If you haven't already figured it out, my name is Ocyne Liyla. I am the best selling author everybody talks about. I'm not exactly famous though, not outside my school, anyway. I can't commend my stories at all; call it modesty, or stupidity, but I have never had a good thing to say about my story since I turned twelve, and I released my first story.
I'm fifteen years old, just turned, and I go to McCeath School For Gifted Young Girls. I can't tell you (for security reason) where I live but I can tell you, as you'll probably find out due to the laws involved further in the story - Sorry, spoilers- that I do, in fact, reside in England.
The thing is, though, McCeath's are... well, we're not your average gifted. The school itself is quite big; it looks like your stereotypical English boarding school. In the middle of a field, grass, grass, more grass surrounding it. Pretty much looking like a ye olde mansion from the 17th century. Inside the school was a maze of corridors leading to all sorts of things you wouldn't find in an average school. The school colours are purple and black, much to the dismay of anyone who doesn't want to feel like their in some gothic teen literature. But there you go.
In the main corridor there's the school banner, adorned in the schools colours with fancy cursive writing which roughly translates from latin to;
'"Knowledge is evil which strengthens the wise"
Which basically reminds us that knowledge is a power, and wisdom comes from those who use it well.
The Labs are underground, the music and expressive art class rooms in the east wing, the dorms in the north wing and the Basic Knowledge classes (Maths, Science and English) is the west wing. The spy centre in the Training Building along with the P.E centre and the fields are a maze of sporty apparatus. The lounges and bedrooms are in the attics and top floor.
Finally, there are the McCeath girls themselves.
Most of the girls at McCeath, we come in as your average nerds, top of the class, no late homework, A* grades, future bright. Then Mcceath is quietly slipped into our school education choices. If you come here, which a lot of the people do (and those that don't ... well, they can't remember the choice anyway) you have two choices. Brains, or brawn.
McCeath girls reach their second year split into two groups; spy trainees and extensive learners. Yes, I basically go to a spy school. Not that McCeath actually plays a part in the whole espionage business. The only relation the school has to the spy community is the ex spies who work as guardians and at end of year when the come to pick their favourite spy recruits train.
I'm known as the nerd of Mcceath though. The smarter of the smartest, so to speak.
I've still got a year at McCeath's school, and I have a degree in English literature and a degree in creative writing. I'm McCeath Two. The second smartest person in the world, (thanks to ADEPT; Annual Development of Educational Potential Test, which ranks the top 100 smartest people in the world) falling behind barely a Ex-Mcceath five years older than me.
I'm the Second McCeath girl to get in the top ten (while still in school) in all of its four hundred history.
Let me explain, the smartest girl in the world is only twenty , the second smartest is fifteen (me), the rest of the top ten have gone past the university mark. I think there's a young boy in India who reached ninth on the list but he refused a place in any of the leading educational facilities because his mother was ill.
I'm not high risk security, I'm not in with the queen, or head of the secret service. I'm just an above average girl. As long as we don't tell anybody about the school, we aren't bothered by anyone. Just as the girls training to be spies aren't making commitments, they train in the basics of spies, how to stay hidden, how to recognise shoes prints that are so rare only three people have bought them. When they're sixteen and recruited by MI5 or the CSI, that's when they get the good training. The average nerds are mostly kept in the dark about the spy training, just so if we wanted to walk away, move schools and such, we aren't a risk to national security.
The nerd of me is that instead of wanting to grow up and work for NASA, the secret services, become a bounty hunter (like my parents, but we'll get onto that later) or any of the cool jobs that comes with the smarts, I wanted to be an average job holder.
I really wanted to be an author. I know, I already am, but since I'm only fifteen all of my money is taken care of by my parents accounts. So I don't class myself as an author until I'm able to buy with my own money without the consent of my parents.
So, now that we have the basics down, lets get back to the story.
"Yo, Ocyne! Wake up girl!"I blinked and looked up towards my best friend, Lily, she shared a dorm room with me. Lily was a spy recruit, and believed she had the least spy-like name in the world. She swore she'd be recognised by her last name solely, and tried to get me to call her Kaine. It wasn't going to happen any time soon.
"Yes, Lil's?" I asked.
"You have been writing all day, you need to take a break. We have six months still until summer, and your 'rents are okay with you writing most of the time anyway. You have plenty of time." She fell onto the bean bags surrounding the flat screen. For some reason I couldn't live in a room if it didn't have a bean bag in.
When the bean bag squished under her weight with an unnerving silence that could only come with years of spy training, I glared.
"If you burst another bean bag..." I trailed off leaving the threat undecided.
She rolled her eyes at my defensive tone. "Sea, seriously I think you need help. You're such a weird girl. Anyway the bean bags will only burst if I fall at a 37º angle." She said it with such a blase tone, obviously try to play it casual she'd actually done the mathmatics of bursting a bean bag. I could only stare at her amused.
"What are you so caught up in?" she asked, grabbing the remote control and flipping the television on.Sshe skipped through five channels before I finished the sentence and answered her.
"I'm making a sequel to 'Sin Paradise'" I replied. The sound went off on the television. Lily turned to me slowly and stared into my eyes, judging my seriousness.
"Get out! You are not!" she gasped, not missing a beat to jump off the Bean bag and trying to look over my shoulder to read what I'd written.
If you think that is bad, you should of seen her when she first found out she was bunking with Ocyne Liyla last year.
"Sea, Babe, I have never loved you more!" She glanced and me and her eyes narrowed. "Why have you stopped? Keep writing!" I laughed, chancing a look at the clock and realising I had in fact been writing for the whole day. I saved my work, backed it up on a disk and shut my laptop down.
"So what movie are we watching?" Lil's tried to glare at me for not continuing writing, but a smile broke out and she grabbed the closest spy movie.
"I wonder which famous spy you are going to insult the techniques of today." I muttered, but of course, being the 'highly trained' specialist she heard.
"The most famous of all." She grinned, holding up James Bond. I smiled.
"One day, you'll be just like him, Lil's. The name's Kaine, Lily Kaine." She shoved me playfully, making me roll onto the floor. I sat up and dusted myself off, before lunging at her. We rolled around laughing. Until we lost our enough breath to be unable to move.
"Not much of a spy eh? Didn't see that coming. I'd hate for you to be the one that saves us all."
"One ... day" She laughed, trying to gain control of her lungs "You'll be getting a call from the Queen's study, it will be me inviting you to my ceremony of which I get the award for saving the day and defeating the bad guy."
"Is that you're speech?"
"No. My speech involves how the great Ocyne Liyla didn't believe I could. You'll be writing a story about one day." I laughed.
"Yeah, I think your character will be called Stephanie." She made a face.
"Can't it be something more deadly like Deane or Anarchy." I tilted my head and raised my eyebrows.
"Isn't it you who said innocence is deadly?" She mimicked me under her breath and played the movie. I chuckled at her childishness and sat back.
It was past midnight when the film finished, and I was glad to get to bed. Lily all but collapsed into her bed and fell asleep straight away. I sat up a little longer. I had checked my phone as a habit before I got into bed and found my mum had text me. It gave me a strange urge to call her.
It was a stupid idea, I didn't know which time zone they were in or what they were doing.
They were both freelance Bounty Hunters for the secret services. They tracked down criminals when it was out of the Services jurisdiction. If I called them now I could wake them up, which I would definitely not want to do if they had to chase someone in the morning. Or worse, they could already be on a chase, and a phone call would be more than distracting.
Finally I fell asleep, with the parents I hadn't seen in four months on my mind.
**********
The next day, I woke up later than usual. I wandered down to the breakfast hall grabbed a plate of eggs,toast and beans. I never usually sat by myself, a lot of the girls in the first year asked for some help, because they were to shy to ask the teachers for help.
Or maybe it was because they wanted to be the smartest, and the teachers encouraging us us not to be pushed to the limits, and that brains weren't everything. I wondered why no one was sitting next to me. They were all in groups chatting, not even, but some people weren't even here today. Half the room was empty. I didn't sleep in that late.
I was quicker eating today, wondering if I had missed something, or forgotten something, my memory was the worst factor to my brains. I hurried to PE.
I choose PE for a reason. St Philips, our brother school (that was were the smart [ha!] boys went), were always sour because there was two Mcceath's in the Top ten, and no St. Philips have ever been in the Top ten. As genius', smarts were the main rivalry between the school. Since St. Philips couldn't beat us mentally, the thrived to beat us physically; sports.
Fortunately, I can kick butt in most sports; Football, swimming, rounders, and gymnastics I could beat them in. Rugby, fitness(cross country,weight lifting, power squat...) cricket and basketball, they beat me in. I can't be good at everything.
By English, every time I passed someone they smiled like I had just saved the world. I walked into the classroom just before the bell had went.
"Hey Mack?" I asked my English teacher. Mr Linen, or 'Mack' as he allowed us to call him, was a friend of the family. He was the best man at my dads wedding, and he was like the uncle I've never had. He also was the primary editor for my stories. He thinks I don't need it, but he does it anyway because he likes reading my stories.
"Have you heard any gossip? What's up with all the girls?" He looked up at me with his usual mysterious smirk. Mack was twenty six, very handsome and all the girls loved him. They tended to blurt things out when he was around, being around a male teacher while in a girls boarding school was extremely provoking for some.
"Well there is a rumour going around..."
* *
"Is it true?" May asked, she was a girl in my year. I looked at her strangely, sitting down and removing my tray from under my food. It was dinner I was still sitting by myself... I was getting lonely, until May walked up to me.
"Your writing a sequel to your story?" she asked, and as soon as she did I noticed the small book in her hand. It was Sin Paradise. Mack had warned me about his, but I didn't believe it, the only person who knows about The sequel was...Lily.
"yes its true" I muttered.
The reason why I never told anyone I was Ocyne Liyla was kind of obvious, I mean, I'm willing to bet nobody would read a story by a fifteen year old girl, other than Mcceath's and Philips, but they already no the power a fifteen year old girl can have. My publisher agrees with the age on low alert.
By Tea, the whole school was buzzing, new students, older student, people I didn't knew existed, and the occasion teacher asked me for an autograph, and if it was true, even though they already knew it was.
The television, that was usually on silent suddenly came to life, and the sound of news reporters were on. Most girls groaned- we may be smart, but the news was now all about politicians, and the government and us never really saw eye to eye. Probably because they didn't know we existed... and half the students were spies, so they were trained never to look somebody in the eye unless they were undercover...
All groaning Stopped when one name popped up; Ocyne Liyla. I squirmed uncomfortable and turned around to search the hall for the person with the remote. May was holding the remote, grinning like a mad woman.
"-I repeat," The news reported stated, tapping her head piece and the man beside her sat grinned. "News of Ocyne Liyla has revealed that she will be releasing a sequel to 'Sin Paradise', best selling book. Any one who has news on Ocyne's location, or anything that could lead to us finding out more about her, please do not hesitate to ring this number..." The women said it pretty calmly, and I was thankful she wasn't grinning like a moron, as the man next to her was.
Everyone surrounding me was silent.
"Oh, My God, Ocyne!" Some one squealed, and the noise flared up again. I tried sinking under the table, but Lily came and sat next to me, pulling me up and rejoicing in the brief time of teen hood, the time were she won't be needed to remain invisible. So I smiled, nodded and tried to copy Lily. I was starting to feel better, starting to feel okay the attention.
Then the crowd suddenly parted, revealing a person I had never seen before. She had pity in her eyes and grief etched on her face. Her business-like composure told it all. She was the school's guidance and law counsellor, Mrs Edging. Just Mrs Edging, no one dared to call her, her first name.
Not even the teachers.
Her face only appeared when some one had lost the right to be here, or... the worst had happened. I scanned the crowd, wondering which face I would never see again.
Then she turned and looked at me.
"Ocyne. We need to have a word. In private"