Cammie's POV

Several days passed – it was almost like at Gallagher. Girls fawned over Zach, and he ignored them. They became envious of me and already over half of the girls in the school hated my guts. Chandler became distant, only waving at me, never talking.

BLEEP. BLEEP. BLEEP. BLEEP.

I groaned and rolled over. I hate Mondays. I flipped over to my stomach and got my pillow, pulling it over my head to block out the noises of my clock.

BLEEP. BLEEP. BLEEP.

"OKAY, I GET IT!" I yelled at the alarm clock, unplugging it. Zach groaned and rolled over, crushing me with his body. His strong, musky scent immediately envelopes me, and I breathe it in for a couple seconds, until his weight makes it impossible for me to take any more breaths.

I tried to push him off, but he was too heavy. Plus, he was clinging onto my waist now.

"Zach," I choked out.

He moaned again, still half-asleep.

"Zach. Dying!" I gasped.

His eyes immediately flew open and he rolled off of me, his green eyes concerned.

"Sorry," he smiled a sheepish grin.

I just stuck my tongue out at him and flicked his nose.

I got out of bed and we both started to get ready for school. I sighed. It was so terribly drab - the most exciting thing that ever happened was when Zach and I could sneak in a kiss every now and then. At least Zach was in all of my classes...and now that more girls are looking at Zach, more people are paying attention to me, too. Zach had made some guy friends - it was impossible for people not to love him - but he loyally stayed by my side every day. We always walk to school, loving the fresh, crisp morning air on our faces.

Plus, a car was expensive.

"Ready?" Zach opened the door.

"Yea." We walked out, hand in hand. After about 8 minutes, I felt something. I looked behind me and saw a man in a suit, talking on his phone. I shrugged it off and kept walking. Two minutes later, I look behind me and he's in a jogging suit, stretching.

"Zach.." I whisper.

"Yea..I know." Suddenly, we're shoved into a dark alley and about 10 men are surrounding us, guns in their hands.

"Hand her over, and you don't have to die." They growled at Zach.

"You wish!" Zach growled back at them, pushing me behind his back.

"Zach, I can defend myself. Spy, remember?" He never answered, because the men leaped at us. I roundhouse kicked one in the jaw and he went flying into a wall. Zach and I got into a back-to-back position, using each other to lean against so we didn't lose our balance during flips and roundhouse kicks. Napotine patch for him..I turned around and punched another man in the gut, swept my leg under his feet since I was still crouching, and he hit his head on the concrete, hard. It started bleeding. A bit. But I couldn't concentrate on that right now. Zach had taken down three men. I slapped Napotine patches on all of them, since Zach had run out.

I stood up and felt motion behind me. Zach, sensing him too, held out his hand for me, while punching another man with his other. I grasped his hand and used it to flip myself up, and while I was in the air I kicked a guy in the neck. He fell forward, and I landed on his back. Even though I was considered underweight, he still let out a loud groan and lost his breath. Napotine patch. Slap. I looked up and there was only one man left...pointing a gun at Zach's head.

"No!" I screamed.

"Get on the ground, and I won't shoot him. Lay on your stomach."

Damn. That position was the most defenseless one, since I would be laying on my arms, and my feet wouldn't be touching the floor. Only my toes. No way to easily get up, no way to easily dodge attacks.

I slowly went down, my hands raised up, showing him that I wouldn't try anything. My heart pounded and my eyes kept flickering to Zach. Other than a few bruises and scratches, he was still alright. For the time being.

I was right next to the man I had just landed on. I slowly started to lay down, and I saw something glint in the sun in his hands. A gun. I put my hand right next to his, and right before my jaw hit the floor, I jumped up and shot the gun right out of the man's hands. Zach immediately took action, and crashed the man's head into a wall, and the he slumped over.

"Cammie...are you alright?" Zach's eyes raked over my body, searching for any injuries, his hands on my elbows.

"I'm finde. What about you? You're the one that almost got shot!" My breathing was still shaky, the fear of Zach leaving me still behind my eyes.

"Hence the almost, Cam." We walked to school like nothing happened, brushing the dirt off of our clothes, and using the quick-heal ointment Dr. Steve had created. We were at my locker, and I was stuffing my backpack in there until Zach broke the comfortable silence.

"Cammie.." Zach trailed off, waiting for me to look at him. I did. He was leaning against the locker next to mine, his arms crossed. He was wearing a dark green shirt today, and it made his eyes look even greener. I couldn't help but stare a little.

"Mmm? What is it, Zach?"

"I..I think we should go back to Gallagher." His tone was cautious, gentle. But this immediately set me off.

"What! No! Why would you even say that?" My voice was louder than necessary and people started looking our way.

"Because," Zach hissed. "The Circle is still out for you, and this place isn't safe anymore. You were almost killed, Cam. I was almost killed." His voice cracked out of desperation when he mentioned our deaths.

"We can handle it, Zach. This is what we're trained to do. I am not going back to Gallagher Academy. All of this would be for nothing, and we still haven't found out anything...whether my dad's alive or not...why they want me so badly..." I trailed off as some nosy kids shuffled closer 'innocently' as they tried to listen in to our conversation. Zach and I had our mad faces on, so maybe they thought we were breaking up, or something.

Zach let out a gusty sigh and ran his hands through his hair.

"Fine. But any more close calls, and I'm dragging you back home, whether I have to use rope and a potato sack or not."

My turn to sigh. "Whatever, Zach. Let's just go to class, okay? We'll talk about this later."

He smiled crookedly and took my hand. Everyone that had been crowding around (mostly girls) groaned and went their separate ways to class. Apparently we were still together.

I made a bitter face at them, holding Zach's hand a little tighter than necessary.