Chapter 4

Max

When everyone finally finished putting their plates in the dishwasher and I was finally alone, Gazzy cornered me.

"What were you doing? Telling Nudge that you had her? You can't have her because I do and Fang, Iggy, Ella, Angel and Total all know that! So yeah, what the heck are you doing?" Gazzy hissed at me in all one breath it seemed.

I checked behind my shoulder and then whispered "Okay if I tell you, you have to keep this secret. Okay?"

He nodded looking slightly wide-eyed then I carried on. "Okay basically I didn't want to ruin it this early on so I decided to bluff to Nudge, Okay? I really have Fang and Fang has Angel and Angel has you and you have Nudge and Nudge has Ella and Ella has me" I completely made it up on the spot but he seemed to believe it and he asked with slightly an awed voice "How did you work it out so fast?"

"well Jeb trained to me to do problem solving and I now can notice the way people shift their weight around other people and the way their eyes linger on that person, all this body language indicates which person they have for secret santa. Cool huh?" Another lie. I was getting good at this.

I made myself look guilty and I hesitantly glanced over my shoulder again "Can you keep this a secret?"

He nodded again and walked off silently, smiling at me. Aww, bless him. He totally bought it, just like Nudge, it was too easy. Of course I made it completely up and I lied about having Fang. It really was just too easy.

Phase one is complete. Suddenly I whipped round as I heard the bathroom door open just next to me. Angel came out looking at me slyly.

Before I could ask her what was up she said "You liar! First you lie to Nudge and now you lie to Gazzy. Why do it?"

I took a deep breath and then quietly explained "well, okay, yeah I admitt I lied – both times – I just wanted to confuse things a bit because Gazzy ruined it. And it was so eay... anyway I have a question for you; how did you know that I lied without your mind-reading powers?" I put my hands on my hips and smiled smugly down at her.

She lifted her eyebrow and said "you really think your lying skills are that good?!" my jaw dropped and she quickly added "how about we work together to confuse the others, but we'll have to tell each other who we have. Okay?"

I nodded and said quickly "you first"

When we were up in my room, I shut the door and Angel sat down.

"Okay" she begun " please don't be mad at me... I read your mind" her voice raised and sped up at my outraged face "..no wait..please....you only said that I couldn't read everyone's minds, so I didn't, I only read yours and ella's. Okay? And then I figured it out from there."

I sighed and dismissed her apologetic face "so who do you have? And no tricking, we're working together here, okay? Swear you won't trick me?"

Angel nodded. "cross my heart and hope to die. I have Ella and that's the truth. This is what I've worked out:

Okay, so I have Ella, Ella has Iggy, Iggy has Gazzy, Gazy has – duh –Nudge, Nudge has Fang, Fang has you and you have me. simple. I know.. I am Brilliant!" I smiled at her and slapped high fives.

"so who's next on the list to trick?" I asked.

"Nudge"

"Bring it on" I said complete with a little side-ways head bob, making Angel give me a look that meant she questioned my sanity.

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