Spy and Don't Tell

Chapter Sixteen

Almost an hour and a half of running before we finally reached Roseville. From there we stopped in an alley next to the pharmacy to catch our breath. The back door of a building sung open and out came someone carrying trash bags. Immediately, the two of us hid behind the dumpster, waiting for whoever that was to leave so we can continue our run back to school. Unfortunately, that didn't happen so well. Lexi had to readjust herself causing her to push me into the wall.

"Ouch..." I hissed softly at my best friend. Once the dumpster was closed, the person looked around the side of the dumpster spotting me and Lexi.

"Z? What are you doing hiding behind a dumpster?" The person asked. As soon as he spoke I cringed then sighed.

"Uh, I was meeting up with my friend here without my grandparents knowing and actually without anyone knowing." I explained to Jake who held his hands out to help me up. I took his offer then helped Lexi up.

"You're friends with a girl from Gallagher?" Jake seemed to have been disgusted with this thought.

"Um, yeah. You know, since I'm homeschooled and all I don't get to make a lot of friends and Lexi here has been a childhood friend of mine but since the whole town seems to hate Gallagher girls, we can't exactly meet in light, right Lex?" I hit her arm making her nod and catch on to the more or less lie.

"Right! Yeah, it's hard to hang out when everyone in the town hates me because of what school I go to." Lexi nodded sadly.

"Anyways, I should probably walk you back to school, make sure you're not mugged or anything." I said pushing Lexi out of the alley leaving Jake clueless as to the sudden rush.

We walked with arms linked till I looked back and saw the same van without any windows driving slowly behind us. I nodded my head towards it and Lexi pushed me to run while she stood in the middle of the road in front of it. Sighing, I did as pushed to do and took off running onto the property and into the mansion once inside I sat on the stairs next to my mom and caught my breath once more only this time, it didn't take as long.

"Morgan tell you the assignment?" Mom swirled whatever drink she was drinking before sipping it. I nodded and leaned my elbows on the step behind me. "Well, you girls passes. It's a shame the boys is only passing with a fifty instead of a hundred." I opened my mouth to speak only to be interrupted by the front doors swinging open and having Lexi being carried by Powers. Blackthorn boys and Gallagher girls filled in to the foyer. "Hospital wing's that way." Mom pointed in the direction of the hospital wing. "Gallagher passed. Blackthorn got a fifty." Mom got up and walked upstairs towards her room.

"There are rooms directly down the hall at the top of the stairs for you boys, seeing we made arrangements for you to spend the night. Z, you've been exempt from all of the class work that happened today so don't worry." Dad said in the back of the crowd as he leaned against the front doors of the mansion. "Now off to bed. It's gotten pretty late pretty quickly hasn't it? See you all in the morning."

The blackthorn boys went to where the rooms my dad was talking about were and the Gallagher girls went to their rooms, making exhaustion known. I, on the other hand, stayed sitting on the stairs as everyone passed me. Kat offered to help me up but I just sent her on her way and told her I'll catch up later. When my dad passed me, he bent down and kissed my forehead and wished me a good night before going to the hall where the teachers stay. I didn't need to look up to know that Alex was sitting next to me. I also didn't need to look up to know he was copying me by having his arms wrapped around his knees.

"Sorry for Jo tazing you." I said nudging his arm gently. "And for your bad grade." Alex waved off the apology.

"You shouldn't be. It's not your fault I was tased or that we failed. It was a team effort." Alex joked lifting his head up and smiling with triumph. I let out a light and soft laugh as I shook my head. After a minute or so he sighed and got up, holding his hands out to help me up.

"Come on, we still have classes tomorrow and I do believe someone once told me sleep deprived spies are never really all that useful out in the field." I rolled my eyes at the Blackthorn student and took his hands to help me up. He pulled me up and the two of us continued on our way up the stairs. "By the way, I wasn't paying attention to where your dad was saying our rooms were, mind taking me to mine?" I rolled my eyes at him again and mumbled a of-course-you-did before nodded and waving for him to follow.

"Yeah sure. It's faster to get to my room this way anyways." I said opened a set of double doors at the top of the stairs revealing a hall full of rooms with the same scene as yesterday when I was taken to Blackthorn. From my time wondering down this hall, wondering what ever it could be used for and who would be staying here, then from my short time at Blackthorn I memorized who belonged in which room easily since they are practically identically set up the same way. I stopped to the right of a door that held Skip, Powers, and Nick already in it relaxing. Well, besides for Skip. He was studying. Right after I gestured to Alex that this was his room, I left and headed to mine, stopping at my mom's room first. Knocking lightly on the door and waiting for her to let me I sighed, thinking about the sentence and to make sure I don't word it wrong. The door swung open and she stepped aside to let me in. Walking in, I saw dad putting in a movie.

"What's on your mind, Z?" Mom asked closing the door.

"Uh just wondering how long Blackthorn is staying. Like is it just for the night?" I said taking a hand full of popcorn.

"After a lot of teacher meetings, I have it scheduled to where the rest of the semester were staying here. I'm going to have someone take them back after classes tomorrow and send them to pack and grab their they need." Dad explained. I nodded once then headed towards the door.

"Alright, well then night. See you guys in the morning. Love ya." And with that I walked out of the room and went back to my room to fall asleep.