I promised a quick Chapter 2, and here it is! (I had actually written this before I published, I didn't know how things worked because I'm new and all, so yeah!) It's a direct continuation of chapter 1!
Please read it, xoxo!
Oh darn, I forgot the disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN THE SERIES. Ally Carter does. Sadly.
After we left the cafeteria, I waited a few seconds, talking some nonsense to Liz about the COW homework, and then I quietly left the great hall and followed Mandy.
CoveOps Report by Cameron Morgan
Operatives: Cameron Morgan, Elizabeth Sutton, Rebecca Baxter, Macey McHenry (hereafter referred to as The Operatives)
Report:
The Operatives followed the subject to the library to the Encryption section, where the Subject simply studied the covers of the books, then to the common room, where she introduced herself as "Mandy" to Tina Walters and Mick Morris.
The Operatives got bored to listening to Tina Walter tell Mandy all kinds of things about the Gallagher Academy, but were thinking that Tina shouldn't be giving out everything so easily. After all, no one knew who the girl was.
The Operatives proceeded to following the Subject to the library again, where she went to Encryption section again, and stared at the book titles. Again.
At this point, I was really annoyed at Mandy. Didn't she have anything better to do like – oh, I don't know – go try to send the Gallagher Alumni List to someone or try to break into sublevel three to steal everything or try to steal Gilly's sword? Because those things I could stop her at and demand and explanation. But looking at book titles in your new school's library didn't exactly equal a crime, so all we could do was keep following her.
The Operatives get really annoyed and decide to step in. Operative Sutton walks to the Encryption section, pretending to look for a book, while studying the titles the Subject had been studying for so long (12 minutes, 48 seconds the first time and 27 minutes, 29 minutes the second time until Operative Sutton came in).
"Mandy!" Liz said, surprised. "I'm guessing you like Encryption too? Can I help you find something?" she asked helpfully.
Mandy nodded quietly while Liz was talking. "It's okay," she said finally, after a short silence. "I'm just looking at what you have here."
"Oh, well then, let me show you around! This part of the Encryption section isn't that interesting anyways… Let me help you out."
"It's okay, Liz, really. I'll find my way," her voice seemed sweeter, and I wanted to be able to see her, to be able to look at her face and know if she was lying or not.
"Come on Mandy, I saw you talking to Tina Walters. Don't tell me you enjoy hanging out here!" Liz said with a half-laugh.
"No, really. Just leave me, okay?" Mandy was becoming agitated, but Liz was on a mission, and would push to the limits. Because Liz was a genius, not to mention a girl, so she knew that when a girl gets pushed too far, she gets dramatic and start telling everyone about everything, which is exactly what we needed.
"Come on Mandy, you don't have to be here all alone!"
"Liz! I said it's okay, I'm really interested in this!" she pointed around, and Liz went and looked at the first book she pointed at.
"History of Encryption Part 3: 1575-1720. You're interested in that? Finally someone sees it! It's like the coolest part ever, come on, let's check it out!" Liz said "excitedly" and pulled Mandy with her. And Mandy went.
Liz started reading out facts and trying to discuss everything with Mandy, but also telling her things that were in the newer edition of the book, that the original had gotten wrong, but Mandy was just sitting there, staring off into space, until Liz got her attention back by snapping her fingers in front of her face. "I'm guessing you're not really interested in this are you?" she asked, and Mandy nodded quietly.
"I was being more general. This library is great."
"It is," Liz said smiling, and I was glad that she leaned back a bit, so that I could see her now. Of course, I still couldn't see Mandy, but at least I could see my friend.
Operatives Morgan and Baxter realized that Operative Sutton, who was now talking to the Subject about Encryption in the 1800's, was trying to bore the Subject so much that the Subject would get mad.
But Mandy seemed to have the ability to space out while looking attentive, but Liz had the power to get everyone to listen to her, even though she was tiny. I sighed, bored and tired as Liz went on and on and Mandy kept getting distracted.
But Mandy didn't seem to care. She was just listening, her temper never flaring up. Which surprised me because, well, Liz can get really annoying when she isn't trying. But when she's trying…
But Liz wasn't giving up, she was going on and on, and sometimes popping in questions about Mandy's past.
"Oh yeah, and there's the Mockaoffski method to put messages in brownies, but that method was never used since it caused a mission to almost fail because the intended receiver of the message ate the brownie." Liz went on. (By the way, that turned out all right, because he was almost fired for eating the brownie on the job, and then two Gallagher Girls tailed him for a while to see if he was okay and realized that he was really a traitor) "So what school did you go to before, Mandy?" she asked directly.
"Hm? What? Oh yeah I love that method too, it's so great!" she said.
"Excuse me?" Liz asked. "You love the Mockaoffski method? That's mad!" she said. Then she hesitated, "or genius…" she thought for a second. "I'll totally have to research that you just gave an amazing idea!" she squealed and then proceded to pull Mandy to the languages section of the library.
"So, let's look at some other encryption languages!" Liz said, and Bex and I smiled into the books we were hiding behind. To be more specific, I was looking at Covert Operations in the Chinese Underground Train Racks and Bex had buried her nose in Dance: The Art of Love – or That of Murder?
Mandy let herself be dragged, and spaced out again. Bex pulled out a sheet of evapopaper and a pencil and preteded to take notes.
What do u think is gonna happen?
Liz will find out what languages M speaks
Liz will get her mad and make her x-plode
Liz will become BFFs w/ her and make her tell eventually
Btw, where' she staying? Our room?
I really got the note in Malay, but that was the meaning. I shrugged and ate the paper. Either way, Liz would find answers for us. I smiled hopefully as she pulled Mandy to a big language Encyclopedia that had many points about the roots of languages. "Pilihan yang bagus Liz!" Bex whispered, and I had to agree that Liz had made a good choice.
"So Mandy! Let's research some languages! We've got a ton of COW homework! You can help me out a little. Let's start with… What languages do you speak? Tell me one so that we can research it! Or tell me a few so that we can see their connections!" Liz got louder and excited.
Mandy had spaced of and came back to see Liz's excited face. "What do you want me to tell you?" she asked, looking guilty because Liz looked like a very excited and happy child, and Mandy looked like she felt bad fro ruining Liz's happiness, and Liz's face fell into a pout of a second, then she re-asked her question.
"I wanted to do some research on language roots and connections for COW, but I don't know where to start! Tell me a few languages that you might speak and we can research them!"
"Oh okay, sure!" Mandy said, obviously happy the way all of Liz's face lit up again. "Research… French and Greek!" she said and Liz smiled in surprise, grabbing a different volume of the shelf and opening both books to a page. Pretending to look for a page, she turned around and smiled at us. We smiled into a mirror we had adjusted so that we could see each other, then Bex slipped it back into her pocket, we put our books back and went to our room. We could do nothing else.
Was that bad? Good? Please tell me! I'll continue ASAP!