AN: Hello, friends. It's been too long. I feel that this chapter will be very interesting. Shall we begin? Remember, they're at the stake-out and Fang and Max just walked through the janitor's entrance.

...

"So… Where to?" Fang asked once we were both in the poorly lit hallway filled with cleaning supplies.

"Umm… Give me a second," I breathed as I started pacing.

How are we going to play this?

I kept pacing, kept thinking, my mind still relatively blank.

I didn't see how we were going to get information without being recognized.

Unless.

Unless…. we were unrecognizable.

"I have an idea," I said, rather loudly.

Fang was watching me patiently, waiting for me to go on.

"I know this didn't work before, but this is different. These are normal people, not Erasers."

Fang raised an eyebrow. "What are you talking about?"

"We could wear disguises," I explained.

Fang let out a humorless laugh. "Where are we going to get disguises?"

I nodded towards the coat rack that was nailed into the wall behind him. He turned and walked towards it.

He snatched the janitor jumpsuit and examined it. "This could maybe work," he says finally.

I grin.

"But there's only one," he adds.

Oh. Oops.

I started pacing again.

"Look, Max, how about I go undercover and get information and you just go help Nudge or Iggy or something."

"Ha!" I snorted. "Yeah right. I'm helping whether you like it or not. The question is… How?"

Fang stepped into my path, forcing me to stop or to go around him.

Obviously, I chose to go around him. It would've worked, too, if he hadn't grabbed my shoulder and wheeled me around to face him.

"Max," he said sternly, "Calm down. I'll get as much information as I can while you just help someone else." He looked me dead in the eye and it was hard not to refuse him.

After ten agonizing seconds where I could literally feel myself melting under his gaze, I gave in. I know, I know, I'm a wuss. I need to man up. But hey, if you looked into those eyes, you'd be putty in his hands, too. And no, that isn't an open invitation to stare Fang down. Back off.

"Fine," I sighed, looking down at my feet. "I'll go find Nudge."

Fang dropped his hand awkwardly from where it rested on my shoulder. "Cool. I promise I'll find out as much as I can."

"Make sure no one recognizes you!" I remind him as I walk towards the door.

"I will."

"The lunchroom is a good place to pick up gossip!"

"I know."

He literally starts having to push me out the door, but I'm strong, so I maintained to keep myself in the doorway.

"Are you sure no one will recognize you?"

"I'm sure," he grunted as he tried to pry my fingers off the frame.

"Maybe a fake mustache or something would help. Don't most janitors have mustaches?"

"Max. Just. GO!" he said and with one grumble, he managed to push me back far enough to shut the door in my face.

"Okay," I call. "Be careful!"

I stand there, staring at the door, wishing I could be in on the action. Did I mention how much I hate having to sit around doing nothing?

I trudged back up the hill and started making my way around the school to the tree near the cafeteria. I had to be very careful, making sure that I don't walk too close to any windows. You never know when Mr. Pruitt decides to glare out the window in search of some poor child to abuse.

As I neared the tree, I noticed how very well Nudge was hiding. I couldn't see one stinkin' trace of that girl!

"Knock knock," I called up into the thick tree's branches.

"Max?" Nudge's voice carried down to me, though I still had no idea where she was.

"Yeah, hey, change of plans. I'm hanging with you today. Is that cool?"

"Of course it's cool! Come on up!"

Suddenly, Nudge's head peeps around a particularly large branch. She was laying on top of it and peering out towards the cafeteria windows.

I started grabbing on to the sturdy branches and hauling myself up the tree, looking for a branch that could support my weight and also hide me from a passerby's eye.

Finally, I found a good enough limb and tentatively crawled out on it.

"So what changed your plans?" Nudge asked once I was settled.

I shrugged. "There was only one janitor's outfit."

She looked confused, and I couldn't help but laugh at her expression.

"Fang and I were going to dress up as janitors so that we could go around the school unnoticed," I explained, "but there was only one outfit."

"Oh," was Nudge's only response.

A few seconds tick by, then Nudge bursts out into laughter. She has to wrap her arms around her branch so she doesn't fall out of the tree.

"What? What's so funny?"

Nudge wipes tears away from her eyes. "Fang," she giggles, "in a janitor's outfit."

I frowned, trying to picture the strange sight in my head. I see Fang's head first, capped in a blue hat. That alone is enough to set one's laughter off. But then if you move down to his body—his fit, muscular, relatively skinny body—clothed in a baggy blue jumpsuit usually meant for men on the larger side, covered in stains from the sloppy job that is required, with that small patch where the janitor's name is usually sewn in. Probably something generic like "Carl" or "Joe".

I, too, am shaking with laughter.

"I told him to wear a mustache so that no one will recognize him," I told Nudge.

We pause, then after adding this to the already hilarious picture in our head, break out into an even fuller laughter.

"If he's not wearing black, no one will recognize him," Nudge muses after the laughter died down.

"That's probably true," I admit.

That's about the most exciting thing that happened all day. We stayed up in the tree, waiting for lunch hour, and when it came, there was nothing to see. Just a typical day at school. I hoped that the others had better luck.

"Well," I sighed as the last of the buses drove away, "I guess we should head back then."

We shimmied down the tree and took a second to stretch our stiff muscles.

Once we were relatively able to move, we walked back to the dumpsters.

We were apparently the last ones to arrive.

"So, who thinks they've got anything good?" I said once we were all facing each other in a sort of circle.

"Me! Me!" Angel trills, jumping up and down with her hand in the air.

"Alright, Ange, take it away," I said with a smile.

"Okay. Well first off, do you remember Mr. Lazzara, the librarian?"

I nodded, remembering him. He was my favorite teacher, although technically he never taught any lessons or anything. I remembered that he was in the teacher's lounge the day that I ran in there for safety and ended up being attacked by a few "teachers" who turned out to be Erasers. Mr. Lazzara was one of the few who actually tried to help me fight them off.

"Well," Angel continued, "He went to the School Board and got Mr. Pruitt fired immediately."

I blinked. I was definitely not expecting that.

"Wow," Iggy mumbled. "That's good news for sure. He never liked me…"

I rolled my eyes. "Maybe that's because you were always trying to blow up the school."

Iggy smirked.

Angel sighed impatiently, reminding me very much that she is a five year old girl who very much needs attention. It's hard to tell that she's so young sometimes.

"I'm sorry," I said, shooting a glance at Iggy and forgetting that he couldn't see it. "Continue."

So she did. She told us that the Eraser teachers left as soon as we did. No more Erasers in the school as far as we can tell. Angel told us that most of the teachers believed that messed up story that Sam had told Fang and me.

I nodded when she was through. "Good. That gives us a better chance of getting back into school. Good job, Angel."

She smiled sweetly at me and my heart squeezed.

"Anyone else?"

Fang met my eyes. "I didn't pick up anything suspicious while being a janitor." Nudge and I couldn't help it. We both let out a few snickers before we composed our faces again.

"That's it?" I asked, ignoring the suspicious look Fang was shooting at Nudge and me.

"Nothing besides your average, teenage gossip."

"Same here," Iggy added.

"All I did was watch people run laps in the gym. Nothing weird about that."

"Okay," I said. "We still need to somehow… I don't know, get information or something. From students."

Iggy's head jerks up. "I know!"

"What?"

"Let's go to tonight's football game!"

I pause, completely taken aback. "Football game?" I ask incredulously. "Seriously?"

Iggy nodded furiously. "Yeah, yeah, it's perfect! There'll be so many people there, we'll be sure to fit in. We can talk up some random folks and enjoy ourselves at the same time!"

Everyone agrees that this is brilliant.

Well then. Looks like the flockers are going to be showing some school spirit.

…

Ok, I know I haven't updated in like… FOREVER, but I hope this chapter makes up for it. I wrote it a couple different other ways, but I just couldn't seem to make up my mind on which I thought was best. Anyways, I finished writing this very late at night, and when I looked at the clock, it was 11:11! You know what that means! I made a wish! You know what it was? I wished for lots and lots of reviews. So will you help my wish come true? Pwease?