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With all the secrets kept by one Alex Rider, you may be tempted to think that he was some sort of spy. That was one of the theories that circulated in his school, at least.
"Secret agent? Drug dealer? Hiding from the government?"
Whispers followed him through the halls, but he never hunched down or tried to hide. The opinions of such students did not matter to him, and so he walked with his head held high. The only person at this school who knew what he was was subsequently the only person whose opinions mattered to him.
Tom Harris. His best friend since childhood. It was unfortunately rather tricky for Alex to hide the fact that he was a siren from someone who had been around when he was still getting used to the whole mind-controlling parts of his heritage.
Thankfully, Tom had taken the information surprisingly well. In fact, Alex couldn't even remember there being a hint of fear in his best friend's eyes. Admittedly, this was potentially a bad sign in terms of the mental state of Tom, but Alex would take a win where he could find one.
("Why aren't you scared?" a young Alex had cried at his best friend. "I'm a freak of nature!" Young Alex did not have the best self-esteem.
Tom just grinned back wickedly. "Luckily for you, I happen to be a great fan of violating what most people regard as natural laws." Young Tom had been frightening, and Alex was never quite sure where his friend had heard such large words.
He just took the win where he could find it.)
While the pair had their fights on occasion, there had never been a moment that Alex had grown worried that Tom would abandon him.
Really, Alex would swear up and down that it was the other way around. (There was a certain matter of suffering in which Tom had insisted that adding powdered milk to milk would result in more milk per milk and, therefore, was healthier. Alex had given up on that particular fight a long time ago. He did not wish to deal with powdered milk ending up in his morning apple juice again. That was an experience, to say the least, and definitely not one that he wished to repeat.) Even throughout those incidents, where Tom would wear on Alex's nerves, and Alex would roll his eyes and wonder aloud why he had ever become friends with Tom, Alex couldn't imagine a world where he and Tom weren't best friends. It simply wouldn't be right.
Finally, Alex managed to spot Tom through the crowds of students. "Hey," he called, holding a hand up in greeting.
Tom's face lit up upon hearing the cry, and he spun to face his friend. "Dude!" he called back. "You'll never believe the idea I've had!"
Alex rolled his eyes, hoping to show some sort of exasperation in his gaze, but a fond smile betrayed his inner feelings. "What now, Tom?" he asked as he stepped up next to his best friend. "I'm sure this idea is genius." Sarcasm simply dripped from his voice, and he had absolutely no faith that this idea was going to lead anywhere but disaster.
"So you know your-" Tom paused, looking around shiftily at their fellow students and decidedly lowering his voice. "-fishy problem?"
Alex nearly burst into laughter at the words but managed to hold it together. "My fishy problem? No, I can't seem to recall. Please do share what fishy problem I have."
Now, it was Tom's turn to roll his eyes. "I've had the greatest idea," he informed Alex. "What if I become a mermaid- wait, a merman? What exactly are you again? Anyway, what if I became like you?"
Alex sighed. This was a conversation that had been had before. "First of all, I am a siren. It's so much more cool since we kill stupid people instead of singing about friendship or whatever, like the idiots that you people call mermaids. Second, no."
Tom groaned. "Come on, just blast me with some of your magic water death powers or something!"
Alex grinned. This easy banter that he and Tom fell into came so easily to him, and he loved it. "This is genetic, Tom. It's like if you wanted my blue eyes or something. You wouldn't be able to catch those from me."
Tom pouted dramatically. "I think you just don't want me to have any fun."
Alex patted him on the back, laughing. "I just think you're close enough to murder as it is without being able to lure people in like me."
Tom shrugged, pout falling off his face as quickly as it had appeared. "Fair enough." He stroked his chin as if in deep thought. "New idea! What if teeth were like… flaccid and got heard every time we got hungry?"
"Tom, I swear to Neptune…" The pair continued bickering lightheartedly as they continued on to class.
The day continued on fairly uneventfully, albeit with one incident that could have been avoided very easily. Having grown far too used to talking openly to Tom and Jack Starbright, Alex and his uncle's housekeeper, who honestly spent much more time with Alex than his uncle, who was always off at sea and ignoring his nephew, Alex may have let slip a little quip about how fins make swimming so much easier in the presence of his classmates. Thankfully, as Tom put it, "those dumbasses couldn't empty a boot full of water if the instructions were written on the damn sole." That was to say, their classmates could have been more bright. Or maybe that was always going to be impossible for them.
With their class successfully distracted by Tom again posing his question about teeth and their potential to become flaccid, Alex would say that the day had been a good one.
Even if he wished Tom would come up with some more appealing hypotheticals.
After school, however, was when the day went downhill. As Alex and Tom stepped out of the school's front doors and prepared to walk toward their bikes, Alex froze. There was a sleek back car waiting outside of their school. Normally, Alex wouldn't even bat an eye at a car lingering outside of the building. Normally, it would just be a parent waiting to pick up their child. Normally, though, Alex didn't recognize the cars sitting outside.
They called themselves The Bank. They even operated what was essentially a regular, everyday bank. But under the surface, the organization was ruthless and unaccepting of those different from typical humans. Unfortunately for Alex and those similar to him, this included sirens.
"Damn it," Alex cursed as he ducked behind a group of unsuspecting students that shot a strange look at him before shrugging and continuing on. He stayed crouched behind them, keeping pace while keeping an eye on the car in question.
(He was not helping the secret agent allegations. If anything, he was adding fuel to the fire.)
Tom immediately realized the gravity of the situation and ducked down with Alex. "Is that the-" he began.
"Yes," Alex responded harshly. He was so tired of The Bank trying to ruin his life. He was a sentient being! He did not appreciate the fact that these people were trying to lock him up like some rabid animal.
"Shit," Tom said. There wasn't much else to say. He knew how much those people had been hounding his best friend and his family. He just didn't know what to do about it. And now people from The Bank were at their school, and Alex was going to be taken away and-
Tom had an idea. It wasn't a normal 'Tom' sort of idea. In fact, he thought that this one was rather clever.
"How fast can you run?" he questioned.
"Huh?" Alex responded. He had been quietly accepting his fate.
"We're still a ways away from the River Thames," Tom continued on with his plan. "You have a better chance of escaping if you're in water, right?"
"They'll just catch me later," Alex whispered. "They know where I go to school!"
Tom smirked, though a hint of fear leaked out into his expression. "That's a tomorrow Alex problem. Today, Alex needs to focus on the present."
Alex took a deep breath. "You're right." He took a quick look at the car again before groaning. "I'm going to die running all that way, but you're right. It's probably the best chance I've got, huh?"
"Hell yeah, you are!" Tom exclaimed, slapping Alex on the back. "This is what you get for skipping out on footie conditioning!" His gaze grew more serious. "Now go. I'll try and distract them."
Alex nodded before taking off sprinting. He was vaguely aware of Tom screeching like a monkey and running headlong at the car. His feet pounding against the pavement and fear pumping through his head, Alex couldn't help but to smile. He may be in mortal danger, but at least he always would know that his best friend had his back.