My Undercover Life

Episode 3

“Repeat that, please.”
“Repeat what?” one of them asked. I think it was Skylar that talked, but I wasn’t quite sure. I wasn’t really paying attention to their faces, just their voices. And trust me when your brain is feeling overwhelmed with information, you tend to not pay attention to details. Like for example, whose voice is whose’.
“What you just said.”

“What?” he inquired, “that the three suspects all go to Woodway Prep?”
“Yeah that,” was the last thing I remembered saying before I fainted from the shock and the fear flowing through my body. When I finally came around, I woke up on the couch with my dad leaning over me, a worried expression plastered on his face.
“Lily! Baby, are you okay? Don’t scare daddy like that ever again!” he said all in one breath, hugging the life out of me.
“D-dad?” I asked, confused. Leaning away from his overbearing hug, I sat in a sitting position. “What happened?”
“You fainted,” a voice that was clearly not my dad answered. Looking to my right, I saw two guys in police get-up, and suddenly everything started coming back to me. The murder of Allie and Alyce, my cousins Skylar and Demitri showing up, me finding out that they were FBI agents, and that they wanted me to go undercover for them to find a crazy serial killer who’s going after teenage girls who names start with the letter ‘A’. Oh, and let’s not forget that the three suspects all go to Megan’s private high school. And did I mention the fact that they want me to go near three potential killers!? I can’t even kill a stupid bug, let alone act ‘normal’ around three guys that could be blood-thirsty killers out to get me!
“So I did,” I stated, running my hands through my blonde locks. Slumping back against the couch, I looked up at Demitri and Skylar. “C-can you just please tell me why I need to be the one that has to go undercover? Can’t you guys like get some professional FBI agent to do that?”
“We would, but none of our agents can actually pull off being in high school,” Demitri answered for me.
“Well, why not?” I asked, pulling my mouth into a thin line.
“Well for starters, most of our female FBI agents are in their late twenties or early thirties. Trust me when I say that they would never ever pull off being eighteen again,” he said, his face scrunching up in disgust, probably picturing the female FBI in a school uniform.
“Why don’t you just hire a spy then?” I proposed, hoping they’ll take the idea.
“Again, the age thing,” he countered back with. “There’s no spy that can pull of the teenage-look. We don’t want the killer to know we’re on to him; not until we can gather enough evidence against him so we can finally arrest him.”
“Okay . . .” I said, pausing for a second before I started speaking again. “But that doesn’t explain why you decided to have me as your little ‘spy’.”
“You’re the only one who actually knows the school and plus the fact that you’re the only one with the FBI cousins.” He pointed to himself and to Skylar. “We can’t let outsiders know about this.”
“Okay, but here’s the thing,” I started out explaining, “I never went to that school. I was homeschooled ever since I started pre-K.”
“We know that,” he said, “and that’s actually why we decided to pick you. We needed someone who the three suspects didn’t know. That way you can become close with them, without them suspecting anything.”
“Yeah, that’s great,” I said sarcastically, trying to hold back an eye roll, “but in case you’d forgotten, I’m Lily Ace. The child star!” I exclaimed loudly. “Everyone knows who I am in this town. Once I step foot into that school everyone will know who I am. Including them!”
He made a tsk sound with his teeth, waving his pointer finger in front of my face. “See, that’s where you’re wrong.”
Holding back the temptation to smack his finger away, my face twisted up in confusion instead. “Wait, huh? How?”
“Ever heard of the term undercover before?” he posed like I never heard that word come out of his mouth before.
“Well no s–t sherlock,” I couldn’t help but yelled.
“Lily, language!” Dad cried next to me, his tone disapproving.
I grimaced, forgetting it wasn’t just Demitri and I in the room. “Sorry dad, I’ll watch my tongue next time.”
“Good.” He nodded, his eyes drifting back to Demitri and Skylar. “Please, continue on what you were saying before.”
“I’ll be happy to.” He coughed, clearing his throat annoyingly. “Pretending you didn’t just say that just now, I’ll explain what going undercover really means.” Taking his sweet a-s time, probably enjoying the impatient look on my face, he finally started talking again. “If you agree to this, the people at Woodway, including your own best friend, won’t even recognize you once we’re done with you.”
“So, what you’re saying is you’re going to give me a makeover,” I concluded.
He nodded. “Pretty much.”
“And once we’re done with this makeover of yours, I have to enroll into Woodway Prep pretending to be a new student, am I correct?”
His smile brighten, probably ecstatic I was getting his plan. “Exactly.”
“And I’m suppose to make friends with these three guys, and find out who’s the killer, right?”
“Yup!” he said, cheerfully. “I’m so glad you’re getting it.”
“Right.” I lowered my head. “I’m not doing it,” I said at last, wiping the smile off his face.
“What!?” they both cried in unison, traces of their smile gone. “Why not?”
“Because!” I shouted, “I’m not going anywhere near those guys! Who knows what they can do to me? What if the disguise doesn’t work? What if they see right through me? I’m not taking that chance!”
“So what?” he barked back, letting me know that Demitri was the ‘leader’ of this duo. “You’re going to let this guy kill two more innocent girls next month, just because you’re scared?”
“I am not scared!” I fumed, as I quickly shot up from my position on the couch.
“Seems like you are.”
“Lily Ace is never scared! I’d been through worse than this!” I defended myself. From going through the kidnappings of my older sister Sabby, and the almost death of Thomas, my sister’s husband, to my older brother John protecting Amanda from her stalker. Even though I wasn’t directly involved in those cases, I was the brave little sister, and friend on the sidelines.
“Oh yeah?” He arched his eyebrow, getting way too close to comfort. “Then prove it! Do the job.”
“I know what you’re doing!” I wailed, poking him on the chest. Please, like I can be fool by this dumb trick.
“Doing what?” he asked, trying to play innocent.
“You know!”
He shook his head, still playing dumb. “No I don’t.”

“Yes, you do.”
“No, I don’t,” he said in a monotone voice.
“Oh my God. Shut up!” I yelled, throwing my hands up in frustration. I was about three seconds away from kicking him where the sun don’t shine. “You’re annoying me!”
“Then just accept the d–n job and I’ll shut up,” he said, letting his control slipped.
Trying to hide the smile on my face, I crossed my arms across my chest. “You’re not the boss of me.”

“Technically I am. Remember who you’re speaking to.”
“Don’t worry. I’m pretty sure I know I’m speaking to a teenage girl PSMing.”
His eyes blurred with red. “What did you just say!?”
“Okay! Enough!” my dad yelled, breaking the argument between Demetri and I up as his partner held him back. “Lily, stop tempting him, and Demitri stop edging her on. She has a very short temper just like her brother, John.”
“Dad!” I screeched, cutting my eyes at him. I. Can. Not. Believe. He. Just. Told. Him. That!
“What?” He laughed, shrugging. “It’s true.”
“That doesn’t mean you should tell that jerkhead—” I pointed at him, “—that.”
“Lily . . .” he warned, his voice going all dad-mood on me.
“Fine.” I sighed, taking a deep breath. I faced Demitri, trying to be as apologetic as I could be. “I’m sorry about that.”
“I guess it wasn’t totally your fault either,” he let out soon after. “I’m sorry I pushed the job on you. It your decision anyways. We can’t really make you take this assignment.”
“Ah . . . thanks,” I told him, awkwardly. Even though he wasn’t the greatest of people I’d met, he wasn’t the worst either. And plus, he apologized, and he meant it. His voice wasn’t sarcastic and he actually looked me in the eye when he said all of that.
But, he wasn’t wrong either . . . I was scared. But at the same time I couldn’t let his guy get away with murder, couldn’t I? And, if I help out, I’ll finally be able to go to private school instead of being homeschooled. I’ll finally be able to experience a real life as a regular teenager just like my sister and brother did at Woodway Prep. Maybe . . . this won’t be so bad after all . . . I mean, I get to go to school with Megan, and I get to catch some bad guys at the same time.
Before making up my mind, I faced them. “Um, I have a question.”
“Yeah?” Demitri and Skylar both asked.
“I-If I ah, do this job. You guys will protect me right?”

“Of course! Even though we won’t be able to be with you twenty-four-seven during school hours, we’ll be parked right outside. And we’re going to be hooking a microphone on you, so we can talk to you whenever. We will also be hiding a tiny camera on your shirt or something so we can record everything that is going on and we’ll watch for suspicious activity. If we deem anything dangerous, we’ll be right next to you before you can call either of our names,” Skylar answered with a kind smile—a quality I liked about him.
“Okay, one more question.”
“Yeah?” Demitri said this time.
“When does this makeover start?”
He smirked. “I thought you would never ask.”