Rating: T for now, but maybe borderline M later on, I guess we'll see where that goes but you have been warned, just in case!
Disclaimer: I do not own D.E.B.S., Angela Robinson is the mastermind behind it. White Collar belongs to USA Network and Jeff Eastin. No copyright infringement is intended, just having some fun and letting out my inner geek :P
Chapter 1 :
One step forward, two steps back
The sun was slowly rising, bathing the DEBS campus in a soft and warm golden light. The sky, filled with fluffy clouds, was displaying an impressive show of colors, and a cool breeze made the leaves dance in the trees. The peacefulness of this perfect spectacle was contrasting wildly with the emotional turmoil of the girl lying in one of the rooms of the Sector 1 house, who was completely oblivious to the magic of the world outside. She looked at the girl next to her, who was still sound asleep, red locks of hair covering parts of her pretty face. A strong feeling of longing for something more filled her heart, something she was growing familiar with, but that she knew could never be more.
It's good that one of us managed to get some sleep… she thought. She didn't seem to get much of it lately, and sadly not for the reasons she would have hoped for. At least when I don't sleep I'm not sleepwalking. The only times her brain seemed to shut up lately was when they kissed, which was not very often. For the rest of the time, her heart and her reason duelling constantly left her distracted during classes and stakeouts, and she felt that the lack of sleep was starting to take its toll on her mind and body. She knew she should have ended this already, in fact she should not even have let it begin in the first place. But loneliness and hope can become one's worst enemies at times, and she had not been able to resist the temptation when the redhead had brushed her lips against hers for the first time, or all of the following ones for that matter. She had been struggling for the past few months about the situation, but every time she decided that she was done, her resolve was melted with a look, a smile, a touch.
She still had to try once more. For her sanity, she knew this could not go on forever. Friends was all they were from what she had been told too many times now, even if the events seemed to show the opposite. They were friends, that much was true, and they had been ever since they had been assigned to the same squad three years ago. Because of this, she really hoped she would be strong enough to go back to the platonic realm. It seemed to be the only way to save their friendship, for she felt that if they kept ignoring the fact that only hurt could come out of this whole mess. It would only end badly and nothing would be left to salvage.
She let her eyes wander around the room once more. There was not much else to do so early in the morning while lying in someone else's bed and trying to avoid waking up anyone. Simple white pressed wood furniture was lining the walls, which were painted tan, with a couple posters hanging here and there. To her right was a small desk placed right in front of the window with a purple laptop on it, some pencils, a backpack and a couple of clothes lying around. To her left was a bedside table right next to the bed which held the clock as well as a bottle of water and two DEBS watches. A bit further left was the door, and on that same wall was a bookcase that seemed to be too full for its size. Then, in front of the bed and next to the door of the very tiny closet was a dresser, on top of which were standing a few framed pictures. Her gaze stopped on the one in the middle. It was a portrait of two girls in casual clothes standing in a back alley that softly blurred behind the subjects. The girl on the right, slightly taller with long red hair in a ponytail and a freckled face was facing the camera, giggling with her eyes closed and her right hand on her belly. The one on the left had straight and layered short hair of a light chestnut color that went down to her chin with flipped out ends and thinned bangs that separated into a few locks. She was slightly turned towards the ginger, her brown eyes fixated on her and her face lit up with a soft smile, both hands resting in each one of her jean's back pockets. She had taken that photograph of the two of them with her tripod a few months ago, before things got… complicated.
She felt the other girl begin to stir and looked at the clock: it showed 6:11am. Good, hopefully they would have some time to talk before getting interrupted by the usual shouting marathon. Her mind wandered shortly to a time when they hadn't made the top squad yet and were still allowed regular methods for waking up and more than 5 minutes prep time. Things were simpler then, she thought with a sad smile. Life sure did change, and not always for the better it seemed. When she turned her head back the other way, her brown eyes were met by dark blue ones. The other girl blinked a few times and yawned a little, hiding her mouth with her right hand.
"What time is it?" she asked sleepily.
"Ten past six, in the morning sadly."
The redhead groaned plaintively and started to rub her eyes. It was now or never, but the words were failing her and she started fidgeting nervously with her hair. After sighing heavily, she blurted out what had to be the most overused sentence in history.
"Skyley, we need to talk…"
"Evy… Not this again? You're my best friend, you know that, I'm not trying to hurt you. I love spending time with you, and you're one of the most important people in my life."
With that, Skyley smiled brightly at her and put one arm around her while resting her head against her shoulder. Evelyn relaxed in the embrace for a few seconds before her mind started working again.
"You know that's not the problem!" she said a little louder than necessary. There were so many things she should have said then, wanted to say. She had thought about it over and over, and in her head everything seemed crystal clear, but letting it out was a different matter. Every time she tried, her mind suddenly went blank, words jumbled up or it simply came out so wrong that it just didn't make sense anymore. Trying to express deep negative feelings had never been her strength as she was used to keeping those kinds of things to herself.
"You're not even gay, why are you doing this?" was all she could come up with.
"Oh come on, do we really need labels now? Can't we just enjoy what we have without worrying about it? I mean it's not like any of us is taken at the moment anyway, what harm is there in comforting each other every now and then? I mean, you sure don't complain when I do this…" she said while taking her right hand in hers, and starting to rub it gently. "Or this…" she added before kissing it gently. "Or even this…" she finished before kneeling next to her and kissing her lightly on the lips.
A familiar heat had started to creep up Evy's face, partly because of the physical contact, and partly from the shame of being so weak again. When their lips parted, they looked at each other in silence for a few seconds. Her heartbeat had picked up and her breathing was shallow. She started to feel slightly light headed and thought that a distraction would be more than welcome now that she had failed her goal once more. As if to grant her wish, a woman's voice started resonating loudly in the house.
"ATTENTION DEBS! ATTENTION! EMERGENCY EVENT, REPORT YOUR LAZY ASSES RIGHT NOW! RIGHT THIS SECOND!"
Ever since Mr. Phipps' death, Agent Max Brewer had taken over his job. The girls often joked about her taking it because she enjoyed yelling at them so much. The truth was that underneath her rough and borderline psychotic exterior, she really did care about the Academy and its students. She had been an amazing agent on the field, and still went on very important missions, mostly those where there would be a chance to shoot someone. That was the one condition she had set before accepting the job, for she knew she'd need the action once in a while. Her loyalty to her country or to the school and Mrs. Petrie could never be questioned, and she had earned her full trust over the years.
After her graduation around nine years ago, she had been sent on very important missions for the international bureau for a while, and had brought back some pride to the DEBS, which had gotten a fairly bad reputation at some point. Nobody seemed to be exactly certain of the reason, as officially there was no proof of why that should be. There were rumours of course, about the DEBS' Poster Child, the only person to ever get a perfect score on the secret test hidden within the SATs, taking off with the notorious supervillain Lucy Diamond. None of these actual posters seemed to exist anymore, and this sounded like an old wife's tale, but some things did seem to point out in that direction. There was the fact that Lucy Diamond had simply vanished overnight and had not been heard of since, for example, or people still talking about the legendary Perfect Score yet nobody seemed to know her name. The apparently sensitive subject was never discussed in front of the higher ups, as if it would upset them somehow, especially the head of the school.
The last hint that those rumours might be true was something that Evelyn had uncovered one day, or hadn't for that matter. She had always been fascinated by that story, and had wanted to learn more as soon as she heard it the first time. So, she had gone to the Academy's library and had searched it thoroughly, reading anything she could find on Lucy Diamond in old reports. Weirdly enough, she couldn't find anything about her in those files since two years before this whole event had supposedly taken place. She had also searched the students archives, trying to find the infamous DEB's profile but came back empty handed as well. Of course, this whole thing was more than intriguing, but after some time she had unconsciously put all this information in a corner of her mind and didn't think about it that much anymore, except for the random daydream now and then of being kidnapped too by someone like Lucy Diamond whom, despite all that was said about her, might not have been that bad for a DEB to throw everything away to be with her. Someone that would turn her world upside down and take her away from this whole mess she felt trapped in.
"YOU HAVE NO TIME TO SLEEP SOLDIERS, GO GO GO GO!" the shouting continued. Obviously, everyone was fully awake now, panic seemingly having invaded the four students in the house. Evy jumped out of the bed opened the door and started running towards her own room at the end of the hallway. She almost bumped into her squad captain, Alex, who was coming out of the bathroom.
"Evy, you're not even dressed yet!" she said loudly. "Get going, Mad Max is freaking out!"
That nickname was rather widely used, though never in front of the principal subject. They had to be careful though as a girl had accidently blurted the nickname one day while not knowing that agent Brewer was right behind her. Apparently the shape of the girl in bullet holes could still be found somewhere on one of the school's walls, and the unfortunate student had been warned that next time, she wouldn't be aiming so well.
"COME ON, LET'S GO, MOVE IT, MOVE IT, MOVE IT!"
Evelyn opened her bedroom door a bit too strongly, and it slammed onto the wall behind it. From the mark that was already there, it wasn't the first time, and probably wouldn't be the last. She closed it a little more gently and started looking for her DEBS uniform. It was a good thing they were rather scantily clad; it sped things up when it came time to dress in a hurry. She took off her dark turquoise capri pajama bottom and her black tank top, took a fresh pair of white knee high socks and girly boxers and changed those quickly, found her blue plaid skirt hanging on the chair by her desk and picked up her adjusted short-sleeved white shirt from the doorknob and put them on.
She had certainly felt uncomfortable wearing this outfit at first as she had never been the most confident person in the world. She was not amongst the popular ones in high school and her love life so far had done nothing to help with her self-esteem. But after a while she got used to being underdressed, and the DEBS constant training as well as the seduction courses had made her feel much more at ease with her now very fit body. There was also the fact that she felt more comfortable with who she was and her orientation, and even though she was more of a girl next door, she had learned to appreciate her image. She was still shy, but somehow it had never really impaired her skills as a spy because playing a part came easily to her, and most of the time it felt simpler than being herself.
She ran out of her room, entered the bathroom which was luckily empty by now, and then proceeded to brush her teeth in turbo speed. Her hair was sticking out in every direction and she had absolutely no time to wash or style it, so she just picked her brush and tried to lessen the mess. Because her hair was incredibly fine, nothing ever held, not pins nor clips, and since she had recently gotten it cut the same length as a few months ago, it was too short for a ponytail. She settled for two small buns on each side of her head, slightly more to the back. She washed her face quickly and also put some water on her bangs to flatten them so they wouldn't stand up.
"I DO NOT HAVE ALL DAY!"
She hurried back to her room and took her discreet rectangle glasses from the bedside table. Being nearsighted kind of sucked, especially when at such a low degree as she spent most of the time putting them on and removing them depending on the activity. She mostly wore them outside as she didn't need them so much inside. She had contacts as well, but she felt way too lazy to put them on today and used them mainly when they were on the field, depending on the mission.
"TEN…"
She found her blue plaid tie on her desk, stretched it out some, put it around her neck and let it hang loosely.
"NINE…"
She took her black Vans canvas shoes with white soles and laces and just slipped them on without unlacing them.
"EIGHT…"
She grasped her charcoal messenger bag lying half open on the floor and placed it over her shoulders.
"SEVEN…"
She gathered some basic makeup to go, especially to try to conceal the dark circles that seemed to have become permanent under her eyes lately and dropped it in her bag.
"SIX…"
She quickly walked back to the door, opened it carefully this time and headed towards the stairs. The rest of her squad was already waiting for her next to the door looking at her. She had just started going down the stairs when she felt something was missing.
"My watch!" she gasped.
"FIVE..."
She ran back to her room but it didn't appear to be anywhere at first glance. She could hear Alex going crazy downstairs, and Olivia trying to calm her down.
"FOUR…"
Suddenly, it hit her. She ran towards Skyley's room, burst in and saw it on the bedside table.
"THREE…"
She picked it up and hurried back downstairs.
"TWO…"
The other girls had left the house and were waiting in the car. Evy closed the house's door and jumped into the backseat of the dark blue Beetle convertible without opening the door, landing next to Olivia just as she could hear the last number of the countdown from inside. Alex leaped onto the accelerator and the tires screeched a little before they started moving at a speed that would have made most people feel uncomfortable.
The meetings usually took place in the DEBS cafeteria, so that's where the Sector 1 squad headed at first, but just as Alex was about to park the car, Max Brewer's face appeared on the screen in the dashboard.
"Not here soldiers, the briefing will take place inside the Academy today. We are waiting for you in the Phipps Office," she said using a much softer voice than the one she had a few minutes before.
Alex turned the car around and drove them a block further. She was a good leader, Evelyn thought. At 23 years old, their squad captain was a year older than her and she had been assigned to the Sector 1 squad before the others. She could be a little rough around the edges sometimes and seem overconfident, but she was fair, had complete trust in her team and, under her supervision, every single one of them had earned their stripes. After she stopped the car, Alex turned around to look at her teammates with her blue-gray eyes, her long wavy dark brown hair flowing with the movement, before letting out the usual "Let's do this!" so they would get moving.
Everyone got out of the car, making sure they forgot nothing, and started walking quickly towards the building. The Phipps Office was on the top floor, so they entered the elevator and Alex hit the button number 4 before sliding her passkey in the slot to gain access as this was also the floor containing the offices of Susan Petrie and Max Brewer. Usually students rarely went there as you needed special authorization: there were no classrooms and the teachers' offices were situated in a more accessible area.
Skyley, who was standing right behind Evelyn, took advantage of the brief time the elevator took to get up to slide her right hand in Evy's left one for a moment, and smiled at the chestnut-haired girl when she turned to look at her, a hint of surprise showing on her face. They broke the contact the second the doors opened, and she saw the other girl looking discreetly at Alex and Olivia in turn to see if they had noticed anything. Both girls were looking straight ahead and walked out of the elevator one after the other, followed by Skyley, and then Evelyn who had spaced out for a second and ran out of the elevator right before the doors closed.
They were walking in silence towards the room at the end of the large hallway, with Alex leading up front as usual. At almost 5'8, she was the tallest of the squad and had a few inches more than the rest of her team. Evelyn always felt rather small when looking up talking to her with just about 4 inches less, so she could only imagine how Olivia must be feeling at just 5'1. It was a good thing that size did not matter as much as skills in here, and they all had plenty of those.
She came out of her reverie as their squad captain opened the frosted glass door. There seemed to be a few other people in the room aside from Agent Brewer and Mrs. Petrie, but she couldn't make out who yet.
All heads inside the room turned towards the newly arrived squad, all except one. The young man by the very large window overlooking the campus stood undisturbed by the change. The head of the school didn't move an inch, while her secretary Madeleine stood from the huge oval table occupying most of the room. The squad nodded politely to the older woman, but didn't try anything further than that, knowing full well she cared not for pleasantries. Agent Brewer approached the younger girls, looking half annoyed, which was the way she looked almost permanently. Her hair was tied up in a basic ponytail, which was surprising since she usually just let it hang loosely past her shoulders. The darker skinned woman motioned for them to come closer and walked towards the middle aged man who was still sitting at the table, going through some files. He then stood up, shot them a genuine smile while smoothing absent-mindedly his dark grey suit and burgundy tie before extending his right hand to Alex who was up front.
"Girls, this is special agent Peter Burke from the FBI. Agent Burke, this is our top squad's members: Alex Gallagher, Olivia Spencer, Skyley Elliott and Evelyn Chase," Max said, pointing at each of the students in turn. It was a good thing she had an amazing memory for names, unlike some other people in the room. Then again, she was their direct supervisor.
"Please, call me Peter," he said before shaking every hand one after the other while pleasantries were exchanged. He was a tall man, who looked trustworthy and kind. His brown hair was slightly combed to the side, and he had laugh lines in the corners of his brown eyes.
The younger and slightly shorter man had walked to his side by then. He seemed to be in his early thirties and sure didn't look like an FBI agent. If anything, he could have been a fashion icon with the visibly expensive and tailored dark blue-gray suit he was wearing. The blazer was unbuttoned and he was wearing a vest of the same color under it, over a slightly lighter tie and a white shirt. To top it all, a charcoal fedora was covering his head. He flashed them all his most disarming smile, took his hat off using his left hand, and shook hands while Peter made the introductions.
"DEBS, this is my consultant Neal Caffrey. Neal those are agents…"
"Gallagher, Chase, Elliott and Spencer!" Neal continued while shaking hands, a twinkle of mischief in his deep and intense blue eyes. He then switched his hat to his right hand and flipped it back onto his head with style, before lowering it a little bit more on his forehead, his smile never fading. The girls' reactions were mismatched: Alex looked somewhat annoyed, Olivia obviously found that little hat trick amusing, Evelyn was unaffected by his charm but was still rather impressed by his attitude, and Skyley's face seemed intent on trying to match her hair, something which didn't go unnoticed by the chestnut-haired girl next to her.
One thing is certain: that guy exudes complete confidence… But that name, I've heard it before, where have I heard it before? Evelyn thought. It really bothered her and she told herself she would check it out later, especially after seeing Skyley's reaction and how she was looking at him. Her train of thoughts was interrupted when Susan Petrie started to talk, which made them all jump a little since that duty was usually left to Max.
"Ladies, we arranged to meet here because we need to discuss sensitive information. The bureau has asked us for help on an investigation, and since we are working on an anonymous tip, everything that will be discussed here is strictly confidential."
Her voice was strong and assertive. Nobody dared to move or make a sound, apart from Neal who had leaned against the wall and looked rather amused at the older woman's behaviour. She continued, either not noticing or not caring, fixing each of the young girls with her stare.
"If rumours are to be believed, the Savannah is back in the game."
This statement was met with gasps, expressions of disbelief and wide eyes from three of the four girls.
"But nobody has heard from the Savannah in 5 years…!" was all Alex managed to let out before Mrs. Petrie raised her hand to signal her to stop.
"There are many theories on that subject, as in gone into hiding, death, retirement or anything that comes to mind. The truth is, since the Savannah has never been captured or photographed, we don't know a lot about the character. Even the gender is left to guessing, although many seem to believe she's a woman. But since we heard nothing from official or unofficial sources over the past few years, there is no way to know the whereabouts of the infamous cat burglar."
"Who's the Savannah?" asked Olivia shyly. She had gotten into the squad some time after the others, and by then the dust on the file had already settled back. Nobody talked about it much because nobody actually knew much since the thefts had stopped just before their time.
"One of the greatest and most elusive thieves of our time, and extraordinary escape artist. Pulled off many apparently impossible heists, and stole millions worth of money, art, jewels, or anything of value. The Savannah made her official appearance in 1996 when a signature was left at a theft site, but there are signs hinting that she may have started to work 2 years before, although there is barely a trace left more often than not. Usually, the investigators often give nicknames to the perpetrators, but in this case it's as if she wanted to get her name out there, and taunt us, for she gave it to us herself. That calling card had been overlooked at first, because it is discreet and generally concealed within the theft sites or on the replica she always puts in place of the stolen items. This is also one of the reasons why most of the thefts haven't been discovered until some time after it had happened. Here's what it looks like."
Susan Petrie pushed a sheet in the middle of the table so that everyone could see what she was describing. It was a magnified stylized drawing of a cat's silhouette with unusually long ears, and the name Savannah written under it in a delicate and slightly curly handwriting. When everyone had a good look at it, she continued her monologue.
"Like her namesake, the Savannah is believed to be highly intelligent, even ingenious. Because no trace of tool usage was ever found, it is probably safe to assume that she is also agile, swift, rather adventurous and has great physical capabilities like free climbing and jumping. We believe she works alone, but there is no way to be sure if it is and always has been only one person, or even if it is the same one now as then. If this is the case, we might not be looking for someone of the same age so it's safer to assume anyone can be a suspect. There have also been copycats here and there, but all were caught as they were nowhere near as good as the original. The only thing we know for sure is that it must be someone under average height and build because it's the only way some of the heists could have been completed, and it is the reason people assumed she would be a female."
"Oh…" said Olivia, staring wide eyed at the older woman. This didn't stop her from continuing dismissively.
"The FBI has asked us for our help on this case for an undercover mission. I have a phone appointment with Lisa from Interpol so agent Brewer will take care of the rest. Let's show some hustle!" she said before clapping her hands once loudly, and then she left without another word or glance, followed by her secretary who had remained silent the whole speech, mostly because there had been no name for her to correct.
As soon as the door closed behind the two women, the atmosphere instantly seemed lighter in the office. Max, who had been standing straight near the end of the table with her hands behind her back, took a more relaxed stance before motioning to everyone in the room to take a seat around the table. They would all be more comfortable to talk and read the files, she thought, especially since those damn heels were killing her. What the hell was she thinking this morning when she chose these instead of her usual combat boots? Truth was, Mrs. Petrie had insisted she wore a pantsuit today for the meeting with the FBI so she had gone with it, but was starting to regret it. She hoped the meeting would be over soon and that she would be able to go back to her office to change as soon as possible.
She turned around, noticing that Peter had taken back his seat and that Neal had gone to sit on his right. Between Peter and the chair at the end of the table was Alex. The other three girls had gone to sit opposite of them on the other side of the table. Max pulled out the chair next to her and sat down happily. She cleared her voice a little before starting the explanations.
"Agent Burke asked for our help on the case because it's the first time the Savannah is rumoured to reappear after all these years. He's been working on a few of the thefts tied to the cat burglar, but being ever so elusive, it never lead to any of them being solved, even with Peter's impressive record for closing white collar crimes."
"It's much more impressive since Neal and I partnered up, I must say. Together we've been able to improve the conviction rate to 93 percent." Peter continued, before adding while glancing amusingly at Neal, "Of course, some criminals take a lot more work to catch."
The younger man laughed at this apparently amusing joke, and Max allowed herself a smile, but the students weren't able to join the fun as they didn't get what this was about, and only Evelyn's brain was straining at remembering something that kept eluding her. She was also slightly annoyed every time she caught Skyley staring at Neal. She hoped the rest of the meeting would be interesting and that this undercover mission would be better than the last one. I mean come on, pretending to be a nun? Can't be any worse than that I'm sure... she thought, remembering the not so fun times that had incurred. She started paying attention once more after the few seconds of laughter died off and Max's voice was heard again.
"Do you want to explain the big picture since this is your investigation, Peter?" She was obviously comfortable being more familiar with him, which led the others to think that they might have worked together before.
"Sure, Max! So, we received this anonymous phone call two days ago, unfortunately too short to be traced, and not exactly filled with information, but the FBI has agreed to follow up on it since it's our only lead to the Savannah in years, so it's as good as it gets for now." As he finished his sentence, he pulled out his smart phone from his briefcase, pushed a few buttons and put it on the table.
"As you know, every US government agency digitally records phone calls now. We received this one two days ago, but I think it's better if you hear it yourselves," he added before pressing play.
"Agent Peter Burke speaking."
"Da. You arre the Vhite Collarr division?"
Max had lowered her head and closed her eyes in concentration, but as soon as the voice of the woman with a strong Russian accent was heard, her head jerked back up and her eyes snapped open in surprise. Peter noticed the motion but let the recording go on without interrupting.
"Yes, who is this?"
"I have inforrmation about the Savannah."
"What?!"
"Therre is not a lot I can tell you except that the thief vill be underrcoverr at the Arrthurr Wilkinson College in Sunnyvale this veek. I know that they vill trry to blend in forr a while, but I don't know forr how long orr vhat the tarrget is."
"How do I know you are telling the truth, and that this isn't a trap?"
"You don't. But let's just say ve have common interrest…"
Then, the call was ended by the mysterious woman and only the sound of an empty line was left. Max was practically at the edge of her seat when the recording ended. She frowned and sighed before saying pensively:
"The last time I heard this voice, it led us exactly to what we had been looking for. I don't think this is a trap."
"Either way, the FBI decided to seize this chance, but with a reduced workforce. That's where you come in, for that reason as well as the fact that you girls will have an easier time infiltrating the school without being noticed!" Peter said with smile and a wink.
"Are you familiar with the Arthur Wilkinson College and the man behind it?" he continued right away.
"Isn't he the Silicon Valley tycoon who seems to have way too much money and time on his hands and decided that regular colleges weren't good enough for his daughters so he founded his own?" Skyley answered, happy to show off some of her knowledge in front of the amazingly handsome young man facing her.
"I guess Mr. Wilkinson really cares about his daughters' education." Peter answered sarcastically. "He has a lot of friends in the right places who worry about him, which is another reason the FBI decided to go on with this investigation: to prevent any of his properties from disappearing. He is not aware of the situation and we prefer to keep it that way for now. He opened the college a few years ago, even before any of his two daughters were in age to attend. You shouldn't feel too out of place as it is also a female only school and there is a uniform as well. Neal will go undercover as a substitute teacher and I will have a role to play as well that will give me an excuse to drop in now and then if needed, but for the rest of you I think Max has your assignments ready. As for the target your guess is as good as mine. There are many possibilities since the man is rich and has quite a mighty collection, both inside the dean's office in the college, as well as in his mansion adjacent to it."
"Wow. Controlling much? I wouldn't want to be his daughter, that's for sure!" said Alex, unable to stay silent about it any longer.
"Unfortunately we are not here to judge." said Max, seemingly disappointed. "We have a job to do and each one of you has been assigned a new identity. Since you are still lacking some experience in infiltration, you will be keeping your first names. This will feel more natural and can prevent a lot of unfortunate situations from happening." Alex mumbled unhappily at this and Max could only feel sympathetic towards the squad leader as she knew she would have reacted the same way if not worse back when she was in her shoes. "Your primary mission will be surveillance: try to identify possible targets and suspects in the school, but also in the house. The best way for the latter would be if one of you befriends Arthur Wilkinson's oldest daughter. It might be easier for Skyley and Evelyn since you two will be put in most of the same classes as her. Alex will be a year higher, and Olivia a year lower since we need to cover most of the classes to make sure we can keep tabs on all the teachers and students." She pushed a folder towards each members of the squad and everyone opened theirs eagerly.
"Awesome, I always wanted a sister!" said Olivia to Evelyn.
"Me too, sis, glad it's you and not Alex!" she answered playfully. The last comment earned her a death glare from the girl in question. She then turned towards Peter and said, "So, dad, are you coming with us to our first day of school?"
He smiled and replied, "Actually, I am. But I will meet up with the dean while you go to your first classes."
"You better not miss any either, I heard that Mr. Williams here is quite a strict father…" said Neal while smiling roguishly.
"Eew… My last name's gonna be O'Connell?" they heard Skyley complain. "This time everyone will think I'm Irish for sure!" she added, pouting.
"What's wrong with a sexy Irish accent?" asked Evy with a wink.
"No way! Nothing about that in the file and I intend to keep it that way! Anyway, I'm not the language expert here, maybe Olivia should get my file!"
"Shut up and deal with it, Sky! You'll go with whatever's written in there, and better play it good so even I believe it! We have an important job to do so let's not screw it up with superficial disagreements."
"Jesus Alex, don't be so harsh, we're just having fun. I must agree with you Evy, I'm glad she's not part of the family!" pushed Olivia even further, which sent the three youngest girls into a fit of giggles, while Neal and Peter tried to hide their amusement.
By then the squad's leader had crossed her arms and was all but scowling. As soon as the laughter died off, Max hurriedly filled the silence before it got any worse. She was amazed by how much self-control she had gained over the years.
"That's enough fun for now soldiers, Ms. Gallagher does have a point, this is important and there are still some things to discuss. You will each have to carefully read your own file and get into your character; you still have a few days left before we send you into the field. Until then, you will keep going to your classes but are exempted from homework so you can get ready for the mission."
This last part seemed to calm Alex down. Homework never was her strength and those exemptions were one of the many reasons she was glad to be a part of the top squad.
"One last thing… So far, there's never been an injury or death attributed to the Savannah, but be careful nonetheless. We never know how an individual will react if pushed into a corner. That'll be all for now, dismissed."
With that, the girls got up, picked up each of their folders and left the room after saying their goodbyes. While they were walking back to the car, Evelyn felt hopeful that this was exactly the distraction she needed and was really looking forward to spending time away from the Academy and all the mess that seemed to be brewing inside of her when she was around it lately. Maybe being in a different environment would enable her to think about other things and just have fun with her squad as she used to. But before that, they still had a few more classes to attend and a butt load of reading to do, not to mention learning about their characters. Evy mentally added doing a little background check on Mr. Caffrey at the bottom of her to-do list. She would also need to pack her regular stuff, and her not so regular stuff as well. They were spies after all!
