To a normal person a screech in the ear makes you react by cupping the noise closer to you and freezing. Instead my reaction was faster running and further questioning.

"Gahhh, sorry guys." Lulu said through the comms all four of us were wearing.

"Do we have visual yet?" Illiana moaned through the comms, you could tell she was fed up with the mission.

"Not yet!" Stacey squealed impatiently.

The point of this missions was, well, pointless. Stacey saw this cute guy she swore she had to meet so we've basically been stalking him through the mall. Today was like a free day for us, and we choose to do more spy work. My legs cried out in pain and finally led me to a wooden bench near the restrooms.

"The gazelle is taking a rest." I said using my codename.

"Lazy." Stacey sneered back at me though I knew she didn't mean it, she was just a determined girl.

All of us were really; if we weren't then we surely wouldn't be attending school at Stone River Preparatory School. We were seen as a snobby, stuck-up school that didn't have a care for what happened in the world. Not true. We were so into current events that it took some levels of clearance to access it. Of course that never stopped the four of us, just provided a challenge. So why had we decided to waste away in the mall stalking this one guy Stacey thought was cute? Because we all had no lives (except for the ever popular Stacey who had the advantage of spending her summer's with a normal family). On the other hand I spent the summer's either with my mother who was always out on missions (though it takes more clearance then I have to know what those missions were) or with a dad who spent his hours in a lab trying to discover the latest advancement in lie detecting (which made it impossible to be a teenager around him). But having a family like this was typical at our school, Stacey was the only exception. Stacey's grandmother spoils her to death and decided she wanted her granddaughter to attend the best school possible. Somehow our school name made her list and she demanded Stacey's enrollment though to get in you have to pass this exam that's near impossible for any outsider to pass. What we liked about Stacey though is she had common sense and knowledge on almost every subject known to the normals (what we like to call the non-spies). It was her common sense that got her into our school and our lack of a fourth roommate that brought her to us. A piercing squeal yet again inturrupeted my thoughts.

"They're he is!" Stacey said totally happy and totally focused. "Sensible has now made eye-contact with the Target near the pretzel stall. He appears to have come from the restrooms on the food area location and is now debating whether he is going to buy a pretzel. Target seems flustered with many thoughts." Which I knew Stacey would get more details on.

"What is Sensible's plan to communicate with the Target?" Illiana spoke through the comms.

"Either to casually run into the Target or to do further observing."

"Go for plan A." Illiana said monotonously. I knew she wanted out of this mission and onto the normal things normal teenage girls would do at a mall, but the thing was that we were far from normal.

"I'm good with whatever." Lulu whispered through to us, I think she had found a place to observe for herself near the Target's location.

"Plan A it is. Move in." Stacey said in her prep tone. Stacey's prep tone was totally dead and of one pitch, all focus going to her task at hand. I quickly sprung up from the bench and danced around the pretzel cart and planted my location behind the visible obvious area of the view of the Target.

"The gazelle is set."

"The brain is set."

"The one who doesn't want to be her is now set." Illiana said with her famous sarcastic tone. Being located behind the pretzel stall gave me a full 360 view of my partners (Illiana pretending to sit and read a book in a table near the Target and Lulu look at the candy shop cart which was right next to the Target) and a great-unknown view of the Target.

"Sensible is going in." she said as I saw her acting like she was interested in what the food stall had to offer. Then with perfect timing she casually bumped into the Target who probably thought she was a very clumsy yet very beautiful girl."

"My bad." Stacey said innocently looking at the Target's eyes. She may not have known it but I saw her begin to bat her eyelashes and twirl her blond curls.

"Umm…hi." The Target said in a state that seemed to be confused. It's like he had never talked to a girl like Stacey.

"Hello. My name's Stacey." She said in her honey-tone voice offering her hand.

"Ben." The Target simply said returning the handshake to her. A bright smile spread across Stacey's lips as they began to chat about stupid stuff. This is what Stacey called "breaking the ice" though I didn't see what it meant. Time after time she tried explaining to us that you needed to really get comfortable with the guy before going into full flirt mode.

Note to self: Obtain more information on what "full flirt mode" is.

"Okay Ms. Flirtypants, time we headed back." Illiana said yawning through her monologue. She was the responsible one out of all of us, yet she was the more adventurous and risk taking one (which totally made no sense at all to me).

My attention had wavered from the conversation Stacey was holding with the target and soon the ringing of her voice filled my head.

"His name is Ben." She said in a dreamy trance now walking in a daze towards the fountain that was a row of shops away from where her first meeting with the Target (Ben) was.

"Awww!' Lulu said in her usually happy tone. Lulu may seem like a sweet little girl but we all knew different. This girl could put up and argument and could guarantee she would win no matter what. This is the girl that was being begged by CIA developers for her new advancements in mini cameras and microphones.

We all met behind the fountain and glanced harmoniously out our synced watches. "I guess we should be heading back." I said already beginning to calculate what speed we could travel at to reach our destination (the school) in enough time to feel relaxed. I was the thinker in the group; I always had to have a reason and solution behind everything I did. Now I was no super genius like Lulu but I was more aware of the actuality of things. The observant one who noticed key things that seemed to be slightly out of place.

No one argued with my statement to go back (though I know Illiana wanted to find a way to spend a minute in the normal teenage life). Just to make her happy without planning we all directed our conversation on stupid things that normal teenage girls would talk about (like who was the cutest at the mall, what movie had the cutest boy, etc.). Once we entered the doors of our school all normality left without a trace and we headed for our dorm room. Before we could enter someone's speaking filled the hall and sent shivers through my body.

"Ms. Bradford, may I have a word with you?" our headmistress, Mrs. Westingfield, spoke softly but with an edge of authority.

"Yea, sure." I said stepping away from our door following her through the halls of the modern mansion school and into her office.


Author's Note: Well this chapter was totally random and I didn't know exactly what I wanted to do with it. I think it turned out okay for it being my first chapter of my fisr real indpendent story. Yes, this story may seem like the spy series by Ally Carter but I am trying my best to keep it different.
Reviews bring me smiles! :D
-Lindsey