The Hacker's Con Artist

Chapter 13

- - - - - - MARCH 25, 2022- - - - - -

St. Petersburg, Florida 2:13 p.m.

BONNIE RESTED HER head in the palm of her hand, her elbow the only thing propping her up on the desk. At the front of the class, Professor Hammond continued her lecture on a subject Bonnie had stopped paying attention to a while ago. She bounced a pencil between her pointer and middle finger, finding slight entertainment in the tapping sound it made against the desk.

She knew she should have been grateful for all the opportunities the people at AIMA were giving her. She'd met a few girls she was becoming fast friends with and, for once in her life, she didn't have to worry about the finances keeping her life afloat. Instead, she could just...live. But was that what this was? Sitting at a desk for hours at a time?

Bonnie was bored. She wanted to explore. It had been nearly a week since arriving in the 21st century, and she hadn't been able to leave campus once. Landon had been surprised when she asked him too, spitting out some excuse about how it was vitally important for her to stay on campus. But why?

She wasn't an idiot. There was something about this time travel experiment that didn't seem right to her. Maybe she just simply had to change her approach.

The bell rang signaling the end of class and Bonnie let out a sigh of relief that it was Friday. She was off the hook for a few days.

"Hey," one of her new friends, Lily, met her in the hallway outside the classroom. "You want to come over tonight? Cora and Harley have this new game they came up with about—"

"Do they ever let you leave the academy?" Bonnie interrupted.

"What?" Lily paused at the top of the stairs leading out of the building. Her hazel eyes went wide, perfect lips forming an 'o'.

"Are we ever allowed to leave campus?" Bonnie asked. "To see the city?"

"I keep forgetting you're a new transfer," Lily said with an airy laugh, continuing down the steps. "We're allowed to leave on school-sanctioned breaks like over Christmas and stuff, but we aren't allowed to just leave whenever we want to. We can't bring any technology other than what the academy provides for us because of government regulations. But if we left, they would have no way of locating us. It would be a whole thing. Why?"

The longer Lily spoke, the more enticing the idea of exploring the city became. Bonnie got a rush of adrenaline just thinking about the idea of hiding right under the government's nose. She wanted to see St. Petersburg, not stay trapped within the boundaries of AIMA. Surely there was so much more to see in this century.

"I have a better idea for what we can do this weekend," said Bonnie. She pushed open the door to the building. The air outside was humid—like it normally was—but this time it also crackled with the thrill of mischief.

"What?"

"Let's sneak out."

"What?"

"Come on. There are so many things I want to explore." It took every ounce of her effort not to mention all the things she'd heard about but not been able to see. It would be a dead giveaway that she wasn't from this time, and she was just starting to find her place. If she let something slip, they would send her right back. If there was anything she was sure of, it was that she wasn't ready to go home yet.

"How are we supposed to sneak out of an academy that's literally run by the government?" Lily asked.

"Isn't the whole point of this academy to train y'all to be government agents?" Bonnie pressed.