Madame D's Surprise.

A tea party.

Of course.

We split into two groups, half pretended to be servants half pretended to be gentry. And then we switched. Of course we all had cover stories.

I was a servant for the first round. Jess was gentry. Alex was "gentry" too.
I tried to tell D'aja to go around a serve Alex's side of the table, but she didn't see me and went around the other way.

Drat.

So I went around the table, pouring tea and smiling.
"More tea?" I asked Alex politely.
"Yes, please."
I leaned over him and started pouring.
"You're smiling." he said
"Yes."
"Do you like me again?"
"No. I'm acting." I said and turned to leave.
"That's not your fake smile."
I turned back. "Maybe that was my real smile. Maybe this is my fake smile. Maybe it was all an act. Maybe you don't know me as well as you think. I sure as hell don't know you as well as I thought."

And I left.

He kept trying to catch my eye, but I ignored him.

Round Two:
Alex made sure he was serving my side of the table. How un-clandestine. I thought. When he came around he whispered " Kat. Please, I...."
"Just pour the tea and get away from me." I growled.
"I ...." he started again.
I discretely spilled my tea cup. Golden brown liquid soaked into the white table cloth and spilled onto my school uniform. I whipped at it with a napkin.
"Oh! You clumsy fool!" I screeched at him. D'aja, who was playing hostess told Alex to leave. He shot me a look, trying to read my expression. I looked away, toward the boy on my left. In the reflection of my spoon, I could see Alex watching me  from his place along the wall.

I think I made my point

-K
\

Trust

Nothing much going on to day. 

Here's a little update: 

Average day up ahead, 

I have my Polish-English translations due, a project involving rappelling cord and earbuds needs to be tested with Jess.and  Madame D has hinted about something special today. 

I'm still not talking in Alex. Most of the girls here ave forgiven them, but I don't trust people easily. It takes a lot to get me to open up. 

And when people break that trust.....

-K

Polite Potato Boy

So I was in the Kitchen. Louis was out so I had the room all to myself! He wanted to take the day off, which was fine with me, since it felt a little weird not doing all the cooking after his break.  When I bake by myself, well. especially if I'm spinning all over the room doing a million things, well....

I spin all over the room. 

Stir the sauce, slid over to the oven and check it. Peek in at the food cooling in the fridge, etc

I got in to a wonderful flow. I finished the sauce, a wonderful work of art, and had finally set it aside to cool.  Since nobody was watching. I went ahead and threw my spoon across the room into the sink. Hey. I'm a knife thrower. Of course it went in. 

Then I heard the clapping. 

I turned, already prepared on what cutting remark I could give Alec when I saw it was David. 

So I said. "Um. Hello?" 

Instead of saying something like, "that was a pretty dramatic spin back there between checking the over and getting some salt" he asked
 "Would you like some help?" 

"That would be nice." I answered, since you have to give a polite answer. Madame D. is back, for heaven's sake!

He walked in and started helping me peel potatoes. 

WOW. 

He is uber polite. 

Like, he has old fashioned country boy manners.

Madame D would be so proud!

-K 

(More Update Later) 

I'm A Mess

I guess you really want to hear about how the day went. Well, even the girls who are a little boy crazy ....well, we're Gallagher Girls. We're kind of...competitive. 

I've never seen such intense P&E  workouts. 

Maybe some of these girl think they look cuter if they're kicking someones butt. 

Maybe they just don't want to be shown up by some boy

I trained the same as I always do. I worked hard, but only hard enough to learn the move. Then I trained hard later that afternoon, when everyone else was busy.

We may be supposed to work with these boys, but there is no reason to show them more then I have to. 

Never give out free information.

But at the same time, I didn't let anyone take me down. I worked as hard as I needed to. I haven't sparred with any boys today. And the Culture and Assimilation class wasn't on anything to embarrassing.  That was nice of Madame D. 

I'm kind of exhausted. I still miss my parents. I don't know when they're are coming back. I miss them. I thought it would be better with everyone there. 

It isn't. The sun was going down and everyone was inside by the fire studying or watching TV. I snuck out to the barn and began to box. I worked and worked until I got into a flow, tears flowing freely down my face. I only broke out of my trance when my knuckles began to bleed. I dropped and began to do push ups until my stomach felt sick. 

I sat for a minute, breathing heavily. I was planning to go run in the woods, along the path. The dark didn't bother me. I opened the door and saw the rain pouring down. 

"To run or not to run?" I asked, my voice cracking. "I can't come in soaking wet, but I feel like a could use a run in the rain." 

"You don't look like you need to go out in the rain." Alec drawled from his spot in the loft. He was sitting with his back against the wall. A book lay across his lap. 

At times today, I was glad I had gotten Alec. Or Alec had gotten me. Whatever. 

But right now I was spitting mad. This was MY TIME. I clearly wanted to be alone. Why can't he let me be? 

I could have said something witty. Or cutting. Or things that would have made Madame D  (and Liz and my Mom ) wash my mouth out with soap. But instead I fixed him with an evil glare. I stared at him. He looked down, calmly meeting my eyes. 

I turned on my heel and fled. I walked stiffly out the door, but as soon as I was out of sight and hearing I ran. I ran back to the house, snuck up the back stairs to my room and turned on the bath water. Only then, with the  bathroom door locked, did I stop and look in the mirror. 

Mascara ran down my tear lined face, and my  knuckles knuckles bleeding over my clenched hands. 

I'm a mess.


I felt a little better once I had taken a hot bath. But I wasn't at peace with myself when I fell asleep that night.

Welcome Home Dinner

(I am writing this from the bathroom off our room. Lily and Jess have bedded down so I can post if I'm very fast) 

Well.

That was interesting

So we all went into the Dinning Hall.   As tradition, we girls only sit on the far side, that way we can see the opening ceremony better. Well, not always. Most of the girls do. The table where Jess, Lily and I were sitting (they are like Cafeteria tables) had three empty chairs on the other side of the table. Anyway, we had all gotten our food and were sitting down.

The teachers came in.....

followed by the boys.

Jess' eyes got really big and Lily made a tiny squeaking sound. Then they both turned on me.

I tried to look surprised

Then Alec and his three friends came and sat down on the opposite side of our table and said "Hey Kat" 

There goes my cover.

Lily looked mildly angry. (JK. Smoke was coming out of her ears) 

Jess looked stunned. So did one of Alec's friends. (I didn't know his name. I only knew the annoying ones)

Then he said "Hey Jessica"

Then Alec and his other friend...(who was stuffing his face. Wait until Madame D. gets a hold of him! Muuwahahaha)   Anyway, they turned like "WHAAAAAAAT?!"

Turns out, Jess and this other dude (his name is David) knew each other when they were younger. They used to live in the same small town! He moved away two years ago and neither one knew the other was from a spy family.

After a moment of stunned silence, they began babbling as fast as they could. I looked at Alec and I mouthed "Awkward"

He raised his eyebrows and mouthed "Amusing"

So yeah. My day was awkwardly amusing.

I did break away for a little bit and introduce Tansy and Lance


-K

In Case of Cute Boy, Throw Book

Yesterday, I heard Cammie, Abby and Rachael talking. All I heard were bits and pieces. 

Nobody being here....

....No sense in keeping them cooped up...
...Might as well...

... she wont tell anyone

I just went back to my book.

The next day, I was hiding in the library, reading, when a boy walked in.

He was tall. Not too tall. A little taller then me maybe, with blondish brown hair that was cut kind of short. Not military short, just short enough that it stuck up a little.

He was very cute.  Our eyes met.


 I did what any self respecting girl would do. I flung my book at his face. He dodged neatly.

Luckily it distracted him, and that's all I was hopping for (Though I would have liked to see the heavy volume of "SpyCraft" splat into his face)

I had surprise on my side and I quickly swept his legs out from under him and pinned  him to the floor.

Just then Cammie and Zack came in.

Cammie saw us and sighed. "I was hoping to get to you first" she sighed.

"He's an exchange student."

Then I understood. "From Blackthorne" I stood up and glared down at him. Then I sighed looked away and held out my hand to help him up.

He said "I'm Alex" and held out his hand

I gave him a look like, Seriously?

"Kat" Cammie said in a warning tone

"Cat?" He laughed. "Like C-A-T?"

"No. Kat like Katherine. With a K. " But I shook his hand, because that's what I was trained to do. Even with Madame D out for the break, I still expected her to pop out of the woodwork and ask me I wasn't being a lady.

Then I  gave a polite smile that would have fooled anyone, except for the fact that they had all seen me glaring daggers a few seconds ago, grabbed my book and left.

well that went well.

-K

Funny Story Time

I was sitting in the library when everyone else came marching in from their extreme snowball war (Cammie, Bex, and Headmistress Morgan won. You should see Zack's face)

They all came in and sat on the couches in the library and started talking about everything they had been up to. They started playing this story game,

Headmistress Morgan went first(Or Headmistress Solomon, whatever. I'm just going to call her Rachael)She  talked about how the faculty played matchmaker with Joe and her. She said she kept finding her self alone with Joe in an empty room. And she'd just be sitting there like "where is the meeting?" and Joe says he thinks Buckingham and Madame D were behind it

Joe smiled. He was next. He tasked Macey if she remembered Agent Howe. She looked a little confused. Joe went on and said that he and Matt (Rachael's first husband and Cammie's Dad) were assigned a protection detail for the McHenry family back when Macey was about 3. They didn't get along so well with Mr and Mrs McHenry, but they got along just fine with lil' Macey. Matt would sneak her Reese's when he thought nobody was looking.

Abby smirked and mentioned Buenos Airs. She said that the basics of the story was that she and Townsend had both been assigned to a major drug dealer in Argentina. But she was with the CIA  and he was with MI6 and they both thought the other was "a bad guy" and tried to kill each other. Abby finished with " And then I saved his life. Twice."

Townsend laughed mockingly. "And all the times I've saved your life? Shall we talk about them?"
that made Macey look up and go "Oh please no."

So Townsend sat and thought for a little bit and them Cammie said "Tell them all about Zack's last mission! Zack looked like he wanted to strangle her and Townsend started laughing. He managed to say Zack had to go undercover as a male model, and Cammie popped up with "I've got pictures!" So we sat and watched pictures of Zack as a model while Zack just tensed up and stared off something at the other end of the library.


Everyone had stopped laughing but Cammie, who was rolling on the floor in tears

Zack glared at her and said " How about the fact that when I'm on missions Cammie BREAKS INTO MY APARTMENT AND STEALS MY CLOTHES!"

Cammie had managed to stop laughing, but she was still giggling.
"She steals my hoodies and wears them."
Cammie fake pouted " They don't smell like you after awhile"

"And again with the love birds," Macey sighed "Well I'd better tell the story of ......


And this went on for hours! (Not that I mind)
-K