Undercover Lover (Finished)

Part 3

I wake up to a noisy room, filled with what seems to be a mad rush. Or a hurricane. I'm guessing the former is true because I hear Tamsin saying something quite quickly. "Oh shush Tam." Fran moans, rolling over and putting her pillow over her head.

"We've got to be down on time! We don't want to create the wrong impression!" Tam squeals, not ceasing her mad frenzy. Frowning I sit up.

"Down in time for what?" I ask, yawning. Tamsin stops and stares at we with an open mouth.

"For the Opening Ceremony, didn't Harriet tell you?" she asks me, looking confused. I shake my head at this and note that Harriet isn't to be trusted. "Well we need to be down there in an hour!"

"That's ages." I reason, glancing at the clock. 6:29.

"That's what I tell her every year." Fran mumbles, sitting up and rubbing her eyes.

"How will you guys find time for make-up? And your hair? And we didn't even pick out outfits yesterday!" she rambles, working herself up, causing me to laugh.

"You're not serious are you? Make-up at this time of the day?"

"Well you want to make a good impression, don't you? The guys'll be there." she says, a cute smile on her face. Fran wolf whistles and Tamsin merely blushes. "Suit yourselves but don't blame me when you don't find a match." she says, rushing into the en suite, mumbling to herself. I laugh at this and shake my head as Fran starts to mumble something about hating the system.

As we file into the grand hall (yeah, that's seriously what it's called, no joke) I hear murmurs of interest. Not many people know that I'm new here so this should be very intriguing. As we all settle down into our seats I notice that half of the hall is full of girls and the other full of boys. The headmistress stands at the front of the hall with a microphone and a weird smile on her face. "Welcome everyone to the opening ceremony of this year. I hope you all had good holidays. Now there are a few notices I would like to say before..." she starts but I tune out, trying to take in more important information. My eyes try to locate the Luke guy that Harry was telling me about but I can't seem to find him. My eyes probe the masses of boys before I feel Tamsin prod me in the side and hiss "Go." at me. Frowning I glance up at the stage and see that they're expecting me to go up there... and do what? Slowly I walk out of the aisle I'm in and make my way over to the stage, unsure of what I'm meant to be doing. "Here's legend Cassandra Connors, going to give us an insight as to how it feels being a legend." What the hell is a legend? I think desperately, my mind whirring, until I see a slide of my mother which stops me in my tracks bringing tears to my eyes. How have they got a picture of- oh. That means mum came here? That can't be a coincidence... Harry had to know about that. I gulp as I think of what to say. "First of all I'd like to say hi to you all, it's so great to be here! It's the most beautiful building I've ever seen! Anyway my mother instilled in me a few morals and values which I know she learnt from this fine establishment. Values like trust, patience, forgiveness, loyalty I'm sure you're all familiar with these. I feel so honoured to be here, knowing that she once walked the same halls and saw the same sights. I've been given a really warm welcome and I look forward to the exciting year ahead. What else can I really say?" I manage to jabber into the microphone, trying to sound all gushy and happy. "Oh and please don't be afraid to say hi, I want to get to know all of you lovely people! Sandra out." I add because knowing people could help in the long run. Information is so easy to weedle out of people if you just have the correct technique.

"Well thank you Sandra for those words." says the headmistress as I smile at her, wave at the audience and resume my seat. I hear an array of distorted claps and sink back, trying hard to process what's happening. I hope I reacted appropriately because that was all on camera to the guys back at HQ. It wouldn't look good on my CV if I failed my first mission within the first few hours. Not that I even fully know what it is yet. The headmistress continues to drone on about something which she thinks is relevant whilst I resume my scan of the male side of the room. I successfully locate a boy who is the spitting image of the picture that Harry handed to me and grin to myself, perfect. Except the moment I grin he turns his head and sees me grinning at him, which causes him to smirk. Oh great he's cocky. I think to myself, looking away determinedly. I can still feel his eyes probing my head and so I decide to tune back into what the headmistress was saying when she wraps up her speech. Great so now I can't even pretend to be listening. A general babble ensues and suddenly everyone is standing and moving. Maybe I should have listened, this is quite embarrassing and I can't even ask someone what's going on because the microphone will pick up on that which wouldn't reflect well on my listening. It's one of my weaknesses, though to be fair it is my only weakness. "What's with the rush?" I ask cautiously.