Room Number 213
CIA Academy of Espionage
Washington, DC
February 28th
0900 Hours

I woke up well rested, thankfully, but unexcited. Saturday's were the most boring day of the week, believe it or not. Like most schools, we didn't have any classes on Saturday's. You would think that I would be thrilled, as a hated the majority of the classes I had to take, but things got boring, and quickly. To start, we weren't allowed to have our phones, we weren't allowed to go anywhere else, and if we complained, they would make us go back to class. But at least I had something to look forward to today: Erica's birthday party!

I thought I was excited, there was something to get rewarded by after my long a tiring Saturday, but Zoe was absolutely ecstatic. She didn't stop talking all throughout breakfast. Rambling on about what was going to happen. But I couldn't be annoyed, because I, too, was happy.

"I wonder what kind of cake there's going to be!" Zoe wondered aloud, "I like chocolate, but any flavor is good!"

As Zoe continued to talk about her plans for the party, and what she was excited for, I heard Chip whisper under his breath, "Knowing Erica, there probably won't even be a cake."

I had to laugh at that. More of a blowing out of my nose more than usual (like when you see something funny on the internet), because I remembered on my last mission when Catherine, Erica's mom, had said that on her third birthday, Erica had requested trail mix instead of cake. Her mom had also said that after her third birthday, Erica wasn't allowed to have another birthday party. I wonder if Catherine changed her mind. Or if she even knows about the party.

I carried on through the rest of my day, though 10 o'clock couldn't seem to get here fast enough. I walked around the school grounds with Mike and Zoe, I practiced my gun shooting with Emily, I spied on Erica as she demonstrated her perfect spy skills of shooting and camouflage and scaling buildings (but she doesn't have to know I was watching her. Even though she probably did), I even studied for my Intro To Deception test, and I hate studying! And that was all before lunch. After lunch, however, things got more interesting. But it was not in my favor.

Another FREAKING note. I had to find out who kept sending me these. This one was different though. The other notes I received had been tucked into my pockets mysteriously. This one, was just sitting on my desk with the words Open Me messily scrawled on top of it. I slowly open the note and a small device fell to the ground. I hope that wasn't important, I thought. I also hoped it didn't break. I realized I was right--the note was different. This note was in a different handwriting. I still didn't know who it was, but it wasn't like the others ones. I hoped that meant it was good. The first couple sentences gave the identity away.

Ben. This is Murray Hill. You remember? From SPYDER? Like, your arch enemy? Yeah, I'm sure you do. I'd love to explain why I'm contacting you, but this writing thing is hard! So I relayed the message on the recording device that was with this note.

I looked around until I saw where it had landed on the ground. It looked like a radio transmitter. I stuck it in my ear and heard a voice I knew all too well.

"Hi, Ben!" It was, in fact, Murray Hill. It sounded like he was playing ping pong, as there was a faint *boing* every now and then. "I just *boing* wanted to let you know *boing* that we caught wind of your *boing* of your little birthday party *boing boing boing* for your girlfriend." I knew he was talking about Erica, even though she wasn't my girlfriend. I wondered how he found out. It was probably one of the moles who are most likely at our school, but who?

"Oh! And don't think we wouldn't be sending her a birthday gift! Expect a surprise. See you soon!" *click*

SPYDER knew about the party, and evidently planned on making some sort of appearance. I had to tell Erica.

It would have been a lot easier to tell Erica if I actually knew where she was. I checked the library, the cafeteria, I scoured the grounds, and looked in every classroom. If only we had class today. I may have "sorta-kinda-accidentally" memorized Erica's schedule so I could have found her there, but, today, who knew if she was even on campus?!

I ended up finding Zoe. She was playing "volleyball" (there was no net and the ball was deflated), with Mike and a few other kids. I walked up to her a narrowly avoid getting hit with the ball.

"Can I talk to you?" I asked her as she dove to hit the ball. She smacked it but it only landed a few feet away. "In private."

"Sure!" Zoe said. I gestured at Mike to come with us.

"Ha!" Some kid called from the other team, "That means you forfeit, and that means we win by default!" They all started high-fiving each other.

"Nuh uh!" Zoe called over her shoulder, "We'll be back!"

I led them to a secluded place by a wall.

"In my room, I found this note on my desk, and a message from Murray Hill," I explained. "It said that he knew about the party, and that SPYDER would be paying us a visit. I couldn't find Erica anywhere though."

They both seemed to ponder this, but then Mike exclaimed, "But this is Erica, I'm sure she already knows about what SPYDER is planning."

I considered this too. After all, hadn't Erica said that things might get a little crazy during her party? Could this be what she was referring to?

"All right," I agreed, "But I still think you should keep your guard up, and tell Erica that I need to talk to her if you see her."

"We're spy's," Zoe said, "We always have our guard up."

"Good."

I tried to calm myself down. Erica has a plan, I repeated to myself, everything will be just fine. But I couldn't push the nerves away. I had handled SPYDER before, but what really bothered me was the fact that Murry knew about the party. I knew there were moles in this school, even in the CIA, but could it be possible that one of them is my friend? We were already betrayed by Warren (although I doubt you could call him my friend), and I didn't want that to happen again. I also hadn't found Erica or seen any sign of her. I had slipped the note and message recorder-thingy into a plastic bag to show Erica later.

The day just couldn't go by fast enough. I couldn't help counting the hours that went by. Somehow, I managed to fight my way through the boredom, and into the cafeteria for dinner. I was starting to get excited. Even though there was the threat of SPYDER, I was still going to Erica's birthday party, and SPYDER or not, it was going to be fun.

I was ready. It was 9:55pm, and I was pacing my room. I could have left now, but I wanted to arrive fashionably late, I didn't want to seem too desperate and arrive there super early (even though I was pretty desperate.) I was going to wait it out until 10pm, but 9:58pm is close enough. I headed out.

I held up the note I was given from Erica, the proof that I was allowed to leave the campus, up to the security cameras. I don't know if anyone saw it, but now no one can say it didn't happen. I waited for the road to be clear, and crossed it, arriving at exactly 10 o'clock.

I walked in and was surprised that it looked how a normal birthday party would look. There were streamers and balloons, and a cake, (though I couldn't tell which flavor it was), a sign that read Happy 16th Birthday Erica! Of course she wanted people here! It was her 16th birthday! I almost panicked when I saw the pile of gifts and thought I hadn't gotten her one, but thankfully I remembered that Zoe saved the day (I still didn't know what the gift was though.) I examined the people. Zoe was already here, along with Chip and Jawa, (though Mike had stolen my thunder of being fashionably late.) There were also three girls I didn't recognize, and I deduced that they didn't go to my school because I had never seen them before. The first girl was short. She had medium length brown hair and light eyes. She blended in pretty well, and I considered that it would be possible that she went to my school, and I just never noticed her. The second girl was also short, but stood taller than the other one. She had super short blonde hair. Also a possible blend in. The third girl, however, was taller than me, with extremely long hair, all of which was bright pink. I definitely would have noticed her at my school. The only girl I hadn't noticed was Erica, she was still nowhere in sight.

Zoe skipped up to me as Mike walked through the door. He was 5 minutes late.

"Are you excited?" Asked Zoe, practically jumping up and down. "Because yeah definitely am!"

"Yeah!" I agreed smiling. "But do you know who those girls over there are?"

"Oh yeah! I talked to them a couple minutes ago, before you got here. They said they were some of Erica's old friends. Hard to believe, but they seemed nice."

Erica with friends? I'm sorry, but it seemed hard to believe. Especially since it seemed like she made friends that didn't go to Spy School.

At that moment Erica walked through the doors, accompanied by Catherine Hale. Erica looked just as beautiful as always, only she was wearing a black dress instead of her normal black jumpsuit.

The three other party girls swarmed around her and awed at how stunning she looked. They were all laughing and smiling, and it seemed like they really were friends. I stuck my hands in my pockets and felt the plastic bag. Right, SPYDER. Warning Erica.

I walked up to them. "Erica. Can I talk to you for a second?" She nodded. The girl with the brown hair smiled at me. I pulled Erica away.

"What's up?" She asked. It was weird to see her smiling.

"I got a note from Murray Hill-" She cut me off.

"I heard. The security cameras caught you telling Zoe and Mike. Someone relayed it to grandpa, and he relayed it to me. He was not happy about it. But don't worry, I've got it under control." I sighed in relief. "But," She said. Nothing good could happen when someone says "but." "We still need to be on the lookout. And should we find a SPYDER operative, we need to find out if they're planning anything." I nodded. Of course we would.

After I relaxed, the party was fun. We played "pin the tail on the donkey" but Catherine actually let us use throwing stars. Erica won--no surprise there. What was surprising was the fact that Erica's other friends didn't seem surprised by our throwing stars ability, and they were good too. Is that a thing in normal schools now? There were also other classic party games, and a snack table. I found myself there. The girl with the brown hair arrived after me.

"Hi," She said, grabbing some pretzels and putting them on her plate.

"Hi to me?" I asked, and she nodded, smiling. "Oh hi."

"You're Ben, right," She didn't really seem to be asking, more like confirming what she already knew.

"That's right," I replied, regardless if it was a rhetorical question or not. "How do you know Erica?"

She smiled, "I've known her forever," She said, "We used to go to school together." The concept of Erica going to any school other than spy school was weird. I always figured she was raised there. She held out her hand, "I'm Valerie, and the girl with the pink hair is Mia, and the other one is Scarlett. They went to school with Erica too, but are a year older than us." They must have been really close friends to have been invited to the party.

Catherine called us all over to the cake. It was chocolate. She lit the candles and we all began singing, "Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you-" The lights shut off. There was only the candlelight to see. I stopped singing, but one lone, vaguely familiar voice continued, "Happy birthday dear Erica," There was a whacking sound. "Happy birthday to you *whack* And *whack* Many *whack whack* More." *whack whack whack*

The whacking sounds got closer and closer until

*whack*