Chapter 39

"We're going to be taking another field trip," Mrs. Jenkins announced the next morning.

"We're going to trip in fields again?" Iggy whispered to me, which made me laugh a little too loudly.

Mrs. Jenkins gave us one of her famous glares, then started handing out permission slips. "I'm sure you're all very excited to know that we will be going on an overnight trip to our state's capitol, Denver."

Most of the class cheered. I crossed my arms over my chest. "What's so great about Denver?"

Mrs. Jenkins started droning on about how great it was to see the Capitol building and other boring stuff while I tuned her out, thinking back to the previous night's conversation.

"The plan is act like nothing ever happened?" Iggy had asked, frowning. "But what about-"

I had shushed him. "Don't tell Jeb. He still thinks that I just went to a sleepover. Let's keep it that way."

"But Max, there's people out to get us!" Nudge had cried. "They want to kill us! And they might even know where we live!"

"I know that," I had replied, sighing. "But do you guys really want to move?" Truth is, I was finally getting used to living here and going to school like a normal kid. We hadn't exactly had normal lives up until this point.

Well, most normal kids didn't have evil people trying to kill them. But I'd figure out what to do about that.

"I'm sure Max doesn't have an actual plan yet," Fang had added with a small smirk.

"Of course I do!" I had yelled at him.

Note to self: Think of an actual plan.

Soon.

~~::~~

"Max!" Jaz shrieked, running over to me at recess. "I'm glad you're okay! I thought you died or something!" She threw her arms around me and squeezed me tightly. "Those Erasers were scary! I can't believe-"

"Shut up!" I hissed, pushing her off of me. "Do you want the whole school to hear?" Luckily, most of Daisy's friends didn't go to our school, since they'd seen my wings at Daisy's sleepover after her lunatic father tried to kill me. Daisy, however….

I glanced around, finally spotting her over by the water fountain, talking to her friends. That was when she suddenly looked over at me coldly.

I shuddered. Great, the girl probably hated me just like her dad did. As she walked over to me, I braced myself for a fight.

Instead of trying to fight me, though, she just stopped when she was a few feet in front of me.

"Daisy," I started before she could say anything. "I'm really sorry about your sleepover. And how I think I might've destroyed some things in your really fancy house. And possibly ruined your sleepover. I mean, I didn't even want to go. Jaz forced me to."

"Hey!" Jaz protested.

Daisy shook her head. "It's okay. I just….wasn't expected you to have….you know." She looked at her feet.

I shifted from foot to foot awkwardly. "Uh. Yeah. Um, sorry about that, I guess?" I considered backing away slowly, in case she decided she wanted to kill me or something. Maybe her creepy dad was hiding in the bushes, ready to jump out and grab me.

Suddenly, Daisy looked up so quickly that I jumped. "No!" she said, grabbing my hands. "I think it's actually really cool!"

I stared at her like she was crazy. "Keep it down, okay? You sound like Jaz."

"Hey!" Jaz yelled at me again.

I glanced anxiously at Daisy. Jeez, I hoped she wouldn't ask to come over to my house like Jaz did every day. For all I knew, she was just trying to get information out of me.

Daisy frowned. "I'm really sorry about my dad and… you know. It's weird, he pays more attention to his research than he does to me."

I bit my lip, not really sure what to say. I was never good in emotional cases, especially not when it had to do with feeling sorry for the daughter of the guy that tried to kill me multiple times. "Oh."

"Hey, Max, aren't you excited for the field trip?" Jaz asked, coming to my rescue and changing the subject. For once I actually felt grateful for Jaz's annoying tendency to interrupt people.

I managed to do my best smile. "Oh, yeah. I can't wait to see the White House!"

"The White House is in Washington DC," Daisy said, giving me a weird look.

I shrugged. "Oh, well. Same difference."

"Yeah," Daisy responded, looking behind her. "I… I think I'll catch up with you guys later. I forgot I have some homework I had to do."

"That's weird, Daisy never forgets to do her homework," Jaz informed me as Daisy walked away.

I frowned. "Maybe she had to go to the bathroom or something."

Jaz shrugged. "Yeah, but wouldn't she just say that instead? I bet she's up to something super secret! We should go find out!"

"Yeah, have fun," I muttered, starting to walk away, but Jaz grabbed my arm. I could have easily broken away from her grip, but something stopped me.

"Please? We can act like spies! Or ninjas! Ninja spies!" Jaz begged.

I rolled my eyes. "Here's a better idea. Let's act like regular fifth-graders."

"Regular is boring!" Jaz told me, sticking her tongue out. "You of all people should know that, Max."

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes at her again. "Whatever. Let's go, James Bond."

"Yes!" she cheered, running in the direction that Daisy had walked off in. "We're gonna be the best spies ever!" This made half of the people in our section of the playground and stare at her strangely.

"Not the quietest spies ever, that's for sure," I muttered as I reluctantly followed her.

~~::~~

"This is weird, I can't find Daisy anywhere! Over!" Jaz whispered.

I rolled my eyes. "Jaz, you don't need to say 'over' every time you say something."

"Okay, Max! Over!"

I resisted the urge to slap her. "Are we done yet? We're missing recess."

"Maybe she's in here!" Jaz yelled, pointing to a random door.

I grimaced, looking at the label on the door. "The janitor's closet? I didn't know Daisy was a janitor."

"Maybe… the janitor is secretly working for the School and he wants to kill you!" she said dramatically.

"With what, a mop?" I asked, groaning. "Jaz, just give it a rest."

She sighed. "Alright. Fine. I was just trying to have some fun. Come on, I need to go fix my hair!" Before I knew it, Jaz was dragging me into the bathroom.

I glanced at her. "Jaz, you don't need to be fixing your hair. You're like, ten."

"I'm eleven, and yes, I do need to fix my hair," Jaz said, and started babbling about, like, hairspray or something. I rolled my eyes again and looked around, bored and waiting for her to finish.

Suddenly, Jaz went silent. "Look!" she whispered, pointing excitedly. I recognized the sparkly pink shoe that belonged to the foot in the farthest bathroom stall – it was Daisy, no doubt about it.

"I bet-" but that was the last thing Jaz said, because I slammed my hand over her mouth. Daisy, after a few minutes of silence from Jaz and me, must have assumed we were gone because she started talking.

"Hi….. Yeah, I know. I talked to Max."

"Is she talking to herself?" Jaz whispered. "Over."

I made the universal gesture for "be quiet," holding my index finger up to my lips and making what I hoped was a threatening face.

"Alright," Daisy was saying. "I'll find out, don't worry….. Okay. Yeah…Bye, Dad." Then I heard the sound of the door to her stall unlocking and Jaz shoved me into the stall closest to us. I almost started yelling at her, but caught myself in time.

"Oh, hi, Jaz," Daisy's voice sounded surprised, and a bit embarrassed. She obviously hadn't wanted to be heard.

"Hi!" Jaz's voice was overly cheery, as usual. "I'm just fixing my hair. Do you think I should wear it like this, or how about this? Or maybe-"

"Was that the bell?" I heard Daisy say. "It's probably time to go to class. I'll see you around." I heard her footsteps receding, and then Jaz yanked the door open – I'd never bothered to lock it.

She frowned at me. "Now what?"

"Well, there's a 95 percent chance that Daisy is evil," I said, looking at her. "What else is new?"