She crept up slowly behind him. She raised her arms to get him at last. Suddenly, he grabbed her arm and she flipped, landing on her back. She heard her back crack from the fall.

“Come on, every time!” She exclaimed. He just shook his head at her in disappointment.

“Oh Dianne, when will you finally get that you will never be able to surprise me?”

“One day Jake, just you wait. I don’t get how you always hear me; it’s actually kind of creepy.”

As Dianne was getting ready to keep pestering Jake, Jake lifted his hand towards her to be quiet. He went towards the nearest tree, and motioned for Dianne to keep talking from where she was. So she kept talking of what a ‘weirdo’ Jake was as he suddenly kicked at something behind a tree. Dianne screamed as a man fell from behind, it was obvious that he was unconscious. Diane with her mouth wide opened pointed at the man, then Jake, then the man, and then she tried to speak and couldn’t, and then once more pointed at Jake.

“We should probably go before more come.” He said as he pulled Dianne towards his car. They drove away as Jake explained.

“My father is an agent for a top secret program in the CIA. I would tell you which one, but I don’t know myself. My father has been a wanted man for years in the United States for turning in traders of our government. And I don’t think those men and women were very pleased with my father went they went to jail for, oh, just forever. On another note, years ago when we were about five, my father went on a top secret mission in Venice. He helped discover nuclear weapons underground and has been a hero with their government ever since. My father told me that if we were ever in trouble, we would have to leave for Venice pronto. He also told me that there would be a man in Venice to take us to a safe place.” Jake finished and waited for Dianne to react.

“Well Jake I’ll really miss you, and please find some way to keep in contact with us.” Dianne replied.

“Umm Dianne, you and your family are coming with me and my mom to Venice. It is too risky for not only my family, but yours to stay here because you have been seen with me.”

The car swerved as I punched Jake in the face. He just looked at me and plainly said that he thought he deserved that. So my day had a nice start.

Jake drove in front of our house and I started walking towards our house to get my parents, only to see that they were running towards our car. Jake’s mom was with them.

“Hello Jake, we got your message and we’re all set.” Jake’s mother said.

“Jake you need to go now! Dianne I have your things packed. Jake we sent a message to your father that we were on our way to Venice. He told me he would make sure we had everything we would need. I have our passports and enough Italian money to last us a couple of years.” My father told us.

“What is going on here?” My mother asked. At least I knew I wasn’t the only one that didn’t know what was happening. As Jake started speeding away, my father also explained his side of the story. Only he had some more information that would have been useful to me.

“I’m Jake’s guardian. That is the one job the CIA has given me. They told me that one day we would have to leave to Venice and it would be my job to make sure everybody got there safely.”

“So you risked our family’s life, too?” My mother asked. When he didn’t reply, it was my mom’s turn to punch someone in the face (which she did with a lot of gusto).

My father handed me my passport. My new name was going to be Adelina, which my father told me meant ‘little noble.’ Jake’s new name was Valentino, which meant ‘healthy or strong.’ Jake frowned, and complained that Valentino sounded like a girl’s name. I told him that’s what he deserved for keeping a secret like this from me all these years. Instead of making ‘Valentino’ mad, I think it humored him and he chuckled. My mother finally had stopped hyperventilating and throwing punches at my father in the back. Honestly, I felt bad for Jake’s mother who was stuck back there with them.
I thought everyone was overreacting. The man who Jake knocked out was just probably some mugger who messed with the wrong guy. I don’t think he was a man working for an evil politician with a grudge (or should I say evil ex-politician with a grudge). That opinion changed as soon as I saw a bullet ricochet off of my window. I screamed, very loudly, and my mother started hyperventilating again. Jake told me not to worry because the windows were bullet-proof. I could barely hear him though because the sound of bullets against a car was very distracting. Jake told me to open a compartment in front of me in the car. I did as I was told, and when I opened the compartment I found at least fifty buttons in there. Jake explained that I needed to press the blue button, on the third column. When suddenly our windows disappeared, he started screaming, “I meant the fourth column!!” Our windows shot right back up and all our windows turned black except for Jake’s. Now we couldn’t see nor hear the bullets. My father just laughed with Jake about what a close call that was, and I didn’t understand how they could have been laughing.
When we reached the airport, I pointed out an open parking space near the doors. I was very nervous when Jake sped past it. I saw Jake’s face as he honked his horn for people to get out of the way. Jake was getting close and closer to the airport doors. I was freaking out!
“Jake… Jake… Jake, Jake, Jake, Jake, JAKE!!” I screamed as Jake literally drove into the airport. He didn’t stop either. He kept driving around screaming people, which very much scared me. He finally slammed on the brakes, grabbed our stuff with my father, and we ran to what appeared to be a closet. Of course, it wasn’t a closet. It turned out to be a hallway. We all ran down it, and it led to the outside. The only thing that was different was that our outside was surrounded by huge walls, so one would think from the outside that it was just a part of the airport. Jake got us all in the private jet, and I would continue the story, but I don’t remember it; I don’t remember it because I passed out in the jet. You see, I am deadly afraid of plane… and heights.
The next thing I remember is waking up in a house in Venice.
“Good morning Adelina. How are you doing?” Jake asked.
“Well,” I started, “considering the fact that we all almost died yesterday, not that bad. What had happened Jake… or should I say, Valentino.” I added, in a very mocking voice.
“After you passed out in the plane, it turned out my father was piloting the plane. After we landed, we had a big family reunion. It was a very touching moment by the way. He also told me that as soon as you are well he wants to meet you. Anyway, my father said we can go back to the United States after the CIA figures out who tried to kill us yesterday. So we might be in Venice for a while. I thought that while we are here we should do some sight-seeing. If you want to join us, we are going after breakfast. You can meet my dad downstairs, too. Sound like a plan?”
“Yeah, it’s totally cool. But just to be clear, you owe me big time for not telling me about this whole CIA thing.”
“I think I can make it up to you.”
“Oh, is that so? How do you plan to do that?”
“Have you ever been shopping in Venice,” Jake added with a mischievous grin.
“Oh you’re good. Apology accepted.” I said.
“Thanks. I’ll be waiting downstairs.” He told me, as he got up to leave.
I saw my opportunity; I got on the bed and prepared to jump. I would finally get Jake. I jumped from the bed straight towards Jake. Jake took a step to the left, causing me to land flat on my face. Jake snickered,
“Better luck next time Dianne.”
I will get him... eventually.