Chapter Text
“Isn’t this kinda crazy?”
“Don’t call it crazy, call it fun!”
“Jillian, your mom is going to whack us all if she finds out we broke a bunch of dogs & cats out of a pet store.”
“C’mon guys they are caged, we can't let this happen.”
“I don’t know, let’s think this out.”
“But-”
“We’ll see you tomorrow at school, Jillian!” The group of kids walk away from the picnic table where a young Jillian is sitting. A piece of paper is laid out on the table, with scribbles of animals and arrows pointing at these boxes. It was her escape plan. She was going to save those pet’s lives with or without her school “buddies”. Jillian rolls up the paper with a rubber band and places it in the front basket of her bicycle and pedals quickly. As she makes a turn down the street, a house painting in a dark navy blue color comes into view. Her aunt’s house. If she’s ever upset about something, Hana is there for her.
Jillian pushed through the doors to see her parents sitting at her aunt’s dining table, mugs of tea in both of their hands.
What are they doing here?
“Hana, you really should put a lock on your door. Someone could steal from you in the middle of the night.” Jillian’s father exclaims while gesturing at the front door. Jillian is dumbfounded by her parents appearance.
“I choose what I want to do with my house, not you.” Aunt Hana says casually shrugging her shoulders as she takes a sip of her early grey tea. Jillian drops her bicycle helmet slowly to the ground as she takes in the conversation between her parents and aunt.
“What are you doing here?”
“Just visiting your aunt, why aren’t you at home doing school work?”
“You have always planned out our visits anywhere…” A beat of silence. Her parents exchange some nervous looks back and forth with her aunt, like a secret language she can’t decode.
“Dad, what’s going on?
“Theo..”
“What?”
“Let’s just tell her.”
“Okay.. um Jillian.” He hesitates for a moment taking a deep breath.. “We are going on a missionary trip in Zimbabwe.”
“Zimbabwe?!”
“To help plant a church there, we’ve been thinking about it for years now.”
“Can’t we go another time?!”
“It’s God’s timing Jill. We bought the plane tickets already.”
Jillian chuckles wryly, shaking her head side to side.
“When are we leaving?” She asks quietly.
“In two weeks.”
Jillian doesn’t want to accept that this is her reality.. she loves her family so she just needs to put on a smile for her parents. They wanted to go to Zimbabwe before she was born, plans change and now those plans are back in action whether Jillian wants it to happen or not. She wants to burst into tears. Even though she was never close with any of her classmates, she liked living in LA.
“Um, I need to go.”
“Jillian, we were going to tell you-” But she doesn’t want to hear her mother’s excuses. She needed more time to think, she needed to get her mind off of this whole situation.
She pedals as fast as she can, just focusing on the road until she ends up at the Haling View Mall. Jillian locks her bicycle outside and pulls out her blue prints from her back pocket as she walks inside the mall. She is hunched behind one of the vending machines, across from the pet store. Even though she is going to have to go back home eventually and apologize to her parents, fulfilling this escape plan will take her mind off of this missionary trip.
“Is this a stake out?” Jillian turns around quickly to see her aunt kneeling down behind her, glancing at Jillian’s map.
“Aunt Hana! What are you doing here?” She whispers.
“I know you well enough to know where you go to hide.” Hana grins grabbing the map layout of the pet store.
“So an escape route huh? Do you have the keys needed to open the pet cages?”
Jillian nods as she pulls out a pair of keys that she made using a puddy mold.
“Huh, clever. You seem all set.”
“You aren’t going to stop me?”
“Nope.”
Jillian hesitates walking up to the entrance of the pet store and then turns around to see her aunt placing quarters into the vending machine like she didn’t just storm out of her house thirty minutes ago. She sighs, slumping her shoulders and trudges over to where Hana is standing.
“Do you want a coke? Oh! I can get you gummy worms. I know you like those, huh?” Her aunt elbows Jillian lightly, trying to lighten the mood. She is staring at her feet, tapping her left and right one against the floor to a beat, trying to get over the fact that her reality isn’t going to be in Los Angeles but in Zimbabwe.
“Jill, it’s not going to be that bad, okay?”
“Promise to call me?”
“Of course.” Aunt Hana says, while grabbing the two bags of gummy worms she purchased from the vending machine.
“One day you will pull off an escape plan, I know it.”
“Really?”
“I guarantee it.”
*
As Jillian begins to pack away her jewelry kit in a box labeled “Jillian’s Things. Do Not Touch!”, a knock comes from her bedroom door.
“You can come in!”
The door creaks open to Aunt Hana, her hair pulled back in a ponytail. “Is my favorite niece in this room?”
“I think so.” She giggles embracing her aunt in a hug. Hana takes a look around the bedroom and notices her jewelry kit.
“Please don’t tell me you are still making necklaces and stuff.”
“It’s fun!”
“Maybe put this business idea to bed and try something new.” Jillian nods, making a crossing her heart motion across her chest even when she knows that the moment she lands in Zimbabwe she is going to keep making more jewelry.
“I have a going away gift for you. It’s in the garage.” Hana ushers her to the garage and Jillian’s hand claps over her mouth. A white kitten is laying on the mat and right then and there she realizes it’s one of the kittens from the pet store.
“I know you never got to complete your escape plan so I thought at least one of these kittens deserves to be free. Just a little companion for you.”
Jillian goes up to the kitten, petting its back gently.
“Hana… this is the best gift ever. Thank you!”
“I’m going to miss you kiddo.”
“Me too.”
*
Zimbabwe wasn’t as bad as Jillian thought it would be, she was able to learn a new language and living in a hut for about nine years changed her viewpoint on everything. The Marshall parents decide to leave Zimbabwe and move to South America to focus on a new missionary trip. But Jillian wants to graduate and go to high school which is how she ends up back in Los Angeles, dragging her kitten Emory along with her to live with Aunt Hana. She decides to audition for Grease at her high school’s theater company to gain some new skills and is casted as Frenchie which is why she’s currently attempting to dye her hair in the school bathroom with her best friend, Kat.
“You know, you are going to be given a wig for the role of Frenchie, you don’t need to dye your hair pink.”
“I want it to be more authentic though! Switching up things once in a while can be cool.”
“It’s your decision but I’m going to miss your brown curly hair.”
“I’ll switch it back once prom comes around, don’t worry this isn’t permanent.”
“Hey don’t forget tech week starts tomorrow so make sure to be on time.”
“Don’t worry Kat, I’ll be there.”
“Okay.” Kat drawls, eyeing her friend suspiciously.
“Why did you say okay like that?”
“I know you have been an assistant to that surfing instructor for a few months and the rest of the cast is counting on you.”
“Kat, I have very few lines and I don’t even have a solo. I just sit in the booth while Juan sings ‘Beauty School Dropout’ to me.”
“Everyone has to be there regardless if you are a part of the ensemble or not.”
“Gotchu. Can you grab my hair dryer out of my book bag, I think my hair is pink enough. Don’t you think so?”
“Oh trust me, it stands out.” Kat giggles as she plugs the hair dryer into an outlet.
*
It’s opening night for Grease and intermission just began. Jillian tries to scan the concession booth, looking for her aunt but at the corner of her eye, sees two men talking into their watches.
This doesn’t seem right, they look like spies. I must be delusional.
Kat grabs Jillian’s arm pulling her towards the dressing room which is located in the Haling View High School gymnasium. As her friend begins to rush with doing some final make up touches, a boom echoes through the building. Kat and Jillian are frozen in shock, their shoulders twitching nervously when a bang can be heard right after. Jillian squeezes her eyes shut and tightens her grips on the lipgloss bottle in her hands. She begins to count slowly from 1 to 10.
“One.”
The sound of loud shrieking from students and adults can be heard clearly in the gymnasium.
“Two.” This isn’t real, this isn’t real. Jillian continues to repeat those words to herself hoping that she is just having a bad nightmare and that Kat will crash her back into the reality by blasting the Grease soundtrack into her ear.
“Jillian, we need to move. Please.” Kat’s voice falters as she shakes her friends shoulder and grabs her backpack.
“Three.”
“Fuck! Jillian we have to move.” Kat squeezes Jillian’s hand and the two girls begin to run towards the exit sign pushing the door open to see two police cars ushering families out of the building and onto the lawn. The pink-haired girl spots her aunt writing in a notebook intently as she talks to one of the parents, resting her hand on the mother’s shoulder comfortingly.
“Hana?”
Her aunt turns around to see her niece with her hands in the pockets of her poodle skirt, squinting at her as if Jillian can’t get over that her aunt is in a suit, looking like something out of a James Bond film.
“Uh, excuse me for a minute, I still need a statement from you.”
She ducks under the caution tape walking up to Jillian.
“What are you doing here? I thought you said you couldn’t see me perform tonight because of work.”
Aunt Hana stammers.
“We can talk about this when we go home, okay? Wait in the car.” Hana passes her the keys.
*
“What happened at the school Hana? Is anyone hurt? And this look you’re wearing..”
“It’s a lot to explain.”
“Well, simplify it.”
“I work for a government agency, the NSA.”
“So you’re a spy?”
“Yes. I am and regarding the high school, there was a bomb threat earlier this week from this organization called ‘The Scorpion Project’. We haven’t figured out the motive yet or why they were attacking your school though.”
Jillian sits on the sofa, her chin resting in her hands contemplating the last few hours, from singing in her high school’s production of Grease to hearing the sound of a bomb, to finding out her aunt is working for the government. What a day.
“I know it’s a lot to take in.”
“I want to help you find these scorpion project people. They almost hurt some of my friends at school.”
“Jill, you’re 16. There is a protocol to this, you can’t just say ‘I want to help’.”
“I can be your insider, I can take a close look at the teachers and staff and figure out if somebody working there knows something. Parent and teacher conferences are coming up soon too, it’s a good way to investigate teachers subtly, see if they tick when you say something.”
“I mean, those are all great ideas..”
“See?! I’m perfect for this.”
“But you’re also risking your life and your parents would be a mess if something happened to you.”
“I get that Aunt Hana.”
“I’ll talk to my boss and we can try and figure something out, okay?”
Jillian nods and then gets up from the sofa.
“I’m off to bed.”
“Goodnight.”
“Goodnight Hana.”
*
“You were supposed to cover up all the tracks and now you believe you left something in that school?! It could track back to us!”
“I’ll figure it out boss, I promise.”
“While you fix your dumb mistake, it’s time to wait for phase 2. The comeback. These NSA people will strike in return but we are prepared and armored.”
“What about the casualties?”
“I don’t give a shit about casualties, we are so close to getting what Thana needs.”