SSHS 98 In the eyes of the students, it was the same old Monday. A normal day, the first Monday of the month of November, and another day for them to relish their memories about the successful Halloween Event brought to them by the Occult Club and with the collaboration of the Student Council, Drama Club, and the Photography Club. “Hey! I heard they are releasing the photos today!” Shouted one of the students across the hall. It is now lunch break and some of them are staying at the comfort of their classroom— savouring the warmth. Then there are those who are roaming the halls and exchanging conversations with the others, still in the comfort of the warmth that the buildings provide. But by hearing about the news, everyone went to their phone screen and reloaded their school email, waiting for that email from the Photography Club, for the most awaited pictures. Yes, four days have passed and they are only releasing the pictures today. But it was standard protocol. It was a manda
SSHS 99 They were trained to be stealthy, trained to finish their mission with minimal attention or to no attention at all. it was the very essence of being a spy to the ISO, to be discreet and unnoticed. However, there may be times that their missions require them to be noticed, require them to be seen by other people and to be acknowledged-- and by this, their remedy is to craft an entire new face as a disguise, to protect their identity. Well, that is if their audience is a huge crowd of people and that their mission involves their faces to be published on the tabloid and social media. The only difference for the rookie spies enrolled in La Florence Academy was that there is tight security when it comes to the identity and faces of their students. They do not let their student's faces to be published that easily, as much as possible, they do not want to expose their students to the outside world at all. Certain exceptions were there like: if the student is a celebrity, or if the
SSHS 100 From one table and to another, Hestia was finally questioning herself why she even went on with this idea of hers. It was getting annoying to her even though she just passed at least four tables in total. Turns out, hearing the same pleasantries, the same praises and the same fake smiles or whatever was boring as hell. ‘I would even wonder how these people get to endure such a thing.’ and by people she was talking about the other members of the Student Council and also the senior spies in which are assigned to missions that involve talking to people and revealing their faces to a huge crowd. If not for her being known to have an emotionless and stoic face, she would have been internally complaining due to a hurting face because of long periods of smiling. And for that she was thankful for. Though she would utter a few ‘thank yous’ and ‘it's no big deal’ and some occasional bowing of the head to show her gratitude to those who have praised her, she also was obligated to gi
SSHS 101 To Hestia, it was a complete rollercoaster inside her mind as she was being observant and taking notes of the five people they are told to watch and when she was not doing that and was on the nightmares of interacting with people, she again, questions this idea of hers and regretting it afterwards. And her mind was telling her that it needs to rest for a moment due to the situation Hestia placed it in, but Hestia knows she was capable of much more. ‘I was trained to do so.’ but deep down she just wants to retreat to her corner back at the stage and go on to ‘fix’ her watch again. And if it wasn’t that enough, all that time that she was with the Student Council and Dean Malcolm having a round at the tables, she was constantly receiving messages from the others who were just watching on the side of the whole event. Telling her that her move was dangerous and insubordiantion, that it was not part of their orders and that she could get the mission in jeopardy— the messages ar
SSHS 102 The cogs in her mind started to turn again, but this time, in a fast manner that even her mouth cannot follow through. Even her fingers stopped from ‘fixing’ her watch as she stared in the open. The table rounds are over and they are back to their place in one of the corners at the stage. Her other co- members were busy doing their own thing: Damian reviewing some papers given to him by Dean Malcolm before he left, Excami was busy playing on her phone and Arthur seemed to be chatting with someone as he was typing and smiling constantly with every notification from his phone. And even if she were to stare at the void and open place without even moving for a very long time, it would seem normal to her co- members. They have seen her do that many of times and they are used to it at this point. Her physical body was like in frozen ice, unmoving and cold, but not dead. She was so still that she would pass as a statue. And yet, the insides of her mind was moving at a fast pace,
SSHS 103 Once they are handed with the information collected, they immediately went and investigated the people in concern. Aside from digging and sifting through their files at the school system, it was also an assigned task to know their personal lives and also to know if they have any other connections. It was an intensive investigation and all efforts were poured in by the agents assigned at the mission on hand. However, even if Hestia has contributed a lot to the progress they are in, she still received a scolding from Mr. Ben himself. And it was not pleasant at all. “Isn’t it my direct orders to not engage with the people in concern at all costs? Agent H, I knew you were better than this. You were the top of this batch? What happened?” Mr. Ben looked at Hestia with a disappointed gaze, sure, he was glad that she could provide added information, but he was also upset that she did not follow his orders. “This is insubordination, Agent H. Please give me a good reason why you di
SSHS 104 The hallways of all the buildings were busier than ever. Students are running back and forth, entering different classrooms in a panic and searching for different people all at once. There are those who are hurrying to get to one of the library rooms in the library building, hurrying to get themselves a reservation to one of the private rooms that the library also provides for the students. Everyone was thrown into a haze of panic and fast paced steps as they tried so hard to get a copy of some notes, to group up with their friends for a group study and review because apparently, the third week of November means that they have to take a mid- quarter exam. And to them, it is something that needs a lot of focus, attention and reviewing to do. The only good thing is that P. E. does not include any written exam and that it only performs a physical one in which is the easiest one to pass among all the subjects they have. After all, it is a big deal for the students of La Flore
SSHS 105 As the students were busy with their exams, the undercover spies inside the school— who were not students— were also busy with their own study. As of the moment, most of them are busy tailing a person out of the five they have suspected. Meanwhile, some of them were also busy reviewing the information provided by Dean Malcolm himself about the five people in concern. Before even Mr. Ben was to ask help from the Dean, Dean Malcolm already had the resolve to help the undercover spies into bringing to light whoever was the person that let the intruder in and endangered the lives of his students. Dean Malcolm had already given access to the spies to the vault that was hidden in his office. Of course, the access was limited: the spies that can view the files are limited, as well the files that they can view. “I am only giving access to two of the ISO spies, and no more.” He said on the phone call with Mr. Ben, as the latter called him late in the night for the request of acces
SSHS 247After the Thanksgiving dinner that night and that mission, the two rookie undercover spies went on with their days. They went on being the ‘normal’ third years that they are and continued being the third years that they are. No more missions were given to them after the mission about the Montague couple and they do not know if the headquarters of the ISO where sympathising with their shock or if there is really no more mission for them to do. But either way, they are glad that they were able to finish the mission in such a short time and also experience being students as they are.They went on and experienced things as if they were normal people and not some spies who were trained at the very young age. Not some undercover people who are in there for the sake of completing their mis
SSHS 246After the game it was already time for dinner, Damian and Excami won because none of them were able to find out what kind of thing they had and they were all tagged out of the game. It was fun for the most part but what everyone waited for was the thanksgiving dinner and it was satisfying. They enjoyed every bite and they waited for the dessert because it was the star of the dinner the dessert.Then after eating, they lounged a little longer by the dinner table and talked about all the other things, like the fun times that they had in school, the love story between the Montague couple how they met how they fell in love and then almost talked about how they conceived the children but thankfully damien and Excami stopped them before it happened. The Montague siblings almost asked about the families of Hestia and Albertand what kind of stori
SSHS 245Sometime later, it is already the Month Of October and things have been going smoothly both for the Montague siblings and for the two rookie undercover spies and for the Montague couple. for the course of the month of october, Hestia and Albert had been invited for dinners and lunches by either Damian or Excami and would always result for a dinner together with their parents and with that the bond between all of them had grow and become stronger and they were more close with each other than ever before.But there is something that the two rookie undercover spies can not pinpoint at all. because most of the past missions they have been assigned to, they are always making the opportunity to get close to the target; they are always making the opportunity to do something, to create a movement, a pattern, a path for their mission t
Sshs 244The next day, Hestia and Albert walked side by side to their classroom. Apparently, the whole school knew of the incident yesterday: Mrs. . Montague pulled them out for the whole day and never came back until the wee hours of the night. Some people tried to block them and ask a ton of questions about what happened yesterday; questions like: what happened? Where did you go? What did she say? Was she generous? Was she kind? Was she loving and sweet and like a saint when she visited back at the beach house? What did you talk about with her? Such a ton of questions were asked to them and yet they remained silent about it. No comment, no answers, just complete silence as they went through
SHS 243 They ate in silence, up until dessert. No one spoke a word and it stayed that way until they were brought into the library. No one spoke as each of them were encouraged to pick a book in the vast collection of books inside the library. As they sat into the chairs available at the library, only then did the conversation start at the pretence of wanting to know what book they found. “How about you, Hestia? Albert? What book did you pick?” Hestia and Albert then lifted up the books that they picked. Mrs. Montague cooed at the books in their hands and proceeded to analyse them. “Wow! You live up to your personality. Unlike someone else.” Mrs. Montague threw in the shade as she briefly looked at her children who were silently reading with their father on the other side of the library. It was not quite far, but it seemed that the Montague siblings were so immersed in what they were reading that they did not notice the shade that was thrown at them by their
SSHS 242 As the three of them sat in silence without any of them taking a bite of their food, they tried to process the information that was at their table. The Montague siblings have been showing two different personalities and all between being inside the school and at school. If at school, they were glorified as students who are the top role models; a fun and energetic one and a gentle ruler, both were on ground and knew how to touch some grass. At home, they are the arrogant siblings who think they are better than anyone and will not even go down to their current level. It was as if they know the a person with the same name and yet still different by how they act.&nb
SSHS 241 A new school year started right before their eyes. Without any mission to worry about, time passed by the two rookie undercover spies and with barely any notice, they were in their third years. There were a lot of things that happened but they were used to it and it passed by them like a flash of the camera and after that, it was already in the middle of the month of September. The voting for the new Student Council began and the whole school was bussing with noises and the representative of the running Student Council President was shouting and getting people to vote for their candidates. “Please vote for…” one student shouted. “No, please vote for…” another student shouted. It was the start of the shouting battle between the two parties running for the Student Council President position. It created so much commotion that Damian had to step up and break the commotion apart. “Enough with this! This is so immature of you! Can’t you go and make your da
SSHS 240 As the surroundings dimmed into darkness, the light sensors in the gymnasium began to light up. Freya’s eyes adjusted from the dark and into the light that the sensor lights brought up. She shielded her eyes with her hands from the sudden light and that was Albert’s cue to remove himself from the sight of the Senior Cheerleader and go behind her. This is not to catch her off guard--- oh she was already caught off guard by the time she mentioned the Pandora’s Box--- but it was his way to not let Freya do anything anymore that will put herself into more danger. It is better if she just surrenders to them in a plain and simple manner.&
SSHS 239 “By the way, how were the Montague siblings? I have not heard from them after that incident with Arthur.” Albert asked. The two rookie undercover spies were roaming around the campus, taking a leisure walk as they passed by some of the students who were headed for their extra curricular activities. The two of them do indeed have some activities too but it was all done. Hestia is done with her paper works and scheduling for the Student Council and Albert was also done with his portfolio for the Photography Club with the theme of ‘After Christmas’. There was a moment of silence to the part of Hestia before she answered the inquiry of her spy partner. “They have been normal, acting as they always have as far as I am concerned. Although Excami now has her guard up always and was weary of everything and everyone, she is as cheerful as ever. Well, it is Damian who changed. He became more strict and protective of his sister, and he also became colder.” Hest