Lies and Legends

Chapter 1

I stared down at the soft serve and hot fudge in my cup. The sounds of my favorite band came through my earbuds and I was transfixed, listening to the sounds of their angelic voices drowning out the other voices in the shop. To my left was a window, and to my right, was a party of about fifteen third graders. They ran around, ice cream dripping from their mouths and cheeks. The sight had sickened me, but I was craving comfort food, and this was the only place that sold soft serve on my side of town.

I stood with a sigh, dumping my ice cream sundae and leaving. The air outside was cool and crisp and smelled of burning leaves. I longed for something fun to do, but I couldn't drive and my best friend was out of town. My parents were on some business trip in Madrid, so I couldnt even bum a ride from them.

I lived with my gradmother outside of Washington DC. My parents travelled internationally for a firm that looked into expanding into other countries. They were sometimes gone for months at a time, and other times, it was less than a week. Currently, they had been in Madrid for almost three months now, and I missed them terribly.

My feet found the familiar path back to my house. I stopped for ice cream at least once a week. Lately, it had been multiple times a week. I was a little depressed. I missed my parents and I absolutely hated the way the last few weeks of high school had been. So I turned to ice cream and my favorite band to comfort me.

I walked up the steps to the front door of our house. It was technically my parents house, but my grandmother lived in it and took care of me.

I walked through the door, kicking of my shoes and taking off my light jacket. "Nana?" I asked.

I heard footsteps and looked up to see the face I had missed for months. "Mom?" I asked, unsure that I was actually seeing her, and not some figment of my imagination.

"Ali!" she shouted. We steped closer to each other, hugging and crying a bit.

"Why didn't you tell me you were coming home?" I asked, holding her at arms length, examining her like I hadn't seen her in my entire life. "When I called a couple days ago, you didn't tell me!"

Her face turned grave. She looked at me, and I could tell she was struggling to find the right words. I saw my grandma walk in behind her, and she scowled. "For God sakes, Clara, just tell her! She deserves the truth!"

My mind reeled as I thought of what on earth my mother had been keeping from me. She sighed. "Let's go sit down in the living room," she suggested. She turned, going to sit, and I followed. My grandma made no appearance, however, so I just sat there, waiting for my mom to tell me whatever it was that she needed to.

She sighed, and then she began. "When I was twelve, I became extremely fascinated with spies. And not just spies, but techniques and things as well. As I grew older, I still loved the subject quite alot. When I met your father in high school, he was also fascinated in the covert operations of the CIA. We graduated high school and went to college, studying foreign languages and international business among other things. The day we graduated college, we applied for a CIA job. We waited about a month, and then they called us in for a physical and a lie detector test. Six weeks later we were on our way to training." she paused. The wheels turned in my mind. They weren't...? They couldn't be...?

"We took part in an extensive training program. After that, we were assigned our departments. Your father and I were put in the same department," she said, a little too calmly.

I however, could not be so calm. "You have lied to me my entire life? How could you?" I demanded.

"We thought it was for your own good. We thought you would be safer if you didnt know anything," she explained.

I suddenly realized that my father was nowhere to be found. "Where's dad?" I demanded. "Or are you going to lie about that too?"

Hurt registered in my mom's eyes, but there was something else there too. Fear.

"Last night he was kidnapped. I tried to stop the attackers, but I was struck in the side of the head. I tried to save him, but-" she started to sob, and I felt really terrible.

"What can we do?" I asked.

My mom laughed without humor. "YOU can't do anything. You are only fifteen. Why, you don't know anything about covert affairs and operations. You have never even set foot in a CIA facility. You wouldn't last five minutes in the field."

"And whose fault is that? I would love to do that but for some reason I have been lied to for that last fifteen years of my life!" I shot back. My mother shook her head.

"Absolutely not. Everything is good this way. Don't try to meddle, dear," she said.

I heard a laugh from behind me and turned to see Nana laughing hysterically. My mother frowned. "What is your problem?"

Nana continued to laugh. She calmed down long enough to say, "Not your daughter," and then began again.

"Mom... Nana's right. You don't know me. You have no idea how good I would be as a spy. It is in my blood, after all. You could teach me," I suggested.

She just laughed once more without humor. "For one, you wouldn't last two seconds in the field. You are too ignorant on how to be covert. And for two, I could get in serious troulble with the CIA for teaching a minor AND a civilian CIA opaerations. I'm sorry dear."

I thought over what she said and decided that no matter what, I would somehow save my dad. No matter what it took