Espion | Book One

Nine.

Mina was still in the room when Anna came back out, flipping through the same magazine she had been just ten minutes before. Sitting on her bed, on her side of the room.

Anna slammed the bathroom door shut and made her way over to Mina in three long strides. She grabbed the magazine from her hands, tossed it aside. "I don't like people on my bed," Anna stated coldly, looking down at the girl.

Mina frowned. "But I'm not doing anything. I was just looking through th-"

"Doesn't matter. You stay on your side of the room and I stay on mine."

"Okay, okay! Jeez, cut me some slack." Mina rose from the bed with her hands raised in surrender. She eyed Anna warily, as if thinking the girl will pounce on her any second if she doesn't get herself back over to her side of the room. "How was I supposed to know you're picky about your space?"

"There's no way you could know," Anna stated simply. She picked up the magazine and threw it at Mina, who failed to catch it. "That's why I'm telling you."

"Could have been a little nicer with it," Mina grumbled, but Anna ignored her. She stood there, only dressed in her black bra and underwear, scanning the room to make sure Mina hadn't touched anything she shouldn't have. She wasn't an I-need-my-space fanatic as she made Mina believe. She just didn't want the girl snooping around on her side, where she might buck up on something she shouldn't be seeing. She didn't want to have to take care of her new roommate. So far, the girl seemed nice. It would be a pity to kill her just because she was in the wrong place.

Mina was dressed in a pair of black leggings and a cropped white shirt with a black moustache on the front. Her feet were bare, but the black and white sneakers sitting by her bed indicating what she planned to wear on her feet.

Anna grabbed her deodorant. "Why aren't you at the cafeteria yet?" she asked nonchalantly.

"I was waiting for you," Mina replied without glancing up from the magazine. "I thought we could go together."

"I might be a while up here. You should go ahead without me."

This time Mina did look up. "Now where's the fun in that?"

Anna set the deodorant back on her dresser and began digging into one of the drawers. "You'd rather walk together and risk being late?"

When Mina set the book down and frowned at her, Anna knew she was now walking on thin ice. "How long do you take to get ready?"

"Not long," Anna admitted. She pulled out a black sweater and a pair of jeans, easily keeping her voice steady so as not to arouse any more suspicion in the girl. "But, I plan to call my sister to tell her how my first day at school went."

"Oh." Mina kept watching her, but after a quick glance, Anna saw that she accepted the lie. "Well, okay, tell your sister I said hi."

"Will do." She waved her hand, busying herself by pushing her legs into the tight jeans. She kept her back to the door, but her ears remained perked, listening for the resounding click that indicated Mina's departure. After a few rustling as her roommate tug her shoes on, Anna heard the door open and close. Still, knowing full well she shouldn't let her guard down until she saw with her own two eyes Mina was gone, she looked over her shoulder and saw that the room was empty.

Anna tugged the rest of the jeans up and buttoned it. She didn't move fast, but she moved sure. She preferred taking her time, knowing there was quality in her actions and she did that now, pulling her long hair up into a high ponytail: her mission hairstyle. And as she did for ever mission, she picked up the hairpin from her jewelry box and stuck into her hair.