When I woke the next morning, my thoughts were immediately brought back to what had happened in that park. Part of me wondered if it had all just been some weird dream - but I knew that it had been real. 

I could still picture it all perfectly. The conversation. Eric. The bike ride home to where I had to convince my two friends that my sudden departure had been due to remembering I needed to return a textbook that I borrowed from someone. Luckily, they didn't ask me who. 

Yet, I'd still seen the suspicion on their face. But as the night continued, it faded away and things resumed to normal. But my thoughts had stayed in the same state of confusion. 

I could barely focus on a single word spoken by Kevin and Debby as I thought back to my encounter with Eric. Trying to process everything and make sense of it all had proven to be impossible. I'd wondered if I should simply tell my friends to get their perspective on it, but my first instinct had been to keep this to myself. If I wasn't even supposed to tell my own mother, friends were probably out of the question too.

Noise from downstairs caused me to stir, slowly sitting up on my bed. I groaned as I felt the ache in my limbs - the aftermath of my gymnastics training session yesterday. As I realized I had another one today, my groan grew louder. 

Rubbing at my eyes, I looked around at the empty room. The talking I could hear from outside my door was likely Kevin and Debby who had already gotten up and started eating breakfast. They'd slept over enough times to develop a ritual and if they woke before me, they would sort themselves out in the morning. They always let me sleep in, probably out of respect for the lack of it I got in the first place. 

Realizing I had a moment to myself, I quickly hopped out of my bed to grab the laptop resting on my dresser. Returning to the warmth of my sheets, I opened the screen and impatiently waited for it to start up. From downstairs, I could hear the distant sound of laughter and the urgency inside me grew. 

When I was finally faced with my internet browser, my fingers hovered over the keyboard and froze. I had so many questions and didn't even know how to ask them. It seemed inevitable that I wouldn't even receive any answers, but it also didn't mean I wasn't going to try regardless. As Eric's words played back in my head again, I hunched forward to face the screen and began to type.

Regal Undercover Agency

I immediately frowned as my eyes scanned the search results. There was nothing directly related to the agency. My first results had been a Wikipedia page on undercover agents and some random article about undercover agents in Jamaica. I sighed, closing the lid. 

I didn't know what I'd expected. Of course an operation that worked under the radar wouldn't be available by a quick Google search. But it also could have meant they just weren't real in the first place. There was still a chance that Eric had lied to me - if that was even his real name. But any reason for him to do something like that still was yet to occur to me. 

My door swung open with such an unexpected force that it made me jump. Kevin emerged, vibrant with energy that had me wondering how any person could be so energetic in the morning.

"She has awoken!" He declared dramatically as he spotted me sitting upright on the bed. 

"Shut up Kevin," Debby rolled her eyes, entering the room behind him. "You're going to wake up the whole damn neighborhood." 

In her hands, she held two plates of pancakes and the delightful smell hit me in an instant. She greeted me with a grin as she moved closer.

"I swear, your mother's party planners are like cleaning fairies," she told me, handing me a plate of food. "Everything downstairs already looks spotless." 

She handed the other plate that she held to Kevin, wiping the syrup off her hands with her shorts. I noticed she was already wearing makeup and that her bag was packed and sitting by the door.  

"You're not eating breakfast with us?" I asked. 

Debby shook her head with a frown. "I've gotta dash. My parents are coming back home today and god knows the boys have probably trashed the house in their absence. I'm on damage control." 

"Good luck with that," I muttered.

She grabbed her stuff off the ground and made her way back toward my door in a hurry. "I'll text you guys later tonight. That is, if I haven't died from inhaling the fumes of cleaning products." 

As quickly as she'd appeared in my room, Debby vanished from sight and I could already begin to hear her descent down the staircase outside. 

"Well, there goes our ride to the gym," Kevin said. He plopped himself down on the floor and rested his back against the wall with his attention directed toward his plate of food. 

"You're going there this morning?" 

He nodded, shoveling pancake into his mouth. "I need to help my Mom set up for a group training session later today."

Knowing Kevin was going to be there made the session sound a little less daunting. Whenever he was helping out his Mom, it usually meant she'd spend more time being distracted with giving him instructions than scrutinizing my every move. 

My thoughts were still consumed with the RUA, but I tried to push them away and mentally prepare myself for the upcoming gym session. My muscles still ached a little from the previous one and surely the lack of sleep hadn't helped. 

The noise of Kevin's fork scraping against his plate reminded me of my own food growing cold and I turned my attention to my breakfast, knowing I'd need any strength I could to get through the day.

The walk to the gym hadn't been too unpleasant, and having Kevin there with me had certainly proved a good distraction. As the building came into sight, I sucked in a deep breath of the cold morning air. 

"Do you think she'll murder us for being a few minutes late?" Kevin asked me, flashing the digital clock on his lock screen. 

Crap. I was hit with the sudden realization that we were supposed to have arrived ten minutes earlier. The morning antics of getting ready had been the culprit of our downfall, thanks to Kevin somehow accidentally locking himself in my bathroom and me having to search for the spare key in the kitchen to get him out.

"Let's hope not," I said, pushing open the doors to the gymnasium. "Maybe if we're lucky she won't even have noticed." 

That was a longshot and I knew it. The second I saw Coach May from across the room in her blue jumpsuit with folded arms and eyes glaring directly at us, my fears were confirmed. She began making her way toward us, the brown locks of her ponytail bouncing with every step she took. 

"Uh oh," Kevin spoke under his breath, catching sight of his mother. "Mission failed, brace for attack." 

"Take it away, bathroom boy," I whispered back before looking toward Coach May, who was a few feet in front. I'd give him the honors of explaining this one to her. 

"You're both late," she greeted coldly. 

Kevin offered her a wide grin while I opted for pursing my lips and avoiding eye contact. 

"We had a dilemma," Kevin began to explain in a humorous tone. 

Coach May waved her hand at her son to silence him. "Not interested, just start setting up the equipment. The group will be here later this afternoon directly after Becca's session," her eyes met mine, "which will now be shorter than originally planned." 

Kevin pointed at me and laughed. "Oooh, someone's in trouble!" 

He'd already started heading over to grab the gym equipment before I could even shoot him a look. 

Coach May gave him a small smile as he walked off but when she turned to me, her face grew stern again. The frown lines were visible on her face, as well as the dark bags under her eyes.

I was not in for a fun day of training.

"We have a lot of work to do today," she informed me.

That came as no surprise - but it still didn't help with the already anxious feeling stirring in my stomach. Trying to push out any negativity, I reminded myself that this session would at least be a good way for me to distract myself from what had happened last night. If I was lucky.

"Right," I nodded at Coach May as I walked past her to put my bag down. The second I'd moved away from the close proximity we'd shared, I'd felt immediately better. It wasn't anything against her as a person, but her presence definitely had a way of intimidating me. 

Being around her sometimes felt like being in the same classroom as a teacher you hadn't given an overdue assignment to yet. Every time I saw her, there was this automatic sense that I should run and hide, knowing exactly what would be store for me the moment I was noticed. I could never shake off that sense of dread, no matter how hard I tried.

But if anything, that was probably what I needed. The pressure she put on me only helped me do better. Our private sessions were always tougher than the group ones. The amount of focus that was required on my technique and every specific movement made me feel like I was constantly going crazy. It basically ensured that every gym session I had with Coach May would end with a heap of soreness, but she'd always reiterated the same message to me every time I complained. 

It takes pain to gain.

She was probably right, but the saying alone didn't exactly ease the pain of my aching muscles.

When I'd put my stuff down and rejoined her on the floor, my nerves had calmed a little. I readjusted my purple leotard and relaxed the muscles in my back. 

"We'll start with floor routine," Coach informed me pointing toward the open space. "I think it's something you need to work on perfecting more before the competition." 

I took another deep breath and nodded in response. 

Bring it on. 

By the end of our training session, I was completely drained of all my energy. Coach May had spared no effort to make sure I'd been training at my hardest, which resulted in hours of focus.  

Sweat dripped down my neck and I entered the house in tired relief. Thankfully, my mother had been able to give me a ride back home after the session so I didn't end up walking. The thought of having to travel even such a short distance from the gym to our house had been completely unbearable to even imagine. 

The day had slipped away from me so fast that I'd hardly had the chance to notice. When I smelt food wafting from the kitchen, I realized it was later in the afternoon than what I'd thought and dinner was approaching. 

"You cooked?" I asked my Mom as she trailed through the front door after me. Such an event was a rare occurrence in our household. We practically lived off takeout and anything that required the minimum cooking effort. 

"What, I can't cook dinner?" She asked, raising an eyebrow. 

I smirked. "Hey, you said it, not me." 

That one earned me an elbow to the stomach. 

Laughing, I took my shoes off by the staircase and made my way to the dining room to join her. The house finally felt quiet now that it was just the two of us without my friends or the loud party guests. Settling into the dining room table made me realize just how empty the house felt, but at the same time, I was completely at peace with it. It had just been my Mom and myself for a while now, and that had been all I needed. 

We had a pretty close relationship and I knew I could also depend on her if I had a problem. Which made this whole situation a lot harder. 

I felt guilt at keeping the events from the previous night a secret for her and as she brought the food to the table, her words stirred up more remorse in me. 

"Thanks for staying in your room last night," she spoke, taking a seat across from me. 

I didn't meet her eyes, instead opting to grab baked potatoes from the dish in front of me. "How did the party go?" I asked, piling food onto my plate. I was eager to drag the conversation away from my whereabouts last night as far as I could.  

She pushed her blonde hair behind her shoulders as she shuffled closer to the dinner table. 

"It went well," she nodded, eyes meeting mine. "But what I really want to know is how you went in gymnastics today."

Of course. When it wasn't Coach May bugging me about gym, it was my own mother. They were like a tag team that I couldn't catch an interrogation break from. My Mom liked to keep up with my gym progress constantly so she could brag about it to her friends, probably like she'd done last night. But other than that, she was purely interested in it for the sake of my future. We both knew that pursuing any career in athletics was always risky and you had to be pretty damn good to even consider the thought. 

"Good," I said, taking a bite from the slice of pot roast in front of me. "Coach May kept bugging me about improving on the landing of my balance beam routine." 

"And did you improve?" she asked with a raised eyebrow. 

"Of course," I nodded, shoving green beans into my mouth. With Coach May you always improved. Unless you wanted to be yelled at for six consecutive hours instead. 

As silence fell upon us, I was able to resume my thoughts about the night before. I fought the urge to tell my mother what had happened, but another part of me felt compelled to do the complete opposite. 

Part of it was due to the offer Eric had made still turning over in my mind. The idea he had proposed of going undercover was something I'd started to spend more time considering than denying. What if everything he had said was in fact real? His words echoed in my mind again. 

Just for one case, that's it. 

The work we do saves lives. 

Trying to connect the dots of how any of this would work still wasn't happening for me. As I looked toward my mother who was eating, I again felt overcome with guilt. I always told her everything. Keeping something like this from her, especially when I felt like I needed her help more than ever, was proving to be extremely hard. But I also knew that actually telling her wouldn't help either. If I still was having trouble wrapping my head around the whole concept, she would likely reject it outright. Hell, she'd probably call the police or something. To say it out loud would make it even more unbelievable than it already sounded in my head.

But there it was again. That part of me that remembered Eric's words and how for some stupid reason, they were beginning to make sense to me. Tomorrow was Monday. And at 4pm, Eric would be waiting at Lynchmond park for my answer. 

One I still wasn't so sure of myself. 

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Editing A/N: Lmmaooo guys 😂

https://youtu.be/jRNGi6j6d7A

THE YEAR IS 2304. TRUMP HAS NOT GOTTEN US KILLED YET AND I HAVE FINALLY UPDATED. GOD BLESS xoxoxooxo