Scatty stepped down from the car. Cammie and Zach had signed her up to a school for exceptional women, Gallagher Academy. "This is it." Cammie smiled and reached out for Scatty's hand and dragged her inside the school while Zach walked after them.
"Remember, even in here you're still Hyacinth Goode." Zach whispered as they reached the headmistress' office. The door opened and a woman appeared. "If you can be Charice and killed a foreign worker in 3 minutes, you can do this even better." Zach blew a phew sound. "Erin doesn't know about us." Scatty nodded.
Headmistress Clave or Ms. Erin, greeted Cammie and shook Zach's hand. "Well if this isn't Ms. Hyacinth Goode!" She came towards her and she shook her hand. "You look much different from the picture that Cammie had sent to me."
Scatty faked a smile and hugged Cammie's arm, "yeah I get that a lot." Zach mouthed the word 'good' and smiled.
"Well, you can say good bye to your parents and then you can go to the left wing to see your room." Erin smiled and disappeared as she went down the stairs.
Scatty released her hug and looked at Zach, "Well?"
"Well what? Just get in there and live the new life." He winked that spoke, "Left wing huh? I guess you're the new Gallagher girl."
Scatty raised one of her eyebrows and Cammie explained, "It's the room where I used to stay. I guess it's your now."
Zach looked at his watch and smiled, "it's almost dinner time, you better go Gallagher girl." And to Scatty's surprised, Cammie hugged her from behind.
Cammie quickly pulled her hands and wiped her tears, "I'm gonna miss you." Scatty looked at the stairs and found Erin who appeared again. "She's acting." Scatty thought.
As Zach and Cammie descended the stairs, Zach caught Cammie's worried face. "What's wrong?" Zach giggled, "That wasn't acting right?" Cammie hit his hand. "Ouch."
Scatty walked the stairs carrying her own luggage. She knocked on the doors then opened it, "Hello, my name is Hyacinth Goode." There were two girls inside.
The first girl was blonde, she wore the Gallagher Academy uniform and a black glasses. "Well hello, my name is Annie Bowel." She stood up and took the luggage out of Scatty's grip. She carried it to the bed on the corner of the room. "You'll be sleeping here."
It didn't take a long time before the three became friends, and Scatty was glad. Turns out that the other girl's name was Abel Abernathy. She was a ginger, but she didn't have those accents. "Dinner time." Abel announced and dragged Scatty and Anne out of the room.
They reached the dining hall and sat on one of the seats of the long table. "They make the best crème brule here!" Anne said as she scooped one of the desserts and stuffed them into Scatty's mouth. Scatty wanted to complain, but then the flavor of the dessert rocked her mouth and she could only nodded.
"Say, you aren't really that talkative are you?" Abel asked her.
"My mom told me not to be talkative or we'll spit out secrets before we ever realized." Not a lie
"Well, I think your mom is wrong. I think that it was the reason why your dad sent you here." She snapped back not wanting her statement to be proven wrong.
"I guess…yeah, that's probably it." Scatty smiled at her and she smiled back.
Then Scatty looked at her watch and found that it was 8 o'clock. The three of them looked at each other and went up stairs, back to their room. None of them wanted to pass the late night curfew. They cleaned themselves and slipped into their pajamas, although Scatty only found her white silk nightgown. Ever since she went to US, she had never worn pajamas, back in Sperling she wore nightgown and now Cameron Goode bought her some again.
The next day was probably the best day Scatty ever had. She found out that knife throwing weren't her only expertise. She tried archery and her she can hit any target easily, even Abel and Anne was surprised. Now they were heading towards Cove-Ops class.
Abel sat at the very back of the room while Scatty and Abel sat in front of her. "Who's teaching?" Scatty whispered to Anne, but then an old woman using a wheelchair appeared from the doorway. Anne mouthed the word, "Buckingham."
Buckingham rolled her wheelchair towards the class, "Ladies, I know that field operations should start when you're in the 10th grade. Things are about to change." Then she moved towards Scatty, "Ms. Goode, I'm so sorry that I can't get you your folder. You coming here was such a…surprise." Scatty knew that by surprise she means disturbing. "I mean, we never had a new student right in the middle of the second semester." Buckingham raised one of her eyebrows, "Would you care to explain why?"
Scatty swallowed Buckingham's dirty look. "I wasn't really into all the spying stuff." Not a lie
"What are you interested about?" She shot her the look again.
"Art." Not a lie. "I love to paint and sketch, but then Dad thought that it was time for me to…you know…do what they do." A complete LIE.
Buckingham nodded and moved on with the class. "Tonight, ladies, will be the time you show that you can do…you know…what they do." She mimicked Scatty's tone. She took out an evapopaper and scribbled a note then handed it to Scatty. "Goode. Abernathy. Bowel." She pointed at the trio, "Your clue. Work as a team." Then she continued with other groups.
Abel leaned to see what's on the paper, "What is it? Read it before it evaporates!"
Scatty cleared her throat before reading it out loud:
"Time: 8 o'clock
Objects: Steel all the ingredients you need to make a flare then make one and bring it to the class room.
Place: anywhere in Roseville, but not inside the school." Scatty blew a pheww…sound, "That's it." Both Abel and Anne looked at her. "I mean, before I went to the school, my dad took me to a mission…it was fine and harder than this." They both said "Oh." In an union and a soft way.
Scatty felt like a new girl. She didn't have to wear uniform in mission, which was something new even from Sperling. She wore a ripped British flag t-shirt and a blue jeans with black converse shoes. She looked at her friends who were still busy with their wardrobe, "Guys, it's 8 past 5 already, I'll go first okay?"
Anne nodded but didn't turn from her closet, "Yeah. Ok. The list is on the table!" Scatty went to the table and picked up a list…most of the ingredients could be found in the pharmacy. Scatty said few goodbyes and left the room. "Just like the old times." She mumbled.
Scatty stopped at a cotton candy stand and bought one while scanning the perimeters of the pharmacy. Scatty laughed when she some of the Gallagher girls trying to break through the back door of the pharmacy, but apparently they were too loud. Scatty was ready to reach her target but then the list flew out of her pocket and stuck on one of the branches of the tree in the park. "Just great." She mumbled.
NOTE: next time you're on a mission, make sure you have a secure place to put your list of things.
Scatty was about to climb the tree, but then someone poked her back. She didn't know if it was her defensive reflex or just her old time habit, but she spun the person and pinned him on the ground while holding his hand in an easy angle to break. "Whoa there…" The boy spoke.
Scatty quickly let go of her pin and his hand, "So sorry." She helped him up.
The boy shook his head and laughed, "No problem." He looked at Scatty then the tree, "I'll go get it for you." He offered. Before Scatty could complain, he was already up. He climbed just as fast as a professional, and that is the time when pages of the 'what to be suspicious at' pages echoed on Scatty's mind.
1#: when you think that you should be suspicious about it, ask that person.
The boy jumped from the tree with the list in his grip and touched down right in front of Scatty, "Here you go."
"Thanks." Scatty said as she gave her sweetest smile. "So tell me, how can you climb that fast?"
The boy smiled, "Oh, it's nothing. Why don't you tell me about those moves and I'll tell you mine?"
2#: when he offered an information exchange, pretend to agree and make the person to answer your questions first.
"Okay, why don't you say yours first?" She offered.
"Climbing Gallagher walls, but always fails." Then he looked at the big walls of the school, "now they got barbed wires." He looked back at Scatty, "Your turn."
3#: Do not tell yours and give the person a distraction.
"I'm so sorry, but do you mind if I ask you about your name?" Scatty said as she took a seat on the bench right under the tree where the list was stuck before.
"Alex, yours?" He sat down too. Scatty smiled, he's buying it.
"Hyacinth." She said as she played with her hair.
"Well Hyacinth, what's up with all those medical stuff?" He asked her as he leaned closer.
Scatty stood up, "Oh yea, I need to get those things fast for my science project!" She ran away and shouted, "Thanks for the chat, Alex!"
Scatty stopped running and looked around her then her watch, not much time left, the only way she could get the ingredients was by stealing them from her classmates. "Got cha!" She exclaimed in her head after seeing a group of her class mates. "Shopping time."
Scatty readied her feet and ran pass through the group. "Hey!" one of the girl exclaimed, but none of them realized that their bottle of A- was gone. Scatty quickly asked a paper bag from the nearest stand and put the bottle in. She did the same thing all over again with the other groups. She stole one ingredients from Each group. Scatty knew that if she stole all in one group, they will notice her.
Once the list was completed, Scatty walked towards the school but then she heard a sound of a heli and quickly hide up in a tree which was covered by leaves. The helicopter landed inside the Gallagher's Garden, it's an ally. As she was about to jump down, someone pinned her on the tree and used the style she had used on Alex, "Welcome to Gallagher, Hyacinth!" Scatty managed to turn around to see who said it, Alex.