Right, now for the talking! Thanks for reviewing, The J.A.M a.k.a Numbuh i and Beth (like I said, he's supposed to be more mature, which is why he can be trusted with secrets more).

I talked to Lila about how I should talk to Curly. "Should I be OK alone with him?" I asked. "It's no secret that his manic tendencies switch on and off sporadically. You never know when he's going to snap."

Lila nodded seriously. "I know he's ever so unpredictable, but I think you're safe. You underestimate the control he has over himself."

"Can you blame me?" I asked. "I mean, does this sound familiar: 'AHAHAHAHA! FREE THE ANIMALS!' or how about this; 'I'm not opening this door! I'm not coming out! I'm mad as heck, and I'm not going to take it anymore!'"

"I know, I know," Lila said, "But usually something has to set him off. You know, like not being picked as ball monitor on his week, or Rhonda putting him on the geek list."

"Or Eugene ruining his favourite pencil." I added, explaining when Lila looked at me questioningly "It was before you joined the school. Curly pulled the fire alarm and framed Eugene."

"Anyway, Nicole," Lila said, "I'm certain you'll have no problems alone. Even you say that Curly seems to like you. As long as you're ever so natural with him, you can get the answers you want."

So I took Lila's advice. When I'd questioned Sid, I'd been harsh and brutal in my questioning – angry, too. With Curly, I knew I needed to take a more careful approach. Sid broke down in the face of anything that could possibly scare him (unless he was trying to be a vampire slayer...), but Curly was barely scared of anything. So I just had to be nice.

I asked Curly on the Tuesday of the next week if we could meet on the steps of school after the bell rang. "I guess I'm free. And I'll be looking forward to it." he said, giving me one of his manic grins. If I had been able to see his eyes, I thought he'd be winking.

My first question was "So, do you know anything about this rumour that was going around, that I was once a spy?"

Shamelessly, Curly answered my question. "Well, you say that you got it from the mysterious Fuzzy Slippers, but that's not really true, is it? I've known there's something more to you than you let on, even before it turned out you could quote people. There was only one explanation – you began as a spy, then joined and became a regular kid, like everyone else."

I rolled my eyes. "Well, you got it all wrong. I was never spying. It's like I said – I got everything from Fuzzy Slippers."

Curly tilted his head to the side, as if asking me something, and said "No, you didn't. I can always tell when someone's lying."

I couldn't help asking "And how am I supposed to believe that when back before you and Rhonda were dating, you refused to believe that she simply didn't have any romantic feelings for you?"

"Doesn't the fact that she has them for me now mean that they were always there? She was suppressing them."

"No, they weren't present." I argued. "Point is, I'm not lying. If you couldn't tell that Helga's been lying for years-"

"Actually, I could." Curly interrupted. "Just because I didn't say anything to her or anyone else...I knew it was useless to confront her, and why would I tell anyone the truth if she didn't want anyone to know?" He looked back at me. "Now, if you're not a spy, how do you truly know random things?"

I flat out refused to tell Curly the truth. "I'm not going to answer that." I said firmly. "Last time I answered a question like that, the person who asked let the quote slip."

"I'm not like him." Curly said, his voice still upbeat, but relatively calm for him. "I wouldn't tell. But if you really don't want to tell me, you could explain something else, couldn't you? Like what you know. No matter what you say, you know a lot. Even if I decide not to ask how, I want to know it."

I folded my arms. "You know pretty much what I know. If I was to tell you anything, you'd already know it. If you're really so interested, though, I've been looking up TV tropes. Wanna know some of the ones you fit?"

"Sounds interesting." Curly said with that manic grin again. "Tropes are like...aspects of fiction or something, right? So go on."

"Right." I said, trying to remember the list. "Beware The Quiet Ones. You don't always say much, but you can be pretty threatening when you want to be."

Curly shrugged. "Why don't you just say it? What you really want to say is that I'm insane. Just because I'm not really doesn't mean I'm not aware of what everyone says about me."

I grinned. "OK, maybe. A lot of the tropes said things like that. Ax-Crazy, Creepy Child, Laughing Mad, Troubling Unchildlike Behaviour." I listed. "Some people were a little disturbed that you would lock yourself in the principal's office because you were mistakenly not ball monitor. And that you'd try to get Eugene expelled over a pencil. That's called Disproportionate Retribution."

Curly just shrugged again. "Maybe it was a little uncalled for. But then I didn't think pulling the fire alarm was as big a deal as Wartz made out."

I'd definitely gotten lucky. Today seemed to be one of Curly's better, saner days. But then, he was also pretty perceptive on those days. He'd been right about me lying, of course.

I carried on listing tropes. "A few more. Let's see...Large Ham, because you're pretty dramatic. Evil Laugh – a few people at school have that, but most people call yours the best. In regards to Rhonda, you had Abhorrent Admirer, Forceful Kiss, and Stalker With A Crush." I left out Does This Remind You Of Anything, Embarrassing First Name, and Jerkass.

"You definitely have some secret there." Curly said, casual as can be. "Like I said, I'm not bothered if you don't want to explain yet, but if you've gathered all this info, you've definitely had time to do more than spy." He grinned. "I'll figure it out."

"No, you won't." I argued. "There's only one person who got even close without me explaining, and the person was weird and possibly autistic or something like that. I'd consider it a good thing if you didn't figure it out. Anyway, why did you decide that I was a spy and then tell everyone?" I tried hard to keep my voice level.

"It was just me with a bunch of guys at the arcade." Curly pointed out. "You know most of them can't keep secrets. All I do is say what I think."

"So why do you think I would trust you with any secret if you say whatever's in your head?"

"If there's one thing I can do, Nicole, it's keep a secret." Curly said, his voice very serious. "So, you going to tell me?"

I shook my head. "No way, Jose. You can't get it out of me that easily. You'd have an easier time getting me to tell Helga's life story – which I'm NOT doing."

Curly shrugged. "Have it your way. Sooner or later, you'll want to tell me. See you tomorrow." And with that, he just walked off.

The nerve of that boy! Treating everything like it was normal, casually insisting something was weird about me, then confidently assuming I'd tell him my secret sometime? I was glad most of the boys I talked to weren't total douchebags like that.

I know, maybe Nicole shouldn't be using that language, but like she says, she doesn't use it out loud. Did I write Curly okay? Feedback wanted in your reviews!