I bounce down the stairs as my mom announced "Happy Birthday Beatrice! Today is such a big day for you! You are going to be 12, a 6th grader, a tween! Well, technically you are already in 6th grade… Almost in Junior High School! That isn't too exciting for you because you are not changing schools, but still… I remember in kindergarten, you used to ask me to do everything for you and now you are so independent. I also remember when I had to change your diapers…" At that, she wrinkles her nose, while I blush 20 different shades of red. I try to silence her, but she continues on. "You are growing up so fast. But you will always be my baby girl!" I rolled my eyes and groaned. "Moooom! That's embarrassing." Then I smiled so she knew I was teasing. I thought to myself, too bad she didn't know just how important today was! But I couldn't tell her. It was a secret. I grabbed my bag and lunch and headed out the door for school.

At the bus stop my best friend, Christina, commonly known as Chris, runs over to me with a gift in her arms, and a big smile on her face. The bus arrives, and she screams at me, "Happy birthday, Tris!" as we get on. I groaned. I didn't like attention, but Chris did. I didn't have too many friends but Chris did. Now all of her and my friends will be pestering me all day! I groaned again at this thought, then put my head in my hands. I hissed to Chris, "Shut up, please!" She continued on as if nothing happened. "Happy birthday to you! You live in a zoo! You look like a monkey, and smell like one too!" Typical Chris. Now she proceeded to blather on in her crazy, rapid-fire style.

I zoned out, feeling bad about ignoring Chris, but I was fantasizing about the special day. What was so special about it? Well for one I was a top secret spy/ government agent. I trained at school in "gifted Art" and had a special trainer. Art was just the cover name. There were a lot of spies, I do not know the number, but all were trained in separate rooms. We all had a certain place to go to, then a secret passageway that took us to our designated training room.

We were assigned a day to get a partner, and mine happened to be my birthday! We got our partners, and we will work with them for 5 years, and once those years are up, decide if we still want to work together or not. We stayed in the same school because the school ranged from preschool to 12th grade. The gifted program was used as a cover for spies from other schools because if your school did not have the right "gifted program", you were moved to another school.

Your partner was matched by skills and weaknesses. Then you got a shot that amplified your best quality. If you were good at convincing people, for instance, perhaps everyone would believe what you said. Then, in 9th grade, you were given a spy team, and in 10th, you could go on missions.

Chris shook me. "Tris, are you okay? We're at school." I responded "Sorry, Chris, just zoning out." She looks suspicious. "Okay…" but then just shrugged, and skipped off towards our lockers, which were next to each other. I sighed, and ran after her. When I got to my locker, I saw it was decorated. My jaw dropped. It was spectacular. My mouth dropped in shock, at both the huge crowd around my locker, wishing me happy birthday, and giving me gifts. People also threw confetti at me! Chris squealed. "You like it?" I shook my head, too stunned to speak. "Love it?" I nodded mutely and hugged her. Once I found my voice, I said "Who did this?" Everyone shouted "Chris planned it; we helped her decorate after school!" I said "Thank you Chris! Thanks everybody!"

I left the decorations on the locker, even though people may wreck it. But I DID peel the candy off. I open my locker carefully, so I don't rip the paper,

The bell rang and we had to go, so we were not late. I screamed "Bye, I love you, thank you!" as we hurried to class. My schedule went something like this: Gym, Math, Spanish, Gifted Art, Robotics, Lunch, Reading, Writing, Science, and lastly, History. Since our school is all grades combined, 6th, 7th, and 8th graders are usually thrown together in most classes.

I hated school, but not for the typical reason. Gym class was easy for me because of my training, but it was hard because I had to control myself. I don't think that running a mile in 4 minutes, close to beating a world record would be advisable. I have to shoot for 10, and pretend to be out of breath, so I would not be asked to join the track team. I also had to control my strength, because I could lift way more weight than I was supposed to lift. I could do maneuvers no one else could do, like contort my body, or jump away a split second before the ball hit my face. But I couldn't show my skill, so I took the hits. It did not actually hurt me, because we went through pain resistance and torture training, but I did have to pretend, which was terrible because I then had to go to the nurse's office, and lay on the cot and take up space. I hated it because I missed math class, wasted valuable time of both the nurse and me, and was fussed over.

Today is a better day than usual. We are doing a volleyball unit while the boys did the wrestling unit. I really wanted to wrestle instead, but volleyball was ok. I had to focus not to always dodge the ball. blew his whistle and said "Ok people, go play! " He loved to scream, use his whistle, and always called us "people" or "person over there". I went over to the net and got ready. Shauna served, and said "Zeke! It's coming to you!" Zeke nodded and bumped it over the net. Susan, a good friend of mine hit it to me, and I saw that I could hit it perfectly if I jumped up and smashed it, but no one could jump as high as I could. So I hit it straight to Molly, who just stood there. She was the leader of the "popular girls" aka the annoying, bratty girls.

Tobias marched over and said "Hey, Molly, you are supposed to hit the ball, not stare at it. Beatrice passed it right to you." Everyone stared at him, shocked. No one ever speaks to her that way, especially not for me. But Molly recovered fast. "Yeah? Well, who would willingly touch something that girl touched?" Her sidekicks, Peter and Drew, laughed and sneered, and Tobias looked ready to punch them. I pulled him away before he could, and whispered "It's okay.", before I ran off again. When we rotated, I was out with him. I whispered quietly to him "Thank you, that has to be the nicest thing anyone, but maybe Chris, has ever done for me. You didn't have to." He just smiles and says "You deserve a little support. You are really nice, and she shouldn't pick on you. Before you, she did the same thing to me. Friends? " I smile back. "Yeah. Come sit with us at lunch today. She can't say anything if Chris's around." His grin grows wider. "Thanks!" We rotate, and then play for a little longer before blows the whistle that signals that we can leave. I jog back to the locker room, and change quickly.

I really want to go to math class. I love math, though it's a little too easy for me. I am in an advanced class with a lot of 13 to 14 year old kids. We did advanced math as part of our spy training too, and it was very helpful. We used it when we were designing tools, calculating distances, or hacking into things. It was also used when we were sneaking into buildings, and disabling cameras or lasers. In a lot of places, they have hidden rooms, and we had to do intense math to find them, especially when we were looking at floor plans and making sure numbers added up. We used all kinds of recourses, such as receipts, emails, and bribes, whatever we could find.

Today we are changing lessons, which means partner day. I usually partner with my friend, Marlene, a really nice girl who always helps others, and she is smart, though she is 14. Sometimes I get the feeling she is holding herself back. Marlene is really bold, but she is also respectful. Her parents are supportive and have a lot of connections. They are well known in the city for helping people. Marlene is absent today though, and that makes me sad. I always partner with her. So when Miss Dylan says, "Ok, partner up!" I don't leave my seat. I just sigh and look at what we are supposed to be working on. I get to work, but before I can finish the 3rd problem, Susan and Zeke, Tobias's best friend come over and say "Hey! We saw Marlene isn't here today. Wanna work with us?" I smile and nod gratefully. "Yes please, thank you." Zeke laughs and says "Tobias is right, you are too polite." Susan and I look at each other and laugh quietly, so he says "What? Oh! That rhymes!" The look on his face makes us laugh harder. When Susan says, in between fits of giggles, "Yep, we figured that already" I laugh so hard, tears come out of my eyes.

We laugh and joke around a little more as we work, and we finish with plenty of time to spare. When the bell rings, I remember that Zeke is in my Spanish class, so I ask him, "Hey Zeke, walk to Spanish with me?" He nods and says "Sure, but I gotta make a stop at my locker on the way. Susan want to join us? Your next class is around there too." I nod happily and say "Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go!" They both laugh, and Susan says, "We are coming, little miss impatient." I pretend to pout, and say, in a mock indignant voice, "Hey, who're you calling impatient?" Susan giggles at my antics, and responds, "You, silly!" We talk as we go to class, then I remember before we split, "Susan, Zeke, come sit at our lunch table. Tobias is joining us too!" They agree to that, and Susan goes into her class, and we go into the Spanish classroom.

I love Spanish class, because I supposedly learned Spanish from an online source, so I could show a lot of my skill in that. I spoke it fluently, but I pretended I couldn't. Still, messing up was harder than actually speaking the language, because I had to make mistakes that the rest of the class made. Otherwise, I would look like I was not trying, or I really was messing up on purpose.

Today, we are re-doing the Spanish verbs "ser and estar". They both mean "to be", and we had to know when to use which verb. It was really boring, and class dragged on. I am so excited when the bell rings, freeing me to get to art. Today I get my partner, a random person I have never met before.

I jump out of the desk, and race to my passage. My trainer, Tori says, "Hello, Tris! How are you feeling?" this was a typical question. I usually had very unique answers, like "I am feeling like a plastic flying pig, thank you." But today, I simply replied, "Excited!" making her laugh and say, "I can tell! Your partner is one room over." I ran in, gently closed the door and turned around. I was shocked. My partner was Chris. "Chris?" I was not expecting that. Obviously she wasn't either, because her mouth opened and closed twice, before she responded with, "Tris? Tris, you are a…." I nodded and said, "Yep!" popping the "p". She laughed and said, "Well then!" So we went back into the other room, arm in arm, where the trainers were waiting. They said "Girls, you know each other, correct?" We nodded slowly, a bit nervous as to where this was headed. "Also, you are doing well in training, and do not need the 'together time' with each other, so we have decided that you two are getting your team early! You all will also be moved to the School of Espionage, which is on an island. " We looked at each other and mouthed 'Wow!', but Tori didn't see us. "That is, if you want to…" Tori said, mistaking our excitement and exchanged glance for nervousness.