Spy School Undercover

Part 5

Welcome back! Thanks for keeping reading! yay! I will make sure to have Berica in this chapter cuz who doesn't love them??? (sorry to anyone who likes Zen but I dont ship them) Also thanks to everyone who went and read either spylight or dont say murder! If you havent tho, definitely go check them out! I just released great new chapters on both! :) alright- lets get to the story!

After a long day of being yelled at and pushed around by the idiotic and possibly not mentally stable director Buck, I was looking forward to a relaxing evening including sneaking onto the hotel's roof with a few pillows and a blanket and watching the stars. Unfortunately Erica had other plans. After Buck released us for the day Erica pulled Alexis and I aside.

"We need to meet up and talk about all this." Erica whispered. "Alexis, I want you to bring the note and meet Ben and I back here at 11pm, sharp. Alexis nodded and smiled.

"Will do honey." she said.

"Oh and don't call me honey, or sweetheart or anything like that." Erica said with a cold stare. Alexis must have been warned about the Ice Queen by her father so she just smiled and laughed lightly. Erica rolled her eyes and led me away.  We stopped by our holding area to grab our bags. 

"11pm? Really?" I groaned when we were out of earshot of anybody else. 

"At that time the only people who will be here are the night guards." Erica said calmly, leading me onto the sidewalk to wait for Catherine. 

"But why did we need to meet here? Couldn't we have met up earlier at I don't know, a restaurant?" 

"No." Erica said flatly. "we need to be able to set up traps here, or safe places- or at least be able to get to know the building better incase of a situation." I huffed, but I knew Erica was right. 

"In the meantime I thought we could do something fun." she smiled at me. 

"Okay!" I agreed, not even bothering to question the fact that Erica didn't do fun. "like what?"

"Well we could go over possible scenarios for the mission, or do target practice, or we could discuss the biggest threats to national security..." I sighed. I should have realized that when Erica said fun it really meant training. Erica looked at me curiously. "what's wrong with you? I thought you would be excited to do something fun!" 

"Yeah! Fun like maybe getting ice cream and walking around Hollywood, or maybe going to the beach! Not more training!" I complained. 

"Ice cream is full of sugar which is bad for you and the beach is wet, cold, and full of other people." Erica said, grimacing at the thought of being around other people. I frowned defeatedly and sat down on the curb. Erica sat down next to me. 

"Ben, whats going on with you?" she asked, even sounding slightly concerned. 

"Its nothing." I replied. 

"Good. I didn't like the idea of talking about emotions." Erica said to herself, then thought better. "I mean, Ben. Please talk to me."

"It's just that lately every time I think we might be having a moment something ruins it. Like the principal, or Jinny, or your idea of having fun." Oh god. Did I really just say all that to Erica? I did and I couldn't take it back. Erica took a deep breath, preparing for being slightly more emotional than she was comfortable with. 

"It'll happen Ben. I promise." 

"Really?" I smiled at her hopefully. She smiled back and slipped her hand into mine. 

"Really." At that moment Catherine drove up. Erica stood up, not releasing my hand and we got into the back. 

"Hello children!" Catherine smiled cheerfully. "how was the day?" 

"It sucked. The director is just as bad as the principal." Erica said with a smile. Catherine laughed. 

"Sorry about that. So where do you two want to go?" Erica let go of my hand and leaned into the front seat, whispering something in her moms ear. Catherine grinned and sped away. 

"Where are we going?" I asked. Erica gave me a sly smile. 

"You'll see." 

***

Should I end here? Make you wait for a possible big Berica moment? MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

no im not gonna do that to you guys

lol

***

An hour later, after a stop at the grocery store and the gas station, we drove up in front of the Playa Del Ray beach. Erica opened the car door and motioned for me to get out. 

"Really Erica? I thought you hated the beach." 

"You like it, so I guess there has to be something good about it." Oh my god- did Erica really just say that? Was I melting away the Ice Queen? It was 8pm and the sky was a beautiful cotton candy color. Catherine killed the cars engine and hopped out. The three of us made our way down the breezy, soft, sandy path to the water. Catherine laid a blanket down on the sand that she had fished out of the back of the car and dropped the grocery bag full of snacks down next to it. Erica ran down to the shore, the twilight ocean wind blowing her long black ponytail around. She waved for me to join her, so I pulled off my sneakers and ran down towards the waves. 

"This was so nice of you." I said to her. She looked away to hide the grin on her face. 

"Don't mention it. Seriously, shut up. Its weird enough to be nice." I laughed at this. The water was cool, which felt good on the warm summery night. I small wave lapped at our ankles as we sat down on the sand together and looked up at the setting sun. I noticed Erica staring at me. 

"Why don't you like being emotional?" I found myself blurting. "I mean I know about the feeling like it prevents good spying to let yourself be emotional, but there has to be another reason." Erica sighed sadly.

"Ever since grandpa started training me he taught me that being emotional could ruin my chances of making it in the spy game. I grew up practicing the art of shutting off all my feelings, and actually managed to do that until, well, Joshua came along. He was sweet and always trying to get close to me. I guess after a while I was struggling with keeping up my barrier so I decided that there couldn't be any harm in trusting one person. But there was. The world still knew the Ice Queen, but inside I was falling for him. It was scary. Not having felt anything like this before I didn't know what to do, how to act, how to handle myself. When I thought that Josh died the pain I felt was too much to handle. I would have broken myself completely if I hadn't vowed to never feel the same again, and shut my feelings off. But then you came. You were different." Erica slipped her hand into mine and squeezed it, then continued. "I could feel the same feeling building up inside me that I felt when I was with Josh, but stronger. So that night, when you got kidnapped and we spent the night in the Washington monument laughing about my dad, I felt so good. Then I remembered the feeling of heartbreak. I didn't wanna go through that again. Sometimes my feelings push through though, and every time they do I feel worried that you'll hurt me. Betray me, or die. And Ben- I don't wanna loose you." Erica's voice cracked. I put my arm around her and hugged her tight. She didn't struggle. Erica leaned into my shoulder, letting her Ice Queen exterior melt away. I leaned in close and whispered in her ear-

"You'll never loose me Erica. I'll never leave you."

:) :) :) BERICA4LIFE!!! what did you think? More tomorrow!