Early into the summer holidays of my eleventh year of schooling my Father decided it was time for a change, presumably because he liked to move around every couple of years and we'd currently been living in Oregon for the past five years which is way more than we normally stay. Whenever you hear that people move around a lot you assume their parents are in the military or the navy or something that requires movement. But in fact movement is not a result of military jobs for us, it's because my father's a spy.
Once his mind was set we moved within the week and had started unpacking boxes into our new house which was located in the hills overlooking San Diego beach, California.
"Hunter can you grab one of the kitchen boxes, we seem to have everything from the lounge but no kitchen supplies" My dad asks, shifting a large cardboard box out of the back of the removals lorry.
"Sure" I smile, placing a photo of me and my dad on a fishing trip to Australia onto the mantle place which I'd been unpacking things onto. I fold the cardboard box away, setting it down and joining it with the large pile of already folded down boxes before jogging out to the van to retrieve yet another box.
"Is there one in there for 'Kitchen'?" I ask the removals man who's stood inside the lorry, moving boxes out
"Yeah, there's two down there" He vaguely gestures to two identical looking boxes.
"Thanks"I scan the outside of the box and sure enough 'KITCHEN MISC' is scrawled on the side with a black marker pen. I hoist it up and carry it back into the 

It takes us two hours to unload everything, Dad thanks and tips the removal man for his help and heads back inside to help unpack everything. We get most things in place, leaving only the non essential things in the boxes.
"What's the school like?" I ask while packing cutlery into it's draw in the kitchen units. He's silent for a bit so I turn to face him. He's wearing a dark blue pair of casual 'dad' jeans tucked into a turd pair of work boots. A red, checked button has on collar that's stuck up, falling against his tired face. "We need to talk about that actually, Ace" He sighs, folding a box away. Dread courses through my veins, freezing me to the spot, when my nickname's used either someone's died, he's in an amazing mood or all hell is about to break loose. "You know my work takes me all over the world" He begins and pulls a cardboard box over and sits on it. "And usually I either take you with me or I'm home, well this time I'm not going to be home for a while.." 
"So I'm getting a babysitter?" I ask in disbelief "I'm almost seventeen, I-"
"No, Hunter, I was thinking more along the lines of a boarding school."

"What?" I spit out, droppig a handful of spoons I'd bee putting in the draw on the hard tile floor

"I know it's a big change bu-"

"Why? you never take any big jobs, you're never ot home in time for tea!" I shout

"I know, Ace, but they really want me on this case" He sighs "It's a good school  I promise"

I sigh "What's it called?"I bend and scoop the spoons off the floor

"Alexander Cadmus Academy" He says after a few momet of rummaging in a box and returing a momet later with a thick brown envelop clasped in his hand.

"Sounds cliche" I lay the spoons back in the draw, rolling my eyes at the name

"It does a bit, but it has an excellent prospectus for putting out exceptional students who go into the goverment or to become CEO's or large businesses" He chuckles, I breathe a laugh in return

"Or spies?" I suggest, leafing through the thick cream coloured paper in the envelope

"Not quite, Ace" He sighs, folding yet another box away

"When do you leave and whe do I get boxed off?"

"I'm driving you up on Monday, you'll spend the rest of the summer there attending their summer semester"

"Summer semester?" I blurt out, haven't these people heard of summer holidays?

"Yes, advanced students stay during the summer term, the headteacher's a friend of mine and agred to take you on"

"Great" I mumble and place the envelope ad the eight or so sheets of paper on the kitchen sideboard

"It's not permanent" He says as we go on to unpacking boxes in silence

* * * * * * *

Several hours later we're both collapsed on the sofa with paper fish and chip wrapping across our knees eating tea.

"Fish was caught this morning" Dad says, biting a large chuk out of the fih o his fork

"Mm" I say in response, chewing on my own forkful of chips.

"Pretty seafront, you should have come Ace" He says again and I fold up my empty wrappings

"I'm going to bed" I say coldly, I was still pissed off a him for the whole boarding school thing

"Night then, Ace" He doesn't push me so I place my wrappings in the bi and trudge up the stairs .

My room' cold and empty and I can't be bothered to change into my pajamas so I just crawl into under the covers in my underwear and let the cosciousness fade from me

* * * 

I only have four days of packing and fighting off the Californian sun before I'm woken rudely at 1.20am to catch a flight. I roll out of bed wearing my Reindeer pajama bottoms and a faded Led Zeppelin T-Shirt, crawl to the car and go back to sleep. ext thing I know I know I'm being shaken awake at the airport. Grumbling I slide out of the car and help load our number of suitcases onto the luggage trolley. I sit on top of one of the cases while my dad pushes the cart into the terminal. LAX is surprisingly empty even if it is 3am. We find our check in and Dad deals with loading the cases onto the conveyor belt while I rest my head against the metal of the luggage trolley's handle and watch the check in through a vaguely conscious state of haziness. Once we're checked in we return to trolley meaig I have to walk. Dad hands me my backpack for the flight which is currently containing my change of clothes due to the fact I'm still wearig my pajamas.

"What do you want to do, we've got two hours until our flight, breakfast or find a bench to sleep on for a bit?" Dad asks as we make our way up to customs. "Coffee" I say while sliding a black tray along a metal rail towards the metal detectors. I pull off my bracelets and hoody and polace them in the tray. Dad behind me places his belongings in the tray behind me, I watch as he double checks his wallet for his MI9 Liscence which he'll have to show to be able to carry his pen knife through customs - all spies have them. I step through the metal detector and it buzzes loudly.  With a sigh I pull my own pen knife out of my pocket and hand it over to the guard.

"Weapons are not allowed on flights, Miss. Are you travelling alone?" One asks

"No" I gesture to my Dad who's just having the same discussion with a guard on his side.

"Come with me" They walk me over to my Dad who's just showing his pass to the guard and retrieving the pen knife

""Is there a problem?" My dad asks, pulling on his leather jacket from the tray that's just come through the machine

"Yes, your daughter is trying to bring a dangerous object through customs" The guard holding my pen knife says.

"It's okay, one second" He pulls my backpack poff the conveyor belt ad rummagesin the front pocket, A moment later he returns with a card holder and flips it open to show my MI9 pass allowing me to carry weapons. One of them gasps and the others nod

"Oh my god, that's so cool!" The one that gasped squeals

"Shh" My dad says and takes the pen knife back off the guard and Hands it to me,.

"Have a safe flight" The guard that checked Dad over says as we walk off into the departures lounge. We head to our usual airport bar, one that overlooks the runway so you can watch the planes taking off and landing while you eat and wake up. We slide into our usual booth and select something off the menu - Dad opting for a large tea and an egg and bacon sandwich while I choose a Large Americano and toast. Dad goes to order while I watch a plane being refueled by men operating machines in bright high-vis vests. I@m so preoccupied I don't notice him returing with our drinks

"They said they won't be long with food" I smile weakly and sip my coffee, letting the caffine buzz through my groggy veins. I've half finished my cup by the time they bring out our food. I wolf mine down before going off to change. In the toilets I change out of my pajamas into a white shirt, skin tight black jeans and my trust leather jacket. I swap my UGG boots for my heavy duty, knee high black lace up boots. I quickly slip the pen knife into the side of the boot and run a brush through my hair and an eyeliner pencil over my eyelids. I re-pack my bag and brush my teeth, using a bottle of water from my bag to rinse and spit. Once I rejoin Dad, feeling much more awake they've annouced our gate so we begin to walk over, my backpack loosely hanging over my shoulder

"You excited?" Dad asks

"I guess" I shrug and we join the queue of people lining to board. It shuffles forward slowly and we eventually show our boarding passes to the lady taking passes and get to board the plane.

"Perimeter check" Dad says, most likely part of my training to check I'm using it

"Four exits, eighteen possible risk situations, eight air hostesses, two hundred and four pasengers" I say and he nods with a smile

"Actually there's nineteen possible risk situations but well done" I nod and we take our seats.

* * *

The flight's reasonably quick and we touch down twenty minutes earlier than expected. As soon as I step off the plane Jet Lag hits me. Dad can cope with it really well but for me whenever we change timezone for the next three or four days depending on how much I'm allowed to sleep. I stumble through customs alone while Dad uses the fast lane because he's over eighteen and goes on to collect our baggage. When I finally make it through into the UK, Dad's stood there with all of our cases

"Time to go find our transfer" He smiles tiredl. I sigh and clamber on top of the suitcases again as he pushes me on the luggage cart. In the arrivals hall a line of transfers stand, holding signs with the names of people or the tavel companies they represent.

"There" I point to a man dressed to the nine's in a sharply pressed black suit and slim grey tie. On his card neatly printed are the names  'Jack and Hunter Lawson' Dad smiles as we walk over

"Jack!" The man greets us "It's been too long" They shake hands

"Cameron" Dad greets in return "I know, Let me introduce you to my daughter Hunter" He gestures to me and I shake hands with Cameron too. 

"Let's get you two back, you look exhausted" He chuckles and leads the way out of the terminal. The cold hits me immedietely and I shiver

"Bloody hell, Cameron, how can you bare it here, it's freezing" Dad complains, zipping up his leather jacket. 

"It's warm today" He smiles and unlocks the door of a black, professional looking car. Dad unloads the suitcases into the boot and climbs into the front next to Cameron while I climb into the back and rest my head on the window and go back to sleep..

* * *

It's early morning when I wake up to someone shaking my shoulder.

"Ace come on, up" My  Dad's voice calls and I grumble and open my eyes, blinking against the light.

"Ten more minutes" I mumble but get out of bed anyway. I realise I'm in a hotel room of some sort and that Dad must have carried me in from the car last night. Yawning I walk into the bathroom and change into a pair of navy blue jeans with rips across the knees, a white Northlane shirt and my leather jacket and boots. I brush my teeth before turing to the door and stumbling back out of it

"I can do this!" I mumble enthusiastically to myself as I stumble sleepily towards the car

"Whatever" She flips her hair over her shoulder and continues down the stairs. Yawning I trudge up to my room and flop down on the bed. I finally work up the energy to wash and change, leaving my school clothes over the back of the chair and pulling my pyjamas on before collapsing into the cold sheets of my bed.

 Breakfast is stupid, whoever came up with the idea of eating so eary in the morning is an idiot too. I roll out of bed to the sound of knocking on my door and the chatter of girls heading to the bathroom. With a grumble ad a sting of swearwords to nobody in particular. With a shuffle I collect my wash things and a pull my navy blue dressing gown on before stepping out into the quiet hallway. I sidle down the hall and into the bathroom where a cloud of fumes hit me a mixture of perfumes, body sprays and deodorants mix with the steam from showers meaning it's pretty hard to breathe. I find an empty shower block and shower quickly, tying my hair up in a pony tail once I'm done. A girl with close cropped brown hair takes my shower block after me ad I walk over to a sink to find space to brush my teeth. I'm only spitting and rinsing when I'm tapped on the back

"Morning" Jules smiles from behind me, she's just combing out her hair

"Mrnun" I mumble with my toothbrush in my mouth.

"Want me to save you a seat at breakfast?" She asks, I nod with a smile 

"If you could" I say once I've finished brushing my teeth "I'm going to change" I say, she nods

"See you at breakfast"

Once in my room I change into my school uniform, the same as yesterday but with the waistcoat this time. I button it up and check my timetable for the day. With a sigh I slide it into my school bag and head down to breakfast. In the hall instead of everything on the tables buffet serving areas have been set up lining the perimited of the hall and everyone's serving themselves. I serve myself two slices of toast with some Jam and Marmalades and go to find a table to sit at. While I'm scaning my eyes cluelessly over the tables Jules catches my eye, She otices and waves me over. I walk over and sit in a seat opposite her

"Guys this is Hunter, she's new" She introduce me to everyone at the table. "Hunter this is Gabe, Holly, Lizzie, Dick and you already know Sebastian" I nod as she puts names to faces. Holly and Lizzie look nearly identical, with ivory black hair and dark brown eyes, the only noticable difference is that Lizzie where's thick rimmed glasses. Gabe has choppy blond hair that's spiked up slightly while Dick has close cropped brown hair that ends in a sharp point over his ears like a pixie cut.

"It's short for Richard" Dick says "Before you ask" I smile a weak laugh and greet them all.

"How do you shorten Richard to Dick?" I ask and he shrugs

"I honestly don't know but it's been Dick or Dickie to everyone since I was younger so it sort of stuck" He shrugs and pushes a spoon around a half full bowl of porridge.

"Fair enough" I muse and bite fair sized chunk from my toast

"What do you have first, Hunter?" The one I learnt to be Holly

"English I think" I'd only half checked my timetable for today, It included two lessons before Lunch, one of which being Sport.

"You'll have Isabel then" Lizzie says with a smile "Advanced class, Impressive"  I nod wearily, not exactly sure why I'd been put into an advanced lesson..

"Come on, I'll show you the way" Holly smiles, pushig her plate onto a tray. I finish off my toast and place my plate on the tray

"See you later" I smile to Jules who waves as I follow Holly out of the dining hall

"Who else is in our class?" I ask while she leads me through the foyer and down a corridor.

"There's only ten of us, well eleven now you've joined" She says, twisting another corner "There's me, Dick, Austin, Pete, Maya and a couple of others, I can't really remember them that well to be honest"  A school bell goes off in the building and she steps inside a classroom at the end of the hall. Inside each of the desks has two seats at it. A few others are already at their tables or placing their bags under them and taking coats off

"Morning Maya" Holly smiles and a girl with ginger hair that falls to her lower back turns and smiles at her

"Hey" He voice holds what I consider to be a Yorkshire accent, although I could be wrong "Have you done the homework?"

"Yeah, it took me ages though" Holly chuckles ad takes her seat a few benches back from Maya. I go and stand next to Holly while I wait to be told where to sit. The class files in and dribs and drabs and shortly Isabel walks in with a stack of books in her hand

"Goodmorning Class" she smiles "Oh, Hunter, a seat" She says, noticing me standing "There's a spare seat next to Mr Beckett, if he shows up" She gestures to a desk at the back of the class, Holly turs around and bites her lip with a look of misfortune. I wonder why, surely whoever Mr Grayso if, he can't be all bad. Right?

I place my bag under the desk and slide into one of the wooden chairs and watch the front of the class while Isabel goes to start

"Okay, so Shakespeare She starts "Romeo and Juliet, one of his ost favourite works is....?" She poses a question

"About two ill fated lovers who despite everything are met with death" A drawling voice comes from the class door, everyone, including me turn to see who it is

"Mr Beckett, you're late" Isabel sighs

"Sorry, Mr Langdon wanted to see me" He shrugs and walks over to our desk and slides into the remaining seat. 

"Anyway, as I was saying, Romeo and Juliet, two ill fated lovers who are met with a tragic end" She continues unfazed by Beckett's apperance. After that I zone out, Literature was not or ever will be my forte. I take the occasional note but when the bell goes I'm already packed and out of my seat. Holly joins me outside with a weak smile

"I'm sorry" She says immedietly

"Why?" I ask as we walk away from English"

"That you sit by Will" She pulls a face

"He doesn't seem so bad?" I question and she laughs

"He's rude, he's cocky, he has no respect for the rules, he's a cheat, he's scholarship not legacy" She lists, ticking things off on her fingers "He thinks he's better than everyone" She exclaims. "What do you have anyway?"

"Sport, you?" 

"Unlucky, I have Biology" She shrugs and waves goodbye as we part ways. I head down to the changing rooms where I'm handed a new sports kit upon arrival by the teacher who instructs me to change quickly. I find Jules changing next to Lizzie so I go and join them

"Welcome to hell" she jokes as I begin to change into my sports kit.

"I like sport" I say truthfully, the ammount of sport I do to remain fit for action is unbelievable

"Good for y- What's that?" She interrupts herself by pointing to my vest top with padding over the abdomen for light bullet protection, close range knife deflection and for absorbing most light harm to the abdomen 

"It's my back" I say as a lie and luckily she buys it even though I have no idea what a partial stab vest would do to help with a bad back. I pull the vest off and pull on the navy blue polo shirt of the sport kit. We head out onto the school field and I shiver immediately, my bare legs breaking out immedietly in goosebumps along with my arms. "Shit it's cold" I say between my chattering teeth

"It's a nice day though" Jules questions as I hug my arms around my body to preserve heat

"Where's the snow?" I snarl through cleched teeth

"Okay girls!" I'm interrupted by a short dumpy woman shouting for the classes attention "We're carryign on with Lacrosse this term so I want the two teams again, School team and those who ca play and then those who aren't on the team and don't play. Immedietley the group of girls split dow the centre. The difference in teams is striking. Most of the first team have their own sticks and look to be in a good physical condition.  The other team o the half look like they've just fale out of bed and look like running a mile or two might actually kill a few of them. 

"Blondie, pick a team!" The teacher shouts and it takes a moment to realise she's talking to me

"I'm new" I explain and she nods

"You play lacrosse?" She asks

"La-what?" I ask, not knowing what the hell it is

"Second team" She points me to the team of those in not the best physical condition

"Welcome to the reject team" Jules beams from the team, I smile and go and stand next to her.

"For blondie I'll quickly go over the rules" the teacher shouts over the chatter of the girls "This is a stick" She holds up a long pole with what looks like a net cathers mitt on the end. "You have two teams. With the stick you catch and throw the ball, You can scoop the ball of the ground and you can knock the ball from others sticks, You have to throw the ball into the goal to score" She says as simply as possible I nod and the teams disperse onto the pitch. Jules hands me a lacrosse stick and I adust my grip so it's comfortable. Most of the team hang back so I'm the only one up to taking centre  while everyoe else sort of just loiters around our half of the field leaning on their sticks. The centre for the other team is a lean girl with a long brown hair yanked back into a ponytail that pulls half of her face back as well, exposing agular cheekbones. I smile at her and she gives me a dirty look. War it is then, I think to myelf. The whistle blows and the girl in front of me hikes the ball up onto her stick and passes it straight forward to one of the other girls on her team. By the time I've registers their movement it's half the way down our field. One of the girls on my team maages to defend the opposig team and seds the ball skidding up the field towards me. I scoop it up jut as the others run at me. 

"RUN" Jules shouts at me, runing up the field towards me. I run up the field managing to get past four of the other teams defenders. "Jules" I shout and she turns quickly so I throw the ball to her which she cathces easily. She passes back to me over the heads of the attackers when they get too close and I slam the ball into the net, missing the goalkeeper by centimeters.

"WHOO!" Jules shouts and rus over, hitting her lacrosse stick with mine "I thought you couldn't play?" she asks

"I couldn't" I laugh and have t dart off because the coach beckons me over

"Jemima, come here" She shouts to the pitch and the centre for the other team swaps over "Hunter I want you to swap sides and take Jemima's place, that goal was brilliant,  I thought you'd never played?" she asks, beaming

"I haven't" I laugh

"But Miss, I've always played centre" Jemima complains but the teacher snaps her fingers and Jemima throws her coloured bib at me "What do I do then?" She asks

"Bench" The teacher points to the bench of substitutes and she storms off. I swap on in Jemima's place and my team wins two of the games. We're dismissed but Miss calls me over

"Team practices are on Thursdays after school, I want to see you there okay? You were really good out there" She questions and I nod

"Thanks" I smile and walk back into the changing room

"That was really good today, Hunter" One of the bibbed team members- Jess says as I walk in

"Yeah that was amazing, you joining the team?" Mary-Ellis asks. I nod

"She wants me to go on as centre" I shrug and change out of my sports kit

"That's my position, I've had it for four years ad some new American bitch isn't going to take it from me" Jemima snaps while walking past me.

"Oh shove off" I roll my eyes and she guffaws

"What did you say?" she asks

"You heard me" I go back to changing. While I'm buttoning the last button on my shirt a hand shoves me in the back so I snap, twist around grab her wrist and have her flipped onto the hard floor before she knows what's hit her

"Don't touch me" I snarl and a look of fear glazes across her eyes, the rest of the changing room turn to watch us.I roll my eyes at her and go back to changing. I assume she leaves after that because nobody says anything to me about it

"That was amazing"