CHAPTER ONE

[red lips and poison chips]

"part heaven, part hell"

Andi had no idea why Master Lin pulled them all aside after AP Black Arts. Yet here they were, the ragtag group selected from a variety of the school's gangs. Like some kind of bizarro-world version of the Breakfast Club. She stood in front of Master Lin's desk along with Saya, Maria, Willie, and Billy.

"I have an assignment for you all," Master Lin stated. "Should you fail to complete it, you will be removed from King's Dominion, permanently." No one needed him to elaborate; we all knew what he meant. Lin set a photo out on his desk.

Saya stepped forward to grab the photo, examining the boy in it before passing it on to the others who had gathered around her. Master Lin continued speaking as it was passed from person to person. "The subject's name is Marcus Lopez Arguello, wanted by law enforcement for blowing up the Sunset Boy's Home where he lived, killing the other orphans inside."

"You want us to kill 'im?" Willie asked, giving the photo to Andi to look at.

The platinum blonde girl would not mind the task of killing him. Just the thought of him killing all those kids caused her blood to boil. Long ago, she had set her moral limits, and she drew the line at innocents like kids. Granted, yes, some kids could be just as psychotic as some of the students in this school, but most were not. Most were vulnerable, easy prey for the predators of the world. She would gladly give those predators a taste of their own medicine.

"No," Master Lin said, snapping Andi out of her dark thoughts. What did he mean 'no?' "I want to recruit him; therefore, I need you to bring him to me. Alive."

Andi passed the photo to Maria who looked at it and smirked, nudging the blonde's shoulder. "He's kinda cute," the Mexican beauty whispered to her blonde friend. Andi agreed to an extent. The boy was attractive, and the scar over his eye did nothing to distract from that, simply adding to the allure. It gave him that essence of danger that usually made Andi go weak in the knees. A reaction she typically refused to acknowledge as it was sure to land her in trouble someday. Now was one of those times. His appearance was not enough for Andi to forgive his past crimes.

Shortly after the group finished examining the photo, Master Lin finished giving them the information necessary to begin their search and dismissed them. The group was excused from the rest of their classes for the day in order to begin their assignment immediately.

They left King's Dominion to start their search and surveillance efforts. Saya, unsurprisingly, went for a more stealthy approach while the others stuck to more hands-on methods. As much as the group was meant to work together, their natural competitiveness with each other made them split up, the search becoming more like a game.

Thus, why Andi sauntered down the San Francisco streets on her own, heading towards the area where she knew there was a large homeless encampment. Walking past a street corner shop, she stopped in to swipe a pack of gum and a medium-sized bag of chips. Stashing the gum in her pocket and the chips under her studded jean jacket, she waited until the cashier was distracted and snuck out of the store, the cashier none the wiser about the stolen goods. As she continued her walk down the street, chewing away at a piece of Hubba Bubba, she spotted a boy, about her age, picking a half-eaten Big Mac out of the garbage. His blue jacket worn, his face coated in a layer of grime, yet she could still recognize him as the boy from the photo.

The blonde practically skipped as she approached him. Despite her previous aversion to him joining the student body of King's Dominion, she could not help the pride that swelled in her chest at being the first one to find him. As the thought crossed her mind, her eyes shot to the rooftops, looking for any sign of Samurai Saya. When there was no sign of the girl's signature dark pixie cut, Andi allowed a small smile to lift at the corners of her mouth.

Once she was only a few feet away from Marcus, she stopped. He was just about to take a bite when she spoke. "Y'know, as appetizing as that looks, I think I've got something better."

Marcus looked up from the trash-burger he was about to eat to the blonde girl in front of him. For a minute, he believed her to be an illusion, a result of accidentally ingesting some hardcore hallucinogens or possibly finally reaching a state of insanity powerful enough for such delusions.

No. She was real, standing in front of him looking like the picture of innocence, dressed in all white aside from the acid wash jean jacket. Her hair curled, falling over her shoulders with the exception of two pigtails that sat rather high on her head.

Her expression, though, contradicted her angelic appearance. A mischievous twinkle in her eyes and a smug smile on her red-painted lips could make any guy think sinful thoughts.

It was then that Marcus realized he had yet to respond to her, having been staring at her like an idiot. Shaking himself from his thoughts, he matched her smug smile with a sarcastic smile of his own. "I don't know if there's anything that can beat a meat-like patty with a hint of stranger's saliva."

The blonde's smile grew. "I admit you make a good point. But, I bet I can prove you wrong," she answered, tossing him a bag of chips.

He managed to catch it, setting the burger back into the garbage. Getting over the initial act of kindness, he became suspicious of the girl. No one ever gave a shit unless they got something out of it in return. Call it cynicism. Call it paranoia, whatever. "So, what? Is this your charitable act for the month? So you can go back to your cushy rich life, believing that you saved some homeless kid from getting AIDS from a trash-burger or some shit."

"No," she replied, jokingly. "You can't get AIDS from saliva, idiot." Her eyes drifted over his shoulder, looking at something behind him. She pursed her red lips together, drawing his eyes to them once again. By the time his eyes lifted to hers again, she was looking back at him with a raised eyebrow.

"Well, as enlightening as this conversation has been, I gotta go," she said, starting to walk past him.

"Wait," he said, causing her to stop and turn back to him. "What's your name?" He was not sure why he cared. He was not even sure if it mattered, it was not like they would ever see each other again; this girl who was part heaven, part hell.

"Why does it matter?" she asked, looking over her shoulder at him and voicing his thoughts. He stayed quiet because he did not know how to answer that, wondering the same thing. She sighed turning to face him fully, the mischievous glint present yet again in her blue, doll-like eyes. "Besides, how do I know you aren't some kind of psycho who will hunt me down and kill me?"

Marcus laughed at her dark humor. Yet another characteristic that was contradictory with her appearance. "How do I know that you aren't some psycho sadist that poisons chips and gives them to homeless people?" he countered, shaking the still unopened bag for her to see.

"You don't," she answered, turning to leave again. He watched as she reached the corner of the street and practically danced to the other side in her white Keds. She met up with another girl, physically, the polar opposite of the blonde.

Looking down to the bag in his hands, he thought about her words. 'You don't,' she had said to him. Considering he had nothing to lose and the likelihood of some random blonde trying to poison his chips being rather low, he opened the bag and took a bite. It had been so long since he had something fresh and not from the garbage. The crispness was refreshing and he never thought he would want to moan from eating a damn potato chip.

When he looked back up, the angelic girl and her friend were gone, and he was back to being just another face in the crowd.

"What the hell were you thinking?" Maria asked Andi. "You shouldn't have approached him without one of us as backup," the Latina continued, although it lacked the scolding tone that Andi expected more from Saya, or even Simon if he was on the mission with them.

"I was fine," the blonde reassured her friend. Well, they were as close to friends as Andi allowed. The blonde did not really have friends. Her mother had conditioned her in a way that ensured her daughter would drown in trust issues for the rest of her life. "It's not like I went up to him and tried to kidnap him right there. I was just getting a read on what he's like."

Maria sighed before turning to Andi with a crooked smile. "And what was he like? As cute as the picture? Cuter? Please don't say less. That would be such a disappointment."

"Alright, yes, he's hot. Well, as hot as a child killer can be." But, there was no way that Andi would admit for a second that she found his dry sense of humor attractive and how his carefree smile when he laughed at her macabre joke gave her the tiniest of butterflies. No, she would never admit that. It was not true. "After this assignment, I'll be glad to not talk to him again."

Andi truly believed that. Psychopaths were supposed to be alluring in a sense. It is how they could draw you in. Psychopaths were not just serial killers and crazy people. They were everyday people too. Businessmen, politicians, teachers. Despite the grime covering him, Andi could admit that, physically, Marcus was hot. However, if there was any type of person she mistrusted more than the others, it was attractive people who could draw you in. Hell, she was one. She would know.

"I don't know," the Latina drawled, her accent becoming slightly heavier. "You seemed pretty chummy to me."

"You know me, unassuming as always. I think I may have been an actress in another life." The dark-haired girl laughed. "The guy is definitely paranoid though, so we'll have to be careful going forward. Having the police on his ass probably doesn't help that. I'll have to hang back now or he'll recognize me, but the rest of you should be good to follow closely."

The two girls met up with the rest of the group, informing them of what Andi had learned before they split up again. Since they found Marcus, they did not have to venture as far from each other as before. Just far enough apart that their group did not draw any unnecessary attention.

As it grew darker, Billy pointed out that Marcus was heading towards the Day of the Dead parade. Normally, a parade where everyone was wearing face paint and masks would not be an issue. But, with parades came increased police presence, and police spelled troubled for their mission.

This guy was not making it easy for them.

Willie, Billy, and Maria stayed on the ground, integrating themselves into the crowd. Saya and Andi kept watching from farther away.

"Shit," Andi cursed, watching Marcus pick up a discarded joint from the ground. She watched as he took a hit and seconds later began stumbling.

"What?" Saya asked, coming to her side.

Andi sighed in irritation. "The joint was laced with something. Look at how he's walking now. And he's stumbling right into the crowd." The blonde forced herself to look away from the guy, looking to Saya with a serious expression. "I think it's time to get your bike."

"On it," the Japanese girl said, as she made her way down from the rooftop, Andi shortly behind her.

If Marcus caused her to fail this mission, she was going to gut him before Lin could even think about offing her.

First chapter being published as I watch episode 4! I don't quite know how I feel about it, but let me know what you think.

I have about half of the next chapter written and I'm going to try to get it updated tomorrow. Sorry if this sucks! I've been up for 32 hours with about 3 hours of sporadic naps in between.

Heads up about next chapter though, there will be mentions of suicide as was in the show but the conversation will be much darker as we dive into Andi's personality a bit more. She can be a bit of a sick fuck sometimes...