Edition Eight

 A/N (author's note) To answer the comment about the whole Jordan being a softy, we wanted to bring some of the aspects of the characters from the GG series and also the characteristics of the people we are basing the characters off of. Yeah, Jordan may be a bit of a softy, but she has her own small bit of Bex in her and I'll let you in on a secret (her favorite technique to get info out of people is drugging them, yikes!). So sorry if you were expecting a more Bex-y Jordan, but Jordan is Jordan. 'Cause, you gotta admit, having basically the same exact characters with different names gets a bit boring after you've read ten million stories like that. As for the Sophie, as time goes on you see her more timid and nerdy side so bear with me! Thanks :)

I guess I should explain the significance of Maddie’s eyes turning black. It has happened once before. Her eyes didn’t turn black for little things like kickboxing with Sophie, or cramming for a big test, no it had to be something big. It had happened a grand total of once before. It was last year, Maddie and I were heading up the castle to grab some stuff from our room (cheez-it’s, flip flops, ponytails, and an extra towel to be exact). Sophie and Jordan, were saving our spots by the pool. We were walking and talking about who knows what. When we heard Shea yelling.

“Kayla! Maddie!” We exchanged a glance and quickened our pace. “Maddie! Your dad’s here!” She yelled again. We both froze. Maddie never told me about her dad, I always assumed he’d left her mom and sister. Nobody wanted to talk about it, so we never pushed. I paused, from surprise. As for Maddie, well she looked scared. She whipped around and stared at Shea.

“What?” She demanded.

“Your dad, he’s here. He’s really cute! Although you didn’t get his gorgeous blond hair.” Shea laughed rambling, I’m assuming because of the look on Maddie’s face. Maddie face hardened and she looked everywhere I watched her carefully and saw her eyes turn a deep dark shade of black.

“Maddie your eyes...” I started. Just as an older blond man came walking down the pathway towards the mansion. He was tall, and large, and was kinda cute so I could see where Shea was coming from.

“Get against the wall.” She ordered, face hardening. I could tell by the way she looked at him that it wasn't her dad, but because her eyes turned black anything I knew about her before was quickly erased.

“Maddie what’s...” Shea started, but she couldn’t finish Maddie had pinned us to the wall, knocking the wind out of us. She reached above my head and smacked a brick, nothing happened.

“Come on.” Maddie said urgently, smacking it harder, I heard a swishing to my left, turned, and saw a sort of door opening. “Get in.” Maddie demanded, not we had a choice considering she was already shoving us in there.

Once we all stumbled in Maddie whipped around and quickly closed the door, as the door  clicked shut the sound of someone slamming into the wall echoed across the walls of this “room”

We heard a muffled “No!” And a cry of outrage. The man was definitely not Maddie's dad. He was probably a bad agent coming to get her... but why? 

There was a clicking and all the sudden light filled up the space. Maddie held a small flashlight that look like it hadn't been used in a long time.

Maddie barely muttered a “That way.” (pointing to the right) when she collapsed.

Everyone ended up fine when we dragged Maddie out of the passageway. We dragged her to Aunt Macey’s office where we sat for the rest of the day waiting for any information, but we never got any from her. After questioning most of the other girls, we found out that Maddie’s “dad” had tried in vain to chase us down. When the secret brick door closed the guy freaked and security had him down in about fifteen seconds. Somebody had wanted Maddie, and that day her eyes turned black. Who was this Mr. Taylor, and what did he want with Maddie? Well, as a spy-in-training, I was going to find out one way or another.

*   *   *   *

So when Maddie’s eyes go black we all are concerned. Yada, yada Kayla told you the story...

So it was the second time in history this has happened, so naturally, we followed.

I honestly don’t remember how fast I was running, or who was behind me, or how many people were running after her, all I could think about was finding her. Now, Maddie can outrun just about everyone I know. She’s fast, when she wants to be, she just doesn’t ever want to be. But right then she wanted to be. She outran all of us easily. We lost her trail in about two minutes.

We (Kayla, Sophie, and I) were walking down the East Wing hallway looking for any sign of Maddie, but she was no where in sight.

“We should just give up. She’ll come back when she’s ready.” Sophie said quietly, but impatiently. Kayla and I exchanged a look then turned to her.

“Sophie. Her eyes turned black...” I started knowing I didn’t need to finish.

“And instead of running to us, she ran away from us. Maybe she wanted some time to freak out privately, then come back to us and freak out some more...” Sophie started watching us carefully.

We all looked down, going through our options which don’t even require a list but I’ll make one anyway: A) Go back to our room and wait for Maddie or B) Keep looking. We never had time to make that choice.

As Kayla was opening her mouth to respond the sound of muffled voices carried down the hall. Now we weren’t breaking any rules looking for Maddie but my instincts told me to hide. Only now do I think maybe I wanted some information which is why I hid, but honestly it never crossed my mind.

I looked at Kayla and Sophie eyes questioning. They nodded in response to my silent question. I quickly ran (silently of course) to the window and tucked myself behind the curtain, but left a tiny crack so i could observe who was coming.

Sophie went all ninja on us grabbed the pipe on the wall and scaled it to the ceiling where she sat dangling down. Kayla nodded her approval at our spots. Now here's the thing about Kayla, she just has those moments when she is so concentrated on one thing that she doesn't realize that she's suppose to be doing something else- she doesn't faint like I do though. For example, right then when she was suppose to be hiding, she was being the cheerleader on the sidelines, cheering for us and our wonderful hiding spots. Yeah, that's Kayla for ya.

When the voices got closer her eyes widened, she looked around panicked, she faced opposite of me examining the wall when all the sudden a little door popped open, wow I didn’t even see what she did, but without hesitation she slid behind it silently, she had just closed the door enough to be concealed when they arrived.

It was Mr. Taylor, Aunt Macey, and- most surprising- an unconscious Maddie. Appearing effortlessly Mr. Taylor was holding Maddie, baby style, in his arms. Now, I’m the one of us who doesn’t do guys, but I almost sighed thinking about his muscles.

“What if she remembers?” Mr. Taylor said. I couldn't be sure, but it sounded a little bit strained and maybe even panicked.

“Andy, you considered that possibility when you came here, but you knew you had to.” Aunt Macey said simply, in a calming tone.

“I know, I just wanted to make sure she was okay. Maybe I shouldn’t of come...” Mr. Taylor started trailing off.

“Then the academy would have lost great opportunity for an excellent teacher.” Aunt Macey quietly. He stopped walking, and turned to her looking her up and down.

“Would it be worth it if she remembered?” He asked looking her straight in the eye. The atmosphere changed so fast I knew this was the question he’d been avoiding but couldn't help but ask.

“It’s a risk you took and already decided on.” Aunt Macey said simply starting to walk  again.

“But...” Mr. Taylor started.

“Andy! If you really thought this was a bad idea you’d be gone by now, leaving me to find a halfway decent teacher, but you’re still here which means you’re going to stay no matter what I say so stop trying to get me to convince you when you don’t need convincing!” Aunt Macey snapped.

Mr. Taylor looked taken aback. His eyes widened, his face was pure shock. It was odd to see a well trained spy actually have a taken-aback expression on his face. A moment passed then he shook his head and a knowing smile formed on this lips. “I think you need more time away from her.” He laughed.

Aunt Macey glared at him, then rolled her eyes (yes, actual rollage). “We can take her back to her room.” She said simply walking a little faster. Mr. Taylor opened his mouth but Aunt Macey quickly cut him off. “They’re not back yet.” She laughed. I could only assume she was talking about us.

“How do you know?” Mr. Taylor questioned.

“Cause their moms wouldn’t be either.” She said shrugging her shoulders. They were now turning down the hall, out of our earshot...

The last thing I heard was Mr. Taylor quietly laughing.