he had no clue. Maybe he was just getting tired of the girls at his usual club… naw. They didn’t seem to be the geisha type. Pretty yes, but they looked too innocent for their own good.
“Alright, so what do you want?” Rachel stepped in front of the older man, who was completely creeping her out with the looks he’d been giving her.
“Yeah, Where’s Ms. Morris?” Lauren spoke up from behind the taller girl.
“She wasn’t able to make it in today.” He didn’t move, simply grinning at the adolescent’s nervousness.
“You’re lying.” Lauren replied, earning a confused look from Rachel, and a glare from Tate.
“Well, not completely… but you made sure… Ms. Morris wouldn’t let you do this to us!” Rachel swallowed deeply, trying to calm her sudden panic attack.
“I’m sure she wouldn’t. But she’s not here right now, is she?” He tried to look menacing… and succeeded.
“Quit avoiding the question. What. Do. You. Want?” Rachel put emphasis on each word.
“Sit down and shut up! Just make things easy for yourself and your little friend.” Tate tool out his handkerchief and wiped the developing sweat off of his brow.
“You don’t know, do you? You’re just somebody’s lackey.” She folded her arms in front of her, and wiped all emotion from her face.
“Umm… aren’t lackeys usually a bad thing?” Lauren said quietly to her friend.
Both of their faces fell, as Lauren opened her mouth to scream. Tate jumped up, and injected something into her back. She fell limply to the floor. Rachel lunged at him as he reached to do the same to her, grabbing the arm with the needle and pinning it behind his back. She shoved him across the room, and began pounding at the locked door. Recovering quickly, he ran to the girl knocked her to the ground. Once he was sure she wouldn’t move, he injected the other sedative into her neck. Standing back, he looked to the unconscious forms in front of him. He had to admit; the red head had spirit- not to mention that her self-defense wasn’t too bad either. But it was another thing she’d have to work on later… hopefully not on him. The only downside was that he had a little mess to clean up- and he hoped that no one had heard that little commotion. He took a step back and eyed Rachel again… Maybe Sandoval knew what he was doing after all.
***