Aren't you proud of me? I've had writers block on this chapter of the story for a good week now. Of course this is the last bit I have pre-written. D:
I feel like I have to point something out to my readers (who I absolutely adore by the way). You don't know that Lina and Andrew are half-siblings. Heck, *I* don't know yet. But I understand your concerns. If they are, it is a bit creepy. (you're not rude or mean at all Iwashere, not at all)
But there's a reason why you don't (and won't ever will) get a portion of this story in Andrew's thoughts. Because that would ruin a good portion of the story!
Disclaimer: I don't own the Gallagher Girls series.
LINA
Lina saw the message left on her door by her mother. Lina would have totally believed the note if she didn't see the last 3 sentences.
She understood the part asking her, Carly and Elaine to go to the Headmistress's office for dinner. That just meant Aunt Liz, Aunt Macey, and probably Aunt Bex came for a visit to catch up.
But her mother allowing her to date a boy? Something was up. Right?
Only one way to find out. Go to the dinner. The first thing Lina noticed when she entered the office with Carly and Elaine was a bored looking Caleb and a pale looking Austin.
Who wouldn't be pale after just being threatened by 4 top spies about breaking a girl's heart? That's what I thought.
That pale look soon disappeared into a wide smile when Austin saw Elaine walk through the door, and everyone couldn't help but laugh.
Well everyone except Miranda, her mother. But Lina could see a small smile play on her mother's lips when she saw them hug.
Dinner went smoothly. There was laughter, gossip, joking, and amazing food (stolen from the kitchen since Rachel Morgan still can't cook). Lina felt happy with her friends and family around her. Life, for once, almost seemed perfect. Too bad it didn't last over 2 hours.
Lina could see her mother visibly cringe before boring her eyes into Caleb and mumbling to herself angrily "curse those idiotic Goode boys."
Even though Lina knew her mother hated the Goodes, she still felt a pang in her stomach, remembering how she had basically admitted to Elaine that she thought Andrew was hot.
Her mother continued staring at Caleb who had frozen underneath her glare and looked sort of nervous.
"Turn off your comms Caleb. If Andrew wants to spy on my daughter, he should do so himself. What's up with Goodes and getting Anderson's to spy for them?" Miranda sounded sort of exasperated at the end? Lina guess Uncle Jonas had helped Mr. Goode with something earlier.
Aunt Liz looked sort of amused and upset at the same time.
"Caleb, it's not nice to spy on your teachers, or your mother's best friends, but good job getting a comms unit past us for 2 straight hours." she sounded like she was trying to scold him but was holding back a bit of pride.
After all, it was hard to fool the headmistress, and the CIA and M16's top spies.
Dinner resumed, but it felt different. Miranda Kaufman was pissed. Caleb said he was sorry, but Miranda didn't forgive easily.
Lina waited till after everyone had gone to bed to talk to her mother. She entered the passageway and pressed the right brick, and scanned her eye, opening the door to her mother's suite.
Lina used to live in there with her mother before she was really old enough to be formally attending the Academy.
Lina stepped into her mother's bedroom to find Miranda curl up against the headboard of her bed staring off into space. The sight scared Lina, her mother never looked so…vulnerable.
It was 4 minutes and 48 seconds later Miranda acknowledged her daughter's presence.
"Have I been a good mother Angel?"
Lina didn't know what to say. Her mother continued.
"I took you away from the outside world when you were only 6 months old. I've taught you everything I could inside these walls. But I've tried to keep pain away from you for the longest time. And because of that, you're not ready."
Well it hurt. Lina had just been told she wasn't ready, basically that she was naïve. Not something a spy wanted to hear, and her mother was almost ranting now.
"Pain is part of a spy's life, it's part of everyone's life. I've kept you from being in serious physical pain. I've kept you from learning about torture, from feeling physical pain till you're about to burst. I've tried keeping away mental pain, keeping my past locked up in my head and away from you. Ignorance is bliss."
Her mother said the last part with a bitter, mocking tone. But then softened her expression to a point where she seemed pained to say what came next.
"I've kept you safe from heart break. From a world of men you only lie, cheat and deceive you. All men could be spies if it came only to that. Heart break hurts worse than any physical pain you could be put in, any mental anguish."
She faced Lina with the most serious expression ever.
"I can't do that anymore. You have to learn to grow. No mother wants to see her Angel hurting, but if I don't let you grow, pain will be your greatness weakness. I've got to let you grow Angel. Love a boy this year, find happiness that comes with it, but be wary. You're old enough now Angel. Seek the truth about my past, I'll assist you along the way. Just when you find out what I did, forgive me. I did everything trying to help you. I don't know if that was right. Good night Angel."
Lina stood there stunned a bit. Her mother had just talked about feelings and emotions? Whatttt? Miranda wasn't like that. But all of a sudden, Lina didn't feel like she knew Miranda as well as she thought.
Her head swarmed with questions but she simply said good night to her mother, and went back to her dorm for a well deserved sleep.
The rest of the week passed by fast. The classes were pretty simple, well all except CoveOps. All the sophomore girls still had to get all the information they could about the 5 Blackthorn Boys to complete our mission.
Some were so paranoid they bugged the boys' rooms and searched through their closets. After all, who knew if Miranda would ask them what color underwear they wore?
Some shamelessly flirted with the boys to get them to spill about themselves. Others bugged Carly for details about her brother. Carly tried to hack the Blackthorn database. She was so close too before they caught her.
Lina? She never asked them anything. She didn't hack databases either. Because after all, actions are louder than words. Lina studied everything they did, their patterns of behavior.
Miranda would never ask the girls for petty facts. It didn't matter what was their favorite TV show over the summers, but it did matter what their favorite weapon was.
So Lina studied how Caleb looked worried during P&E but seemed confident behind a computer.
How Nick flirted with all the girls, but not with any one girl for over 30 seconds.
How David acted like an idiot hiding behind corners and trashcans like a fake spy in a movie, just to get attention.
How Rodney didn't care how good he looked in front of a school of girls.
And how Andrew seemed to stare at her 24/7 with eyes that bore into her head.
Andrew didn't flirt with her, he barely talked to her actually. But he always stared at her with a curious look and got tense whenever any of his brothers talked to her.
Lina was confused. If the boy liked her like Elaine said, then why wasn't he making any moves? But Lina wasn't desperate. She wasn't going to chase after a guy. Guys only brought confusion.
So Lina just observed him, like he did to her.
After COW, Lina took the elevator down to Sublevel One with Carly. They chatted nervously about Quiz. But when Miranda Kaufman entered the room, she didn't answer any questions.
Lina saw her mother stare at each and every girl and slowly explain their mission.
"The Blackthorn Boys have acquired a disk with information removed from the CIA database about one of our most valuable sisters. You what you have learned about these boys over the week to track down them in Roseville and bring the disk back to me. You have 5 hours. Go."
And with that the sophomore class scurried to their rooms and change into casual clothing, preparing for their trip to Roseville.
As any good pavement artist, Lina dressed to not impress. She threw an old pair of jeans and a t-shirt and ran out the door. The blackthorn boys already had a head start and there were only 4 hours and 57 minutes left to get the disk.
Lina wandered around Roseville looking for the boys with Carly by her side. They decided girls walking by themselves would look a bit sketchy.
The girls wandered around town, pretending to stop and look at shops now and then, but still looking for the boys.
Nick was easy to find, surrounded by town girls and flirting with them. David was with him. Lina and Carly stuck Napotine patches on their foreheads and their classmates brought them to the Gallagher van.
Rodney may have been a pavement artist, but after knowing his favorite food was ice cream, it wasn't hard for Anna and Rose to corner him in the bathroom inside the ice cream shop.
All that were left were Caleb and Andrew. Lina and Carly searched everywhere, but the boys appeared to be missing. Lina and Carly split up to search the town better.
Lina paused inside a coffee shop and let the warm aroma engulf her. Her mother had told them to use what they knew about the boys to find them. What did she know about Andrew and Caleb?
They were best friends and always partners for assignment. They would be together for this one too.
Caleb loved computers, and they had the disk. The two boys were probably busy trying to hack the disk. Lina thought about where two boys could find a computer in town and still blend in.
The first thought was the library. Lina talked into her comms and told 4 girls to check there. But there was a nagging feeling in her gut which told her they weren't there.
Where else? Then it came to her. Roseville High School. Lina made her way out of the coffee shop and started walking towards the school.
She couldn't ask her friends to come too, the boys would notice them too easily that way.
Roseville High had open lunch. That meant students could go all over town from 11:30 to 12:30 to eat lunch.
How nice Lina thought. They can get some fresh air. They can be free.
Lina wasn't allowed outside the walls of Gallagher Academy very often. Almost never during the school year. She treasured each moment she was let outside the safe bubble called school.
No one questioned her when she went inside Roseville High; all the students were milling about and gossiping with friends. Lina slipped into a girl's bathroom and climbed into the vent system.
Even if normal teenagers didn't notice her, two spy boys probably would.
It wasn't hard navigating in the vents. Lina practically lived her sleepless nights climbing in vents. They were like a secret passageway throughout a whole building. Lina crawled around till she found the vent above the computer lab.
The lab was pitch black except for the faint glow of the computer screen illuminating the faces of Caleb and Andrew.
Lina could see from her hiding spot that Caleb was hacking something. No doubt is was the disk her mother was talking about.
Lina was surprised to hear a faint ding as Caleb finally got through the firewalls; the disk had very high security.
She got ready to sneak up behind the boys and steal the disk back and started to unscrew the vent cover. But when Lina saw what the disk actually was, she froze midway.
Because on the screen, was Cameron Morgan's missing CIA files.
The ones that were removed by Cammie herself. The ones that had been missing for 15 years.
Lina realized right then that none of the Gallagher Girls had ever really seen a picture of Cammie. Because if they had, one of them would have noticed.
They would have noticed, like Lina right now that Cammie Morgan's dirty blond hair looked scarily liked Lina's.
That if you slowly took away Miranda Kaufman's brown hair, green eyes, and looked beneath it all, she looked exactly like Cammie Morgan.
And it all clicked in Lina's head. It all finally made sense.
Her mother's mysterious past, her hatred of men, and her amazing spy skills.
Because Miranda Kaufman, her mother, was actually Cameron Morgan!
And that's when Lina lost her balance, tumbled out of the vent onto the ground, startled the two boys still staring at the screen, and finally
blacked out.
Yay! She found out! :D
It's slowly getting somewhere, now I just have to write the next chapter! I should be studying for my exams, so unless I feel like procrastinating again, you guy will just have to wait until Monday night for some more.
Of course, if I get enough reviews and encouragement...I might just have to write more! :D