When the door shut behind me, I let out a deep exhale and jumped onto my new bed. Everything was happening so quickly, I just needed a moment to take it all in. This was going to be my life now—all of this. And who knew how long I'd be there. A week, and they find out I'm a fraud? Half a year, or two, or forever? Suddenly I missed my family dearly, and not just the my relatives (though I guess I was surrounded by them now). No, I missed Brook, and Mikey, Theo, the Office, and Kyle—Kyle. How was he now? Was he worried I was dead by now? I wanted to talk to him, just for a second, only for him to be at ease that I was going to be alright. The guilt of how I could be making him feel stabbed at my heart. But besides that, I found myself increasingly anxious at the thought of "training with the recruits" tomorrow, and basically, until I left. And the idea of not seeing everyone I was close to, for however long, terrified and stressed me out like never before.

I wanted to cry for the sake of crying, but I couldn't yet, so I decided to take a nap before the family dinner "just for me". There was still daylight outside, so I figured I'd have a few hours to escape my thoughts and rest.

It felt like a blink of an eye when Melissa was shoving me awake.

"Miss, I have to get your ready for the dinner. I wanted to let you sleep in as much as possible, but you need to leave in twenty minutes."

I groaned, but rubbed my eyes and complied. I stood up as Melissa grabbed my hand and dragged me to the makeup stand already set up with high quality makeup and a trifold mirror. I stifled a yawn as Melissa worked magic on my face and hair like she had done many times before. This familiar routine made me feel slightly comforted, and I was endlessly grateful Melissa was here. 

When I was awake enough to register what Melissa was doing, I noticed she had dressed up my face with trendy nude colors, and a perfectly winged cateye. She had also applied subtle contour to make me look mature. She curled my hair loosely to make my flat, boring hair reach the prime of its sexiness. 

"Thank you, Melissa." I said, turning to her, truly meaning it. Without this, I would have looked like a scared, exhausted nightmare, but this makeup polished up my exterior as well as boosted up my confidence.

"Don't thank me just yet." She said regrettably, pulling out a dress from my closet. "Miss Roselle has asked for you to wear this."

I eyed the dress. It was—gold. Glittery, dramatic gold. The entire thing. I guess the shape was nice, with a classy boat neck and cinched at the waist, and flowing all the way to floor like a waterfall of pixie dust, but it was definitely not my style, and Melissa knew that. It was the kind of dress that Rebecca Amador would wear—and totally nail—but me, I liked more subtle hues that would go well with my dull-colored hair and eyes. 

"Do I have a choice?" I asked, eyeing the dress with uncertainty.

"I'm afraid not." Melissa said, and I sighed and took the dress from her.

Just as Melissa zipped me up, I heard the beep at my door meaning someone had keyed themself in. My heart skipped anxiously at already seeing Roselle, but I turned around and sighed in relief to see Ollie. Melissa smiled warmly at me and excused herself. 

My relieved eyes met very amused ones. "Wow, that's gold."

I grumbled. "Is it that bad?"

Ollie frowned and shook her head, inspecting me. "No, you're pulling it off. It's just a classic Roselle color. If you haven't noticed, green and gold is her thing."

"Yeah, I figured. I'll just fit right in." I said sarcastically.

Ollie smirked. "Oh god, you won't want to. I can't believe you're going to meet the family. Although, you should be fine because you have the classic Scarlett eyes."

"You mean green? That's a thing?"

"Yes. Definitely. Anyone in this family who was born with non-green eyes has been lowkey hated on. It's so ridiculously stupid."

"Huh. Is that the reason for all the green everywhere?"

"Yeah, for sure. But the gold, well it's a sign of wealth and that's all this family is obsessed with."

"That's ironic because my mom married my super rich dad—"

"Don't mention that to them. The fact that your mom fled from the Legion already gives you a...not-so-great impression. If you talk about the fact you guys are filthy rich, they will slaughter you."

I shivered. "Damn, that's fucking terrifying."

She wrapped an arm around me and squeezed my shoulder. "Don't worry. They're shallow and judgmental but in the end human. And family. Plus, I'll be right beside you, if you want."

I turned to her and gripped her hand. "Yes, please."

Ollie chuckled. "Alright, well we should get going. Put on some heels so you don't step on all that," she frowned like she had smelled something gross, "glitter."

I laughed and opened the closet to reveal an array of high-fashion shoes, from sneakers to heels. I picked up plain black pumps that made me at least six feet tall, and smoothed out my dress. I glanced at Ollie, who had donned a plain black blouse and a checkered black and white skirt that bloomed out as if they were pushed up from below.

"I feel overdressed." I muttered, resisting the urge to throw the dress off and slip on a comfy T-shirt. 

"You're supposed to be." Ollie smirked, "you're the star of the show."

I groaned as Ollie dragged me to the dining room.

* * * * *

When we arrived at the dining room, a servant was standing there, ready to open the door for me. As he saw us, he stood up so tall I thought I would hear his back crack. The huge door slowly swung open, and Ollie motioned towards the door.

"After you."

I gulped, and taking a deep breath, walked into the dining room.

Almost immediately everyone stood up, wearing tuxedos and dresses, though nothing nearly as flashy as my golden dress.  I realized everyone was either wearing black, white, or some shade of green. Roselle must have asked them to do that, or it was some family tradition. And I was the center of attention, to gold among the emeralds.

Roselle, who was sitting at the head of the table, swiftly stood up and elegantly leaned over to kiss my cheek. 

"So glad you could make it sweetie." She put a gentle hand on my elbow and led me to a seat next to where she was sitting. As Ollie made way to sit next to me, Roselle gave her a disapproving look. "Darling, your seat is over there." Her voice held a tinge of venom as she pointed to a seat far away from me. 

Trying to subdue my panic, I told her, "If you don't mind, I'd really like Ollie to sit next to me."

I was overly aware that everyone in the room was staring at us. 

For an instant, Roselle flashed Ollie the most deadly of glares, then gave us a charming smile that made me question if the glare had happened at all. "Of course. Your great-aunt was looking forward to sitting next to you, but I'm sure you want a familiar face around."

We quickly took our seats, and I smiled hesitantly at my family members sitting at the table.  They were all scrutinizing me, but the awkward stare-down was thankfully cut short by someone else walking into the dining room. When everyone caught sight of her, everyone visibly straightened up and greeted her.

"That's our great-aunt Helen. She's our grandma's younger sister, and the oldest woman with Scarlett blood. I'm pretty sure Roselle hates her guts because she hogs a lot of the power, but I'm with her on this one." Ollie whispered to me as she gave a pleasant smile to her from across the room.

"Why?"

"She's a transphobic bitch, that's why. I swear Roselle was actually going to have me be the heir but Helen flipped the fuck out."

"I thought you didn't want to be the heir?" I said, knowing the conversation will have to end soon for me to greet my great-aunt formally.

"I don't, but I hate being discriminated."

"I feel, what a bitch." I said, and started standing as Helen spotted me. "It's so nice to finally meet you." I told her with my best kiss-ass disposition.

"Oh, I have been waiting forever for you. Finally you are here to save us from our depravity of girls." Surprisingly, she embraced me, and I fought the urge to slap her away. If she was a bitch to Ollie, I didn't want her anywhere near me. 

When she let me go, she held me at arm's length. "And you have the Scarlett eyes. Your mother's eyes. The rightful heir, the oldest daughter of the oldest daughter of my dear sister Renee."  I saw nostalgia in her eyes, missing her older sister. I felt awkward, as I never knew my grandma, and I desperately wanted to squirm away from the cold wrinkly hands of my conservative great-aunt. 

That was when the table started clapping for the "reunion" of the oldest lasting member of the Legion, and the new heir. I felt suffocated, as everyone was so excited for me while I was putting on the biggest lie ever. I took a deep breath and smiled widely at her, to give my audience what they wanted. Loyalty, and the strength of blood.

We sat back down, and Roselle introduced me to everyone there. There were about 30 people there, but apparently this wasn't even half my family, as they didn't want to overwhelm me on my first day here. They all introduced themselves, and I tried my best to mentally note them as second cousins, 1st cousin once removed, 2nd cousin once removed, and all those words that really meant gibberish to me. I was excited to meet Ollie's dad—his name one of the only ones I remembered, Robert—and some second cousins who were about my age. 

After half an hour and the luxurious, delicious dinner was served, everybody slowly started losing the crazy interest in me as they dove into their food, glancing up at me once every few minutes. Polite chatter and occasional laughs filled the dining room, surrounding me in actually quite a warm, inviting environment. I spoke with Ollie as she told me embarrassing stories of the pompous people in the room, and I giggled gently as I (politely) stuffed the salmon steak in my mouth.

Then Roselle suddenly spoke to me,  alerting me to my senses just as I was being able to relax enough to be hungry. "Cassandra, I was just wondering, what exactly is the case with...your family back home? What did they say when you were leaving."

When Roselle mentioned such a touchy subject, everyone became silent and looked over at me. I fought the nervous laughter rising in my throat.

"Well, I told them I'm...going to a private school in Hawaii. I told them it wasn't safe enough for me there."

Roselle looked suspicious. "So why didn't you little spy group tell them you ran away?"

Helen rolled her eyes. "Oh, you're so insensitive. Give the girl a damn break, she's going to be bombarded with these questions when her training starts."

I smiled at her gratefully, but I stood my ground. I had at least rehearsed this much back when I was at the Office. "It's fine, aunt Helen. The...uh, Curtis Society—" the words felt foreign in my mouth, "—has such a big ego they would never admit to my family they screwed up. Besides, they know I'm safe so they probably feel like they're under no obligation to tell my parents."

Surprisingly, Roselle and everybody else seemed to buy it. Even I thought it was a bit of a stretch, but either their hatred of the Office, or their desperation to have me here—or both—allowed them to swallow the too-good-to-be-true information like it was some multivitamins.

As soon as dessert was finished and the crowd was dying down, I excused myself from the table, saying I was exhausted from a day of travels and was going to get a good night's sleep for the big day tomorrow. Ollie excused herself for the same reason, and we both crashed in my room.

I was tired, both in mind and body, but I knew that I was still blocking my mind from all my memories in the Office, and the moment I opened that gate I would drown in much worse pain. 

Ollie nudged me as we laid side by side. "Do you want to call you family? You haven't spoken to them right? They must be worried sick."

I got up on my elbow quickly and looked at her. "Am I allowed to?"

"Of course you are. I don't know what your little spy group was so paranoid for, but here you get a lot of freedom. Do you get reception on your phone?"

I nodded as I took my phone out of my pocket. "Yeah I have an international plan."

"Of course you do." She said with a laugh, and I unlocked my phone to see hundreds of notifications. I had been so busy I didn't even think about calling my parents but sure enough I had hundreds of emails, texts, missed calls, and messages, that I knew my family must be dying of worry. Cringing, I called my mom's number, and she picked up a note into the first ring.

"OhCassthankgodyoufinallycalledwhereintheworldareyouareyoualrightwewereterrified!" My mom basically shouted into the phone, and my eyes widened.

"Yeah, I'm so sorry I didn't call sooner, it was just everything happened so quickly, but the important thing is I'm perfectly safe."

"So where are you? Theodore told me you were no longer safe so you've been evacuated to a private school in Hawaii—"

"Yeah, it's really nice here, mom. It's like a resort. And I get special treatment because of...everything that's happened. Seriously. Don't worry."

"Alright. Well I'm a little less worried now that you've called. It's just—boarding school? Couldn't you have at least discussed it with us before they evacuated you?"

"I'm sorry, it all just happened so quickly. Yell at Theo when you see him next."

My mom sighed into the phone. "Ok. Ok, this all doesn't make much sense to me but I'm sure the clandestine world holds all the answers. As long as you're comfortable there."

I scoff-laughed. "If only you knew, but I swear I'm fine. I'm very comfortable. You should see my room."

"But darling, you left behind all your friends, your family, your life—"

"Mom, you know as well as I do I don't have any friends back home."

I actually got a laugh out of her. "Yes, but what about Kyle?"

I smiled sadly. "Yeah, well, I'll meet someone new." I tried not to seem like I was coughing up the words, but they sounded super fake even to me.

"I can sense the lie, honey. Hold on, your father have been bugging me to switch over on the phone—Hello?" My dad's voice came through the phone.

"Hey dad."

"Sweetheart, you scared the living daylights out of us. I was in Brussels on a business trip when they tell me you're suddenly in Hawaii now?"

"Yeah, I know, it's crazy for me too. And I'm so sorry I scared you guys, I wasn't tried to make it a huge deal."

"A huge deal? Well of course it's a huge deal! You're leaving behind your—"

"I know, I know, my friends, my family, my life, I just heard that from mom." I said, teasing. "You two have been together for too long you sound the same."

My dad laughed sadly. "Well, as long as you don't forget that about us."

"Dad, I promise I will call you every night and keep you guys updated in my life. Everything's going to be fine." The thing that sucked about this is that I couldn't ask my family for reassurance, because they were already worried sick. In all honesty I was terrified to the bone, of what was coming, but I couldn't as much as ask for a verbal hug as I could tell them all the secrets of the Shadow Legion.

"I'm going to let you talk to your brothers. I love you."

"Love you too, dad."

My brothers came onto the phone full-on as they were probably on speaker mode and both their voices rang into my ear at the same time.

"Are you ok?"

"Cass why the fuck did you run away?"

At that I heard my mom yell from their side: "language!"

I laughed. "Yes, I'm fine, and I didn't run away, I was evacuated."

"Fine but you're good?"

"Yeah, if you haven't heard by now, I'm at a boarding school in Hawaii. It's some spy school and there's a lagoon in front of it where you can swim in." I wasn't quite sure if I was allowed to say that much, but it was my brothers, they can't do any harm.

"Shit, that's actually sick." Alec said.

"Are there chicks there?" Auden said.

"It's pretty cool, yeah. And there are chicks here, I'm sure I'll meet tons of hot ones once my training starts."

"Training? Like military?"

"Yeah, and school stuff."

"Fuck, there are going to be hot girls then. Can I go too?"

I laughed. "Trust me, you cannot."

"What? Why not?"

"You need to be special, like me." I could practically hear Auden's pout through the phone. I noticed Alec was silent through our exchange about girls.

"Hey, could I talk to Alec privately?"

"Yeah, what's up?" Alec said into the phone, and I could tell they were off speaker phone.

"Have you told them yet?"

"Of what?"

"Of you being gay."

"Well, no, I didn't have much time to even think about it before you fucking ran away."

I cringed. "Yeah, I guess you're right. But I think you should tell them soon, when the dust's all settled. Auden wouldn't care, he'd probably even love there being less competition and you being the potential gay wing man, mom is pretty liberal she should be supportive, and dad won't care as long as you're safe and doing ok in school. The sooner you tell them, the happier you'll be."

"I know, and it makes sense but it's easier said than done."

"I can imagine. But if you need to talk about it, you can call me, ok?"

"Ok, thanks, Cass. I—I can't believe I've waited until you've ran off to say this...but, uh, I love you. And you're actually a great sister."

I smiled. "I love you too, Alec. And you can work on your brotherly aspect."

"Ouch. But I had that coming. I'll hand you back to mom—it's getting really late now darling, but make sure to call us soon, ok? Tell us everything that happens."

"Ok. Wait, what time is it in New York?"

"It's 2 AM."

I glanced at my watch. "Ok, 6 hour difference. That's not too bad."

"I'll talk to you later, honey. I love you."

"Love you too." At that I hung up, and tossed my phone away. When I looked over Ollie had fallen asleep. I went to take my makeup off and slipped into a night gown that was laid out nicely in my bathroom, and padded over to my bed to curl into a ball of sleep.