NOTICE

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~Pigeonfollower

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*WE ARE HAVING SOME DIFFICULTY PUBLISHING EDITION SEVEN, BUT IT IS PUBLISHED. SO, EDITION SEVEN ON THE LISTINGS OF ALL THE PUBLISHED PAGES ON THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE PAGE UNDER 'DECEMBER'*

Edition One

First things first, you should probably know that this story takes place at the Gallagher Academy for Exceptional Young Women. For those of you who have heard of us I can literally hear you sighing right now, but you can stop. For those of you who haven’t heard of us you should know we have a reputation for being a snobby boarding school for rich and bratty heiresses, and sadly, most of us are. But instead of inheriting some decked-out vineyard, we will most likely get our own CIA branch. Yes, this is a school for spies. And we all have our own interesting stories so this story is about four of our girl’s stories Makayla Goode (me), Maddie Demmerson, Jordan Baxter, and Sophie Fellton. We all came from different places with totally different stories, but our subtle similarities made us click and form a bond that could never be destroyed.

I walked through the massive oak doors, taking in the smell, sights, and the feel of my home- The Gallagher Academy. The sound was the only thing missing. I sat there in the entrance, waiting for the scurrying of feet and the chatter of gossiping girls. There was none. No one was there yet. I walked up the great stone steps, listening to the clump of my Mary-Jane's against the stairs. The spy part of me took in everything around me, the amount of steps, the watt measure on the lamps and how many teachers were talking around the corner. 36 steps, 70 watts per lamp - for a total of 1120 watts - and 4 teachers talking around the corner.

The voices were getting closer, and I wanted to enjoy the last hour of silence in the Academy. I took a quick left and shoved all of my body weight into the wall. To someone who wasn’t used to the sight of me doing this, I would look totally mental. But instead of my energy bouncing back on me, the wall gave way and a door appeared leading into a dark hallway. Various creatures scurried in every direction, hiding from the harsh light.

   “Ew.” I couldn’t help but mumble to myself as the door closed and the dark engulfed me. Being the spy that I am, I should’ve “been prepared” and had a flashlight. Being the girl that I am, there was no way I was lugging a flashlight everywhere I went.

 As I continued on my way, I started thinking about the various things that could happen to me.

1.      I fall down into some mysterious mine shaft and die (Possible, where do you think the California Gold Rush Started? California? Puh-lease)

2.      Get lost (Impossible I had been at the Gallagher Academy since I was really little, so I knew nearly every secret passageway there was to know)

3.      Freak out over the small space and die (Impossible, I had never been claustrophobic)

4.      Run into a huge stalactite in the ceiling and come out to observe the large blue bump on your forehead (Possible, and very un-spy-like)

Luckily none of those things happened, I was just able to walk behind the walls of the Gallagher academy covered in cobwebs, with a huge patch of dirt staining the front of my shirt- from my previous incident of a newly found passageway beside door to the East Wing.

It was peaceful walking, just me and no one else, leaving me to my thoughts of the new school year, the familiar faces, and the only home that I have ever known. Ever since I was little when my parents disappeared, I came here to live with my Aunt Macey- the head mistress of the Gallagher Academy. So I’ve grown up in a spy family, seen other great spies grow up, and lived in my spy home (AKA the Gallagher Academy)... yeah, let’s just say I don’t have the most normal life.

I brushed a cobweb to the side and tripped over a brick that never use to be there (yeah, a usual Kayla thing to do).

A shadow caught my eye; it had moved. I stared at it for a moment, absorbing the shape and size. It was more of a blur than anything, but as soon as I stood up, it vanished. The shadow was no longer there. I knew better to call out, instead I followed the branch that lead off by a 90 degree angle. Curiosity has always been my weak spot and I wasn’t gonna let it down now; things just started to get juicy.

I tiptoed over the corner, not even daring to breath. I peeked around the corner and saw the shadow taking the next right. Swiftly, I followed, avoiding the creeks of the floorboards underneath my feet. A shadow, never a good sign, but being a spy-in-training there aren’t any good signs.

I followed the shadow- getting glimpses every once in a while- for who knows how long. I knew the route we were taking- it was leading to the East Wing entrance way, we were just circling back around to where we started. But then when the shadow should’ve taken a right... it went straight- right into the wall. I was puzzled for a moment. After all, the shadow walked right into a curtain covering a wall.

I was sure that the shadow was long gone when I snuck right up to the curtain and brushed it aside. Wall. Stone wall. There was nothing unusual, it was just wall. I would have stayed there, but I knew that my personal time was nearly over. I knew someone would start looking for me. So I made my way to the east wing entrance. Only, I took the long route instead taking the shorter way by making the turn that would lead me there in less than five minutes.

I needed time to think. But I was afraid that the time to think wasn’t exactly helpful. What was that shadow- no, who was that shadow? Where did it go? Why was it at the Gallagher Academy? How did it get into the Gallagher Academy? When will it come back? Will it come back? And what did it want?

As a spy-in-training, there weren’t very many things that could make me feel queasy, insecure, scared. But right then, I didn’t like I was in the world’s most highly secured building, I felt like I couldn’t be in the most dangerous building in the world... I was afraid. It seemed as if the passageway took on another role; the light- which had been just fine before- seemed to dim even further than before, I lost track of my footing and tumbled in nearly every step, and the creeks of floor boards which were never there before were pursuing me. I tumbled down the passageway, silently beating myself up for taking the long route and not going to the light and short route.

A finger tapped my shoulder.

Edition Two

I whipped around, ready to do whatever I could to get away, and nearly knocked my best friend out in the process. I stopped instantly when I saw Jordan’s face. Jordan’s face is not one you forget because she can change it fairly easily. Her actual face has these gorgeous blue eyes that would any guy swoon over her, except for the fact that she “Wasn’t interested yet!”. Boring.  She was tan and had all the features a girl from Michigan shouldn’t have; perfect nose, gorgeous smile, tall, thin, and of course athletic. She dressed as only she could dress though, a new style everyday because, well, she can pull them all off. Let’s just say Jordan’s good with disguises, which is the understatement of the century, give her an hour in the mall and I, one of her best friends wouldn’t recognize her at all.

“Jumpy much?” she asked, trying to stifle a laugh.

“Don’t sneak up on me like that!” I said, harsher than I intended.

She just laughed. “Wow, what’s got you on edge?”

Someone that’s sneaking into the academy, undetected, and could possibly be out to kill one of us! That’s what’s got me on edge! I screamed in my mind. But I couldn’t tell her, I wasn’t even sure that that’s what I even saw. But I did see it, and I knew it was up to no good. “I just wasn’t expecting you, that’s all,” I lied.

Jordan knew me since seventh grade- well, she actually joined a couple weeks after school started. But that’s only because the government finally found her. Jordan had a big family- actually her mom (Rebecca Baxter, aka Bex) and my mom were best friends. Bex was sent on a mission to Paris some 15-16 years back. As much as Mom knew, Bex went for one year exactly, and she came back with a one month old baby: Jordan. Jordan never knew her dad. All she knew was that she had two twin brothers that were in sixth grade (currently) and that she had a Nanny (aka, my mom’s aunt Abby. I met her once and she was really cool). Although Aunt Abby is really cool, Jordan couldn’t stand a babysitter. So she ran away. She hitched a ride with a traveling theater group and achieved the skill of disguise. After a year from running from the CIA, they found her and put her into the Gallagher Academy. We were both in seventh grade and we already in our third week when Jordan arrived and was put into the suite that Maddie, Sophie, and I were sharing. I had met Jordan once before when Aunt Abby was visiting us with Jordan and Luke and Mike, but it was a long time ago, so I barely remembered. But we already knew each other, so she was welcomed into our group of friends as if she were there from the beginning. Long story short, Jordan knew me inside out and vice versa.

So she knew something was going on, but chose to ignore it. She would find out later... if she could pry it out of me. Jordan was never the one for the torture method- that’s more of Sophie’s style- but she would go to any extent to get the information she needed. I wasn’t terribly worried, but with Jordan you never know.

We started to walk back to the east wing entrance to meet up with some of our other friends that we hadn’t seen for the whole summer. And without a missing a beat, Jordan nearly screamed, “Oh my gosh! You would never guess who I met this summer!” She started rambling on and on about this famous movie star that was actually a CIA field agent. Yup, that’s Jordan for ya.

*   *   *   *   *

Edition Three

“Hey! You two! Guess what? It’s not illegal to help one of your best friends with her large suitcases!!” We heard someone call from down the hall. We both immediately whipped around with smiles on our faces. And the mysterious yeller was... you guessed it... Maddie.

“Hey!” She squealed loudly dropping  all 5 of her suitcases, ran over and gave us a bear hug.

“Where’s Sophie?” She asked pulling away, raising her left eyebrow, her signature thing to do.

“Oh she’s in the room, she got here about ten minutes ago.” Jordan said turning to me on the last part.

“Oh sweet, help me with these bags and we’ll go say hi.” Maddie said smiling, nodding towards her bags.

“You’re taking the big one.” I said holding a finger up.

“Of course.” She said nodding, her now light gray eyes looking over toward the suitcases.

Okay, Maddie has interesting features. Like mood eyes. Seriously, her eyes change color according to her mood.

Kayla’s Top 10 List of Maddie’s Eye Colors

and Their Meanings

1) Light Green: excited

2) Dark Green: calm

3) Light Blue: surprise

4) Dark Blue: disgust

5) Light Brown: mad/annoyed

6) Dark Brown: confused, thinking really hard

7) Black: pain, fear

8) Light Gray: feisty/ manipulative

9) Dark Gray: hiding feelings

10) Navy Blue: sad

*Any others are unknown at this point, but will be recorded if necessary*

She’s pale, like she needs to get a little more sun even though she’s always outside. She has chocolate brown hair about a shade lighter than mine- mine is nearly black, but gives off a nice tint of brown in it. Her lips were dark pink, so she always kind of looked like she was wearing lipstick. She refused to wear any make up though.

She was dressed as Maddie would. A white t-shirt, with a black vest over it, black skinny jeans, and black leather high heeled boots. Those boots were so Maddie.

“La-huv the shoes.” Jordan said emphasizing the word love. Maddie looked confused then looked at her feet and acted like she forgot she had them on, but the look in her eyes told us otherwise.

“Yeah, they’re pretty cool.” She said nonchalantly smiling broadly. “Random gift, I love my life.” She sighed looking behind us. “Oh hey Katie! Did you remember my earrings?” She called slinging her bag over her shoulder and dropping it on the ground. Jordan and I both looked up the stairs at Katie, Maddie’s key-ingredient in getting out of doing a task. If Maddie might have to do something in which she could break a sweat, she... well she got others to do it for her, without their knowledge. Maddie lightly bumped into me running up to Katie (the smallest if her bags in her hand), they walked down towards the dorms, heads down intently discussing something. I didn’t even think anything of it until I heard Jordan sigh loudly.

“What’s wrong?” I asked turning towards her.

“She did it again.” She said simply pointing towards Maddie’s bags. She had left us-again- to carry her bags to the room.

“Dang it!” I said some not so nice things in Japanese under my breath. Jordan rolled her eyes and grabbed the handle of one of the bags and trudged up the stairs, I sighed and followed her example.

*    *    *    *

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...

*    *    *    *

Edition Five

Maddie:

We all fell into step behind her but Sophie and Jordan kept back a little farther for a quick slip away. When we finally got to the guys they greeted us with big smiles.

“Hi.” Kayla gave a small smile, pulling one if my moves by cocking her hip and putting her hand on it. Kayla was the closest to the guys, I was next to her, and Jordan and Sophie were right behind us. Positions locked. So far so good.

"Hey," the guy with the dark brown hair said. It bothered me that I knew I had seen his face somewhere, but that I couldn't quite place him, same for his friend. "What's your name?" he asked.

"Jenny, but you can call me Jen if you want," she lied smoothly. She took a tiny step forward and looked up at him, "And yours?"

"Jacob, but you can call me Jake if you want," He mocked. With this he winked- yes, actual winkage. I have to admit, Kayla's good. To meet a guy less than fifteen seconds ago (14.8 seconds ago to be exact) and already have him wink at you is pure talent.

Kayla giggled- not the silly-school-girl type, but just enough to be perfect. "And your friend?" she asked, looking toward the other boy. Both of them were our age for sure, if not a year older.

"I'm Matt," he said with a small nod. He wasn't even looking at Kayla, but he was looking at me. I suddenly felt self-conscious on how I looked and if my hair was messed up or if my breath smelled bad. Again, I was overcome by the feeling that I already knew Matt and Jake... But from where? Honestly it freaked me out not remembering; things like that had been coming and going throughout the summer- feeling like I should be remembering stuff but can't put my finger on what it was.

The bathroom doors opened, and I knew that Jordan and Sophie pretended to go looking around. Instead, they would covertly creep their way into the bathroom. Kayla was doing an awesome job distracting the boys, she was laughing, flipping her hair, and she had a- I can't describe it as anything else- seductive smile on her face. "So you two go to school here?" asked Kayla to the boys.

I decided that this was the perfect time to slip away also, I couldn't stand looking at the two boys any longer- my head would blow up from the frustration working its way in there. I stayed in earshot, but out of sight. I was pretending to examine some vintage dresses that towered above me- I was right around the corner from where Kayla and the two boys stood.

"No, we're visiting family here," Matt replied.

"So you two are related?" Kayla asked.

"No," Jake said. "But we are as close as you can get to brothers."

"Yeah, Morgan and I are too" Kayla stopped, seeing my face.

“I’m gonna go be elsewhere.” I said simply turning on my heels and walking away. Kayla watched me walk away with a confused expression on her face. When I heard a soft laugh from one of the guys, I peeked into the mirror on the wall to see the blonde guy Matt looking right at me and laughing. I raised an eyebrow, cocked a hip and disappeared into the clothing racks.” Wow, I’ve been ditched” Kayla  

"We're still here," Jake said.

I could see Kayla's smile. "Correct you are." Again, she used that flirty tone.

"So you need me to walk you somewhere? Considering your friends left?" I heard Jake ask. I noticed that he said 'me' not 'us', indicating that it would just be him and her. For some reason, I didn’t like it. I didn’t like the fact that him and her were flirting back and forth. I didn’t really know why it bothered to me... but it just did. Trying to think of something else, to occupy my mind, I looked at a dress with white lace on it. "You know, for protection," Jake explained. I silently laughed to myself and was embarrassed for him; he was the one who would probably need the protection. Kayla didn't, because she could take that boy the ground with just her purse in less than a full second with only one move.

I snuck a glance around the corner and saw Jordan and Sophie rounding the corner of a bookshelf, heading towards the front of the store. Of course, Kayla saw this and knew the mission- a very silly one, but still a mission- was successful. She ran her fingers through her hair and said, "Thanks for the offer, but I'm pretty sure I can handle a walk to the door."

"I don't know," Jake started with sarcasm. "It's a pretty dangerous road from here to there."

Kayla eyed him up and down, and I knew she had smiled. "I think I'll take my chances." With that, she strutted to the front of the store and stopped in front of the door. She turned, gave a smile to Jake and winked, then slowly made her way out. It was perfect how she choreographed that smooth exit. I laugh at the fact that she thinks that she’s good at honeypot due to luck! Not a chance, Kayla, not a chance.

I don’t know why I stayed in the store but I couldn’t get myself to leave, something about those guys was bugging me. I heard someone clear their throat behind me, I jumped and whipped around (weird I didn’t scream). Matt was standing there looking at me with startling bright green eyes that I hadn’t noticed before.

“So why’d you leave exactly?” He slowly said, a teasing smile dancing on his lips.

“I told you, to go be elsewhere.” I said simply, looking straight into his eyes. Something I was good at acting confident, something I was bad at (at the moment) being confident. He laughed and shook his head backing away from my gaze.

“Yeah I guess you did say that.” He laughed, he met my eyes again, but this time his look was different. Like my eyes were a book he was reading. I tilted my head to the right questioning him innocently; I felt my eyes turn their dark brown color.

“Why exactly are you confused?” He asked suddenly, making me blink with surprise. My eyes narrowed I looked him over as a threat, not as a regular person.

He was bigger than me, weighed more than me, and those muscles wouldn’t help, but I think I could’ve taken him. But weirdly I didn’t feel like I needed to, like he wasn’t a threat.

“I don’t know if you could take me, Maddie.” The guy snickered, still watching me with those green eyes, waiting for my reaction. I felt my eyes turn a dark gray.

“Who are you.” I demanded, not asked, demanded. I felt my eyebrow raise, my lips purse, and my hip cocked. Seemingly an annoyed girl stance but it was really easy to fight starting from there.

“Don’t be scared.” He said stepping towards me, I quickly stepped back so we were still the same distance apart.

“Another step and I yell for my friends, I have a feeling you know how dangerous that could be.” I threatened.

“You don’t remember me.” He stated taking a step back. My mind started racing, I seemed to be forgetting so much, but nothing at the same time! Grrrrrrr. What was going on?

“I should?” I asked feeling my curiosity rise.

“No.” He said sullenly. “You shouldn’t.” He said backing away, a hurt look on his face. My instincts told me to step forward and comfort, but I stayed still, and watched him walk away. When he had almost disappeared he turned to me one last time shook his head and ran as fast as he could out the side door ‘Jake’ followed closely behind him, but walking. Of course not before he looked me up and down, shook his head, just like ‘Matt’. I think I’m gonna kill the next person who does that.

Still in somewhat of a daze, I made my way toward Kayla, Jordan, and Sophie outside the door of the store. They were laughing hysterically, and about three people shot weird glances their way, but they ignored them and continued to talk rapidly.

“Oh my gosh, you did so well, Kay!” Jordan whisper-shouted in case the guys were near.

“Yeah, you really had me worried for a second because you didn’t really want to talk to them, but, girl, you had me fooled!” Sophie whisper-shouted along with Jordan.

“Thanks!” Kayla laughed. “And that dark-haired one was really cute,” she said. “At least it wasn’t a bunch of geeks or something.”

Jordan laughed. “If they were, all you’d have to do is say ‘hi’, and they’d be all over you- thinking that you love them.” They all bust out laughing, and I would’ve too if my head wasn’t about to explode with confusion and frustration. I pulled my sunglasses on to cover my eyes- I couldn’t be given away this time.

Kayla, Jordan, and Sophie went on like this for a minute or so- I completely tuned them out, too much was going through my head. Well, I tried to tune them out until Kayla disrupted my train of thought by asking, “Maddie, you okay?”

Edition Six

Even if my eyes weren’t covered, I could tell that my silence was giving me away. “Oh, yeah. I’m just hoping Joze is recovering from having a Cheez-It stuck in her shirt, and you-” I was addressing Kayla, “have stopped hyperventilating from the Cheez-It being wasted.” This was a simple tactic: redirecting the conversation back to them- and not to me.

Fortunately, this worked. They started to laugh and go on with another energetic conversation that I didn’t entirely try to tune out. To not make them entirely suspicious, I chimed in every now and then. But for the rest of the afternoon I tried to concentrate on- at least- pretending to have fun and laugh as we go from store to store and try on random things. It was a challenge to not think of ‘Jake’ and ‘Matt’, but I managed to think about them for limited amounts of time.

My mind was struggling to forget their faces; to just move on with life and pretend nothing of that sort happened... but it did. And because I’m a spy-in-training, I will never forget those two faces as long as I live.

*    *    *    *

    Okay, just to give you a heads up, Jordan, Maddie and I are the ones writing this, it’s a CoveOps report and we kinda had to write it for class and all that jazz, so we figured we’d do it together because everything’s more fun with friends right?   

And, as this is a report, I have to mention everything. Every detail, every feeling, every movement (that’s relevant, of course). So, even though I don’t really want to admit this, I have to anyway: I hate being good at honeypot. I don’t like it at all.

    For one, I make up half what I’m doing the whole time- of course, improvisation is good, and is what spies lean on a lot- and pretty I much don’t know anything about boys. I haven’t been in a real relationship with one (how could I???), I haven’t got a clue what makes them tick, I don’t even know if they like me or not. All I know is that whatever I do works. Call it whatever you want- talent, good training, spy instincts, whatever- but I call it sheer luck! It was luck that I convinced those guys to give me their credit card numbers (I was on a dare, okay?), and it was luck that I got those boys’ attention today.
    Like I said before, I don’t really like to do that to guys. I just feel like I’m using them... but isn’t that what a spy has to do? Use people until they get what they need from them, then move on? Yeah, that is. And that’s the sort of thing that keeps me pushing to do the best I can do in the art of honeypot. But just for the record, pretty much everything I think when I honeypot a boy is: how can this A) make him like me more? B) benefit me in any way? C) Get me more information. I know I sound really shallow and everything, but I’m a spy, not a regular teenage girl that has time to think about the people she is using. If I start to actually care about the people I use, well let’s just say that’s a spy’s worst nightmare. So, when that kind of situation comes around, I forget who I am and put on my cover that I only put on by luck.

    *    *    *    *

    The rest of the afternoon went by in a breeze; us four finished shopping (which I don’t really like doing- in fact, I despise shopping. Every time I enter a store I’m not in the best mood. But hey, what are you going to do when your friends love shopping? Nothing, that’s what you do.) and headed back to the academy. I’m not sure when Shea and the rest of the Juniors went back, but they did sometime after we left.
    We all finished unpacking after our small trip to Roseville, and even got to watch a few episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer before dinner. So just a few minutes before heading to the Grand Hall, we changed into our uniforms- in my case a stained uniform- then headed to dinner.
    Of course, I wasn’t too hungry, because I was snacking on Cheez-Its all afternoon (a very Kayla thing to do). Luckily, this time none went down anyone’s shirt- Jordan made sure of staying clear from me while I had them in my possession. However, no matter how stuffed I was, I would always make room for the food this academy has to offer; we have a chef that use to cook at the White House, and the simplest meal he would make would be a perfectly cooked steak, homemade mashed potatoes, green beans with almonds, and gravy that would make your mouth water from only one sniff of it. Yeah, and that’s a simple meal.
            But we're all forced to wait until the teachers arrive to the Grand Hall and allow us to eat. “Hey, Kayla! Is it true that Mrs. Ferguson retired?” Shea asked plopping down into the seat next to Maddie.

“I don’t know. Shea-” I started sighing, Shea was convinced that I must know anything and everything that was going on because I lived here (for more than the regular school year, of course all of us lived here).

“Well we’ll know in a second won’t we?” Maddie cut in. Smiling, she nodded towards the door, we all strained our ears to hear the sound of our teachers footsteps. We couldn’t hear them, out of all the noise in the Grand Hall I doubt that any of us could’ve heard them.

Listening so intently, the action eventually grew to the entire hall where everyone was listening and not allowing themselves to breathe. Even the seniors were listening intently, trying to see if their trained ears would work in this situation. However, none showed any sign of recognition if they did hear anything.

Then we heard it; the small creek of the Grand Hall doors swinging open to reveal Aunt Macey- the headmistress of the Gallagher Academy- and a line of the other teachers. I don’t know how she did it, but Aunt Macey silently and gracefully walked toward the front of the Grand Hall where the professors sat. Following her, were several other teachers that were probably some of the best spies I know... then again, there could be some that I’ve met and didn’t even realize it, so I can’t even say that. I can just say that they’re all good... really good. Whether that’s in technology, disguises, or just kicking butt, they’re all good.

As the teachers took their seats at the front of the room, I couldn’t help but notice the empty chair... maybe the rumors of a new teacher were true. Maybe Ms. Ferguson decided that early retirement was what she wanted. Then again, it wasn’t really an early retirement. It was just retirement from the academy. Instead of teaching Covert Operations (we call it CoveOps), she would become a field agent for the CIA... probably. But, hey, maybe she did retire after all. And maybe this was good for us; we could actually have a non-boring teacher this year. I mean like, we did learn some things, but we didn’t learn very well with her very boring techniques- I heard that when my mom was at the academy, they actually went on field trips! Field trips!!! Only if we had a teacher that could teach us better than her, then we could really be on our way to field agent status- and not to mention field trips along with it!

Aunt Macey didn’t seem to notice the empty chair when she stood up to the podium even though we all knew she was perfectly aware. “Women of the Gallagher Academy, who comes here?” she asked.

Every girl in the room, even the newbies, stood up and said in unison, “We are the sisters of Gillian.”

Aunt Macey continued, “Why do you come here?”

“To learn her skills. Honor her sword. And keep her secrets,” we replied.

“To what end do you work?”

“To the cause of justice and light.”

“How long will you strive?”

“For all the days of our lives,” we finished. After all the years here at the academy, saying those words was like breathing- something that just came naturally.

We all sat in unison and whispers echoed throughout the hall, still wondering why the seat was empty. Aunt Macey- obviously- heard the whispering and demanded our attention up to the front again. “Ladies, first of all, I just want to give a warm welcome to the seventh grade students. Ladies, let’s give them a warm welcome.” We all applauded politely to the newbies as Aunt Macey continued. “As for the former students, welcome back! This semester holds many different adventures and even some different things than you ladies are use to.” Aunt Macey paused for a moment then continued, “As you have seen, Mrs. Ferguson is not here with us today. She has retired from her position as the Covert Operations teacher and is now going to oversee classes and be my personal assistant for this semester. Currently, she is out of the building, but will be back as the school year starts.”

Not even looking at the empty seat, Aunt Macey continued, “As for the Covert Operations teacher-”

A voice came out from where the empty chair- or what was the empty chair, “I believe I could introduce myself, Macey.” Many gasps came from some girls, whispers sounded throughout the room, and I even found myself having a hard time trying to compose my face. A man- probably around Aunt Macey’s age, so like mid to upper thirties- had filled the empty seat. He was now standing, but there was no mistake, he had entered the Grand Hall and sat down without any notice whatsoever. He was good, and I had no doubt that this would be our CoveOps teacher for the semester. Field trips here I come!

“Ooooooh he’s cute!” Shea giggled, straightening up.We all looked at him again and realized she was right.

“Okay for once, Shea, I don’t question your motives.” Sophie laughed. “Maddie?” said, waiting for Maddie’s opinion on the new teacher. “Maddie?” Sophie asked again, poking Maddie. Maddie smacked her finger way without looking down. Sophie looked and Maddie, and followed her gaze to the new teacher. “Maddie, I know he’s hot, but not that hot...” Sophie said quickly.

“My name is Andrew Taylor and I will be your Covert Operations teacher. The only reason I tell you my first name, is because I know all of you can either hack into to CIA yourself, or know someone who can, so you’ll find out anyway.” Mr. Taylor laughed, I literally felt all my sisters sigh. I realized his voice had made us all turn to him, I quickly turned back to Maddie, and saw, which made my heart stop, that her eyes were black. Blacker than the darkest night.

“Maddie.” I said, voice cracking. My voice, I realized, was almost a yell. Everyone in the hall turned to us. Maddie looked around quickly and instantly jumped out of her seat. As if a shock had hit her, she looked at Mr. Taylor for a moment, mouthed something, and ran as fast as she could out of the hall.