By: Jessie Sha

“We’re running out of time!” Leo said into my earpiece. “We’ve got to figure out what he’s hiding!”

“Copy that.” I whispered back scanning my surroundings carefully. I was standing in front of a mansion, with a beautiful garden and a water fountain in the middle. It was a little hard to see now because it was 10 pm, but I still admired it for a while. Leo and I had been sent on a mission to watch Mr. Smiley (which there was nothing smiley about him) because according to our boss, (not allowed to say name) he had stolen a very valuable piece of architecture from a museum without leaving any traces. I took one step forward and saw that Leo had done the same.

Big mistake. Suddenly the ground opened and swallowed both of us whole! I was sent down a tunnel of darkness when the hole closed up like nothing had happened. I looked around, when I halted to a stop by crashing straight into someone or something. I looked up to see Leo’s bright blue eyes.

“Andra?” Leo asked, in his sweet, worried voice.

“Leo?” I asked back, shocked that we had ended up crashing together. “Where are we?”

“I don’t know, but all I remember is walking around and then the ground swallowing me up.”

“Same.”

“Wait, put on our light glasses! That way we can scan our surroundings.” We put the glasses on, and it looked like it was daytime. We scanned the room staying close to each other, so we wouldn’t get lost. I clutched his hand holding like there was nothing else. In the room that we had landed in, there were three doors all waiting to be opened. The first door was lined with pineapple?! The second one was lined with oranges?! And the last one was lined with kiwi?! I stared at the designs until Leo pulled me over to a corner.

“Look.” He said pointing to an engraved part of the tunnel.

“The labyrinth of trying.” I read aloud with a shaky voice.

“What does that mean?” Leo asked, pointing to the doors. I walked over to the middle door being careful about where I step.

“I think this is the door.” I said looking and the engraving over the top.

“Why?”

“The engraving of the side has seven syllables and this one has seven oranges engraved over it.”

“Logical.” I pushed on the door expecting it not to open. It creaked open and we stepped inside. It was a labyrinth, just like how the sign had described it to be.

“Let me check it out first. I’m more experienced.” I reluctantly let him walk in first. “Clear.” He said after 5.23 minutes. I walked in after gazing at the sparkling walls. I walked down the narrow path as I held onto Leo’s hand. I kept scanning the room and found that skeletons were scattered around the room everywhere. I looked to see that this wasn’t any regular labyrinth, this one had a perfect square in the middle. We picked up our pace, sweat drenching our coats as we walked further into the labyrinth. Finally, we had run out of water, but we had made it into the center of the labyrinth. It was heavily guarded, even so we got through to the treasure that was hidden. I looked at it and found a big pile of rocks?!

“You watch guard because you have better guarding skills.”

“Ok fine.”

I walked over staking the small pieces of rock until I figured out what it was. It was an ancient building that looked like it was made with inspiration from books.

“Leo!” I called, when suddenly, I fell over, thankful that I landed somewhere (not on the floor.)

“Wake up, Andra!” Someone said, shaking me up. My eyes fluttered open, to see Leo with his worried face.

“Leo? What happened?”

“Not sure, but you just fell and passed out.”

“Leo, I think I know what Mr. Smiley not smiley is hiding.” I replied with my blond hair falling into my face.

“What is it?” He asked, letting me stand up again. I looked around to see that it was daytime again and we weren’t in the labyrinth?

“It- it was a dream?” I whispered looking down.

“What?”

“Nothing, I just said that the thing Mr. Smiley not smiley is hiding a piece of the destroyed house of princess Caliope.”

As I sat down on the grass with Leo, I saw Mr. Smiley walk out of the house, holding a big piece of metal.

“Look!” I whisper yelled, pointing to Mr. Smiley.

“Wait, you don’t think that that’s-” I nodded, running toward him while scanning the people around him.

“We can sneak past the bodyguards and act as if we were one of them.” Leo said, running right behind me.

“Got it.” We managed to sneak into the bodyguards without getting caught, but suddenly one by one, they all started falling over. Mr. Smiley eyed us and asked,

“Why haven’t you fallen.”

“Because we need to protect you.” I replied with the sternest voice that I could possibly do.

“Right, but I made them fall over because they are under my control.”

“We know; however, we are your real bodyguards not robotic ones.” Leo stepped in.

“I never hire real bodyguards.” “We’re busted.” I thought, signaling Leo to distract him while I grabbed the piece of metal with intricate flower designs carved all over it. This was definitely the stolen piece from princess Caliope’s home.

“Ok, you caught us, but we can prove that we are worthy of being your bodyguards.”

“How are you going to do that?”

“Like this.” Leo replied, sending a high kick right into Mr. Smiley’s face knocking him over.

“Quick grab the metal!” I snatched it from his hand looking down at Mr. Smiley.

“He’ll be fine, I gave him one of my light kicks.” Mr. Smiley rose and we ran as fast as we could with the hunk of metal.

“Wait!” Mr. Smiley shouted. We stopped in our tracks turning slowly.

“What?”

“That isn’t what you’re looking for.”

“How do you know what we’re looking for?”

“I don’t but that metal you hold, is a piece of my prototype for my new building.”

“Wait, what?! We need to go, sorry for the trouble.” I dropped the metal and ran to our helicopter to quickly ride back to our boss. Once we got in through all the security our boss stood in the middle.

“I’ve been waiting. Have you got it?”

“No, you told us the wrong person!” I shouted.

“Hmm, you found out. Well, since you already know my little secret, I may as well tell you that he’s my brother and I would do anything to destroy him!” He said with an evil grin.

“In that case, I quit!” Leo yelled at him throwing his badge at boss’s face.

“Me too!” I shouted, tossing my badged to the ground and stomping it. In the end, we convinced Mr. Smiley to hire us as bodyguards, so nothing would get past us as spies.