I do not own Codename Kids Next Door, it belongs to Warburton

Operation Before

Beginning

Excellent

Friendships

Over

Rough

Encounter

Chapter 1:

" Now lift your head a little." The man behind the camera said.

"Like this?" asked the bespectacled boy with cool brown hair, his British accent extremely noticeable. The position he'd taken up was just perfect to bring out some of the natural red highlights in it.

"Exactly like that. You're a natural," The adult replied, "Now, say cheese."

"Cheese!"

There was a blinding flash, causing the boy to wince as he closed his eyes, trying to will the spots out of them.

"Okay, Nigel. You're done. Now you can go wait with the others for the class picture."

Nigel stumbled out of the chair, glad to be done with this. He liked how he looked in photos, but the flash… it was murder. His head pounded and the black spots clouded his vision as he tried to walk away. He bumped into the next child coming in.

"Watch where you're going!" He heard an Irish accented voice yell.

Of course it would be Francine Fullbright, the boy thought to himself as he said, "Sorry, I can't see. The spots haven't gone away yet."

"Yeah right, they aren't that bad."

They were for him. After a couple moments more of trying to find his way on his own, he felt someone take his hand, an adult. "Come on, Nigel." Said the voice, whom he instantly recognized as his teacher's. He sat down in the chair that she led him to and closed his eyes, trying to recover as she left to deal with a couple of kids who were arguing about who should be in front of whom in the line. After a couple minutes, he recovered from the flash. Now he just had to survive the class photo.

"Hey there," a boy called out as he approached the chairs. "Mind if I sit here."

"Sure," the young brit said, studying him. "Um, sorry if I sound rude but, I don't really recognize you. I don't think I've seen you before."

"You have, just not like this. Mom made me leave my hat and goggles at home."

"Oh, you're that hall monitor detective's assistant aren't you?"

"I sure am, and my senior detective, Tyler, said that if I keep learning like I am now, I'll be ready to fly solo before I'm halfway through first grade!"

"Is that good?"

"Yeah, there hasn't been a kid who was given his own cases before he reached in second grade in eight or nine years.

"Wow!" Nigel said, "Well, I hope you're the next one."

"Thanks. The only person who might make it first is Joe."

Nigel glanced over at Joe Balooka, who, for once, did not have any chocolate smudges somewhere on his face from chocolate sauce. "Really?"

"Yeah, he's good too. We've got a competition going for who can solve the most cases. He was actually winning until a couple weeks with that Meatball Sandwich theft from the school kitchen. They're still looking for that kid.

Nigel started twiddling his thumbs, knowing exactly who was behind it… He'd been hungry after the school had handed out their regular portions and had decided to nick more for himself. "Seems an awfully big overreaction for the cafeteria staff to call in the hall monitor's for just two sandwiches."

"And how do you know how many were taken?"

The Two boys were distracted as a girl with her hair braided into a ponytail did a flip off of the stage and land on her feet. Then she kept walking to some chair further down the row as if she hadn't done anything of note.

"I still don't think it'll measure up to getting into that Kids Next Door group as a kindergartner though." Hoagie said. "They barely let kids of any age into their club."

"I wouldn't make a big deal of it." Nigel said. "I'm sure having a sister in the group helped."

"But they're so cool."

"Why? They talk about protecting kids. Protect us from what? Homework? Bath time?" Nigel rolled his eyes. "Have you ever witnessed these 'atrocities' they are warning us of... dentists that give checkups without the parents scheduling it, lunch ladies that brings food to life so that it can stuff itself down our throats, fire wielding men who want to take away our deserts. I suppose next, they'll tell us that there's actually a monster in the closet." The boy laughed. "I wouldn't let that group of storytelling show offs mess with your head."

"Yeah, I guess you're right. It does sound kind of ridiculous. I have seen some weird stuff as a hall monitor but nothing like that. Still,t you have to admit, their toys are really cool."

Nigel nodded, consenting to the other boys point. Living at the bottom of the tree they gathered at, there was no way to avoid seeing some of it. And their gadgets were really cool.

Then changing the subject, Hoagie said, "hey, I heard that Nurse Clairborne has a fresh batch of her crumble cakes. Joe and I are planning on sneaking away and grabbing a few after we're done with pictures. Want to come too?"

"Sure," Nigel said, more interested in spending a little more time with this outspoken boy than the pastries he was speaking of.

This is the first of a three chapter story. Nigel, Hoagie and Abby are the only members of the team we love that will show up in the story. I hope you are enjoying the story thus far.

I would like to thank Numbuh 777 for reading this over for me on

kndfanforum.

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