Chapter 1
I was sitting in my favorite place in the whole castle – a tucked away window seat. I know, I know, a spy's favorite place should probably be something more secretive or "special", but when I was sitting there I just felt peaceful.
Yeah, you read that right. I'm a spy, along with all of my friends. We go to a school called Blackthorne Institute for Boys. Obviously most people don't know that we are spies, so our cover is a really snooty boarding school.
Most of my friends go home for the holidays, but I stay at the school. I really don't have anywhere to go, since my mom went MIA about 10 years ago, when I was 6. My dad is still with me, but we don't own a house. That's because he is headmaster of Blackthorne, so we just live in the castle. Everyone assumes I get special advantages just because I am "Zachary Goode, the Headmaster's son," but really I don't. Okay, fine, I was lying. But I don't get many. Basically I just get to dorm with whomever I want – which is Grant, Jonas, and Seth.
Which brings me back to what I was originally saying: I was sitting in my window seat, waiting for one of my friends to arrive. School was starting in exactly 2 days, 17 hours, 10 minutes, and 34 seconds and they needed to show up soon. Most of the boys were already back, but not Grant, Seth, or Jonas.
I was startled out of my thinking by someone's arm wrapping around my neck in a tight chokehold. Most people would freak out here, but being a spy (not to mention a good one), I simply performed the Heindelsky Maneuver on my would-be-attacker, effectively throwing him on the floor under my foot. Then I started laughing uncontrollably.
My best friend Grant was sprawled on the floor under my foot, looking quite shocked for a moment. Then he joined in on my laughter, but I had the feeling he was laughing at me, not with me. So I pushed down harder with my foot, of course. I think Grant would have jumped up and attacked me then (I so could have taken him) but we both heard a familiar voice saying, "Hey guys! Not interrupting anything, am I?"
"Jonas!" we exclaimed together, then looked at each other, weirded-out by our accidental jinx. Jonas helped Grant up and started telling us all about his summer. He rambled, "And I hacked into the CSI files to find out about the really wanted criminals, then I thought one of them looked like my neighbor, so I made this device to put in his house that would tell me every single sound, sight, and smell in there. Then when I looked at the readings, I wished I hadn't put in the smells part because he farted a lot!"
Grant and I started laughing again. We were boys, after all.