Caitlin Cameron started her morning jog around the grounds of Gallagher Academy at 5:00am sharp. The music blared in her ears from her pink iPod shuffle. She wore that dress like it was a Saturday, Pretty as a summer rose picked in the morning, And he held her hand like it was a mystery, One he couldn't quite believe, Just walking with him, They were high up on a hill, Something to say, and daylight to kill, Time slipped away, the way that it will. She had first heard to song in a pub in London. She played it for her dad once, and when he heard it, he had started to cry. She knew why. It reminded him of her mom.
Running was one thing she shared with her mom. And they both ran for the same reason, too. To think. After three miles of her feet pounding the pavement, she returned to her dorm, took a shower, and headed down the breakfast. The language of the day was French.
"Bonjour." Caitlin murmured, sliding into the seats next to her friends.
"Bonjour. Ça va?" Jessica asked, taking a bite of her toast.
"Bof." She murmured. "Brandy, et toi?"
"Occupé!" Brandy insisted, looking up from her book.
"Déjà?" Caitlin inquired. Brandy nodded.
"Oui. J'ai un essai de donner à Monsieur Smith."
"Qui veut parier la quantité de devoirs que nous avons aujourd'hui?" Sophia inquired.
"Tonnes!" Jessica laughed.
"God, I hate school." Sophia murmured switching to English.
"Then why do you come?" Brandy asked.
"Pure force from my parents." Sophia sighed. "And I have Dabney first. And we all know she hates me."
"Well, knocking over her priceless Monet and then spilling tea on her Venetian blinds is pretty bad." Jessica shrugged.
"Why do we even have Culture and Assimilation, anyway? I already know how to kill people with utensils. Like this." Sophia complained, grabbing a knife and stabbing it into her pancakes.
"Someone's violent today." Brandy murmured, pulling her hair into a ponytail.
"Why do we have to come back here every year?" Sophia sighed.
"'We have to go back, Kate! We have to go back!'" Caitlin quoted.
"Way to be a Lost Nerd." Sophia snorted.
"Sorry if I'm addicted to hot doctors and criminals, polar bears, time travel, and a smoke monster!" The bell rang.
"I'll see you at lunch." Jessica sighed, and started for Advanced Encryption. Mr. Mosckowitz was scribbling random letters on the board. Jessica set down her books, and stared at it for awhile. It was a basic Caesar cipher. She scribbled it down in her neon green notebook, and started working away, until her friend interrupted her.
"Jess! How was your summer?" Lindsay asked, her red hair bobbing up and down in her ponytail.
"Good! How was yours?"
"Oh. My. GOD! It was amazing! I spent it in New Zealand, and they have the hottest guys ever!"
"I know, right? Their accents are SO adorable!" Jess cried. "I met this guy there named Oliver, and he was hot!"
"Oliver? That's SUCH a cute name!" Lindsay exclaimed, her blue eyes bright.
"I know, right?" Jessica smirked.
"LADIES!" Mr. Mosckowitz yelled. They looked around, and everyone was quiet, and at work. And staring at them. "I'm sure you can find time to talk about 'Oliver' during lunch."
"Sorry, Mr. Mosckowitz." The girls chorused. When Mr. Mosckowitz, the girls burst into giggles, but as soon as he turned around, they turned back to their work.
Meanwhile, Sophia and Brandy sat at their tables for their first Culture and Assimilation class of the year. Brandy was furiously scribbling notes down as Madame Dabney talked about Chinese customs. Sophia sighed, bored already. She crossed her legs causally under her desk, slouched in her seat, and tapped her pencil on her notebook.
"Ms. Winters, please refrain from chewing gum." Madam Dabney said, shoving her glasses farther up her nose.
"You know, Madame Dabney, that chewing gum makes you focus more?" Sophia said. "And I definitely need that for this class." There was a long, scared silence.
"That was extremely disrespectful, Ms. Winters." Madame Dabney murmured.
"Sorry." Sophia sighed, and stretched, accidently knocking over Brandy's Earl Grey, making it spill all over her notes.
"MY NOTES! What am I supposed to do now?" Brandy cried, picking up to sopping pieces of paper.
"You take too many notes for your own good, Brandy." Sophia snickered. Brandy turned slowly towards Sophia, and lunged at her. "WHAT THE-"
"I HAD ALL MY NOTES FROM THE LAST SEMESTER IN THAT NOTEBOOK, YOU DUMBASS!" Brandy screeched, sending a kick towards Sophia's head.
"God, calm down! It was only notes!" Sophia said, backing up slowly into the tea table.
"Only notes? ONLY NOTES?" Brandy cried, flipping Sophia. Sophia held on, and started slapping Brandy.
"This bitch is crazy! She needs to be deported back to England, stat!" Sophia laughed, but then Brandy socked her in the stomach.
"LADIES, for GOD'S SAKE!" Madame Dabney cried. Brandy and Sophia looked around the room. Their table had been knocked over, tea was everywhere, and the antique Persian rug was almost is shreds. "MS. WINTERS, DETENTION!"
"WHAT?" Sophia squeaked.
"This is TEN TIMES WORSE then when you ruined the Monet! This rug was priceless!"
"Wha…what about Brandy? She started it!" Sophia complained.
"Ms. Newman just happened to write a wonderful essay about Tanzanian culture over the summer, which more than makes up for everything. But, Ms. Newman, this incident WILL go on your record." Brandy was practically in tears. Sophia was pissed beyond belief.
"I just got a detention on the first day I came back to school, in first period?"
"I'll see you here at 6:00am sharp next Saturday!" Madame Dabney confirmed with a cruel smile.
As Sophia and Brandy fought it out over notes, Caitlin had arrived at her Senior CoveOps class. She sank into her seat in the back of the room, content on not really paying attention.
"Welcome to Senior Covert Operations, ladies…" Mr. Solomon began, and Caitlin stopped paying attention after that. She copied down the notes quickly, and started doodling absent mindedly in her notebook. She didn't really have any reason to pay attention. She was trained by her father, the best spy she knew. She didn't even need to be in a Covert Operations class. The bell rang for her next class without her even noticing. She looked up, and all of the other girls were rushing out of class.
"Caitlin, can I talk to you for a moment?" Joe Solomon said.
"Yeah, sure, Uncle Joe. What's up?" Caitlin asked carefully, walking up to his desk, adjusting her bags carefully in her arms.
"You seemed sort of…out of it during today's class." He commented, crossing his arms over her chest.
"Oh." Caitlin said softly. She could feel herself blushing.
"I know you don't think you need to take Covert Operations anymore, Caity, but I guarantee it will help you. You need to master the basics to be a good spy."
"I'm sorry, Uncle Joe. I'll pay attention next time." Caitlin sighed, slightly embarrassed. He smiled.
"You're so much like your mom." He whispered softly.
"I don't want to be." Caitlin snapped.
"Caitlin…" Solomon pleaded.
"She broke my dad's heart, Uncle Joe. I will never be like her." Caitlin said softly, and stormed out of Sublevel 3, leaving Joe Solomon at his desk, thinking how Abby would have done the exact same thing.
~B~B~B~B~B~
Matthew Townsend woke up to the lovely voice of a rapping Eminem You can try and read my lyrics off of this paper before I lay 'em, but you won't take this thing out these words before I say 'em. He groaned, and shut off his iHome. He hated getting up early, just like his dad. He got up, took a quick shower, got changed into his uniform, and headed downstairs to breakfast.
The dining hall looked like a Camp Mess hall. Long tables ran parallel to the wall, along with benches, like the Great Hall in Harry Potter. He smiled when he heard the usual shouts of boys yelling at each other to pass food. He slid casually into his seat next to Blake, where across from them, Nate and Chris were battling for the last piece of toast.
"I'm the youngest! I should get it!" Nate complained, holding onto his side of the bread.
"How about I split, you choose?" Chris offered his younger brother. Nate narrowed his eyes in thought.
"Okay…" He finally agreed, letting go of the toast. Chris ate it in one bite. "HEY? WHAT THE HELL?" Nate whined.
"Haha, sorry." Chris laughed.
"Here, we saved you one, Matt." Blake said, handing a piece of toast to Matt. Matt sighed, and gave it to Nate.
"Thanks!" He said appreciatively. Matt began to dig in to his breakfast: Pancakes, sausages, and orange juice. He watched his friends wolf down their breakfasts.
"Chew with your mouth close, dude!" Matt said, nudging Blake.
"Sorry, mom." Blake complained.
"Two more years in this place, and then I'm finally free!" Chris announced happily.
"I only have one year; remember that." Matt smiled. The bell rang, and all the boys around them rushed off the class. "I got to go to CoveOps." Matt sighed, and headed off to the senior Covert Operations class room. It was a massive room, with circular seating; the kind you would see at a lecture hall in a college. He sat in his usual seat in the front row, and started scribbling down the notes on the board.
"Welcome back to Blackthorne, gentlemen." Mr. Williams, the Covert Operations teacher said, walking into the room, towards the blackboard. He was tall, mid sixties, with graying hair and hazel eyes. "Mr. Townsend, name the five different kinds of security threats."
"Long range, short range, static, suicide, and internal." He said softly.
"Name used by the US Government for the War in Afghanistan?"
"Operation Enduring Freedom."
"The number one rule a spy must always know and follow?" Matt smiled, and thought about his mom.
"Get careless, get caught." Mr. Williams grinned.
"Exactly. Someone's been studying." He went on about this year, but Matt wasn't listening. He knew this year was going to be the most exciting one of his life.
Meanwhile, outside, Nate was running laps for gym. He was fairly athletic, like all spies, but hated gym. His friend, Jake, jogged up to him.
"Hey, Nate! How was your summer?"
"I spent it in Spain." Nate said nonchalantly, jogging around a group of boys.
"Sweet! Did you meet any hot girls?" Jake wondered, grinning. Nate snorted.
"Saw a whole bunch, didn't talk to them."
"Why not?"
"They just looked at me like a cute nerd. Not dating material."
"Then why don't you turn yourself into dating material?" Jake asked.
"What?"
"You need to be more…aggressive with the ladies, dude."
"Aggressive?"
"Yeah. Okay, try out a pickup line on me. Pretend I'm one of those hot girls from Spain." They stopped jogging, and Nate turned to face Jake.
"Are you from Tennessee, because you're the only ten I see."
"Dude, that was horrible."
"Sorry, I'm fifteen! I'm not going to go up to a random hot girl and ask her if she wants to sleep with me." Jake laughed.
"See, you have values! That's what girls see as 'friends'."
"Since when?"
"Oh, never mind." Jake said, and jogged away.
As Nate was getting a lesson in pickup lines, Chris and Blake were in Disguise and Concealment, looking through costumes and clothing to use as their disguises. Mr. Hawthorne went to go get a hat for another boy, leaving Blake and Chris alone in the way back of the closet.
"Dude, some of this stuff is awesome!" Blake said, grabbing a long, blonde wig that matched his hair color perfectly. "Oh, look at me! I'm Brandy! I need to study for everything! I have a permanent stick up my ass!" He said, imitating his sister. Chris stifled a giggle, and put on a sombrero.
"God, I love these things!" Chris said. "Just call me Senor Christopher." He said, rolling his r's dramatically. He took off the sombrero, and grabbed a top hat and a whip. "I'm Britney Spear, a la Circus. All eyes on me in the center of a ring just like a circus."
Blake glanced behind him, and tore a firefighter outfit off a rack of clothing.
"I was a firefighter for Halloween when I was seven!" He exclaimed, stepping into it. "What do you think? Do I look smokin'?"
"That was the lamest joke I've ever heard." Chris snorted. Blake fished around in the pockets of the firefighter jacket.
"Matches?" He wondered, pulling them out. He glanced up at the smoke detector, and smiled. Chris glanced at him, and smiled, too. "Help me up, will you." Chris boosted Blake up towards the smoke detector. Blake lit a match, and started waving it around the smoke detector.
"Hurry up! I don't think I can hold you much longer!" Chris whispered, making sure Mr. Hawthorne didn't hear them.
"One second…" Blake said, waving it faster under the detector. Chris felt his legs giving out beneath him, and both of them tumbled to the ground. Unfortunately, the match remained lit, and the clothing around them erupted in flames. They watched the fire spread through the whole entire closet, and out the door.
"What do we do now?" Chris asked.
"We bloody run for it before we get burned to a crisp!" Blake screamed. They dashed towards the emergency exit, coughing because of the smoke build up. They burst out of the emergency exit, to find the whole entire student body and staff of the Blackthorne Institute on the front lawn, watching the school erupt in flames. It would take the firefighters awhile to arrive, since they were in such a remote location. The fire didn't spread that quickly, so everyone had grabbed their bags.
"Ah, shit." Chris whispered, as he and Blake joined Matt and Nate.
"Do I even want to know?" Matt wondered dully.
"Probably not." Blake shrugged. They watched as Dr. Steve walked up to the front of the students, and started to address all of them.
"Well, since our institution is no longer suitable for…learning OR living, we will be moving to our sister school."
"What's our sister school?" A random student asked. Dr. Steve smiled.
"Gallagher Academy for Exceptional Young Women."
Song Caitlin listens to in the beginning is 'Jack and Jill' by Katie Herzig.