Espion | Book One

Twenty Four.

It was finally Saturday and Anna never felt so out of sorts. She knew how to adjust to situations to suit herself and her mission. Knew it well considering how well she was fitting in at this school. The Annabelle before would have never been able to survive a day with Mina Romero, Dan Slater, Jessime Beaumont and Angela Staton. The previous Annabelle would probably only been able to tolerate Angela, seeing that their dislike of each other would generally keep them apart.

But with Mina's incessant chatter, Dan's stifling niceness and Jessi's cocky grins, the old Annabelle would have hated every second of it.

She wondered when she began to change.

She supposed it could have been when she stood talking with them in the hallway. Or maybe it could have been when she actually laughed at the lunch table. It could have very well be every other time after that, seeing that she found herself within one of their presences at some part of the day. She couldn't quite put her finger on when the old Annabelle began to fade and this new one started taking up residence. All Anna knew was that her life was now completely changed.

It really hit her when she stood in her dorm room, staring into Mina's mouth as the girl jabbered on. She wasn't hearing a word of it. All she could think as she stared ahead was that this was her friend. Mina Romero was her friend, a treasured one at that. Anna didn't know how to be a friend. She wasn't very sure what rules she should follow, what answers she should give to a question. But she knew now that she liked Mina, more than just a simple accessory to her mission.

Mina's my friend, she thought again, this time in awe. When the hell did that happen?

So was Dan. Mina said something, calling Dan's name and Anna's brain immediately reverted back to all her encounters with the perpetually nice Dan. Always had a smile on his face, always saying something nice. That was the only word she could think of to define him: nice. At first it was too nice; all that nice was eerie and uncomfortable. But now she liked it. Dan was her friend too. Her life was spiraling out of control.

"... so now I think that if we really want to make the best out of this date, we're going to have get their jaws to hit the floor. Otherwise, what's the point, am I right?"

Anna blinked, her eyes coming to focus on Mina's big green ones. "Huh?"

Mina rolled them. "You didn't hear a word I said?"

"Give me short version."

"I was saying," Anna couldn't count how many times she's heard Mina say that phrase over the past month, "that we need to seriously get those boys' eyes dropping out of their heads. And we better do it soon too, because we're running out of time. What do you have in mind?"

Anna frowned. "I'm still confused. Running out of time?"

Mina grabbed her bedside clock in a frantic, wide-eyed manner. "It's already two o' clock, Anna! Of course we're running out of time!"

"But they won't be coming for us until seven."

"So? We still haven't come up with any outfit ideas and we still haven't done our hair, and – Oh God, our makeup!"

"You think that's going to take us five hours?"

Mina cocked her head to the side. "You've never went out on a date, have you?"

Anna shook her head silently. Never thought about it until now. In fact, it wasn't until now did she even consider it a date. It was just an excuse to stick close to Jessi to protect him, but now, she wasn't so sure. Was this a date?

"You're kidding me!" Mina was on Anna's bed in a second. "You've never been on a date? Ever? Like, ever ever?"

"You like making me repeat myself, don't you?"