Uncovering the Mystery of Cameron Morgan—Part Two

Dodge to the left.

To the right.

Drop to the ground to avoid kick to torso.

Sweep opponents feet out using right leg.

They fell on their back with a muffled thud. "Man, am I glad these mats are so soft," Bex groaned. "You've been kicking my butt all morning."

Smiling down at her, I held out my hand. "Self-defense classes this summer. Trained everyday all summer, and my teacher was not the kind to let me, or anyone for that matter, slack off. I kind of have an unfair advantage on you."

She shook her head. "No, no I've been training since I was a little girl. I promised myself, one day, I was going to find James Bond and kick his butt, and take his place. I've been at this for years." Taking my hand, I pulled her back up on her feet again. She took her fighting position. "Okay, come at me again."

I stood up straight and laughed. "I'm tired, Bex. Let's take a little break."

I started to walk away when my demigod defenses kicked in. Another kick was coming straight for the back of my head. I ducked, spinning on my heals to face Bex, reaching up to grab her ankle, and flipped her back onto her back. She hit the mats a second time.

"Okay, sneak attacks, not going to work," she wheezed. "Do you have any weaknesses?"

"None that I'll ever let you near." I laughed at the look on her face. "That was unfair, just so you know," I told her.

"No, what's unfair is that I've spent my life training with my parents, and you take one summer worth of self-defense classes, and you've beaten me six times. How do you do it?"

I shrugged, smirking to myself. "Maybe I was born a fighter," I joked, hiding the truth behind my words."

She shook her head. "Not fair. Not fair at all. You're teaching me, just so you know. You're teaching me everything."

I crossed my arms over my chest. "Are you asking me to be your private tutor?"

"If you want to look at it as me asking you, then yes."

I perked up. "Then I'll gladly be your tutor, Bex."

Bex picked herself up off the ground, ignoring my offered hand. "Pride," she muttered to herself. "Keep some of your pride."

I just shook my head.

By now, I'd been at Gallagher for a month. Us girls all had our nice little routine. While Liz had just started setting in languages into her translator, me helping her with the Greek setting, both girls had helped me with my homework, reading it out loud for me, then helping me fill it all out, spell checking and all that. They had kept my dyslexia a secret, not even mentioning it. They acted like I didn't have it at all, pretending that they just wanted to work on homework together. It was such change in atmosphere, compared to all the other dorm rooms I'd shared over the years. Liz was such a kind, wonderful person, not a delinquent in the slightest, and Bex was a mastermind of trouble—the acceptable kind, by spy standards at least.

Nights were different, but not because of the girls. Every night, I would reach out to Percy in my dreams. It was the only time we ever talked to each other. Sure during the day we would send feelings and small thoughts to each other, but I was so busy trying to absorb everything, he didn't seem to want to bother me, and I didn't have time send him anything worth his time. And admittedly, I felt guilty. I know I was supposed to be taking this school seriously, and I was, but it was really making me a horrible twin. My loyalties always have, and always will remain with my brother, and I was sure he knew it. Still, I could feel Percy's hate and displeasure towards the school, even though he didn't say anything. At night, when we would hang out and talk, school was never brought up. It was the one subject that neither one of us was willing to touch.

Instead, we talked about mom, and camp, and how much we missed Annabeth and Grover. I spent hours worrying over Grover. Over a month and no word. I don't know what I expected, but I just couldn't help feeling worried about my little goat friend. He was on such a dangerous mission, I just wanted to pack up my things, find him, and drag him back home where he was safe. But this was his dream, and as much of a mama goat (that's what he calls me) as I am, I won't ruin this for him.

Once P&E was over, me and Bex ran for lunch. I could feel my stomach growling at me, telling me to get some nourishment soon, and not to go light on the cookies.

"Cookies, cookies, everybody likes cookies," I sang softly to myself as we ran. Bex laughed, pushing me. I pushed back, and sang louder. "Cookies, cookies, everybody likes cookies!"

"Dork," she muttered, giggling.

Liz was already waiting in the dining room for us, waving her hands for us to see her. All the eighth graders sat together, just like all the ninth graders, tenth, eleventh and twelfth did. Bex always sat next to me, Liz across from us. It was nice sitting with all the girls, almost like a little family meal.

I was chowing down on my hamburger and fries when I noticed Tina staring intently at me. I looked up. "What? Is there something on my face?"

She must not have thought I was going to notice her, because she blushed, looking down. "No, no you're fine," she told me, still not looking up.

"Well then what is it?" I asked. "It's fine, I won't get upset."

"No, no it's nothing, go back to your burger."

"Tina," I said in a warning voice. "You know I like you, but seriously, if you don't tell me right now why you were staring at me so strangely, I'm going to be your partner for P&E tomorrow, and you saw how well that worked for Bex."

Bex just slid me a sideways glance, smirking at Tina, nodding. "It wasn't a fun experience."

Everyone at the table giggled.

"Well, I was just wondering…" Tina said, timidly. This got my attention. Tina Walters doesn't hesitate to ask questions. I learned that in the last month. Tina was a gossiper, always trying to get something juicy to pass around. It wasn't anything bad, quiet entertaining at times. But she was anything but timid.

"Yeah, wondering what?" We had the entire table's attention at this point, along with some ninth graders from the next table.

"I've never heard you talk about your family, is all. Everyone else has mentioned theirs. I was just wondering who you've got."

I froze in my seat. It was true, I hadn't answered any questions about family since Rachel, the head mistress asked. Neither Bex nor Liz asked me, and it had slipped my mind that no one knew my cover story. At least not the part about my family.

I guess everyone else realized this too, because they all had the same look of realization on their faces.

"Uh," I hesitated, recalling my cover. "I don't really have anyone."

All their faces dropped. They all knew what it meant. "What happened?" Kim asked.

I swallowed hard, knowing I was going to have to lie to all my new friends' faces. "My dad…well he kind of walked out on us when we babies, or at least that's what I think happened. Mom…she never really talked about him. My brother, he was my twin—" everyone flinched at the word 'was'. "We never really asked all that much about him. We were too little to really understand it anyway."

"Where are your mom and brother now," Eva asked, knowing what I was going to say, but asking anyway.

"They died."

"How."

Surprisingly, the word came from Bex, who hung her head low, as if she couldn't even look at me. I stared at her, trying to get her to look at me. I wanted to see her eyes, see if she knew I was lying. I was so far away from home, and although I saw my brother every night, I felt so far away, and in a way, so alone. Here, I had friends, but I had no clue if they would stand by me as the monsters came for me. Bex and Liz…I didn't know if they would stand by me for my screwed up life—I'd only known them for a little over a month. But we were close, there was no denying that. We had something stronger than a normal, run of the mill friendship. I wanted Bex to look up and show me if she could see the lies. I wanted to know right then if she would stand by me.

She didn't look up though.

"There was a house fire," I said softly, still staring at her. "I wasn't in it."

"And they both died?" Mack asked sadly.

Bex stood up then, grabbing both hers and my plates. "Question time is over. Lizzy, come on."

She went to dispose of all our garbage, while Liz and I stood up awkwardly, grabbing our bags and leaving.

We ran to catch up with our friend. "Bex," Liz cried. "Wait!"

She turned one more corner, before we caught her. She wheeled around and pulled me into a crushing hug.

I was shocked at first, not only because I wasn't used to this kind of behavior, but because I was sure she was mad at me for not telling her.

"I'm so sorry," she whispered to me in a horse, sorrowful voice. "I should have noticed. I should have seen it."

"Bex," I sighed, wrapping my arms around her, almost like I was comforting her. "It's okay. I should have mentioned it."

"How? Just randomly say on a movie night, 'oh, hey, I don't have any family left, I'm all alone, please pass the popcorn?' No." She pulled back, gripping my shoulders. She still couldn't look me in the eyes.

"I should have known what that look meant."

I became puzzled. "What look?"

"The one you get, right before you go to bed and when you wake up. It's such a sad look, I didn't really want to think about it."

I looked to Liz, who confirmed I did indeed have a 'look'. "I've seen it," she said. "It's like you barely even realize anyone else is in the room with you. You get it sometimes when you're trying to read something, or we're watching TV."

Bex just kept shaking her head. "I should have known. I should have understood, realized—"

This was getting out of hand quick. "Bex," I interrupted, my voice wavering. "It's fine."

"But—"

"No, I mean it guys, it's fine. They've been gone a really long time, I've gotten used to the fact. Sure, I'm not over it, and I won't ever be. They're my family, I'll always love them, and I'll always miss them. I mean, we were all each other had. I was little when they died, but still, the connection me and Percy had was unbelievable. We were each-others best friends. We were diagnosed with dyslexia together, we faced the bullies together. We didn't have a father to help raise us, but mom always knew what to do. She was a really amazing woman. Made the most amazing blue chocolate chip cookies ever. You would love her, I know it."

"They sound amazing," Liz whispered.

I smiled at her. "They were. The most amazing people I ever knew. But they're gone now, and it's not that I'm leaving them behind, I'm just remembering them every chance I get. Thanking them for helping me get this far. I mean, I'm in a freaking spy school! They'd be so proud."

Hugging both of them, I said, "I don't mind you bringing them up. I almost wish you did, because they'll seem more alive somehow."

The bell rang, signaling that lunch was over. Girls started flooding the hallways again, surrounding us.

"So…" we said at once.

We all laughed.

"Seems we don't know everything about each other," Bex said, looping her arm through my own.

I hooked my free one through Liz's, smiling down at her, then slightly up at Bex. "It's only been a month. We've still got things to learn."

A month down, Percy. Only ten more to go.

I could feel a rumble of disapproval, and it made me smile.

Don't know if Percy's going to make it that long. Again, this isn't my best work, but I wanted to get the basics of the girls' friendship down. I wanted to show how the girls react to learning of Cammie's 'Past', which becomes very important in later stories. Percy isn't going to be featured very much in any of these, other then being mentioned, and maybe-I said maybe!-make a few appearances.

the next rewrite should be up this weekend or next week. But then i'll be taking two weeks between chapters so that I can finish up my Clary the Demigod story, so you'll have to bear with me there.

Next one's going to be "What are you doing here?"