Only The Goode Spy Forever

Chapter 37: The Secret

  (Cammie is always in 1st person)
   I walked through the halls at the Gallagher Academy as a chameleon. Only, now it was a lot harder. I knew that if any of the Gallagher Girls saw me they would flip. After all, I was a legend at Gallagher. I was Cammie Morgan! I had a statue and many pieces of stained glass. I was the one who defeated the Circle of Cavan... or so we thought.
   Walking through the halls felt different. Classes were in session. Girls were being trained into operatives. Maybe it felt different because I was older. Maybe it was the remodeling. It could have been because I was there to surprise my daughter for her birthday. Maybe it was even the fact that Zach was trailing behind me with our 2 youngest kids. The spy in me knew that none of those were the reason. The spy in me knew that something was wrong.
   "Cammie!" Liz shouted, running at me. My tooth pick of a best friend hugged me tighter than I thought was possible for her small body. I hugged her back. She turned to Zach.
   "Hey, Lizzie," he said with a grin. She scooped up each of the kids.
   "This is just perfect that you're here! I have some concerns. I guess this is our first official parent teacher conference," Liz said with a laugh.
   "Concerns? About Anna?" I asked. Liz nodded her head.
   "She wrote a paper. It was a hypothetical writing prompt. She wrote about sneaking out of the school. What she would do if it was possible. I read it and it sounded just like you. Seriously, I went back through old files to make sure she didn't just reuse one of your papers," Liz said.
   "And the problem is?" Zach asked with a roll of his eyes. Liz sighed like he was the stupidest man in the world, which compared to her, he very well could have been.
   "The problem is that Cam actually did sneak out of the school! A lot! She didn't write like someone who wanted to sneak out of the school. She sounded like someone who has," Liz said slowly, trying to make us see what she was seeing. The look in my old roommates eyes told me all that I needed to know. I knew the danger.
   "Show me," I commanded. Liz nodded and took us into her classroom. I read the paper. The fear settled in, I passed it to Zach. He mirrored my panic.
  "If she's sneaking out," Zach began.
   "Then Catherine already might know," I finished. Liz nodded quickly, excited that we had finally connected the dots. "Where is she now?"
   "I think she's in Culture and Assimilation," Liz said.
  "Take me to her suite," I said. "Let's see what we can find."
   Okay, I know what we were doing could totally be an invasion of privacy. Let's get something straight: I was NOT one of those moms that was always snooping around there daughters things. That's just wrong. However, I think there can be an exception when an international terrorist group wants to recruit the daughter and she has no idea. So no, I didn't feel bad when Zach, Liz, and I went through Anna's stuff. Anna was good. She didn't have anything out of the ordinary.
  "There's nothing here!" I raged. Zach rolled his eyes at me.
   "Well duh, she's not an idiot. If she had anything that could put anyone on her tail she wouldn't keep it in here," Zach said like it was obvious. I smacked my head.
   "That's it! Liz, where would she hide it?" I asked. Liz shrugged. We stood on the banister and looked down at the girls switching classes below. I saw Anna. She was waking with Diana and her other roommate with the strawberry blonde hair.
   "Anna!" A girl shouted. I turned and looked. She had long, wavy blonde hair. She looked like she belonged on the cover a Vogue magazine.
  "Who is that?" I asked, turning to Liz. Liz furrowed her brow. We watched the blonde girl sling her arm around Anna's shoulder and laugh at something she said.
   "That's Bree Morrison. She holds records in P&E. I think it's because of her acrobatic skill. Her dad is the director of the secret service and her mom is Interpol. She lives with her grandpa on a farm in Kansas. She's a sophomore," Liz said, rattling off the facts. My eyes widened and I turned to her.
  "Liz!" I exclaimed. She jumped and gave me a questioning look. "What upper classmen do you remember us being friends with?" Liz looked at me like I was stupid.
   "None of them, Cam. Upper classmen and lower classmen aren't friends. We hardly interactive with them," she said like she was stating the obvious.
   "Exactly!" I said. "We only talked to them if we were-"
   "On a mission together," Liz finished. She grabbed my and Zach's arm. "Come on! Let's go see what Bree is hiding for them."
   Bree's suite was actually kind of cute. The walls were a light yellow and they had light blue comforters. Bree had a cowgirl hat sitting on her nightstand. I looked at the pictures she had sprawled out in a collage. The beautiful girl was always on a farm with braids and a bright smile. I turned to a picture of the girl with a woman that looked like her. The woman was beautiful too. It was her mother.
   "Cassie," I said. Zach came over and looked at the picture. His eyes grew wide as he looked at me.
   "Oh yeah, Cassie Morrison is her mom. You 2 know her?" Liz asked. Zach nodded.
   "We've worked with her. I didn't believe you when you said this girl was good at P&E, but if she's related to Cassie I believe it," Zach said shaking his head. In other words, Cassie was a bad ass. She was extremely sweet, too. Before I'd seen her in action I really doubted if she was on the right career path. Liz nodded and I continued looking through the pictures. I froze as I picked up a piece of paper.
   "Zach," I said and he came back over to me. He grabbed the paper and studied it.
   "That's the Blackthorne emblem," he said. Liz looked at it and nodded. Zach flipped over the paper.

                                       Be smart.
                                             -C

    "Chase," Zach said. "He sent this to Bree?"
    "No," I answered. "He sent it to Anna. Chase knows something. And if Chase knows something-"
    "Catherine knows something," Zach finished. He turned to Liz. "Why would she do this? Gallagher Girls don't sneak off of campus." Liz shrugged.
    "I can only think of 1 Gallagher Girl who consistently snuck off of campus," Liz said.
    I held my breath. I swallowed as Zach and Liz stared at me. I said the words that we were all thinking. "She met someone."