Spy School: Danger is my Middle Name

Breakfast with the spies

---POV Switch to Agent Benjamin Ripley---

"There's my story. You're turn, Ben!" Jayden said cheerfully, taking a gulp of his orange juice. "Remember, it needs to be embarrassing!"

I sighed and placed down my fork. It was briefly into the morning, and us group of teenagers were having the most unproductive conversation ever known to mankind. Jayden formed a 'circle of embarrassment,' as he called it, and he was trying to get everyone around the table to spill their guts about an unfortunate incident.

"We're waiting," Zoe tapped her fork upon the table. 

I gulped and tried to think of an embarrassing situation. Unfortunately for me, there were tons to choose from. I just didn't know which one would cause the least chaos and which one would set them on fire.

Thankfully, I was saved from the moment when Trixie came running back from the hotel elevator. Panting, she slid into her seat and quickly started talking. "I didn't find sister in her room," she stuttered. "I think she's off on another solo mission."

"Somebody call her," Dylan slammed his hand onto the table. "That girl is so counterproductive! If she has a lead, why doesn't she share it with us?!"

Jayden took out his phone and gave me a look of we're not done here yet. "Okay, I'll call her. Just remember, Ben has a story to tell afterwards."

"She never answers the phone, though," Jawa interrupted.

"Oh, she does," Jayden winked. "When it's from Ben, of course. Oh, hi Erica! What are you doing?"

A few seconds passed. Jayden's face suddenly sprouted a smile. "Ha- good one!" he roared. A moment later, his expression went back to the annoyed one. "Oh, really? Why?"

Trixie edged on her seat. "I can't hold it anymore. Put the phone on speaker! I can't miss out on this!"

Jayden smiled wickedly and swiftly put on his airpods, virtually preventing any of us from listening. I could tell Trixie was about to strangle him, but since he was on the phone with Erica, it was best not to.

"Oooh, I see," Jayden dragged out his syllables to annoy us. "That's cool! Can I come along? I can? Yesss!"

Trixie tapped Jayden's shoulder as politely as possible, straining her instinct to attack him. "Ask her if I can come along too," she mouthed.

Jayden rolled his eyes and pushed her away, quickly beckoning Erica goodbye and slamming the phone into his pocket before Trixie could react. The line broke as fast as my hand moved when Erica called my phone (Ben- Please don't kill me for writing this, -Dylan).

"Jayden!" Trixie pounced on him, cutting of his air pathway and tightening her R.K.O. "What did Erica say, and why didn't you listen to me?!"

Jayden coughed. "Let me go and I'll tell you," he strained.

Trixie adjusted her grip so she could easily choke him again, arm hovering millimeters from his neck. "What did Erica say?" she hissed into his ear slowly.

"Not gonna tell you, you little bit-" Jayden's airline got cut off again.

Dylan pried Trixie off of Jayden and gave her an exasperated look. "Trixie, watch this. This is how you get a man to speak."

He cleared his throat, made sure Trixie wasn't going to move, and turned towards Jayden.

"Jayden?" Dylan said.

"Yes?" Jayden lifted his head from his waffle.

"Egg omellete, extra cheese, bacon, and extra large. On me," Dylan said with a flourish. "Never mind that 'Erica's solo mission' crap. Go take your free meal." 

Jayden cracked a smile. "You know what, just for kicks, I'll tell you what Erica said."

Trixie visibly trembled in her seat.

"Actually, I'll tell everyone but Trixie," Jayden changed his mind. "I'll text you all it in the private group chat I created."

Three minutes later, we all knew the plan, and Jayden was happily chowing down on his omellete. Trixie's expression was unreadable, but I could tell what was hidden behind that this-pancake-tastes-good look.

"Jayden?" Trixie suddenly said after finishing her meal.

"Yes?" Jayden lifted his head again, cheese dangling from the edge of his mouth.

"Egg omellete, extra cheese, bacon, and extra large. On me," she repeated. "Forget that 'Erica's solo mission' crap. Go take your free meal."

"Nope, I'm full," Jayden burped, standing up and taking a look outside. "Who wants to go play some ultimate frisbee with me?"

Everybody except Trixie left the table, leaving her in an half-erupted state. I kind of felt bad, so I decided to stay behind. As I watched the rest of the gang run away to the front yard of the hotel, flinging the green disk around, I turned towards Trixie.

"I feel bad for you," I said in genuine concern. "You want to know the plan?"

Trixie's shoulders deflated, and she was clearly relieved. "Thank god someone on this team actually cares about me. I thought you all were just going to leave me back in the dust."

I grinned. "I'm not the only one who cares about you. Look under your seat."

It took a few seconds, but Trixie's hand eventually grabbed a slip of paper stuck to the bleached underside of her stool. She flipped it over, ran her eyes over the writing on it, and smiled along with me.

"If Zoe and Dylan were here right now, I'd hug them," she said. "Anyway, I know the plan. How'd they manage that sticky note?"

"Well, as you know, Jawa and Chip are way too bad of friends to actually do that for you," I said. "So us three tapped each other's legs with our shoes to communicate in morse code. Eventually, Zoe wrote the summary, and Dylan edited the note. I was the one who came up with the plan."

"Thanks," Trixie said. "I assure you that I owe all three of you one. If you ever need some recon, just ask me."

I strolled past the sliding doors of the front entrance and headed over to the rest of the gang. Half of them were relaxing under the flowing leaves of a palm tree, and the other half were up and about, hucking around the frisbee.

"Hey, Ben!" Jayden yelled, running over to me. "Want to join my team? We're winning right now."

"No thanks," I said, winking over to Trixie. "Me and three others need to go run an errand."

Jayden frowned. "Right now? You all should be relaxing over there. And what do you mean by 'three others'? I don't see anybody with you right now."

I rolled my eyes. "I'm aware of the fact that you want to bully Trixie, but not acknowledging her? Man, that's cold."

"Trixie? Oh, there you are," Jayden narrowed his eyes and looked towards the girl behind me. "How are you?" he said through gritted teeth.

"I-" Trixie started, but was quickly interrupted by Jayden.

"Don't you talk back to me!" he scolded. "Anyway, Ben, what did you need again?"

I sighed. "Can you call Dylan and Zoe over for me?"

Jayden frowned once more. "An errand, with you, Dylan, Trixie, and Zoe? This sounds suspicious. I'm coming along."