Michelle Ryker

Chapter One: Ravenwood Academy

For most people changing schools was a normal thing. However, for someone who went to Clarabelle Academy - or Spy High as a select few call it - leaving just wasn't something that happened every day. Of course, nothing about my life had ever really been normal. 

After a hectic year and a half I was finally slipping on a school uniform and getting ready for school like normal girls my age. I thought back to the days when my life had been normal - well, normal for me - and tried to channel the excitement I'd once felt slipping on a brand new uniform. With only a moment before someone came to check on me, I stepped in front of my mirror and took it all in. Although it wasn't the uniform I was used to wearing, my new uniform was just as cute with its beige skirt and black school blazer. The red school crest on the blazer's pocket always caught my eye. Even now, thinking about everything I was walking away from, seeing it in my mirror made me smile.

A knock at the door pulled me from my thoughts and I pulled my eyes away from my reflection as my mother walked into the room. "Pumpkin, you look adorable."

I smiled. "Thanks Mom."

"Are you ready for your first day at Ravenwood?"

I shrugged. "I guess."

She stood in my doorway as I slid a headband on and grabbed my bag. 

"Before you leave make sure to say goodbye to your father."

With a nod I slid past her and headed to his study where he'd be until it was time to leave for work. It was weird seeing my parents before school since Clarabelle was a boarding school. My mother had made it a part of our agreement I'd made with her which allowed me to leave there was that I wouldn't go off to another boarding school. She said it would make my father happy and she'd feel safer knowing I was sufficiently protected. After all, a spy needs all the protection she can get.

I knocked on the door and waited.

"Come in," a deep voice said from within.

The door creaked slightly as I pushed it open and my father smiled at me from behind his desk. "Hello Princess."

"Hi Daddy. I just wanted to say goodbye before leaving."

He stood up and walked towards me. "Looking forward to your first day?"

I shrugged. "Sure."

He pulled me into a hug and kissed the top of my head. "Behave yourself, alright?"

I smiled up at him as I pulled away. "Don't I always behave?"

With a laugh he shooed me out the door. "Go on, Michelle. I'm sure Matthews' waiting in the car."

I waved goodbye and then practically ran through the house to the front entrance and out the door. Like my father had said, Matthews was waiting patiently.

Sliding into the back I smiled at him. "Good morning, Matthews."

"Little Miss," he said pulling away from the house. "Ready for your first day as a normal teenager?"

I laughed. After all, Matthews knew just how abnormal my last school had been. While my father knew nothing about the spy world, I'd recently found out that Matthews knew all about Clarabelle and had even been a Baxter Boy in his prime.

While Clarabelle Academy had been an all-girls spy school, Baxter Academy was our brother school and was known throughout the spy world as the Boys' School for Spies. Since Baxter Academy had played a big role in the running of Clarabelle I had the utmost respect for anyone who'd trained there. Well, almost anyone but that was a story for a different day.