UNDERCOVER: Mission Failed?

Chapter 5

I told my teammates that I would meet up with them at lunch so that we could all discuss the mission. However, I came across a distraction.

"Sunshine!" I heard that very familiar nickname call out to me.

I turned around to see Chris jogging up to me. I groaned, turned around, and continued on my path towards the cafeteria.

"Sunshine, why were you avoiding me this morning?" Chris asked me as soon as he reached me. I tried to think of an excuse to get him to leave me alone, but I couldn't.

"I wasn't." I said.

"Yeah you were. You just walked away from me." Chris said with a hint of sadness in his voice.

"Well, I have to go." I said and tried to walk away. Chris didn't let me get away with that though because he grabbed my wrist and turned me around to face him.

"You're avoiding me right now. Did I do something wrong?" He asked, confused. 

I actually felt bad for him at that moment, but I had to act tough. If he's part of the gang and I'm hanging out with him, that could put the mission in a bad position. 

I'm sure he's part of the gang though. There's been so many signs that are basically screaming ‘Chris is suspicious’. What else could he be if he's not in a gang?

"You didn't do anything wrong, but I have to go." I said as I tried to walk away, but Chris had to be stubborn and keep me back.

"Sunshine, just tell me why you're acting this way." He said.

"I'm going." I said firmly as I turned around and walked to the cafeteria. 

This time, I was able to reach the cafeteria without any distractions.

"So we all agree on Chris being the member of the gang that goes to school, right?" Jack asked all of us to confirm it.

"Right." Everyone chorused while I nodded.

"Skylar. What's wrong?" Jack asked me.

"Nothing." I said while shaking my head quickly. I heard him sigh.

"Anyway, what do you guys want to do now? What's the plan?" Jack asked. Everyone looked at me.

"What?" I asked them.

"You're the leader." Julia stated.

"So?" I asked.

"It's your call. You decide what the plan is." Ashley said. I thought about it for a while.

"Three of us should follow Chris one day to wherever he lives." I said.

"Who?" Caleb asks.

"Jack, Julia, and I will go. Jack is good at spying, I'm the leader, and I want to see how Julia does on a spying task." I said. They all nodded.

***

"ARE YOU GUYS READY?" I screamed to Jack and Julia who were still upstairs getting ready.

My teammates and I snuck out of school and went back to the house right after lunch so that we could prepare for our spying task. They were taking so long to get ready though. We had to get to school before the last bell rings so that we don't miss seeing Chris walk out of the school.

Julia and Jack finally came downstairs while wearing normal clothes. 

"Finally. You guys take forever." I said.

"Well, that was a little over exaggerated." Jack said while slinging an arm over my shoulder.

"You smell like apples. Are you using my shampoo?" I asked with a cheeky grin.

"I ran out of shampoo." He said with red cheeks. I laughed.

"Well, let's get going." I said.

"Okay." Julia said.

I walked into the kitchen to see Caleb and Ashley on their phones.

"Wow. Antisocial much?" I asked sarcastically. Both their heads snapped up.

"Going now?" Caleb asked me, ignoring my question.

"Yep. I'll call you guys if we need anything." I said.

"Be careful." Ashley said.

"When am I not?" I asked with a cheeky smile.

"The past couple of days." Caleb said quietly.

"I heard that!" I said.

"You better go." Caleb said, ignoring what I said again. 

"Fine, fine. Bye." I said.

When Jack, Julia, and I arrived at the school, we were in luck because Chris just walked out of the school. I brought my index finger to my lips, indicating Jack and Julia to be quiet.

Chris started walking away from the school, so we followed him quietly. Jack and I have gone on many spying tasks, so we were pretty comfortable with doing it. I was just worried for Julia. I've never done something like this with her. Hopefully she's good at spying because we would be in huge trouble if Chris caught us. 

It started raining, right after we began to follow Chris. I was pretty annoyed that I didn't wear my hoodie so that I could protect my head from the rain in case I got a cold. It was definitely a little harder to spy on Chris with the rain because we had to make sure we didn't make noises by stepping into any puddle of water or mud.

I guess the universe favored us at that moment because we successfully followed Chris until he went inside another building. Unfortunately, it wasn't his house. At least I didn't think it was since we followed him to a boxing gym. When he entered the gym, I talked to my teammates right away.

"What is he doing there?" I asked them. They both shrugged.

"Maybe he's training." Julia said.

"Yeah. After all, he's most likely that gang member that attends our school. A gang member needs to train." Jack said.

"That's true, but why would a gang member train where other people can watch? Wouldn't they want to train privately?" I asked.

"You do have a point." Julia said.

"Let's go see what's going on in there." Jack suggested. 

"Alright." Julia and I both said.

We found a window on the side, so we snuck up to it and peeked inside. Chris was inside a boxing ring and he was sparring with somebody else.

"There's nothing unusual going on." Jack stated.

"Yeah, but this is another piece of evidence that proves Chris to be the gang member." I said.

The next day, I had english literature first. Luckily, all my teammates were in my class. I already told them about how the spying task went and they didn't have much to say about it.

This morning, Chris tried to talk to me, but I tried to avoid him again. Honestly, I really do feel bad because he looked so confused and innocent as to why I was treating him that way. It was all probably just an act because he doesn't want me to find out about him being in a gang.

Speaking of Chris, he's also in this class. He always looks so deep in thought during class. Does he even pay attention to the lesson?

"Good morning, class!" Mrs.Elbert, my english literature teacher said, as soon as she stepped into the classroom.

"Good morning." The class chorused back to her groggily since they were all tired in the morning.

"Today we're going to be doing some annotating." The teacher said while the whole class groaned.

"Quit your complaining because I'm letting you guys do it with a  partner." She said which made the students much happier.

"However, I will be choosing the partners." This made the whole class groan again.

I waited patiently until I heard her call my name.

"Skylar Jones and Xavier Dane." 

A kid in front of me with dark brown hair turned around and sent me a small smile.

"Xavier." He said introducing himself.

"Skylar." I said copying the way he introduced himself.

After the teacher announced who would be partnered up with who, she let us all get together and start working.

"So Sklyar. Tell me about yourself." Xavier said with a wink.

"Somebody's quite the flirt." I said playfully.

"Only on days I want to. Today just seems to be that day." I laughed.

"Aren't we supposed to be doing the project?" I asked him.

"The project's boring. We can do it at my house if you want." He suggested. I gave him a look.

"Wait! No! I didn't mean to make it sound so weird. I promise I won't try anything." He said, looking serious.

"Alright. I'll come." I said after giving it a thought. He smiled.

"Here's my number." He said after writing it down on a piece of paper he ripped out of his notebook.

"Thanks." I said.

During my second class, I started coughing and sneezing a lot. I even felt my nose begin to feel runny, so I asked the teacher if I could use the bathroom. 

I blew my nose while I was in the bathroom and splashed water on my face. I wasn't feeling too well that day. Maybe it was because of staying outside in the rain too long yesterday.

The bathroom door suddenly opened and in walked Lexi. I mentally rolled my eyes and held in a scoff at her slutty outfit of the day.

"I couldn't help, but notice how sick and tired you look today." She said eyeing me up and down.

"I'm touched that you can't help, but notice me." I said sarcastically. She rolled her eyes.

"That's not what I meant, you loser." She said.

"I know. I'm not an idiot." I retorted while walking out of the bathroom.

Right when I walked out, the bell rang which meant lunch began. I didn't bother getting my books from the classroom, so I walked straight to the cafeteria.

"There you are, sunshine." I looked to my right to see Chris walking by my side.

"Hi Chris." I said. I would've just ignored him and his little nickname for me if I was feeling okay, but trying to ignore somebody is sometimes a lot of work. 

"Somebody's feeling a little nicer today, but you don't look too good." He said.

"It's pretty obvious that I'm feeling under the weather today." I said annoyed.

"It's actually sometimes hard to tell with you wearing leather all the time." He said, shrugging.

"I'm not wearing that much leather today." I stated while looking at my outfit. The only leather piece of clothing I had on that day was my leather jacket.

"Anyway, I have a question to ask you." Chris said.

"What is it?" I asked.

"What were you and Dane talking about during english literature this morning?" Chris asked.

Dane? Where have I heard that before? Dane. Oh yeah! That's Xavier's last name. Why is Chris asking about Xavier though.

"You mean Xavier?" I asked him, just to confirm that I was thinking about the same person he was.

"Yeah, him. What were you guys talking about?" He asked.

"We were just asking questions to each other to get to know each other." I said.

"Oh." Chris said, looking a little relieved.

"He also invited me over to his house after school today so that we can work on the project." I said. Chris looked at me.

"Really!?" He asked, shocked.

"Yeah. Why do you sound so surprised?" I asked.

"Nothing." He said trailing off.

"Why were you wondering?" I asked him curiously. He didn't answer, so I poked his side.

"Hey! What was that for?" He asked while using his hand to cover his side so that I wouldn't poke him there. I guess he's really ticklish.

"You didn't answer my question. Answer it now." I said while giving him my best puppy dog face.

"You really want to know why?" Chris asked. I nodded fast.

"Well, it's a secret." He said and walked away happily.

I scoffed.

The nerve of that boy.