Disclaimer: I don't own the Gallagher Girls, the toys and store mentioned, or M&Ms. Duh.
"Subject is moving into Toys R Us," Cammie muttered to herself. She was standing in the mall's mini playground, sitting on a bench hidden by the small plastic slide. Even at age eight, she was already on her way to becoming the pavement artist she has always dreamed to be. After all, with the legacies of Rachel and Matthew Morgan as her parents, she was destined to be a great spy. But for now, instead of tailing a terrorist, Cammie was tailing her dad to find out her birthday present.
She was wearing a pair of glasses that doubled as binoculars and a baseball cap over her dirty blonde hair. By tapping the left side of the glasses, she zoomed in on her father and watched him walk into the store. When he was out of view, she started following after him, making sure she couldn't be seen. You would think a little eight year old girl walking alone at the mall would be suspicious, but Cammie knew better. She walked closely behind a mom pushing a stroller who was also heading to Toys R Us. Anyone else looking at her would think that was her family. But there's always more than meets the eyes.
As soon as she made it into the toy store, she slowly drifted away from the stroller mom and scanned the store for her dad. When she couldn't find him, she walked towards the janitor closet, where she knew was an elevator where you can access the spy toy floor. Surely enough, there he was, slipping wordlessly into the closet without being seen.
"1..2..3.." Cammie counted to 30 before going after him. She was just about to open the door when...
"What are you doing?" a boy asked. Cammie froze but tried to act casual; she didn't want to fail her first unofficial mission because of a civilian. She turned and looked at him. He seemed to be her age, maybe older, taller than her by a few inches, with messy dark brown hair falling to cover mischievous emerald eyes.
"Nothing," she replied.
The boy shrugged and pulled out a bag of peanut M&Ms and started eating. Cammie's stomach grumbled loudly. She forgot to stop by the food court to get some lunch. The boy looked at her and smirked.
"You seem hungry," he said. He offered her the bag of M&Ms. She hesitated. The M&Ms were so tempting, but she knew better than to take candy from strangers. But if this boy was dangerous, she was sure she could take him down.
"I don't even know you," Cammie answered and backed away.
The boy shrugged. "Goode. Zach Goode." So he's into spy movies. Nice touch. "What's your name?" Cammie didn't say anything. "What? I'm here kindly offering my candy to you and you can't even tell me your name?" Cammie still didn't speak.
Zach pouted but didn't seem to mind. "Okay, your loss. See you!" He started walking away and Cammie watched him eat more M&Ms. Her stomach growled even louder.
"Cammie!" she yelled after him. He stopped walking but didn't turn around. "My name is Morgan. Cammie Morgan." Zach turned around and smiled, little dimples appearing in his cheeks. He walked back towards her and gave her the rest of the bag. Cammie eagerly grabbed it and poured the rainbow sugar goodness down her mouth.
"Thanks!" she said, her mouth still full. He stood there and grinned. She felt a warm feeling inside. Cammie liked Zach. He was nice and easy going. Too bad she couldn't stick around. It would be nice having a normal friend.
"Well... bye!" Since she couldn't access the secret elevator inside the closet with Zach watching, she figured she'd just wait until his dad comes out at the playground again. Cammie started walking away when she felt bullets nail into her back. Foam bullets that is.
Cammie spun around, shocked. Zach somehow grabbed and loaded a Nerf gun within seconds of her turning around, and he hit her with precise accuracy. It was cool he could do that... and kind of scary. "How did you do that so quickly?"
Zach stopped smiling for a bit and lowered the gun. "I learned from my mom." But he returned to his calm demeanor and raised the gun, shooting perfectly at her again.
"Stop! Zach!" Cammie put her hands in front of her face to protect herself, but Zach easily maneuvered around her hands and continued shooting her.
"That's IT!" Cammie ran away from the incoming foam fury and grabbed the nearest toy she could find, a Star Wars lightsaber. Zach kept shooting and reloading, but now Cammie was moving the lightsaber swiftly to block the bullets. She was shielding ever single bullet and a pile was forming at her feet.
Click click click... "Dang it!" Zach exclaimed. He finally ran out of ammo. Cammie smiled and ran over and jabbed him with the lightsaber.
"I win!" Cammie said happily. Zach laughed and put his hands up in surrender.
"Okay, you win, Agent Cammie," Zach answered and backed up. Cammie felt weird at being called 'Agent,' but it was nice. Now that they stopped, they noticed a lot of grown-ups giving them 'kids; what are you going to do about em?' looks. Zach and Cammie looked over at each other and smiled. They started cleaning up the remains of their little war when Cammie was lifted off the ground.
"What do you think you're doing here, kiddo?" Cammie's dad asked. Cammie's cheeks reddened as she dangled above the floor. Zach smirked but finished cleaning.
Cammie arched her head around to her dad. "An operative never exposes his or her mission to another subject not directly involved with or related to the mission in question."
Matthew Morgan smiled. "Look at that, my little girl is reciting from The Covert Operations Code of Conduct." Cammie beamed proudly. She'd been reading through the spy books at home for weeks now. He spun her around and placed her down.
"I thought we agreed we wouldn't begin spy training until after your birthday," her dad accused.
"I wanted to know my birthday present," Cammie answered with a shrug. She looked up at her dad and tried to look as innocent as possible. Even a well trained spy fell powerless to her recently perfected pout and puppy dog look combo. Surely enough, his initial stern expression softened.
"My chameleon is growing up to become quite the pavement artist." Matthew smiled at his daughter, but just started to take notice to her green eyed companion.
"Hi... Zach."
Zach looked up, shocked that he knew his name. Mr. Morgan just shrugged. "I was watching for long enough. Good aim, by the way."
"Thank you, sir."
"Sir? Don't call me that, it makes me feel old," Cammie's dad said with a chuckle. Zach smiled and nodded.
"Well, I'd love to stick around but we better get going. Cammie and I need to have a discussion about spoiling her birthday present," he said, cutting a glance back to Cammie.
"Oh. Nice meeting both of you!" Zach said. Matthew took his daughter's hand, and together they walked out of the store. Cammie, being the spy daughter she was, noticed her dad was empty handed.
"You didn't... buy anything?" she brought up casually. He just laughed and changed the subject.
"Zach seems nice. Is he your new boyfriend?" Cammie's face scrunched up in disgust. She was still at that age where boys are 'icky.'
"Ew, daddy, I just met him. Plus, boys are weird and gross. But he is nice," Cammie admitted.
She glanced briefly behind her and looked for Zach. He was now with an older, auburn haired lady. Her features resembled him; she must be his mom. Zach's mom looked mad at him, yelling at him wildly. Zach looked at his feet, embarrassed. His eyes were brimmed with tears that he refused to let fall. Suddenly, she slapped him. Cammie gasped.
"What's wrong, kiddo?" her dad asked. Cammie immediately looked away and tried to forget what she saw.
"Nothing, I just saw that popcorn stand over there and I'm really hungry," she half-lied. She was hungry, but she couldn't get that image of Zach and that lady out of her mind.
"Then let's get some popcorn on an almost successful mission!" he announced.
"Yeah, let's go."
~.~.~
Years past, and Cammie forgot about meeting Zach that day in the mall. Most of her childhood was a blur. But when they met again in DC years later, Cammie felt that they met before, even though she never admitted it to anyone, and Zach felt the same way.
Not the most satisfying ending, but yup. It's done! A cute little one shot! Reviews are appreciated! Thanks a million!