Sunday was my day free of training for everything. It was my one free day to just relax. But when I woke up in the morning, I felt anything but that.
Millions of thoughts of everything ran through my mind. Was I ever going to be able to solve this mission? It seemed impossible at this point. In my mind, I had already worked out that I would either get fired for not solving the mission or some other agent who wasn't even working on the case would work it out before me. I placed my head face down on the pillow groaning in annoyance. This whole situation was just so damn confusing.
About half an hour later I decided to finally get up. I went downstairs to make myself a cup of green tea and was surprised to see my Mom was already awake.
"Hey, what are you doing up so early?" I asked her.
She turned to me with a slightly guilty face, but overall she was grinning. Oh no. I know that look.
"Hi darling I'm having another charity event this afternoon for Homeless citizens in Ar-"
I groaned. "Another one Mom?"
She nodded her head, "The caterers and orchestra will be here in half an hour."
There was no stopping her. I sighed as I grabbed my mug of tea and went back upstairs. A huge party going on downstairs on the one night I have to myself? So much for the peace and quiet I had been hoping for. I sat down on my bed drinking my tea and flipping through a magazine I had picked up downstairs. It was one of those exaggerated celebrity gossip ones with articles saying things like Miley Cyrus and Justin Bieber were having a secret love child or that Lady Gaga had two vaginas. I always cursed myself for reading such garbage but found it so hard to stop. The fact that people would spread rumors and place other people's lives out in the spotlight seemed like the cruelest job in the world to me. I guess I was lucky that I was with the RUA for now; privacy was pretty much a guarantee and requirement there. Regardless I continued to read the nonsense magazine as it amused me.
Ten minutes later I heard the doorbell ring from downstairs.
"Ooh! They must be here early!" I heard my Mom yell. I got up putting the mug down on my desk, closing the trash magazine and slowly walked down the stairs to see what the commotion was about.
I heard my Mom open the door. "Oh! Hi, Debby dear! How have you been?" she asked happily, seeming happy to see her.
Oh no. I bolted down the stairs and started yelling really loudly before Debby could reply. "Debby!" I yelled. "How nice to see you lets go upstairs to my room!" I screeched loudly grabbing her. I didn't want her to have a chance to talk to my Mum in case she told her I hadn't been at school.
"But aren't you like sick I don't want to-" Debby began.
"No, I'm fine, " I screamed out as I dragged her up the stairs. "Anyway I'm so glad that you came over, I really need your help with this Geography assi -" I shut my bedroom door as soon as she entered.
"Look, I need to talk to you," I said quietly.
She looked at me completely puzzled. "What is going on? What the heck was all that about?" she asked, sitting down on my bed.
I sighed. I had to tell her. I had to break one of Eric's rules otherwise everything would collapse. "I haven't been at school because I've been at Kennedy High," I said letting out a deep breath.
"Kennedy High? Our rival school? Did you move schools? Becca why would you-"
"Look, I didn't move schools. I'm only at Kennedy High because.....I'm working undercover." I explained, cutting her off from all her questions.
Debby raised her eyebrows giving me a puzzled look. "Working undercover? What does that ever mean?"
"Debby, a few days ago I got approached by an undercover agency and they hired me to go under cover at Kennedy High to find out who was dealing a very dangerous drug." I made it very clear to her this drug was not safe.
"This is ridiculous, are you joking right now?" she looked slightly mortified but also ignorant about he whole thing.
"No, I'm not," I answered in frustration. "I am being one hundred percent honest."
"Then why didn't you tell me?" she said in an angry tone. "We're best friends, we tell each other everything. I've been so worried about you the past few days I thought you were dying." she stood up, seeming agitated.
"I'm sorry! I was told I couldn't tell anyone!" I argued. "It was a secret organization, Debby! You think that for one second that if I could tell someone, I would withhold this information from you?" I pointed out. Her face softened. "I've been fine though in case you were wondering. I'm being watched closely." I muttered.
"By who?" She asked in a softer tone, calming down.
"Eric, he's been training me," I answered trying to make it sound like it was no big deal even I knew the whole thing must have sounded ridiculous to her.
"This is crazy," she said, confirming my thoughts. She threw her hands on her head and sat back down on the bed. "What on earth have you been doing these past few days?"
"Training, learning, studying, spying, crying, dying," I said in a dull tone throwing my head back on my pillow. I knew I was being overly-dramatic, but the past few days had definitely taken their toll on me.
"Is it that bad?" she asked, giving me a concerned look.
"It's not as bad as it is time-consuming. I mean I'm not in school and I'm missing out on gymnastics." I complained.
"So quit." she shrugged simply, twirling a strand of her red hair with her fingers.
"I'm not quitting, this is a very important mission and I'm in too deep anyway," I responded. It was true, I had already dedicated a lot of time to the RUA and I didn't want it to be a waste.
"Not the spy stuff, gymnastics" she answered, picking at the nail polish she was wearing.
I sat up immediately. "You can't be serious." I gave her a horrified.
"Well, why not? I quit yesterday," she answered simply as if she was only breaking some casual news to me.
"You quit gymnastics?" I almost shrieked as my jaw dropped and I looked at her in shock.
"Yeah, I told you I was thinking about it the other day, remember?" she answered, looking at me as if I shouldn't be making such a big deal about it.
"Well sure, I remember, but I didn't think you actually would quit Debby." I urged, still confused.
She smiled, looking like she as deep in though as she stared at the ceiling. "Well, it turns out tennis is actually really fun, and Kevin's been helping me with it every day."
"What about your parents? Didn't they want you to stay in gymnastics?." I asked. I knew I was grilling her with a million questions but I hadn't seen her in days and a lot seemed to have happened in my absence. It appeared that I had no idea what was going on.
"They did, but when they found out I wanted to ditch it for tennis they were all for it. Apparently, the country club that they're members of has some tennis court or something." she rolled her eyes. Her parents were all for showing off their daughter whether she liked it or not.
I stayed frozen as I processed the news. I couldn't believe she had done it - especially without telling me. But it wasn't like I could argue with her for not telling me things when I had done the same, if not worse, to her.
"Huh." was all I could manage to say in reply as I rested my head back on the bed, still confused. I decided to drop the topic and get over that she had quit since she had been accepting enough over my whole undercover secret. Though I knew I would probably take it up with her again as soon as the RUA case was over. I turned the conversation back to our original topic. "But you know how much training I've put into gymnastics Debby and you know how good I am. I can't quit. I'm the best in the state-"
"Blah, blah who gives a crap?" she interrupted. "Don't you think saving lives is a little more important than trying to jump higher than the person next to you?"
I knew that it obviously did. But I still couldn't quit gymnastics. It was my life. It was going to be my career. She didn't know what she was asking me to give up.
"Look I'm not forcing you to quit it, I'm just suggesting that it might be a good idea," Debby said almost like she could hear my thoughts. I nodded in reply without saying another word. I didn't want to argue with her about it anymore. All my energy had been drained from me.
"So anyway," she began, sitting up on the bed and crossing her legs, "Tell me about this Eric guy." she cooed.
"W-what do you mean?" I stuttered, feeling myself freeze. I'd only mentioned him once.
"Oh come on don't play dumb with me, I saw the way you looked when you said his name. I know when you like someone," she answered.
"What?" I gasped. "I didn't do anything," I claimed.
"You did the thing," she responded in a beat.
"What thing?" I demanded, my voice raising in defense.
"The thing Becca. The thing with your face," she answered simply, offering no further explanation.
"I didn't do anything!" I argued, feeling my face going red.
"I can read your face." she continued, "You do that face whenever you talk about a guy you might have feelings for."
"What face?" I shrieked. I had no idea what she was going on about.
"Stop denying it," she rolled her eyes, ignoring my question.
I didn't know what to tell her. It was like she could read me better than I could. After a moment I sighed. "It's complicated," I muttered, giving in to her.
"Tell me everything!" she ordered, grinning.
It took me more than an hour to explain everything to her. Eric, Brad, the popular girls at school that thought I was their new best friend. I watched her facial expression change frequently with every story I told. She didn't interrupt me once. She just nodded eagerly every few minutes to let me know that she was listening and to continue.
"I can't believe you've been going through all this over the past few days!" she finally said as I finished. "I thought that you were stuck sick at home laying on your bed all day watching reruns of Friends."
"Boy, don't I wish," I grumbled, shuffling my position on the bed. Once I'd stop moving, I look back up at her. "By the way, earlier you said I made a face... when I talk about guys a liked..."
"Yeah?" she raised an eyebrow.
"What is it?" I pressed. I didn't even know if I really liked Eric, the whole situation was too complicated to decipher. But if I was giving away something in my expressions, I wanted to damn well know about it.
She laughed, "I'm not telling you!"
I frowned at her. "Why not?" I whined.
"Because then you'll stop making it."
Debby left about around midday - after promising a million times not to tell anyone. She was going to meet Kevin at the tennis courts to practice more. I still couldn't believe she had quit gymnastics. For some sport she had only been doing the past few days!
I got up eventually from my bed and went over to sit by my dresser. I started going through all the items that sat on it. Anyone who might have seen that would have thought it was sad but to me, I was glad that for once I could just lounge my room and feel bored for once instead of drowning in everything I had to deal with. I was embracing that boredom for as long as I had it.
I placed down a hairspray bottle I was holding and moved over to where my magazines sat, piled up. Sitting on top of them was the riddle I had gotten from Eric and the pepper spray he had given me the first time I went to RUA. I smiled at the memory handling both items with care.
"Honey!" I heard my Mom's voice call from downstairs.
Her voice made me jump. I placed the note and spray bottle back on my desk and quickly walked out of my room. I wasn't mad but I felt annoyed at the fact that it felt like I could never just get a break and be left alone.
"Yeah?" I asked as I came down the stairs trying to sound like I wasn't completely annoyed. I didn't want her to see a single change in my behavior or the way I acted just in case of any suspicion. It seemed like my relaxation day as going down the drain - and just when I was really starting to appreciate it.
"Oh darling, I am busy dealing with the caterer could you please help the florist carry in the flowers from the van out the front?" she asked.
"Sure" I hesitantly replied, walking towards the front door. I was happy that she was raising money and all that, but I just wished that the house could have been silent.
Instead of my relaxing Sunday morning, I had to deal with loud vacuum machines and the sound of food sizzling on the stove. Food that probably wouldn't even be eaten anyway since every single party guest my Mom had were all on some sort of diet to lose weight even though I saw no reason why a simple hors d'oeuvre would ruin everything they had worked towards. This party was the last thing I needed. I just hoped I would be able to get enough sleep for dealing with the RUA tomorrow.