Briar Preparatory Academy

Expect the Unexpected

Celeste POV

As we walk into the school building, I head up the stairs and take a right. This is the only class I have without Kate. She has advanced tech and I'm taking advance covert operations. I'm top of my class in field work.

"See ya," Kate tells me. I round the corner up the stairs and wait by the janitor's closet for Seth. We always meet up here and walk to cove ops together. The thing with cove ops class is you never know what you're going to be doing. Last week, we had to walk around the campus with blackout contacts on (It's a new invention that the science department came up with). You put them on and until you take them out, you're completely blind. We were all scattered across the entire campus of Briar Prep and we had to regroup in under 15 minutes using only our sense of touch. After regrouping we had to disassemble a fake bomb. But that was the easy part.

I have this class with Seth, and, unfortunately, Preston. I don't trust him. In fact, I don't like him. At all.

"Thanks for waiting Celeste." I hear a voice say behind me. I spin on my heels and turn to face Seth.

"Ready? Because we have 4 minutes and 48 seconds until class starts." I say without even a glance at my watch.

"Yeah, I know. Quit making me wait around." He says smugly. I nudge him on the shoulder. We start walking to class, talking about what we might do in cove ops. Professor Ross never tells us what we are doing. He wants us to wait in suspense and be prepared for anything. Because, as he always tells us, "You never know what to expect in espionage."

We walk into the class and take our seats. Class starts in approximately 39 seconds. We don't have bells at Briar Preparatory Academy because as spies, we automatically memorize our schedules and always have one eye trained on our watch. Because when you're an operative in training, timing is everything.

"All right students, I know we have 22 seconds left before class starts, but we have a lot to do today, so we will be starting early." He says with a fake smile. We all exchange nervous glances. Early? We never start early or late; always on time.

"Grab your coats, ladies and gentlemen. We're going on a trip."

With that, we all grab our coats and follow Mr. Ross out of the Cove Ops classroom, down the winding stairs, and out the front door, getting lots of curious stares along the way. We go off campus every once in a while for a cove ops assignment. We usually drive into the nearest town, Chesterfield. But no matter where we go, our cover story always stays the same. Preppy boarding school students (which Preston has down to an art I might add).

We walk out the front doors of the school building and straight into the plain, unmarked white vans that are parked in front of the school. The two vans are waiting for us. And, much like us and our cover, are plain and unmarked.

We pile into the van, and I end up pressed in a middle seat between Preston and Seth. Oh kill me now. I groan internally. This is going to be a long car ride... Professor Ross starts driving and talking to us about what we will be doing today.

"As you can tell, this isn't a normal day of cove ops. I have talked with Headmaster Lockharte and we have determined that those students on the Cove Ops track of study need to be more immersed in the real world. We can't protect you in our little school bubble forever. With that being said, we will be going into town for cove ops lessons more frequently... At least once a week. This will be very exciting for most of you, and this will give you the opportunity to learn things we could never teach you behind those walls." Professor Ross informs us.