Disclaimer: I don't own anything that belongs to Ally Carter.

Claimer: I own anything else.

Chapter 4

Thinking, Realizing, Remembering, and Acting

After my little 'meeting' with Cam, I went back to my dorm, dazed, trying to keep my mind straight.

This is not happening, this is not happening…

Yeah, it's about to get a lot worse.

"Dude, where were you?" Jonas asked, looking up from his laptop.

"Someplace. What's going on? You look… jumpy," I said.

Jumpy, would be the biggest understatement of the century. Jonas looked like he was ready to go snowboarding, and he dreaded doing that.

He was shivering somehow, and his eyes weren't exactly focused on anything.

"Yeah, Dr. Steve called a meeting. You weren't there. So now, I can't tell you what it was about."

"Nice to know you trust me so much. Where's Grant?" I asked, not really caring about whatever he couldn't tell me.

"Someplace with Bex."

"No small wonder. I shouldn't have asked."

"Too late. You already did."

I smirked. "Precisely. Anyways, we still on for tonight's plan?"

"Yup, as soon as Grant falls asleep," Jonas said.

As soon as Grant falls asleep… That won't take much.

"Sleeping beauty is snoring," I told Jonas later that night.

"Yes he is, and he makes horrible noises. Remind me why I'm helping you?"

"Because you're my friend."

"Oh, right. Okay then, while Sleeping Beauty was falling asleep, I was already cracking a few codes. Give me ten."

"Sure," I said.

You know, ten minutes of hearing the constant clatter of keys can be quite annoying. Just saying though.

"Okay, what do I do now?" Jonas asked me after hacking straight into the Gallagher database.

"Look into the file: Morgan, Cameron."

He raised an eyebrow, but said nothing.

"There," he said. "You have exactly 19 minutes and forty seconds before things get suspicious and someone triggers an alarm."

"Thanks."

"Duh. Goodnight."

"'Night," I answered and turned my gaze to the screen.

I looked into the file. "Let's see…" I scrolled down the entire list.

Covert Operations Report

Operatives: Morgan, Sutton, Baxter, McHenry.

Subject: Abrahams, Josh – Civilian.

Objective: Find out about suspicious possible honey-potting behavior referred from the Subject.

I didn't read it. I copy-pasted it with a special program that wouldn't leave any marks.

I closed the window and started to read.

When I was finished I was speechless.

Cameron Morgan went through too much trouble for a guy.

A guy she was forced to break up with.

A guy whose guts I just happened to hate.

A guy who (unknowingly) broke Cam's heart.

A guy whom I was going to get revenge on. Hard.

How was I going to do that?

I was going to do exactly what he did to Cam.

The next day I made a promise to myself that no matter what, I would not let my mask fall. I would not let anyone see the constant war going on between that weird little voice in my head and the part of my head I still considered –key word considered- sane.

After COW that morning, I noticed Cam was acting strangely. She seemed on edge.

"What's the matter Gallagher Girl?" I asked her as we walked out of the classroom. "You seem… jumpy."

That makes two jumpy people… I might as well interrogate Jonas later on.

I eyed her intently. No answer.

We walked into the Culture & Assimilation classroom, just in time to hear Madame Dabney saying, "-the all-school exam…"

The sun shone nicely in the room, and I couldn't help but wonder how the girls here would react if they visited Blackthorne someday. Creepy thought.

"Ooh, ladies," she said as we all settled in the classroom. "And gentlemen," she quickly added. "In all my years of teaching at this fine institution I never had the opportunity to organize such an exciting educational experience."

In that moment I witnessed a lot of girly reactions and I realized that, spies or not, these girls were feminine deep inside.

Bad time to let that out, I thought.

"This Friday evening all students in grades eight through twelve will be invited to a formal examination." She paused, as if waiting for applause, "A ball, ladies and gentlemen. There's going to be a ball!" she exclaimed.

Okay… this is new.

Eyes went wide. Faces went red –Jonas, you should know better than that. Bodies froze.

Cammie was perfectly fine.

But I saw the look in her eyes:

Disbelief.

She had known something about this, but she had not known it was turning out this way.

She probably thought she'd get to crawl in secret passageways wearing black clothes and a comms unit, I thought.

One of the many reasons Cam is different.

Not again…

"Tomorrow at this same time you will each be fitted for gowns and tuxedos," Madame Dabney said, clearly disappointed for not receiving her applause. "On Friday evening you will be asked to participate in a cumulative examination –one that will encompass everything we teach. And you will be expected to dance."

That was the bright red cherry on top of my nightmare.

I know how to dance, I'm good at it, extremely good at it actually.

But I hate it.

Why? Because it reminds me of mom.

Before she became… that.

But I'm not going into details… no need to risk my mask falling.

Besides, I already have other things to worry about. A lot of them.

That week, rumors went up and down, and I simply hated them.

People must find a better habit, because this is just outright ridiculous.

By Friday, you couldn't walk down the halls without hearing a conversation on hair gel or on how we were supposed to detect an infiltrated spy at the dance.

Seriously people, get a life.

I, for one, was dealing decently with the idea.

Fine. They want to bring back my most treasured memories, those of mom and me when everything was okay, when dad was alive. Those memories that are actually capable of making my mask fall?

So be it.

Madame Dabney had chosen out tuxedos for each of us, I found them all the same, but she had focused on little details, like shades of black and tie colors.

I didn't mind that, but, to me at least, it seemed like far too much preparation.

That evening, I walked down towards the Grand Hall with Grant and Jonas, thinking about what on earth I was going to be doing tonight.

Girls of different sizes, different colors and shapes (fluffy dresses –really?) were all over the place.

Grant went to find Bex and Jonas left to find Liz.

Then I saw Cammie.

She wore a strapless ruby red dress that flowed all the way to the floor, her beautiful dirty blonde hair was pulled to her right side, flowing in soft curls on her shoulder, and her face had light makeup that made her eyes look even more beautiful.

I'm gonna look for a psychologist once this exchange program is over.

I walked up to her, eyed her a moment, leaned against the railing and said, "Well, you don't look hideous."

Really Zach? Sheesh, talk about the biggest understatement in history.

She eyed me a bit, and said: "Ditto."

I smiled a bit then couldn't contain my laughter.

Oh no. Mask is falling. Not good.

She started moving toward the stairs, but her heel caught onto the hem of her dress, and she was about to fall down, when I grabbed her arm and straightened her.

"Easy, Gallagher Girl," I said softly.

"I am perfectly capable of going down the stairs by myself Zach," she said, rolling her eyes.

Of course you are Cammie, I thought, unsure if that was sarcastic or not.

Madame Dabney just had to be passing by in that moment, and when she saw Cammie she said, "A lady always gracefully accepts a gentleman's arm when offered Cammie dear."

I smirked at Cam's face. She reluctantly took my arm, and walked down the stairs with me. I went on with my smile, knowing that Cammie was fuming.

"Stop that," she snapped.

"What?" I asked innocently.

"You're enjoying this way too much. You're smirking."

We'd made it to the foyer, and were turning to the Grand Hall. "I got news for you Gallagher Girl. If you're not enjoying this, you're in the wrong business."

She seemed to hesitate at her answer, looking around at the Grand Hall. It was beautifully decorated, and everything just seemed to scream 'elegance'.

Solomon came in that very moment, carrying a stack of folders.

"Good evening, ladies and gentlemen," he said. "You all look very nice, but I'm afraid you're not quite done getting ready. I'm afraid we didn't mention this is some sort of masquerade ball."

I heard Courtney Bauer say something about not having masks, and I laughed internally. I should've seen this coming. Good old Solomon.

"These are your disguises, Ms. Bauer." Solomon said, handing her one of the folders. "Cover legends, ladies and gentlemen. You have three minutes to memorize everything within them."

Liz's hand shot into the air.

"Even if you are not on the CoveOps track, Miss Sutton. Spies are the ultimate actors, ladies and gentlemen. It's the heart of what we do. So your mission is simple, you will become somebody else," Solomon said, smiling.

I could've sworn a smile was tugging on to Cammie's lips.

She likes to act huh? I thought.

Cammie is easy to read for me, most of the time. She's an open book, but on occasion she'll write the pages with high tech invisible ink. She might write her secrets in a dead language.

So it was my job to crack the code and figure out what Cammie wanted to hide.

Just like she did to me.

"It's an exam people," Solomon was saying. "Culture, languages, observation… the real tests in these subjects don't have anything to do with words on a piece of paper. Tonight isn't about knowing the answers, ladies and gentlemen. It's about living them."

I smirked; same old Solomon and his deep-meaning speeches.

I grabbed the folder with my name. I was James Richards. I was an international art thief.

Well, I thought. This'll be fun.

AN:

Chapter 4!

Reading back on this... Zach was a bit too OOC... But you people never seemed to mind... sigh. The things we do for Zammie. :S Oh well, who knows? We never really got to see Zach. For all we know, he could be a real softie. :P

The chapter title was kinda strange... and the Acting bit, refers to the covers for the exam... just saying.

Hope you liked this one, R&R!

-DemiSpy