It was Friday morning and the silence was killing me. For once in the entirety of my mission the popular table was deadly silent at breakfast. No gossiping or fighting. Just silence. It was creepy.

            Tensions were high between all the Juniors who were trying to be crowned the princess of the fall dance. Of course, it wasn't as bad as the Senior table. They weren't even eating. This school took it's school dances and labels seriously. I seemed to be the only one at the table who was weirded out by the sudden silence. The other tables, the ones full of kids that the popular kids never even bothered to learn the names of, were excited today, chattering nonstop. It seemed that the different social groups took the competition and the actually dancing part of it in different ways.

            "So," I say, trying to break the silence that had taking a deafening turn.

            No one looks at me. They keep staring at their food like it's the most interesting thing in the world. I sigh out loud and get out of my chair. This was boring and I'd rather be doing something of importance, like telling Jake my suspicions of who one of the spies was.

            I walked out of the cafeteria and into the hall. I remembered which building the teachers and substitutes lived in, building three. I had gotten a tutoring pass from Jackson long ago, just in case we needed to share information after or before school hours. Tutoring passes allowed the students to walk into the teachers dorms without questions. I made my way to his red door and knocked. He was most likely asleep because he wasn't substituting today.

            I waited for the sound of someone falling out of a bed and scuffing feet as he shuffled to the door. When he opened the door I could tell that he hadn't gotten much sleep last night. His eyes were sunken and his face was grey.

            "Sa- Ashley, what are you doing here?" He yawned.

            "I have a test on Monday that I need help to study for." I said.

            "Okay, come in." He yawned again after letting me in and closing the door behind me.

            Of course, I did have a test on Monday, but I never study because I already knew all the material. Asking to study was our code for, we need to talk.

            "What do you need?"

            "I think I know when they're going to take her." I blurt out before I can stop myself. I had had this suspicion for a while and I just needed him to hear it. I also had a pretty good idea who it was that was going to take her.

            "Really?" Jackson perks up. He seemed more interested than he was before. It must've been because of the boring job he was stationed at.

            "Yes. I think they'll take her at the fall dance. It's a perfect plan. Everyone will be wearing masks and no one will notice if she's missing until morning. I also have an idea of who one of the other spies is."

            "Okay, who?" He looked nervous.

            "Lilly."

            "Why?" he looked surprised now. I thought it was obvious, who wouldn't be able to tell?

            "Well, because she only started going to this school this year, right? And she is pretty suspicious if you ask me. We weren't even able to get a background check on her that was stable. If you asked me I would say that it could be her. The only thing that's bugging me is how could the organization that hired the gang have teenage spies? I mean -  we do,  but that is only because my parents went missing on a mission when I was little and I'm a child prodigy. I doubt that they could find someone more qualified than me to do this job at such a young age." The conversation turned quickly. I realized that I had gotten off topic, I was stating things that I didn't need him knowing.

            "That seems plausible, but are you sure that you're okay? You seem a little . . . stressed." Jackson hints.

            "Yeah," I sigh, "It's just that this is turning out to be harder than I thought that it would be. Who knew that there was so much drama and fuss in a boarding school?"

            Jackson pulls me into a hug and wipes away a tear of frustration that I hadn't noticed was there. "Probably every other teenage girl in the world, Sam. You can't let this get to your head."

            "You're right," I say, "I'm just overreacting to it. I should probably alert the agency of my suspicions anyway, they'll need to know if we have anymore potential suspects before the opposition finds out."

            "Wait," Jackson stops me, "let me do that. You already have enough on your mind as it is."

            "Thanks, I wasn't aware you had much contact with the agency anyway. And make sure when you tell them that you also tell them that the other spy is most likely a mole. How else could they know what we know?" I state the last of my suspicions.

            I mean - how else could they know all about who the UIA's spy was and what I looked like? It was the perfect plan. I just hoped that the mole wasn't someone close to me. It would be horrible to learn that someone you trusted with your life would drop you at any moment if it meant saving their own butts first.

            "I will." He assures me as I rush back out into that hall.

            If my calculations were correct, I would be able to get to my first period on time if I took a shortcut. I was hoping that the tensions between the popular kids would diminish in the time that it took for breakfast to be over. I hope to god that I'm not wrong.

            Lunch time came around and it was time for the voting to commence. The boxes were labeled by grades and separated by the guys and girls. Almost every person in our grade had gone up there and voted by the middle of lunch. Some of the desperate campaigners were handing out cupcakes and buttons. I gladly took some cookies that Julia had her father ship over form the best cookie factory in the world. If I had to guess, I would say that Julia was definitely the favorite for the princess of the fall dance. I'm guessing that her roommate from the year before had told her own friends to vote for Julia too, because it seemed that there were definitely more Juniors holding cookies than there were holding cupcakes or buttons given out by the other contestants.

            I had volunteered for the ballet counting after school today, but apparently the contestants aren't allowed to count the votes because they could tamper the results. I thought that was quite a stupid reason, but whatever.

            "So, who do you think will win the King and Queen of the fall dance?" Julia starts a conversation.

            "Definitely Kali Kauffman and Drew King. They're like so perfect together." Lauren says.

            "No, I think it will be Becky Highsworth and Randy Laffoon. They're like the sweetest pair of Seniors ever." Max said.

            "What about that one girl, what's her name? oh yeah, Marissa. She's really nice."

            "No, she's a freak. She doesn't even know the difference between eye liner and eye shadow. Have you seen how thick she makes her eye liner? It's just awful."

            "Okay, what about Michael Patton?"

            The rest of lunch was the same. It wasn't until last period did they finally stop arguing over who they thought would win the crown. I was personally thankful when they stopped talking and let my mind have a rest from high school politics. I was starting to envy when it was silent during breakfast.

            The final bell rang a little earlier than usual and the crowd of students rushed to go out to town or to their dorms to get ready. I was pushed along with the flow from the halls. I finally made it to my dorm with all my limbs intact after five minutes of trying not to be dragged along with the crowd. Teenagers were deadly when you gave them an opportunity.

            I laid down on my bed as I waited for Julia to come find her way back to the dorm. As I waited I looked at the dresses she planned for us to wear for the dance. One was obviously smaller than the other. Julia had lied when she said she had an extra dress, she probably had gone out and got me one so I wouldn't have to go out myself, which was nice of her. The one that was more my size was bright green and sparkly. It wasn't too short and it wasn't too low. I was thankful for that.

            I just wished that there wasn't such a bad feeling deep down in my gut that tonight was the night that it would all turn around. Tonight is the night when everything is going to change.