Thank you for the amazing support. You guys are the best!!

Chip's house was only about 20 minutes away but with LA traffic it ended up being almost an hour. We made casual conversation about the weather or whatever but I could tell we both wanted to hear about each other and what's been going on but we weren't saying it.

Finally I decided to make the first move, something I don't, but should do more often.

"So Erica, tell me the truth about what happened after you left spy school. Not the Wikipedia version, the real version."

She looked at me briefly, then returned her eyes to the road. I could tell she knew I was going to ask, but she seemed hesitant to tell me. Erica did it anyway though.

"Well after I decided to leave spy school and the CIA for good, people freaked out. You did, Zoe did, Mike did, the principal did and even the director of the CIA freaked out. He had me on some track to become a field agent within a year. Hell, the director got the president of the United States to beg me to stay. But I still didn't stay. I wanted to-" I quickly cut Erica off.

"You said no to the PRESIDENT of the UNITED STATES?! Um… what?!" I was completely shocked. If the president even came up to me again, I'd freak out. Last time I was with him was stressed to the max. Also some guy was trying to kill him and I was supposed to figure it out… huh maybe that's why I was stressed. Oh how I've missed the spy life.

She shot me a slightly annoyed glance for cutting her off as she continued, "I did. Will you let me finish now? So anyway I decided to go to the high school near our house in New York. My dad was going to move in with me for the time being as my mom was busy with the MI6 at the time. My dad wasn't worried though if he had to go on a mission. He knew I was completely capable by myself. Anyway, so we moved to New York. I was a sophomore by public school standards so I started there. Public school, by the way, is awful. I can see why you and Mike were always complaining about it. The teachers suck, the campus sucks and the food, although better than Spy School, is disgusting. And school was so easy! All my classes were a piece of cake. I got moved up to the point where I was doing senior level math and acing it. You could have done it with your eyes closed, I swear. It was so easy, therefore I never worked. I didn't study or lift a finger that semester. That made me popular because I was 'that kid' that never studied yet got all A's. I was also pretty to many people so my popularity rose to being one of the most popular people at school. Kids always asked me about my time before they met me and I've always kept it very vague.

So in the third semester, I was just walking in Central Park and this guy comes running at me. His name was Ross and said he was a modeling agent for a big company. I did the shoot, got paid a lot and soon my photoshoots and their companies got super popular because everyone loved it and whatever. And now I'm here."

I nodded and soaked all the information in. After a second of processing her story, it occurred to me that it was basically the same thing on the internet. That's fine but I had a feeling she was hiding something. What's on the internet is rarely the truth.

So I tried to ask her some follow up questions about her story, like what kind of photoshoots she did or if she had dated someone during that time.

Some questions she answered thoughtfully and truthfully but some were very weird. I asked her a question and she gave me a well-thought out answer but when the spiel was over, I realized, without noticing before, she never answered the question. Erica did this on online interviews as well. She would only answer the questions she wanted to and if she didn't like them, she'd redirect the answer so well that the interviewers didn't know she was doing it until the question was over and their question wasn't answered.

I understand why she would want to do that with way-too-noisy interviewers but I had no idea why she was doing it to me, unless she was hiding something. She knew we were friends so why was she hiding anything and what was it?

Erica interrupted my thoughts with her question about me. "How's your life been back in Washington DC?"

I debated how much I wanted to tell her. I mean how lame would that be if I told her the truth: High school sucked, I went to Columbia and was anti-social the entire time, I lost my apartment, I have a boring 5-9 job, I am constantly lonely, I don't have many friends, I've never had a girlfriend after college, and I miss espionage far too much. When I was a spy, I felt like I really belonged in the world.

So I told her the less depressing version of my story, "Well after spy school Mike and I went to our old town and went to that local high school. High school was academically easy for me but it was kinda socially difficult. After Mike became the star baseball player, he kinda ditched me and I didn't really have or know anyone else. But I graduated with a 4.5 GPA and I went to Columbia, which got me an internship then job at this private equity firm. It pays fairly well and the people are nice. I used to live in this apartment in DC but I just got kicked out. Now, I guess I'm homeless. But I have investments so I should be okay for a while."

"Wow, Ben, I'm sorry to hear you had to go through all of that. I wish I would have called or something. But I'm glad we're both here now to catch up and hopefully solve this Joshua thing." I really appreciated Erica's words. I was glad I am here now too.

After that, the drive remained quiet, save for the soft music from the radio in the background. Finally, Erica turned off the freeway traffic onto an on ramp. It was very hot compared to Washington DC.

"Can you turn on the A/C?" I asked her.

"Sure," she said as she pushed the button. It was still taking a long time for the car to cool down so I started to roll down my window.

Almost immediately, it was rolling right back up. Confused, I rolled it back down again but I still went right back up.

"Stop," Erica said, glancing at me. I noticed that she had her hand on all of the window controls on the drivers side. Erica was the one who kept rolling it back up. She then clicked on the child lock. I was more than mildly annoyed.

"What was that for?" I said, very passive aggressively.

"You don't need the window down," was all she said.

"It's hot." I snapped.

"Yeah, I just turned the A/C on. It should cool the car down very soon. And I don't want the air to get out." Erica continued driving. I was annoyed but her logic made some sense.

She turned on a street and I saw paparazzi lining the street, looking for anyone. We were in another rich part of Northern Hollywood and those people were ready for some celebrity, just like Erica.

Erica muttered a curse under her breath and made a dramatic u-turn.

"See why you can't roll your window down?" She said, in a light maner.

Realization dawned on me, "Wait you didn't want me to roll the window down so that the paparazzi didn't see you?"

She gave me a slightly embarrassed look, "Yeah but I mainly didn't want them to see you, especially us together."

I got really annoyed, "And that would be so bad?!"

"Yes!" She exclaimed, "It would be awful. The press would have a field day! People would stalk you and I'd give Scott an even bigger headache. No never. It would be awful for anyone to see us together. We need to be careful these next few days."

"Or it would ruin your image?" I accused.

"No- what?" She sighed, "God, no, Ben, I'm not saying that. I'm trying to think about you. And the paparazzi will spin some crazy story that's so false, your head would spin."

"No, I get it," I said, very salty. "I understand very clearly."

Erica opened her mouth like she was going to say something, but closed it again. We drove in silence until we reached a very rich street with huge gates and giant mansions. Unlike Erica's private, secluded street with tall shrubs, these mansions were in full view of the street, clearly showing off the massive homes. Erica turned off into a huge, modern mansion with a long driveway and sports cars displayed in front of the house.

We reached the gate where there was a security guard waiting.

"Did you tell him we were coming?" I asked as Erica rolled the window down to talk with the guard.

"I told him I was coming, but I figured you could be a surprise." She rolled the window down and had a quick conversation with the guard who finally let us in.

After driving up the long driveway and parking in front, we rang the doorbell. A handsome man about twenty four years old answered. Chip.

He was super handsome. I can see why he has dozens of Instagram fan accounts, Wiki pages, and over 20 million Instagram followers. He is known as the heartthrob of Hollywood; young, cute, ripped, kind and very good looking. He's always in some type of rom-com and he's the guy. Chip is really blowing up in the box office right now.

His eyes went wide and his mouth opened in shock of seeing me.

"Holy crap," he said, "Is that Ben Ripley?"

I gave a weak laugh, "Yeah."

"Oh my god," he said, giving me a bro hug, "What's up? I haven't seen you in, what is it, ten years?"

"I think so," I responded. Erica was just standing there.

"And Miss. Handler, good to see you as always." Chip grinned at Erica but she gave him a cold look back. That was familiar.

"There are no cameras around, Chip. I don't have to pretend I like you."

Chip smirked, unaffected, "She still has some grudge from Spy School. She never liked me, even now." He spoke directly to me. I chuckled.

"Well, alright then. Come on in. I knew something was off when I heard Erica was coming, but wow this is a shock. What's the occasion?"

Chip led us through his house. We entered a little foyer and to the left was a giant, modern kitchen. Past that was a gas fireplace that lead to the living room. It was very beautiful. Unlike Erica's house, it seemed empty, save for us, for the time being.

We all sat down on the couch.
"Want anything to eat or drink?" He asked. We both politely declined. It seemed like Chip did change and for the better. He seems kinder, more caring and more mature than the last time I saw him.

"So what are you doing in this neck of the woods? Miss us?" Chip jokes. I nodded. I actually did miss him and everyone else and that was the main reason I came down here.

"Yeah, I missed everyone and I wanted to reconnect with people I haven't seen in a while. Plus, I have information about something that will bring up an old enemy from spy school." I told him.

Chip's eyes lit up and he whistled, "Of course you did, Ben. Those bad guys keep coming. So what is it?"

I explained what I had found out and Erica imputed her own information too when necessary. Finally, we explained it all to him and I asked, "So can you join us? We're looking to get the old spy school gang back together for this."

"Really? No way." Chip didn't seem very excited but was quite interested.

"Yeah, so are you in?" I didn't know what I was expecting. I was a long shot, maybe, but it would be great if he could. It wouldn't hurt to ask. I wished the entire group would get back together.

"Uh…" he looked at us awkwardly. I could tell Erica already knew what the answer was but I was holding onto hope that he could.

"Well… I can't. I'm so sorry, I wish I could. But we started shooting a new movie this week and I can't miss it. It's a big opportunity to work with an amazing director and my schedule just won't permit it. Erica, I'm surprised you had time to." Chip looked really sorry, but that could just be acting. I was disappointed. I knew it was a long shot, but it still hurt to be rejected.

"I made time," she said cooly.

"I'm glad you could," he said, "Oh Erica, by the way, the production company wanted you to be my co-star on this movie but I tried literally everything I could to get you off the movie. I knew you'd say no anyway and that would be super awkward for both of us. So I convinced them not to ask you."

Erica gave him a curt nod, "Thank you." I could clearly see the relief in her eyes.

"Guys, I'm so sorry. I hope you are the best on the thing with Joshua and potentially SPYDER. Let me know if you need anything. And I'm so sorry, I gotta kick you out because I have a meeting here in ten minutes." Very quickly, he led us to the door.

"Uh," My brain wasn't working properly as this was all happening so fast, "It was good to see you Chip."

He gave me another bro hug, "Good to see you too, man. Let's catch up after you're done with this and we actually have time. I've missed you. Bye Erica!" He called.

"Bye." She said simply as she got back into her car. I climbed into the passenger seat.

"That was a bust," Erica said as she drove down his long driveway.

"I guess so," I said, sort of sadly. I kinda wish Chip could have come. I missed him.

"Off to find Jawa."