13 A deal.

"Why did you tell him about the free period?" Hailie asked Walter, completely pissed.

"I asked him to. It's our free period too, you know? I don’t want to sit around and listen to you nag about privacy, or how much you hate history." Sadie answered for him, glaring at her.

"I don’t nag."

"Oh, you so do. Each and every single one of our free periods is ruined because you're always pissed about something. You're even nagging now."

"I am not. I'm asking a question, a logical one." Hailie argued.

"If it helps you sleep better at nights, convince yourself with that," Sadie paused, a mischievous smile appearing on her lips, "We couldn’t tell you to stop or leave us alone before because you didn’t have any other friends. But now, you’ve got yourself a boyfriend, so I can tell you to, kindly and with love, fuck off." Sadie said, smiling innocently at her.

"I'm supposed to be your best friend, asshat," Hailie said glaring at her and crossing her arms.

"Okaaay, before you start the catfight, Hailie Bryan's here," Walter said standing between them, trying to prevent a disaster.

"Oh, great. I don’t have to listen to the sound of betrayal anymore. Bye Walter," Hailie said walking toward Bryan's car, completely ignoring Sadie.

"How the hell is she so dramatic?" Sadie shouted frustrated and threw her hands up in the air.

"I think you went a little bit far this time hun," Walter mumbled softly.

"I did not!" Sadie answered making her way toward the library. "Come on, you're gonna teach me math AP. I wanna kick Hailie's ass in tomorrows exam."

Walter chuckled. He followed her, shaking his head.

When Hailie entered Bryan's car, she was still mad. She unconsciously closed the door harder than she anticipated.

"Well hello to you too. Don’t you look sour today." Bryan said sarcastically.

"Hi, sorry," Hailie answered sheepishly. She didn’t mean to apologize, stupid habits.

"Nah, never mind, I deserved it. I left you alone on our date." He paused, "There's more, isn’t it?"

Hailie nodded. "Stupid Sadie and her stupid words."

"I'm sure you two are going to be just fine," Bryan said with a smile.

"Yeah, yeah, cause you know everything don’t you?" She sighed. "Where are we going anyway?" Hailie asked fastening her seatbelt.

"About that, I actually wanted to ask you if you're ok with a quick stop before we head toward our destination," Bryan asked, doubtfully.

"Just stop at Starbucks so I can get a coffee," Hailie answered tiredly, resting her head on the back of her seat.

Bryan went to a drive-through, buying Hailie a Mocha coffee and a Caramel Macchiato for himself.

Hailie looked at him surprised when she heard his order.

"I thought all the leaders drink black coffee."

"Where did you get that idea my sweet strawberry?" Bryan asked, taking a U-turn.

"Movies, books, fanfictions," Hailie answered sipping her coffee.

"That’s just because people want to show them tough. I don’t need a black coffee to be tough." Bryan glanced at her, "You read fanfictions?"

"Oh, shut up. Like you don’t."

"I don’t, I dedicate my time to read something useful," Bryan answered calmly.

"Well, that’s your loss. Fanfics are useful."

"Oh, please enlight me, what did you learn from these precious fanfics?" Bryan asked sarcasm dripping from his words.

"Things a dead fossil like you won't understand." Hailie shot back.

"Okay, why are you angry all of a sudden? Do you care this much about fanfics?" Bryan raised his brow at her.

"Oh, no reason. Just you keep telling me you're gonna give me an explanation, then leave me alone in the middle of a place that I have no idea what the fuck it is, then you send someone else to drive me home because, oh you're so fucking busy. Then you have the audacity to pick me up and start to drive to a mysterious place which-" She paused and looked around, "Which seems to be an elementary school? Why are we at the elementary school? you're not planning to kill me are you?" Hailie said coming down from her outburst.

"First of all I didn't send Josh, He made that up. I didn't ask Thomas to come to my room either." He took a deep breath, ignoring Hailie's question, and continued, "I usually pick Sam up from school and we get lunch together, I didn't know I would pick you up after school, So I forgot to give him money for his lunch and the bus. Now I'm here to do that." Just when Bryan finished his speech, Hailie saw Sam running toward the car. Bryan Stepped out of the car. Hailie followed, just out of curiosity.

"Hi, Bryan. You're early." Sam said hugging the older guy.

"I'm sorry buddy, I kinda had a girlfriend emergency. Do you think you'll be fine taking the bus today?" Bryan said softly. Hailie was fascinated by this side of him, which appeared when Sam was around.

Sam looked behind Bryan and saw Hailie. He waved at her," Hi miss Hailie. you look beautiful."

Hailie chuckled and waved back at him."Hey Sam, sorry I stole Bryan today."

Sam shook his head and looked back at Bryan, who was watching him with a fond smile.

"I'm absolutely OK with taking the bus. You could have just sent me a text or something."

Bryan shook his head and took out his wallet.

"I came here to give you this. And make sure you're fine." He said putting the money in Sam's hands.

Sam looked at him confused.

"But I still have the money you gave me this morning?"

"That was your money, this is for something else. Just take it and be safe, OK?"

Sam nodded and put the money in his pockets.

"I'll be fine stop worrying. You two go and have fun. Bye miss Hailie, bye Bryan." He said running off.

"Don't eat too much junk food, Sam. I don't need another food poisoning," Bryan shouted in his direction. Sam turned around and saluted him.

Bryan stood there and watched him until he was back in school. Then he got in the car and waited for Hailie to do the same.

"Why didn't you tell me about your plans with Sam?" Hailie asked as soon as she sat down.

"Wow, talk about patience," Bryan said turning on the car.

After a minute or two, he started talking. "Because What I did last night was an asshole move. And I wanted to make it up to you. Sam can take the bus for a day, and if I had told you, you would have cancelled," He paused thinking. "This?" It came out more questioning.

Hailie didn't want to answer that question. She didn't know what 'this' was either.

"How old is Sam?" she asked trying to change the subject.

"When he's at the school or when he is with us?" Bryan said absentmindedly.

"There is a difference?" she asked surprised.

Bryan simply nodded.

Hailie huffed. "Tell me both. I don't know why there is always a lie."

"He is 12."

"Shouldn't he be in middle school?" Hailie cut him off.

"Patience, ever heard of it?" Bryan said. Then he sighed a really long sigh. Making Hailie want to punch him in the face.

"His father is a general. He put Sam in the military system when he was 5, trying to get good use out of Sam's power, a good use for the military." He paused, gripping the wheel tighter. "We found him in one of our first missions. He was 9. He was attached to all these tubes and electricity. He was in pain, they were trying to find the source of his power, to pass it to their soldiers. When we got him out of there, he was passed out for a week." At this point, his knuckles were turning white from his tight grip on the wheel.

" I got him a new ID and everything. I put him in school, they think he's 9. I lied to them so no one would pick up on him for being behind. I want him to have a somewhat normal life. Before you ask how I did it, don't. It's a long process."

There was a heavy silence after he finished talking. Hailie was deep in her thoughts. That cute tiny human has gone through a lot. A lot of pain, caused by his own father. And he still smiled and tried to help. She felt the need to protect him from any more pain.

Her phone's ringtone brought her out of her thoughts. She looked at the caller ID and saw Josh's name. She was doubting answering him. He lied to get her out of there. Stopping her from getting more information from Thomas. How could she trust his other words?

"You shouldn’t keep him waiting. I'm sure he'll appear out of nowhere to see if you're ok." She heard Bryan. He was looking forward, eyes glued on the road. Didn't he hate Josh? Why was he so nice about this?

"I don’t hate him. Now answer it."

Hailie gave up on understanding Bryan a long time ago, so she didn’t question how he knew what she was thinking about and just picked up her phone.

"Hailie! Oh my god, are you okay?" Josh's voice was filled with worry.

"Hi, I'm fine. Why wouldn’t I be?" Hailie answered nonchalantly.

"I came to give you your jacket, but Sadie told me Bryan picked you up from school. So did you break up with him? Should I come to pick you up?"

Hailie frowned. "No, thanks for your concern, but I don’t see the need. Please give my jacket to Sadie, I'll get it from her tomorrow. Sorry for your trouble." She said firmly.

"What? What are you talking about? Hailie-"

"Sorry. Gotta go." And with that, she hung up.

"Harsh," Bryan said with a smirk, still not looking at her.

"I don’t like liars," Hailie said crossing her arms.

"Some lies are necessary," Bryan said. He stopped at the red light and turned toward her.

"Well, if you are telling me any of those necessary lies, you better stop. Because I may have saved your ass in front of my dad and your friends by playing your girlfriend, but I only did it cause I wanna know the truth." She said turning in her seat like him, so now they were face to face.

"As much as I appreciate your acting skills and dedication, but I don’t think you’re ready for the truth yet, strawberry," Bryan said calmly.

"You don’t get to decide that for me." Hailie frowned.

She thought for a minute."You like deals don’t you?" Bryan nodded, examining her closely.

"Okay, here's a deal. Either you tell me everything, no lies. Or I'm gonna tell my dad everything I already know and play the voice record I have."

"What voice record?" Bryan said frowning.

"Oh, the one in which you're threatening me and Thomas is showing me around," Hailie said with a smirk.

Bryan stayed quiet, looking at her with empty eyes.

"See, I'm not an idiot," Hailie said proudly.

"Neither am I," Bryan said calmly. "Have you listened to your record?"

Hailie's smirk vanished, a frown replacing it. "No, why?"

"No reason. Just asking." He answered and started driving when the light turned green.

"Where are we going?" Hailie asked frowning. "You seriously need to stop just driving to mysterious destinations without telling me where we're going."

"You asked for the truth. I'm taking you back to the garage to show you the truth." Bryan answered.

"Show me the truth? Can't you just tell me?" Hailie asked hitting her head on the back of the seat with frustration.

"I doubt you're gonna believe it."

"Try me," Hailie answered confidently.

"Okay, I get information from another time. The orders, the missions, each member and where to find them, I receive all that information from another time," Bryan said.

"Wha-how?" Hailie's mouth was wide open.

"I thought so," Bryan said with a smirk.

Hailie frowned and hit his arm. "I told you no more lies."

Bryan laughed. "Joking is not lying, you're too easy."

Hailie crossed her arms. "Stop playing around. I'm serious. I will tell everyone."

"I'm sure you'll do strawberry."

"Stop mocking me!" Hailie shouted frustrated.

"Okay! Jeez, you're loud. We're here, get out banshee."

"Whatever the fuck that means, don’t call me that."

"Fine, just get out already," Bryan said, putting his head on the wheel. "You give me headaches."

"Oh, you love it."