Charessa Ramblings-xoxo, Alex

"Alex, your nose looks...fantaaastic," said my mother dear. Something about the way she drew out her last word told me she wasn't being completely honest. A glance in the mirror confirmed my suspicion.

I ripped by nose off in frustration. Well, the outer layer. The layer of wax added to make me look more Greek than I really am (According to all my research, I am 2% Greek). My make-up specialist made an attempt at consolation: "You're getting better! It won't be long before it feels-(and looks, I thought to myself)- more natural."

That was after three weeks of make-up training. I get half an hour a day. When you're a teenage Irish/German girl trying to look like a 20-year-old Greek woman, make-up is a necessity. Unfortunately, I wasn't born with mad make-up skills like Bailey. But once we really go undercover pretty soon here, I'll have to fluent in the art of make-up. And the art of pretending to be someone I'm not. But thanks to my love for acting, that didn't come as hard.

Self-defense classes come after my make-up lessons in order to help me learn how to fight while sweating under 3 layers of make-up and expensive clothes. Things get a little interesting. I also have to be sure to shout and grunt in a Greek accent. My Greek lesson are in the morning, right before lunch. At lunch, my sisters and I all have to act and speak like our characters as part of training. We're getting better. Before Greek lessons come my tech lessons. Having been off the grid, or so to speak, for a few years, I had a lot to learn. But I'm getting better.

Dinnertime is always family time. As well as be-yourself-and-not-your-character time. We eat, play games, watch movies, play in the gym, talk, bake-anything we might have down at home around that time. We just don't get outside as much. It took me a few weeks to realize our building is underground. I can see why-security is important when you're a spy facility-but I miss being able to go outside whenever I want. We get about an hour a day at this point. Fortunately, it won't be long before I'm out and about fighting crime as Charessa.

Only a few weeks until Bailey-excuse me, Cassondria-leave. We're set to head out mid-July. It feels like a fantasy, but so have the last few years of my life. I'm excited for this adventure.

And, okay-maybe a little nervous, too.

Much love,
Alex

It's All Greek To Me-Alex

Just so you're aware, you've been receiving a very(!) condensed version of things. Here's mine:

After a week of relaxing together and putting off all training, my sisters, our parents, our team, and I began prepping for our missions, which meant the start of the POVABAC program for me and my sisters. The idea was that we would take on different identities for each mission. Each mission would take a while. Well, besides Rikki and Kailey's. That was like a starter mission. These missions will eventually take months-or even a year. So to be able to play it all off as a different person was vital. 

Bailey and I had a month to study our characters before learning about our mission. Our team, who was under the command of our uncle Callan, would be researching and planning, and then teach us the material when the time came. The only thing we knew about our mission was what Uncle Callan hinted at as we entered the POVABAC quarters on day one: "There's a reason we chose the family's two actors for the mission," he said. "With the proper training, we felt that you two would be the best for the job." This definitely got the two of us excited. And on that note, we began our training.

Weapons classes, language classes, character study lessons-all these and more made us two very busy girls as we prepared to enter into the real world with fake identities. It was incredibly exhilarating. We were officially spies in training.

A week into our training, our uncle Callan interrupted our training with news that made our stomachs drop out of both fear and excitement.

"There's a reason we need experienced actors for this mission" he said to us. "You two will be meeting the Winthrops face-to-face in order to get on the inside. This will be no easy task. But we know it's nothing you can't do."

My face turned pale. Those were the people that tore me and my family apart, and now I had to look them in the eyes and pretend to be their friend? No easy task indeed! I could name millions of things I'd rather do! But Uncle Callan's eyes were calm and set. This really was going to happen. I couldn't think of a reason why this was the best option, but I trusted my experienced elder.

"Alright," I finally said after a few moments of though. Bailey agreed to the plan as well. She had always been more confident in her ability to act than I had ever been in mine. But there was no backing out now.

"Fantastic!" exclaimed Callan. "In that case, ladies, I would like to introduce you to your future selves." He waved photographs of two very pretty, very...Greek-looking? 20-something-year-old spies in front of our faces. "Alex, meet Charessa. Bailey, this is Cassondria. You will be getting to know this pair very well in the weeks to follow."

And so it began.

xoxo, Alex