When In Doubt, Spy It Out

part five

chameleon pov

7:13 a.m.

gallagher academy for exceptional young women

roseville, virginia

suite of cameron morgan, rebecca baxter, elizabeth sutton, & macey mchenry

I was in a wonderfully deep sleep when the blaring sound of Lady GaGa woke me up.

"Cameron! Time to wake up!" Bex's voice sang.

"No," the sound was muffled by my pillow, and I buried my head deeper into it, trying to block out the music.

"If you don't get out of bed, I will beat you out of it, Cam," Macey's voice threatened.

I was awake now, and trying with a lot of effort to go back to sleep.

"I'll get up if someone gets me advil!" I yelled, pulling my covers over my head.

"You know advil's key ingredient is actually—"

"Go fish, Grant! Ha ha!" Liz's voice sounded.

I immediately popped up. At the end of my bed, Zach, Grant, Liz, Jonas, and Bex were playing Go Fish.

Yeah, Go Fish.

"What the fuck?" I said, confused. "I'm going to back to sleep, I'm obviously hungover or something!" I exclaimed and flopped back down.

"No, no, no," Macey's voice came closer to me. "If you don't get up, I'll strangle you with a thong," Bex started laughing, "or better yet, I'll let Grant do it since you strangled him last night," Macey finished and I looked up to see her cocking an eyebrow.

"What? I didn't strang—" I started and then remembered. "Holy. Shit." My mouth formed an 'O'.

Macey grabbed my hand and literally dragged me to the bathroom and almost threw me in the shower stall herself.

"Ow! Thanks Macey!" I yelled angrily as she slammed the door behind her.

"IF I DON'T HEAT THE SHOWER RUNNING IN TWO SECONDS I WILL COME IN THERE AND WASH YOUR HAIR MYSELF!" She yelled from the other side of the door.

"Macey," Jonas' voice sounded as I leaned down to turn on the shower, "Are you a lesbian?"

The echo of a slap reached the bathroom and I knew Jonas got his answer.

After a quick shower, I threw on the uniform Macey had left me and brushed my teeth.

I exited the bathroom brushing my hair. And then Macey screeched and Liz tripped.

"YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO USE A COMB, CAMERON! NOT A BRUSH!"

Her scream scared me and I yanked the brush the wrong way. "Macey! SHUT UP!" I yelled, annoyed, returning to the bathroom, looking the huge knot in the back of my hair.

"Well we're going to go down to breakfast," Bex said, cautiously exiting the room, Jonas, and Liz on her heels.

"As you said, Cam," Grant winked at me, "Hunger runs in the family. You're on your own with McHenry! That's for strangling me!" He laughed and before Zach could follow him out Macey put out her hand to stop him.

"Ladies first." She said sarcastically.

"OH NO YOU DON'T!" I pointed to Macey with my free hand, "You're getting this knot out of my hair since your screech put it there."

She smirked. "Told you to use a comb." And she left cackling.

I sighed. "Greeeeaaaaaat."

"Really Gallagher Girl? You can take out a guy two times your size but you're defeated by a tiny knot?"

"It's not a tiny knot!" I yelled defensively.

Zach's hand brushed against mine as he reached into my hair to help me.

"Thanks," I mumbled.

Staring at the mirror I could see the slight look of concentration on his face as he tried to untangle my hair from the brush.

"How're you feeling?" He asked after a few moments of silence.

"Fine," I answered curtly, thinking back to last night. "Listen Zach, about last night," I started.

"Are you going to give me the clichéd, 'I wasn't myself and I didn't know what I was doing'?" He grinned at me through the mirror.

"Maybe," I mumbled, crossing my arms. Which seemed to be an inherited trait Grant and I had from Solomon.

"Listen," his eyes went back to my hair, "I know you were all loopy and Macey kind of took advantage of you in that state," I blushed thinking about how I said I loved Zach, "and you flipped out when you heard about Bex and Grant um—" he paused.

"Consummating their relationship?" I offered.

"Yeah, that," he paused for a second, "but the uh—" he took the brush from my hair and started brushing through the tangles, leaving it straight (I almost fainted right there from our proximity). "Umm..."

Wow, for once Zach was speechless.

He couldn't put into words that I had tried to seduce him while all hopped up on valium.

But the sweet part was when he told me no, and that he liked me innocent, before putting me to bed.

He put the brush down on the counter. "What I'm trying to say is—"

"Yeah, I get it," I turned around, "Its kind of awkward, but yeah, in my loopy state of mind I tried to seduce you."

"Um, yeah." He was very clearly uncomfortable.

"So thanks."

"Wait, what?" He said, clearly confused.

"For stopping me." Without another word I walked out of the bathroom, leaving Zach standing there, stunned. "Well are you coming to breakfast or not?" I asked, opening the door.

"Uh... yeah," He said idiotically before following me down to the Grand Hall in silence.

/\PAGE BREAK/\

I sat down at the table and glared at Macey. "I hate you." She smiled at me and took a bite of her pancakes.

I turned to Bex. "And Bex," I took a deep breath, "I'm really super duper sorry about freaking out about—that thing," I said, unsure of who was listening. "It was just... very surprising and I was a little... loopy." She smiled at me.

"Its okay, Cam."

Liz looked up from her Organic Chemistry notecards frazzled, "There's going to be a Pop Quiz in C & A today!"

"Lizzie," I said, taking a bite of the pancakes Macey had gotten me, "It's not a Pop Quiz if you already know about it. Plus, you know everything, you won't fail."

Liz widened her eyes. "But last time there was a Pop Quiz I got an answer wrong!"

"Come on Liz, that's not bad at all." Bex rolled her eyes.

"BUT JONAS GOT THEM ALL RIGHT!" She practically screeched. Macey and I leaned back in surprise.

"Chill, Liz, I'm sure that one question won't ruin your already impossibly high GPA." Bex said, rolling her eyes again.

"Yes it does! By 0.00012 points!" She said fiercely.

"Then why aren't you studying?" Bex leaned in toward Liz in all seriousness.

Liz shrieked again and frantically flipped through her cards looking for the ones she made on C & A, even though she had a photographic memory.

"You're so mean, Bex." I said, shaking my head and smiling.

"Liz, Liz, LIZ!" Macey was trying to reason with her.

The Grand Hall suddenly became quiet as Solomon walked in. I swear every eye in the room was darting between Solomon, Mom, Grant, and I.

Jeez, don't these people have anything better to gossip about?

"It'll pass Cam, the excitement." Macey said, and I remembered when the Blackthorne Boys had first arrived at Gallagher that Macey had said something similar.

"Hopefully..." I whispered back.