I froze as I continued staring down at my screen, reading the message over and over again, trying to process it. 

Heard ur looking 4 a hookup. I'm @ school dance tonight and can meet u in a classroom.

They'd texted me. The drug dealer had texted me. How had they gotten my number? Someone must've given it to them and told them I'd been interested in NT. That was the only logical explanation. My money was on Henry. Tasha or Charlotte or someone else must've told him that I wanted some and since he's 'so close' to the drug dealers, he helped them out by trying to get them more customers. Including me.

"Everything okay?" I heard Debby ask next to me. I looked away from my phone as casually as I could.

"Fine." I simply answered but began looking frantically around the room. What was I going to do? I had to tell Eric.

I spotted him in the same spot from a few minutes ago, now seeming engaged in a conversation with Turner, the two both chatting seeming to be deeply involved with each other's words. I wanted to run up to them and interrupt with the news but wondered what would happen if I did. Would Monday's planned heist just take place a few days earlier? Because I still wasn't on board with that plan and doing it in a black cocktail dress tonight didn't make the idea seem any more appealing than before. Would they just tell me to ignore it? Could I really ignore it?

The drug dealer was willing to meet with me tonight. They were at the school at this very moment. I couldn't let them slip away. Not after all these weeks of searching and trying to uncover who they were... I had to go to them. Just to meet them in the class. I'd buy some drugs as a cover but I'd secretly try and find out who they were. Or at least gather some evidence, maybe DNA. I had to do it -and there was no way I was letting the others know. I wasn't going to let them turn this into some full-scale mission. It needed to be done as secretly and casually as possible.

At all my time in the RUA, all I'd manage to do was look like a weakling. I couldn't defend myself against Brad, or the two dealers that were at the school that night - but I could've if I really tried. Maybe it was the fear of fighting and injury that put me off it but a part of me knew that when I fought them, I wasn't using all my power. I knew I had it. I'd managed to overpower Eric a few times so what made a high schooler or two any different? I had to go.

I pulled out my phone, surprised at how shaky my hands were as I carefully came up with a response.

I am interested and will be at the formal soon. Just tell me when and where and we can meet up.

I closed my eyes tightly as I pressed send, releasing a deep breath.

"Debby, we're leaving," I ordered, suddenly walking off.

"Wait, what?" she asked, following me as quickly as her six-inch heels would allow her. "Why? It's so nice here, and we only just arrived! Come on Becca!"

I kept walking until we were out of the gym and back in the main office, the voices and music from the even became distant. "Look, I need to go to something. It's really important and regarding my mission. You need to drive me," I pressed the button and waited for the elevator.

"Where?" Debby asked, obviously confused but not questioning me after seeing the serious look on my face.

"Kennedy High," I replied as the doors opened, stepping in.

"Ew," she responded automatically. School rivalry was a weird thing.

"They're having their formal tonight and I need to meet up with someone there. You can tag along." I explained as I felt the elevator move up.

"Really?" she asked, looking surprised.

I nodded. "But we're going to need a cover for you." I thought for a moment, "You're my cousin Melody, alright?"

"Can't I be Sonja your Russian lover?" Debby joked, putting on a Russian accent.

I shot her a glare.

"Right, Melody, got it," she threw her hands up, surrendering.

The elevator door opened as we arrived at the top floor. "We need to hurry." I urged.

When we'd finally made it to the car, we wasted no time, leaving straight away. As we drove out of the parking lot, I wondered if anyone at the event had noticed my absence or how they'd react if they realized I'd left.

"It's extremely important that you don't refer to me as Becca," I explained to Debby as we began approaching the school. "I'm known as Amanda here and if there's a slip-up, my whole identity could be uncovered."

"I get it, you've explained it to me several times, I won't mess up," she assured me, rolling her eyes at how nervous I was acting.

As we drove into the car park of the school, I could hear the sound of booming music coming from inside. Just the thought of how loud it must've been in the auditorium gave me a headache.

"What the hell is going on in there?" Debby muttered.

I shrugged in response, hoping that our school formal wouldn't sound anything like that. "We better start heading in there now since it's already started," I instructed as I opened the car door, stepping out. I smoothed out my dress nervously, dreading the walk into the building.

"How long are we going to be here for?" Debby groaned as we started walking.

"Not too long," I answered even though I wasn't sure how long this would take.

I took a huge deep breath as we approached the entrance to the building. By that point, it was clear the song being played was 'Talk Dirty' by Jason Derulo.

"Oh God," Debby groaned as she recognized the tune as well, "What the hell is going on?"

The music continued blaring and got louder and louder as we approached the auditorium. Two girls passed us, each holding what appeared to be an empty bottle of vodka as they giggled and ran into a nearby bathroom, almost falling over as they stumbled in their heels.

"Guess I won't be drinking the punch," Debby muttered, looking disgusted.

"There's no need to, we're only going to be here for a moment." I reminded her, pulling my phone out of my pocket. I still hadn't received a text back.

The auditorium doors had been left wide open revealing the glistening disco ball that hung from the ceiling and large stereo system that sat on the stage. The room was full of people dancing -putting it in the most modest term. It was mostly grinding and twerking.

"Suddenly, I really miss the agent event," Debby stared around the room looking terrified.

I ignored her and started scanning the room for my 'friends.' I spotted Tasha almost instantly due to her huge pink ball gown style dress that made her look like she'd just come out of an audition for the Good Witch in the Wizard of Oz. She was tilting her head back and forth and swaying on the dance floor.

"Woah, did fairy barbie forget her wand and tiara?" Debby asked, noticing her as well.

"Remember the plan," I muttered as I began walking over to Tasha, Debby following closely behind.

I moved through the hormonal crowd slowly like a maze as I tried to avoid physical contact with any of them. Debby appeared to have taken the same approach.

"I hate this," she complained as she pushed some weird sweaty guy off her that had gotten too close to her for her liking.

"Tasha," I smiled as I caught her attention.

"Oh hey, I was wondering when you'd get here," she responded loudly over the music, still dancing.

I tried to control my anger and withhold the urge to yell at her. I wasn't supposed to be here tonight! How many times did I tell you that? "Well... I'm here now," was all I could say in reply, trying to come off as nice as possible.

From behind Tasha, I could see Violet approaching, wearing a purple dress that looked way too tight and way too short.

"Vodka shots at my place after this event blows ladies," she slurred, already seeming like she'd taken some of those shots.

"Not until this event is over Violet, I need to stay for prom queen, this is my night." Tasha hissed back.

Debby gave me a tensed look after watching the two. I kept a calm gaze on her, trying to get her to seem more relaxed.

"Who's this?" Tasha asked finally noticing her, scanning her full body as if she was doing some analysis on whether or not she would like her.

"This is my cousin Melody," I said gesturing to her.

Debby gave them an awkward wave and tight, obviously fake smile.

"She's in town for the weekend, we're having a family reunion and I thought she might as well be my plus one," I explained, hoping they wouldn't ask any more questions.

"Oh, cool," Tasha said, sounding disinterested.

Typical.

"God, can you get Charlotte over here? I'll need help lifting my dress for when I walk on stage for the prom queen announcement." Tasha ordered Violet, who nodded and proceeded to walk off.

"Wait, Charlotte's here?" I asked, shocked. "She's out of hospital?"

"Yeah, just a few hours ago too, the doctors were pretty worried about her early release but she's alright," Tasha answered, disinterested in the topic.

I turned to where Violet had walked to see her standing next to a slightly pale Charlotte who was twirling in a dark green dress that fell bellow her knees. I cut past Tasha, almost forgetting about Debby as I walked over to her. Debby kept up with my pace, trailing behind at a close distance. I hated to do this to her, but I had to speak to Charlotte.

"Charlotte! You're okay!" I exclaimed with relief as she looked up, noticing me.

"Hey! I thought you weren't coming tonight!" she smiled, looking genuinely happy to see me. "Yeah I'm okay."

"Are you sure? I walked out of English this afternoon only to see you getting pushed past me on a stroller by two paramedics!" I informed, confused by her casual behavior.

"Yeah, there was just a small health incident, all good now." she responded.

Health incident? Why was she lying?

"Oh, glad to hear you're doing alright now." I bit my lip, trying to make sense of the situation without stepping out of my place.

Suddenly, Violet pulled Charlotte towards her roughly. "You need to go stand near the stage now, for helping Tasha with her dress," she ordered.

"But the announcements like, ten minutes away" Charlotte argued over the loud booming music.

"Now." Violet gritted her teeth.

Charlotte unwillingly followed Tasha towards the stage, turning back to give me an apologetic look.

Debby and I were left alone in the middle of the dance floor, standing still.

"Wow, there are some real assholes in this place. Have you been dealing with that this entire time?" Debby asked from behind me.

I turned to her and smirked. "Come on, let's get off this disgusting dance floor."

"Thank God," she muttered as she eagerly began gliding her way out of the sweaty crowd.

We made our way over to a table that had been set up on one side of the room holding refreshments including a bowl of punch and plastic cups. I moved closer to it, studying the glass bowl design and hesitantly ran my fingers over the ladle.

"I wouldn't drink that if I were you," I heard a voice behind me suddenly say. I turned around to see Misty behind me smirking. "They always spike that shit."

She was wearing a light blue dress that complimented her eyes which for a change, weren't hidden by her glasses.

"Oh, I wasn't going to," I muttered. I had been trying to study the surface of the drink for any signs of tablet residue. I'd hoped that no one had put NT in the punch. "You look stunning by the way," I smiled at her.

She grinned back sheepishly, "Thanks, you too." she took a few steps close to me, away from the crowd of people dancing. "You know, this is like, our third encounter and I still don't know your name."

I was a bit taken back considering my fake name had become well known at Kennedy High in the short few weeks. It was due to the popularity. It just made you more well known for some reason, like everyone cared about your life for some reason.

"I don't know yours either!" I lied, smiling. "I'm Amanda," I said, for some reason extending my hand.

Misty took it without hesitation, "Misty," she grinned as she shook my hand.

"So, have you got a date here tonight?" I asked, wanting to know the whereabouts of Henry. I was expecting him to be texting me back at any moment to meet him somewhere for a drug deal. It had to be him.

"Yeah, my jerk boyfriend," she joked gesturing towards him. He was near the other side of the room, having a conversation with two other guys. "I better go check on him" she muttered. "Nice seeing you" she smiled as she walked away and left my still standing near the punch bowl. I was surprised Misty was keeping such a close eye on him, but I couldn't blame her. If she knew about him being a dealer, there was always the chance she was helping him. But for some reason, I didn't think Misty had anything to do with the dealing. She just didn't seem like the type.

I turned around to check on the whereabouts of Debby and found her a few meters away, leaning against a wall, staring at her phone. Obviously it was her attempt at a disconnect from a room she definitely did not want to be in. I couldn't blame her, after all, it was our enemy school and with the number of people around that looked like they were on something, the conversations would have been awkward.

I sighed, deciding to leave her alone as I scanned the whole room. 

I watched the other couples in the room that were talking and dancing happily. Was everyone in a relationship except me? Kevin, Debby, Cassie, Turner, Misty, Henry, even Tasha had some tool that she hooked up with a week ago! And who could forget my own mother who was probably out, having a date with some mysterious weirdo right now? Perfect. I'd officially become the single friend.

I looked over near the front of the stage where the DJ who had the unfortunate job of playing horrible music was. A few meters in front of him below the stage was Charlotte, who was looking around awkwardly, probably waiting for the prom queen announcement so she could help Tasha with her dress like Violet had snapped at her to do. I genuinely felt sorry for her. After sitting with her group for the past few weeks, all I'd observed was her being bossed around by the others and constantly ridiculed. I had always complained about how horrible that group of girls was but I had to exclude Charlotte. She was the only one with common sense who didn't walk around acting like she was the center of the universe. The same couldn't be said about the others.

I wondered whether I should've walked over to her to keep her company considering she probably was stuck in the same spot for the next few minutes but decided against it since I had to be ready for the drug deal. I continued watching all the activity in the room, keeping an eye out for anything suspicious but dropped my guard when I noticed Brad from across the room. What made it a lot worse was that he was staring directly at me. I felt nauseous in my stomach and instantly turned my head, pretending I never saw him. He made me sick. The thought of what he was probably planning to do with me on our date made me sick. I'd told him to stay away from me, even threatening to hurt him if he didn't and I hoped that he'd listen. I wanted nothing else to do with him and was ashamed at myself for thinking he was actually alright in the beginning.

Before I could let myself get more upset by his presence, I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket. Seeing Brad now seemed like nothing in comparison to how much I wanted to throw up when I pulled out my phone.

I slowly looked down at my phone, unprepared and worried.

Where are you?

I couldn't help but feel relief flood through me when I realized it was only Eric. He had probably noticed my absence at the agent event and was checking to see my whereabouts. I let my fingers linger over the keyboard on my phone, wondering whether I should text him back but told myself not to, sliding my phone back into my clutch. There was no point. I needed to do this without him, without anyone.

As I still held my phone in my hand, in my clutch, I felt it vibrate again. Crap. Something told me it wasn't Eric again. I reluctantly pulled it back out again, looking down at its message, proving myself right.

Meet in 2 mins. Room A3.4.

A3.4 was my English classroom and not too far away from the auditorium. I stared at the message again. This was really happening. I was about to meet the person we'd been trying to track down for more than a month.

I looked up to where Henry had been early only to see he was gone and Misty was still there. I search frantically around the room, doing a quick walk, trying to spot him with no luck. I sighed in defeat. I could feel my heart beating fast and I began to lose control of my breathing.

I turned around to where Debby was, still smiling as she looked down at her phone. I quickly walked over to her, being careful not to knock anyone around me over.

"I need to go do something, I won't be too long. Just stay here." I explained quickly.

She looked up at me from her phone. "What? No! Don't leave me here Becca! This place is hell and they just started playing that Nicki Minaj anaconda song!"

I bit my lip, looking around wondering what to do. I grabbed her wrist and dragged her with me to the front of the room, near the stage.

"Charlotte," I began, making her turn around and notice me, "This is my cousin Melody." I dragged Debby in front of me, who was looking rather uncomfortable. "I need to go to the bathroom, can she stay with you for a moment? Thanks, bye." I turned on my heel, not giving either of them a chance to react as I walked away. I felt bad for throwing the two of them in that situation but I was in a rush and I knew they'd be fine together.

I walked at a fast pace, still trying to look casual as I exited the auditorium. It was dark in the hallways and fear set in straight away. It was so strange seeing a place that was always lit up and bright look so different at night.

"Amanda!" I heard a familiar voice call from behind me.

I impatiently turned around to see Brad walking out of the auditorium behind me. I turned quickly and continued walking fast out of fear, trying to let the booming music that could still be heard distract me. I could feel him catching up with me by the sound of his shoes on the floor.

"Go away!" I yelled as I passed three girls who walked into the auditorium, leaving just Brad and myself in the dark hallway- all alone. Reminding me of the last time we were in a dark place together.

I continued walking as fast as I could, almost running as fast as my shoes would allow me, but stopped when I felt his grip around my wrist. "Hold on a sec." he begged, releasing my wrist.

"I told you to stay away from me," I growled, not bothering to hide my displeasure.

"Come on, are you still on about that? I made a mistake." he flicked a piece of his jet-black hair out of his face.

I scoffed, looking at him in disbelief. "Of course I'm still on about that! Do you know how scared I was? I get that you made a mistake and you were on drugs, and you're sorry, but that was still assault and I told you to keep away from me." I gritted my teeth, fuming inside.

"It wasn't that bad," he argued, "Can't you just get over it? I thought we'd be really good together Amanda. I really like you."

I tried to gain control of my breathing, gathering up any strength I had. "You have two seconds to walk away from me right now or I swear to god I will attack you."

He looked at me shocked as I continued to stand my ground as powerful as I could. I was running out of time to meet the dealer and was worried that they would leave if I didn't show up within the next minute. I couldn't lose this lead. I turned around and began to walk off when I realized Brad wasn't going to do the same. I needed to reach the end of the hallway and turn the corner as the room was on the right but after only a few steps I felt the same tight grip on my wrist.

"Amanda you're being stu-"

I turned around as quick as I could and raised my fist, punching Brad in the jaw with all my force. He stumbled back, looking more scared and confused than ever, bringing his hand up to where I'd left a bruise. He hadn't been expecting that much force from someone like me. Thank you, Eric's combat training.

"Go. Now." I glared.

He began walking backward, taking a few steps before turning around and storming off back down the other end of the hall. I continued watching him until he was out of sight and then continued my own walk down the hall.

I could feel my hand throbbing from the punch but didn't have time to worry about it as I reached the end of the hall and turned right, and walked down the new hall in front of me.

The nerves in my stomach continued growing as I saw my English classroom appear in sight. I walked slowly to do the door, placing my hand on the handle. Out of all the places and times, we were able to do a drug deal in a school building, meters away from other students and teachers at a dance.

I can do this. I just needed to see if I could find out anything about the dealer. Like if they were a female or male. Or how many helpers they had. Maybe I could get them to speak so I could hear their voice. I closed my eyes, still holding the cold door handle.

I slowly began turning it, taking a deep breath. I can do this.

The door opened slowly I peered in the dark room, not being able to make out anything except the shapes of desks and chairs.

"Um, hello?" I called out softly, taking a step into the cold room, trying to calm my nerves.

I peered forward more, taking another step as I suddenly felt something heavy hit me on the back of the head, knocking me over.

An unbearable sharp pain hit me quickly and my eyesight faded to complete darkness.