Rough Rough Draft: Chapter 1 Raven

Chapter 1

"You're...you're Raven!” stuttered a young girl, who looked to be 15 although she was probably much younger. Face prosthetics are a wonder.
Raven looked around the room. There were 17 people total in the room, including herself, and all of them had face prosthetics on, as well as wigs, so their real identities remained a secret.
Raven sighed, she hated when she had to instruct new recruits, but she was a backup substitute and came in on rare occasions when even the substitute couldn't, her father lately though had her doing a bunch of odds and ends jobs that weren’t really what they considered jobs. Lately she had become a substitute, a filer, an equipment tester, and had not done one actual mission. The jobs Raven wanted to do were actually what she was teaching these kids to do, missions.
Raven's father runs an underground business of people for hire. The business is underground because some of the jobs they receive are often times not ethical, and hardly ever legal. Take that Charlie’s Angels.
All the people in the room were wearing wigs, face prosthetics, and makeup, as well as facial designs. They all appeared to be older than they were which was fine with them. They were less likely to be hired for jobs if they look too young. Yet the chances of even three of them, let alone all becoming a person for hire, was slim.
The same girl from earlier raised her hand again, smiling gleefully the whole time. Raven sighed again; this job was such a bother. Raven sat on the edge of the desk in the front of the room. She pointed at the girl, who looked around as if she was unsure Raven was pointing to her. When the girl was sure it was her she regained her enigmatic smile and started talking in a squeaky young-girl voice. All her makeup and the wig could not help her childish demeanor, although her look still gave off a child-like essence. She wore a dark red wig, which she had braided into two pigtails, and had elongated her face with prosthetics which did help to make her look older but she had two gold hearts on each side of her face. Her lips were a peach color which coordinated with her cream skin tone.
"Raven I know you hear it all the time, but I am a huge fan! My name is..." the girl stopped talking as Raven hopped off the desk.
"I hope you were not about to say your real name," Raven said shoving her hands in her pockets
"Huh?” the girl said confused.
Raven sighed again; this girl would never be an P.I.N.T.E.L. (Person is needed to elaborate leadership), which was just a big fancy saying for someone that had graduated the academy to be someone that can do missions. Not everyone became a pintel though, some became secretaries, some worked internal affairs, there were many different jobs for people, not too many actually became a pintel .
Raven looked around the room and asked,
"Does anyone know why it is a bad idea to divulge personal information?”
A stern looking girl in front raised her hand. The girl had a long black haired wig with thick bangs in front. She also had a small purple spiral on her left cheek.
Raven nodded her head towards the girl, who promptly answered,
“Any personal information is best to be kept to ones self, otherwise there are repercussions that may occur. Your real name allows other people to target you as a threat to their work, so they may choose to eliminate you, and thus limit some of their competition. There is never a need to utter even one syllable of your name to anyone in the company, all personal records are filed in a extremely secure environment, where only verified persons are granted access, Your real name is never needed, only your 6 digit number is used to identify you, that is until you gain a Turner..." The girl looked meaningfully at Raven, who just raised an eyebrow. The girl was intelligent and seemed to have memorized the handbook; she obviously would have lots of options for the company.
In this underground business there were many roles for people to fill. In fact it was a lot like a community. The economy of the business affected everyone that worked for it. Most of the kids in this academy were probably relatives of current employees, which meant they were guaranteed some sort of job.
Unlike a real community though everyone prospered. Pintels wouldn’t be hired for some mediocre job, especially since this was an illegal business, and so they were well paid. Some higher up pintels wouldn’t even attempt a mission if it wasn’t paying enough. This usually meant the higher the price, the harder the job.
"What if I someday do not want to be a pintel?” a boy in back asked. Raven stared at the boy with hard eyes which made him shrink in his seat.
He had on a wig with tousled hair and gold streaks through dark brown hair. He had a dark blue circle on the right side of his face, close to his ears. He had his feet kicked up on the chair in front of him, and his arms behind his head, propping it up. His attitude made Raven want to smack him, instead she calmly answered.
"There are a few options, you can work in a different department, or....your memories can be erased, but if you choose to have your memories erased any other memories around your time being in the company would be erased too. Erasing memories has not yet been made selective, although researchers are working on it, so must people don’t opt for having memories erased,”
Time to beat some sense into these kids, Raven silently smirked.
"Everyone line up in front of me," Raven instructed. The kids promptly rushed down to form a line in front of her. Raven walked down the line and pulled three people out of it, including the girl who had answered the question from earlier.
"Out of all of you in this room this many people may become a pintel,” Raven said indifferently, the classmates murmured to each other about Ravens statement.
"Realize I said may become a pintel, even three of you might not, maybe just two or even none. So if any of you are serious about becoming a pintel you need to work hard and upstage each other when ever you get the chance. I know it may sound harsh but it will separate you from the rest, and since being a pintel is individual work you can’t be dependent on others," Some of the students looked shocked and slightly depressed which made Raven sigh and reach into her pocket for an index card.
"For those of you who won’t be a pintel you will engage in another different, exciting, mind fulfilling career,” Raven looked up from the index card and at the class. The students stared at her in disbelief.
"You just read that from a cue card," An irritated looking girl said.
"Nice to know you have eyes, now use them to find your ways back to your seats, the bell is going to ring so retrieve your belongings. True to her word the bell rang after a minute.
The students filed out and Raven tilted her head towards the ceiling, relieved that the class was over. All the students had left the classroom except one, the intelligent girl from earlier.
Raven raised her eyebrows questioningly as to why the girl had not yet left. The girl stepped forward; she had light green eyes and a dark black wig which against her pale skin made her seem frail. Yet her eyes, which were quite large, had a fierce and determined look in them. It seemed to raven that the young girl had gone through many ordeals and became stronger as a result.
"Should I inquire as to why you're still here?" Raven asked. The girl looked Raven in the eye her body as straight as a ruler.
"I want you to be my Turner," she said, looking at Raven with her determined eyes.
Raven was thrown off by the girl’s directness, but she quickly recovered and forced a smile.
"I have never given thought to being a Turner and I'm sure you would rather have someone that has more experience at being a Turner, someone who would no what they are doing," Raven said kindly. She had no intention of ever becoming a Turner.
A Turner is essentially a mentor of a student and helps them develop into an pintel; the successfulness of the Turner is usually reflected onto the student. Students are able to ask for Turners once they have been cited as being ready for one.
Honestly to raven it all seemed like to much of a bother she did not want to involve herself in. Besides being time consuming, it was really personal as well because in most cases the identities of the Turner and the subordinate were usually revealed to each other, so there would be no infringements on training. That was something Raven definitely did not want.
The girl did not waiver upon hearing Raven's answer instead she gained an even more determined look. Instead of waiting for the girl to start arguing Raven quickly said,
"If you'll excuse me I am quite late for a friend who needs a sign," and with that Raven fled out the door, before the girl could get a word in.
. . .
The roar of the crowd was deafeningly loud, but Kate contributed to it anyway as she made her way to the stands.
"Kate!" Cammi shouted from the front row. Kate smiled and went over to Cammi, who removed her bag from the spot next to her.
"What’s the score?" Kate asked as she looked at the field.
"10-12" Cammi responded, brushing stray hair from her face.
Cammi was one of Kate’s best friend's and had known her since they're mothers gave birth to them in the same hospital room. Cammi was an athlete and looked the part. Cammi was strikingly blonde, a combination of genes and constant sun exposure. Her hair was short, when Cammi tried to put it up in a ponytail, as she often did, quite a bit of it would fall out from the ponytail. Her eyes were a soft warm honey brown color with long eyelashes.
Kate's other best friend just so happened to be Cammi's twin brother Jacques, whom everyone called Jack. Kate knew of no one who called him Jacques except teachers, which he would correct, and Cammi when they would be in a dispute over something. Jack and Cammi were a lot alike, in interests and genes. Jack had the same Blonde hair, which was almost as long as Cammi's, something both were lightly teased about. Instead of brown eyes though, Jack had bright electric blue ones. Jack and Cammi both were very into sports, the same sports too. But there personalities were different from one another. While Cammi was loud about everything and said what was on her mind without hesitation, Jack was soft spoken and laid back. Cammi's bluntness and Jacks thoughtfulness often times kept them from clashing. When Kate, Cammi, and Jack were together though all of them were more at ease than with other people.
"Did you bring the sign?" Cammi asked Kate with her eyes glued on the field.
Kate held up a poster in her hand in response. Cammi looked at it for a moment, nodded, and turned back to the field. Cammi didnt usually hand out compliments, she felt that people did that too often, and so she usually expressed approval with a nod of her head. The poster had soccer balls on it and Jacks name along with his jersey number which was 7.
Kate held set the poster down and watched the field.
Jacks team colors were blue and white while the opponents were green and gold. Jack was easy to spot because of his shining blonde hair. Despite Jack not being too tall he was his team’s striker, and was easily able to score goals because of his agility.
At that moment Jack was heading over towards the opponents goal and the ball was passed to him. Jack sped towards the goal preparing to make a goal and tie up the game. Three minutes were left which was enough time to gain the lead and win. Kate waved the sign in the air and yelled with the crowd. Seemingly out of nowhere a green and white jersey slid in front of Jack and stole the ball. Shock rippled thought the crowd as the mysterious player surged across the field to score a goal. Jack who had been stunned for a moment chased after the player but to no avail. During the remaining three minutes the mystery player and Jack seemed to be in a game of cat and mouse. Jack was the mouse. Jack seemed to take on the player with vengeance, which he couldn’t fulfill. Jacks team only managed to score one goal in the three minutes. While the other team scored three more, mostly thanks to the new player.
After the game Cammi went off to talk to some members of her own soccer league team, leaving Kate to wait for Jack. Jack came over looking thoroughly depressed. His legs were caked in mud and his hair was matted to his forehead. Kate wiped the hair from his face and smiled.
"Come on you did well, now cheer up and try not to let Cammi chew you out to much." Kate said jokingly, which made Jack smile. The smile turned into a scowl as he looked past Kate.
Kate turned to see a player from the other team coming over. Kate stared in awe at how handsome he was. He had light brown hair and green eyes, and looked just as tan as Jack. He looked arrogant and sure of himself. His eyes twinkled mischievously.
He smiled and winked at Kate, who caught her off guard, she was sure that her cheeks looked slightly pinker than before.
"Sorry bout suddenly stealing the ball from you like that,"
"It's ok, you were just playing the game," Jack muttered reluctantly and started drinking from his water bottle
"I'm Lucas," he stuck his hand out, which Jack apprehensively shook. Then Lucas turned to Kate and smiled, which made his eyes sparkle.
"Your name is?" he asked.
"Kate and this is Jack," Kate said, motioning towards Jack, who was engulfing water furiously.
"Are you two boyfriend and girlfriend?" Lucas said, which made Jack choke on his water and start coughing. Kate put her hand on Jacks back and Lucas raised an eyebrow.
"No we're friends," Kate smiled, slightly embarrassed.
"Well that’s good news for me, right?" Lucas winked at Kate again which made her blush and sent Jack into another wave of coughs, which he tried to calm by drinking his water again.
“I’ll see you both some other time," Lucas slung his jacket over his shoulder, and just as he was about to leave, kissed Kates hand.
Jack spit his water out and wiped his mouth. Kate felt her hand in disbelief and could feel Jack’s shadow over her. She could see Jack shooting daggers at Lucas with her eyes. He threw his water bottle on the ground and started walking towards Lucas. Kate quickly laid a hand on his arm and stopped him.
"Forget about him, he is a jerk we already know that, beating him up will just get you kicked off the summer league," Kate said stepping in front of Jack.
"Fine, next time I go against him in a game I will take my anger out then," Jack said, Kate noticed his face was a deep red color. Cammi was making her way back over to them.
“What’s going on?” Cammi said suspiciously, looking from Jack’s red face to Kate’s pink one.
“Nothing,” both responded and looked down. Cammi raised an eyebrow but asked no more.
“That new guy on the other team, his name is Lucas Ashton. He just moved to town and joined the east side’s summer league,” Cammi then leaned in towards them.
“Word is he is so good they kicked someone off just so he would join their team. He’s in our grade and will be going to our school too,” she told them.
“Ugh,” Max groaned and swung his bag onto his shoulder and started leaving.
“What’s his problem?” Cammi asked.
Instead of responding, Kate followed Jack, leaving Cammi behind.
“Hey!” Cammi yelled and ran to catch up.