Spy School Blast Off

Chapter 9 | Abrupt

Illuminated Skating Resort

Kansas City, Kansas

September 12

1130 hours

The next morning, I went back to the skating rink to meet up with Leslie, Mia, and Hayley. For some reason, they didn't seem to notice when I walked in.

"Hi," I said.

"Hey," Mia muttered. Leslie and Mia just ignored me. They didn't seem all that interested. Did something happen while I was away?

"Did something happen?" I asked. 

"No," Hayley said. While we were there, I kept trying to talk to them but they either just ignored me or gave a one-word response. I tried to get them to play hockey, but they didn't want to. I  decided to leave them alone for a while. At the end of the day, I got fed up.

"Come on, Mia, why are you ignoring me?" I asked her.

"I'm not ignoring you," she said. 

"Yes you are," I said. "Did I do something?"

"No," she said.

"Then why?"

"Well, um, I have to go now," she said. I watched her go, perplexed. Why were they acting like that all of a sudden? I went back to the hotel to tell the others about it. It only took about 5 minutes to get back, so I was there pretty fast. I knocked on Catherine's door once I got to the third floor, using the secret knocking code we made so that we knew if one of us were knocking.

"Oh, hi, Benjamin!" Catherine said, inviting me in. I stepped inside and saw that everybody was there except Erica.

"Why are you back so early?" Zoe asked.

"All of them are acting very weird," I said. "They're just ignoring me all of a sudden. Like only giving me one-word answers or not even saying anything."

"Did you do something to offend them or something?"

"That's what I asked, but they said no," I said. Suddenly, Catherine's phone started beeping. She stepped aside to make the call. 

"Hi Pookie!" she greeted Erica. "Are you okay?"

"Please don't call me that," I heard Erica groan. "I found something."  

"Where was Erica?" I asked.

"She went back to Leslie's room to plant bugs and look over it again," Zoe told me.

"There was a note in the room that said, 'Operation Assualt commences in 2 days,'" Erica said.

"Do you think that's real?" Mike asked. "What if they knew that you would be inside their room and planted a fake note, easy for you to find?"

"How would they know that?" she asked. "And also, it wasn't in plain sight. It was behind Leslie's headboard, which was probably a place that she designated for secret messages. And it was in a very complex code that took 5 minutes to decode."

"Five minutes isn't that long," Zoe said.

"It is for me," Erica said. 

"So are you coming back now?" Catherine asked.

"Yes," Erica said. "I'll be there in 2." With that, she hung up. 

"So what about Leslie, Mia, and Hayley ignoring me?" I asked.

"Check with them one last time," Catherine said. "If they are still ignoring you, come back and we can figure something out."

I went back out, walking back to the rink. When I got there, everybody had left except for them and they were all hunched over a computer. I spied on them from as far as my eye could see. All I could see on their computer screen were numbers: 

43.6532° N, 79.3832° W

39.9042° N, 116.4074° E

55.7558° N, 37.6173° E

51.5074° N, 0.1278° W

28.6139° N, 77.2090° E

msg to 38.8899° N, 77.0091° W 

Before I could see any more, they packed up the computer and started to walk away. I caught up to them quickly.

"Hey, can you guys come to the rink tonight?" I asked.

"Sorry," Mia said. "We have something important to do."

"What?" I asked.

"Just something we need to finish," Leslie said, clearly wanting me to go. I took the hint and walked back to the hotel.

"They're still acting weird," I reported. 

"Okay," Mike said. "I know what to do. You said Mia liked you, yeah?"

"Yes," I said.

"Like, did she like liked you or just liked you as a friend?"

"I don't really know," I said.

"She kissed you," Zoe said.

"Oh yeah," I said. "Wait, how'd you know that?"

"Um, I might have been spying on you?" Zoe said.

"Why were you spying on him?" Erica said with a pointed tone.

"Um, well.." 

"How about we just forget about this and move on," Mike suggested.   

"Fine with me," I said.

"So Mia really liked you," Mike said. "All we need to do is make her notice you again."  

"How?"

"How else?" Mike grinned. "Jealousy."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Zoe or Erica has to pretend to really like you in front of her."  

"But then won't she think I'm, like, cheating on her or something?"  

"You won't be pretending you like Zoe or Erica," Mike said. "They'll be pretending that they like you."

"Well, I guess that would work."

"So who's going to do it?" Zoe asked hopefully.

"I think, since Erica already likes Ben a lot, it'll be better for her to do it," Warren offered. 

"Hey! I like Ben a lot too!" Zoe said. Right then, she realized what she just said, turned into a tomato, and ran out the door.

"Wait, what?" I asked.

"Ooh, some competition here," Mike laughed.

"Can someone tell me what's going on here?" I asked.

"Now both Zoe and Erica like you," Chip laughed.

"Since Zoe is gone," Catherine said, "Erica will be the one pretending to like you."   

"Won't be too hard for her," Mike said. We decided that the scene would happen on a bench right beside the rink, in clear view of Mia. I had to admit, I was pretty excited for Erica to pretend to like me. I just hoped that everything would go as planned.