Ben's POV

Zoe: COME ON! Where r u

Me: On my way

I grabbed my phone and exited my dorm. It was thirteen minutes to six, and I needed to be at the gym. I picked up my pace and caught up with Mike, who was also headed there.

"I'm pretty sure the Ice Queen's going to win some kind of a bravery award or whatever," Mike said as we turned the corner and entered the gym.

"Yeah, maybe," I said absently. I was scanning the crowd on the bleachers for Erica. There was a small podium where our teachers, Alexander Hale and the principal were seated.

I followed Mike to an empty spot next to Zoe. he sat next to her and I sat to his left.

"So glad you could come," Zoe said excitedly as Alexander Hale took the mike in his own hands. He waved to the crowd and gave them one of his million-dollar smiles. The crowd erupted into cheers and waved back. There were shrieks and oohs and aahs.

If only they knew, I thought, and by the look on my friends' faces, they were also thinking the same. Alexander looked so debonair in his three piece suit and he charmed most of the girls in my school.

"Ladies and gentlemen of the CIA Academy of espionage," Alexander began, "we mark another successful school year that has ended. Now all of you will move a rank up. First years will be second years, second will be third, and so on. We are also recruiting a new set of first years, and our eighth year students will be graduating tomorrow, which you are most welcome to come see."

There was another round of applause. I scanned the crowd again, searching for Erica. I couldn't see her at all. I looked at Alexander, trying to spot Erica somewhere near the teachers. She was not there either. I scanned the doorway, but she was absolutely nowhere. I glanced at Alexander again, and now the teachers were moving on to awards.

Erica? I mouthed to Alexander, who had returned to his and looked at us. His eyebrows rose up in confusion. He scanned the crowd as well. Where? He mouthed back. I shrugged.

"I'll be right back," I told Mike and Zoe, then made my way down and slipped around the corner. Alexander noticed me, then spoke to the principal before slipping out of his seat as well.

"Benjamin," Alexander said as soon as we were flattened in the middle of the bleachers. The noise of all the stomping, cheering and clapping of my peers was so loud that I could barely hear him. "Where's my daughter?"

"I don't know," I said. "I figured she would be here, but I can't find her anywhere."

"She might be preparing for tomorrow," Alexander suggested.

I shook my head. "Erica wasn't in her room. There was no sound coming from her room."

Alexander grew worried. "Are you sure?"

"I'll go check," I replied, then exited the gym as fast as I could. Alexander returned to his seat.

I turned at the corner and headed down the hallway to Erica's dorm. I had only been there once, and I had seen Erica's human side. She had blue blankets, throw pillows and kitten posters. She had me swear not to say anything to anyone under the penalty of death.

"Erica?" I called out softly, knocking on her door. There was no answer. I knocked again, just a little harder. There was still no answer. I slowly turned the doorknob and the door opened, much to my surprise. This worried me. Erica always had her door locked.

"Erica?" I called out again, entering her room, then softly closing it behind me. Her room, which was somehow impeccably neat as always, had a mess of papers on her desk. I went through them, but all of them were blank pieces of lined paper.

My first instinct was to notify Cyrus Hale, but I grabbed my own phone instead and dialed Erica's number. It went straight to her voicemail.

"This is Erica Hale. I'm pretty sure you are either Mom, Grandpa, Dad or Ben. I will call you back as soon as possible."

I stared at my phone in frustration. What I didn't notice in my hustle was that there was a piece of paper on her bed with a note on it. It awkwardly landed at my feet, so I did what I would do in a normal situation.

I picked it up. Sure enough, Erica's beautiful handwriting was flowing across the paper. Though it wasn't as beautiful. I could tell it was Erica, but it looked like she had written it in a haste.

Ben-

Please be you reading this. I might have caused you worry, but just meet me outside the west wing near room 87 at 0200 hours. Please. Love you.

-Erica

The last two words threw me off. I stared at the note in shock and surprise. Love you? That just sounded wrong. I shook my head, then pocketed the note and ran back to my dorm room before anyone could see me. Unfortunately for me, Sydney, a fourth year, saw me exit Erica's room. Though most of the school knew Erica liked me, Sydney grew suspicious.

"Hey, aren't you Ben Ripley?" she asked.

I nodded. "Yeah."

She stared at me hard, then ran up to me with a piece of paper. "Oh my gosh, it's you! Can I have an autograph?"

"I'm famous?" I asked as I hastily made something you could call an autograph. She nodded.

"You, Mike, Zoe and Erica are superheroes! You easily defeated SPYDER and proved yourself better than any other spy in the CIA," she gushed, then ran off to her classmates. "You won't believe I ran into Ben Ripley!" she said.

I smiled to myself, then headed back to my dorm room. Zoe and Mike came up to me a couple of minutes later.

"Ben! You never came back to the gym, so we came back," Zoe said.

I frowned. "You missed the award ceremony?"

"Nah, it's over," Mike replied. "The only thing going on right now is the Principal reading off a list of renovations. Half the gym is gone, and the other half are slowly filing out."

"Oh, okay, great," I replied, trying to sound like I totally didn't just lose Erica somewhere, than receive a note that said she loved me. "I'm just going to go to bed."

"Oh, goodnight!" Zoe said, heading out. Mike followed, then waved to me and closed the door.

That night, I couldn't really focus on anything. I tried to stay awake, but that was really hard for me after all the exams. I had to see Erica at 0200 hours and then meet Cyrus for the mission at 0900 hours. I kept glancing at the clock, waiting for 0200 hours. At 0130, I got tired of waiting so I got up.

I headed outside into the field where everyone played ball and scanned the area. I hadn't been around here in the night, so it was very confusing.

I eventually found my way and went to room 87, which was my self-preservation 101 classroom. I waited outside in the dark of the night, hoping that Erica would show up sometime. It was 0157, so Erica would be here anytime.

Suddenly, I was attacked from behind. Someone pinned me to the floor. I screamed, but my attacker threw their hand over my mouth. That's when I picked up the familiar scent of lilacs and gunpowder.

Erica Hale.

"Erica!" I whisper-yelled. She got off me and I scrambled to my feet. "You always do this."

"When have I ever done this?" she asked. "Anyways, thanks for coming."

Thanks for coming. That reminded me of Love you.

"Okay, explain. What's going on, exactly?" I asked.

Erica led me to a corner. "I wasn't here at the ceremony because I was doing surveillance."

"On?"

"The Idiot." Erica stated this so simply that I wondered if she did this everyday.

Erica seemed to read my mind, then smirked. "No, I don't do this everyday. The Idiot has some important files on his computer regarding Lucio Mirgher. I don't even know why they gave it to him, so I cut it out and pasted it onto this." She held up a flash drive.

I nodded. "That's great. When are we going to look at this?"

"Are you kidding?" Erica asked. "Right now."

I groaned. I really wanted to go to bed. I needed sleep. It was 0218, and I needed at least six hours of sleep. Erica didn't look like the person who would let me sleep, so I reluctantly followed her back inside.

I reread the note in my pocket, hoping that whatever she said in the note would make some sort of sense to me.

"Are you worried that I wrote Love you in the note? I'll clarify that for you. I meant that for either Mom, Dad or grandpa because there was a chance that one of them may also be the one to find the note," Erica said.

"Then why did you hope it was me who was reading the note? Why was it addressed to me?" I asked. I knew that she wrote that on purpose, yet she wasn't going to reveal anything to me.

Just like that, she grabbed me, flattened me against the wall, looked both ways, then pressed me down.

At first I didn't realize it.

Then I understood what was going on.

A kiss. Lasting two seconds.

I didn't know what to do. I was shocked, surprised, puzzled, happy and confused at the same time. Erica finally pulled apart from me. She pressed her hands firmly on my shoulders and held me at arm's reach.

"Ben, if you tell anyone what I just did, or if I hear about this coming out of your mouth, then I'll kill you," she said, but she didn't sound terrifying. She spoke calmly.

I nodded. She smiled.

"I promise I'll explain everything," she said, then headed to her dorm. I figured that I should be too, so I headed to my dorm.

"What about the flash drive?" I asked her. She paused, turned around, then tossed it my way. I caught it.

"We'll work on that tomorrow," she said, then hurried down the hallway. I also headed back to my dorm, bewildered. Erica had surprised me on a high level, something that had shocked me to an overwhelming point. I couldn't sleep at all, no matter how much I tried.

It was 0550 hours and I still couldn't fall asleep. I wasn't sleepy at all, but I knew that if I didn't get much sleep than Cyrus would kill me. I eventually fell fast asleep.

Thank you for reading this! It really means a lot to me.