High school is insane. It is even more insane for me, Isabella Marie Swan, because I am not just learning the standard school subjects, but others as well, including; self combat, bomb deactivating, computer hacking, an even disguising 101. Here at Schaefer High, known to students as Spy High. To be in a regular High school would have been nice. It's not like I went up to our director and asked to join the team, I was caught hacking the government computer, and I was trying to get to files I shouldn't have been looking at.
It was my entire fault. I knew it, but if I was to blame anyone else, I would Blame Jacob Black. He tricked me, manipulated me for my skills. Apparently I was excessively smart. I was supposed to be a sophomore at Forks high school, but graduated early and instead of becoming a junior, I was transferred to the University of Oregon as a freshman in college. Don't get me wrong, Oregon is beautiful, but I think I prefer the coolness of the forest. Oregon has too much sun at some times, and the next minute it will be snowing, I swear the weather is bi-polar. I met Jake at the college when I tripped and fell into his arms. We got to be friends, and I thought I wanted more. I would do anything to prove it, so as I listened to his sob story about realizing he was adopted and wanting information on his family. Being the silly, naïve, sixteen-year-old girl I was, I believed him and agreed to hack the government system for information. I was naturally god at hacking and had yet to find anything I couldn't break through soon enough. I had heard that this particular system was new, and I was egging to give it a try, even if it was illegal. I was able to get through the many levels of security easily, and was searching any information on it, but after not finding anything, carefully exited the system so I wouldn't be caught as I left the system.
All was good until the next day. I was walking to my dorm when a van skidded to a halt and two men rushed me. I had no time to struggle because by the time I could even comprehend what was happening, I was in the van and leaving campus. The road we were on was bumpy, and the men just stared at me. Hours later, and the van stopped abruptly. I was pulled outside the van, and looked at my surroundings. There were trees everywhere, and that was not good. I could navigate the forest back in Forks, but not in unfamiliar territory. I was pulled roughly into a building that held another door, a mirror, a metal table and two chairs. shoved into the chair, I was left alone after the doors were locked.
Waiting around is the most boring thing I have ever done, It had been maybe three hours, and NO ONE had even entered the room. Soon enough, i got the familiar feeling of needing the restroom, and it was making me fidgety. I pulled out my last lollipop, and started sucking on it. They always helped me concentrate, and think when I was confused. An unknown amount of time later, a man walked in, with a look of boredom on his face. He sat in the chair opposite me, and started reading through a file that had my name on it, Nicole Jessie Willis. Born curious, I tried to peek, and as the man noticed, he turned around, so we were both reading it easily. The file had a picture of me, and I almost cried then and there when I saw the picture of my deceased parents. there were a lot of words in small print, but I saw my height, criminal record, weight, and then it got personal. There was my grades from every year, and a list of all of the sports I had done. There was all my preferences in movies and music, and I was getting nervous, who were these people? The man shut the folder, and stared at me, waiting a while before he spoke, as if he could sense my nervousness, and need to pee.
"You're in a lot of trouble you know." He said finally.
"Um... sort of I guess." I mumbled, not really sure how to answer the rhetorical question.
"You could leave here today, your record Scott-free." He said suddenly, and I was confused. Wasn't he from the government, he was acting as if he wasn't and it was bugging me to no end.
"What are you talking about? I hacked the GOVERNMENT computer system, I should be in here for a long time, how could you get me out of here? I would do anything to have my life back to normal."
"well, I'm not with the government, and I never said your life would get back to normal, you would just leave here, your life was never normal, Nikki." Nikki, only my family called me that. I started to cry right there. I was confused and frustrated, I would be able to leave here, but it sounded like it would be at a price. One that I wasn't sure I was willing to pay, not with the whereabouts of where I would be headed unknown, so I asked.
"You are very skilled Nikki,-"
"Don't call me that." I interrupted, there was no way I would let anyone ever call me that again,that was what my family had called me "You can call me Nicole."
"Okay, Nicole, as I was saying, you are very skilled at the computer, and shockingly smart for someone your age. You could be very useful for us. We are putting together a new team of spies in training, and you would be an asset to the group. Have you ever heard of Schaefer High?" Of course I had heard of it, it was supposedly a school for people who were extremely gifted, and extremely rich, it was extremely elite, it was said that even the children of movie stars could not go. Was this man implying that the school was actually one for spies in training? I was sceptical, but he had all the forms of identification, and after making a note of his name, I agreed grudgingly.
After eating, I was ravenous by then, and using the toilet, we were off. The car ride was pretty silent, but I suddenly was struck with a question.
"What about my stuff?" I asked, thinking of the photograph of me and my parents, happy and laughing, as if they weren't going to die the next day.
"did I not mention that? I have already sent someone over to collect your personal thing like photos and such, but you will be getting everything else new, laptop, clothes, and whatever else. Which reminds me, you must go under a new name, we don't want anyone to recognize you and have you traced. Your name is now Isabella Marie Swan, and there is a file underneath your seat with your information regarding your past, you must memorize soon, it is of the utmost importance. And here we are." keeping the photos would be nice, but the person who was going through my stuff, was it a guy? A guy who would have gone through my underwear drawer? My last name and photos were the only things I had left of my parents, except my necklace of course. They had given it to me just days before I ever saw them again, It was a locket and I still had yet to figure out how to open it, I had never taken it off. Pulling up to a gated spot, a robotic figure came out and scanned the eye of our driver before letting us in.
The driveway was long, very long. After an extensive drive, we pulled up to an old building that looked like an overly large mansion, bigger than the Hogwarts school in the movie Happy Potter. The door was opened for me, much to my surprise, and I was lead into the building before being introduced to another person. She was pretty, maybe in her mid twenties, and claimed her name to be Ash. She told me where my room was, then lead me to an elevator, pushed -3 and told me to walk straight until I got to the second door on the right. When I asked her why she wasn't coming, she told me of another "Newbie" needing to be showed around. Watching the elevator doors close meticulously slow, the feeling of alone-ness washed over me. I could feel the elevator moving down, and realized there was more to the school than what it seemed, we had started on ground floor, but Ash had pushed -3. The doors opened to a long hallway, and I counted two doors before pausing at the entrance. Taking a deep breath, I pushed open the large double doors to find a man in his late thirties sitting at the head of the table with about twenty people about my age, sitting across from him.
"Take a seat anywhere Bella, my name is Carlisle." He allowed, talking in a silky smooth voice. I sat nervously and looked around. It was hard to see everyone, but they all looked around my age. a couple minutes later, Carlisle spoke again.
"Welcome to Schaefer High school, most of the graduate spies call this place spy high. My name, as you all know, Is Carlisle, and I will be your mentor and one of your teachers. We like to keep you in a group of sorts, so without further ado, I want to place you in your groups. The first group will be Jessica Stanley, Lauren Mallory, Mike newton, Angela Weber..." Carlisle went on for a little while, and I was only paying attention slightly until he spoke my name. "the fourth group will be Bella Swan, Alice Brandon, Edward Masen, Emmett McCarthy, Rosalie Hale, and Jasper whitlock." After naming the last group, he had us all, except group one leave, so he could speak to the groups individually. He would call another group in about every fifteen minutes. When he finally called through the door group four, I saw five other people standing up, all exceptionally beautiful. Especially a man with hair the color of bronze, he was like a Greek god. We all walked in the door, and Carlisle spoke. One man stood out almost as much as the bronze haired God, and I couldn't stop staring at him. He was well built, and looked like he could be a body builder. He would have been threatening except for the dimples and curly hair, and for the fact that I had known him my entire life. I was told by Child Services many years ago, that I may never see my brother again. I was staring right at him. He must have felt my glance, because he turned in my direction, and those familliar eyes popped. I was about to say something, but I was interupted.
"I have been waiting for this group, you know, I hand picked each and everyone or you in this group, while I had others pick everyone else. I expect great things from all of you. I also must warn you, that some of you may already know eachother, but it is imparitive that you show no sigh of recogonition, ones you care about are your greatest weakness. On the other hand, I know you must not know eveyone, so I want you to all go around, state your name, and why you are here, then choose the next person to go. We can start with you. He pointed to a very pixie-like girl, with spiked black hair and a very petite stature.
"Hi I'm Alice Brandon, and I got called in because I have mastered karate, but an adult remarked on my height, and I took them down." A beautiful blonde next to her, looking more along the lines of what I figured an angel to look like, scoffed at that, and Alice glared at her. "Alright then, who are you miss know-it-all and why are you here?"
"Hello, my name Is Rosalie Hale, and I got called in because of my skills in chemistry, I blew up one too many class rooms." At that Alice scoffed, trying to cover it up with a cough and earning a glare from Rosalie. "and I want to know more about you." She remarked, pointing at my big brother.
"Hello everybody! My name is Emmett McCarthy!" He boomed, "I got here because I can speak thirteen languages, not including English, and apparently I have 'Misused my gift'." Everyone laughed at that, and he chose the blond man sitting next to me, but the entire time, he was starring at me. Something that didn't go unnoticed by Rosalie who was glaring at me.
Hello, my name is Jasper Whitlock, and I'm an empath, I can feel and alter the emotions around me. It was either here or the loony bin." He admitted quietly, with a distinct southern accent. "Who are you?" He asked, looking straight at me.
"Hello, My name Is Ni- Isabella swan, I'm here because I got caught hacking the government computer system." I sighed, I would never forget the one time I was unable to hack a system. My brother's eyes enlarged and he stared at me yet again, but this time, he had panic and disbelief written all over his face.
"You?" Alice gasped, "You look like you would be a runway model or something!" She assumed, but she was obviously wrong. Not only did I not have the coordination, I didn't have the looks either, I was plain, with brown hair, and murky brown eyes, and a pale complexion.
"I guess that leaves you." I whispered towards the God with bronze hair, my heart stuttering as he smiled a crooked grin.
"Hi, my name is Edward Masen, and I am here because I can get by any security system out there. I was caught when my mask snagged, and my face was shown." His voice was like velvet but he looked devestated at his capture, I knew how he felt, to think of yourself invincible, then suddenly, you're exposed.
"well, that seems to be everybody, you will all be rooming with each other and you will want to pick a team name by the end of the week, along with nicknames for everybody that reflects your personality, but you can use on missions so you will not be caught. You can head to your rooms now, your schedule will be on your bed. To make it easier for you, your belongings will be color coordinated, Alice orange, Bella midnight blue, Rosalie pink, Edward red, Jasper white, and Emmett black. until later."
We headed off to the elevator, and went to where our room was, every two teams had their own floor, except us because there was an odd number of teams, we had our own floor, but it was slightly smaller. We were on floor three, and the doors opened to a large open area with video games and a pool table among other things. The walls were a dark red with black diamonds scattered around that had silver lining, and all of the furniture matched. There was a large kitchen, and at the very end a door that was open to a expansive bedroom with six beds, each our assigned color. We walked into the room, taking in our surroundings. across each bed was a closet and dresser with the same color, and on each bed was a new laptop in our color. There was a small bed side table in between each bed, with pictures in frames.
We all walked around, testing their beds, and looking at the laptops, but I went straight to the photographs. There was all of my old photographs, and even a couple that I had never seen. There was one of me as a baby, Emmett, and my parents were all laughing at me. The pictures brought tears to my eyes. I was leaning against the head rest of my bed, so I felt someone sitting next to me, I didn't really take into account who it was until the velvet voice spoke. "Is that your parents? I can see where you get your looks. I'm sure they must be very proud of you, after all, you got into 'Schaefer'." That comment brought a fresh wave of tears to surge through me, and as I looked up, the beautiful face had confusion and hurt written all over it. I wiped away my tears, and got up to, like Alice, look through my new wardrobe. My closet, like the others, was white, but mine had midnight blue handles. I turned around to take another glance, and saw my bed was next to Alice's, and next to Edwards. Edward had the bed by the window, and Alice's was next to Jasper, who was next to Rosalie, with Emmett by the door. Taking a swift glance at the photo, I turned back around and opened the door to my closet.
I hated my new clothes. I had skirts, dresses, shorts, and nice shirts, many of the clothes showed way more cleavage than I ever hoped to have to show. According to Alice, they want us to have clothes that are the opposite of what we usually wear so it would be harder for us to be found. I'm a conservative person, I like jeans, and T-shirts. I hadn't worn a dress since I had the option to, and the same went for skirts. The shoes varied, there were converse, and Nike, and ballet flats, but a lot were heels, I'm not good with heels, anyone who had the same balance problem as me would agree. I shut the door, and turned to my dresser, opening the first. Big mistake, I never wanted to see that drawer again. It was all of my bras and underwear, but it looked to be bought at victoria secret. Not my forte'. They were lacy things, and almost all black or red, see through to almost every single one of my shirts. The underwear was the same, I was shocked to see the majority of them not only matched the bras, but they were thongs. I shut the drawer quickly, and opened the next which held all of my favorite books plus new ones, and blank books for me to draw and write. The third and final drawer held a new iphone, ipod, $200 to iTunes, and the rest was filled with Cd's. I was looking through the Cd's and was happy to find that I knew all of the bands. There was Debussy, Fall out boy, Hawk Nelson, and all of my other favorites.
As I walked to my laptop to set up my iTunes, I saw ontop of my dresser was a radio with an iPod dock. Deciding to set up iTunes later, I remembered Carlisle saying that our schedule would be on our bed, so I looked towards the blue, and saw a paper with my name on it.
Period 1- 7:00-8:00 bomb deactivating
Period 2- 8:10-9:10 Computer hacking
Period 3- 9:20-10:20 physical training
Period 4- 10:30-11:30 Disguising 101
11:30-12:30 lunch break
Period 5- 12:40-1:40 Science
Period 6- 1:50-2:50 Math
Period 7- 3:00-4:00 foreign languages
Period 8- 4:10-5:10 Weapon usage
free time unless otherwise notified
11:00-lights out
Every single person in our group had the same schedule, and then we decided to go to the kitchen and get some dinner before we started a movie. After changing into our new pajamas, we figured out who would cook. What I realized that day, was I was the only person out of those other five people who actually knew how to cook. I decided to make a simple lasagna while everyone else chose a movie. After the dinner was ready, I just carried the pan of food out with six plates because I figured we would eat as we watched the movie. I was right. Jasper and Alice were laying across one of the couches, Emmett and Rosalie were both strewn across the floor, with Emmett staring disaprovingly at my clothes, I shrugged to show my innocence. That left the only spot for me to be right next to Edward, on a large chair big enough for two people, barely. I made a move to the floor, but was interrupted by the voice that I would recognize anywhere.
"Bella, why are you sitting on the floor? There is plenty of room on this chair, come, sit with me." I was hesitant to say the least, I would be practically on his lap, and I didn't really want my butt on his lap, that would be really awkward. I agreed reluctantly, after he urged me, and smiled that crooked grin that made my heart melt. Slowly walking over, I sat in the small area, and I was very aware of our legs touching. The pajamas given to me were small, I had a dark blue tank top, and the shortest shorts I had ever seen. If they could be considered shorts, I preferred the term longer underwear. I was silently thanking the heavens that I had shaved my legs. The movie started, and it was pretty good at first, it was about a family that didn't know the others existed, each of the children had been told they were an only child. No one would tell me the name of the movie was, and they wouldn't even tell me the genre Emmett looked lost, as if he had no idea what the movie was about. The movie continued, and suddenly the mom and first child were on a plane to finally, after ten years, reunite. Fate wasn't with them, suddenly the plane crashed and I was hit with a flashback of my last memory on an airplane.
We were sitting in our seats, Mom, Dad and me, when I suddenly heard a loud explosion of sorts, the plane was shaking violently, and the passengers were in panic mode. No one could hear anything except the sound of voices trying to locate loved ones. My Mom and Dad left my side, asking the lady next to us to watch their daughter. After all, according to them, "She's only nine and we need to figure out what is going on." I remember begging my parents to stay, but they declined, and left telling me they loved me, and to be strong for my brother who had been home with our Aunt Holly. I agreed, tears streaming down my face, but I hugged them tighter than I ever had, somehow knowing to memorize their scents while I could. The lady watching over me put a hand on my shoulder, and helped me put on a life jacket, reassuring me the entire time. With another jolt, people started to jump out, screaming and holding on to their loved ones. The lady told me to hold her hand, and together we squirmed towards the exit, me looking back, trying to find my parents in the crowd. I couldn't see them, but as soon as we were at the exit, I looked back again. I was just in time to hear two gun shots, and my parents tumble to the ground. I remember screaming out to them, my voice echoing in my mind, my cry drowned out with others as I was pushed out the plane, me grasping onto the lady's hand for dear life. Suddenly we hit water, and I was pulled under the ice-cold water of the Atlantic Ocean, my only grasp on reality, the hand in mine, which never let go. I felt the lady pushing us up, my lungs tightening as my air supply was lost. As the feeling of being light-headed washed over me, I felt a change in pressure, and I was suddenly able to take a breath of the cool air. Relief. Then pain again. My parents were dead, shot right in front of my eyes. When I would get home, I would have to tell my big brother that his parents were dead.