The rest of the day flew by pretty quickly, much to my surprise. I realized that was probably because I wasn't exactly in a rush to get home and confront my mother. But I knew one thing, whenever she had a problem she'd never leave it alone. I was proved correct when I opened the front door to enter the house and she was standing in the middle of the doorway.

"Can we talk?" she was wearing old saggy jeans and no makeup which for her, was rare.

I pushed past her so I could enter the house. "I'm not really in the mood"

"He's a nice guy Becca," she began saying anyway.

I rolled my eyes as I walked into the kitchen with her following me.

"Great. I hope you both have a great time," I said sarcastically as I grabbed on apple from the fruit bowl and walked to the fridge and opened the door scanning the contents inside.

"I'm sorry I kept it from you, I just didn't want t-"

"I don't really care what your excuse is this time, Mom. I'm tired and I'm going to bed," I closed the fridge and pushed past her again.

I heard her call out to me as I walked up the stairs. "You want to go out for dinner?"

"No thank you!" I called back angrily as I entered my bedroom and shut the door behind me.

I felt slightly guilty. I'd never spoken to my Mom like I had in the past two days. But I was just so angry at her. With all the things going on in my life her dating some weirdo was really the last thing I needed.

I collapsed on my bed and took a bite out of the apple that was still in my hand. One thing was for sure, if we were going to keep fighting like this, I would have to plan my dinners better.

I didn't remember the exact time I fell asleep but I knew it must have been late since I woke up the next morning feeling more tired than ever. I had stayed in bed grumbling for a few minutes before I shot up when I realized something. Eric would be back today.

I quickly hopped out of bed and started getting ready. Winter meant cold mornings where you could barely get out of bed because the second you did, any warmth you had left would be gone. I suddenly longed for the summer days to arrive so I could be with Kevin and Debby on the beach in the heat like we always did. And not have to worry about schoolwork.

Today was my last day to get any extra information I could about suspects for this case before I would have to report it all to Eric. I also had to give him the number I'd gotten from Tasha. The number that would lead us to whoever was behind this all.

I'd hoped that maybe Eric would have made an early return when I arrived at the RUA later that morning but was disappointed to see that was not the case. I did, however, notice a few agents running around the place frantically.

"What up with them?" I asked Cassie as I pointed at the two agents that were digging through a file cabinet desperately.

"Preparing for Eric's return," Cassie answered, rolling her eyes. She obviously wasn't as worried as the others.

"He doesn't seem like someone that would scare all the others." I watched as another agent typed quickly on a computer monitor.

"He isn't, he's strict, but my bet is that they're all just trying to get their cases together to get in his good books." she watched the agents in a bored manner.

"Must be the perks of being the head agent," I joked.

"Well sure, if you consider it being a perk being harassed constantly by other agents trying to impress you. I honestly have no idea how he deals with it," she smirked watching the agents.

When I made it to school later that morning, I kept to myself. I let Tasha do all the talking when she mentioned yet again how amazing prom was going to be and how that Charlie guy from maths class asked her to the event.

"Has anyone asked you?" she pressed when she'd finally stopped discussing herself for a moment.

I shook my head.

"I can get you a date, I heard that Shaun Leroy still looking for a partner, or maybe one of Henry's friends coul-'

"I'm not going," I cut in quickly. "To prom, I mean."

Her eyes widened in horror. "You're not?"

"Yeah, I told you that a few days ago." I reminded her. Obviously, she hadn't been listening to me as always.

"Why not?" she flicked her hair behind her shoulder.

I shrugged. "I've got to study."

I listened to her argue on how prom was way more important than learning for the next few minutes until thankfully, the bell rang and we went our separate ways for classes.

I walked quickly to the health room for my first period, making my way through the huge crowd of people that seemed to just be standing in the middle of the hallway for nothing. I always got irritated when people were blocking me from my locker or classroom for no reason.

When I finally escaped the crowd, I made my way to the classroom and walked in. I always liked to sit near the windows to be near the sun. It was pretty much the only light source in the whole room as the teacher kept the room dark. It was apparently due to that fact that germs reproduced 80% faster in bright light and she was a total germ freak. It didn't take long until a few of Tasha's followers found me and sat next to me. I gave them a quick smile of acknowledgment but the turned my head away from them and stared out the window.

I couldn't help but wonder what Kevin and Debby were doing at that moment. He would have been in Physics and she would have been having her study lesson in the library. I would have been in English, probably doing that speech I promised Mr. Dennis I would have ready. At least when I got back there I would be able to hand in work on time, considering I didn't have gymnastics to worry about anymore. I wondered if he'd noticed my absence all this time.

"Sorry I'm late class," Ms. Polizi apologized as she entered the room grasping a folder and laptop in her hands. She was wearing woolen black gloves which made sense because of the cold weather but she wore them all the time anyway to avoid her skin actually coming in contact with unsanitary things. When I was researching suspects with Eric, we actually looked at her file and found out that she used to work in a bat rehabilitation center, which is where her fear of germs must have started. Working with bats wasn't exactly the most hygienic job out there.

The twirled my pen in my hand and the lesson drawled on and looked for anything to distract me from Ms. Polizi's voice. I decided to think more about the case. This whole case to catch one high school student or possible teacher that was behind this all. I wondered who it could be. Had I met them yet? Or where they just someone who lurked in the shadows that I hadn't noticed yet.

The sound of a car door shutting interrupted my thoughts. I looked back towards the direction of the window to see the sound had been from the door of a black van. Two men wearing black jackets were standing outside the vehicle and I watched as Principal Constance walked over towards the men with the deputy Principal follow behind her as well. I couldn't hear their conversation with the men but still continued trying to listen in on the muttering. I didn't know what was going on, but it looked serious. The spoke a few more words to each other and then all proceeded to walk back into the school building. I watched as one of the men in black jackets turned his back to me. I saw the yellow writing on his jacket clearly. FBI.

She hadn't been kidding when she said they were trying to catch this dealer. I looked back at the class to see if any of them had noticed the scene outside but everyone was looking half asleep, barely paying attention to this.

So the FBI were helping out now. That had to be good...right?

The day went slower after that as I urged to go back to headquarters to report on the strange events I'd seen in that Health lesson so when I finally did make it back to the RUA, there was no stopping me from charging out of the elevator.

Turner and I walked towards Eric's office at a fast pace before Cassie joined us. "He got back about an hour ago," she informed the two of us. "He wants to see you," Cassie muttered lowly to me. I nodded as I continued walking with the two of them. I suddenly felt nervous. My stomach was swirling and my heart was already beating faster. I hadn't seen him since last Saturday when we...

Cassie opened his office door before I could finish thinking. Eric was sitting at his desk but looked up when he saw us. I felt relief hit me when I saw that he looked okay. His mission had sounded dangerous and it was good to know he was safe. He stood up immediately as he saw us enter.

He looked directly at me and I felt my heart skip a beat as it always did. I'd missed that feeling but also knew it was probably not appropriate.

"How is your mission going?" he asked me. Of course, that was all he cared about.

"It's been going alright," I answered briefly.

"No issues?" he pressured further, raising an eyebrow.

I shook my head and he let out a sigh of relief. He ran a hand through his hair as he closed his eyes. I suddenly noticed how tired he looked. After working whatever tough mission he'd been on, he'd come straight back to the RUA afterward meaning he was probably lacking sleep.

"Did anything happen today?" Cassie asked me. I'd almost forgotten she and Turner were still in the room, standing directly behind me. 

"Oh," I said, stepping back so I wasn't in front of her anymore. "I did notice something today. I think the Principal wasn't kidding around when she said that they were going to get to the bottom of everything. She's brought in the FBI."

Before I could continue, Eric, Cassie, and Turner all sighed, almost in sync like a chorus.

"What? Isn't that a good thing? Like, extra help or something?" I was confused by their reaction and furrowed my brows.

"Those stupid big shots," Cassie groaned, ignoring my question.

"Of course, they had to get involved," Turner added. "Why do they always do this?"

"I still don't see the problem," I looked at the three of them and their irritated expressions.

"You had competitors from other schools in your gymnast competitions Becca, how did you relate to them?" Cassie asked me with an arm gesture.

I didn't see how it was relevant to what was happening, but I answered anyway. "I, uh, didn't really talk to any of them. I mean we were competitors and I found it was best to keep just to myself. Otherwise, it's just distracting."

"Exactly. It's the same with us and them." Cassie explained. "We don't get involved with them unless we have to for missions. They always trying to solve our cases. They're a pain in the ass."

"They don't know we're working this case though right?" I asked.

"They'll work it out sooner or later," Eric said, sounding calmer than Cassie. "It's not exactly like it's secret information. We often do make alliances with them but they're not the easiest bunch of people to get along with."

"We need to get a move on," Cassie said to Turner. He nodded briefly and followed her out of the office, shutting the door behind them.

I didn't know if it was any awkwarder with or without them in the room. Eric and I were now left alone. Suddenly everything about our kiss on Saturday night came flooding back to me. The feeling of his hands holding my wrist, his breathing on my neck.

"There's something else about the case," I began quietly after we were left in silence. I was trying my best to distract myself from those thoughts and get back to the real issue at hand.

He looked at me, patiently waiting for me to continue. I reached into my pocket and pulled out the piece of paper. The same one that I had originally written the number on when I copied it from Tasha. I handed him the paper carefully.

"Tasha gave me a number. It's supposed to be the number of the dealer." I explained.

I watched his eyes slightly widen in intrigue as he took the paper from me.

"If you text the number saying you're looking for a hookup, apparently you get a text back with some location where you meet the dealer and swap some cash for the drugs." I elaborated further. "I obviously wasn't going to do anything like that but I gave the impression that I would."

He studied the number written on the paper carefully. "No one was suspicious when you asked for the number?"

"Tasha isn't one to really look into things," I shrugged. "She just figured that I really wanted the drugs. Plus, she basically offered it to me. I'm sure she's given it out to most of her other friends."

He looked at me in a bewildered but impressed way that I rarely received from him. It made me feel proud that I had accomplished something big finally.

"So now what?" I asked, eager to hear the plan.

He was silent for a moment, deep in thought before replying. "We organize a time for you to text this number, then we get a few agents on the scene and we arrested whoever is behind this."

"So I'm just going to be some sort of bait?" I furrowed my brows in confusion. "What about all that training we did? Combat? You taught me how to arrest someone."

"The training was for in case you needed it for backup. In this case, we don't need it."

Backup? I felt myself growing a mix of anger and hurt. They really thought I was just some kid. Some stupid kid they couldn't even trust.

"So let me get this straight," I crossed my arms defensively. "You want to just use me as some damsel in distress? Some distraction so all the real agents can come in and do the job?"

Eric sighed. "It's not like that."

"Oh, then please do tell me what it is like Eric. I didn't realize my job description read 'decoy and distraction'. It seems like I've done nothing productive for this case." I didn't want to get too upset but I had been feeling pretty good about myself right up until that point. Now I just felt useless.

"You have," Eric tried to assure me. "You've done a lot. You just got us the phone number that will lead us straight to the dealer. This case will be over by Monday."

I felt like I had been slapped. Over by Monday? I stayed silent for a moment trying to process it. I would be back to my normal life sooner than I expected. "That's it?" I asked after a minute. "And then we all just get back to our lives?"

"More or less," he replied, without showing any emotion.

I couldn't mask the hurt in my voice. "Even after we..." I stopped, feeling myself grow more hurt.

It didn't take Eric long to work out what I was referring to. "I'm sorry" was all he said.

"It doesn't matter," I mumbled as I turned around grabbing the door handle. I opened the door and walked out not shutting it. I made my way to the elevator and waited impatiently for the doors to open. When they finally did, I stepped in and waited for the doors to close again.

It did matter.

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A/N:  SORRY FOR UPDATING SO LATE! I HAD REALLY BAD WRITERS BLOCK WITH THIS CHAPTER (living up to my username ahaha) BECAUSE I DID SOMETHING CONFUSING AND THEN IT STUFFED ME UP BUT AHH WE'RE BACK ON TRACK GUYS! ONLY A FEW CHAPTERS LEFT! THIS BOOK WILL BE FINISHED IN LESS THAN 3 WEEKS HOPEFULLY! THANKS FOR 10K! x