Spies come in all varieties. Some say to be a good spy, one has to be a kickass bombshell like the infamous Rebecca Baxter, who has taken up a position at the M16. Others say to be a good spy, one has to be smart like the renown Elizabeth Sutton, who has been known to crack the hardest databases around the world. Perhaps some may also say to be a good spy, one should possess the grace and elegance of Macey McHenry, currently part of the secret service team for the president. But most of all, most people say to be a good spy, one must be able to disappear, quite literally, just like a chameleon, embodied by none other than Cameron Morgan.

Amy babbled on besides me about her excitement for sublevel two on our way down the grand staircase. Even when we entered the elevator, surrounded by ten other girls buzzing with the same excitement about finally getting to see sublevel two, I couldn't muster up an ounce of emotion, whether is was anxiety, excitement, or even curiosity. Even when I surveyed the girls around me, their expressions ranging from curiosity to over the top happiness or nervousness, I didn't feel anything.

The elevator came to a still, the doors sliding open and we filed out with all the grace taught to us by Madame Dabney.

"Fingerprint identification," the automated voice trilled as Nicole walked up to the heavy metal doors. Without a moment's hesitation, she placed her thumb on the pad, flinching slightly when the needle pricked her thumb. Nicole removed her thumb when the green light flashed, granting her access.

One by one, the rest of us followed in Nicole's footsteps, each girl flinching slightly at the needle prick even though all of us knew it was coming, which our Cove Ops teacher would certainly scold us for not carefully masking our feelings.

I was the last of twelve girls to walk up to the pad, right after Amy, who shot me an encouraging smile before entering through the doors and into sublevel two. I stared at the identification pad for a few moments before being prompted by the automated voice. Slowly, I placed my thumb over the pad and waited for the familiar prick, but it never came. Instead, the next thing I was aware of was the flashing green light. I jerked by thumb off of the pad, and saw a tiny stream of blood running down my thumb. Numbly, I went through the doors, wondering why I didn't feel the needle.

The other eleven girls were huddled in the corner, whispering in hush voices amongst themselves. Amy glanced up and waved me over to join them.

"Sublevel two," Amy whispered to me, "Is right behind that door."

"So why are we huddled outside?" I asked.

"A good operative doesn't barge into unknown places without any sort of preparation," Nicole scolded, overhearing my question.

"We're speculating all the possible situations so we can be prepared before we enter the door," Jenny added.

"A good operative is never late. Late means problems, which can delay your comrades if there are any relying on you to be in position at a certain time. A good operative needs to be able to think on the spot; there isn't always time to prepare," I countered, breaking away from the group and heading towards the door, with the girls calling after me. Footsteps thudded against the pavement and suddenly, I wasn't standing alone in front of the door, with a hand on the doorknob.

"A good Gallagher Girl doesn't let her sister walk into danger alone," Angela stated, earning nods from all the other girls. I cracked a smile at their camaraderie before signalling to be ready. On the count of three, I twisted the doorknob, pushing the door open and entered into the room.

Out of the corner of my eyes, I saw a silhouette reaching out towards me. I felt hands on my shoulders as I grabbed onto the arm, using all my strength to flip the person over my shoulder. My lack of strength resulted in person falling to the ground next to me, not quite in front me like I expected, but I was on him in an instant, pinning him to the ground. Besides me, I registered the other girls doing the same with the other assailants, some successfully pinning them down, while others were subdued by the guys.

"Not bad," a deep voice spoke, jerking my attention off of the others and onto the guy who was smirking at me, despite being pinned to the ground by my weight.

"Why are you here?"

"Perhaps you can start with asking who they are," a voice commented from behind me. Out of pure reflex, I turned around, my hands already in position to ward off the newcomer only to come face to face with Mr. Soloman. Mentally I cursed myself for not recognizing his voice, but in my defense, I was already frazzled from the unexpected presence of boys in our school.

"What is there to ask? Blackthorne Boys, right?" Mr. Soloman only gave a slight smile at my answer. I scrambled off of the boy beneath me, while the other girls followed suit, and the guys releasing the girls as well. Nicole muttered a curse under her breath as she rubbed her arm after the guy released her. Angela looked smug that she managed to subdue a guy twice her size, while the guy next to her averted his eyes away from her in shame.

Jenny was asking Mr. Soloman questions, but I tuned her out in favor of surveying each of the twelve boys that stood among us. Although by this point I already had all of their features ingrained in their minds, there was something tugging at the back of my memory, especially when I looked at the boy who I had pinned to the ground.

Fragments of memories flooded into my mind all at once, leaving me lightheaded and taken aback. I stumbled backwards slightly, the boy wrapping his arms around me to catch me, but it seemed that he was the only one who noticed my stumble. The rest of the boys and girls were focused intently on what Mr. Soloman was saying.

"Welcome to Sublevel Two," Mr. Soloman stated, gesturing to the tables that lined up neatly in rows, "Take a seat."

"Wait, aren't we going to have introductions?" Jenny questioned, halting everyone's movements.

"A good operative doesn't need introductions," I stated flatly.

"Oh wow, if you're so confident then why don't you-" a boy with dirty blond hair began, but I immediately cut him off.

"Lucas Newman," I stated, before turning to the boy next to him, "Justin Maverick." I continued, moving on to the boy standing next to him until I finally reached the boy who silently stood besides me, with his hands tucked into his pockets and a smirk on his face.

"Oh?" the boy questioned, raising an eyebrow at me, "You know who everyone is except me?" I was positive I met him before, the fragments of my memories showed me a ten year old version of him, but I couldn't remember his name. All I could hear in my mind was him calling my name, echoing over and over again in my mind.

"You're remembering your past," Mr. Soloman stated, rather than asked. Amy immediately came to my side, placing a comforting hand on my shoulders while the other girls looked on with various expressions of sympathy. My missing memories was no secret to them, but it didn't make me feel any less self conscious when I couldn't remember anything.

"You shouldn't force yourself to remember," Amy whispered into my ear. She was right, I knew, but I couldn't ignore the intensity of the boy's stare.

"Who are you and how do you know our names?" Lucas demanded, but I didn't even know how to begin answering his question because I didn't know. Luckily I was saved from answering because the boy cut in.

"Don't you remember? She's Bethany, the girl who went to Blackthorne with us." At this, he turned to stare intently at me.

"I'm hurt that you don't remember me," he said, addressing me this time, "I was your best friend, but you remember the rest of these guys." The boy made a grand gesture of sweeping his hands around the room to gesture to all of the guys.

"Stop pushing her," Amy spoke up, "Her mind can't handle that pressure, right now. I think she remembered enough stuff for today."

"Oh wow, you can't speak for yourself now?" the boy commented mockingly, leading Amy to take a menacing step forward, giving him her best Gallagher Girl glare, which normally was enough to make anyone back down, but he barely twitched.

"You can't do anything to me, princess." Amy was about to say something back, but Mr. Soloman finally cut in.

"That's enough, Max. All of you take a seat," Mr. Soloman commanded, walking to the front of the room. Slowly, all of us began making our way to the seats, the divide clearly visible: Gallagher Girls on the right and Blackthorne Boys on the left. The other girls had taken great care to surround me, so I wouldn't end up in the middle and sit by one of the boys. Calie, Molly, and Em wore a sore look on their faces as they sat in their seats next to the boys, not so subtly scooting their chair as far away from them as they could.

"You may not like everyone you're working with," Mr. Soloman was saying, not missing the hostility that was emitting between the two groups, "But out in the field, you have to learn to trust them even if you don't like them because they might just end up being the ones that save your life." I could tell that all of the girls heard his words, but no one was taking his words to heart.

Mr. Soloman continued on, lecturing all of us on the rules of an ambush and the importance of the element of surprise, occasionally calling one of us out to quiz us. Mr. Soloman called on Justin to evaluate their strengths and weaknesses of their attack on us earlier, earning a smug look from Molly when he mentioned that they had underestimated their strength.

"Ms. Anderson, name a mistake you made today."

"Complacency," I answered without a moment's hesitation.

"That's correct," Mr. Soloman commented, "Inside the walls of the Gallagher Academy, you have no one to compare yourselves to, except each other. You may be the best among your fellow peers, take Cameron Morgan for example, but in the real word, there's still someone out there that's better than you, which is why the Headmistress has decided to make a permanent exchange. These boys will be graduating with you, so learn to trust them."

PRO: There were more students for Mr. Soloman to cold call on so the chances that I would be called on were smaller, going from 1/12 to 1/24 to be exact.

CON: They were going to be here for four semesters.

PRO: Our dislike for them drastically strengthened our camaraderie to a whole new level, which we originally thought was impossible.

CON: Mr. Soloman would undoubtedly force us to work with them, despite our dislike towards them.

PRO: It kept underclassmen from asking us annoying questions as they were too busy staring at the boys.

CON: They were invading our territory.

Upon finding out that Justin, Cole, Lucas, and Max had taken over our favorite spot in the library next to the window, we retreated back to our room, each of us sitting on our on beds.

"I can't believe you went to Blackthorne before," Calie commented, sitting cross legged on her bed with a magazine in her lap, "Isn't Blackthorne an infamous school for assassins?"

"But Mr. Soloman is changing the curriculum so it's not as cut throat as before," Angela replied, laying flat on her back as she held a mirror in the air with one hand and reapplying her lipstick with the other.

"Not good enough. They'll be in for a rude awakening during Culture and Assimilation class," Amy huffed, clearly still not over Max's rudeness. Angela let out a good nature laugh.

"You shouldn't let a boy get under your skin like that," Angela stated.

"It's easy for you to say that," Amy retorted, "You are the embodiment of nonchalant."

"I was friends with them," I suddenly blurted out, earning their attention. Angela snapped her compact mirror shut, tossing it onto her bed and sitting straight up upon my announcement.

"I grew up with them," I elaborated, "I remember going to class with them when we were younger."

"Do you remember anything else?" Amy gently asked, careful to not prod me too far, not after I had a breakdown last year from picking my memories too much.

"I killed Max's brother."

A/N: Hey guys! This story is mainly focused around new characters, but the old gang will make an appearance in the later chapters because I love them too much to leave them out. The Amy in this story is the same one in the last book. Please let me know what you think! Thanks for reading!

Disclaimer: I do not own anything except new characters. :)

-MM