Detectives, Espionage, and Thieves

Some Rather Frightening Yet Thrilling News

-Ben

The now familiar sound of my dorm neighbor snoring told me it was time to quit studying for the night and get to bed. They usually went to sleep around 12:00, and I had been using their sleep apnea to alert me when it was time to give my brain a rest. I checked my watch and, sure enough, it was 11:54.

"6 more minutes...," I mumbled groggily to myself. I couldn't fail finals at Spy School. While back at Robert E. Lee, there was no doubt in me passing, but at Spy School, they didn't have things like Algebra. They had things like Psychological Warfare, which consisted of poking at your enemies fears and insecurities to influence them to act the way you would like them to, which I wasn't very good at. In order to actually succeed in the CIA, I needed to succeed at the Academy of Espionage first.

I groaned and set my head on my desk. I didn't think I could study much longer. I had gotten to the point everybody reaches when you have to keep reading the same paragraph over and over again because you keep getting distracted, often by (very interesting) things like a paint chip on your desk. I closed my textbook as quietly as I could and sat back in my chair. I was going to kill myself if I kept doing this. Figuratively, of course.

I quickly got ready for bed and flopped onto my cot face first. I fell asleep the moment my head hit the pillow.

Although, I was only able to enjoy the sweet escape of slumber for about 15 minutes, because I was awakened by someone pounding on my flimsy door. I pulled my pillow over my head and tried to ignore them.

"C'mon Ben. I know you're in there. You wouldn't be anywhere else, seeing as you're super awkward and have practically no social life."

It was Mike Brezinski, my best friend. But he was exaggerating. Or at least I hoped he was. I thought my awkwardness had dwindled plenty after getting into the academy. I put on some sweatpants and moped over to the door, where Mike was half smiling-half trying to stay awake.

"You're lucky I didn't just let myself in. Any other day I would've, but right now I'm pooped."

"Why are you here?" I bluntly questioned, annoyed at him for knocking on my door this late at night.

"Geez, a 'Hello' would be nice. Sidebottom wants us in his office." He replied.

"Why right now? I bet he knows we're exhausted from studying and wants to torture us some more."

"Meh, call me crazy, but I was personally thinking another mission." Mike said, his smile growing bigger. I would've usually been dismayed by this thought, but before I could protest, I realized something. If we were going on a mission, I would most likely miss exams. Even if I still had to do them, I would have extra time to study. Plus, SPYDER and the Croatoan had both already been defeated by me and my friends, I was pretty sure we could handle anything at this point. So, instead of arguing with my best friend, I smiled back at him and agreed that would be great. We headed down to the principal's office (closet) to find all our friends already there.

Zoe and Chip were as disgruntled as Mike and I were, while Jawa was doing his best to look put together but failing miserably. Erica looked as though she did this regularly, clean and neat, in her usual black outfit. She tended to never look anywhere near messy unless she had just fought 12 men at once and destroyed some evil organization's plans. The Idiot was lounging at his desk, looking pleased to have woken me up and annoyed me, but still annoyed at the predicament himself.

                    "Finally, you join us, Ripley. Shame you made it," He said smugly. His toupee was practically backwards. "I know you are all probably wondering why the hell you guys got called down this late at night. And, of course, you can blame Benny here for that."

                  Everyone's eyes went to me. Ugh. Of course the principal was blaming this on me too. Before I could say something about that, though, a familiar figure who was apparently standing in the corner this whole time said,

                     "Barnabus, you know damn well this isn't Ripley's fault." Alexander Hale announced, like I wasn't even there. Either his sneaking skills had increased greatly since the last time I had saw him, or the lack of sleep was getting to my senses. He strutted behind Sidebottom in a slightly wrinkled three piece suit, like he had fallen asleep in it, and asked us a question that excited all of us, even Erica.

                      "Have any of you ever been to FunJungle?"

                      "I went there when they still had Kazoo the Koala." Chip boasted.

                      "Great! Well, you guys are getting to go again!" Alexander exclaimed.

                     This was too good to be true, the broke and run down Academy of Espionage funding a trip down to Texas to stay at the famed zoo/amusement park?

                       "What's the catch?" I asked.

                       "Ah, Benjamin, always thinking! Believe or not, you guys are heading down to solve yet another mystery, Mr. McCracken himself was impressed with your skills!"

                      Zoe seemed skeptical, "Wait, how did he find out about—"

                       "Nevermind all that!" He started ushering us out of the door, even though we had barely arrived at the closet, "My father and I will inform you about the details on the way there. And you guys better get packing, we leave at 0500 sharp!"

                       The door slammed behind us.

                         "That was...sudden." Jawa murmured.

                    Honestly, a mission at FunJungle sounded kind of fun, I'd be going to an all expenses paid trip to a crazy cool tourist attraction along with my best friends. I mean, how hard could it be? I'd prevented Antarctica from being blown up before, a zoo couldn't be anywhere near as dangerous as that. Plus, we would be missing finals! It was practically a vacation.

                        All my friends seemed to be excited too. Chip was telling Jawa and Mike all about how awesome it was there, and Zoe was chatting excitedly to a blank-faced Erica, as she tended to do.

                         "Guys, you do all remember how it resulted last time we got all hyped up for a mission, right?" Erica warned. Everyone ignored her. After all, as I've said before, a zoo would be way less dangerous than Vail.

                         Oh, how I wish we had listened to her.