INTERACTIVE MISSION WITHIN SPY SCHOOL REUNION

So welcome to the final authors note. Before I get into the whole note with my thoughts and stuff, let me tell you ABOUT ONE MORE MISSION!

As this is a spy book, this time, I wanted to make it a little bit fun and interactive! I've been planning this and writing it in since DAY 1 on December 31, 2019. Before, you know, everything turned to crap. I'm happy that no one (that I know of) noticed the clues yet so it hasn't been solved yet.

SO! Within this book, there is a secret code/phrase. There is a hint/clue in each chapter (not including this because this is an author's note).

In order to find the code or phrase, you need to find the clue in EACH chapter. Then, you need to make sure you lock in your clue by VOTING for that chapter. Finally, when you think you found it, please PRIVATELY PM MESSAGE ME what you think it is. Please don't write it on the story or on my conversation board. Don't ruin it for others. I will be checking.

The first person who solves it I will tag them right here: Alpha12321 (Congratulations!!!)
And idk, a prize? Is there something you guys can think of as a prize I can do? Is there a prize you want? Idk I can figure it out with the person who gets it first.

It's not super hard but you've gotta look carefully! Happy hunting! Good luck! (Also is this cheesy? Idk I had fun making it).

Intro to authors note!

Well, this is the end of Spy School Reunion. It's crazy to think about. I started planning this on a piece of lined paper in October of 2019 while sitting in history class, learning about the state of the union address. I didn't put any of the characters or full plot together until towards the end to middle of November to the beginning of December. It's been almost two months of planning a little over seven months of writing.

And wow, a lot has happened to me and the entire world in that time. Heck, guys, were in a worldwide pandemic now! The United States (where I live) is going through a pandemic and movement for equality. I also reached big milestones in my academic and personal life, which is crazy to think about.

I can't believe how much amazing support I've gotten on this story. It truly blows my mind. As of now, August (wow it's already August??!)1 of 2020, the story reached 29k views and 1.4k votes. That is literally insane!! I MEAN WHAT???! When I put it into perspective, that's a LOT OF PEOPLE!!! I was also informed that Soy School Reunion was the first spy school story to hit 1k votes AND apparently it's the most-voted spy school book EVER on Wattpad. THANK YOU SO MUCH AHHH!! That is completely surreal and I owe everything to you guys. Thank you for reading it and sticking with it!

I really grew as a writer throughout this journey. I mean, I started it officially on fanfiction in October of 2018. Now, we're in August of 2020.! The story came along with me during this whole messed up school year, going through the ups and downs I went through (and this year was whirlwind). Writing this, a lot happened to me. I have my first official boyfriend, a big milestone happened, I got
some big sports award, and oh right, a worldwide pandemic happened. This has been the craziest year ever.

This story went through some ups and downs as some of you know haha. Thank you to everyone who stuck with me and supported me through my creative choices in this book. As you can tell by votes and view numbers, people definitely stopped reading after I told everyone I wasn't doing Berica. I honestly fully expected to have no readers but I really appreciate, more than you know, for your endless support. It means the world to me.

I keep saying this, but I became such a better writer this year so thank you for reading and reviewing my story to give me feedback. It's all due to people actually reading it and supporting it. Even spy school: clash of spies too! Wattpad even reached out about submitting it to the Wattys this year again!

Thank you for the endless support of not just me but my older stories too!

Well this was longer than I expected whoops haha.

Writing Process

Okay, I wanted to give a quick view of my writing process for this book. Some of you asked me how I get my ideas. The way I got the ideas for Reunion and Clash of Spies was the same way.

Both times, I was really bored in history class. For Reunion, I was learning about the state of the union address and my teacher was talking about a designated survivor. Someone who stays away while the meeting takes places. In my mind, I was thinking "what if that one person was bad?" I love how that's where my mind goes haha. So basically, for plots, I think of ways people could exploit the government and play on those. I swear I'm not planning anything in real life hahaha. And during that time in my life, I was also going through some personal stuff with this guy, so that's where the character development came into place. Later, I got through even more stuff with another guy, which is a perfect segway into my next thing.

Why not Berica

Let me start by saying this: I totally ship berica. In Stuart Gibbs stories now, I totally ship Berica. But in the time period and place of their lives Ben and Erica are in MY story, I don't think they'd be together.

The choice not to do Berica came before I even started posting chapters. That was a choice I knew would be risky but I knew I had to do it for myself and the characters.

First off, there are a LOT of berica books (mine included! Spy School: Clash of Spies is berica). But I wanted to try something different! Why not? It'll be different for sure!

But more importantly, I wrote based on what I was going through at the time. A common phrase in writing is "write what you know". It's so cliche and cheesy, but for me, I found it true. I can tap into characters emotions better that way if I have experienced them myself.

So I'll give a little personal story for background: I lived in California, moved away for six years, then moved back to California. When I lived there the first time, when I was in 1st grade, I was VERY into this boy, um I'll call him Tom. Tom and I, back when I was a literally 7, decided we were going to date. And we did until 2nd grade (you know elementary school dating when you just hold hands and declare you're dating). Like Erica and Ben, we were together.

But then, I moved away after second grade (like when spy school shut down). At first, Tom and I were connected and we wrote letters to each other. Aww very cute. But obviously, our lives changed a lot and we drifted apart. Okay, fast forward to when I move back. I'm now 13. It's been six school years.

When I write, I strive to write realistic. For me at least, I find it unreadable if I can't visualize it in my head because it's unrealistic. To me, it ruins the original books because I can imagine the other stuff I read. Also, it doesn't do justice to the wonderful author who wrote the original books. Tom and I weren't going to pick back up where we left off. We were totally different people than when we were six years ago (hense how different Ben and Erica were). And that was just six years. Imagine how much Ben and Erica must have drifted apart in ten years. Ten years ago, I was in preschool. That's a long time. Thus, Erica and Ben didn't pick up where they left off with berica. Imagine a person that you had a crush on, dated or were friends. Now pretend you haven't seen or talked to them at all in ten years, and then see them for the first time. Do you think that you would jump right back into the relationship you were in while a decade went by? There is little chance, at least in my opinion, that it would happen in real life. People change, personalities change, lifestyles change and a lot of things happen in ten years. Thus, upholding my value of realism, I did not opt to go down the Berica route in this story. I wanted to not only stay true to the realistic aspect, but my personal life with Tom.

But it doesn't mean we didn't try. Tom and I started to hang out and we went on like little mini dates sorta (thus the early Berica moments. They were experimenting like Tom and I did). But it was quickly evident we weren't meant to be together. Interests change, personalities change, people change.  It's not to say that we didn't try to make it work. And it's also not to say that we aren't great friends still (like Erica and Ben are). You can be friends without being in a relationship. Tom and I quickly realized too much time had passed and we weren't meant to date. That was fine and great because then this year, I met, I'll call him Luke. This is a perfect bridge into why Hailey and Ben unlimitedly got together.

Why Ben and Hailey ended up together

Hailey actually stemmed from more of my personal experiences. Once Tom and I realized we wouldn't work, here came Luke this year.  Luke was hot and cute, funny, athletic and all around amazing. We met at a party and immediately hit it off as we both play lacrosse. We sped into that relationship wayyy too fast (like Hailey and Ben. It was destined to fail). It really showed and everyone started talking about us and our relationship.

Okay, I'm not going to get tooo personal but something happened and he really hurt me. Then in retaliation, I hurt him back. After that, we started this toxic circle of lying, betraying and hurting each other. It was not fun. (Luke obviously didn't kill his dad but we both did lie to each other like Hailey and Ben did about being a spy and killing her dad). One day, after a huge blow up, we realized that this was just toxic and we needed to stop.

So we took a break for a few months (like Hailey and Ben did in the epilogue). I dated this guy and he was boring and demanding. Luke dated some people too. Anyways, we realized that despite how much we hurt each other, we had something special (god this sounds like a Netflix movie, Netflix hmu). So we tried again. And people thought we were crazy. We did some crazy, probably unforgiving stuff to each other. But we both worked together and learned to forgive and trust each other. (Like Hailey and Ben did). It took time, but we put in the work. I didn't blame him for his mistakes and he didn't for me. Once we started caring and rooting for each other, our relationship was amazing. When you get to know Luke, he's the best, kindest, most generous guy ever. And since then, we've been together for almost six months now and I couldn't be happier. Just like how Hailey and Ben ultimately end up with each other. So that's why Ben ended up with Hailey as I ended up with Luke even though nobody thought we'd get back together.

Full circle moments

In this story, I wrote a lot of full circle moments because it's wrapping up Ben's arc essentially of being a spy. It's ten years later and a coming of age story, so I wanted him to have a lot of those moments. With the throwing up, referencing the first spy school book. And when they give him the wedding present of the school, reopening spy school under his name closed the chapter in his life, being able to live on knowing those days were behind him and kids like him can be spies too. Ben could grow up and move on.

This is a really random note haha but Hailey also foreshadows Joshua's plan of being the designated successor in chapter 21. In fact, it was possible to figure out the whole plot before it was revealed as a lot of the earlier chapters connected.

Why their future?

Someone PM'ed me and asked me how and why I chose the specific future for each person. I thought that was a great question and I was going to address that!!

-Erica being famous was a wildcard and what made the story interesting. It was the least thing anyone expected and I honestly can't imagine her going to a regular high school hahah

-Ben is smart and charming but often explained as an introvert in social situations like school. I think that could lead to his own downfall a bit.

-Mike is popular, good looking and very social. He's also hard working so I thought his dream would come as a baseball player but maybe have issues with drugs and partying because of his wild and fun nature.

-Zoe is super kind and the most trustworthy. I feel like, when and if she falls for someone, she will fall hard for them and all that trust and love can cause heartbreak and difficulty. She would be too trusting and not wary at all. I imagined her with an early family because of it.

-Jawa is very athletic and likes to stay that way, so that's why I thought he'd be a great Olympian.

-Chip is handsome and also acts (as seen in spy school secret service) so I think that combo could hand him in Hollywood very easily

The sappy stuff

I am genuinely so thankful for each and every one of you who reads the story. It means so much to me. And a special thank you to those who vote and comment on every chapter. You know who you are and it makes me happy every time I get a notification. I'll say it once, I'll say it a thousand times: thank you. This spy school community is truly the greatest and most amazing and supportive people. You've guided me and helped me through writing, life and Wattpad.

Future projects:

I've gotten a lot of questions about what I'll do after I finish this story and if I'll do another spy school one.

The answer to that is probably not. I don't want to say no, because that's so definite, bu I seriously doubt it. It took me two months of planning and seven months of planning to write this consistently with a clear plot with story arcs and interlocking clues. Going into next year, and it greatly saddens me to say this, I don't think I'll have the time to write another whole story.

I'm also working on a lot of passion projects at the moment. I have a website I'm working on, I am the head of a new non-profit that launched last month and I'm also writing two screenplays, one of which will probably be actually used and filmed. So my time is already super limited.

Also, many of you asked me to write a Berica book. If you haven't already, check out the book that comes before this, Spy School: Clash of Spies. It's berica. But there will not be any book sequel after Reunion.

THAT BEING SAID, I was entertaining an idea. What if I made a spy school one shot book? It would be all based on request. For example, just PM me and suggest a one shot? It would probably be like 5k words and be a mini story. You could request anything at all! (Within like reasons of course). Ben and Erica go on a date, Murray and Erica go on a date or even one shot based on my stories, like a one shot of the time Audrey's mom and Alexander met. That way, I can work on them on my own time and not feel pressured to update each week. But my only hesitation is that there's already so many amazing spy school one shot books out there! I don't want to overcrowd and over saturate the market. Please let me know what you guys think! I would love feedback!!

And also, I'm gonna say, spy school has been a huge part of my writing life for the last two years. It might be time to move on. I stand by the fact that you can never get "too old" for a series, but I think I am losing interest in writing their stories. It doesn't excite me as much as it did a year ago. Maybe that's just because I've already dived into their characters and motivations because I continue to write them. I am even considering looking at other fandoms (but spy school will always be OG).

I'm also a poor judge of jokes and I'm genuinely sorry if something is confusing or if it was too, idk, inappropriate in the story. There were sometimes I wrote a joke that I thought was hilarious but for like a day no one said anything in the comments and I realized it might be too mature for some of you. I took out all these jokes because they flew over everyone's heads. I don't know how old you are so I'm so sorry if there was something inappropriate and confusing. I'm trying my very best to keep it PG as techibally the age group is 8-12 according to Barnes and Noble. So maybe exploring other fandoms is good, idek. But even so, I'm going to take a break and give myself a mental break after all of those hours writing and planning a chapter.

But I'm going to take this time to hopefully catch up on all of your stories and other stories I didn't have the chance to read or keep up with because I was too busy focused on writing my own story! So I'm very excited to do that. I will still try my best after this story finishes and even if I don't do a one shot book to remain active.

Final Thoughts

This has been amazing and I'm so fortunate to have gotten to do this all over again. I can't thank you all enough for the endless support. I really had a great experience doing Wattpad. I learned so much and got lots of support I never thought I'd get, especially how I decided I wanted my story to go. You all are so supportive, nice and helpful when I was and still am, navigating this journey. I've built so many friends in this wonderful community. It's because of you I got to write this amazing story and the reason it broke the spy school records.

I've said it a thousand times, but I've gotta say it again. THANK YOU spy school community for accepting me, all these amazing reviewers, readers and voters and thank you Stuart Gibbs for this amazing series.

I'm out! ✌️🤟
SMH204.