Classified Material by Ally Carter Page A

normal. Quiet, staring girls are not. And where Gallagher Girls are concerned, abnormal is almost never good.
     
    “Maybe we weren’t talking about you,” Liz said with a shrug that told him she was trying to lie, to flirt a little, in the hopes that he wouldn’t notice. It was something she’d probably seen Macey do, he thought, but on Liz it didn’t quite work.
     
    “I’m the Gallagher Academy’s only male student,” Zach said. “That means, considering faculty and staff, the chances you are talking about me are about… ” He let his voice trail off and looked at Liz.
     
    “One in nine.”
     
    Liz and statistics did work, Zach thought and smiled.
     
    “So,” he said slowly, “like I was saying, ask me what?”
     
    But the three girls didn’t respond, and Zach suddenly realized the only thing that could possibly scare him more than their silence.
     
    “Where’s Cammie?” he said.
     
    “Studying,” Liz blurted at the same time Bex said, “PE barn.”
     
    “She’s studying PE,” Liz hurried to add. “In fact, Bex and I were just about to go—”
     
    But Zach wasn’t listening anymore. Liz was the smartest. Bex was the strongest.
     
    But Macey was the one who would never hesitate to do the uncomfortable thing, so she was the one he turned to.
     
    “Where is she?”
     
    “Zach,” Liz said, “we told you she’s—”
     
    “We don’t know,” Macey said.
     
    “Macey,” Liz hissed, but Macey talked on.
     
    “She wasn’t in the suite when we got up. We’ve been looking for her since five, but no sign so far.”
     
    Macey kept talking. Zach saw her lips move. He was sure she was going through all the places they’d been that morning, all the rooms and passageways they were about to check. But the words didn’t matter, so he didn’t hear them. There was no reason to listen to their theories when he already knew the truth.
     
    In spite of all his training, he barely had the strength to stand. He leaned against the wall. “She’s gone.”
     
    “Come on, this is Cammie we’re talking about,” Liz said. “You know how she is. I’m sure she’s just off someplace, thinking. There’s no way to know for sure that she’s gone gone.”
    “I know,” Zach said, then turned and started through the halls.
     
    “Hey!” a girl he didn’t know yelled when he pushed past her. She was so small, so fragile. A part of him knew he was supposed to stop and apologize and make it right, but he didn’t even slow down.
     
    He felt too big and awkward and strong, and he knew he didn’t belong among the Gallagher Academy’s fine and precious things.
     
    He didn’t belong anywhere.
     
    The tie they made him wear was too tight around his neck. He clawed at it, but he couldn’t stop running. He could do nothing but go faster through the halls that were more crowded by the second, pushing up the stairs toward Cammie’s mother’s office, knowing exactly what he had to do.
     
    Find a superior.
     
    Report the breach.
     
    Face the music.
     
    “Zach!” Macey yelled behind him, but only Bex could keep up.
     
    “Zach,” she said, and grabbed his arm, spun him around to face her.
     
    “Let me go, Bex.”
     
    “Zach, just tell me what’s going on,” Bex tried. “Just—”
     
    “Guys.” Liz’s voice was too high. She sounded terrified as her pale finger pointed to the tidy stack of papers resting on top of the case with Gillian Gallagher’s sword. “What’s that?”

Day 1: Macey
     
    The case that held the sword was electrified. Macey knew that much. Every Gallagher Girl knew that much. It wasn’t something that was supposed to be messed with, bothered. That was where they kept the sword that Gillian Gallagher had used to kill an assassin a hundred and fifty years before, but right then, Macey couldn’t shake the feeling that the sword wasn’t nearly as dangerous as the pages that lay on top of its case.
     
    “It’s Cam’s report. Why would she leave this