DISCLAIMER: I don't own the Gallagher Girl Series. As much as I wish I did, Ally Carter owns the books

CHAPTER 1: Cammie's POV

I finished the letters, silent tears falling down my cheeks. I'm so much like my Aunt Abby, I so don't do goodbye's. I put the letter's where I know my friends will find them. Macey's in her make-up bag, Liz's in one of her textbooks, and Bex's in the water bucket she threatens me with every morning. The last letter I left was to the one person who would take my running away, wait let me rephrase that... running towards answer's... the hardest.
My Mom

It's not that i don't love the anymore. I just don't want to see them get hurt. It's been almost a year since I found out the Circle of Cavan, an ancient terrorist group, is out to get me. I still don't know why they want me, and no one will give me any answers. I can almost remember everything about that cold November night outside of the Hotel where the Presidential Watch Party was being held.

-FLASH BACK-

"Macey!" I yelled, knowing more in my heart than in my mind that something was seriosly wrong.

I started running down the street, away from Zach and toward my friend, just as headlights pierced the darkness. just as the barriers were crushed against the van that careened so quickly down the empty street that I actually stopped. I actually stared.
Macey. Macey had wandered closer to me and farther from Bex and Liz. She was there, standing alone in the headlights' glare twenty yards from help of any kind.

"Run!" I yelled, rushing toward her, but it was too late. The van was too close. Its side door was sliding open. Masked figures were leaning out. Everything was so slow that I wasn't sure my yell would even reach her as she stood dumbfounded in the glare. And watched the van pass her by.

As I stood in the light of the Washington Monument I noted the type of wristwatch the driver was wearing, and whether or not the man jumping out the side door was likely to hit me first with his right hand or his left. As I thought about Boston; as I heard the words "Get her" one more time; as I realized that Macey hadn't been the only Gallagher Girl on the roof that day.

As I remembered that nothing is ever as it seems.

Tires screeched across the pavement as the van skidded past me, turning ninety degrees, blocking off the path from which I'd come.

"Cammie!" Zach's yell seemed far away, lost behind a mountain of rubber and steel. To my right, I saw my roommates running closer, but the world was in slow motion. Help felt light-years away as a big man jumped from the back of the van. But he was too big-too slow. I dodged his blows and hooked my foot around the back of his knee as i pushed and he stumbled, pinning a second man against the van's door for a split second, and i started to run.

"Cammie!" Bex's voice rang through the night from the south.
"Macey!" I yelled in response "Save Macey!"

But Macey didn't need saving. And I know now that that was the problem. I didn't know what was happening. I didn't know where Zach had gone. All i knew was that i had to keep running- faster and faster until strong arms caught me around the waist. Before my feet even left the ground there was a rag over my mouth- a sick smell. I tried not to breathe as my arms flailed and the world began to spin.

And then falling. I remember falling.

Through the eerie glow of the van's lights, I looked for Zach, but the figures were a blur as the pavement rushed up to meet me- too fast, too hard. My head was on fire. My body was crushed beneath my attacker's weight. Someone or something must have knocked us both to the ground, because the rag was gone- the haze was parting just enough for me to see my roommates battling two men twice their size. Liz clung to the big man's back while Bex parried away his blows. Macey fought against the second man, and i wanted to yell for her to sun, but my head throbbed as if there were simply too many facts- too many questions- for my mind to contain, and the words didn't come.

And then the crushing weight was gone. Clean air rushed into my lungs. But before I could Push myself up, the rag was on my face again. The arms were gripping me tighter and the cloud over my eyes was growing thicker, so I summoned my last ounce of strength and crashed my head into my attacker's skull.

I heard a crack, felt the blood of a broken nose pouring over me as I stumbled to my feet. But the world was spinning too fast, my legs were too heavy. The arms found me again. I felt the van coming closer as my heels dragged against the pavement, and I searched the blurry darkness for help- for hope. And that's when I saw Macey.

She was running toward me. So strong. So fast. So beautiful.

"She's safe," I whispered, but no one heard the word-the lie.

I sensed the motion stop too late. I felt the right side of my body sinking, but I didn't fight to stand. Instead, I watched my roommate run faster, heard her call my name louder, but the one thought that filled my muddled mind was that the girl by the lake was no match for the girl in front of me then.

"No!" I heard the word but I didn't remember screaming. I saw the flash-heard the blast-but I hadn't seen the gun.

I lunged forward, but was too late. Not even the Gallagher Academy can teach someone to turn back time.

Yells filled the air. Panic spread on the wind as the gunshot echoed down the dark street and out into the night. And that's when I knew the voice I'd heard wasn't mine. Someone else was screaming. Someone else was running through the black. Someone else was lunging through the air in front of Macey and then falling too hard to the dark ground.

The hard with the gun tried to pull me back, but I spun and kicked, heard a sickening snap, and watched the mask figure to fall.

I stepped, but my legs failed me. I fell to the ground and tried to crawl, but couldn't. Maybe it was the drugs from the rag, maybe it was the blow to my head, or maybe it was the sight of my roommates screaming over my aunt's broken body, but for some reason my arms forgot how to move.

"Get her out of here!" Mr. Solomon appeared as if from nowhere.

"Now!" My mother's voice echoed an the wind.

A hand grabbed my arm again, but this time I lashed out with more rage than I had ever felt, climbing to my knees, spinning, kicking, yelling "Get..."
It was the eyes that made me stop. And the hands that were suddenly held toward me. And the words

"Gallagher girl."

-FLASH BACK OVER-

See that is why I have to leave. I put everyone around me in danger. As I slipped through the only secret passage way, that had not been blocked by the security department, I said goodbye to the school I lived in for the the last five years. Next I did the thing I, Cammie the Chameleon, does best.

I disappeared.


REVIEW PLEASE! Don't hate. It's my first story. :P

- Cameron 'Chameleon' Morgan