Spy School: Las Vegas

Chapter 1

CIA Academy of Espionage, AKA Spy School

Dormitory

Approximately 0850 Hours 

I had just stepped into my dormitory, only to find a note on my bed.

I had dragged myself out of bed at 6:00, my hair sticking up like it always did in the morning. I had pulled on my jeans, still half asleep, pull on my shirt, and headed to the school bathroom.

Of course, I had to pee, but the urinals were atrocious. They reeked of old socks mixed with urine and were also slightly cracked, so some droplets of pee were always dripping down on the floors. The toilets weren't much better. One of them were always clogged, so nobody used that one. They weren't cracked at all, but they stank like a mixture of fish and manure. So, I sucked it up and decided against it, like I always did. I tried to flatten my hair down, but it stubbornly stayed up until I used the cleanest sink (which was still not as clean as I hoped) in the bathroom and use the water to get it to flatten.

I used a squirt of gel to get my hair to look nice and headed to the mess hall. The food in the mess was ever good, but Murray (before he became my nemesis) had told me it was actually average (a C+), but made it look disgusting and unappetizing. 

But today, it was not like that.

I went into the lines, where you had the choice between waffles and pancakes. I got one of each, and sat down with my friends, Mike Brewsinski, Zoe Zibbell, Chip Schacter, and Jawaharlal O'Shea. Erica was sitting at a table herself, her nose in a book, with a salad. She gave a blunt wave and went back to eating.

"How in the world does she get a salad? They don't serve salad here at all." Mike complained. Lately, Mike had been a little bit bitter toward the Hales because one of my distant friends (Who lived at Catherine Hale's house at the moment) had offered us lots of gifts, like a free trip to Fiji. But Catherine had declined the offer due to a "lack of decency".

My friends had gotten pancakes and waffles but hadn't taken a single bite. I stared at my plate warily, as though afraid (which I was). I gingerly picked up one of the pancakes and tried to take a bite. 

It was rock solid.

I spit it out, and pushed it away, losing my appetite, and decided to skip breakfast and head to my dormitory to study for the upcoming test at 9:00 for 1st period.

And found a note on my bed.

Hey Ben,

Hi there! I just wanted you to know I want to see you in the state penitentiary in up in New York. I want to talk to you.

Thanks,

Murray Hill

P.S. This note was delivered by some double agent. 

As far as my day was going, it was not getting any better.

The first thing I did was think. I had about 25 minutes until my first class. I had three options:

1. Talk to Erica

2. Talk to Cyrus

3. Keep this to me

I decided option one and two were the best.  First off, I trusted Erica more than anyone in the school, other than my friends. Second of all, Cyrus was Erica's grandfather. He would know what to do, other than Erica, and would probably send this to the CIA headquarters and I would probably have to go to a mission.

I decided that option one would be better than option 2.

I walked over to Erica's room, hoping she would be done eating. 

First off let me clear up some things.

Erica is my girlfriend, but nobody knows that which is weird because I would've thought a school full of spies would find out by now. At age 16, she is the best spy-in-training at the school. If it weren't for her, I would've been dead a million times, tops.

She answered immediately, but she had a knife in her hand.

I yelped in surprise, fell over, and crashed to the floor with a loud thump.

"Oh," Erica said with a slight smile, sheathing her knife. "It's you."

"That's how greet somebody?" I asked, incredulous as I got up to my feet, brushing dust off my pants.

"You can never be too cautious." Erica said, as if it was obvious.

"Never mind," I said briskly. "Murray sent this." I held up the note. Erica took it and beckoned me inside, and slammed the door shut and latched it. She examined it for a solid minute and a half and said, "I have to send this to my grandfather."

I kicked myself for going to option one. I knew that Erica would probably send this to Cyrus, but I didn't even think the Cyrus would have passed it onto Erica.

Meanwhile, I stood in silence next to Erica.

Erica looked at me. "Don't you have somewhere to be?"

I checked my watch. "Shoot, you're right. I have two and a half minutes to 1st period." I looked at her. "You're not coming?"

"Why should I? I have better things to do." Erica answered. "I'll text you later."

I didn't push the issue to ask her why she was going to text me and why she wasn't going to class and just headed to class. 

The 1st period test was one of the hardest. As we were close to the end of the year, the tests, homework, and lessons were only getting more confusing. Math, of course, were the easiest because my brain just was just insane when it came to math. But I didn't care if I got a bad grade on the tests or homework.

I just cared about why Murray wanted to see me.