Spy School Blast Off

Chapter 3 | Normalness

Soccer field of Ben's school

London

September 7

1300 hours

I was at recess, playing soccer with Max when all of a sudden this group of girls came up to us. I had no idea who they were, so later on Max told me that they were this group of popular girls. 

"Hey, cutie," one of the girls said to me.

"Uh, hi?" I said, unsure of how to respond to that. They squealed.

"Your American accent is sooo cute!!!"

"Thanks?"

"By the way," the girl who greeted me said, "my name is Rachel. This is Emma, Sophia, Amelia, and Ruby." With that, they smiled at me and walked off.

"Wow! Even those girls like you? How do you do it?" Max asked, astonished. 

"What do you mean?" I said.

"Why did literally every single girl in the entire school take a liking to you?" Max asked.

"I don't know!"

"Was it like this in your old school?"

"Um, well, maybe?" Before I could answer any more embarrassing questions, the bell rang. Straight after school, I went to the pool for my daily workout, and as I neared the building I stopped in my tracks. Rachel and her friends were there. I decided to sneak in, hoping that they wouldn't see me and I would just be in and out. 

No such luck.

The minute I walked in, all heads turned to me. All of the girls started swarming me.

"I knew you'd be here!" Rachel said.

"How?" I asked.

"Um, I might have..."

"She always watches you when you go inside and marks the exact time so that she could be with you," one of the girls helpfully said. Rachel glowered at her.

"Um, so I'll just workout now ok?" I said.

"Sure," Rachel said. "We'll just watch."

"Yeah, sure," one of the girls laughed. "Go ahead and watch him."

 "I didn't mean like perv-watch him! I just meant like watch him, you know?" Rachel protested.

"Yeah, sure," they said while I walked off to the treadmill. True to her word, for an hour straight, Rachel watched me run on the treadmill, plank for 5 minutes, do 50 push-ups, 3 sets; use the resistance bands, and finish it off with some indoor biking.

"So you do this every day?" Sophia asked me as I towelled off.

"Yeah," I said. "Sorry, I have to go home now."

"Why?" Rachel said. 

"Homework," I said. Homework wasn't actually the real reason, I just wanted to getaway.

"Okay, see you tomorrow," Rachel said. I walked home, researching other gyms that were close by. At home, I asked my parents how long more we were going to stay in London.

"Well, it's hard to say right now. It could be for a couple more years or more," my dad said. I never asked them again. The next day, I wanted to avoid Rachel but they were waiting for me at the gate. I wasn't at school yet, so they couldn't see me.

I jumped over the gate at the back of the school and took the back door in so that I didn't bump into them. I met Max at homeroom about 15 minutes before class started.

"Hey, do you know any gyms that are around here?" I asked.

"No, why?" Max said. I looked around to make sure no one was watching, then leaned closer.

"Well, yesterday I had a bit of a run-in at this gym," I said.

"With who?"

"Rachel," I said.

"Oh, I see now," he said. "You wanna escape them, right?"

"Yes," I affirmed.

"Actually, I think I know one," he said. "There's this gym right around the corner that I used to go to."

"Oh, thanks," I said. From then on, I went there and prayed that Rachel didn't notice me going there. But then we still had to deal with her at school. 

By now, basically, everybody in the school knew that Rachel liked me. I mean, gossip travelled so fast here my friends at spy school would be amazed. This was bad on many levels, as it meant that she was more open and frequent with her, uh, I'm just going to say it, kissing.

One day, I literally was doing nothing, just walking down the stairs, when suddenly a pair of arms wrapped around me, stopping me in my tracks. Before I knew it, she was kissing my neck passionately, and it was very embarrassing to see people walking past us and laughing. 

Anyway, the next day Mike showed something to me that demolished any hope of returning to the CIA.