Prologue
I don’t know how to begin this action story, but I do know that it began in a strange place: Yale Law School. There was a strange man and an annoying, young girl. They were both 20 years old, and they somehow got mixed up with each other and found that nothing was going to be normal. Then Tanya, the young girl, solved the mystery. Then you will discover who your narrator is. So sit back and enjoy!
Chapter One
It was a long day, and Tanya was sitting at the edge of her seat, tapping her pencil loudly so the whole floor of Yale Law School could hear it. It was rather annoying, so everyone put in earbuds to buckle down to work. So much time had been used for writing a book of law. Now some annoying person deleted it. It was very obnoxious. So super frustrating. All of the hard work was erased.
She got out a computer and started to work. Busily typing away, she spotted Max standing up and asking to be excused from class for the second time today. Tanya wanted peace. And for the first time this term, she felt homesick. It was an awful, sick feeling of a strong desire for home. The smell of fresh bread.
Oh, and reader, this Max boy might interest you. He was the first person in the history of Yale Law to be such a trouble maker. A boy of that age, tsk, tsk. It was a shame.
Then there was Pierre, another boy, who always was the teacher’s pet. He was very mysterious too. He scared all the new kids half to death. He always acted odd. Tanya thought that she was annoying, but a good student. That was what she thought about herself. One time, Pierre was found by a teacher doing some sort of paperwork, and he ran and hid.
Tanya was nice, and she helped the instructors after school, and she was a great friend. But annoying. At the end of the next day, Tanya finished the law book. It took two days and a night. She was so tired. She felt like she just changed a time zone. She collapsed in her room and slept for an hour. Luckily, it was not a school day that day.
Now let’s talk about the other boy who was always smart and creepy – Pierre was his name. He was up to all the crazy things. It was even hard for the teachers to tell what was going on. He never was friends with Tanya. They were not that crazy about each other.
One day, an instructor told them they had to hang out with each other more than normal. That was the funny thing. That professor was weird. At first, they were super mad about the assignment. Then they realized that it was not that bad. They could just talk about their grades. Pierre got all A+ on his tests. That really stank for Tanya, she was hoping to make him look stupid. She got all A+ as well. Pierre was mad too, though. He wanted to make her look stupid. They both realized it was pointless to do anything together, even if it meant disobeying the instructor. They were angry. They did not have anything else in common.
Chapter Two
A couple years later, Tanya graduated from Yale and became a well experienced lawyer. She was hired by a judge in New Haven, Connecticut, right near the school. Eventually it was Tanya’s birthday. She was 20 after three years of law school. Rather boring to her. It was the life she chose though.
She was getting closer to her parents’ house for her birthday party. It was an odd sensation to be on her own again, zipping around on a train. Back to her home when she was a kid. To her parents. Well, not really, but they were her grandmother and grandfather. Her mother had gone missing for a long time. Tanya was raised by her grandparents. It was hard to believe that she was living like that since she was a baby. She never had a father.
As the train approached the station, she wondered why the teacher had forced her and Pierre to be with each other that day in law school. She felt a little perplexed about that. Why did she have that sudden feeling to give up being with him back then? She was afraid of him. It was almost like they fought with each other and never wanted to end the fight. It felt like she hadn’t seen him in a century.
She got out a phone and called her grandparents.
“I’ll be home soon, don’t think something has happened to me,” said Tanya happily into the phone.
The train approached the station. The doors opened, and Tanya got off as soon as she could. She walked onto the dirt road. It was a lovely rural area, and all the flowers were glinting in the sunshine. The trees were all over the pathway, making a tunnel. She loved this area when she was a kid and was often found playing with her friends.
She was surrounded by memories. This is the best birthday she had in a while, the only birthday party in a couple years. She forgot the sensation.
She arrived at the house and walked right in, a funny feeling of a really great home. It was a big, scarlet cottage with white shutters.
Chapter Three
“Hi, honey, you arrived just in time for the start of the festivities. I invited a few more people, aside from you,” said her grandma.
In the room was her father, thought to be dead and, if you can believe it, me. The narrator. But I’m also another important person to Tanya. Her mother. So reader, you are correct that narrators can be characters. Tanya recognized us from the photos I told my mom to show her.
“How did you get here?” screamed Tanya at the top of her lungs.
Before I could answer, she noticed a classmate of hers. In the corner of the room, standing in the dark was… Pierre. Tanya was running into him, unplanned, all over again. His pale grey eyes were looking straight at Tanya.
“Why is he here?” asked Tanya.
“An instructor at your school told me to invite him. Professor Clarkson was his name,” I said. “Could you and I have a private talk together?” I added.
We walked into the bedroom that used to be Tanya’s old bedroom. An old place with a red bed and posters that she drew supporting the president of that time. It was sort of humiliating because all of the things she liked then, she hated now. I thought her room was cute.
“Now, honey, the reason Mr. Clarkson wants you to find out what Pierre is hiding is because he wants you to find out what he is up to. He is acting more secretive. But in order to make this happen, I want you to be more sneaky. The reason I’ve been missing is because the president wants to promote you to a Supreme Court justice, and he wants me to talk about it with him. The first part of your life I was living in Europe as Secret Service for America.”
Tanya was very amazed to hear the news. It was also sorta scary. She was a good lawyer, but a Supreme Court justice was a big deal. The part I felt guilty not telling her about was that Pierre was also becoming a Supreme Court justice. It didn’t seem polite to tell her. She already had enough on her shoulders. It was a big thing to her that someone cared enough to throw her a birthday party. To me, it wasn’t fair to her that all this was happening on the same day. It was a lot to handle. In a couple days, she would go to Washington, DC! Where all the big stuff happened. Politics, cases, and large choices.
Chapter Four
The following day, and the day after that, passed. All of the fun passed too. A couple days later, Tanya boarded an Amtrak to Washington DC. An hour passed, and she walked out of the train and into the highest court in America: the Supreme Court. She went to an office to get the job. She got an interview and got the job. She went out of the office, feeling worried about if she had done the right thing or not. Was being a justice a good thing for the country? Was she going to mess up?
She buckled down to work and started looking for a case of some sort. Then when she looked around her office, she saw Pierre at the back of the room. He smirked. Tanya gasped as she dodged a firm slap.
“What are you doing? Nobody told me you were going to be a justice?” Pierre yelled.
It was scary that Pierre was cornering her like that. She was always a good student, so why did everybody want her to face this crack-pot! It was even more frustrating, she thought. All those people. They seemed scared, too. Of Pierre. She remembered when he once got in trouble and an instructor called him a filthy traitor. A traitor! He was a spy! She’d better tell Newlin, the FBI head. She dialed the number: 322-122-655-9999. It picked up.
“Hello? Who is it?” asked Newlin.
“It is Tanya Ivanov. I want to report Pierre Gutwilling. He has conducted violence as a justice. I find it inappropriate that a justice should try to slap another one,” said Tanya in disbelief.
She was gobsmacked. Then Newlin came back on.
“We have delivered him to a jail, and his trial will be set in a couple days. You will be our eye-witness. Be there by dawn. I want you there also as a justice.”
Newlin hung up. Tanya heard a bit of heavy breathing after Newlin hung up. Tanya put away the phone book. She sat back in her chair, breathing heavily as well. It was a long day. She looked at the clock, which read midnight. She picked up her paperwork, put it in her bag, and headed out of the court. At last, she was free of Pierre, almost. She set her alarm clock to 5 o’clock. She instantly fell asleep.
The next day, Tanya got dressed, brushed her teeth, and combed her hair. She grabbed her bag and picked up a muffin on the way to the trial. Once she got there, she took out her papers and was determined to win the trial. She wouldn’t be rid of him temporarily, she would be rid of him forever. She sat down in a seat. She would be serving justice for herself. Tanya waited for the trial to begin. Finally, the judges and the lawyers and all the other people came into the large court. She was so happy until she realized that Pierre’s lawyer was amazing at court. She began trembling.
The judge started yelling, “THIS YOUNG JUSTICE CLAIMS THAT ANOTHER JUSTICE ATTEMPTED VIOLENCE.”
Then the real trial began. They all argued a lot, and then at last, they came to an end. Tanya had won the trial! She quit being a justice, it was all too much to handle, and then she began family life. In a couple years, she was a part of a family of four, and I was the grandma. The years after, Tanya was married and found that Pierre was a traitor. She also had kids. They were six years apart. One’s name was Ava, and the other one was Oscar. They both lived together in Washington, DC. The reason I can tell you is because out of all the fuss, the easiest person she could tell was me.
The End