𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐅𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐥𝐞

𝟎𝟏. 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐫 𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐜𝐡

"You must be joking, Alexander," I told him, still shocked.

"Oh, I wish I could say that," Alexander replied while he chuckled a bit.

"But why?" I asked him, "What's so special about me?" I honestly didn't understand, out of all the kids in the United States, they chose me. An overly confident girl, not the best at things, and definitely wasn't somebody most people relied on.

"For starters, you passed all our tests, you're surprisingly good at hand-to-hand combat, and must I go on?" he replied. I didn't even know I took a test, but he was right about one thing- I was pretty good at hand-to-hand combat.

"I'm thirteen though." I said shooting him a questioning look.

"Yes, and?" Alexander said, one eyebrow raised.

"Well, I assume I would be joining late. Plus its like the middle of the year!" I said with a nervous laugh.

"Well a spot opened, and who else but you to fill in the spot, hm?" He said, avoiding my question.

"Would I have to be with younger kids?" I asked.

"No, you will be placed with third years of your age." Alexander explained, "You'll just have to work extra hard to catch up."

I smiled, "Where do I sign?"

He then handed me two official-looking-certificates one saying many things in which the outcome was to say, "Charlotte Anders has been accepted into the Top Secret CIA Academy of Espionage" and the other saying the same but with, "St. Smithen's Science Academy for Boys and Girls"

"That's the cover name for the academy," Alexander said, answering my unspoken question.

"Right," I responded. He probably noticed me trying to figure it out.

"So, what do you say Charlotte? Would you like to be a CIA Junior Spy in Training?" Alexander asked me. This could be a life-changer, I could get out of this terrible place I call home.

My life wasn't perfect, and won't be. I lived with a family that didn't even want me, they always wanted one girl and one boy, not two girls and one boy. They acted out on me because of it, not abusive just- treated differently, it was harsh. School wasn't any better, I wasn't liked by many kids, mostly because of my sister ruining my reputation- but I wasn't treated any better there either. I was lucky to have friends, but they didn't even care for me either, I just- I would like to have a second chance, figure out where I went wrong. If that meant I had to be a spy, well why not? I wouldn't miss anything from West Center City.

"Yes, I would like to be a CIA Junior Spy in Training," I told Alexander. I then heard a small beep, then looked in Alexander's hand- a recording device. Which seemed reasonable in this situation, I wasnt signing anthing.

"Excellent. Well, you should get packing Charlotte. We've got a long day ahead of us, wouldn't want to keep anyone waiting."

"Packing?" I questioned.

"We're leaving in five minutes, and you're staying at the academy," Alexander answered.

I quickly ran up the stairs and tried to grab some nice clothes, essentials, shoes, socks, all that fun stuff and tossed them into my trunk, currently lying open on my bed. I sneaked a look at myself in the mirror, sighed then turned back to my trunk to finish. When I was done packing, I looked around my bedroom taking one last good look at it. Of course, there was stuff everywhere and the pink-torn walls, strangely faded pictures, but I still took it all in- knowing that everything would get better.

When I awakened from my trance I looked towards the door of my bedroom and into the hallway to find Alexander walking my way. I wonder what took him so long to get up here.

"Do you have any weapons of a sort?" Alexander asked me.

"I've got a bat, if that helps," I said.

It had just occurred to me that Alexander probably had a weapon on him, that's when I realized he did. Right in the inside pocket or his suit lay a shiny object- a gun I realized. If I did anything stupid, he probably wouldn't hesitate- why do you think like that. I stopped myself before my thoughts could go any farther.

"That's alright, a bat won't work, we'll supply you with some," he told me. There would be lots of dangers in this new life of mine, and that I was fine with, I liked adventure.

"We should get going," Alexander said while heading outside.

"What about my parents?" I asked. "Shouldn't they know something about this?" I hated to bring them into this conversation but, it's not every day someone comes and picks up you're child to be a spy. Alexander seemed to be thinking about his answer for a bit-

"I'm afraid we cannot say goodbye to them, the CIA will just have to email them under your name," he responded. I was fine with that; I wasn't good at goodbyes anyway.

We walked down the stairs and headed out the front door. It was sunny out, for august, there wasn't anyone outside seeing as it was a workday. There was a white SUV in the driveway.

"I'm sorry to do this but, you need to wear this," Alexander said while putting a blindfold over my head, "The location of the academy is confidential," He sat me into the car when I heard the seatbelt click, at least he was safe. The car door closed and Alexander got in behind the wheel when he started the car and headed away.

We headed straight for a bit then turned a couple of times. If it weren't for my memory of the roads I wouldn't know we were on the highway for a bit. The rest of the car ride ended up like that, Alexander turning and me trying to figure out where we were. Eventually, we turned and stopped.

"Alexander Hale, here with the recruit, Charlotte Anders," Alexander said.

"Alexander, Charlotte," Another man said, pausing at both of our names, "You're good,"

"Thanks," Alexander said to the man. The car started to move again leaving me the impression we were just at a gatehouse.

"We're here!" Alexander said.

---

(word count: 1821)

𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘴 𝘶𝘱, 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘪𝘳𝘴𝘵 𝘵𝘸𝘰 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘯'𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘴𝘵, 𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘨 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘮𝘦 𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦

ok. That was a long one- in a sense. It may seem similar to when Ben Ripley was recruited but I think that each recruiting agent has a script, or has certain things they have to do. This reminds me- I only own the plot and some characters. Others are Stuart Gibbs' characters.

So, here's where you come in,

Heads up: this is sorta like the next generation of CIA spies- saying that, Ben could be alive but a lot older, maybe around his 30s (I'll do the math later)

Feb 16, 2021

the cringe factor isn't great- so I fixed it!

~Daliah