Hey there! This is my first official story, so I hope it is good. Please feel free to point out errors in the text; I need to know how I can improve my writing skills. Hope you enjoy, and thanks for reading!

Chapter One

Phone Calls

Cottage Number 8

Cape San Blas Florida

April 19th

0730 hours

This year, I had finally been able to stay home with my parents for spring break. And then beyond spring break as well. That was mostly because I had never seen our house before. My parents had moved down to Florida when they found out that they were targets for the enemy. Dad hadn't been okay with this, but he had gone either way. Mom had been thrilled, and wanted to go the second they heard they were targets.

They had moved into a nice cottage near a beach, with walls painted baby blue, and a large porch on the front. It was surrounded by palm trees, and had water washing up onto the sand only a few feet away at all times. It was rather picturesque. On my drive there, the town hadn't all been pretty and beachy. In fact, it looked like every other town. People crowding the sidewalks, buildings lining the streets, and trash and litter everywhere. I always thought Florida was nice and beachy, so I was disappointed upon my arrival. I had been there 3 weeks already. The air was chilly, especially near the water. I spent most of my time inside, but occasionally going outside, only to find it was too cold, and returning inside. I still had lots of fun though. After two years of not seeing my family, we had a lot of catching up to do. I found out that my aunt had a baby, who was named Ashley, and I had to hide my annoyance at this.

Ashley Sparks was one of my enemies. She had worked for the bad guys, and had once convinced me to have a crush on her. That is, until she found out I was a double agent, infiltrating their headquarters. She had been an exceptionally good gymnast, and she had tried out for the Olympic team, and hadn't made it by a hundredth of a point. A judge had taken away points on her dismount from the beam, which she had supposedly stuck, and the judge was just being biased, although nobody had ever agreed on whether she had stuck it or not. Whatever the case, she hadn't made it to the Olympic team, and had taken her anger out on them by going to the dark side.

The fact that I was related to someone with the same name as my enemy aggravated me, even though I knew it was perfectly normal.

And to be completely honest, the baby was really cute, with big bright blue eyes and rosy cheeks. She looked a lot like her mother, who is my aunt Sadie.

I told my parents all about my missions, and accomplishments. We had family movie nights, where I insisted we watch James Bond movies, which are my favorite movies of all times. We also played board games, where my dad insisted we play Pandemic. My mother didn't approve of the game, but we all had something we wanted to do, and we all did the other wish without complaining. Mom really wanted us to explore the woods around us, so that she could find new animals, and observe them. Dad and I had some worries about this. For one, I was sure I was going to get frostbite. For two, anyone could be hiding in the bushes. Anyone ready to attack at any point. Mom didn't seem too worried about this. In fact, she didn't even listen to me when I tried to explain my reasoning.

I was still in contact with my best friends as well. Mike Brezinski - my best friend since elementary school - kept texting and calling me, and half the time I ignored him, unless I wanted to have my only source of contact taken away. Zoe Zibbelle - one of my closest friends from my undercover CIA school - was texting me with all the updates, and forcing me to tell her everything that happened every day. Chip Schacter - who isn't really my close friend, but I still consider him my "friend" - hadn't contacted me at all, except the day I left, saying there was a party I was missing out on, which I later found to be false, and he had just been trying to make me feel bad. That's just typical Chip. Jawaharlal O'Shea- another friend of mine from school - had called me a few times, basically telling me that school is boring with me not there, because nothing is happening. The one person I had been most surprised about contacting me, was Erica Hale. She was the most beautiful girl at my school, and I had had a crush on her since the day we had met, a year and 4 months ago. She had a relatively cold persona, thinking that having friends in the spy industry can only hurt you, which had been the reason Zoe had given her the nickname "Ice Queen". I was the only person at spy school who she fully trusted. And while going on seven missions with me, Erica had opened up a bit to me, letting me think she liked me as well. I mean, she once kissed me. When we were about to die, but still. She even now had a few friends, all of whom started out as my friends. She had texted me twice since I left.

"Hey Ben," she had said the first time. "I hear you have left to see your parents for the spring break and possibly beyond. Contact me immediately if anything fishy happens, OK?"

Even that was saying something. Her own father doesn't have her contact, and I am one of three people who have it. The second time had been a bit warmer.

"Zoe tells me you are having a good time, Mike wants you to reply to him, Chip said he doesn't have anything to say, and Jawa hopes you return soon. Just thought I should pass on the messages."

I decided it was better not to answer, because she had always warned me not to text her unless it was an emergency. Plus, she would have texted me if she was worried as to why I wasn't replying.

I knew the weeks with my parents were drawing to an end, so I decided to spend the next day completely with them, and leave my phone tucked away in my room, where I couldn't get distracted by it. And the day started out smoothly.

"Ben!" My mother called from the kitchen. I rolled over, and looked at the clock on my bedside table. I didn't really need to, as I have an immaculate sense of time, and I have level 16 math skills, which is better then my math teacher. It was only 7:30 am. I considered going back to sleep, but then decided against it, and groggily got out of bed, and got dressed. I headed to the kitchen, where I found my mom dishing pancakes onto 3 plates. Usually, I would have been thrilled to see pancakes for breakfast, but after eating them for 21 days in a row, they get really boring.

"Do you have bacon? Or Lucky Charms?" I asked, hoping it didn't sound rude. Sadly, mom saw right through it.

"I made pancakes this morning, and I expect you to eat them."

I stood in the doorway to the kitchen for another minute, before actually going in and sitting at the table.

"Is there anything other than pancakes?" came a voice from behind me.

"Ronald for goodness sake, be a good model for Ben. Just don't complain!" She snapped. And then added "either of you!"

Dad took the spot next to me, and then glanced at the newspaper to his left.

"Hey Jane," he said quietly. "Look at the paper," I tried looking at it, but now both of my parents were leaning over it, blocking it from my view.

"Can I see?" I asked eagerly.

"Yeah sure!" dad said happily, and then flipped the page and held it out for me to see.

"That's not the page you were looking at," I said.

"What does it matter what page we were looking at? You asked to see the paper."

"Yes, but I wanted to see that page," I said, attempting to turn it. Dad held it tightly, and I couldn't turn it.

"Well, you don't get to see that page," My dad said with a grin.

I scowled back, and then tried to change the subject.

"What is the plan for today? Can we go into town and get Burger King for lunch?"

"No Burger King." mom said flatly. "I was hoping to get some animal time this morning, and then maybe do family games in the afternoon, and then a movie after supper? It includes all of our favorites,"

"Can we go into town and get animal food then?"

"No. animals get their own food. It's all part of the observation,"

I sighed, and wished I could have still been in bed.

"Someone's phone is ringing," dad said suddenly. I could vaguely hear it as well.

"It might be mine. I'm going to let it go, because I'm not going on it today," I said glumly.

"Okay. why the long face?" dad asked.

"Why do you have to ask so many questions?" I demanded. Then thought better of it. "Sorry… I must be hungry.'' Then I shoved a forkful of pancake into my mouth, and attempted to swallow it. Mom's pancake making skills had dropped by 100% during our stay here. They were dry, and burnt.

"I'll say. You didn't put any table syrup on that."

"Oh. Wite," I said, still trying to swallow the mouthful.

My phone had stopped ringing. For about 10 seconds. Then it started ringing again.

"Your phone is ringing again." Mom said from across the table. I forced myself to swallow before replying.

"I know. Mike is probably desperate for some sort of conversation that isn't with girls." I said. But I didn't stand up and go check.

"Who is it again that he hangs out with? Zina?" Dad asked curiously.

"Zoe. And Erica I guess," I replied.

Silence fell after this. The only sounds were the clinks of our forks hitting our plates, the noises of our chewing, the ticking of the clock, and... my phone ringing.

The silence became excruciating. We sat in silence for what seemed like 7 years. It was only 7 minutes.

"Ben, go check your phone." Mom said, breaking the silence. "If Mike is calling you like that, there must be more to it then just trying to talk to you."

"Let's go outside!" I said, trying to avoid the conversation.

Dad looked down at me, like he was trying to tell me to take back what I had just said. But I didn't. Instead, I stood up, and bounded off to the front door.

"Benjamin!" my mother cried angrily from the kitchen. "Dishes!"

I sighed, and turned back around and went to the kitchen again. I picked my plate and fork off the table dramatically, and placed them in the sink just as dramatically, and then bowed at the end, just to top it off. My mom looked at me disapprovingly. As I left the room I am 99 percent sure I heard her mutter -

"Teenagers."

As I was pulling on my boots and jacket, I heard my phone start ringing again. Whoever it was, desperately wanted to talk to me. But I continued to ignore it. I headed out onto the front porch, and stood still. In the time I had been here, the thin layer of ice atop the water had melted, and in the early morning light, the sun reflected off it, making it look like glass. It was surprisingly still, and the wind wasn't as high as most mornings. I could hear the animals chirping away in the trees all around me, and I hear the noise of the freeway, even though it was more than 2 miles away. I stepped off the porch, and onto the frozen ground. From there, I stepped out onto the sand, and started towards the water. I had the strange feeling that someone was watching me. But nobody could have been watching me, because we were as far from civilization as it gets in Florida. I stood at the water's edge, staring off into the distance. I still felt like someone was watching me. I looked back towards my house, just to see if someone was watching me from a window. No one was. Instead, someone was towering over me, casting me in a shadow. Before I could scream for help, the person had grabbed my wrist, and started dragging me into the forest.