Spy School: Danger is my Middle Name

Jayden VS Zoe

if you read the title as 'Jayden X Zoe,' please don't re-read the title and savor the humor

---No POV switch---

I had no idea.

When I took a quick imagination of Jayden's hotel room, my mind pictured a messy, dirty clothes-clad dorm, with empty ramen boxes and indiscriminate objects scattered everywhere. It seemed pretty stereotypical- a teenager would have that kind of dorm, right?

Nope. Jayden pulled an Erica and all-out surprised me with his dorm decorating choices. Instead of cute kittens and teapots, instead, he had the neatest bedroom I've ever seen with a poster of some random anime character strung where the TV used to be. His bed was neatly made, despite the hotel services not being present at a time this late, and the bathroom was gleaming with no water stains.

"I'm genuinely surprised," I said, breathing in the cleanroom smell and taking a look around. "Jayden, since when were you diagnosed with OCD?"

"Shut it," Jayden threw out. "I'm just neat this way."

"Neat is an understatement," Mike said. "This place looks like a palace. Good thing we were called here tonight, because when we leave, this place is going to be a dumpster."

"Your welcome," Zoe pat Mike on the shoulder. "Settle in. I've marked your sleeping bags with your corresponding names, so feel free to cuddle in right now."

"Hold up," I put in, scanning the room. "There's only enough sleeping bags for half of us. Zoe, what scheme are you planning?"

Zoe giggled, jumping on Jayden's bed.

"Hey!" Jayden complained. "My room isn't free real estate! Neither is my bed!"

Zoe smirked. "Each of you guys is going to have to share a sleeping bag with someone else, since Walmart was out of single sleeping bags."

Trixie blushed, taking a look around at the people around her. "I guess I'll sleep with sis."

"Erica's not even here," Jayden rolled his eyes. "That girl wouldn't participate in something like this if her life was on the line."

"That's true," Trixie noted. "Then Kylie, maybe?"

Kylie exchanged a look with Zoe. "Sorry. Already booked up."

I groaned. "This is starting to sound like a lame version of Tinder. Why don't we just, like, roll dice or something?"

"NO!" Jayden cried, then realized he had said his complaint louder than he'd intended. "I mean, no. We're going to end up with people we don't want to be with, and a million more ships will be born!"

"True," John said. "The comment section is a literal ticking time bomb. You have two characters touch each other for a millisecond, and boom. There goes a whole new string of a million more shippers."

"Yes!" Dylan agreed. "Zylan was a horrible one."

Zoe cringed. "Yes. We needed to get that out."

I took a look at the sleeping bags, quickly calling the one closest to the window. "I'm sleeping in this one, just in case. If I need to run to the balcony for safety, then I'm going to be first there."

Rachel stuffed her hands through her backpack, eventually digging out a bottle. She set it in the middle of us, then made us form a circle.

Jayden winced. "I don't like where this is going."

"Isn't it obvious?" Ivar said, voice hinting with sarcasm. "We're just gathering around the bottle and not doing anything weird-" he eyed Rachel. "-and we're just going to be watching a movie."

"Yes, watching a movie with a bottle in the middle of us," Chloe groaned. "And the bottle's not going to be representing anything."

"Why are you smiling?" Chip poked Jawa's shoulder. "That's just making you even more of a perv!"

"Hey, that's my title!" Jayden complained. "Call him something else!"

"Okay, how does Jayden 2.0 sound?" Trixie inspected Jawa. "He's stronger, but Jayden's better-looking. So that's that."

"Don't call me better-looking, idiot!" Jayden pushed Trixie into the wall. "Our relationship is nonexistent, don't change that!"

Rachel took the bottle and spun it, quickly making sure it didn't stray outside of our delicately formed circle. Its tip took a wide arc, eventually landing directly in front of Kylie's crisscrossed legs.

"Bet!" Rachel and Kylie yelled at the same time, then shrunk.

"Not 'bet' in a romantic way," Kylie assured. "I'm just relieved that I'm not with a boy."

"Same here," Rachel said. "No offense, but I'm not a big fan of BO."

"Hey! I shower every day!" Jayden countered, lifting his arm and wafting his cologne's tangy smell around the room.

I slapped his arm down. "Save that for your boyfriend. We're not being seduced."

"I'll spin next!" Dylan yelled, grabbing the bottle before anyone else and flinging it in the middle of the circle. Its cap pointed directly to my legs, and I couldn't hide my relief.

"Let's gooo!" we both yelled, high fiving. "Guy gang!"

"I'm going to bring my 4k phone so we can watch at night," Dylan said. "I have to catch up the Office. Also, I have a sleeping bag heater. It's going to scratch under forty tonight, so we're prepared."

It took me exactly three seconds to walk out of the circle, and three seconds later, the bottle, spun by Ivar, circled around again. After watching its cap draw towards Trixie's lap, Ivar's face sunk slowly along with Erica's sister's.

"I'm out," Ivar stated, standing up and walking to the balcony. "I'll sleep here. I'm just going to take the pillow and the sofa mattresses and bring them outside."

Trixie sighed in relief. "Looks like I've got a sleeping bag to myself. Thank god!"

Jade, who was the newly made member of our group, took the bottle and pursed her lips. "I'm going to admit it right now. I'd prefer James, but another girl wouldn't hurt."

Jayden's mouth opened, but I slapped it shut. 

Jade spun the bottle, quickly yanking the tip to the right. The angle was perfect, and the tip barely scratched into Chloe's range. 

Chloe shrugged. "I'll take it. Even though I barely know Jade, at least this is better than sharing a bed with Jayden."

"Appreciate the compliment, girl," Jayden smiled. "Remember, I'm gay."

"You don't have to go around and advertise it everywhere, though," a voice poked in, swinging from the room. "We already know."

"E-erica!?" Jayden stammered, backing to the wall. His breaths started to increase in tempo, hyperventilation increasing. "How are you?"

"Good," Erica noted, taking the bottle. "And I've decided to participate in this event for your safety. After tapping in the Croatoan's radio signals, it looks like they've found our location. They're planning to raid us this week, I don't know when specifically, so I've decided to stay."

Jawa's smile broke through his expression. "So you're going to be spinning the bottle?"

"Yep. Don't look so happy, since it's not going to land on you," Erica added. "If it does, prepare for a night of being squished and having your bones being cracked every few seconds."

Jawa cringed. "On the other hand, why don't you take the bed instead?"

Erica gripped the bottle, ignoring Jawa's statement. "I'm going to spin now."

And with this, she let go of the bottle.