Spy and Don't Tell

Chapter Eight

"There are six reasons why anyone does anything. Name one of them, Ms Ronald." Mom said leaning against her desk. Willa sat quite, clearly not knowing the answer. "Ms Davis, name one of the six reasons." Sarah Davis also sat quite in her seat. "Okay, let's try it this way. Raise your hand if you know any of the six reasons." No one raised their hands. "Tomorrow you will be asked the same question so listen carefully to the following." Mom took a breath to continue but before she could I spoke up.

"Love. Faith. Greed. Boredom. Fear. Revenge." I said. I didn't need to look up to know everyone was looking at me and my mom was smirking.

"Correct, Ms Goode." Mom moved from her place and walked over to the blackboard behind her desk and started writing what I just said. The door opened to the classroom. "Zach, you and your Blackthorn boys are late." Mom said without turning around. She placed the chalk back down, dusted off her hands, and turned around. "Ladies, this is CIA Agent Zachary Goode and the four boys he had brought with him are boys from the Blackthorn Military Academy for Boys With Nowhere Else To Go."

"To be fair, I got lost." Dad said joining Mom at the front of the class.

"You know this place just as well as you know your daughter!" All eyes were on me once again as she said this. "'I got lost' is no excuse!" Mom placed her hands on her hips. Dad cleared his throat.

"I think introductions should be in order for the boys, don't you think?" Dad asked Mom before turning to me and mouthing the word help.

"Why would I help when this is all you." I said leaning back, clearly showing I'm used to this happening. Lexi and I fist bumped as Kat whispered "Z be slaying". Mom sighed.

"Introduce the boys." Mom said. Dad did a little wave of his hand and the first boy started to introduce himself.

"Uh, hi. I'm Skip Sori." The boy said. He had black frame glasses and dark brown hair. Dad pointed to a seat next to a love-struck Kat and Skip rushed over to it. He clearly is not one for the spotlight.

"Nick." The second boy had caramel hair with blue-grey eyes. Oh and it was obvious he worked out. (Like hello, you can see his abs threw his shirt!) Most girls had their eyes on him, I couldn't blame them of course. He was quite attractive. Dad placed him in the center of the room. As he walked by me and Lexi to his seat, he winked at us. Now I don't know if it was a best friend thing or if we both generally didn't necessarily like the guy, but Lexi and I both rolled out eyes at the same time.

"Powers." The third guy had curly brown hair and brown eyes, reminding me of younger Steve Moakler. I noticed Lexi sat a little straighter and took a shaky breath. Dad and I made eye contact long enough for me to nod my head towards the empty seat on the other side of my best friend. He must have gotten the hint because next thing I know, Lexi is trying to control her racing heart beat. I scoffed and whispered 'Somebody's crushing' to her just as the last guy was introducing himself.

"Alex." He said walking to the last empty seat next to me and sitting down. "Great to see you again, Gallagher." He whispered with a smirk. Mom continued what she was saying earlier about how we would be asked the same question tomorrow about the six reason. I leaned over and placed a small slip of envolopaper on Lexi desk that read:

Study hall after class? I need to talk to you.

After Lexi read it, she put the paper in her mouth and nodded.

"Johnson, stop staring at my daughter!" Dad snapped just as Mom was dismissing us for the day.

"Sorry, Mr Goode. Couldn't help myself." Alex said as everyone started leaving and heading back upstairs.

"So what, first you tail me and now you stare at me long enough for my dad to yell at you?" I asked him with a confused expression. "That's not a very good way of impressing him. After all, in order to date me I heard you need his permission before asking." I walked out of class at the same time Dad called to speak to him.

-

"Right so what did you want to talk about?" Lexi asked as I sat down in front of her in the library.

"I know you probably don't know the answer but I'm still am going to ask. Why would my parents think it's a good idea to be teachers? Like seriously did you not see what just happened down in Sublevel One? Like now practically my whole family is here, all we need is Morgan!" I ranted brushing my hands threw my hair.

"You called?" Morgan asked standing next to me. "Hey Lex." I groaned.

"Hey Weakling." Lexi said sitting forward and putting her elbows on her text book. "How's your nonexistent manliness healing up?"

"It's not nonexistent!" Morgan said annoyed that Lexi keeps saying that. "And I am not a weakling." Lexi turned her attention to me with a smug face.

"At least he didn't forget weakling this time." I said and Lexi nodded.

"You know what, forget you guys. I have a class to get to." Morgan started walking away and luckily for me, the library was empty so I wouldn't disturb anyone when I yelled after him.

"Love you too Morg! Tell Mom and Dad I said hi!" I yelled after him. Lexi giggled as Morgan waved away what I said. "So it looks like my whole freaking family is here." I said when Morgan was completely gone. Lexi rolled her eyes and shook her head.

-

As I was walking towards the Grand Hall, I ran into Mom who actually pulled me to the Hall of History and into Grandma's office without a single word. Mom pointed to the sofa as if to tell me to sit so I did. A few minutes passed and neither of us spoke. The door to the office opened again and Dad walked in pulling Morgan and Alex. Dad stood where Mom stood before she walked out. It was like this till there was twelve of us in here. Six boys, six girls. Lexi was one of the last people to come in and when she did the first thing she did was sit on my lap and me mumbling a few choice words I learned over the years in Latin. The twelve of us watched my parents for what seemed like forever, that is till Jo finally spoke.

"So I'm just am going to assume that there is a really important reason as to why I am missing Chef Louis's crème brûlée." Jo said. Us girls nodded as the boys just kind of gave us a 'really?' look. Mom and Dad both rolled their eyes.

"Trust us, Ms Peters. There is." Dad said just before my grandparents walked in. They looked at us.

"These are the twelve?" Grandpa Joe asked. Mom and Dad nodded.

"It makes the most sense. Z and Morgan would do anything out of love. Lexi and Alex, revenge. Jo and Kyle, greed. Skip and Kat, fear. Nick and Alice, boredom. Patty and Powers, faith." Mom said. Dad nodded.

"Again, I'm missing crème brûlée, so if I don't get told as to why I am missing it, I'm going to head back to the Grand Hall and eat." Jo said pointing towards the door.

"We have to tell them." Mom said.

"Yeah because it's so easy telling someone they're wanted by descents of the circle." Dad said looking at Mom like that happened before.

"Wait what?" I said pushing Lexi off my lap and standing up. "We're wanted by the circle?" Lexi pushed herself off the ground.

"Hey Uncle Zach, aren't you a decent of someone in the circle?" Lexi asked. "And isn't your dad a decent of the circle, Kat?"

"Way to go, Zachary. Now you got them all worked up." Grandma said crossing her arms over her chest.

"Sorry..." Dad said but it was clear he partly wasn't.