The Undercover Spy

Chapter 14

“We are?” He perks up a little and his mood brightens just a smidge.

“Yes, we are.” I assure him. “And, why did Julia set me up with Max if she knew that you two were together?”

“I guess she knew that you had no real interest in a boyfriend anyway, but you still needed one. She made Max promise to not tell you about us because she thought that you would go ballistic and tell everyone.” He says while turning the page to find the directions.

“Really?” Wow, she really isn’t the person I thought she was.

“Yeah, can you help me measure out this?” He holds out the blue chemical and the beaker. I forgot what the blue one was called, but I knew he didn’t need help; he just wanted to get out of this conversation.

“Yeah, sure.”

I help him and we stay silent the rest of the period. We were one of the only groups that finished the experiment successfully. The other groups either got the final color wrong, or they never got through the questions in the beginning. Jonathon and Max ended up exploding theirs over themselves. They almost set off the fire alarms. I noticed that all the popular kids had been pared up with another popular kid, except for me and Julia. Mrs. Spellman did this because if the popular kids talked instead of worked, it was their fault that they got a bad grade. I wonder why Julia and I were different in her eyes.

The bell rang soon after Jonathon’s and Max’s explosion and we were sent off to the next period, which was thankfully our last period of the day. I made my way to my locker and put my books away. Soon I was joined by the one and only, Julia Thompson.

“Oh my god! Did you hear about what Max is going to do?” Not this again.

“Yes, I’ve heard about it from many people today.” I say, annoyed.

“I bet it will be so romantic! You’ll be so lucky!” Julia squeals.

“But it’s really nothing special.” I try and calm her down.

“Nothing special? He’s buying you roses and you’re going on a romantic walk through the courtyard. It will be amazing!” She squeals again as we head down the hall on our way to Music. The day was almost over.

“Yeah and how is that extremely romantic?” I question.

“It just is. God, Ashley, you’re so naïve. You need to go, it will do you good to go out and do something fun with your boyfriend.” Yeah, so fun.

“Hey guys.” Max say, catching up to us.

            “I’ll just leave you two alone.” Julia says, walking a little faster so we could talk in private. I wonder why she kept putting us in situations that she thought were cute, if she knew that Max was gay. Maybe she didn’t know that I knew too.

            “So, have you heard the rumors?” I start.

            “Just so you know, I did not start them. I just encouraged them.” Max assures me as we walk down the hall.

I playfully push him. “Now what am I going to do? I can’t go back to the school when you and Simon go on your date.”

“Well, you could just hang out with me and Simon.” Max suggested.

“Oh god, and watch you two make lovey dovey faces at each other the whole time? It would be a nightmare. I’d rather roam around the school grounds listening to music than have to see that.” I pretend to gag.

“That is insulting. We are so much better than the music you listen to.” Max pretends to be hurt.

“Ahh, but you never told me that you didn’t make lovey dovey faces at each other.” I point out and laugh as his face turns a dark shade of red.

We walk into Music and take our assigned seats in the soprano and tenor spots. There wasn’t as many popular kids as you think there would be in Music. Mostly all the normal kids and nerds were in this class, which was my kind of crowd.

“Class, today we will be learning a piece of Music that most of you probably know, Chasing cars, by Snow Patrol. I will pass out the sheets and I want you to memorize as much as you can before I randomly pick one of you to sing it in front of the class. You are allowed to practice aloud.” Mrs. Riddle tells us.

Julia, who is besides me starts to immediately memorizing the music. She probably hasn’t heard this song before, which is very sad in my opinion. The rest of the class was practicing, memorizing, or talking. I knew all the words to the song, so I decided to sit and listen to the other girls talk. Their conversations were quite informative sometimes.

“Oh, you don’t know the half of it!” I hear Lilly exclaim to one of the Altos. “I can’t believe it!”

“I know right? She doesn’t deserve him!” The Alto exclaims, matching Lilly’s tone of voice.

“She’s a total nightmare; I don’t know how he stands her! I am a much better candidate for a girlfriend. I bet you Jonathon even has a crush on me.” Lilly proudly states.

Oh, shit.        

They were talking about Julia! I needed to tell her now. She needed to know about what Lilly has been doing behind her back. I needed to tell her as soon as I could. She deserved to know what happened at the party. I felt bad about keeping it from her in the first place. I was going to tell her right now, I needed to tell-

“Ashley!” Mrs. Riddle practically screams at me.

            “Yes?” I question in a small whisper. I noticed that the whole room’s attention was on me. What did I miss while I was lost in my thoughts?

            “It’s your turn to come up here and show the class what you got. You get to demonstrate the song for the rest of the class. I hope you memorized it.” She smiles at me.

            “Yeah.” 

            Here goes nothing.