Stay Alive-Chapters 2 and 3
Chapter 2: Austin
“And how, may I ask, is snooping around in Dad’s office going to prove this?” Natalie ignored me and continued shifting through files in our dad’s drawer muttering ‘there’s got to be something’ as she did so.
It’s not that I didn’t want to believe her…it’s just…spy parents? Natalie had spun thousands of tall-tales over the years-some that I’d made the mistake of believing in. But this time, she wouldn’t fool me.
Natalie kicked Dad’s cabinet in frustration and moved onto rummaging through his drawers.
“If they are spies, or even were spies what makes you think they’d just leave a top-secret file laying around?” My ever so predictable sister remained silent (which in the ‘girl world’ basically means I was right but she wasn’t willing to admit it).
Fifteen minutes, then twenty, and then nearly thirty and Natalie had nothing to prove her point. Plenty of junk mail, bills, and boring adult paperwork but nothing that proved our parents were spies.
“Admit it Natalie, you’re wrong and I’m-….” My jaw went slack at the letter being triumphantly held in Natalie’s hands. She had carefully removed it from the trash and was now siding the letter from its envelope.
I glanced over Natalie’s shoulder to get a good look at the letter, turning redder and redder as I read it’s formally printed message.
Dear Mr. and Mrs. McEntire,
Although we respect your wishes to keep your past from your children we strongly urge you re-consider your wishes of with-holding them from attending Saphamore Academy this fall. We understand that you are both strongly against this, but rest assure they would be safe within our walls. Here we could teach them to protect themselves, and prepare them for any dangers that may be trusted upon them in the coming years. It could be a matter of life and death.
Wishing you both well,
Head-mistress
Charlotte Aspen. **Authors note: Oh, yeah so just a heads up-I steal people's names...a lot...**
“What was that, Austin?” Natalie smirked, her voice quivering with excitement.
“T-that doesn’t…it…Just because….” Natalie gave me a smug look that only a know-it-all sister can give.
I sighed trying to pretend I was actually disappointed by this. Quite honestly though, I didn’t know what to make of it. Spy School? Well…this are about to get a little more interesting...............................
Chapter 3-Natalie
The waste-land known as Luke’s room
“Natalie!” Austin hissed, chasing after me. “Natalie!” He panted, trying to keep up.
“Nata-“
“Get off!” I pushed away Austin’s arm, annoyed by his attempts to slow me down.
“What are you going to do? Barge into a room and demand they tell you everything? Do you honestly expect them to just flat out tell you? If they are spies-which by the way we can’t be sure that they are- why on earth would you expect them to just come out an-“ I rolled my eyes and remained silent, but kept walking.
I had grown up like most kids; thinking my parents were goody two-shoes who would never lie to me. That there were no monsters in my closet as long as they said so or that if I got A’s on all my papers and tried real hard I could be president. Growing up gets rid of that innocence, but still. You would think the people who raise you, the ones who teach you right from wrong wouldn’t lie.
That day, I realized the sad truth: all parents have secrets…ours just happened to have one that they couldn’t tell us, even if they wanted to. Just as plain and simple as that.
“Nata-“
“Austin! I swear to God if you say one more word I will kill you!” Considering the new family business, that shut him right up. I sighed again, trying to process all of this. I re-read the letter that was still glued to my hand. A matter of life and death….
“Why wouldn’t they tell us?” I screamed once we were back in our rooms. Austin lay on the top bunk (which after years of arguing I had reluctantly handed over) upside down, his pail face turning redder and redder as the blood rushed to his head. I was pacing around the front of the room occasionally stopping to re-read the letter, hoping that there was some sort of hidden message that would explain all of this.
Austin turned right-side-up, leaving his blond hair to fall messily before his eyes. “Well, if they are spies then they wouldn’t want us to be in danger by knowing. Ya’ know, like if they had some sort of evil bad guy they were fighting and didn’t want them to come after us. By not telling us they were keeping us safe.”
I did a double take, making sure I had heard him right. Did Austin…just say something smart?
Austin grinned at my expression. “Who said TV and movies weren’t educational?” I rolled my eyes and smirked. Leave it to my brother to say something with actual intelligence one second and then go back to his usual stupid self.
Suddenly, I stopped mid-pace.
“I know that face…” Austin mumbled. “That’s the face you make when we’re about to get in a ton of trouble…” He paused for dramatic effect, which ended up just being cheesy. “That’s your idea face….”
I met my brother’s sea green eyes, a devious smile spreading across my face.
“Luke.”
…………………………….
“I can’t believe I didn’t think of this before!” I said for what was probably the millionth time. I braced myself, and readied myself for the worst.
From behind the door a horrifying display of piles and piles of dirty laundry, empty chip bags, and Lord knows what else lay. A hum of heavy metal music escaped through the crack beneath the door. I was already gagging at the near thought of whatever stenches were held in that room. We were bravely going where no younger sibling dared go before; their 16 year old brother’s room.
“So…we’re going in here...Why?” Austin asked, scrunching up his nose in anticipation of the following horrors.
“Because Austin,” I said, trying to sound as matter-of-fact as I could while gagging. “Where does Luke go every year?”
“Boarding sch-“
“But how do we know its boarding school?”
“…because after he got expelled mom flat out said ‘You’re going to boarding school!’…”
“But Austin, it’s the perfect cover!”
“Yeah but this is Luke we’re talking about. Is it really that far-fetched that he’d be shipped off to a boarding school because of bad grades or behavior?”
I shrugged, sucked in a breath, and slowly turned the nob.
“Ughhhhhh….what died in here….”
“Austin, that line’s getting really old…but in this case, it is totally appropriate…”
“So…where do we start?” I scanned over the floor-which was completely covered in dirty clothes, empty food container, not-empty food containers, and pretty much anything else you could think of.
“There might be something in his desk…if we could find it….” Austin laughed/gagged and got to searching.
In the end we’d found one dead lizard, what looked like moldy pizza, and a swimsuit model calendar. So basically, nothing.
I slumped down on Luke’s messy unmade bed. I had been so close…there had to be something else. Luke knew something, he had to…But so far, Luke was still just my stereotypical teenage brother (and he had the smelly socks to prove it).
“Natalie!”
“Austin if it’s another girly calendar I swear-“
“It’s not! It’s-”
“You know, you have to have a warrant to look through someone else’s stuff.” Luke’s typical sarcastic tone slid through the foul smelling air. His devilish caramel eyes were-despite his tone- pretty serious, and a few rebellious strands of chocolate-brown hair falling before his eyes.
“D-Luke ah… we were just-”
“Sit down.” He said, grabbing Austin by the shoulder and pushing him down next to me.
“What were you doing in my room?” Any hints of playfulness were slowly disappearing, which to me was only more proof that he was hiding something.
“We….were….um….well…” I glanced over to Austin, hoping he could come up with a better lie than the one forming on my lips.
“WethoughtourparentswerespyscausewefoundanotefromaspyschoolandthenwedecidedtolookinyourroomforcluesbutinstedIfoundanawesomeswimsutemodelcalenderandoldpizza!”
“All I caught was spy, swimsuit model and pizza…”
I sighed and slapped my forehead. Boys….
“Luke,” I said, taking in a breath. “We know mom and dad are or were spies. We know you know something so either tell us or we’ll figure out for ourselves.” I crossed my arms and finished my sentence calmly, trying to sound as confident and adult like as possible
Luke stared down at me in an overly-superior way. His eye brows raised, a smirk filled his face. He mumbled something to himself, and leaned against what I assumed to be his junk-covered desk.
“I gotta say, I’m actually fairly impressed. I would have assumed you would have found out ages ago, but then again given the circumstances….” Luke trailed off, leaving me with more questions than answers.
“So…they are spies then?” Austin asked bluntly. Luke just grinned in response.
“Technically, I’m sworn to secrecy. And even then, what I do know is fairly limited…” I held my breath, ready to burst with excitement. “But yes, they were with the CIA for a little while-“
“I TOLD YOU SO!” I cried triumphantly, much louder than I had intended. Both boys gave me a sideways glance causing me slid back into my seat embarrassed.
“…anyways, other than that I know next to basically nothing about their past. Except, I do know they went to Saphamore….like I do…”
Instead of screaming with excitement like I wanted to, I just threw my brother a confident smile. HA! In your face twerp! I was actually right for once!
“So…why didn’t you tell us before?”
“Well, if it was up to me you guys would ‘a known years ago…but…Mom and Dad thought it was better we didn’t tell you both. They didn’t even mean for me to find out, I just…kinda eavesdropped on a couple of conversations, plusIkindaflunkednormalkidschool and well…the rest is history I guess.”
The room stayed silent for a minute, as we soaked in the truth. They’d lied to us-but like Austin had said earlier it was for our one safety. I guess the main question now was why were the lies necessary? What could be so dangerous that they would keep us from knowing one of the biggest family secrets like…ever?
“So…now that we know…” Austin’s voice interrupted my thoughts, and obviously Luke’s too. “You aren’t going to have to like…kill us or whatever, right?”