We walked out of Advanced Bio together, laughing. Oh, Mr. Hansen can be so funny. I had my head back laughing, while Eric grinned and looked at me. The other students in the hallway rushed past us, getting to their lockers, and scurrying to their next class. We stopped near a wall.

“What?” I said. Eric was still looking at me.

“Nothing,” he replied. I smiled to myself, butterflies flapping in my stomach.

We leaned, unconsciously, towards each other. But then, my spy senses kicked in at that moment. Something didn’t feel right. I leaned back from the would-be kiss. Eric looked confused. I looked around. Oh God, something’s not right, something’s wrong! I tensed, waited…. And a man in black dropped from the ceiling.

“Get down!” I yelled in perfect English, no Chinese accent. Eric looked confused but there was no time I jumped on him and brought him down on the ground.

“Stay calm, Jenny! We’re coming!” my earpiece said. I kicked the gun out of the black man’s hands and kicked him in the head. Oh, geez! There was more coming!

“Hurry!” I said to Eric as I picked him up. We ran to a closet. I know! Why, oh, why on earth did I choose an enclosed space? It was as if I wanted Eric to be stolen away!

“What’s happening?” Eric whispered.

“Shhhh!” I hushed him. Eric just looked at me, but it wasn’t the same way he had in the hallway just moments ago. He didn’t look like he wanted to kiss me… he looked as if… he didn’t know me… as if I was a stranger… and he looked as if he’d been cheated… as if he was stupid and hadn’t seen what was right in front of him.

I so badly wanted to talk to him, to explain, but I couldn’t. I mean, I couldn’t: considering the situation we were presently in, and I couldn’t considering the situation, the life, I was presently in… my real life, not the life of Mai, the foreign exchange student from China.

The door to the closet opened, and my instincts kicked in and I… well, I kicked. And someone caught my foot.
Way to go, Jenny! I thought to myself in that nana-second.
There stood Tom with my foot in his hand. He just dropped my leg, and I stumbled a bit.
“Come with me,” was all he said. I followed him and tilted my head so Eric would follow, too. I knew Tom didn’t want just me coming along.
“Is everythi--?”
“Yes, you have nothing to worry about, Sweetheart,” Tom replied. And then I knew, by that tone of voice and the “sweetheart” thing, that even though Tom knew I might have just blown my cover, he was still trying to save it.
We walked outside together, but I wasn’t one hundred percent sure whether we were going to come back out together. If they give him the tea, Eric might not even remember me anymore. That’s a good thing… right?