Fire Princess and The Ice Queen

2: first love

Okay. Well, now you know the minimally tragic story of how I found out my dad was a liar. I think we can get to the good part now. The story of how the sweet, fiery little girl became a cold and distant glacier. Let's begin. I was 12 years old and it was my first day of spy school... 

***

I walked through the grand front doors of the CIA's Academy of Espionage, heart beating excitedly. I was going to crush this school. I had gotten my class schedule the day before n the mail, informing me that in about half an hour I would be reporting to the main lawn where they staged a full-scale fake battle to assess the skills of the new kids. The survival and combat skills assessment, or SACSA I think. There weren't many people around, and the few kids that I passed all seemed to be newbies as well, looking lost and slightly nervous. I wandered through the halls until I finally found a staircase that said it led to the dorms. I scaled it... and was very dissatisfied. I found my room, room number 164. It was smaller than a regular-sized walk-in closet with only a small cot, dresser, and desk with a folding chair. Everything was dark and dank; the person who designed the room must have been either emo or going through a depression phase. I plopped down the light blue duffle bag I was carrying on the bed and began to unpack, making mental notes about what I needed to get to spruce the room up. I took a kitten poster out of my bag (Hey. Just because a person has posters of adorable little kitties does not make them any less of an amazing spy!) and hung it on the wall. It didn't do much to help with the mood in the room, but it did something. There was a knock on my door. I started, quickly shoving the handful of bras I had been about to put in my drawer back into the bag. 

"Come in!" the door opened and someone entered the room. I stopped dead, hand still in my bag. 

"Uh-" the guy in my room was tall and handsome, with a chiseled jaw, dark hair, a perfect body, and an expensive sports jacket. "Hi! I'm Erica."

"Erica Hale, I know. Your family is pretty famous around here." the boy sat on my bed, patting the spot beside him. I sat down next to him, heartbeat revving up. It was funny, since I was little my grandpa Cyrus had warned me never to get emotionally involved, it could compromise spying. I had still made friends and connections, but always been weary of getting to close to someone. 

"I'm Joshua. I thought I might show you around, help you make some friends. Not that you need help, beautiful." he grinned at me suavely, and I could feel my cheeks flushing. I knew that my grandpa was right, but at that moment all I wanted to do was get as close as I could to Joshua.