My Undercover Life

Episode 5

“Of course not,” I managed to said with a straight face. Megan automatically frowned, tilting her head to the right. Her eyes narrowed down trying to see through my lie, and when she caught the little grin on my face, she punched my shoulder lightly.
“Ha-ha, very funny Lily.” Even though she was rolling her eyes at me, I could see the small smile on her face.
“What?” I asked innocently. “I wanted to see if you saw through my little lie.”
“I wasn’t fooled one bit,” Megan pressed; though I could tell by the high pitch squeak at the end of her sentence that she was in fact tricked for a second or so. I kept my eyes on her, until she started wavering under my intense stare and admitted the truth.
“Okay fine.” She sighed. “When you came out, I didn’t believe it was you, but when you spoke, I recognized your voice.”
My eyes widened slightly. That’s right. My Voice. Would the three suspects know my voice too? I haven’t done any acting since I was a child, but then again my voice hasn’t changed that much. It’s just a mature version of my old voice. But then again guys doesn’t really pay attention to those tiny details anyways. And by the way they acted, and their personalities alone, I doubt they have even seen my acting, let alone know what my voice sounded like.
I was about to reply when Demitri’s voice caught my attention. “Lily, take note of this. Even though Megan is a close friends of yours, you can’t brush the fact that other people may know your voice too. So try to deepen your voice just a bit. You have a very soft voice so if you deepen it just a bit, and maybe talk a bit louder, it will probably change it enough to mask your real voice.”
“Got it.” I smiled, following his instructions. When I saw Demitri nodding in approval I knew I had the voice down. I silently thanked my parents for putting me through acting classes when I was little. Changing your voice was just like changing acting roles in films. You just need to know your part well and you can execute anything perfectly.
“Lily, sweetie,” my mom said, coming to my side. “Are you sure you want to do this? This isn’t exactly what you call safe.”
“Mom,” I voiced, relaxing my shoulders as I gave out an audible breath. “Calm down. I already went over this with Dad. I need to do this. I know it’s not the safest situation to be in, but Demitri and Skylar will be there too. And plus Megan will as well. It’s just school. It’s not like I will be truly alone with those guys. There’s probably security guards and cameras posted in every corner.” I looked at Megan out of the corner of my eye, enlarging them a bit and gave her the help signal. She stepped in the moment she saw my pleading look.
“Lily’s right Mrs. Ace. There’s cameras and security guards posted on every floor and area throughout the whole school. She’s safe.”
“Yeah and you know us. We’ll protect her auntie,” Demitri added, as Skylar smiled in agreement.

“You better,” Mom warned them. “I don’t want anything happening to her.” They both nodded their heads respectively as they continued to assure my mom that they’ll protect me. All three of them were in their own little worlds, talking quietly to themselves when I felt a poke on my shoulder. Looking behind me, I saw Chrissy.

“I’ll love to stick around some more and talk, but I got some business to take care of.” The other two girls then told me they needed to go as well, and told me they had fun styling my hair. I thanked them for the makeover and gave them hugs before waving goodbye. They were soon out the door, bypassing my mom and the guys, giving them their final goodbyes as well. When the door was shut, my mom went back to talking to Demitri and Skylar probably wanting to get more information about the situation or something. That or, they’re catching up, since my mom had plenty of time to get caught up on the situation when I was getting my makeover done.

“So, who are they,” Megan asked as soon as they were out of earshot, pulling me aside. Her blue eyes were wide with excitement as she waited for me to talk.

I raised an eyebrow. “They?”
“Don’t play dumb. The three suspects. The FBI agents already told me everything about the letter A birthday killers.”
“Letter A birthday killers?” Oh gosh. Leave it to Megan to come up with a ridiculous name for the killer.

“What?” she blurted, “it’s a good name!”
“Um . . . right.” I nodded my head quickly as I tried not to laugh. I didn’t want to offend her or something, but that wasn’t really the catchiest name for them. It was more like a description than anything.
“It’s not that bad of a name . . .” she grumbled when I let a chuckle slip passed my tongue.
“Okay, okay.” I surrendered, “it’s not that bad,” I quickly told her, going back to the topic on hand. “So, they didn’t tell you the names of the three guys?”
She shook her head sadly. “Nope. They only told me the basics.”
“I see.” In the next second, I pondered if I should tell her about them or not. I mean if my cousins didn’t tell her about their names, maybe I shouldn’t either. They probably had a reason why they didn’t tell her. That or, they just didn’t get around to it. And plus Megan is my best friend . . . I know I can trust her. It’s not like she’s going to tell them I’m a spy working for the FBI. It was at that moment that I decided to tell her.
“Um, if I remember correctly their names were Ian Lynch, Bradlee and Hunter Le F—”
She gasped, her facial expression turning surprise in the matter of seconds. “The twins!?”
“You know them?”
“Of course! Who wouldn’t? They’re legend in our school.”
“Legend?” I asked, sounding doubtful. Even though they had the looks, I doubt anyone can be called legends just for that right?
“Duh!” Megan gushed, getting this dreamy look on her face. I couldn’t help but gag. “Even though Bradlee talks to no one, it just makes him even more irresistible. Every girl is cray-cray over him! They love the bad boy mysteriousness he gives off. And Hunter, even though he can be a jerk—”

“Wait, a jerk? I thought he’s like the all-American guy? You know volunteers, straight A’s, team captain, and all that cliche stuff.”
“He is, but it’s not by choice. Rumor has it, his parents are the ones making him do all of that. Apparently he doesn’t even like football.”
“So, you’re saying he’s really a jerk?” Okay, I take back whatever I said about Hunter being nothing but good. Maybe he does deserve to be on the list after all.
“Yeah,” she responded, “if he doesn’t like you, he’ll make sure you’ll know he doesn’t like you. But that doesn’t make him any less popular. He’s top dog at our school.”
“Great, a big shot.” I muttered something under my breath before I looked up at Megan again. “What about Ian? Is there anything I should know about him?”

“Not exactly. He’s pretty out there. That guy is always smiling and happy, and skipping down the hallways. But I haven’t really see him talking to a lot of people. I think people just find him strange.”
“Interesting . . .” I mumbled to myself. Even though I don’t know them personally, I knew being friends with them will be a challenge. I’ll probably want to kill Hunter for him being a jerkface, and I’ll probably lose all patience trying to talk to Bradlee. Seems like Ian will be the easiest to be friends with. At least he’s cheerful.

“And,” Megan piped up, “if you really want more, just to let you know Hunter is just like my brother.”
“Thomas?”
“Yup, back when your sister was in high school. You remember how he was right?”
“A douche?”
She laughed, chuckling loudly. “Duh. Maybe you could change his ways just like Isabella changed my brother ways.”
“Maybe, maybe not.” I shrugged. “I’m not as patience as my sister.”
“Of course not. You take after your brother.”
I opened my mouth in shock. “Do not!”
“Do too!”
“Do not!” I shouted back.
“See!” She pointed out. “You’re just a stubborn as he is.”
“I-I—” I muttered, not knowing what to say to that. Caught off guard, I bit my lip. “Ugh! Whatever.”
Hearing her quiet giggle, I stubbornly crossed my arms across my chest, as I leaned away from her.
“Okay-okay,” she said, the laughter still in her tone. When I didn’t say anything back, she began tugging on my arm. “Oh come on Lily! I’m sorry, okay! No hard feelings?”
The corners of my lips lifted up at her effort, even though I tried to keep my face in a straight line.
“Ah-ha! I saw that!”
“Fine!” I gave her a wide grin, as I faced her. “You’re lucky I love you.”
“Aw,” she let out happily. “I love you too best friend!” She held her arms open, pulling me down for a hug. I hug her back, before coming out of the embrace a minute later.
“By the way, do you even know when you’re starting this mission of yours?” Megan asked curiously as she pulled away from me.
“Tomorrow,” Skylar replied for me, when I didn’t know the answer to that. But when I heard him say tomorrow, I couldn’t help but be surprised myself. I didn’t think we were starting that early. How the hell did they get me enrolled as a student already?

“Tomorrow?” I repeated. “How is that even possible?” I asked, voicing my thoughts out loud.
“We already enrolled you as a student before we stopped by your house today. Seeing that this is a special case the school allowed it. They know you’re there because of a case, but they don’t know anything further than that.”
“So they know it’s me? As in Lily Ace?”
“The superintendent does, but that’s about it. Everyone else will know you under a different name.”

“And what name will that be?” I asked.
“That’s up to you. We didn’t want to give you a random name, so we thought we’ll leave it up for you to decide.”

“You can take my last name!” Megan exclaimed excitedly. “We can tell people that you’re a distant relative of mine, and that you’re staying with me and my family for a few months.”

“That’s not a bad idea,” Demitri agreed. “Now we just need a first name.”
“Avery,” I immediately suggested.

“Your middle name?” Mom was the first to speak. “Are you sure sweetie? What if people piece it together, and connect you to Lily?”
“They won’t.” I waved my hand dismissively. “No one even knows my middle name anyways.”
“That’s true but—”

“It’s fine,” I assured her. “Plus, it’s better to use something Megan and I are familiar with. If we call out the wrong name, it could mean trouble.”
“Lily’s right,” Megan spoke up. “We call each other by our full names anyways, so calling Lily, Avery isn’t very hard to do.”
“They’re right,” Skylar asserted. “It’s better if they use a name they already associate with one another than with anything else. We can’t risk Megan calling her Lily by accident.”
“I guess that makes sense,” my mom said, finally agreeing with us. “Just be careful,” she said for the millionth time.
“I will mom.”
“Alright!” Demitri cheered, probably happy that everyone was on the same page. “From now on, you will be known as Avery Reed, a top secret agent for the FBI.”
As soon as he said that I couldn’t help but instantly be nervous. I’m actually going to do this tomorrow. I’m actually going to be a secret agent for these FBI cousins of mine. I just hope for their sake, Megan’s and mine, that I don’t mess anything up.