My Undercover Life

Episode 6

“You, you. When you say “love you, love you”, you make me believe. You, you, when you silently, look into my eyes and laugh you make me laugh. The reasons why I like yo—”
The rest of the lyrics were drowned out when I groggily pressed the snooze button on my phone, silencing it. Giving out a loud yawn, I rolled over, pressing my face against my pillow. I sighed comfortably, feeling the soft texture underneath my face. I was about to shut my eyes when I heard my mother’s voice.

“Lily, it’s time to get up for school! You don’t want to miss another day of learning do you?” she asked. I couldn’t help but groaned loudly. She just had to say that. Since my cousins Skylar and Demitri came over yesterday, I missed my lessons with my home tutor. Apparently when I was getting my makeover, she came over, but they politely sent her home. When my mom first found out about it, she wasn’t exactly happy. To her, missing one day worth of classes was missing a whole week’s worth of school. I, for one don’t really care if I miss one day of school. I mean, it’s not like the end of the world or something.

“Lily! Do you hear me?” she once again yelled, banging her knuckles against my door. I knew if I didn’t answer her soon, the pounding would only get louder and louder before she unlocks my door and force me out of bed.
“I’m up!” I answered, the sleepiness still evident in my tone of voice.
“Good.” I could literally picture my mom’s triumphed face right now. “Be ready and downstairs in half an hour.”

It took a minute, but when her words finally hit me, my eyes widened in shock. Wait!? Half an hour? There’s no way I can get ready in time! Trying not to panic, I kicked the cotton sheets off my body, not caring if they landed on the ground or not. Sprinting towards my closet, I hurriedly grabbed my uniform hanging neatly on the rack, before I ran towards my bathroom.

Stripping out of my clothes, I took the fastest shower in my life, and threw on my undergarments and uniform, leaving the tie loose on my neck. Running my brush over my newly styled hair, I noticed I didn’t have that many knots like I would normally have when my hair used to be curly. Whatever they did to it worked miracles and made my hair permanently straight. I made a note to thank them if I ever see them again.

Once I had my hair the way I wanted it, I quickly ran my toothbrush filled with toothpaste over my teeth, before spitting the content out, and rinsing with a glass of water. I put on the dark eyeliner, and makeup the stylist taught me, before I put my fake piercings on my lip.

Giving myself an once over in my full length mirror, I make sure everything was perfect before I headed back to my bed, and grabbed my glasses, contacts and bag, and made my way downstairs. Skylar, Demitri, Megan and my mom was already waiting in the living room, talking amongst themselves quietly.

When they heard my footsteps, they turned their heads my way.
“Finally!” Megan cried, running up to me. “What took you so long? We’re going to be late!”

I puffed out my cheeks. “Look. A girl can not get ready for school in half an hour.”
“I did,” she countered back.
“Well . . . I had to put on my disguise!” I shout back, knowing that Megan would never accept that excuse.

“You didn’t even do a good job at it,” Demitri chimed in.
“Huh?” I looked at him. “What do you mean? I made sure everything was perfect!”
“Your contacts.” He pointed at my eyes.
“Shut up.” I blushed in embarrassment, forgetting I’d never put them on when I grabbed them at the last minute. “I was getting to it.”

“Sure, you were.” He didn’t sound convinced, and I was about to snap back at him, when my mom interrupted us, telling us we only had twenty minutes to get to school before the first bell rang.

“S–t. Let’s go! I can not be late!” Megan stressed, urging us forward, as she ran towards my mom’s jeep.

I vaguely heard my mom yelled “language” before the car door was slammed, cutting off whatever Megan was going to say next.
“Don’t forget to put on your contacts and your glasses. And also put this on,” Demitri instructed as Skylar got into their van.
It took every ounce of energy for me not to roll of my eyes at him. “Okay mom.” I did what he said, and carefully put my contacts on, before the pair of black rimmed glasses was placed back on my face. I took the small mic camera thing, and clipped it on my blazer. To anyone else it just looked like a regular pin you would clip to any old bookbag or something.

“Remember.” He pointed his finger at me. “Find them and collect.”
“Yeah, yeah. I got it. You don’t have to tell me twice. I know what I have to do.”

He smiled. Though it was kind of cocky. “Just making sure. Have a great day first day at school Avery,” he told me with a smirk, before heading towards his van and driving off first. I got in the back seat of my mom’s jeep before she also pulled out, heading straight for Woodway Prep.
When we arrived at the school, I couldn’t help but be impressed. The building itself was freaking huge! Given where I come from, I shouldn’t be blown away by a school’s grandeur but boy was it pretty. Woodway was like a castle but you know with red bricks and of course it didn’t have the pointed arches and columns. I guess it looked more like gothic architecture than anything.
“Pretty cool huh?” Megan asked catching the look in my eye, as I stared in awe.
“Try awesome!” I exclaimed excitedly. “I didn’t know you go to school everyday at a place like this!”
“Ha-ha. Just wait until you get inside. It’s not that amazing.”
“Okay, girls. This is our stop,” my mom said, cutting off my next words. After putting the car in park she faced us. “Megan, keep an eye on Lily and make sure she gets to her classes. You are her “cousin” now.”
“Don’t worry I will,” Megan promised, before she slided out of the front seat. As she shut the door, I climbed out of the back seat, and stood next to her.

“Thank you.” My mom smiled. “Have a great day at school.” She waved goodbye, as we watched her pulled out, her blue jeep disappearing from our line of view a few seconds later.

“Okay, let’s hurry up and get your schedule,” Megan said, leading me. I nodded, following her.

As we started walking down the parking lot I felt the eyes of many of my peers. I noticed some groups were quietly whispering to each other, as they tried to discreetly point at me. I guess, I couldn’t really blame them. It’s not every day you get a new student in the middle of the year especially when it’s your senior year.
“Do you think they’ll like me?” I whispered to Megan when I heard laughter. I silently hope this disguise wasn’t over the top.
“Of course they’ll like you!” she gushed, quickly to dismiss whatever I was thinking. “What’s not to like about you?” When she heard the giggling of some girls, she probably saw the drop of my shoulders.
“Don’t worry. They’re just jealous of your beauty,” she said trying to cheer me up. “Come on! Let’s go,” she said switching the subject. “Before we’re late.”

This time it was my turn to smile. “Okay, miss never late.”
“Hey! I take pride in that!” She chuckled as she dragged me to the front office. Megan was definitely wrong. The inside was just as gorgeous as the outside. I heard they remodeled four years ago when they wanted to get into the top most pretentious schools in the world. And they totally outdone themselves. I mean the lockers were freaking painted in the color of gold for crying out loud!

But of course I didn’t fully get to enjoy it’s interior when all I kept hearing about was soft whispers about me. I only caught some of the conversations, but I knew they were wondering who the new girl was.

By the time we made it to the front office, I had to hold myself back from punching the next guy who whistled. Gosh. Are rich guys really behaving like a bunch of assholes? Aren’t they brought up to be respectful and crap? So why the hell are they just acting like a bunch of pigs, who haven’t seen a girl in a million years?
“Avery Reed.”

When my name was called, I snapped out of my daze state, and turned to the women behind the counter.
“Huh?”
“Your schedule.” She had a piece of paper in her hands, and it looked like she was losing her patience by the second. Just how long was I just standing there?
“Um. Right. Thanks,” I softly spoke, taking the piece of paper in my hand.

“No problem. Have a great first day.” If it wasn’t for the obviously forced smile, I would had smiled back, but of course I didn’t.
“Let me see that.” Megan took the piece of paper in my hand, and began scanning her eyes over it as soon as we were out of the main office.
“Looks like you have College Biology first period.”

I couldn’t help the groan coming out of my mouth. Even though I was good at it, why did I had to have it first period? I’ll probably just sleep throughout the class. Why couldn’t I have a more relaxing first period like Study Hall or Art?
“Seriously!?” I asked anyways, hoping that Megan was just joking with me. But when she didn’t laugh, I knew she wasn’t kidding.
“Yeah,” she answered, giving me my schedule back. “Seems like it. And it doesn’t look like you have any classes with me.”

Frowning, I asked with a hopeful voice, “We do have at least the same lunch period right?”
“Yup!” she cheered, “We’re both seniors remember?”

“Of course I remember that.” I laughed. “So where exactly is this class of mine?”
“Room 567. You have it with Mr. Meyer.”
I bit my lips. “Is he nice?”
“The nicest! He’s pretty chill,” Megan responded, turning a corner, going up the stairs. I, of course followed her since I had no idea where room 567 was located.
“Okay. This is it.” Megan stopped outside my classroom, pointing at it. “My class is right down the hall, and I’ll meet you after class, so just wait for me, and I’ll show you to your next class.”

“Thanks! I’m so glad I have you with me.”
Her smile broaden. “Me too. I’ll see you later.” She waved before turning around, and headed to her own classroom.

Peaking inside, I saw that most of the students were already in their seats chatting away about the latest gossip or trends before the final bell rang. Before I entered, I took a deep breath. You can do this Lily. They’re just teenagers. They’re not going to bite you.

After a minute of deep breathing and exhaling, I walked in, catching the eye of everyone’s attention. They of course started whispering among themselves, as the teacher gave me a pleasant smile.

“You must be Avery Reed.”
“Yup, that’s me.”
“Welcome,” he said, “my name is Mr. Meyer, and I’ll be your teacher for College Biology this year. Would you like to introduce yourself or would you rather just start lab work?”
“There’s not much to tell, so I guess I’ll just start lab work.” To tell you the truth, I’m so glad this teacher gave me an option. I didn’t want to give out too much information about myself just yet.
“Well okay.” He chuckled at my response. “You can work with Bradlee in the back. We’re always one student short on partners, so I’m glad you came. Now Bradlee can actually work with a partner.” When I heard the name Bradlee, everything just froze. Don’t tell me Bradlee was the Bradlee I was looking for.
When I turned around, sure enough, Bradlee was sitting in the back with his headphones on. I thought everyone was gossiping about me, but I was wrong. He couldn’t care less. He was practically in his own little world; even when the teacher told Bradlee to take his headphone off and that I was his new lab partner.

He didn’t say anything but did what Mr. Meyer instructed.

As I passed the three rows of tables, a million of questions were thrown my way. Questions like: “Where did you move from?” “Are you related to Megan Reed.” “Do you have a boyfriend?” “Wow, you have awesome piercings. Where did you get those?”

I pretty much just ignored all of the questions thrown my way, answering the simple ones like the one that I was indeed related to Megan.

When I got to Bradlee’s table, I tried giving him a bright welcoming smile. “Hi,” I said, happily. Even though I was happy on the outside, I was anything but on the inside. This guy could be the killer.

I waited but he didn’t say anything. He didn’t even bat an eyelash, let alone move. All he did was stare at his cellphone like it was the most interesting thing in the world. Did he not hear me or something? Maybe I should speak louder? Or, was this what Megan meant when she said he doesn’t talk to anyone?

“Um. I’m Avery,” I told him a bit louder, grabbing the stool under the table. I took a seat, and set my bag on the stool next to me.

This time there was a slight pause in his hand movements, but within a millisecond, he went back to scrolling through his phone.
“Ah. What’s your name?” I tried again, hoping he would at least look at me!

I gave him a minute, hoping he would respond, but to my disappointment he didn’t. Guess, I was right. He’s going to be the most difficult to be friends with. Who am I kidding. Forget about friends. Getting him to talk to me will be a task all on it’s own. How the hell am I suppose to get a guy who supposedly don’t talk to anyone to talk to me?

“Uh, listen,” I started speaking, hoping this will work. He can’t be that heartless and ignore a new student, right? “I’m new here, and I don’t really know much about Biology or anything. And you seem like a cool guy.” I had to hold my tongue when I spoke that last part. “I was just hoping you could help a girl out, and um, help me?”

His thumb stopped, as I heard a slam of a cell phone. I jumped, startled by the loud sound. I was about to shield my face, when I saw that he wasn’t going to hit me. I lowered my arms slowly, and watched his movements closely. He snatched the worksheet from me, and produced a black pen from his jean’s pocket and soon started filling out the answers to the lab.

My eyes widened in shock. No way. He was actually doing what I asked?

Peaking up under my bangs, I focused on him, as he concentrated on the task at hand. Within five minutes, he placed the worksheet in front of me, filled with his neat handwriting. I scanned my eyes over the paper, reading them, and to my surprise, every single question was answered correctly. The only reason why I even knew I was right, was because I took College Biology last year. Even though I was only seventeen years old, I was years ahead. And it seems like Bradlee was too.

When I finally decided to look up, Bradlee was staring at me. His gray-ish blue eyes were a lot more darker than I’d remembered moments before. They were more icy, as they held a look of curiosity. He continued to stare at me to the point that it had me squirming in my seat.

The look he had was way too intense, and I had no idea what he was thinking about, and why he was looking at me like that. Not even five minutes ago he was ignoring my presence, and now he couldn’t stop looking at me. What the hell happened!?