Where secrecy or mystery begins, vice or roguery is not far off.
-Samuel Johnson

I was born illegitimately to a lovely mother who had a brief yet torrid affair with a dashing and handsome British government agent. You may have heard the name, it seems to have made its rounds. Were I to take my father's last name, you'd be talking to Covert Bond here. Yes yes, I know. It sounds wildly unbelievable, doesn't it? Nobody has any clue that James Bond is, indeed real. He's not just a product of Ian Fleming's creative mind, he's a really real guy. I know, being his daughter and all. I suppose that maybe that was meant to be a great secret, but I've held the truth in for far too long and it just has to come out. I'm proud of my parentage so I feel the need to pass it on. I only hope that this fact doesn't shock my friends too much, I suppose that I should've told them privately first. Ah well.

Okay, back to reality. I hope that none of you fell for that bullshit because it's not at all true. If you did, perhaps you need to check into one of those nice padded rooms because hello!!!... James Bond would be like.. two thousand years old or something by now considering when the first book was written. No, he wasn't a concoction of the movies, he was a character in a book. Reading, you know? A wonderful pasttime. Although movies and TV have their benefits as well. Anyway, I was truthfully born illegitimately to an unwed mother. An unwed teen mother, to be exact. And I have no idea who my father is. She never talked much about him, I just know that they went to high school together and that he lost interest once she got pregnant. So I don't think I really need to know the guy if he's the kind to pull that sort of shit. I'm just glad my mom didn't take the so-called "easy" way out and get rid of me before I was born.

It was kind of hard growing up during my early years, I have to admit. My mom had to depend on her parents to help support her. Luckily, they did. Great people. Things were tight, nobody involved had a lot of money. But it wasn't horribly bad. I got what I needed, not always what I wanted. But if you always get what you want, what's dreaming for? And I did a lot of dreaming, I must admit. I got interested in intrigue and spies early on, watching old episodes of I Spy and James Bond movies. I fell totally into all of that shit. I'd watch them over and over again and I still like to see them when I can. Not easy these days, but oh well.

As time went along, life actually continued to be pretty good even though things stayed hard. My mom started college at 18 (when I was 3), taking night classes and working during the day. This led to her taking longer to get anywhere, but she was doing what she could. Looking back, I have to say that I'm really proud of her. Because not only did she work hard to try, she accomplished what she set out to do. She took almost seven years, but she graduated from college. And ended up with a decent job as a bookkeeper. We got to move into our own place and man, was that a great feeling. I had a room that was bigger than the one I'd had before and, even though I love my grandparents very much, it was nice for us to have a home of our own. I started playing one of my favorite games, that was to play spy. It was fun, I started picking neighbors to follow around and practice on. I got caught a lot at first, but after awhile I got much better and didn't. It was a rush, a lot of fun. I found out how far I could push it when I tried breaking into a neighbor's house just to see if I could pick the lock. Oops? Lucky for me that neighbor was cool and didn't push it.

When I was 15, the neighbors got boring. They were too easy and I wanted a challenge. So the summer of that year, I went out when my mom was at work and started picking random people to follow. It was fun and mostly I didn't get caught. But I did get caught enough to keep me from getting bored. I started working on eavesdropping, too. Worked on listening to people without looking like I was listening and seeing how much I could remember. It really was fun, I guess I was lucky by not running into much in the way of trouble. You'd be amazed some of the things you can overhear by doing really nothing much at all.

I was almost 17 when I got the greatest bit of luck. I started to follow around this cute guy.. cute guys were a preference of mine.. and got caught. He acted mad and shit, but wasn't really so I found out after a bit. He was a Pantera, Alec to be exact, and he introduced me to all of that. He figured that it wasn't quite safe for me to be out and about following people, especially since tensions were high. So he took me to meet Miguel and others and it just clicked. I loved the idea! It was the best and most exciting idea that I'd been presented with. Little did I know just how exciting it was going to turn out to be. Things started getting tense, and I was even more content. I kind of like excitement, I decided. And I felt really dedicated to these people. I can't imagine how it would be to be discriminated on because of the color of your skin. Sounds just really atrocious to me. And when it came to a fight about it, I was glad to help out and do my part.

It was around a year ago that I finally met the cute guy of my dreams. I knew he was that guy as soon as I saw him so I had to draw him into my little web of intrigue. He had no chance at all. Once I set my sights on something, I get it. And Deon.. he's just unbelievable. You'd be amazed at all he's got going for him. I did a good thing by bringing him into Las Panteras, he's been so much good for everyone. The guy is so great, he brings the best atmosphere to the often dark times. You can always go to him for a laugh or just a cheering up. And man, does he play fun. He's gotten me pulled into his little playacting and I love it. It's some of the most fun I've ever had. I'm sticking with the guy, I'll say that. Nobody's getting their hands on my man. I need him more than even Las Panteras, he's just become too much a part of my life for me to let him go. So all those girls out there who might want to get their hands on him.. back off! Mine! Try it and you just might find yourselves being followed by someone you really don't want to be followed by. If you notice before I strike.

We have to laugh. Because laughter, we already know, is the first evidence of freedom.
-Rosario Castellanos

We cannot really love anyone with whom we never laugh.
- Agnes Repplier