Spy School: The Rise of Gama

Chapter 9: Umbrellas are Dangerous

The same day, Omega and Beta are busy in their own classes. Liz, Adela, and Nico sit together in the front row of the classroom. Mr. O. and Sir switch on and off who is teaching the lessons. Currently, Sir is standing at the front of the room explaining some complex math formula.

Liz sighs quietly and glances out the window. The thunderstorm from earlier has finally passed, leaving a dull grey sky behind it. A few rays of sunshine are starting to poke through, the beams of golden light brightening small patches of the endless forest that surrounds the school.

When are these classes going to end? After dragging herself out of bed at six, she was forced to sit through English, Science, and Foreign Languages. She finds it extremely unfair that she has to share the class with all the other students who seem to all be fluent in at least two languages right now; Liz still has days where she struggles to speak English properly. After the rough morning she was able to relax for a short time during lunch, but now she’s back in a classroom. Adela wasn’t lying when she had said these classes were a buzz kill.

The classes here are just as boring as regular school, only worse. There is no possible way to distract the teachers or get them off topic. No random rants about their personal lives outside or school or something strange that happened to them over the weekend. It’s just lecture after lecture, notes after notes. With a class size of six at the most, although currently there’s only three, there really aren’t any class clowns to lighten the mood.

A subtle movement at the bottom corner of Liz’s desk catches her attention. Adela, who is sitting in the desk to Liz’s left, slowly pushes a small piece of notebook paper onto Liz’s desk. Adela’s eyes never leave the board while she’s doing it, and the movement of delivering the note is so fast that Liz barely even notices it. Studying the scrap of paper, she notices a short message scribbled hastily.

‘Don’t worry. Class ends soon. Fun part next.’

Liz glances up at Sir to make sure he still has his back to the class before writing her own message back. Trying to copy Adela’s quick movements, she manages to slip the paper back onto Adela’s desk without being caught.

‘I hope you’re right. I want to die heroically in battle, not from boredom in class.’

Adela reads the note, the corners of her mouth twitching up in a faint smirk. She’s about to write something back when the tip of a ruler is slammed down on the paper. Ahe looks up at Sir, her eyes wide in surprise.

“Goulding, repeat what I just said.” He demands, snatching the paper from the desk and ripping it into even smaller pieces before tossing the pieces into the trash.

“Um, it was something about switching the x value with the y value and-” The ringing of the bell that signals the end of class cuts Adela off.

Sir gives a harsh look at both Adela and Liz before turning back to the board, erasing the notes that were written there. “Alright you three, your homework is to read the rest of chapter two and solve the equations on page forty. You have ten minutes until your next class. If you’re late, the first thing you’ll be doing is running laps. Goulding, run ten laps for not paying attention in class.”

“But,” Adela begins to protest before turning to glare at Nico who is snickering at her as he gathers his notebooks, “Oh shut up, Nico.”

Mr. O. walks into the classroom, a serious expression on his face. “Mr. Hotchner, may I speak with you privately for a moment?”

“Yeah, sure.” Nico turns to Adela and Liz, “I’ll meet you two in the gym. Have fun with those laps, shorty.”

Adela rolls her eyes before leading Liz down the halls to the gym. They leave the hallway containing the classrooms and dining hall, crossing the meeting area at the intersection, and continuing to the west hall. Finally, they turn left into the gym.