Chapter 2- Absence, Arrival and Opportunity

Mia's POV

Rianna and Doug arrive at 2pm the same time as everyone else we go through all the usual antics, well usual for us any way ( flipping each other to see if the other out of practice etc.) and no one tries to ask me about my foster home experience so I'm betting Ella gave them a heads up.

It's when we get to the dining hall that things change something odd is going on at Gersy. There's a new kid in my grade now to you this might seem completely normal but in all my years at Gersy we have never once had a new kid in any grade. Doug fill us in as he obviously can't room with us and instead rooms with the school gossip Zayne who of course already has a billion theories about the new kid all of them most likely false but I don't tell Rianna this as Doug goes through all the rumors he's heard because she loves a good gossip. His name is Henry (I know old fashioned!) and he is smoking hot with his striking green eyes and well toned body but then everyone has a good body at Gersy its one of the requirements of our specified curriculum. He turns his head my way covertly checking out the whole grade but obviously not covertly enough seen as I notice our eyes meet for a split second before his gone back to his meal flipping his chocolate brown hair, speaking of chocolate I hope there's something chocolate for dessert! Any way back to his curly brown gorgeous hair, don't go thinking I'm obsessing over this guy I'm not its what I'm trained to do, notice things and he just happened to be the most prominent thing in the room to notice first.

Time Skip

After dessert which was chocolate self saucing pudding YUM! Head mistress Malaney got up to do her usual welcome back speech only I knew it wouldn't be her normal speech because I noticed another oddity tonight in the dining hall other than Henry. Mr. Rooney was missing his seat in the dining hall was empty! With him being our Covert Heist teacher I was hoping that he was just away finishing up a mission and would be late back but I knew that this was not the case because Mrs. Malaney never let anyone miss the arrival dinner it was mandatory to all staff and students. Therefore it could only mean one of two things 1)he's not coming back and they haven't found a replacement yet, or 2)they cancelled covert heist, which can't be true that subjects vital without it we can't survive out on field. All of that went through my mind in 1 second as I listened intently for an explanation. It was all the normal welcome back notices until she said "ladies and gents I have a surprise for all of you 5th years there is a unique and extremely exciting opportunity which you all have a chance of being apart of. The tension at our table was palpable when she said this but it was only going to get better the two best all round students will be selected through a number of tests and competition and the lucky winners so to speak will have the opportunity to….."she paused for dramatic affect " work with the uncommon criminal of this generation….Katrina Bishop!" at this point squeals of excitement escaped from many students at our table unable to contain their excitement I on the other hand was wondering why the headmistress just signed off without mentioning one word about Mr. Rooney's absence or Henry's odd arrival.

Walking back to our rooms the new kid was forgotten and Mr. Rooney's absence unbeknown to many all anyone seemed capable of talking about was the development of the competition and how exciting it was and in our chosen line of work these oversights were not a good thing.

When we get back to our room Doug comes in to chat for a while before heading back to the Guy's dorms I decide to test if they noticed anything at all.
"did you guy's notice anything different about this welcome back dinner?" I ask in a casual tone still holding on to the hope that they had noticed the absence because on the field this type of negligence could be fatal.
"Well only that we have got to be the luckiest grade ever!" Rianna state "Why?" they others agreed nodding their heads in agreement then turning to me puzzled as to why I had asked.
"So you didn't notice anything thing strange at the teachers table" I ask still not willing to believe that they didn't notice causing their likely hood at survival on field to plummet.
"No" they all said in unison looking even more confused and like they were trying to remember something that never registered their conscious mind.
I look at them with worry clear in my eyes when I say "Mr. Rooney wasn't there! No one ever misses first dinner back!"
the shock on their faces is clear and I know that they didn't even notice it unconsciously in passing. This is especially strange because Rooney had been one of our favourite teachers and just about all the girls had a secret teacher crush on him and who could blame them he was only in his early twenties and he was hot! Where could he be and what was going to happen to covert heist?