Chapter 1

Cammie POV

Tomorrow was the very first day of school, and the building was silent. None of the young, brilliant debonaires of Gallagher Academy had arrived yet…it was still just me and the storied bricks.

Liz had hacked into Mr. Moscowitz's files about a week ago and found his lessons plans for the month. She had then called me, Bex, and Macey immediately. It turns out Mr. M was planning a pop quiz on the very first day of school – I know, unfair right? So I was sitting quietly in my room, studying for the upcoming COW quiz when a soft knock came at the door.

"Cammie, dear, are you busy?" I heard my mom call.

With a near inaudible sigh, I closed my book and got off my bed. "Not particularly."

I straightened my shirt before opening the door. I was expecting my mom to be standing there with maybe a paper she wanted to show me in her hand, or maybe a glass of water. What I did not expect was for her to be flanked by two men. They were young (but not that young-early 20s), they were handsome (but not my type). And almost immediately I knew: they were CIA.

She smiled weakly and gestured to the two men around her.

"Sweetie, let's talk."

I stared at the five other people in the room in shock. Joe and my Aunt Abby had joined shortly after the two men had begun explaining things to me.

"So let me get this straight," I began haltingly. "You want ME to join YOU on a mission? A real mission? For the CIA? Me?" As I talked, my voice became continuously squeakier and I was so utterly confused.

"That's correct, Ms. Morgan," one of the men, Connor James, replied. He held out a manila folder. "This is the case file, in case you wanted to look over it. You can think about it, but not for too long. We need an answer tomorrow before noon. We leave the day after."

I must've looked shell-shocked or something because the other man, Andrew Peters, jumped in. "We know this must come as a surprise, but we needed two highly qualified, unknown operatives to join us on this mission and we decided we'd go with high school students. Nobody would expect that. We'd like to have you on board. Out of the hundreds of students, we picked you for your abilities. Think about it, okay?"

Something he said caught my attention. "Two? You needed two students? Who's the other?"

Agent Peters suddenly looked extremely uncomfortable, as did Agent James, Joe, Aunt Abby, and even my mom. There was an awkward silence for a few moments. Finally, my mom broke the tension.

"There's something we haven't told you…" She took a deep breath as if she was steeling herself for some kind of outburst from me. "There's another school, up north, called the Blackthorne Institute for Troubled Boys."

I waited patiently while she glanced at Joe nervously.

"And…it's a spy school, too. For boys," she finally admitted.

It took a moment for the news to sink in. But suddenly everything clicked. There had to have been a reason there were so many good male spies in the CIA and not just female ones. It must've also been where Joe disappeared to for weeks on end, and without notice. The way my mom had glanced at him had confirmed that.

My mind was spinning, but all I managed to mutter was, "Oh."

Agent James and Agent Peters stood up. "Think about it, okay? We hope to see you in two days," one of them said. "Goodbye, Cameron."

Joe patted my on the back, and he, Abby, and my mom left as well. I sat with the manila folder in my hand afraid to open it, but at the same time exhilarated that I had been invited along. Taking a deep breath, I finally flipped it open and began to read.

Operatives: Connor James, Andrew Peters, 2 others still pending
Target: Recover the Moranes Crystal ASAP
Location: Navy Pier in Chicago, Illinois, USA.
Note: This mission is HIGH-PROFILE. All operatives must be relatively unknown for mission to be completed anonymously.
The file contained a high-quality picture of the crystal set against a black velvet background.

Immediately, questions began piling up. What was so special about the crystal? Who was the other high school student? Obviously it was a boy, but in the end, my mom hadn't really answered the question. What in the world was Navy Pier?

This all called for a huge Room 201 convention (A/N I don't know what dorm room number they live in, so I'm saying it's 201). I had a four-way call with Macey, Bex, and Liz going in a matter of seconds.

"Guys, I'm going to need you to get here as soon as possible…"