Monday, October 30
Why I’m single.
On Monday morning, I am woken up at four o’clock in the morning.
FOUR.
But this time, it’s not for training. This time, it’s because we’re getting back on the road, headed towards Miami. That makes waking up at stupid o’clock worth it. I will wake up at four every morning if it means I get to be back in Miami.
Miami is my happy bubble.
I go to the bathroom to pee, brush my teeth, and brush my hair. By the time I get out, the guys have already loaded everything in the car and are ready to leave. Sometimes, I’m blown away by how fast they move.
In my family, I am the one who is fast. I don’t ever do anything special to my hair, I don’t wear makeup, and I definitely don’t stress about what I’m going to wear. I just throw on a sun dress or a hoodie and pants—that’s it. I’m usually waiting on my mom to finish getting ready, or even Charlie, who could spend an hour just on his hair.
“How are you guys so fast?” I ask Sander, as we get into the black SUV where I will be spending the next two days.
Sander is driving today, so that means I’m sitting in the front by him.
“You have to be fast at Spy School,” he answers.
“You learn to be,” Hunter says. “You have to be when there are midnight drills.”
“Midnight drills?” I ask.
That does not sound fun.
“Once or twice a week, they wake us all up at midnight to do something called a midnight drill,” Sander says. “Basically, we’re all forced to do one hundred pushups before we can go back to bed.”
“That’s my literal worst nightmare,” I say. “I’m not even sure I can do a pushup.”
I can’t remember the last time I’ve done a pushup—probably gym when I was in grade school, but they never actually made us do a full pushup.
“Ah, you shouldn’t have said that,” Jaxon says. “Now I’m going to make you do a few pushups during your next training session.”
Oh, gosh.
“I think she’ll be fine,” Sander says. “She’s built up a lot of upper body strength from our training. You should’ve seen her when I first came.”
“I had been training a month when you came,” I say, defending myself.
“Matthew and Jake were not good at training you,” he says. “But in their defense, they weren’t trained that well.”
My chest hurts at the mention of Uncle Matty and Jake.
I haven’t seen them since I was kidnapped, and I kinda miss them.
“Do you think I’ll ever get to see them again?” I ask.
“After we figure out who the leak is, yes,” he says. “I’m working on it. I just am not going to take any chances when it comes to your safety.”
From his comment, I don’t think that he thinks Uncle Matty or Jake are the leaks. That makes me feel better. I don’t know what I would do if they were. It would break my heart.
“Phoenix, how excited are you about going back to Miami?” Hunter asks.
I grin. “On a scale of one to ten, I’d say about a thirty-five.”
The temperature this morning says thirty-three and it’s so cold that even a hoodie isn’t enough to keep me warm. Good thing we’re leaving, because I don’t have a jacket to wear. I have one back on campus at East Raven, though.
“What’s better? LA or Miami?” Hunter asks.
“Well, LA has my family,” I say. “But if I could convince my family to move to Miami, I’d say Miami.”
Traffic in LA is horrible. I hate driving there. In Miami, it was a dream. Even during heavy traffic times it wasn’t nearly as bad as LA during not heavy traffic times.
“What about you?” I ask. “Do you like Miami better than the UK?”
“I hated living in the UK,” Hunter says. “But that probably has more to do with my family than the actual location.”
I remember Jax told me that their parents were gone most of the time and he basically raised Hunter on his own. That’s sad.
My childhood was spent going back and forth between my mom and dad’s houses. But I remember feeling so loved and cherished at both houses. I can’t imagine it any other way. Both parents were sad when I had to leave.
“What is your favorite place you’ve ever visited?” I ask.
“Hong Kong,” Hunter answers.
I wasn’t expecting that as an answer.
They’ve been to China?
Wow—is there anywhere these guys haven’t been?
“What about you?” I ask, turning in my seat so I can see Jax, who is sitting directly behind me.
“Maui,” Jaxon answers. “I got to take surf lessons for a couple of weeks while I was there and it was so much fun.”
“You should surf in Miami,” I say. “I know the waves aren’t as good there as in Hawaii, but it would still be fun.”
“Maybe,” he says.
“You can teach me.”
He laughs. “Maybe.”
I turn to Sander. “What is your favorite place?”
“Massachusetts,” he answers.
I wait, expecting him to be joking, but he’s serious.
“Seriously?” I ask.
He shrugs. “That’s where I met you.”
Be still my heart.
“That’s why Sander has a girlfriend and I’m single as...” Hunter says.
I can’t even laugh at his comment because I’m still just amazed over what Sander said.
How did I get so lucky?
We’re in the car for about twelve hours when we stop for the night. It’s still light outside, but the sun will probably be going down soon.
I’m excited, because we’re stopping for the night in Atlanta.
I like Atlanta. When I get out of the car, I feel the warmth and immediately take off my hoodie.
“You look like you’re going to break out in a song at any moment,” Jax says.
“I might,” I say.
It feels so good to be back in the warmth.
Atlanta is one of the greenest cities I’ve ever been to. There is so much grass and so many trees everywhere. It’s so different than most cities I’ve been to—most of them are just concrete with a random park in the middle, but that’s it. Atlanta is nice, even if we’re only staying for the night.
I’m rather excited about arriving back in Miami tomorrow.
We’re in another hotel for the night with two rooms next door to each other, as always. While I am kind of tired of living out of a hotel room, the hotels that we’re staying at are pretty nice. The room has a nice view of the city and it’s very clean.
“Can we go for a run tonight?” I ask Sander, once we bring our luggage to the room. I didn’t bring everything, just pajamas for tonight and clothes to wear for the road trip tomorrow.
“You want to go for a run?” he asks.
I nod. “I kind of feel cramped up after being in the car all day. And we probably won’t be training tomorrow, so I figured it’d be nice.”
“Yeah, okay,” he says.
He looks pleased that I am the one who suggested it. Probably because I’m usually complaining about all the training.
I’m not sure where along the way training became fun. Maybe it was after Sander started training me. He pushed me harder than I’ve ever been pushed in my life, but the training, though it was hard, kept getting easier. I no longer get out of breath. While I still don’t like waking up at five in the morning, the actual working out part isn’t so bad.
When Sander tells Hunter and Jaxon we’re going for a run, they decide to tag along, too, which I don’t mind. They usually do their workouts separately from me because they run faster and longer than I do. But tonight, it’s a lot of fun. We just run in downtown Atlanta. There is no view of the Atlantic Ocean, but it’s still gorgeous and the weather is awesome.
While we’re running, Hunter cracks a lot of jokes, making everybody laugh. And I can’t help but think that training at Spy School must be fun—you get to work out with your friends and take fun classes, like fencing and stunt driving. I’m a little envious that I don’t get to go, but also so thankful that I’ve gotten the opportunity to meet Sander, Hunter and Jaxon.
Terrorism sucks, that’s for certain. But if it wasn’t for the terrorist, I wouldn’t have met these three guys. And that’s weird to think about, because they’ve changed my life so much, especially Sander.
I thought coming to East Raven Academy was going to be the worst thing that ever happened to me, but it’s actually the best.
I’m so blessed.