SA Chapter Five: Secret's Out
Word Count: 983
Warnings: None this Chapter
"Well, it looks like you're in the clear, Cunningham," Howard remarked. "You COULD have at least TRIED to take advantage of the situation while it lasted, but now all you've got is nothin'. Real smooth, buddy. Realsmooth."
Randy rolled his eyes. He had to do his best to hide the fact that his invisibility in school starting to return was actually the best news he'd heard all week. Howard could gripe all he wanted, but Randy was as happy as he could be right now.
"It's like you don't even care," Howard continued, crossing his arms over his chest with a pointed look.
Randy stopped at his locker and turned back to Howard,
"That's what I've been saying this whole time, Howard," he remarked.
Turning back around to open his locker, his mood instantly dropped when he noticed another folded paper stuck to the inside of his locker door.
"Oh, come on—" he ripped it off the door, wanting to just throw it away right then.
"Ha!" Howard said, "I told you they always leave another note!"
Randy opened it, scanning the long note with a bored expression.
'If this is still a prank, they must have been…fueled by Heidi's stupid gossip—'
He stopped, a word catching his eye.
"Oh, no…"
Howard looked over,
"What is it?"
Randy read it over again.
"Oh, no…this is bad."
Howard grabbed the paper out of his hands,
"WHAT IS IT?"
He glanced over the letter,
"Wait—THEY KNOW YOU'RE THE NI—"
Randy slapped a hand over Howard's mouth.
"SHH!" He glared at him, "We need to find out who this person is right now."
"Mmpph mpph mmmpmph," Howard told him.
"Uhh," Randy let go, "What?"
"I said," Howard breathed, "Let's go check with Heidi! She's gotta know who it is by now."
"But you said she was still looking this morning," Randy replied.
Howard shoved the paper back at Randy,
"We gotta at least try," he told him, turning around and heading down the hallway. Randy slammed his locker closed and ran after him.
Heidi was at her station, as usual just before lunch break. Typing away about gossip, she hardly noticed the two, panicky boys enter.
Hearing her brother's obnoxious breathing, she peered over the top of her laptop,
"What do you want now, Howard?"
Randy moved around his best friend to walk up to her desk,
"We wanted to check on the progress you were making…" He paused and glanced back at Howard. "You know, on who wrote that letter?"
Heidi looked up at him with a blank expression for a moment, before going back to her computer.
"Right, right. I set it to check for a handwriting match from those tacky, paper handbooks you guys had in middle school."
"You do realize you were in middle school only two years ago yourself, right?"
Heidi glared over at her brother,
"Excuse you," she snarled, "it was three years ago!"
Randy sighed,
"Look, how much longer do you think it will take to find—"
A loud DING rang out from the laptop, and Heidi looked over, smiling triumphantly.
"Randy," she told him, "I believe I have found your secret admirer."
"Are you serious?"
"It can't be."
"No way!"
Heidi printed out the sheet of paper and picked up the old love letter from earlier last week.
"Read it and weep, boys," she handed the papers to Randy. "Julian's your mystery writer."
"You've got to be kidding me."
Howard was halfway between frozen in shock and falling over from laughing too hard. Randy rolled his eyes,
"I told you this was just some prank."
Howard glanced up, grimacing a bit,
"I wouldn't be so sure. Julian's a bit of a freak, so, you never know."
"I would never agree with my brother on anything, but… he's right, Randy. You don't know."
Heidi picked up her tablet and walked around her desk.
"Well?" She grinned, "Let's go find out why you got this secret confession of love in the first place, shall we?"
Urging the two boys out of her office, she flipped the lights off and shut the door behind them.
Finding Julian was simple enough, but explaining the situation it had started to cause was becoming even more of an issue. The first step was to lure him away from his table and into the abandoned hallway by the science lab. No one would be there during lunch, right?
The next step was to tell him what was going on. Now, this would be fun…
"Oh, of course," Julian cried out, "I knew it would come back to haunt me eventually."
Randy sighed,
"Can I at least ask why?"
"Oh, please don't think it was serious, Randy." Julian continued, "It was simply a dare. Theresa may seem like goody-two-shoes, but she's a powerful player in our games."
"So, it was a joke?" Randy smirked, "Told ya, Howard! And now you owe me!"
"I don't owe you nothin', Cunningham! We never shook on it, and you know it!"
Randy rolled his eyes before turning back to Julian with a serious tone as he asked,
"So, about the second letter today—"
"What second letter?" Julian asked, confused.
Randy glanced back at Howard before turning again to Julian,
"Didn't you write two letters, and leave them in my locker?"
Julian shook his head,
"I only wrote one. I had no hand in anyone continuing the charade."
Randy pulled out the second note from his pocket and glanced back at the first one from last week. The handwriting wasn't the same. Somebody at the school knew about his secret identity, and it wasn't Julian.
Randy frowned. 'If Julian didn't write the second note, then who DID?' He thought, 'And how do they know I'm the Ninja?'