Chapter 2: The Other Side of the Test
APOV
"I swear, if you don't get up right now I will try a new move that my mom told me was illegal in 112 different countries!," a slightly shrill voice threatened. I was immediately out of bed and looking into the fuming face of my roommate and best friend, Lauren McHenry. She was about a head shorter than me and could be a model because of how beautiful she was. Of course, being the daughter of Macey and Nicholas Greco, she is going to be pretty. And before you ask, yes she is the governor's daughter, but you only know half the story. You see, Macey met Nicholas on a campaign she was forced to go on with her parents. She found out pretty quickly that he was a rogue operative on the run from the Circle (of Cavan, for those few people who shouldn't be reading this and do not know what the Circle is), and she took him under her wing. Throughout the rest of the summer of junior year, they got to know each other... and fell in love (aww!). When the summer ended and Macey had to go back to Gallagher for senior year, Nicholas went deep undercover, sneaking into Gallagher at least once a month to check up on his girl. After school, they moved in together, married, and had Lauren.
Lauren is a rather unique person. She decided to take her mother's maiden name to quote "show a woman's independence!" unquote. Anyway, she is 5'6" with natural dirty- blonde hair that falls in waves to the middle of her back. Even though her eyes are an icy blue like her mom, they are always shining and friendly. At least they are until someone pisses her off (which I seriously recommend you refrain from doing). She has flawless skin and is one of the best disguise artists I know. Every year she comes back to school with different color highlights and wild stories about far off places she visited over the summer.
Oh wait. I forgot to introduce myself (hello whoever is reading this!). I'm Abigail Goode, daughter of Cameron and Zachary Goode. Let me clear a few things up before the questions are asked. Yes, they are THE Cameron and Zachary Goode, the two people who brought down the Circle along with Bex and Grant Newman. I am their daughter.
I look kind of like my dad, but I refuse to use the smirk because I think it looks too cocky and overconfident. I have wavy hair and the face shape of my mom, but the coloring of my hair, eyes, and skin of my dad. I could honestly care less about my appearance, but evidently I grew out of that awkward stage where I was done growing (I'm 5'8") but still had some of the baby fat in my face. At least, that is what Lauren keeps telling me.
As I stumbled into the bathroom and turned on the water, I heard Lauren turn on my two other roommates and best friends, Megan and Kathryn.
Megan is the daughter of none other than Liz and Jonas Anderson. She's the spitting image of her mother in everything except her brown eyes, and received her hacking skills from the two best in the CIA. She wasn't as klutzy, but she is not the most balanced person either. She also had that cute Southern Belle thing going for her, twang and all.
Kathryn (Kat as she oh so kindly forces everyone to call her) is our own little psycho maniac who likes to randomly come up behind you and use you as her personal punching bag for the new move she learned in P&E. I was usually the person she performed them on, giving me rapid reflexes. Kat is the muscles of our group, but someone who didn't know her wouldn't believe it. She was an orphan and never knew her parents, not even her last name. I still feel a sliver of guilt that my parents are alive and/or want me, and I know that even with all their flaws, they were still decent people. What scares bad, black and white and us the most is that we know nothing about her parents because as spies there is no right and wrong, good and bad, black and white. In this business, there are only different shades of grey.
Back to my little crazy. She has dark, almost black eyes, but on closer inspection, one could see the grey in them. That is, if she let you close enough to her so you could really look in her eyes. She had shiny brown hair with a tint of red to it, setting off her eyes well. Her 5'10" figure was enviously muscular (even for spies), and she had a few freckles on the bridge of her nose. All in all, she could honestly compete with Lauren for looks.
That only left me, the plain one with green eyes; the one who seems to melt into the background, invisible to all. Honestly, I prefer it that way. I did not like to be the center of attention, and I most definitely didn't want to stand out. I quite enjoyed being Barbie's best friend.
Okay I'm done with descriptions, let's go back to the current time and place. I took a 10 minute shower and threw on my clothes for the day.
"Stop," Lauren screamed without so much as a glance in my direction, "What do you think you're doing?"
"Umm, going to the helicopter?" I said in a duhh voice. My hand was turning the knob to our door when another hand clamped down on my wrist. This hand then spun me around and for the second time that morning I was face to face with Lauren McHenry.
"Abigail, you are not going out like that," she told me slowly. God, have I ever told you how much I HATE my name? I glanced down at myself. I was wearing a black hoodie with black sweatpants and my favorite back tennis shoes. I looked back at Lauren confused.
"I have to make you even prettier if you want to make a good impression," Lauren sang. Snatching me arm back, I replied, "What if I don't want to make a 'good impression'? What if I don't want to give my poor father a heart attack, who by the way just so happens to be the headmaster of Blackthorne? What if I don't want to get involved with a boy?" Oh Lord, I'm rambling. Anyway, I knew I wasn't getting out of this when I heard what Kat and Megan had to say.
"Abby, you will blend in more if you put on some make-up because God only knows how much stuff is gonna be caked onto the other girls' faces," that was Megan. Damn it, she knows me too well. And then of course we have Kat,"Abigail Marie Goode! You WILL go through the same torture Lauren out me through! Me and Megan aren't going to suffer while you stand on the side lines!" Those threatening words of wisdom were quickly followed by Lauren tying me to a chair and putting me through a whole new kind of torture.
When she was done, I didn't even look in the mirror. I just grabbed my Comms unit and concealed all my weapons (15 different guns and knives, napotine patches and a poison and its antidote). The plan the junior class was putting into action this year was actually created by the four of us. Usually the teachers just assigned us parts to do, but when we presented our plan, they readily agreed to it. Using Megan's hacking skills, Kat's strategic skills, Laurens scary abilities to assign the right parts to the right people, and my exclusive knowledge of the secret passage ways of Blackthorne, we had developed a plan to infiltrate it.
It was quite simple, really. Meg would override all electronic security measures without alerting security, Kat and Lauren would tell people what to do, and I would tell them how to get there without being seen. The mission was so easy, it was no wonder the teachers agreed to it. It was one less thing they had to do. We would walk in through the front doors (after knocking the guards out of course). Who knew the most obvious place for someone to enter was the least guarded? Oh yeah, I did. When we reached the Mess Hall (using tunnels and passageways of course)and were in position, I would send a signal via Comms to Megan, Kat, and Lauren. Kat and Lauren would then signal the rest of the class and go through with the first part of the plan (i.e. surprise the boys, surround the teachers). I would march through the double- doors and point an unloaded gun at my dad's head. I already relayed the plan to him and he promised he wouldn't interfere.
The plan had a double- meaning only my friends and I knew about though. My mother told me about the time when her and dad snuck into Blackthorne to get Uncle Solomon's (he married Aunt Abby. Neither want me to call them "great" anything though because they claim it makes them feel old) journal. She told me how she found out Blackthorne was not actually a school for spies like everyone thinks. It was a school to train assassins. Of course, she told me this after my grandma Goode asked me to join her and the reforming Circle, but still... I'm getting distracted. We wanted to find out how the boys would do in circumstances closer to their range of expertise. We also wanted to send a message. Ever since the Circle broke into Gallagher, the headmistress (as in my mom) stepped up the curriculum. She wanted to prepare us better for field work so she added some "extra- curriculars." Now, along with our normal classes, grades 8th- 10th can take other classes (i.e. sniper training, weapons concealment, poisons and antidotes, etc.). By the time a girl reaches the time to go to Blackthorne, she has taken most, if not all the extra-curricular classes Gallagher offers. Our message was pretty clear, "Blackthorne, get ready."
The plan went smoothly. I ad-libbed a little bit, but dad didn't miss a beat when responding. I almost start laughing when I heard what he said, but I managed to remain cool and businesslike. I took one more step towards my dad when I felt someone twist my gun-holding hand behind my back. The guy then twisted my other arm behind my back and held them both with one hand. I felt the cold barrel of the gun pressed to my temple. Well played Mystery Man, well played. The teachers started clapping, and I saw all but a few of my sisters were disarmed. Mystery Man took the gun off my head and whispered in my ear, "Welcome to Blackthorne." He kept a firm grip on my arms. Damn he's strong! Dad started talking at the podium, "Congratulations boys. The ten of you have successfully completed this test. You will not have night duty for the rest of the semester. Oh, and Mr. Newman, you can stop holding the poor girl in a death grip."
Wait, Newman? As in Aunt Bex and Uncle Grant, Newman? Why did they never mention they had a son on their countless visits? Hell, why did they never tell me they had a son in my grade. I was too busy silently ranting, at first I didn't notice the boy let go of me. I walked overto the rest of my class still mentally freaking out. I didn't budge when dad welcomed us, but thankfully Lauren covered for me and said we wanted to keep my identity on the DL. I heard Dad explain what was going on as the double- doors closed behind us. We changed quickly, and after 5.45 seconds, were making our second dramatic entrance of the day.
I already had a goal, find out why the hell my parents kept this Newman kid a secret from me. I knew it would be a challenge. If Mom and Dad went through so much trouble to keep him out of my life until now, of course it would be. But the only thing I was thinking as the doors opened was... Bring. It. On.
A/N Hola, people of Fanfiction! That was the second chapter and I know it is a little slow, but I promise the story will start picking up pace in the 4th chapter. The 3rd chapter is somewhat of a filler (sorry about that!), but I needed to establish a relationship between Abby and Will! Thanks for the Reviews, but I'm always open for more, so R&R please! It would seriously make my day!
~nothingevergoesasplanned
