Spy School: Danger is my Middle Name

Spreading Propaganda

It took us at least an hour to finally sort out the pairs. In the end, James had paired with Chip in the rightmost bag, Jawa scrambled out of the sleeping bag and took the bathroom, and Ivar stayed on the balcony. 

"The view is amazing out here," he bragged, soaking in the moonlight. "There's still enough space for one person, so if you're a boy, I'm welcoming new visitors."

"Sexist," Trixie noted. "I'm taking that spot. If you try to hold me back, I'll act otherwise."

"In that case, I'm going back in. It's freezing out here anyways," Ivar said, shivering and jumping inside. "Ahhh, I love the heater."

Trixie rolled her eyes. "Am I that ugly? Boy, if you're going to act like that, you're never going to get a girlfriend."

"Like he would ever want one," Chloe sighed. "Seeing that he spends most of his time in the dungeons and dragons club, I don't really see him socially interacting that much."

"That's sad. Anyone want to come outside with me?" Trixie waved to the balcony, winking. "I'll keep you warm."

Dylan and James cringed simultaneously. "Absolutely not."

"I'd rather sleep on the roof of the hotel," Dylan said. 

"Stop giving me ideas," Jayden grinned.

Trixie frowned. "Just remember, this place is free real estate. And it doesn't look like the balcony next to us is occupied either, so that's also a place where you could stay."

"Really?" Dylan perked up. "I call that place. Ben, let's go. I'll bring the heater so we can stay warm."

It took me three seconds to jump out of my sleeping bag, take Dylan's hand, then spring out to the balcony. After a quick jump to the empty space, we were settled in with a heater, ready to go within seconds.

"I'm ready for a good night's sleep," Dylan mumbled, closing his eyes and snuggling into his pillow. "I don't need to watch the movie."

"Same here," I agreed. "We've been through a long da-"

"Attention!" Erica suddenly snapped from the other room. "I'm giving out midnight missions! You'll have the day off tomorrow, so you can make up your missed sleep then. For now, I'm going to be partnering agents up and sending them out."

Dylan groaned. "Why am I not surprised? With my luck, I'm going to be paired up with Jayden."

"What's so bad about that?" Jayden's voice echoed to our place. "I need to see your face when I'm roasting you! You two, come back here!"

"I'm not accepting any orders from you," Dylan shot back. 

"You two, come back here!" Erica shouted.

"Yes ma'am!" we both shot up, jumping back to the original room. 

"Tonight's target isn't the Croatoan," Erica stated as we pranced in. "We've got some good ol' baddies to keep an eye on. There's multiple locations that I'm going to send you guys to. I'll pair you depending on the skill level of the people you'll be paired against."

"Oh no," Jayden groaned. "I'm going to be thrown in with punching bag if this keeps going this way."

"You're more skilled than him," Erica put in. "After all, Ivar's got no experience from teh Academy."

Ivar's face paled. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Erica rolled her eyes. "You really think I'm that dumb? From the second I saw you, I knew you weren't actual CIA agents. You were just wannabes who wanted to come with us on our mission. The only reason I let you hang on until this point is because I detect that you guys are going to help us at some point- at a point where we're hopeless. So you're still here."

Ivar and Chloe both gulped, nodding meekly. "Yes, sire."

Cue the burst of reactions. Cue the gasps of surprises. Cue Jayden's insults.

"I knew it!" he mocked, walking over to Ivar and sizing him up, punching him on the shoulder. "That's the portiofolio that fits the punching bag!"

Ivar winced. "Please don't take my name literally and punch me."

"You just admit that was your name!" James said in delight. "Time to take this as an advatage!"

"Anyway, you guys didn't really react as badly as I thought you would to that," Erica noted. "And it's time that I bring out your duties. I don't have all night."

"I'm going to be paired with someone at my level? That limits the options to you, Trixie, James, and maybe Jawa," Dylan said knowingly. "But I'd prefer if I could go with Jayden. His humor can keep me up all night."

Erica frowned. "You and Jayden together would form a disaster. If I gave you two permission to take out those bad guys, they'd be in the hospital by tomorrow."

"Isn't that the point?" Jayden shrugged.

"No, it isn't," Erica rolled her eyes. "Anyways, the first pair I'd like to send is Jawa and Chip. Since you two pair together relatively well, I've assigned you to be keeping an eye on the subway station. After a brief recon mission, I've detected some pickpocketers have gathered there."

"Pickpocketers!?" Chip exclaimed. "What kind of job is that?! You should've given this to Ivar!"

"Pickpocketers are harder to spot than you think," Erica said. "In a place as densely populated as that area, I'll need two good pairs of eyes on the watch."

Chip sighed along with Jawa, walking out of the hotel room and sulking. "Subway station, here we come."

"Next, I have a group of drunk teenagers weilding guns, in the hopes of raiding the Bank of America near the other side of the street. Since they're armed with heavy weaponry, I'm sending James and...let's see, I need a ceiling gang member of opposite gender, since if I pair him with Dylan, they'll be misbehaving like hell for the whole trip."

"What!?" Dylan yelled. "That means I can only paired with Erica or Trixie! How is this fair?! I'll be outperformed in everything I do!"

 "If you were paired with me, you would also be outerfpormed in everything you do," James said gallantly. "Admit it."

"Never," Dylan shot back.

"See, this is what I mean! You two will be messing around for the whole trip! James, you're going with me," Erica said curtly. 

"Then it looks like Dylan will be going with me," Trixie said, unable to hide her excitement. "This is going to be fun."

Dylan took a few seconds to take in the situation, then excused himself to go to the bathroom.

James groaned even louder than Dylan had, also following him to the bathroom. Dylan retracted in disgust, then moved out of the way. "You can go first," he said curtly.

"Yeah, but I'll use up all the tissues in crying in despair," James said. "You'll have to do it over the toilet."