Jamie Vince slammed her locker shut. The weight of the three giant textbooks resting in the crook of her arm would be enough to make most normal people strain. But she wasn't a normal person and didn't intend to become one. Her lip curled disdainfully as she took a glance at the other students traversing the hall. They spent so much of their clumsy lives looking inward, never suspecting that something else might be going on right beneath their noses.
She immediately scolded herself for the thought. It wasn't their fault that they didn't know. And besides, that's why she was here—to protect them. That is, if the Colonel would allow it, she thought with rising frustration.
A finger tapped her shoulder tentatively. She nodded inwardly, expecting as much. The girl had been hesitating nearby for the last ten minutes; so much so that Jamie had made a mental bet on whether the girl had enough guts to come up and speak to her. She slowly turned to face the shy girl, her face blank. She didn't want to encourage her. They were not going to become friends.
She had noticed the girl turn her eyes—topped by a pair of glasses—up at her in Math. Jamie had been handing the teacher a registration slip from the principal. She immediately pegged the girl as a teacher's pet. A sweet girl who had a shy demeanor: an eager-to-please. She wasn't the type of girl Jamie wanted to have tagging along. Besides, she didn't have friends. She didn't need them.
I'm Lacey," the shy girl announced, fiddling with a keychain. Her voice was nearly drowned out by the crowds of students pressing down the halls. A boy accidentally bumped her on the shoulder and she jumped out of the way nervously.
"Uh huh," Jamie responded, assuming a bored expression.
There was an awkward silence as the girl waited expectantly. According to social custom, Jamie was now supposed to offer her name. She didn't. She tried not to smirk. It was sick and disgusting to enjoy intimidating people who already had self-esteem issues. And Lacey was a prime candidate for that.
But it was all for the best. She couldn't have friends—even if she'd wanted them. Which she didn't. And Miss Goodie Two-Shoes definitely wouldn't approve of her out-of-school activities.
"And you are?" Lacey prompted. Her fiddling became more accentuated.
"Jamie," She replied succinctly.
"Oh," the girl responded brilliantly, straightening her pink top out of habit. "Well…I hope you like it at Brighton High. I guess I'll see you around."
The girl fled.
"Yeah, I'll enjoy it immensely," she muttered sarcastically. She suppressed a tiny worm of guilt. She was doing what needed to be done. She was doing what the Colonel required of her: 1) keeping to herself and 2) keeping an eye on things.
She was just turning when someone jarred her out of the way. Jamie leaped lightly in the direction the momentum carried her. She took care to land clumsily, nearly tipping into the locker as she steadieds herself. That's me, the normal girl! She thought bitterly, wincing as a tiny streak of pain shot up her ankle.
She'd seen the girl coming toward her a second before impact. Jamie could easily have jumped free of the collision, but that was strictly forbidden. She couldn't display her talents.
"Hey!" Jamie snarled, rounding on the girl. The least she could do was stand up for herself.
The girl—along with her posse of cheerleaders—stopped. The smirk was evident as the girl flicked her shoulder-length golden hair away from her face. It was streaked fashionably with pale red hues. "I'm sorry!" Her voice dripped with fake concern.
She was clearly the leader of this group. Her friends surrounded her with almost worshipful expressions. Popular today, nobody tomorrow types. They relied on his girl to keep them at the top. It didn't take a genius to see why. She was confident and beautiful, and was clearly a boy magnet.
Jamie's chin turned upward so she could stare the girl in the eye. She nearly froze as a result. Large brown eyes, clearly flecked with silver, stared back at her. It was all Jamie could do not to gasp. The girl wasn't even wearing contacts! She was either cocky or had a death wish. Jamie was going to go with cocky. The girl's type were always more careful in the cities. Out in small towns like Lampton Hill, they probably hadn't met much resistance.
Jamie couldn't back down now. It would only make the other girl suspicious.
"It's okay," Jamie replied rather gruffly without budging. "Just don't let it happen again."
She did a quick scan of the girl's friends. None of their eyes held any tell-tale silver. It was odd to see this girl mixing with humans. But smart. If someone were to turn up dead, they'd be less likely to suspect her as a culprit.
"Amber," one of her posse members cut in. "We need to get to history."
Amber nodded curtly and the group moved on.
Jamie hopped into the crowd of students moving down the hall in succession. She made sure to allow a few people to get between her and the posse. She didn't want to appear to be following them. Her ears strained for snippets of conversation. She didn't know what she expected to hear. Amber wasn't going to say anything important in front of her human friends.
Just as she expected, she caught snippets about boys and parties and who just wasn't cool anymore. The warning bell rang loudly in her ears, cutting off all conversation. Jamie was glad for it. She had no interest in their petty and superficial existences. At times in her life she had wanted to be a part of all that. To belong to something. But she was over that now.
Her eyes darted to a small bathroom as she inched along the hall to her next class. With a quick decision, she exited the mass of students and pushed through the swinging door just as the final bell rang.
Jamie smiled automatically at a girl who was applying lip gloss at a mirror and brought out her own brush. She pulled it through her straight reddish-brown hair, staring in the mirror properly. She wasn't a gorgeous girl, although she did all right for herself. She was tall with a smattering of freckles across her cheeks and nose. She had her mother's brown eyes and thin frame. Her loose t-shirts and track pants did nothing to help her appearance, but they were the best clothes to be wearing when disaster struck.
People thought her a sporty girl—and she was. They just didn't realize how sporty. The Colonel worked her hard. Martial arts, track, gymnastics, weight training, reflex training, breaking and entering training…the list marched through her head. She knew things teens shouldn't and didn't know.
Finally, the lip-gloss girl packed up her makeup bag and left, undoubtedly thinking up a rather brilliant excuse to be late for class. As soon as the door swung shut behind her, Jamie jumped into motion. She checked all the stalls to make sure she was alone.
And she was.
She rummaged through her purse, pulling free a tiny black cell phone. The Colonel had bought her the cell just for this purpose. She was the spy. She never played any active roles in his missions. He said it was for the best—seeing as she was a girl and all. She gritted her teeth just thinking about it. His sexist opinions really got her going sometimes but it was best not to argue with the Colonel. You couldn't win.
That's why she and Doug had started calling him the Colonel. It was just a childish nickname, but it had stuck. Since the day their mom had died, he had stopped being their father and had become the Colonel.
She pressed the faded button displaying the number one. All the other buttons looked brand new: barely touched. This was the speed dial to her father's cell. She lifted the phone to her ear and listened to the whine of the speed dial.
The Colonel picked up on the second ring. "Jamie," he said immediately. He wasn't one for friendly chit chat. "What do you have to report?"
"I saw one," she responded. Nice to talk to you too, she thought sarcastically. She wouldn't have dared say such a thing aloud. Not to the Colonel.
"I knew it!" There was a gleeful sound in his gruff voice. "I just knew there was a colony here! All the hard work's paying off! Do you know how long I've been waiting for this? A whole colony!"
"We don't know that yet." Jamie dared to contradict.
"There is!" The Colonel snapped. "I know there is! Just do your work and stop complaining!"
Jamie pulled the phone away from her ear. She could still hear him clearly at arm's length. She gritted her teeth and placed the phone back on her ear. She would have argued with him if it would have made any difference. She muttered, "Whatever."
The Colonel calmed immediately. "Did you check for all the signs?"
"Not all of them," she responded. "I can't look suspicious. But I know she's one of them."
"Are you absolutely sure?" He pestered.
"Yes," Jamie sighed. She wished for once that he could just take her on face value. It wasn't as if she was an amateur. "I saw her eyes. They were half silver. Her name is Amber and I'm sure she's a werewolf."