Action: Acadamy: Action

By Julia Janus

Action Academy is the start of a series about a young girl who has some narcissistic tendencies.  Since she is young and naive, she believes a bunch of lies about her family and her family's past.  Come on this adventure to embark on Mya's new life as she discovers that she just happens to be better than everyone.  Watch as she meets new friends and new common enemies and just so happens to long to be out of the academy and begin her new life as a secret agent.   

• Language: English
• Publisher: Julia Janus
• Release date: Jun 30, 2023
• ISBN: 9798215166017

Book preview

Chapter 1:  Secrets

I’m going to say that the date was March 15 th , I don’t know. Well, I was in the fifth grade. The cringe years, I guess. I don’t know I’ve always been the best at everything, so I was never cringe. My mom was the town sheriff; my dad was a truck driver or something and was never home. Later I learned it wasn’t true. So that was life. I helped my mom with my siblings and my uncle helped too. My sisters were in third grade and kindergarten. (Elizabeth whom we call Liza or any other name that derives from Elizabeth and Claire whom we just call Claire.)

So, I was at school like normal. Nothing out of the blue, well except it was hat day. That has no point in this story though. Another thing off-topic, I was rocking my hat. 

So, we were in reading class, and we were reaching the fourth quarter in school. So, our teacher let us choose our seats. I decided I was going to sit by Mackenzie and Gabby. They were/are my best friends. The intercom came on it was all like, Hey Mrs. Walter, will you send Mya to the office ready to sign out.

She was all like, Sure.

So, I went to the office. I didn’t know what sign out meant so I went with nothing all by myself.  Usually, sign out means leave so I should have brought my backpack. I walked the very small Bray Elementary School hallways where I saw my little sisters, mother, and father. Dad! I screamed.  I would say it had been not nearly that long of a time.  Sometimes we went six months but it had only been three. 

He was always working so I never saw him. He picked me up and hugged me close. Why are you here? I asked suspiciously. Maybe it was because of my birthday.  My birthday was coming up and him being home is the best birthday surprise.

Well actually Mya, we do have a surprise, but you have to go empty your locker? I was so confused. The people who empty their locker are the ones who leave. The ones who go to a new school and never come back. Never to be seen ever again.

I didn’t want to leave Bray, it was all I knew. 

What why?

It’s a surprise.

I had a feeling this wasn’t going to be a good surprise. And, I was having a good day. Knowing that I was leaving the school forever because I had to clean out my locker, I walked into the classroom and hugged my best friends. Then put everything in my locker into my backpack. Going back down the hallways to where my parents were.

There was a huge gap in my heart as we walked as a family to the car. Claire was holding mom’s hand and I was tailing my dad. Liza did her own thing. She always does her own thing.  We got into mom’s car. It was a black car and hard to spot in a crowd. But, Bray is a small town with a small school so she parked right in front of the school.

Mya, don’t look so glum. You don’t know what the surprise is. Mom said as she opened the door for us to get in the car. I hated having to leave.  As I said before, Bray was my only home. 

But, I cleaned out my locker.

She closed my door and opened hers and got in the car. Closing some doors opens new doors.

What do you mean by that? I asked. My mom said philosophical things like that all the time.  They always challenged my thinking ability. 

It means by cleaning out your locker may open new possibilities. Like, where we are going. Dad was driving to our farmhouse. It was pretty nice not going to lie. Honestly, it was one of the biggest in Bray.  Bray is a small town next to a bunch of other small towns that don’t show up on the map until you zoom in close. Though we don’t live within city limits. We live in the middle of nowhere surrounded by corn, corn, and more corn. When the corn isn’t tall sometimes you can see a cow pasture. But, other than that, it is just corn.

Okay girls, here’s the game plan. When we get home get your backpacks and empty them. Fill them with everything that you think is of importance. You don’t need clothes, or pillows and blankets. As you can see when you enter our home, mom has taken most of your clothes and I have stripped your beds. Mother and I will be filling the car with our belongings. You try to put everything you want and need in your backpack. Once it is full it is full.

I was super confused and wanted to know what was happening. Dad pulled into our garage fast and we got out. I ran to my room. Dumped my backpack and started filling it with my favorite things. Like a few of my books. Pencils, coloring books, then necessities all went in my bag. I put my Sun Bear in the bag. (It was just a yellow teddy bear that I had since I was little that I called Sun Bear.  I always felt as if he kept me safe.)

I went back to the car and Claire was crying because the TV would not fit in her backpack. Luckily, our car was fancy and had one of those cool movie things. We were allowed to bring movies that didn’t fit in our bags. But, mom already packed them.

Soon enough, we were ready to hit the road and never come back.

Where are we going? I asked as we hit the road.

Wait till we hit the interstate to ask.

Even though I am one of the most intelligent intellectual individuals, I had no idea what an interstate was. I just kept my mouth shut for a while and closed my eyes. Then I felt something move by my feet. My backpack that was on the ground was moving. My sister, Liza had been pulling it by the slash and moving it closer to her.  What could she possibly want?

What are you doing? I asked while looking out the window.  I saw a bunch of things that I did not recognize. 

I just want to see what you think is important. She unzipped my bag and I just kind of watched.

She pulled out Sun Bear, Seriously? she asked. Sun Bear? Aren’t you ten? You’re too old for a teddy bear. Only buttheads have teddy bears.

Well, you still have a teddy bear.

No, I don’t I got rid of him, she put her nose up in the air to pretend like she meant something. 

Yeah right. Let me see your bag.

I reached over to her feet. I grabbed her backpack. Mom! she screamed. Mya is trying to take my stuff!  She is a whiner and annoying. 

I rolled my eyes.

Mya, give her stuff back.

Liza’s a bum.

Don’t call your sister that. Mom said, obviously annoyed. Liza stuck her tongue out at me.

Alright that’s it, I held my hand out in front of her with a finger gun. I always do this, and she usually stops tormenting me. It’s been something we have done for a long time.

She put her hands up, Alright, I’m done.  I can’t explain how much of a threat finger guns are to people who do not understand. 

Then I lowered my finger gun, she pulled hers out of her fake holster. Pew, Mya’s dead.

Don’t say that, mom said and you could hear fear spiked in her voice. I love when my sister gets in trouble. Austin, they are being rowdy, you think we should tell them yet?

Is Claire even awake?

Maybe we should just tell the older two. My heart was thumping. What was happening that Claire was too young to hear?  Why did my mother get so shaken when Liza said I was dead?  Tell us!  I wanted to scream.  I wanted to know.  The adrenaline was killing my soul. 

Okay, He sighed. Well, girls... There was silence. Kayla, I don’t know what to say. Like, do I just ease into it? Do, I jump in and just announce it? This kind of news is not something you usually tell your kids.

We are a family of spies and have to go to training. Mom said. I had so many questions. I think Liza was pretty dumbfounded too.

Uh, what? Liza asked in her annoying voice.  She’s a girl who is hard to convince of things or doesn’t care.  It would not surprise me if she didn’t believe what my mom just told us. 

Well, let’s start at the beginning. Your dad, was recruited years ago to be part of the ACTION  or big A. What does ACTION stand for?  My mom got sidetracked with the name so she had to ask my dad. 

Agents Continuing To be Ill On Notion.

What?  My mom asked not buying into it. 

It has no meaning, it’s just a really cool name that the founders came up with.

Why? I asked, butting myself into my parent’s conversations which was something I did often.

It’s the ACTION so the common people think we are part of any action. Whatever their imagination brings.

Yes, well we are driving to Colorado right now, My mom continued.

Why Colorado?

That’s where the ACTION headquarters and academy are. I was still very star-struck. I had so many questions but didn’t know what to ask. The new headquarters anyway. It’s more or less the academy, I’m excited to see what Scarlet and Tim did with their budget.

Are we ninjas? Liza asked, she bought it. 

No, we are spies.

All spies in the spy movies know how to do those cool spy spin jump things. Hi-ya! She karate-chopped my arm.

Ouch!  It didn’t hurt but she was being very annoying. 

IT WAS AROUND SEVEN-thirty in the morning when we drove up to this big gate. I opened my eyes. There was a huge building but dad drove past it. There was a small groove-way where it lead to a little forest area and then a path going downhill into a tunnel.

The tunnel was lightened from the bottom and was very dim. I felt Liza wake up in amazement. This was the first time our car wasn’t on road. Then he drove to where a bunch of other cars were parked. He parked in the reserved parking for Austin Owens.

Dad got out of the car on this ratchet, cool morning. He went into this little glass door that appeared by the edge of this car room.  The walls looked concrete but the room smelled like a spring morning.  It smelled like dirt.

We just sat there. Mom must have been asleep or something because she was extremely quiet. She did drive all night, dad and she had switched back to him driving like an hour ago. He came back with two men who were dressed as penguins.  They weren’t really dressed as penguins but they wore really fancy suites that reminded me of penguins. 

Kayla, honey. We are here. He opened her door and spoke to her. He kissed her on the forehead and she out of the car. Next, he opened Claire’s door and lifted her out of the car. She was fully asleep. Dad put her on her feet, and she began to cry.  I would cry too if I was asleep then I had to stand. 

Dad told Liza and me, We don’t have to bring all of our belongings just bring your backpacks. He was really tired, and you could hear the sleep he had missed when he spoke.

We both grabbed our backpacks and carried them into this room that smelled like coffee and looked like a hotel. The man working even looked like he was from a TV show with a hotel. The probable teenager or early twenties guy showed my family to the elevator. We went down to floor three, I only remember that because that is the button he hit.  I remember walking past doors with names on them and states.  Then we walked down this hallway with a huge door and a door next to it that read, Austin and Kayla Owens; Iowa.  I don’t think I ever went on that elevator again— it’s weird the things you recall. 

Walking into the room there was a little couch and TV off to the side. Then on the other side, there was a bathroom. Then there was a door which led to a bedroom. Then there was another door that led to a bedroom on the other side. And, a bedroom right in front of your face. Past the living room, there was a narrow hallway that led to another living space with a living room, a master bedroom, and lastly a kitchen and dining area.

Sir, your luggage shall be brought up soon.

Thank you, and the penguin dude left.

Austin, you know what this reminds me of?

What? Dad asked then looked in her eyes and he automatically knew. He hugged her tight and said, We won’t have to escape anyone. We are safe here. We ARE safe.  I can assure you of that.

It’s just the memory. Her voice was soft and sad. I felt the pain. Though I didn’t survive the horrific torture that my parents survived. I felt their pain. They’ve talked about it enough for my sisters and me to imagine the whole thing.

Chapter 2: Evil Lair

Later, we went into the room right next to our apartment.  The room we entered was massive, it was an enormous ballroom. It reminded me of my parents’ friends’ wedding that we had to go to a couple of years ago. There were circular tables that filled the huge room with extravagant, thick, white table clothes on them. The chairs were black and fancy. They were padded and had nice leather. I could tell that this was a fancy party.  Not only were the table and chairs fancy, but they also had name slates to where we were supposed to sit.  The room didn’t really have a distinct smell that I can remember specifically about this room, but everything in the ACTION had a new smell, like plastic.  Some places smelled differently.  They smelled like concrete, cold and wet. 

Again, the nameplate had Austin and Kayla Owens; Iowa. Not going to lie, I was kind of really confused about why every place we went and were allowed to go had my parents’ name and home state on it. There was another nameplate on our table.

It read, George and Linda Malcom; Arkansas.

Why were there names and states? I walked to the next table the same thing. No states were repeating though. Or maybe they did; mom only let me walk so far before she yelled at me to get back over there.

Soon another family came with twin boys. The boys were much older than me and looked like they were teenagers.

Kayla, My dad said. That woman, he trailed off a little bit.  The one with the two boys is our boss. That’s Scarlet. Oh, and her husband, Tim. You will love them, I love both of them. They are the only ones that rank higher than us.  Scarlet was the one who came and found me.  I worked with them and now you will work with them too. 

She didn’t really seem interested, but I did, My mom actually seemed kind of hurt.  Who is Malcom?  My mom asked trying to change the subject. 

They rank either right below us or I think seven.

That’s kind of a stretch. My mother said, I thought you ran this thing.

I don’t run this place, that is the Televan’s.  Look under the name tag on the Malcom’s to see their ranking. My mother looked at it under my father’s inquiry.

Seven. Why are we paired with seven and not a closer number? I could tell that she was honestly curious.

I think it has something to do with field agents and inventions. We are field, 3 to maybe 6-ish are inventions or computers I don’t really know. All of those go hand in hand though. I think Malcom and us have kids the same age. We will be better partners with them than us with computers.

Yes. My mother agreed. The huge room seemed to be filling up. The table behind us was full of two kids that looked about my age, a girl who looked young, and two teenagers along with three sets of parents. Then, there were people walking toward our table. The parents looked older than my parents but not old, old. The son looked like he was my age. He had brown hair along with blue eyes and a pretty smile. The kid was skinny and super cute. He was short though. I am short but he may be shorter than I. There was also a baby. Not a baby-baby, but not a kid as old as Claire.  The in-between.  A toddler? 

Malcom? My father asked.

The guy nodded but didn’t speak. 

Nice to meet you, My father stood up and held his hand out for Malcom to shake. Malcom excepted and sat down. This is my wife Kayla, our daughters Mya, my oldest, Elizabeth, and Claire, the baby of our family.

George and Linda Malcom. Then our children Zach and Leah. Zach? That’s a namey-name. He doesn’t look like a Zach.  Looks more like a Milo. 

We are from Iowa,