My Undercover Life

Episode 15

Glancing down at my phone, I looked up to see a gold-plated plate with the last name Le Feuvre engraved on it with a fancy san-serif typeface. Shoving my phone back inside my front pocket, I twisted my body around and gave my cousins the thumbs up.

The corners of Demitri’s lips lifted upwards, before his face turned serious. “Now remember Lily, this is your first time in the suspects’ house. Search for clues,” Demitri said, sticking his head out the car’s window. “We’ll be recording everything, so really look around, especially in his room.”
I gave out an annoy sigh, pushing my bangs to the side. “I know,” I uttered, for the billionth time today. During the whole ride over to the twin’s house, both Demitri and Skylar had been repeating this fact over and over again. It’s not like I’ll forget something like this in a matter of minutes. I’m not dumb or anything.
“Geat!” His smile grew. “Don’t forget about Bradlee’s room as well.”
“What if Hunter doesn’t leave?” I asked, voicing my concerns. “It’s not like I can tell him, ‘oh hold on a second. I have to go and investigate your brother’s room now’.”
“Then wait until he leaves the room or something,” he answered with a shrug. “He’s going to have to leave at some point for a bathroom break.”
“Fine, but you totally owe me for this,” I said, pointing an index finger at him strictly.

He held his hands up in defense, leaning back in his seat. “Hey, it’s not my fault you decided to tutor Hunter in Biology this weekend.”
“Whatever,” I grumbled, even though he was 100 percent correct. It wasn’t his fault that my brain wasn’t thinking when Hunter asked me to help him study over the weekend for his test on Monday. Then again what was I suppose to say? No? I was his tutor.

He gave a soft chuckle, covering his laugh at my childish response. “If you need us, we’ll be down the street. Text us when you’re done.”
“Yeah, yeah. I know the drill.”

They both nodded their heads, wishing me good luck before Skylar turned on the engine, and did a three point turn. I made sure their car was out of sight before I took a deep breath, and gather up enough courage to rang the doorbell. I only waited a minute or so before the door was t—-t open. When he saw that it was me, he was practically beaming in delight. I almost did a double take when I saw him in jeans and a pla!d long sleeve shirt since whenever I’d saw him, he was always wearing his school uniform. It was nice to see him in casual clothing for once, and I’ll admit, it looked good on him.
“Avery! You made it.”
“Of course I did.” I chuckled. “Did you think I’ll ditch you or something?”
“Ah, um, ah . . .” he started babbling, probably at a lost for words. Scratching the back of his neck his face started turning pink. “Something like that.”
“Well as you can see, I’m here.” I gestured to myself, giving him a wide smile.
“I know.” He grinned. “Anyways, come on in! Mi casa es su casa.”

I cocked a brow at his choice of words, but nonetheless stepped inside. The first thing that caught my eye was the ceiling. It was a three-dimensional illusionistic ceiling painting. It looked like the house didn’t even have a roof—instead a clear open view of the sky, filled with doves and white fluffy clouds. Making sure to close my mouth at the breathtaking scenery, I faced Hunter, remembering what he had said. “So, you speak spanish?”

“Not really.” He rolled his shoulders, as he leaned his back against his medium tone-wallpaper. “That’s pretty much the only phrase I know, beside like hello and thank you.”
“I honestly hope your knowledge of Biology is a lot better than your Spanish accent.”
“Hey!” he exclaimed, “it’s not my fault I’m half-british!”

I lifted an eyebrow at him. “What does that have anything to do with this?”
“Everything!” he defended.
“Okay half British guy,” I gave in, even though his argument was invalid. “Let’s just go upstairs and study. Don’t you have a test coming up on Monday?”
“Do we have to start now?” He started whining, sticking his bottom lip out for emphasis. “Can’t we like, I don’t know make lunch first?”
“You do realize it’s like two o’clock in the afternoon right?”
“And?” He sounded confused.
“And, don’t you think two o’clock is a little bit late for lunch?” I questioned, moving closer towards him.

His eyes flickered down towards my legs for a split second before they connected with my eyes again. “It’s never too late to eat! We can have dunch.”
“What the hell is dunch?”
“You know.” He motioned his hands in between us, “a mix between lunch and dinner.”

I rolled my eyes, appalled that he didn’t even know the techinical term was actually called linner. “You’re just making excuses.”
“Am not! I’m just really hungry!”
“Sure you are,” I said, not even bothering to mask the sarcasm in my voice.
“But I really am hungry,” he tried again, sounding a bit more truthful. “My parents left for work early this morning, and my brother’s out so I haven’t eaten anything since nine this morning.”
“Seriously?” I asked, taken aback. “Why don’t you just go into the kitchen yourself and make something to eat?”
“The last time I tried cooking, I nearly burnt the house down. Bradlee told me to never ever cook again.”

I couldn’t help but laugh imagining Hunter trying to cooks as he fails miserably. Somehow I wasn’t surprised to hear him say that. “So does that mean he does the cooking around here?”
“Mostly. My parents work long hours,” he started off, as I heard a small break in between his voice, before he started clearing his throat. “And um, sometimes, if the business calls for it, they’re gone for weeks.”
My eyes dimmed knowing that his parents aren’t around as much as they should be. “So you guys are mostly alone then.”
“Well beside my sister—”
“Wait a minute, you have a sister?” I asked totally shocked. I thought Ian was the only one with a sister.
“Yeah, she’s a pain in the a-s,” Hunter complained, but I didn’t miss the clear smile ghosting his lips when he’d mentioned her.
“Is she like five or something?”
“No, but she acts like one.” He laughed, probably thinking about something she did. “She’s actually seventeen.”
“Really? How come I haven’t seen her around school then?” Even though I wasn’t the most observant person around, I should’ve at least seen a girl around them before. But for the past week that I’d known them, the only girls I’d seen around them was their ‘fangirls’ gushing over them. And from the looks of it, I don’t think their sister was like that in any shape or form.

“That’s because she’s enrolled in our sister school, Monroe high. Said something about wanting to go to an all gi—” I drowned out the rest of his sentence when realization hit me. The Bryant sisters had been enrolled in Monroe high before they were murdered. Could Hunter had known them through his sister?
Knowing that I wouldn’t get the answer I want by just standing here, I started asking the one question that was dying to come out, before I heard the jingling of keys, and the laughter of someone’s else other than Hunter.
“—for taking me there. I to—” The voice paused in mid-sentence probably seeing that they weren’t alone. Turning around slowly, I saw Bradlee standing next to the doorframe, while a petite girl stood in front of him holding her school’s uniform. Seeing the similar facial features—blue eyes, dark locks, and sharp nose—I could tell this was the little sister.
When her round doe-like eyes met mine, they blinked several times in confusion. But when they saw her brother standing right behind me, the confusion was whipped away.

“Seriously Hunter?” Her voice was light and airy. “Haven’t I taught you anything? If you want a girlfriend, you can’t have sex with them on the first date. You’re whoring yourself out, you know.”
“We’re not even dating!” he blared, his face as red as a tomato. I couldn’t help but laugh at his clear discomfort. “She’s helping me with Biology.”
“Do you really think I’ll believe that?”
“Believe it, because it’s true!”
Her cat-like eyes went towards me, studying me from head to toe. “Well I guess she’s not exactly like the other bimbos you bring home. She’s pretty. I like the whole scene thing.”
“Um, thanks?”
“No problem.” She smiled, ignoring Hunter’s words as he tried to defend his friends.
“I’m Ailee by the way.”
I looked down at her tiny frame, seriously jealous of her beauty and angelic voice.
“Avery.”
“Avery . . .” she repeated, pausing for a split second. “Why does that name seem so familiar?”
“Don’t know.” I rolled my shoulders, keeping my facade up. She couldn’t know it’s me right? I mean no one knows my middle name . . . unless you’re like a die-hard fan or something. “It’s a common name.”
“True . . . but it’s your face too. I’m sure I’d seen you somewhere before. I—” she started to say when Bradlee poked her on her left shoulder blade. Even though he started signing stuff to his sister, his electric blue were on me, piercing straight through me. The connection was lost when his sister started signing back, his eyes going back to her.
“Oh, then where’s your room?”
“This way.” He motioned his hand to follow him. “It’s past Bradlee’s room.”
As we made our way down the hall again, my attention was solely on Bradlee’s room. And when we bypassed it, I couldn’t help but look inside, and take a peek. What I saw taped up on his wall made me froze in fear.