Bex, Liz, Macey and I were getting dressed for our classes. Our uniform consisted of a navy pleated skirt with purple and green plaid (I was on the uniform committee and everyone voted on purple and green), which Macey modified and made a tad bit shorter, a white blouse with the Gallagher crest on the left and a navy sweater vest with the Gallagher crest (only worn on cold days or if wanted). Usually, Bex, Liz, and I wore knee highs and ballet flats, but stopped when Macey came to our school. Macey's outfit consisted of a super mini, the white blouse, with a few more buttons undone than necessary, over the knee navy socks and four inch stilettos. Sometimes, she wore white tights with the heels, but Macey McHenry made anything she wore hot. She also made us wear heels, but Liz was allowed to stick to heels due to her constant klutziness. Bex was all about the hells, but I wasn't. We have to be able to run, and believe me, no one can run in four inch high heels, trust me. Well apparently if your name is Macey McHenry you can, but there's only of those so the rest of us have to stumble our way in heels. On days we have Covert Operations missions and trainings I always keep an extra pair of sneakers in passage way I can quickly grab. We were on our way out the door when Liz's laptop, I'm not sure which one, started ringing. She screamed because the screen flashed VIRUS DETECTED, HACKING WILL BEING IN 2 MINTUES. She rushed over to her computer and started frantically doing what Liz does on her computers.
"Who the hell is trying to hack my computer!" She screeched. Wow, Liz sweared; Liz never sweared. Bex and I looked at one another and shrugged. "Ugh guys go on, I have to work on blocking the hacker and set up a few more firewalls I a have been working on." Macey headed out immediately. Bex quickly followed-when Liz was doing her hacking computer stuff, she talked to herself and no one knew what she ever said. I hesitated.
"Liz, you sure you don't want me to wait for you?" I asked trying to act concerned.
"Nah, you are going to be late for C&A if you wait for me. I'll go grab a pass from your mom later." She said to the computer screen, talking to me. I walked out, then picking up my pace to catch up with Bex and Macey.
"Hey you guys, why didn't you wait for me!" I said panting.
"We kind of wanted to see you run in heels." Macey said giggling. Bex was full out laughing.. I rolled my eyes.
"Glad to be of your entertainment Ms. McHenry and Ms. Baxter." I said in a formal voice. The three of us looked at each other for a second then burst out laughing. I love when we have are hilarious moments. For just a second, it was almost like we were normal teens laughing about normal stuff, but we aren't normal teens, we are not laughing about normal stuff because the events leading up to the laughing was not normal. Well, there goes normal.
We made our way to Madame Dabney's tea room. Well, it was really just like a big room with couches and chairs and tables, but she insisted in calling it that. Whatever, I hated C&A anyway. Gillian Gallagher believed that while girls should know how to kill a person (most likely a male) with just our hands, we should have proper etiquette and manners and know how to do everything right in public (and private) and I thought it was a waste of our spy time.
We got in the room with the rest of the class waiting for us.
"Where's Liz?" Tina asked. Of course, she wanted to try to get out tons of information from us every since they heard of the Blackthorne boys and they figured we already knew all about them. She was partially right.
"She is occupied…doing important stuff." Bex said looking at us. We shrugged; how were we supposed to cover for Liz? What were we going to say? 'Oh, sorry guys, Liz is trying to save her computer from crazy maniac hacker who gave Liz's computer a laptop and she is going crazy'? No, we couldn't say that. That would spark conversation about what we were up to.
"Well dears, take a seat. Today is an important lesson." Madame Dabney said pleasantly. We took our seats in chairs when a blond blur ran in.
"Sorry sorry, here's a pass!" She said out of breath. She took her seat next to Macey and took a piece of paper and pencil out. She always took notes.
"Okay ladies, today we will be learning about being in the presence of boys." At the sound of boys, everyone shot up to listen to what Madame Dabney had to say. She chuckled.
"Yes, yes, I know you all like them, but do you know how to behave in front of one?" She asked. We looked around at each other. We knew how to act in front of the President of the United States of America; of course we knew how to act around boys. Eva raised her hand.
"We already know all the rules there are to manners and behaving. So why are you teaching us again? I don't think boys fall into another category of manners and etiquette." She said. The rest of us murmured in agreement.
"Yes of course you ladies do, but the key is applying them to real life. I know, front past experiences that girls who have the best manners loose them around boys." She told us. I looked around, questioning whether she was talking about me with Josh. Did I have bad behavior around him? I didn't think I did.
"Okay, listen up! Rule number 1, whenever a gentleman offers to assist you in anyway, from pulling out a chair for you to helping you take down a rouge agent, from offering a hand or arm to offering to go on a mission with you, never decline. It's only polite and you wouldn't want to offend them or hurt their feelings." She told us. Wait, boys have feelings? Haha, just kidding. I officially couldn't master number 1 because yesterday, I had tried to get away from Zach and I kept declining his offer of help. I smirked; he didn't seem hurt, he was just persistent. Liz was talking notes on every word Dabney was saying. Bex raised her hand.
"Okay, hypothetically, let's say, it was a real emergency and you absolutely could accept his help. Like if you were on a mission and a man was stalking you with a gun and all of the sudden, a really nice man offers to buy you a drink. What do you do then?" She said loudly. I knew Bex hated number 1. She didn't like helps from many boys. And she hated Zachary Goode already. Oh Bex…
"Good question Rebecca. If you are in an emergency and can't accept their help, decline in the most polite gracious way possible." She told us. Bex rolled her eyes and muttered "to hell with rule 1" I snorted, Macey laughed, Liz giggled and the rest of the junior class burst out laughing. Dabney was confused.
"What is so funny?" She asked puzzled and then she turned to Bex and gave her a strict look, "Rebecca, did you say something?"
"No ma'am." She said trying to conceal her laughter. I smirked. Madame Dabney was pretty much clueless every time we the junior class entered her room. This was a funny class.
"Rule number 2, don't physically hurt them." She told us. The whole class started moaning and groaning and protesting with Mrs. Manners at the front of the room. I could tell that no one was going to follow rule 2. It was kind of obvious. Plus, there was a reason Gilly founded the Academy anyway. It wasn't so we could be polite to boys, it was so she could prove that girls had equally as many rights as boys did and that just because women wore hoopskirts didn't mean that they were useless. Let me tell you, you can hide a lot of stuff under the skirt by the way. We were supposed to prove ourselves better than guys, take on the challenges that they thought that weren't possible for girls. Madame Dabney looked around at all the outraged teenage girls.
"Fine ladies, taking away rule number 2. Alright, I understand. Just don't purposely have intentions on hurting them. We all know that boys don't like to be beaten by girls." She gave in smiling. All of us cheered!
"I do not believe that that is true, Madame Dabney." Someone said from the doorway. We all whipped our heads towards the doorway. Mr. Solomon was leaning casually against the door looking amused.
"Yes Joe?" She asked annoyed.
"I need to borrow some of the girls; well I need all the girls for an important task." He said. Yes! We get to get out of C&A and do something for CoveOps. In case you haven't figured out already, but my class is Covert Operations. It is where all the action is and where you actually get to do spy stuff.
"Mr. Solomon, in case you haven't noticed, but this is an academic class and students cannot miss it." She said emphasizing every word,
"I understand that, but I have permission from the headmistress that I can pull them from whatever class they are in right now and since they are in C&A, I am allowed to pull them from that." He said, in a 'are you going to test the authority I have' voice. Dabney frowned and shook her head,
"Class dismissed." She muttered going into her office.
We all jumped out of our seats and rushed off to follow Solomon down the stairs. We followed him in the Subs. I couldn't wait to go to Sublevel 3. I heard from all the seniors that it was the best out of all three. Sub 1 was very modernized with stainless steel everything and very high tech, and Sub 2 was very old. Everything was wood and old fashioned. We all wondered what Sub 3 was like. I tried to get in but the security is so high I got some pretty bad burns. I wonder what is so classified that we can't see. In Sub 1, you need a clearance level of 2, Sub 2, you need a clearance level of 3 and in Sub 3, the clearance level to access it is 4. Every year you have to take the Covert Operations final, which is basically a mission and it has to be completed in a given amount of time. You work with the whole class to complete it but the teachers evaluate you individually and how you work with other 'operatives'. Apparently, that's what they look for in all the Alpha Intelligent Agencies (CIA, FBI, SIS [or MI6], NSA, USSS, ect.).
"Okay ladies, I am going to show you the videos of you girls from Boston. Watch everything, and study everyone's moves." He told us. He popped disk in and it flashed on the screen. It started with al of us rappelling down the wall. Damn, we looked good. Well, we are Gallagher girls.
The screen first showed Macey scoping out an operative. She started tailing him, but he noticed so she had to find someone else. Tina came next. She was flirting with a group of guys until she saw the brunette operative. She managed to stay with her until the agent went in the bathroom and never came out. I wonder where what I was doing during all of this. The camera zoomed in on Bex heading into the massive Abercrombie & Fitch after a young looking guy about 25 went in. She climbed the stairs, still following him. She looked at the premium jean wall (it was a flagship store and only had certain items that you couldn't get anywhere else) but never let him out of sight. Next was me. I watched myself walk, tie my shoes, and spot the man I was first tailing. We say tailing so it doesn't sound like we are creepy stalkers. I followed him everywhere until he turned around. I disappeared. I found out that I had gone into Pink, but I was right back out again. Then I saw myself spot the blond operative. I left the guy to tail her. She was a better spy, because she made sure that she saw everything except what was behind her, aka me. I followed her into a dark alley and watched myself get caught by the target. I ran away. Crap that sure didn't look good on camera. Courtney was the star of the screen right now. She hadn't tailed anyone, but she soon picked up someone. It was little miss Blondie. After she had found out that people were tailing her, she was more paranoid, and that made it even harder for Courtney to follow her. They next was Mick and she was doing pretty good. Then all the sudden someone crashed into the screen. We all jumped out of our seats, but realized that someone crashed into me; Zachary Goode. My eyes hardened at the sight. I caught Mr. Solomon watching me closely in the big classroom. Everyone could hear our conversation.
"Someone didn't follow Madame Dabney's rule number one." Tina muttered when I kept trying to escape Zachary. We all burst out laughing. Mr. Solomon rolled his eyes and he made a little mutter or mouthed something. It was hard to decipher but I think he said something like, 'Zach doesn't like to be turned down'. Solomon does know Zachary. He apparently went by Zach. I needed to know more.
After watching all of my classmate's tail the operatives, the screen went black. Solomon stood at the front of our class.
"Okay, I want you to tell me the objective of this game." He said.
"To be able to tail elite operatives without them noticing and to get a feel of real life missions." Bex answered.
"Yes, but there is one more thing." He said, looking at me. I thought about it and it came to me.
"How we handle things like running into people and having people find out that they have tails. It's all about how we do things." I told him.
"Exactly, so Ms. Alverez, how did Ms. Morgan handle the situation when she got run into?" He asked Eva.
"By trying to escape him by not following rule number 1." She told him, a smile tugging at her mouth. He rolled his eyes.
"Yes and..."
"Finally allowing him to help." Macey put in. We looked at her, surprised. Macey never answered questions that she wasn't asked in Covert Operations.
"Excellent Ms. McHenry." He gave her a quizzical look but quickly looked away, "What should she have done?"
"I should have just accepted his help in the first place and it would have been faster and we could have stopped bickering back and forth and I would have been on my way." I said aloud to everyone. Yes, I admitted a mistake. I usually never admit to my mistakes, but I usually didn't have mistakes.
"Yes, and what should you have not ever done?"
"Run away."
"Why?"
"He would have followed me."
"And that wouldn't have been good because?"
"My cover would have been blown." I finally said.
"Okay, class dismissed." He said and left quickly, pulling out his phone. I waited for all other classmates to file out of the classroom. Bex and Macey waited for me. I motioned for them to go and I would explain later. They shrugged and left without a word. I crept down the hall to where Solomon was talking on the phone.
"What Zach? I can only do so much to cover for you. I think some of the girls already know who you are." He muttered frustrated. I didn't know what he and Zach were talking about.
"You know some of the girls? How?" He asked. Zach must have figured out with Bex, Macey and I were. Shit.
"Oh, okay, well don't try to hack them any more. It won't help. They have a world class hacker as a roommate." He told him. So Zach and his friends were the ones trying to hack Liz's laptop.
"I will see you soon. Okay? Be careful and no more sneaking out." He said hanging up. He started walking towards me so I softly ran to the elevators and jumped in one.
Hello amazing readers! Love all the reviews, and I will always try to update. I have lacrosse like, everyday so it's going to be tough. Working on chapter 9 right now! Keep reviewing and giving me suggestions; it is really needed. Okay, later girls!