Edition Four

Things That Came To Mind As I Dragged Maddie’s Crap Upstairs

1. I vow to NEVER again carry those terribly heavy bags up stairs... Maddie can carry her own crap.
2. Is it really possible for one girl to use the clothes that fit into 5 Louis Vuitton bags in the time-span of 1 trimester? I think not, but Maddie begs to differ...
3. I swear, if I had 1 U.S dollar for every time Maddie made us do a task for her, I would be a millionaire here and a 7,126,830-aire in Bolivia. I wish I was in Bolivia

    Whatever. When we finally reached our dorm, Makayla was gasping and I was about to fall over. No amount of Cove-Ops training could ever prepare a girl to carry that much crud. Opening the door, I saw Maddie sprawled on her bed with her feet in the air, humming while eating a Pop-Tart. Sophie, who was staring at her laptop on the bed next to her, kept tossing Jelly Beans at poor Maddie, who cringed each time one hit her (which was every time). Maddie once had an interesting incident in Mr. Dett’s office. She was locked in for a weekend with nothing to eat but Jelly Beans.  

    “You little-” Kayla tried to act mad at Maddie (it wasn't very convincing because she was partially smiling), but she was cut off as a Cheez-It was flung in her face. “Hey!”

    “Sorry, it was my only defense.” Maddie shrugged.

    Kayla knew she was defeated and commented, “Good defense.” Kayla dropped the 3 bags she was carrying before picking up the Cheez-It and popped it in her mouth. “Where’s the box?”

    “On the table,” Maddie lazily pointed to the small kitchen table where the Cheez-Its were sitting. Family size. I looked at Maddie and nodded in approval. I was the one who had known Kayla the longest and was impressed the Maddie had already picked up the “Kayla-Bribing Technique” (even though she has known Kayla since 7th grade... so I guess she should've picked it up a while ago).

    “Hey,” I looked around to notice that there was no delicious snack awaiting me. “Where’s my su-”

Sophie cut me off. “In the fridge, second shelf, crab meat. Wasabi is in the door.”

“Yay!” I bolted for the mini fridge in the corner. Sushi, my absolute favorite food in the whole world. After sushi came Turkish delight, but you can only get the good stuff in Hong-Kong. You can, however, get pretty decent sushi at the “Quick-It-Pick-It Mart” in Roseville, but it looks really weird if a boarding school girl is picking up sushi in a low-class market, so I don't usually get some there.

As I sat on my bed eating sushi and wasabi, I looked around the room, happy to be back in my favorite place, with my favorite people. Each one of us had a very different personality. I guess that’s why we got along so great, you know, “opposites attract”.

Kayla was spunky, energetic and fun. She was the kind of girl who just had an aura of awesomeness, and everyone wanted to be her friend. She could be crazy when she needed to, sad when the time was right, happy on cue and serious when the time came.

Maddie was almost the complete opposite. She was the girl who knew how to remain calm when everyone else was freaking out, she was good at leveling out mistakes. It was a trait you learned to love. Everything in this world needs an opposing force, a balance of some sort. Maddie was just that. No one else I knew could be that way, and I was sometimes jealous that she was the one who could bring everyone to their senses. Not to mention the fact that Maddie was the most stylish person one could ever meet. But let me make this clear, she’s not absolutely negative or anything, she just knew when to be the opposite of us. She would be goofy, energetic, positive, and that kind of thing, but she knew how to control that. In a way, she’s the adult .

Sofie. Sofie...um, how does one describe Sofie? Kick-ass. That’s how. She was proud of the fact that the only reputation she had was one that most people feared. Luckily, we all knew her before she beat up Mr. Hoggens in Protection and Enforcement- we call it P&E, but just so we’re on the safe side, IT’S PROTECTION AND ENFORCEMENT PEOPLE! I think we all feel a little safer knowing that we are sleeping in the same room as the most-feared fighter in the school. But here’s the catch... Sophie has something that is like stage fright. It’s kind of like when someone is really good at singing, dancing, and acting (like REALLY good), but once they get onto the stage- audience or not- they can’t do it... at all. Like they shut down and forget who they were and how to do anything. In Sophie’s case, she is really good. Like I said before, she beat up Mr. Hoggens. But once she gets out to the field, it’s like all her training goes down the drain. She wouldn’t even be able to win in a fight on the field if her opponent was just standing there- not fighting her back. The weird thing is that she is basically our nerd: she does all the tech stuff on missions, she is actually on the research and development team, and she is taking CoveOps as an extra course (yeah, she’s that smart). So even though she is the toughest girl in school, she can’t handle the field work and is all for the tech side of things. It’s really weird, I know, so let’s just say that Sophie is the odd one of our group... sort of.

Anyway, Sophie was 5’4”, slender build with a soft face. Layered, just-above-the-chin blonde hair framed her face and bright-green eyes seemed to pop out of her skull (In a pretty way, not a freaky way).

.I sat there some more, chewing sushi and thinking about my upcoming classes. I didn’t know what my friends' classes were, but I was set on finding out. I knew I would be able to find out no problem from Kayla, but Sofie liked being mysterious, and Maddie couldn’t remember her schedule long enough to tell anyone.

But before I could actually ask anybody anything, Sophie jumped up and down on the bed. “Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh!” Her laptop jiggled on the quilt as she continued.

“What? What?!” Kayla nearly dropped a Cheez-It before caching it again.

“The CIA is having a Boot Camp in 3 weeks!” Sophie laughed. “Finally! Do you have any idea how long I've been sending them e-mails suggesting this?”

“Suggesting?” Maddie snorted in disbelief.

“Well, more like threatening them.” Sophie ran her fingers through her hair. “Not the point! Anyway, the only thing I need is a teachers recommendation to get in, and I can guarantee you that Mr. Hoggens will give me the recommendation.” Sophie smiled. “This rocks.”

I was lost in thought. Just the idea of Sophie leaving for a week of two only to come back tougher and with newer and more advanced techniques scared me. There's one thing that happens when I get really, really, REALLY deep into thought... I lose all sense of position awareness and where I am, what I’m doing and what's going on.

“Jordan!” I heard Kayla yell at me before I hit the ground by the bed, sushi flying everywhere. As soon as I was once back to my senses, I found Kayla hovering above me. “It concerns me that it effects you that much to think.”

Sophie soon joined Kayla. “You should get a CAT scan.”

I sighed. “Already had one. It's required when I volunteer to help Dr. Homer with his experiments.”

“How many are you helping with now?” Maddie asked once she joined the other two standing above me.

“On average, about 3 every week.” I replied questioning her with my eyes.

“Good, so the CAT scans are often.” She said faking relief. A slight smile danced on her lips.

“The problem is that they haven’t found anything,” Kayla commented.

“Ha, ha. Funny,” I said sarcastically.

Kayla winked, “I try.”

A knock on our door made us all turn our heads. “What?” Sophie shouted to the closed door. Yeah, along with Sophie’s kick-butt attitude, she also is pretty rude and I think could use some anger management classes- but we love her anyway.

The door creaked open and Shea Walter’s head popped in. Shea’s mom, Tina Walters, is the head of a gossip column in the New York Times. So Shea knew everything and anything that was going on. If there was any rumor going throughout the school, she would know. If there was anything that happened in the school that was questioned to be accurate, she would know- even if it weren’t true.

“Rumor has it that we can go down to Roseville- as long as we’re back before dinner,” she said in her bright perky tone. She looked at Kayla for confirmation. Kayla nodded. “Sweet!” She shouted. “You guys wanna come with us? Nearly the whole junior class is going.”

I glanced around at Maddie, Sophie, and Kayla. “Sure,” I said.

“Awesome! See you in a few.” With that, Shea disappeared out the door.

“She seems a bit perkier today,” Sophie said as we all grabbed our purses.

“That’s Shea for ya,” Maddie said.

We all headed out to the hallway where most of the junior class was waiting for us, and started for the entrance of the academy. I glanced around and saw that all of us were still in our casual clothes and not our uniforms. It was odd not seeing everyone in uniform, but I understood why they wouldn’t want to be if we were heading toward Roseville- although I thought it was completely stupid that we had to let a town decide what we wear. Roseville is the town in Virginia that the Gallagher Academy is located in. That actual town part is about two miles away from the mansion.

Being a spy school, we have our cover: snobby, rich kids that take limos to school instead of school buses (not my favorite thing to play, but it works). So Roseville has a sour taste in its mouth whenever it sees us roaming the streets- which explains the dirty looks we get when we visit there. But over years we learned to ignore it and go about our business. Today I guess we didn’t really want those looks, so we chose casual clothes. I rolled my eyes at the thought.

“What?” Kayla asked defensively. “All I said is that I should’ve asked Aunt Macey if she wanted anything while I was in town. Jeez.” We were nearing the town now and I was surprised that my thoughts were so time consuming.

I realized that she thought my eye roll was for her. “Oh, it wasn’t to you,” I said. “Just thinking to myself.”

“About?” Maddie pressed.

“Well not about playing Cheez-Its as a last defense, that’s for sure,” I said laughing.

Maddie reached toward Kayla’s open Cheez-Its bag and grabbed one. She flung it at me, and it hit me on my chest and slid down into my shirt. By this time, we were in the town and people- other than my sisters- were watching us carefully. “Maddie!” I whisper-shouted.

Maddie, Sophie, and Kayla busted out laughing. It would look weird if I just reached down inside my shirt to dig the Cheez-It out, so I decide to leave it.

As we entered the first store- a vintage clothing store-, I could already tell that this wasn’t going to work out. As I move in odd ways to get the Cheez-It out of my shirt, I found myself doing- what looked like- the shimmy, trying to get the Cheez-It to fall out. Still, Kayla, Sophie, and Maddie were stifling back laughs. “Would you guys shut up already? It’s not my fault a Cheez-It got stuck in my shirt.” It didn’t sound very convincing because I was laughing also.

“I’d offer to dig it out for you, but I don’t want to make a scene,” Sophie said sarcastically.

We all laughed again. “No! I think I’m good,” I said a bit too loudly. Us four had weird glances flashed our way as we were giggling. “I need to find a bathroom to fix my shirt!” I whisper shouted again.

I looked around the store and saw that there was a unisex bathroom in the back right corner. There were two guys waiting by the bathroom, talking to each other, probably waiting in line. The first one was tall and had dark brown hair, he was strongly built and looked familiar somehow... I know being a spy-in-training, I should be able to recall a face from ten years ago, but I knew I hadn’t seen him. It was just some familiarity, but nothing more. The other guy was cute just in a different way. He looked more like the guy next door, then the mysterious stranger. He had a really good tan, with light blonde hair to make him look like your average surfer dude. Except for the fact he definitely had muscles, but not the kind you can get from a gym, by weightlifting, his were from real hard labor. All of us looked at Kayla. “What?” She asked.

“Go distract them so we can sneak into the bathroom,” I demanded.

"Why me?" She asked, eyebrows knitted.

"Cause you were the one with the Cheez-Its," Sophie said.

"And plus, you're the one who can sweet talk pretty much any guy into doing anything," I said.

Kayla rolled her eyes, "Can we just make a wall or something then you can dig it out?"

I looked around, "Too many witnesses."

Kayla still didn't look convinced- at all. "How about we just wait in line like normal people?" she suggested.

I shook my head, "Too long."

"But-"

"Think of it as a pre-school mission," Sophie interrupted. "So go get your flirty skirt on and distract those boys!" Sophie glanced at Maddie. "Isn't that right, Maddie?"

Maddie was staring into space seemingly lost in thought. She kept discreetly looking over her shoulder at the guys. “Maddie!” I whisper-yelled.

She shook herself out of thought and said, "Oh, yeah. Sure." Maddie eyed Kayla up and down. She took Kayla's Cheez-It bag and replaced it with giving her an Altoid to free her breath from the cracker odor. Kayla was wearing Jean shorts that were to her mid-thigh a forest green tank top with a baggy t-shirt over it, she had sunglasses on, and her hair was in a ponytail.

"Roll up the shorts to short short level, take off the t-shirt, you can wear mine, let your hair down, sunglasses go up," Maddie coached Kayla.

Kayla rolled up her shorts till they wouldn't roll up anymore, and she took of her baggy, white, v-neck t-shirt and handed it to me, I took it and stuffed it into my purse. Maddie quickly unbuttoned her own white blouse and threw it at Kayla. As Kayla whipped it on, Maddie grabbed the end of the shirt before Kayla could button it and tied the shirt shorter. Kayla took her sunglasses off so that they wouldn't fall off when she would fix her hair. She pulled her ponytail out and shook her head in a way that it looked like she could be in a Pantene commercial. Her hair must have been in a braid last night cause it was perfectly wavy, and by putting her sunglasses on, then sliding them to the top of her head, it was the perfect touch to complete the look. She looked perfect for sweet talking those guys.

"Now stop worrying, go get your sexy on, and let’s go distract those boys!" Maddie whispered- even though she knew the boys couldn't hear her. "Sophie, help Jordan will ya?" Maddie demanded more than asked. Sophie nodded with a sly smile on her face.

Kayla winked, "No problem." Turning around, she strutted toward the guys. She positioned herself so that they would have to face away from the door to see her. Yup that's Kayla, the one who can sweet talk any guy to do anything...

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