It wasn't really fun trying to convince the principal of Waterford High, a middle aged man with greying specks all over his black hair named Mr. Duncan, that the school wasn't being terrorized by an out-of-control teenager from the other side of town, but Reece managed to calm the school authorities down when he assured that there was nothing serious that went down earlier. Not before a warning for himself though.

"Next time, Mr. Alexander, do make sure you don't have any other friends that have a habit of coming into school properties uninvited to make a mess like some rabid hound. I swear, manners these days..." Mr. Duncan said, a disapproving frown still lingering on his wrinkled face. His nose was a bit too big so it was a bit distracting to see it moving up every time his face changes.

By then Reece wasn't sure if that look was for him or Halley. "Don't worry, Mr. Duncan. She was...uh, a special case." That was nicest possible way to describe her that he could think of.

It was enough for Mr. Duncan, who simply nodded and went on his way though not before giving him the stink eye. You know, the look that any adult would give to any teenager, ever.

Well, at least his cheek hasn't started to bruise yet.

Convincing the principal was simple, his friends though were onto him like TMZ when a teen star goes to prison for the first time. As soon as he went through those cafeteria doors again, they all started the interrogation.

"Who the hell was that crazy bitch?"

"What did she want from you? Money or something?"

"Are you okay? Did she hurt you?"

"Is that crazy chick from Eastview High?"

"So, is that hottie taken or..." Toby drifted off, avoiding eye contact as everybody stared at him. Well, somebody got their priorities straight.

Reece sighed, holding his hands up in defeat before anybody else asked more questions. At this rate, they'd follow him around until the end of the day and continue the interrogation tomorrow.
 
"Her name is Halley," he started as he picked up the hotdog that he didn't manage to finish earlier. "No, she didn't want money from me and no, she didn't hurt me-"

"You realize your cheek is almost blue right?" Mara pointed out. "And there's shoe prints on your shirt."

Reece ignored her and went on. "Yes, she's from Eastview and..." he looked at Toby, "You need to make better choices, dude."

Toby shrugged his shoulders, it didn't look he cared that much.

Toby Gardner was a self-proclaimed player, despite having the name of a 40 year-old virgin. His light brown hair was usually styled to look 'unintentionally messy' and his face was so sharp that he could probably slice cucumbers on it, but his cool act would usually melt off the moment a pretty girl responded so basically everybody got turned off once the conversation started off.

"I mean, she's hot-"

"And she'll rip your face off, just saying."

"Reece," Claire was still patting a white cloth on her clothes, which reeked of orange syrup. Her expression was unreadable but there was something about her tone that made everyone take a step back. "Just so you know, if I meet your little friend again, I'll cut that bitch."

"... oh boy."
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The text from Halley came after an eternity of restlessness. Reece had crashed onto the old, blue couch in his living room as soon as he got home and he barely moved ever since. Seeing how strongly she felt about it, you would have thought that she'd be rushing to set a time and place. But when Reece texted her first, well, the only thing she was in danger of was diabetes.

Me: Yo, are you okay?

Me: C'mon, I wanna know about it, fast.

Me: Halley, are you there?

The Devil's Spawn: Oh, yeah, sorry. Was having ice cream. Employers get em free on Fridays.

Reece groaned when he read the text.

Me: Well, hurry up. Aren't we supposed to meet up somewhere?

The Devil's Spawn: Right. It's not safe here so...

Says the one casually having mouthfuls of ice cream.

The Devil's Spawn: Go to Westcreek Park in 20.

20 minutes was an awfully short time considering it'll take him more than 5 just to gather enough determination to get up form the sofa, which felt like a squishy heaven in all its lumpy glory.

Well, Halley probably wasn't going to be there on time anyways.
2 years with her made him realize that being there in 20 minutes translated to 'I'll be on my way 10 minutes after that'.
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Westcreek was the district that was smacked into the middle of Waterford and Eastview, the middle ground between two ridiculously different sides of town, basically the grey in a black and white scale.

It was also the most boring part of town, where everything that went there was probably old and decaying already, like the 45% population rate of senior citizens there. The high school there was also dreadfully dull. Whenever there was something like a friendly competition being organized between the different schools in town, Westcreek High students would probably be those group of people you didn't even know were there until it was announced that they lost.

But the good thing about having such a dull environment was being able to keep their public properties in a great condition even after god knows how long.

Because we all know that once a park opens in Eastview, it would take just 2 days for that place to be the site where crackheads make meth, and another 2 days for the scene to be officially shut down by the police there, who probably wanted the drugs secretly anyways.

The Westcreek Park had been open for over 30 decades and according to Mom, it looked exactly the same as it did when she was a kid. That either meant the government here was broke as hell or the people here was just that good. And boring.

Not that Reece was going to complain much about that, it's the only place that he knew of to just go for a nice walk on a relaxing cloudy day.

And surprisingly, Halley thought the same too.

He would've thought that the girl would wreak havoc on a place so peaceful but apparently this was her only exception.

When Reece reached the park, he noticed that as usual there wasn't much of anything there. Only a few people were taking a stroll around there but otherwise, it's the same quiet place that he had seen every time he came here.
Tall trees lining up the pathways, the ones that will turn into different shades of yellow and red during October and cause a hell of a mess whenever they shed down from the branches. There were some wooden benches throughout, under the pretty light posts with intricate rails, the only design that was remotely interesting here.

Reece didn't have to walk far into the park to see her on one of those benches, but it did take him some time to figure if it was really Halley or not.

You see, Halley had this habit of being a bit too paranoid whenever she was going to do something that is supposed to be kept quiet. Even with something like a surprise birthday party- not that she ever wanted to go to one, but she ended spoiling the surprise anyways.

She was oddly fine when it came to things that were supposed to attract attention, basically 99% of the things she had done before. But in these secret meetings... well, she gets an A in dedication.

Sitting on a bench just slightly around the corner of a pathway was somebody who's posture and behavior seemed way too much like Halley, but instead of the fiery red curls that always made her stand out, there was a short blonde bob cut that was a bit too fake. And unlike her usual style of purely comfortable clothes, she wore a cute little dress that looked kind of morbid on her.

And of course, what disguise would be complete without some heavy shades of sunglasses.

After staring at the girl for a while, Reece was sure that there was no denying that was Halley, and he didn't know whether to laugh or be worried that she's putting this much effort. Was it more dangerous than he expected? Well, there's no reason why he couldn't laugh and die at the same time.

He tried to approach her with a straight face but the more he saw her, the laughter from his throat was just begging to be released. "Hey..." he called out once he got close enough, and he couldn't resist the snickers coming from him. "You sure the cosplay competition is here?"

Halley turned to face him, her lips set in a single hard line, and though he couldn't see her eyes behind those shades, he can feel the heat that she gave from it. "I will gut you like a freaking fish when you sleep."

"...okay then." Reece mumbled, before cautiously taking a seat beside her, making sure to scoot over to the edge of the bench as much as possible. "So... care to tell me what happened? Or are you just here for a remake of Legally Blonde?"

"I bought this wig shit a while ago, thought that maybe it'd come useful."

"Sure did. Gave you a whole Dollar Store look."

"Har. Har."

The boy passed his hand through his black hair and looked around the area. Nobody seemed to be around. That was making it all the more unsettling. He cleared his throat. "So, again, what happened that justified trying to beat my ass?"

She just let out a long, tired sigh. "Nothing much happened. Mafia Junior almost got poisoned, I did too. That's all."
She tried to pass it off in a casual tone, but the slight quiver in her voice was too much of a warning sign.

"Wait what!?" Reece looked at her, trying to find any trace of a wicked humor there. But there was none. "Are you serious?"

"Yes, you jackass! Of course I'm serious!" Halley faced him now, pulling off her sunglasses, revealing her fiery black eyes with the heavy mascara. When she spoke, her voice was low and seething. "Do you really think I'd waste my time if it were anything but serious?"

"I thought-"

"That wasn't supposed to be a question!" she hissed. "Fact is, yesterday almost caused 2 death scenes right at my damn workplace and I have no flipping idea who the hell did it!"

"Alright, why don't you just tell me what happened, okay? Just calm down-"

"Do not tell me to calm down, Alexander. Especially since you only gave me more of a headache just because your lazy ass couldn't bother to recharge a f**king phone." Despite what she just said, Halley took a deep breath right after and stayed silent for a few moments.

Reece didn't know how to react to this, he could barely process what was happening. A part of him was convincing himself that this was a joke but even Halley wouldn't be like this just for a stupid prank. She looked so disturbed that he even felt like he should comfort her in some way.

But even in this state, she'll bite of his fingers if he did.

It only confirmed this when she spoke again. "Don't you dare pity me or whatever. I won't take that from anyone." Halley let out a frustrated screech before reaching up to her wig and ripping it off of her head. Then she threw the blonde clump to the ground. "What's the use in a stupid disguise if that f**ker knows how I look like anyways?"

"That's the use of a freaking disguise. So that he won't recognize you! You're being a mess right now." It was wrong how easily she let herself be bothered by this. Wasn't she supposed to be the monster that the freaking killer would be thinking of instead of the other way around?

"Just tell me, Halley. You've faced more dangerous shit than some freaking poison."

"I guess. It caught me off guard," she admitted. "That chick, Sarah or something-"

"Sierra."

She waved him off. "Yeah, that. She came to Beanz and Co. yesterday, with some friends I think. They talked like they haven't seen each other for a long time."

"Reasonable, apparently Sierra once lived here. Then she moved away but yeah, she's here now."

"That explains it." Halley nodded and scrunched her eyebrows, trying to remember everything. "I wasn't her server, it was the other kid, Rodney. He's kinda new. I don't exactly know what she ordered but I'm pretty sure that it was something from the secret menu."

Reece tilted his head. "Secret menu?"

The girl rolled her eyes as if he couldn't have been any dumber. "Yes, Alexander. The menu that isn't officially written. I told you this before. There's that Pizza Waffle, the Avocado Waffle Crisps-"

"Okay, that sounds gross."

"Well, it's a weird kinda taste but it works, for some people. That's why it's secret, dumbass. Anyways, she ordered something called Rocky Blue."

"...isn't that just a Disney character? Zendaya?"

"Well, Hector liked her I guess, don't ask me stupid stuff. I don't know what the Rocky Blue, Hector kept the recipe secret. But when it came out of the kitchen, there was something off about it."

Reece scoffed. "What? There were strands of Zendaya's hair in it?"

"Stop it with the stupid jokes, somebody could've died." Halley looked like she was about to snap at him again, and that sight was much more comforting than seeing her being worried. "That drink wasn't blue. Not the same way I remembered it. But I couldn't be too sure cuz it's been more than a few months since somebody ordered it. But the Rocky Blue that the chick got was sort of greenish. And the most obvious thing was that it was fizzing."

"Uh... I'm going to take a blind guess and say it's not meant to be fizzing."

"No shit, Sherlock. Look, we don't even serve soda or any carbonated stuff. The closest we got is sparkling water. I just didn't have a good feeling about it. So I just kinda knocked the drink over on the table, made it seem like an accident. Then I got them another table."

Halley stopped for a bit and grasped her sling back, putting her hand into it before pulling her phone out. "Look, I got some photos." She handed it to him.

Reece's eyes went wide when he saw the picture of a familliar looking potted plant looking absolutely decayed. Its leaves were all shrivelled up and most of them laid on the dirt. Its branches were thin and feeble, the plant just looked like it had been left to die for months on end. But this tree, even the pot, it just seemed familiar...

"Is this the plant by the counter? The big one, like 4 feet?"

Halley nodded solemnly, "Yeah, that's what happened after I poured a little of the Rocky Blue left, it got like that in just a few hours." She took her phone back and put it into the bag. "After I cleaned the table up, I went looking for Hector. But surprise, surprise, apparently that old dude was in the toilet for almost 20 minutes already."

Reece frowned, "So you mean..."

"Yeah. I asked that Rodney dude and he said that there was a new worker making drinks." Halley then pursed her lips before shaking her head. "There wasn't any new guy."

She stopped, standing up and looking around. At this point, she was probably keeping watch 24/7. She continued in a quiet voice. "Then I went into the kitchen and snooped around. I thought I found something." Then she chuckled. "Well, someone found me too."

A sinking feeling spurred in Reece's gut and he found himself standing up as well. "You were attacked?"

Halley let out a shaky breath and nodded. "It didn't last long. I could still kick his ass," she smirked. "But the dude was wearing a face mask, so I couldn't see much. Then he sprinted out the back door. I tried to follow suit, but yeah, that bitch can run."

"So, he's gone?"

"Yeah, just like that. He was gone along with any evidence that was possibly there. Well, almost..."

Reece nodded, understanding where she was going. "You took what's left of the Rocky Blue."

"Yeah, and I'm going to spend a few days figuring what it is. I have a few sources in mind..." Halley picked up the blonde wig on the ground, brushing the bits of sand and dirt. "But after what happened... I think this is more dangerous than I thought it would be."

He realized that both of them didn't really take that Mafia man very seriously. They thought it was some kind of joke that maybe they could earn a bit of cash for. Reece doubted that Halley believed that they'd get paid $1000. But here they are, risking lives.

"Reece, I need to research a bit more on these stuff. I'll ask around, the people I know from this town and others. But I can't watch that girl at the same time."

"So, you're saying it's my shift now."

"Yes, you better do it damn well." Halley looked hesitant for a moment but continued anyways. "I'll send you all the info you need along with her butler's number. That old hag will keep you updated about her plans. But as far as I know, that Sarah chick is planning to go for the movies this Sunday. So, get to work."

Reece nodded, but an uneasy feeling still lingered. "Are you going to get yourself in deep shit or something?"

Halley shrugged. "Not really but I gotta find out as much as I can. Don't worry, if I die, I'll leave a tape for you," she joked before walking away. "Do a good job, Alexander."

And he sighed as he watched her go out of sight when she turned a corner. "I will."

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The 10th chapter of Teen For Hire! I'm so happy! Things are getting more interesting now and I love it haha!

I've been trying to come up with a regulated schedule for my chapters but since I have a busy life, I'm going to have to make a compromise.

I will be doing my best to release one chapter on every weekend!

So stay tuned and share this book if you loved it! Leave a comment and a vote!

- Love Zeke