Liz started reading again. "Chapter 3."
"Cam," Liz asked, "are you sure the East Wing couldn't have been contaminated by fumes from the chem lab?"
"Of course she's sure," Bex said with a sigh.
"But are you absolutely, positively, one hundred- percent sure?" Liz asked again.
"Cam," Bex said, turning to me, "how many ventilation shafts are there in the kitchen?"
"Fourteen-unless you're talking about the pantry. Are you talking about the pantry?" I asked, which must have been enough to prove my expertise, because Macey rolled her eyes and sank to the floor beside me. "She's sure."
"Skip" Liz said, and then continued to read.
"We don't know what's in there Macey," she said, even though the fact that we don't know what lay in there was kind of the point, and I could tell by the look on her face that Macey was getting ready to say so.
"Surprises," I finished slowly, "as a rule… are bad."
Macey sank to the floor beside me while I told myself that everything I had said was true. After all, it was a risky operation. We didn't have adequate intel or nearly enough time to prep. I can list a dozen perfectly logical reasons why I stayed on that stone floor, but the ones I didn't tell my friends was that I had promised my mother my days of sneaking around and breaking rules were over. And I kind of hoped my vow would last longer than twenty-four hours.
"Yeah!" my mom said, "Me too."
"Skip" Liz said.
"Because the CoveOps class is gonna do some underwater exercises eventually, and you know Mr. Solomon will have to take his shirt off."
"Who is this that's talking?" Mr. Solomon asked.
"Bex," I said immediately.
"Cam!" she screamed at me.
I hurridly motioned for Liz to continue reading before I was murdered my one of my best friends.
Liz watched the doors slide closed behind us, then Bex turned around and yelled, "But Mr. Mosckowitz might have to go topless sometimes, too."
"I really need to look into how my students think about their teachers." Mom commented to herself.
And then I heard Liz laugh.
"She'll be okay without us, right?" Bex asked.
We heard the clanking of a suit of armor falling to the floor and Liz's distinctive "Oopsy daisy."
As the elevator started to move, Bex said, "Don't answer that."
"Well thanks for your support, guys! Liz said.
"That's the end of what we can read of this chapter. It's really aggravating only being able to read pieces of it." Liz commented.
"Trust me. You're not missing much." I said, glad that at least for a little while, we won't be inside my mind 24/7.