Growing up, Uncle Joe always taught me little tricks to not get caught with disobeying my father. My father would tell me "No Cookies," and Uncle Joe would challenge me to figure out a way to get the cookie without ever being discovered. I guess you could say that Uncle Joe taught me how to be deceitful. In the normal world, teaching a seven year old girl how to be deceitful would be frowned upon, but in the spy world, teaching a seven year old girl how to be deceitful was considered heroic because it provided a way of survival.
As I sat in my magenta colored room, I contemplated how I would be able to have that cookie. There was no possible way to have the cookie go unnoticed, seeing as it was the last one in the jar. Seven year old me groaned in frustration, not wanting to disappoint Uncle Joe. It suddenly came to me as I was halfway threw my favorite Nancy Drew book: Sure, my dad could find that the cookie is missing, but I could get away with it if there was no evidence that I was I that took it.
I silently crept down stairs to the kitchen. My parents were out in the yard "planting flowers" (I later discovered that they were updating the surveillance on our house with cameras that looked like flowers), so the cost was clear. I took all of the necessary precautions, I tied towels around my shoes to ensure that my dad would not be able to find any residue on the ground that my dad would be able to trace back to me, I used my dad's spare gardening gloves on my own already rubber gloved hands; finally I ate the cookie. I rubbed the crumbs off the corner of my mouth into the sink and sent them straight down the garbage disposal (I know, seven year old me was paranoid) and then I burned my rubber gloves and the towel I used in the trashcan in the alley.
My dad did find that the cookie was missing when Uncle Joe and Aunt Abbie came over for Sunday night dinner.
"Cameron, why did you disobey me and eat that cookie?" My dad said calmly, but even seven year old me could tell that he was already planning my punishment.
"I don't know what you are talking about dad. Why would I disobey my own father?" I said innocently widening my eyes.
"Don't lie to me Cameron." My father sounded irritated. It was hypocritical for my dad to tell me not to lie when he had always taught me that lying was the number one defense for spies.
I looked at Uncle Joe for help. He bought right into my puppy eyes, "Matthew, how do you know it was her?"
"Well who else could have done it?"
"Do you have any evidence?" Aunt Abby giggles as I shoot her a knowing look. I could always trust Aunt Abby.
My dad whipped out a finger print detecter and started to try to discover any evidence. He found nothing. Aunt Abby tucked me into bed that night, "Way to go Squirt, you fooled your old man."
I sat in my dorm room frustrated, just as I was that night when I was seven. But instead, I was trying to gain my freedom, not the last cookie in the jar. It had been a week since my privileges were taken away from me. The only time that I had gotten a glimpse of Zach was during Culinary Class. I mentioned my lock in to Zach, and he sympathized for, but I haven't heard from him since then. I guess I was just a fling.
I had to become free. Drew and Chuck were still in my dorm 24/7. My father also had two guards circling the perimeter of my dorm. I was going crazy. Just as I began counting the hair on my head I hear a pebble hit my window. I glance to see Drew and Chuck sleeping on the chairs watching SportsCenter. I quietly open the window and see Zach standing there smiling.
"Zach? What are you doing?" I whisper. He could have just called me and met me at my door...
"I'm breaking you out. Hurry! Jump out before your bodyguards come!"
"I can't just jump out from the 3rd story of a building!"
"I brought a pillow!" Zach holds up a pillow and drops it on the ground. It may be surprising, but the spy by the name of Charles Gradford has proven that pillows prove to be the best for breaking your fall. I jump out of the window without hesitation (I told you I was going crazy didn't I?) and landed gracefully on the pillow. Well graceful except for the fact that once my feet hit the ground I topple into Zach's arms; Yeah, that's graceful alright.
"Come on!" Zach wastes no time as he hides the evidence that I escaped my room and grabs my hand and begins to run.
Once we are a safe distance away from our dorm, Zach slows us down into a stroll.
"Zach where are we going?"
"That's for me to know and you to find out." He smirks, "Do you trust me Gallagher Girl?"
I did trust Zachary Goode. Despite my lifetime of spy training, I trusted a boy with green eyes and smirk whom I knew nothing about. To be honest, although I trusted him I was terrified.