I could feel a disgusting taste in my mouth that made me want to vomit and my entire body ached in pain. I'd never felt so sore in my entire life, even after all the intense gym training sessions I'd ever had. This was a whole new level of pain.

I snapped my eyes open when memories flooded my head of why I was in pain. I was lying down and I could see the night sky. Confused, I used all my strength in my arms to help myself sit up, noticing the bandages wrapped around my thigh as I did so. I was hit with a pounding headache and grabbed my head, trying to balance it. I felt like I was going to pass out or throw up.

After a moment, I realized I was outside Kennedy High. The doors to the building were wide open and members of the RUA were walking in and out of the building constantly. There were black vans everywhere, surrounding the area and yellow police tape behind the vehicles, stretching across the entire length of the school that read: CRIME SCENE DO NOT CROSS

Behind the tape, stood a huge amount of confused formally dressed students that must have been evacuated from the building. Along with them were staff and other members of the public, watching on in anticipation. I noticed a reporter standing behind the tape, talking into a microphone, being filmed by a cameraman. I was on the other side of the tape along with the RUA vans, police cars, and agents who were interviewing other students and talking amongst each other.

I turned around and realized from the supplies behind me and the stretcher that I was lying on that I was in an ambulance. Oh my God. I'd survived. I actually got out of the classroom. I was breathing. I couldn't hide the relief and happiness on my face. I laughed, shaking my head. Unbelievable. I leaned back on the bed, trying to recover from the overwhelmed feelings hitting me. I could hear the sound of helicopters and looked up to see one directly above the school building - another news channel. Never in a million years would anyone have expected a case like this to get so much attention. A high school drug bust of all things.

The RUA were probably going to kill me for dragging them this far into the spotlight. They liked to stay quiet and remote.

I wanted to stay lying on that stretcher. I wanted to fall asleep on it, or black out again to ignore the pain I was feeling but I couldn't get the worried feeling out of my stomach that I needed to see everyone and find out what was going on.

I closed my eyes tightly for a moment, enjoying whatever peace I had left before pulling myself up again and dragging my body to the edge of the stretcher. I felt my legs dangle off and breathed through the pain I was already feeling from that slight maneuver. This is going to hurt like a bitch.

I slowly began to slide off the bed, preparing to let my feet hit the ground. As they did, I pursed my lips, trying not to let out any signs of pain. My legs hurt. Especially my thighs. It appeared like they'd been medically treated and some of the pain had been numbed but it still hurt like hell. It had been a struggle just to stand up.

I looked around for a paramedic and realized they weren't there. I decided I had to be quick to sneak off considering that I probably wasn't allowed to be out of the stretcher.

I peered my head out of the vehicle, looking around at the agents for any sign of Eric as I turned my back to the public and media that were a couple meters away from me only separated by yellow police tape. I knew they would have all been looking at me and I didn't want their attention. I continued scanning the people in front of the school building. Throughout the swarm of agents I couldn't see him but felt relieved when I saw a snippet of long blonde hair. I took a step forward, trying to pretend the pain shooting up them wasn't there as I limped my way over to Cassie.

My legs wobbled slightly and I worried I was going to collapse from the weakness I felt. As I approached, some of the agents began to take notice of me, staring at me like I was some kind of alien. Cassie turned to see the commotion and her face lit up when she saw me.

She ran over to me, thankfully saving me the rest of my walk as she embraced me lightly, aware of my pain.

"Thank God you're okay," she let out a shaky breath as she held me. I smiled, hugging her back with any strength I could. "But you shouldn't be out of the bed," she noticed, pulling back from the hug.

"What's going on?" I asked, ignoring her comment. The last thing I was worried about was myself.

She looked at me, with a smile of admiration. "Well, you just took down two girls who were in possession of a gun and knife while you had no weapons,"

I let out a laugh that also felt like a cry as I was overwhelmed with my own feelings. "But what else happened? I blanked out."

"Those two nitwits are in custody and are probably being handcuffed right now as we speak. You're going to need to be interviewed about what happened. Was there anyone else involved or was it just Tasha and Violet? If any accomplices are still out there, we need to know." she asked, flooding me with information.

"No, somehow it was just the two of them," I responded, shrugging at how stumped I was.

She raised her eyebrows, crossing her arms. "Huh. Didn't think they would have the intelligence to pull that off."

"I know, I didn't ever think it would be them," I laughed, almost with dark humor.

"They weren't even on our suspects list!" she exclaimed back, smiling in shock. "Never would have called that one."

I laughed with her, feeling at peace for a moment after getting a better understanding of the situation but stopped after I realized something. "I'm going to be in a lot of trouble aren't I?"

Her laughter faded as she took in my worried expression. "No, you're not. I'm sure a few of the agents, maybe Captain may grill you but trust me, it would have been a lot worse if those girls had gotten away. In retrospect, all you did was save us a couple extra days on this case."

I released a deep breath. "But what about all this attention?" I asked, gesturing to the hundreds of people from far behind us. "The RUA surely isn't going to be too happy about that,"

She shrugged, "Ah, They'll get over it, they're big boys."

I could still hear the sound of the chopper above us and the crowd talked loudly looking around but I refused to glance over at them, keeping my back turned.

I couldn't hold back my questions anymore. "Where's Eric? And Debby?" I pressed, in anticipation.

"Eric's helping Turner and a few other agents disable the cameras inside the building. He came and checked on you when you were still passed out. Your friend's right over there," she smiled pointing to the front steps of the building.

I looked behind her shoulder and saw Debby sitting on the high steps in front of the building with Kevin next to her. I was confused by his appearance but didn't question it as all I could feel was happiness at seeing they were both okay.

"Go see them," she urged, waving me in their direction, rolling her eyes.

I gave her a confused look, "You're not going to send me back to the ambulance?"

"Don't make me change my mind," she rolled her eyes as she crossed her arms. "Be quick, though."

"Thank you," I whispered, feeling grateful and relieved.

"That's o-Oh!" she yelled suddenly, startling me. "Well, well, look who's here!" she called out from behind me.

I turned around in the direction of the media and saw an FBI van parked behind the tape with agents filing out. A few of them looked up at Cassie, hearing her yell.

"Um, Cas?" I looked at her, trying to inform her she had a large audience including a film crew. She didn't care.

"Look who beat you to it!" she continued yelling to their confused faces. "We totally got this mission solved, you guys can go home now!"

"Alright Cas, I'm going now," I laughed, walking away from her. She ignored me, as she continued yelling remarks at them.

"FBI my ass, you guys couldn't even solve a math question if you needed to, yet alone a mission! Suck on that!" she continued to yell at the group of agents from a far away distance.

I grinned, shaking my head as I limped away from her. I looked up to see that Cassie's yelling had caught the attention of Debby and Kevin who were now looking at me. I smiled and waved, limping over to them as they stood up.

"Thank God," Debby said simply, grabbing my and pulling me into a tight hug as I reached her. I felt Kevin's arms also wrap me from behind as I stood there, unable to move.

"Um, guys, ow." I squeaked out from the pain of their tight hug.

"Oh God, sorry." Debby gasped, releasing me. I felt Kevin let go as well.

"It's fine," I chuckled. "I'm just so glad you guys are okay."

"Us?" Debby asked, stunned. "What about you? Look at your self!"

I looked down at my bandages wrapped around my thighs and the scratch marks up and down my arm, along with the tight marks and bruises on my wrists from where duct tape had been previously. I knew my hair must have been a mess also, and I wasn't even going to think about how much my makeup must have run after all the crying I'd done.

"I spoke to the ambulance dude and luckily the wounds on your thighs weren't too deep, your legs will be fine, maybe a little scarring." she continued, informing me.

I laughed, "I'm just thankful I can still walk."

"You have to tell me what the hell happened to you in there," she pressed, staring into the open school building and empty hallways.

"I'd like to know why Kevin's here first!" I exclaimed, smiling at my obviously still shaken up friend.

She grinned, "I'm sorry! I thought you were going to die or something when I saw you out here on a freaking stretcher! I'd been evacuated out of the building with everyone else with no idea what was going on, and then I just see you lying there half dead, I panicked! I called Kevin up crying and explained everything to him when he got here."

"It's true," Kevin nodded, looking around the area, still stunned. "But I'm glad you're okay, I was worried for a moment."

I sighed, "I guess we could just get Kevin to sign the same agreement you did about being quiet about this whole investigation and my identity. Then again, I guess it over so it doesn't really matter. Might as well just tell the world." I joked.

"That reminds me.." Debby began, looking guilty.

I turned back to her. "What?"

"I...may have called your Mom." she admitted sheepishly.

"What?" I felt my eyes widen. Before she could reply, I watched something else catch her attention and turned around to see my Mom approaching from the car park on the side of the building.

She was wearing an emerald green dress like she'd been out all night. Standing next to her was a man who didn't look too much older, wearing a suit. I waved at her, smiling softly as she noticed me.

She spotted me and began running with the man keeping up behind her. When she approached the police tape, she ignored it, going under it, and ran towards me. I limped a few steps forward as she came closer and embraced her as she hugged me. I closed my eyes, crying softly. A while ago I'd been worried I would never be able to hug her again.

"My baby," she cried, continuing to hold me.

"I'm okay," I assured her, not wanting to spark any more worry than my appearance probably was.

"What the hell is going on?" she inquired, still holding me in her embrace.

"Everything's okay, I'll tell you later," I felt too tired to explain it all now. I peered over my Mum and look at the man standing a few meters behind her. He had dark brown hair that was going slightly silver at the top and he had creases next to his eyes as he smiled, watching the two of us hug.

"Who's this?" I whispered in my Mom's ear.

She released me finally, turning to the man on her left. "Becca, this is Michael." she introduced.

I waited for further explanation, still confused.

"He's the man... I've been seeing," she cautiously began to explain.

I raised my eyebrows, surprised. I took in the man's appearance more carefully. He didn't look like he sold CDs on a street corner.

"Tonight, I went out to bring him home so you could meet him," she continued. "You can only imagine my surprise when I found out you weren't home. I was so worried but figured you'd gone to see Kevin or Debby and needed your space. But then I got Debby's call," she said, her eyes drifting to my red-headed friend who was sitting next to Kevin, resting her head on his chest.

"I was so worried about you," My Mom finished, wiping her eyes.

"Everything's okay, I'm fine," I smiled. I looked beside my Mom at Michael.

"It's nice to meet you," I smiled warmly.

"You too," he smiled back. "Though I didn't exactly picture us meeting like this," he laughed.

I laughed as well. "Yeah, I'm sorry about that."

I looked behind him into the crowd and noticed a confused Misty and Charlotte standing amongst the other students. The glanced over at me and their eyes widened.

"Excuse me for a second," I muttered as I limped past Michael over to the yellow police tape that separated me from the crowd of seniors. I tried to keep my walk steady but knew I must have looked like some sort of baby giraffe that had just been given birth to as I stumbled towards the two.

Misty looked at me with concern, creasing her forehead in worry as Charlotte waved at me when she caught my attention.

"Hey guys," I croaked out, smiling softly at them as I reached them, only the yellow police tape separating us.

"What happened? Oh my God, are you okay?" Charlotte piped up immediately.

"I'm fine, everything's okay." I breathed out.

"Are you sure? Cause you kinda look like hell," Misty scanned my appearance up and down.

I nodded solemnly, "Yeah. There was just a bit of an incident tonight."

"Quite some incident," Misty muttered, watching the FBI agents walk onto the scene.

"Mmm," was I could say in response.

I let silence fall over us as thoughts flooded my head of what I was supposed to tell them. I knew they probably had more questions than I could possibly imagine.

"Seriously though Amanda, what went down tonight?" Charlotte pressed, desperate for information.

I pursed my lips, trying to find the words to explain to them the situation. I felt reluctant to mention too much just in case it was all still under 'private investigation'.

I sighed, "I honestly don't know how much I can tell you." I shrugged, "I'm still trying to work out some of it myself. But... I guess I should let you guys know something."

They looked at me, eagerly waiting for me to continue.

Here I go.

I sucked in a deep breath, not prepared for what I was about to say.

"My name's not actually Amanda. It's Becca."

I looked at them, nervously awaiting their reaction. They continued to stare at me with the same vacant expression.

"Wait, what?" Charlotte furrowed her brows.

Looks of confusion spread over both of their faces as a huge breeze blew past that made me shiver. We had drowned out all the noises around us of sirens, choppers, and loud chatting.

"I've been going to Kennedy High undercover this entire time. To try and track down the suppliers of the NT drug." I continued to try and awkwardly explain.

"What?" Misty screeched.

I looked at them, feeling guilty. I had lied and betrayed them. For the past few weeks I had been Amanda Ryan, the girl from LA who had two happily married parents and was rich enough to ride a limo to school every morning when in reality, I was Rebecca Winters. The girl whose life had practically revolved around gymnastics until she screwed that up. The girl who was too awkward to make friends outside of two people. The girl that had some dead beat Dad who was probably off in Jamaica with his new wife. The girl who still had feelings for the guy she knew she couldn't have. The girl who had been attending a different school for the past few weeks when she had here own school to be going to. The girl that was so close to finishing senior year, yet had no idea what she would do with her future anymore.

I was the girl who had pretended to be someone I wasn't.

"So... you're like a nark or something?" Charlotte looked at me in horror.

"I- uh...kinda...I guess?" I stuttered. I'd never really thought about it that way, but I guess I was.

I could feel my stomach swirling in worry about what Misty and Charlotte would think of me. They were the only people I had met out of this entire experience that I had truly found genuine. I had seen how kind and lovely they could be and I had come to truly admire them - and now I was going to stuff it all up.

"So, you're like 30 then?" she continued to press.

I let out a shaky laugh. "No, I'm seventeen." I tried to explain. "Eighteen in a month."

"And... you were working undercover?" Misty questioned.

I nodded. "Yeah, I was hired by an agency to go undercover at your school to catch the drug dealers."

"So you were using me this entire time for information?" Charlotte exclaimed.

Misty ignored Charlotte's outburst. "Did you find the dealers?"

"Yeah." I nodded again. "Just tonight. And, I'm sorry Charlotte. For what its worth, I never meant to do this to you. I truly considered you a friend throughout this case."

She looked away from me, crossing her arms.

"I still do," I muttered.

"I just can't believe it." Charlotte scoffed.

"Me either," I whispered under my breath.

"Oh come on Charlotte, the poor girl has bandages wrapped around her from wounds and looks like hell. Can you just save your 'hurt child' attitude for another time?" Misty rolled her eyes.

I looked at Charlotte, with my eyes gleaming in hope. Was it too much of me to ask for her forgiveness?

"Everything I did was for the well being of this school. That drug was close to killing people." I assured her.

"She's right. I'd know all about that." Misty muttered, looking down solemnly before turning to Charlotte. "You would know all about that too." she reminded her.

Charlotte looked towards Misty briefly before returning her eyes to me. "I guess... that makes sense."

I smiled brightly, "So, we're still friends?"

She looked at me before giving in and offering me a small smile. "Okay,"

I let out a sigh of relief. I was glad I didn't have to end things on a bad note with her. Before I could say another word, a figure shuffled through the crowd. Henry emerged from behind Misty, looking at her in confused.

"Hey babe, what's going on?" he asked her, his hair a mess from pushing through the crowd.

Misty glanced at me quickly before turning to her boyfriend. "Uh, they just caught the dealer of Naughty Time."

His eyes widened. "What? Seriously?"

Before she could explain more, I cut in. "Yep. So that means your supply is gone. No more drugs for you."

Henry turned his head to me. "Who was the supplier?"

I gave him a sympathetic look. He had no idea- his own freaking sister. I imagined his family dinners were going to be a bit tense after this. "I'm sure that will all come out in due time but I can assure you, you'll be one of the first to know. But here's what important for now." I pointed at Misty. "You have a girl here who loves you a lot. Enough that she still stood by you while you stupidly almost threw your life away with drugs. Don't mess it up. And take care of her."

He stared at me, seemingly shocked with his mouth half opened as if to say something. But he decided against it, closing it and giving me a small nod.

"I need to go now. I have a lot of stuff to work out. But stay safe guys. I'm sure we'll talk again soon." I smiled. I turned my back to the yellow tape as I began walking back to my Mom and friends.

"Wait! Amand- Becca!" Charlotte corrected quickly.

I turned my head back to face her.

"Do you know where Tasha and Violet are?" She asked.

"Not currently," I answered almost truthfully, but I knew it was probably somewhere in police custody.

I continued the walk back to Debby, Kevin and my Mom - who had all been watching me the entire time.

"Becca I really want to know what's going on here." I watched my Mom looking around at the various vans and media that circled us. "Were you in a fight?"

"Something like that," I tried to explain.

"And what are you doing at a Kennedy High formal?" she continued pressing.

I bit my lip, trying to find the words to explain. "I've been here for more than a formal, Mom. But I don't really know how to explain this to you. It was a job. I just-" I sighed. "Maybe I should just get Captain or Eric to talk to you."

"Captain? Have you been working on a cruise liner?" she questioned, obviously confused. "What on Earth are you going on about?" she pressed.

I opened my mouth to respond but was distracted as I turned around and noticed agents filing out of the school building. My eyes fell directly on Eric as I watched him hand a large briefcase to another agent, muttering something to him. He stopped as his eyes drifted towards the side of the building and landed on me.

"Becca? Becca." My Mom attempted to catch my attention but I ignored her as I found myself walking towards Eric as fast as my painful legs would let me.

He realized what I was doing and began walking to me at a faster pace as if to save me the trouble.

I didn't know how mad he was going to be or how much he would yell. I had jeopardized the entire mission and put the RUA in front of a spotlight they didn't want. He was going to be really mad at me and I braced myself for the talk I would get. But before I knew it, we were an inch apart and he pulled me into a hug.

I clung onto him, startled at first by his sudden movement, but feeling the safest I had all night. I felt his hand move up my back and grab a fistful of my hair gently.

"Thank God you're okay," He whispered into my ear. I felt myself grow emotional, suddenly realizing how worried he must have been when he'd received that phone call.

I slowly grew calm and relaxed and wanted to stay in his embrace for the rest of the night. But I felt him slowly release me and let go of my hair after a few more moments.

"The girls are in custody and we're getting to the bottom of everything." he explained, "You're going to have to stay back a while. There's a lot we need to investigate."

I nodded, biting my lip. "That makes sense." The scene around us was still hectic and stressful to watch. I looked around watching all the agents and emergency services on the scene knowing that I was responsible for them being there. I caused all this.

"I'm sorry," I whispered, looking down at the ground. "About everything."

Eric shook his head, and I brought my eyes back to his. "None of this is your fault. I should be the one apologizing. The siege wasn't a good idea. The reason we brought you into this mission was so you could help us arrest the dealers and yet we didn't even allow you the chance to do that. The idea of using you as some sort of decoy was stupid. I doubted you, and I'm sorry." His face was full of seriousness but a small grin escaped. "But you did it."

I gestured towards the scene around us. "Did I?"

He nodded. "You did. Yeah, okay, it wasn't exactly as planned and completely dangerous and reckless of you but, you managed to avoid any fatalities and as long as you're okay, that's all that matters."

I felt surprised by Eric's reaction to the whole situation. I thought he would have been more worried about the mission then myself, but he was proving me wrong.

"I just didn't mean for anything of this to happen. It was spontaneous. I got a text from the dealer at the agent's event and I should have gone straight to you but instead, I did the most idiotic thing ever by thinking I could handle it by myself. I didn't think it would blow this far out of proportion." I tried to explain.

"Why didn't you come to me?" he asked, furrowing his brows.

I looked up at Eric, studying his dark eyes as they looked into mine.

I sighed. "Because I was being immature and stupid. But that's still no excuse. This was a serious case with lives that could have been endangered."

"I know... we had some things to work out. But first, you need to get back to that stretcher." he instructed.

I groaned, letting out a small smile. "Do I have to?"

"Come on," he smiled back.

He grabbed my arm and placed it on him for support as we began walking towards the ambulance that stood meters away from us.

"Captain's really going to murder me for attracting all this attention." I drifted my eyes towards the media who were filming and taking photos of the scene.

Eric laughed as he continued to steady my walk. "He'll get over it. Worse things have happened."