Spy and Don't Tell

Chapter One

Okay, I don't know how to really start one of these so I'm just going to start it like how I planned. My name's Z. That's it. Just Z. It's not a nickname. It's just Z. My mom thought it would be a good idea to let my dad name me since he named Morgan, my brother. She clearly never thought that him naming me would end up with the curse of the explaining that Z is my name and not a nickname to just about everyone who asks if it's short for something.

I guess I should I explain who my parents are. My mom is Cameron Goode and my dad is Zachary Goode. Yes, the CIA legacy duo Cammie and Zach Goode. Speaking of legacy, Grandma and Grandpa Joe is also CIA legacies. So is Great Aunt Abby. Aunt Bex is MI6. Aunt Liz is the smartest women in the world. To make this explanation simple, my whole family isn't a normal family. They're spies. So I don't really get the normal "birds and bees" talk. I get the "spy and spy" talk. (And from what I can tell, the spy and spy talk is a whole lot better.)

Now there's a reason why I'm writing this. Mom and Dad are always going on about how the paperwork after missions are always a pain and that I should get the practice while I can. That's why I'm writing this. For the practice and not for the five dollars Dad  is going to give me when I finish this because he bet that I couldn't...

Anyways, now that the explaining is out of the way, let's get to the whole beginning of sophomore year and what happened. And the best way to start that would be for me to start from the beginning right? And by beginning I mean starting from what happened on the last few days of summer at the safe house.

"Z get off the counter!" Grandma yelled as Grandpa Joe and Mom did a very nice pass of a card during their poker game with Dad, Aunt Bex, and Uncle Jonas.

"But I can see everything going on from here." I said winking at Mom and Grandpa Joe as they smirked.

"Z, listen to your grandmother." Dad said taking a swig of his beer. I sighed a soft 'whatever' in Farsi as I hopped off the counter and walked over to Morgan who was currently arm wrestling with Lexi. I guess I should mention that Lexi is Aunt Liz and Uncle Jonas's daughter who's also my best friend. Oh and Lexi is easily described as a tiny little ninja warrior who can and will beat your butt. I guess that's why it wasn't a surprise to me when little Lexi smiled in my direction and slammed my brother's arm against the coffee table making everyone jump and almost breaking the table.

"Lost again, Morg?" I teased sitting on my knees next to Lexi.

"I let her win." Morgan said defending his manly-ness.

"Keep telling yourself that." Lexi said patting his hand that was still laying on the coffee table. She then got up, pulling me up with her, and walked into the kitchen as Grandma called us for dinner. I sat in between Mom and Lexi, as always, as the food that never looked all that good went around the table. As we scooped the food that we had to eat or we would go to bed hungry, we made small talk that went from English to French to German to Farsi then back to English. Again, this is not you're normal family.

"So, Mom," I started as Aunt Bex and Grandpa Joe discussed a recent trip with Dad and Aunt Liz. "What cards did you and Grandpa Joe trade?" I asked quietly in a teasing fashion. Mom picked up on the tease seeing that she smiled.

"Well Z, I would tell you, but then I would have to kill you." Mom joked stabbing one of my broccoli pieces off my plate with her fork and eating it. I rolled my eyes at her.

"Just tell me, Mom. Did it happen to be aces and threes?" I put my elbows on the table and propped my head onto my hands as I looked at her with knowing eyes. Mom took a sip of her drink before asking me how I knew. I smirked at her. "Spy." I pointed to myself just as Aunt Bex was saying something about one of my professors having a fit if she saw me with my elbows on the table and Dad saying that's my girl with a proud smile and a thumbs up in my direction. Dad then added a I-have-no-idea-what-you-guys were-talking-about-I-just-know-that-I-heard-you-say-spy-so-that's-my-girl. We laughed at Dad's cluelessness just as we heard the door to the safe house open and close. We all immediately became quite as all the adults besides Aunt Liz grabbed their knife and got ready to attack whoever was there because honestly, would you really trust Aunt Liz with a knife to defend her self? Like seriously, she may be the smartest girl in the world but she was made to be in a lab.

"Morgan, take the girls up to your room using these stairs and whatever you do, don't leave until one of us comes get you." Grandma said. Morgan nodded as the three of us stood up quietly and made our way up the kitchen stairs and to Morgan's room because if Rachel Morgan tells you to do something as a CIA agent and not as a grandma, you do it. Then again, you should do what she says as a grandma too but being told to do something by her as a grandma you get some room to joke around and not do it. We got into Morgan's room and sat on his bed as Morgan locked the door. He sat in his desk chair and just kind of stared at the door.

"Morgan, what's going on?" I asked after a few minutes of quietly sitting on Morgan's bed while playing thumb wars with a semi distracted Lexi.

"Nothing. It's completely quiet downstairs. Well, besides the sound of things being thrown in the living room." Morgan joked trying to lighten the mood. I glared at him which only made him clear his throat and turn back to the door. "Right, no time for joking... Got it... No joking of the house being ransacked."

"Morgan what's really going on?" Lexi asked. Morgan shrugged.

"I just told you. Nothing. It's completely quiet. It's like they just left." Morgan looked at us with a soft expression. He opened his mouth to say something but the door handle giggled for a few seconds then stopped. The three of us were now on our feet and ready to defend ourselves. We heard a soft click of the lock then the door opened to reveal Dad with a soft smile. I let out the breath I've been holding as I ran up to hug him. He let out a soft chuckle and hugged me back.

"It's alright guys. It was just Abby and Townsend." He said but didn't let go of me and to be honest, I didn't mind. "But you guys should go to bed. After all, you guys are going to spend the rest of the time at school so you guys should get to sleep so you'll be rested for the trip to school." We nodded and Lexi slid past us and went to my room across the hall. Dad did a cowboy walk into Morgan's room since we were still hugging. He closed the door behind him. "Morgan you know about this year being that year for your sister. Make sure that no boys flirt with her." Morgan laughed as I looked between them confused.

"Don't worry, Dad. I highly doubt boys will flirt with Z when they find out she's a Goode." Morgan joked. "After all, I heard we are quite a handful."

"Okay, well I'm confused so I'm going to go." I said breaking out of Dad's arms and walking towards the door. To my surprise, they let me leave and go to my room. Now my room is actually semi normal for a teenager. There's posters of singers that are popular and make up by the mirror. The walls are a vibrant color making the room look more like one of those rooms you find on Pinterest or Instagram. But the thing that makes it semi normal would be that if you look on the under side of the bed there's a box full of spy stuff. There's some bottles of various things like truth syrup that Aunt Liz gave to Lexi who gave to me. I also had a taser and a few other odds and ends that I've snuck out of the attic over the years.

Now I don't know how normal teens would react to finding their best friend laying on the floor by the air vent but I know that they don't join them and ask what the adults down stairs are talking about. And I'm also pretty sure that said best friend doesn't reply to the answer with a made up language, just in case that the adults decided to pull a, as they call it, Z and Lexi and listen to us.

"Lexi, I'm not sure if we should do this. I mean, it's spying." I said standing up and walking over to my bed after a minute or so of listening to our family. Lexi rolled her eyes at me, joining me on my bed.

"Z, downstairs is a table with highly trained, and really awesome, spies. Okay? Two of them being your parents, two of them being your grandparents, one being our non related aunt, and one being your great aunt. Now if you haven't connected the dots yet, I will for you. Those people are spies. Spying is in our blood. I'm pretty sure we should be doing that." Lexi said with a shrug. "Now if you want you could sit on the stairs and not only hear what they are doing but also see what they are doing because, ya' know, you are kind of attracted to shadows and blending in with your surroundings."  Lexi walked over to my dresser and grabbed the bag of nail polish that sat on the corner opposite of my bag of makeup. She walked back over to the bed, sat down, picked out a pink nail polish, and start painting her nails. I sighed and stood up.

"I don't know how you do it, Lex, but you sure do know how to get me to do something that could get me grounded." I said before walking out of my room and to the stairs to watch a table of spies play poker.