The entire school was in astate of organized chaos. Bex and I shared a questioning look, because we weresupposed to be downstairs, helping the other sophomores check the main levelfor anything spy-related that someone might have left lying around, butBuckingham turned and snapped, "Girls, hurry!" She sounded less likethe soft, elderly teacher we knew and more like the woman who hadsingle-handedly taken out a Nazi machine gun on D-day.

I heard a crash behind us,followed by some Polish expletives, and knew that the Eleanor Everett statuewas probably in a billion pieces; but at the end of the Hall of History, mymother was leaning against the double doors of her office, dropping an M&Minto her mouth as calmly as if she were waiting to pick me up from soccer practice,acting like it was just an ordinary day.

Her long dark hair fell acrossthe shoulder of her black pants suit. A wisp of bangs brushed across a flawlessforehead that she swears I'll have, too, just as soon as my hormones stopwaging war with my pores.

Sometimes I'm seriously gladthat we live ninety percent of our lives inside the mansion, because wheneverwe do leave, I have to watch men drool over my mom, or (ick) ask ifwe're sisters, which totally freaks me out, even though I know I should beflattered that anyone would think I was related to her at all.

In short, my mom's a hottie.

"Hey, Cam, Rebecca,"she said before turning to Buckingham. "Thanks for bringing them,Patricia. Come inside a sec."

Inside her office, thanks toits soundproofed walls, the mayhem of the rest of the school completely fadedaway. Light streamed through leaded windows and flashed upon mahogany panelingand floor-to-ceiling bookcases that were, even as we spoke, spinning around tohide tomes like Poisons Throughthe Ages and A Praetorian's Guideto an Honorable Death, replacing them with a flip side of volumes like Educating the Upper Echelon and Private Education Monthly. There was a photo on her desk of the two of us onvacation in Russia, and I watched in awe as we hugged and smiled in the framewhile, in the background, the Kremlin was replaced by Cinderella's Castle atDisney World.