Chapter Four

The next morning, Skylar woke with renewed energy. For the first time in the two years since she'd been at the school she was ready on time, and actually early to breakfast, arriving before her friends. She set up her tray with toast and a bowl of cereal, and made her way over to their normal table. When she was a few yards away, she realized that her table was not in fact empty, as she had thought, but there were boys sitting in the same place where she and her friends had sat just the night before. They were not the same boys as then, but she decided not to take a chance and sat at the other end of the table, far away from the center of the clump of students.

She watched her friends enter the Grand Hall, groggy, and sleep-ridden, and start for the breakfast line. She waited while they went through the line, and then headed for their normal table. Like her, they were yards away from the table when they saw the boys at it, and like her they remembered what happened the night before and looked around for Skylar. When they spotted her, they made their way over, and, without words, they sat around her, providing a sort of barrier between her and the eyes that were watching her every move, and ate their breakfast.

After breakfast, the headmistress made her usual morning announcements, and todays were just as surprising as yesterdays were.

"Ladies—and gentleman—I understand that yesterday you all may, or may not, have been surprised by the announcement that I made, but I am sorry to tell you that the surprises are not through yet. I am also sorry to tell those of you who spent a lot of time getting ready this morning, because you are not ready. Today, for those of you in grades ten or eleven, you will have your first mission as a joint unit. If you are in grades ten or eleven, please follow Mr. Ratti to the sublevel, and he will brief you on today's mission. If you are not in these grades, please go to class as if it were a usual day."

Skylar, Katie, Lexi and Heather followed the rest of the tenth and eleventh graders to the sublevel while Cammie and Rose, being seniors and too old, went to their classes. In the Simulation room, used to simulate missions, attacks, or fights, Mr. Ratti began the brief.

"Today's mission might sound simple to some of you older students, but it is important to remember the simple things because all failed missions can be traced to a simple mistake. Today, each of the girls while be paired with a guy, and your mission is to obtain the information about a certain town dance. I'm talking the when, where, who and why. After obtaining the information, the next goal is to get the information to the rest of your classmates. Use anything and everything you know—drop passes, secret messages, anything—to spread the message. The only restriction…you will not have comms units. The only thing you will have to help you is your partner. Remember, in the real world, your partner is your lifeline, keep them involved. Now, you can't wander around the town wearing a school uniform, you are trying to keep a low profile, so right now go back to your rooms and get dressed."

Excitedly, the two grades swarmed back to their dorms to get dressed. All throughout the girls' dormitories were shouts and lively chatter about the latest fashions and show styles. Katie and Skylar had a dorm room in one of the towers of the school, so when they closed their door to change, they had basically sound-proofed the room to all the yelling. Skylar and Katie spent about twenty minutes trading clothes until they found just the right outfits to look good in, but not stand out. Skylar wore an uneven minidress with a large butterfly on her right hip, and Capri jeans underneath. She knew the pale pink dress looked good in her hair, and accentuated her dark eyes. Katie chose to where a simple white tank-top with a pale pink button down shirt that was left unbuttoned and tied at her stomach and skinny jeans. She borrowed a pair of black converses from Skylar, and Skylar borrowed a pair of pink butterfly flip-flops.

In about an hour, every girl had plucked, pulled, curled and fluffed and was now ready to begin the day as a normal girl. Everybody was excited and anxious to face the mission, but Skylar was worried. She'd trained in every type of combat, had learned how to memorize the silliest pieces of information, cracked every code she'd ever faced, had learned how to become somebody else, but had never had to be a normal girl. She wasn't even sure if she knew how to be a normal person.

She piled into the van behind Heather and Lexi, and sat on one of the benches lining the sides of the vans. They were set up so that everyone seated inside of the van could face each other without having to turn around. Skylar found herself seated across from Trent, and quickly averted her gaze when he met her eyes. In the middle of the van, laying on the floor, was a map of the town. On the short ten minute drive into town, Mr. Ratti pointed out the important places they needed to remember, the drop-off point, the way to the middle of the town, the rendezvous point, and other necessities. When they arrived in the town, Mr. Ratti assigned partners.

"Alexis Palmer, Joseph Patternoster." And he went through the entire list of students. Finally he got to Skylar, the last name on his list. "Skylar Golovin, Trent Bradin."

Startled, Skylar looked up to meet Trent's gaze, he was also startled, but he seemed surprised in a good way, judging from the smirk on his face. She had known she would get paired with one of the guys, but she had never considered the possibility of getting paired with Trent.

By the time she had gotten over the shock, everyone was already out of the van and milling through the town. She was the last person out of the van, and was surprised to find that Trent was not there. She caught up to him, a couple of streets away, standing by the town gazebo, and pacing near the stairs.

When he saw her, he stopped pacing, and started towards her; the smirk omnipresent on his face. She never noticed before how good-looking he really was. She remembered Katie's analysis of him, after their tour, the first time they saw him. His hair was dark brown with highlights that came out in the sunlight, and it hung in his eyes, like Katie had said, and did make him seem mysterious. His eyes were perfectly green, and deep, they could tell a thousand stories without even saying one word. He was the perfect height for Skylar; when they stood face to face, her eyes were at the level of his nose.

Wait, what am I thinking? She shook her head, trying to clear the thought. She couldn't be thinking about Trent that way. At least not in the middle of a mission.

Together they turned to the center of the town and began to hatch a plan of action. After about two hours of futile wandering through the town and talking to anybody and everybody they found, trying to find information about the dance, they found themselves in a booth at a small restaurant near the gazebo where they started.

"Maybe we should just straight out ask someone." Skylar didn't know what to do anymore.

"And tell them what? Oh we're just visiting in this town, and we're on a mission to crash the town dance so can you give us the information about it? Don't think that's going to work." Trent was more than a little bit frustrated as well.

The waitress addressed them then, interrupting their conversation. "What can I get y'all today?"

"Um, I'll just have a diet coke and a Caesar salad, thanks." Skylar closed her menu and handed it to the waitress, whose nametag said Sharell.

"I'll have the same." Trent's eyes never left Sky's when he ordered.

"Wait," Sky suddenly had a great idea. She reached across the table where Trent's hands laid on the table and grabbed them. "My boyfriend and I are visiting my cousin, and I want to do something special with him. She told me about this town dance, but I don't remember what she said, and I'm trying to figure out if we're going to be here long enough. Do you happen to know anything about it?"

"Aw, don't you two make such a cute couple. The town dance, huh? Well it's this Saturday night at seven o'clock in the center of the town. They'll do food-type stuff in the gazebo, and dancing in the yard around it. Normally it goes on to about one or two in the morning, and they always have a local band play. It's a semi-formal thing, just a simple dress, not that anybody's gonna tell y'all to leave if you're not dressed nice, but you'll just feel out of place."

"Thanks for that," Trent took over now, picking up on Sky's strategy, "Her aunt, God love her, just doesn't have the greatest memory."

"I thought you said you were staying with a cousin, li'l lady." Sharell looked confused.

"Oh, uh, I am," Sky kicked Trent under the table for his mistake. Like a good spy he covered up his pain with a smirk. "She's still in high school, and still lives with her mom, my aunt."

"Oh, well, I'll be back with your food soon." Sharell walked away seeming satisfied that she'd helped them. Sky grabbed a napkin and looked around for a pen.

"What are you doing?"

"I need a pen to write down the information."

"Don't you have a photographic memory?"

"Yeah, but I'm not supposed to know any of my classmates, and it would look kind of weird to be talking to someone I don't know, right? So I need to tell them in some other way. Hence, I need a pen."

"Got it," Trent searched his pockets for a moment, and coming up empty, placed his hands on the table again. "So, come here often?"

"Oh, yeah, me and my friends love to sneak out of a spy school to come here and catch a movie before sneaking back into said highly secured school for another day of classes. Life just wouldn't be the same without it."

"Stupid question. Sorry."

"Sorry, I'm just tired I guess, I'm not normally this snappy. I'll be happy once I've gotten this passed on, and it's out of my hands."

Sharell arrived with their food just then, and had a pen for them to use.

"This is nice. Just us, sitting here in the middle of a small town, eating lunch. Together. Alone. Almost as if it were a date." Trent was talking to Sky, but she wasn't really paying much attention.

"Hmm."

"Yeah. It might actually be nice to attend the dance, that we now know so much about. Almost like a second date," then, upon noticing that Skylar wasn't actually listening. "Yeah, it'll be nice, until the aliens attack, and you'll get scared. And me, being the only able-bodied male left standing…"

"'Cause the aliens wiped out the rest of the male population," Skylar interjected, now fully hearing and comprehending what he was saying."

"Exactly," Trent continued without seeming to register that she was paying attention, now on a roll. "I'll have to save you from sure death, and once I've gotten you safely away from the aliens…"

"In an underground tunnel where they can't find us."

"Right, well you'll just be so thankful that I've saved you…"

"And all the rest of the townspeople. Because, being the good guy, you won't allow yourself to leave all the people of a town to the hungry hands of invading aliens."

"Yes, and being so thankful, you'll be overcome by the sudden urge to kiss me. In thanks of course, but that will open the gateway to your inner longing to be with me, and…"

"And then I'll come to my senses and realize that it's not you I'm longing for but James McAvoy."

"Yes, unfortunately, but it'll be fun while it lasts."

Skylar just smiled at him. She finished her salad, and pushed the plate towards the end of the table. Trent finished, too, and did the same. When Sharell came with the check, Trent paid and they left to look for some of their roommates.

"So, Skylar, are you, like, a vegetarian or something? I've only ever seen you eat salad."

"Call me Sky, first. Second, yes. I've been a vegetarian since I did an undercover operation on a farm once, and saw how exactly they made the ribs I had for dinner that night." With food in her stomach, and the requested information in her hand, Sky was feeling lighthearted and carefree.

When she passed Katie, she 'accidentally' bumped into her, and dropped the note into her pocket. Now the rest of the mission was out of her hand. Down the road Katie discreetly pulled the note out, read it, and passed it on. The rest of the day would be a breeze.

Trent and Sky made their way, slowly, to the rendezvous point on the edge of town, and prepared themselves for a long wait. Sky laid down in the grass with her face turned towards the sun. After a short hesitation, Trent laid down next to her. They stayed like that until the rest of their class came, and they boarded the van for school.