Agent Goldfinch

Ring

It's 6 am and an alarm is blaring from all corners of the cabin. Paris Rooney is waking up, looking like an angry cat. Belly Conklin is sitting on her bed, panicking. Gigi is nowhere to be found.

"Pssst"

"Where are you?" I whispered.

"Underneath the bed."

Slowly, I sink to the ground and crawl under the bed. Gigi lies there, in a hot pink night shirt and shorts.

"Listen," she raps on one of the boards "hollow."
She turns a piece of wood and the floor falls away.

"Ahhhhhhhhh!!!!!!" I scream, as my body falls through the air.

"Wheeeee!!!!!" Gigi seems to be genuinely enjoying herself, as we land on a trampoline.

"Not bad." I look up to see the gleaming eyes of Tate. "You guys were the third to arrive."

Recovering from the fall, I look around. Every so often, there comes a shout and someone falls into a trampoline. We seem to be in a huge space, with pits in the ground for trampolines and smooth, cold concrete. Next to our pit, I see Belly and Paris fall down in quick succession.

Tate smiles, before walking to the centre of the room, where the rest of the staff are gathered, after greeting their campers.

We're all waiting. For what, I don't know. A slow clap echoes from all sides of the room.

"Five minutes and forty two seconds. Not bad, but I expected better." Ms. Steele walks in, wearing a power suit that I expected of her yesterday.
"Welcome to spy camp. Most of your training will take place here, or in our training free houses. I will waste no time: if you fail today, you will be sent home. Your trainers are allowed to help you - but to an extent. Cabins one and two will be at the climbing wall, cabins three and four are at the laser course, cabins five through nine are on the overhead ropes, and cabins ten through twelve are on the grid."

She walks out swiftly.

Tate leads our cabin through corridors, until we reach a dark room. Shortly after we arrive, cabin three arrives, led by the girl with winged eyeliner. Her hair is platinum blonde, in a messy ponytail.

"Why, hello Melodie."

The girl looks up through her lashes. "Hi Tate," she practically purrs, "you ready?"

"Are you?" His eyes laugh.

Melodie tosses her hair. "Good morning. You might have realized you haven't eaten breakfast." She presses a button on the wall and blue lasers appear. I always thought they would be red.

"We're going easy on you this morning. The lasers are still." She clicks a laser pointer and points at several boxes. "Go get your breakfast."

Somehow, I end up going first.

Absolutely petrified, I attempt to literally crawl on the ground, until lasers litter the ground.

I try to stand up shakily.

I wobble, my ponytail sways.

So do I.

I'm about to fall, when a body comes out of nowhere and swings me down.
His face is inches from mine, separated by hot breath and my fear.

"It's ok. You got this."

NO NO I DON'T GOT THIS.

"Deep breath."

I let out a shaky breath.
"Look, you're almost there."

I'm really not.

I feel the stares on me, and also, the winged glare of Melodie.

"I can't help you anymore." His voice sounded mournful.

He lets go and fluidly works his way to the boxes.

My destination.

Clink.

I look at my side.

It's a silver ring with a small circle of mirror.
Carefully, I close my fingers around it. If anything in the movies is true this better work. With shaky fingers, I bring it up to the laser by my ear. Like in the movies, it reflects off and there's a clear space.

Slowly, I make it to the boxes.
A cheer erupts from the other side of lasers, and the next person sets off.

"Hey," I whisper to Tate, "is this yours?" I push the ring into his palm.

"Cute." He snickers. "You took that from me."

"No!" I protest, whisper shouting.

"Yes you did." His lips curl up into a smile, "you're smart, making it look like I dropped it. But, not smart enough. I can feel it, you know."

"Fine, I did." I'm frustrated he saw right through me.

His eyes watch the girl, masterfully flipping through the beams. "Keep it. And one more thing: get smarter."

"Then teach me." I shove the ring on my finger and stalk over to the boxes, just as the other girl lands easily in front of me and tears open the box.

"Hey."

"Hi." I just want food, not socializing.

"Nice trick you pulled there." She takes a large bite of her apple.

"Thanks." I turn my back and rummage around in a box, trying to send the clear message I don't want to talk, and instead want to PROCESS WHAT THE HELL JUST HAPPENED

A.N: I woke up super early and then remembered I didn't update yesterday, so I actually ran to my phone to hit publish. New chapter of gbwdok up too! Ily <3 have an amazing week.