• The phone rang. I ran to answer it. I didn’t think much of it. I picked up the phone and was startled by what I heard. The voice on the other end was one I had never heard before, deep, strong, and very commanding. I listened to the strange man for awhile, my head spun from all the information I was taking in. “This is an order, understand? There aren’t any other options,” the voice said after about a minute of talking. I managed to stammer out a yes right before the line went dead.

    The phone call was from a man named General Worthington. His words were frightening and almost unbelievable. He had told me I was to fly to California from a nearby airport tomorrow at 6:30 AM. My flight was number 213 at gate 7B in terminal 2. He had briefly mentioned I was needed for a government mission that could not be specified over the phone. I think that was the scariest part.

    I carried on throughout the day as usual. But everywhere I went there was a strange darkness hanging over me. Later that day during dinner I decided to tell my mom.
    “
    I need you to drive me to the airport tomorrow at six,” I said, probing at my veggie stir fry with my fork. My mom gave me a confused look, so I continued. “a man named General Worthington called me today and said I had to go to the airport tomorrow at six to fly to California. He said it for some government mission he couldn’t talk about.”

    “Come on Charlotte, that’s not funny,” my mom said

    “I’m Serious!” I pleaded

    “Like the time you were serious a ninja stole your science project?” She challenged.

    “No, like really, actually, absolutely, genuinely, truly, surely, positively serious!” I replied. We went on for a couple of minutes arguing like that. We finally came to a conclusion, and it was one in my favor. My mother had agreed to believe everything I told her and promised to drive me to the airport.

    I finished up my day and went to bed. I tossed and turned distressed and jittery. I was so nervous about what lay ahead of me I almost felt like I was going crazy. After about two hours, I finally sunk into a deep slumber. I woke up at five (rather sluggishly) and arrived at the airport at six.

    The airport was bustling with people. Shoes and suitcases tapped on the linoleum floor, security gates buzzed, coffee and fast food filled my nose. There were so many random and various things going on at one time in one place it was mind boggling. As I was checking through security I gave my mom a hug good-bye as she wished me luck. I boarded my flight and at 6:30 I was off to California. It was an amazing sensation looking down at the clouds as we flew.

    After two hours on the plane I finally arrived in San Diageo, California. I looked around, not sure what to do or where to go. I decided to go get my bags. After I was done in baggage I walked outside and saw a man with a sign that had my name on it. I walked up to the man, and asked about the sign. He looked at me and smiled, introducing himself as General Worthington with a shake of hands. He was very tall and broad shouldered with short gray hair and black suit. He looked like your typical business man. He led me to his car and I got in. It was a little nerve racking.

    “Okay Charlotte,” said the same voice I had heard on the phone. “you’re probably wondering why you recruited and what you will be doing…well, I am here to tell you!” His expression and tone was so much lighter than it was over the phone. And the way he used the word recruited made it sound like I was in for something big. He proceeded to tell me that I was needed to sneak into a tribe that lived on a small island off the coast of San Diageo. I was chosen because I looked a lot like a girl that lived in the tribe named Iris. I would have to sneak into the tribe as Iris and find the leader of a string of robberies throughout the state of California that were traced back to the island.

    We finally arrived at a small building and got out of the vehicle. As I walked inside I noticed that I could hear all the noises of the city, even though we were quite a bit away. I walked in the building. It looked like you typical office with front desk, a secretary, and waiting room. We walked right past the desk and proceeded down a hallway. We stopped at a door with the number 2 on it, and went inside. The walls in the room were plain white and the floor was concrete. There was a small couch, a bed, a desk, and a small dining table with two chairs scattered throughout the room. This is where I stayed for a week.

    Over the course of that week I learned how to walk, how to talk, how to behave, how to tell jokes exactly the way Iris would. I was jabbed with needles, rubbed with crèmes, and forced to drink strange liquids until I looked just like Iris. I learned the names of all the people on the island, their culture and traditions, even their history, anything I need to know fit in I knew.

    At the end of the week I was finally ready. In the dead of the night I was driven out to the island on a boat. From then on I was no longer Charlotte; I was now Iris of a strange island tribe. I snuck into the hut of ‘my family’ and went to sleep in a bed I supposedly had been sleeping in for years.

    Over the course of three days I lived among the islanders as normal. I used everything I had learned before I said or did anything. I also took noticed all of the relationships I (or Iris) had. There were my parents, Hibiscus and Cypress. I followed their orders everyday carefully and preformed various chores such as fetching water, or weaving. There was my soon to be arranged husband, Maple. It was a really strange thought, that I would soon have a husband. There was something about him I didn’t like. There were my friends, Geranium, Tulip, and Lily. We would do chores together and talked about our soon to be weddings and island gossip.

    The island was rather small. There was a tiny freshwater pound in the center of the island where I would go to fetch water. There was rainforest of varying densities covering the entire island, a cliff on the northern end, the village on the south east side, and sandy beaches everywhere.

    I was intended to go a week living like this, but one night I was walking home and I overheard a conversation I probably wasn’t supposed to overhear. It was between the head of the tribe, Alder, and his second in command, Aspen. They were talking about a secret hut on the west side or the island and how it was needed to be kept in prime condition to hold ‘goods’. Aspen seemed to be more knowledgeable about the topic than Alder and mentioned having everything under control a couple times. It sounded a lot like he was leading something.

    I decided to set out and find this… secret hut. I walked for about 10 minutes randomly around the west side of the island not finding anything. I sat down and took a break. As I was sitting I noticed the vegetation was worn out in a spot to the left of me, almost like a path. I followed it and there was the hut. I went to the hut every chance I got and spied. I spent about a week spying but not much happened. Every once and a while a random person would walk in and out of the hut but nothing suspicious ever happened. One night, I was sitting in the bushes spying as usual when something interesting finally happened. Aspen walked down the path to the hut carrying a large box with the word 'fragile' written on the front in big red letters. He walked into the hut with the package and started yelling directions at people. It had to be him! I pulled out a hidden device that recorded everything, it also had the ability for me to contact the general. I quickly typed in what had just happened and sent to him. Within five minuets I had gotten a message saying there wasn't enough evidence and I needed to keep looking. So I did and the more I did the more I thought it was Aspen. That all changed fast. I was about to leave one day when I over heard a familiar voice yelling.

    “You stupid, ignorant person!” it yelled...Maple! The voice belonged to Maple! “what were you thinking! I'm the one in charge here!” I'm the one in charge here?...Maple's in charge?...and then It hit me. Maple, Iris's soon to be husband, was the one in charge of the robberies! I pulled out my recording and contacting device and sent a message straight away. Since I had the recording device on me I got a full out confession on tape. With in a day maple was arrested and I was back in San Diego. I got a couple fancy ribbons and papers for what I had done and soon I was back home living life as normal.