Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy (Book 1 In Trinity Academy Trilogy)

Tightrope

Enjoy :)

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There are a lot of mixed reactions you can expect when your returning back to school after disguising yourself as a boy to visit your best friend's crush, and escaping from being kidnapped by one of the most notorious gangs. You'd expect concern. You'd expect anger. You'd problably even expect surprise.

But when I returned to The Academy, an hour long walk from town, I didn't recieve any of that. The gates opened for me right away and I was immediately swept up into Dean Figaro's office, no questions asked, not even a single, "Are you okay?"

I felt like I was walking on a thin tightrope. My entire life seemed to be holding on by a thread, and at any moment a single push would cause me to fall off. The X Team was waiting for me inside the dean's office, and Seth and Veronica were sitting in the chairs in front of Figaro's desk. I suddenly felt very exposed, standing in front of everyone with my sliced open cheek and shredded skin. Dean made an effort to approach me, but Figaro stopped him when she broke the silence. "Have a seat, Alexis." She gestured towards the open seat between Veronica and Seth.

I was balancing on a tightrope, holding on for my life.

The room was completely silent except for a quiet buzzing noise that echoed through my ears. I assumed that this conversation was being recorded. "I'll spare you the lecture about why sneaking off campus can be considered a reason for explusion from the school board." Dean Figaro started. "But that does not mean your actions will go unpunished." Someone handed me a blanket, and suddenly I realized that I was shaking. The long walk back to The Academy felt like a blur, and until now I had no chance to really absorb everything that had happened to me tonight. I pulled the blanket over my shoulders and bit my bottom lip in anticipation of my punishment. "For the good of the mission, and the safety of your accomplices we have made the decision to dismiss you from the Perez case."

My tightrope balancing act was failing. I was falling.

"What?" I asked in disbelief. I turned towards Veronica, but she refused to look at me. I didn't even bother loooking to Seth for help, I already knew whose side he was choose. "You can't do this." I shook my head.

"Actually, I can." Figaro smiled smugly at me. "Your actions have put this entire investigation at risk. You've not only exposed yourself to Perez, but now he is aware that we are following him. We can not risk putting the rest of your team in danger because of your rash decisions."

"Rash decisions?" I repeated. "Are you seriously just going to sit there and not say anything?" I asked Seth.

"She's right, Alexis." He broke his silence, slicing my tightrope in half with his words. "You are clearly not capable of handling a mission like this."

"We expect you to continue to respect the confidentiality of this mission, and while your case is taken under the consideration of the School Board you are hereby suspended from the Winter Formal." Figaro finished.

The room fell silent after Figaro was done speaking. I stood up from my seat, not even bothering to petition my punishment no matter how unfair it was. "Veronica, please escort your sister to the infimary." Figaro added, dismissing Seth and the X Team from her office. Seth shuffled out of the room without another word.

"Sorry kiddo." Dean kissed my forehead softly, patting me on the back as he left with the rest of his team.

Veronica walked silently besides me as we made our way back into the main lobby. "I can walk there myself, thanks." I waved her off, tugging the blanket closer against my skin.

'You have no reason to be upset with me." She argued, picking up her pace in order to keep up with me. "There was nothing I could've done to change Figaro's mind."

"You just sat there!" I yelled, stopping in my tracks. I wasn't sure what time it was, but knew that it was definetly past midnight. The hallway was unnervingly empty and the lights had been dimmed. "You should of defended me."

"Defended you?" Veronica laughed. "It's not my fault you snuck out!"

"Don't you think I at least deserve some sympathy? I dove out of a moving vehicle after being forced in a van by murderous thugs, this hasn't exactly been a good night for me." I curled my hands into fist. "Perez held a knife to my face, and I had to hike in the dark for an hour while I bled onto the grass, but for the entire ten minutes I've been here not a single person has even bothered to ask if I'm okay!" I inhaled deeply to calm myself down. "But the missison is obviously more important than any of that." I rolled my eyes, continuing to walk towards the nurse's office.

"Alexis!" Veronica grabbed my shoulder and spun me around towards her. "Of course I was worried about you. We all were. Do you have any idea what I was feeling when Seth and the others came back and told everyone what happened? We had no way of reaching you and no way of knowing if you were ever coming back. Dean Figaro was about to send the X Team out to get you back!" She breathed heavily, exhaling all of her anger onto me. "They could've killed you." She swallowed slowly. "And I couldn't do anything about it." She paused, taking a second to catch her breath. "How do you think that made me feel?"

"Stop acting like you're not ecstatic that I'll no longer be able to come between you and Seth." I scowled. "All you've ever wanted is the X Team, so congradulations you got it!" I could feel a word vomit building up in the back of my throat. I was no longer balancing on a tightrope, I was falling without an end in sight. "You got everything you wanted, Veronica. So do us a both a favor, and stop pretending like you care."

"When did you get like this?" She whispered. "When did everything become a competition between us?"

"This became a competition when you decided you no longer needed Ben. You dropped him, then you dropped me. You pushed us out of your life so that we couldn't hold you back."

"So this is all my fault?" She laughed. "It's not like I don't see you eyeing my boyfriend, it's not like I don't hear the things you say about me. I'm a person too, Lex. I'm not some 'evil' twin that doesn't have feelings." She shot back. "You like to play the victim, and make me the bad guy but don't you realize that your the problem?" Her face fumed red. "You blame all your problems on me, like I'm the reason you snuck out of school and got kicked off the mission. That was all you! You like to ruin things. You ruined your relationship with Ben, you ruined your relationship with me, and now you ruined your future. You have no one to blame but yourself, but you're just too afraid to admit it!"

The words were finding there way back up my throat. I didn't know how much longer I would be able to keep them down. "You're the one who ignores me. You're the one who makes me feel like a complete and utter joke. You make fun of my friends, and you constantly humiliate me in front of them, so let's not pretend like you wouldn't looovee it if I didn't exist. You only ever acknowledge me when it best benefits you. You don't even feel like a sister to me, let alone my twin."

"It's not my fault that you're like obsessed with me! You want everything I have, and you do everything in your power to try to ruin me." She stepped towards me so that we were only a couple inches apart. "You wish you were me. Because I'm the better twin, and everyone knows it."

I could no longer hold the words back. They were coming up, and I wasn't entirely sure that I didn't want them to. "If you're the better twin, then why has your boyfriend been hooking up with me?" I shouted, my words echoing through the empty halls.

Veronica took a step backwards and a deep silence fell between us. "The worst thing is..." Her eyes started to water as she talked. "is that I'm not even that surprised. I guess I sort of always knew." She bit her bottom lip to keep it from trembling. "I just didn't want to believe it." She turned her back to me and made her way towards the elevators.

I didn't even try to stop her.