Life As A Spy

Chapter 4

~Sage's Pov~

The bell finally rings, signaling lunch time.

After long classes and a rumbling stomach, food was long overdue but not cafeteria food. Never. Why should I buy half-cooked mystery meat drenched in cold noodles? I shouldn't, and I don't. I bring my lunch.

"Sage!" Autumn Jeffreys calls from a back table.

"Hey, babe, how was your summer?"

Autumn and I played basketball together for years. It's a habit of everyone to call each other babe. The nickname just stuck after we stopped playing.

"Amazing. London is beautiful this time of year. I toured the Tower of London, rode the London Eye, and saw a bobby! They carry heavy-duty guns, man!"

"What are they supposed to do with a bayonet? Stab someone with the pocket knife on the end? Of course they have advanced weaponry."

"Sorry, Miss Super Secret Assassin, I forgot who I was talking to."

"Keep it down! You want GSAA to hear you? They'll do anything to get us out of the way."

"But why? We do the same jobs: protect people. Why do the agencies hate each other?"

Autumn is sort of new to the agency. She's a secretary, because her parents won't let her become an agent. Something about how it's too dangerous.

"I've heard it was because of a love affair-feud thing. A couple ran an agency together. One cheated on the other. They split the company in half and tried to outdo each other. It's a glory thing today. Most hits gets a special ceremony or something at the White House every year."

It's not so great. Three years of having a few married senators slither over you and your coworkers is enough for a lifetime. We can't help it if we're supposed to seduce targets and act the part of an heiress every once in a while. It doesn't make us airheads.

"So dramatic."

"Has the day been eventful for you?" Autumn, while drastically loud-mouthed, prefers smaller groups of people. Me being her favorite group.

"Mr. Sabo already gave us Precalculus homework. It's the first day! Give us a break! Other than that, no-wait, Jared was looking yummy today."

"Autumn, really? The guy's a jerk. Dated half the cheerleading squad and the team."

"You're just mad, because he dumped you," she teases.

"Who dumps someone on their birthday over school email?" Over freaking school email!

"I knew it!"

"Fine, okay, I'm irritated by that, but he's still a jerk."

"Agreed. Anything on your end of the hall?"

The school is divided into four hallways: honors, university, basic, and electives. I stay mostly in the honors hallway, while Autumn is in the University. We have study hall at the same time, so we usually sneak down to the theatre room.

"My locker smells like feet because of Isaac-"

"Normal."

"-Mrs. Myers is pretty cool. She lit twenty dollars on fire-"

"She what?"

"-it had chemicals on it, so it didn't actually burn. Yeah, that's pretty much it."

Eventually, lunch ends, because the school gives us only twenty-five minutes to eat a "nutritious" meal.

"See you in the theater during study hall?"

"Let's do that Pride and Prejudice scene you found today! The one with Lizzie and Jane. You're Jane. I want Mr. Darcy all to myself!" she dramatically proclaims.