Spy School: Zoe or Erica?

SOMEBODY HELP AHHHH

Okay, the torture that I experience wasn't exactly the kind that you would expect.

Choking? Nope. Strangling? Nope. Bodily harm? Not once.

Instead of immediately hurting me, Erica had burst into the room, watched me scream my lungs once at her appearance all of a sudden, then covered my mouth up.

"Fake a few screams," she whispered. "Pretend I'm hurting you like I should be doing right now."

Looking at the glare in her eye, I pushed away my surprise and relief, screaming as loudly as I could. Faking this wasn't hard- the fact that Erica's fist was a few feet away from my head made me scared already.

After a minute, Erica took out what I assumed to be a voice recorder from her pocket. Connecting it to a Bluetooth speaker in the living room, she replayed my scream soundtrack, this time a few times louder than before.

"Be relieved that I'm not hurting you right now," she muttered, walking over to the wall and placing her hand on it. The shimmering mirage of the wall rippled, revealing a hidden staircase leading to the beachside.

"That was there the whole time," I seethed, trying not to shout. "And I could've gone through it easily, BUT I DIDN'T KNOW!?"

"Calm down!" Erica hissed, placing her hand on my mouth and muting my shouts. "The reason that I'm not torturing you right now is that there's some business that we need to attend together."

"Why not go with Ben?" I said, walking slowly behind Erica and listening to her feet tap against the stairwell. "Why me? Well, other than the fact that I'm awesome in most ways."

Erica shot me an annoyed glare, then sighed. "You're the only person that I know that can have such a big ego and a boosted self-esteem to be able to do this. Ben's too disappointed in himself to act a part like this."

"Act?" I said, uneasiness creeping into my voice. "Act what?"

"You're going to be pretending you're the son of a billionaire, walking into a theatre. You've forgotten your tickets, but with the size of your ego, you're brave enough to blow past the guards, ticket booth, and multiple families, bragging that your allowance is a few hundred dollars per day. With this type of distraction, you'll be able to whisk me and you into the theatre."

"Um, couldn't we just sneak in? And if this is a normal theatre, then there are much more easier ways into that this."

"This isn't a normal theatre. This is a theatre built by SPYDER. And if we sneak in, they'll be obviously watching. The last thing they expect us to do is to get attention to ourselves, so that's what we're going to do."

"But how are you going to get in? You're not the child of a billionaire, and you can't pretend to be my sister since you're much more different than me."

"That's where you come in," Erica said. "Pretend I'm your best friend, and I'm spoiled by your father. We're coming into the theatre for a night out."

I wanted to say something about this that didn't seem very right, but nodded it off. When Erica announced instructions, you were to do as follows. No questions allowed. 

When we finally stepped out onto the sandy beach, Erica was insistent on getting to the place on time. She said that the play started in thirty minutes, and it was right next to the beach of the English Channel.

I'm going to skip the walk to the theatre, since it was mostly just Erica telling me to go faster and me wondering what I'd just pulled myself into. Especially since I didn't know what it was like to be rich- and because of this, I'd have to improvise a whole lot more than I'd really like to appreciate.

At least my improv classes would really come in handy. Acting was one of my strong suits, thanks to my boosted personality.

We arrived at the theatre, which looked like any modest, top-class building, Erica slowly adjusted her personality. Her usual cold stare softened, and she became the perky, quirky teenager that Ben had told be about. He had called it an "alter ego," and he told me that it was rather distracting to see. Ice Queen shrouded by a different personality- now that was movie-worthy acting.

When we walked into the building, I saw a line filled with  people impatiently waiting for their turn to walk in. The ones at the end of the line looked like me when I was the last to arrive at the lunch line- especially when I didn't have my phone on me.

But I had an alter ego. I had to cut the whole line, dragging as much attention as I could to myself, and promptly convince the two teenagers at the ticket booth that I was a full-blown rich kid.

So I did exactly what I was supposed to do.

Pushing through the first few people, I caused some serious nasty looks and some "hey!"s, but that was all. 

"Make way!" I shouted, virtually cutting half of the whole line. "Middle-class fools, I, Jayden, son of multi-billionaire Jim Walton, is coming to this movie! You all should be flattered- and don't give me that look, boy, my allowance is at least ten times yours."

The kid that I gave a glare at shrunk in size, hiding behind his mother. The mother just gave me an awed look and stepped aside.

For now, the plan was working. My fake ego was helping me push through the line, and Erica strolled behind me, giving smiles and helping calm the croud down and explain.

It wasn't long before I reached the end of the line. Feigning surprise, I fingered through my wallet. 

"Shoot! I forgot my tickets!" I said as loud as I could, so people wouldn't be suspicious if I walked through without any passes. "Guys, is it okay if I go in? I swear I paid- and if you don't believe me, trust me, my daddy's got it all done already." I winked for good measure.

The two teenagers took a glance at me and Erica, expressions changing from doubt to realization.

Suddenly, Erica's face went completely pale. Her personality went to the tiny Erica that was hidden by her appearance- the scared, doubtful Erica that rarely showed. The boy on the left of the stand smiled.

"It's been a while, Erica Hale, but we meet again," he said, grinning.