Spy School: Danger is my Middle Name

no

---POV Switch to Erica Hale---

I swung down to the basement, avoiding a few cardboard boxes and landing on the floor. The lights were killed, meaning I could blend in easily with my black outfit.

It was about ten in the morning at this point. After some recon, I've detected that the rest of the gang is outside playing ultimate frisbee- though Jayden, Dylan, Zoe, Ben, and my sister seem to be heading off to some other rendezvous.

After letting Ivar read some of his PJO, I quickly gathered up a plan and put it into action. Since I don't have perfect memory, I decided to bring Ivar along in case of something I forgot about the video game. Unlike Jayden, I thought he had some potential- I mean, at least the kid spent his free time doing productive things.

I ran over to the area behind Robert and made sure my sleek suit was fit on tight. Ivar followed my actions, but he accidentally tipped a stack of plastic cups. They clattered onto the floor noisily and I cringed.

Robert took a look over toward our direction, ripping his eyes from his game. His eyelids narrowed in suspicion and scanned the area behind him.

"Anybody there?" he said calmly. Placing down his controller, he lifted his gaze to the fallen cups, inspecting the wreckage. Fortunately, he didn't decide to inspect the destruction. "Anybody there?" he repeated again.

Ivar looked like he was about to answer, but I put a finger to his lips. Not yet, I mouthed. We interact when I tell you to. Ivar shut up and shrunk back to his spot.

After a few moments, Robert's gaze lowered back to League of Legends. "Must be the rats again," he muttered, unpausing his game. "This hotel really needs to call an exterminator some day."

My shoulders relaxed. I'm going to have to give Ivar some lessons on coordination soon. If this keeps up, then he's going to trip me on accident and I'm going to fall on my feet for the first time in ten years.

Robert continued pressing his buttons,  occasionally giving a grunt of approval and a few words to his teammates. According to Ivar, he was still playing League of Legends. Perfect- but I had to still time the interaction perfectly right. Maybe if I-

"What are you guys doing!?" Robert suddenly yelled into his headset. "Do you even know anything about this game?!"

Another flurry of clicks followed, and Robert's face tightened into a miffed expression. I could hear from his loud volume a brief conversation going on with his teammates, and it didn't sound very pretty.

"Where'd all of your alertness go?" Robert hissed into the mic. "Just last night, you were hopping on caffeine. Now you're all of a sudden tired? How does that happen?"

"Sorry, man," the guy on the other side replied. "I stayed up all night with my friends."

"You expect me to believe that lie?" Robert said, rolling his eyes. "I'm not an idiot, Simon."

"What lie?" Simon's voice was unreadable for any emotion.

"That you have friends," Robert ran his finger over his mouse in satisfaction. "Sorry for the cold truth, but kid, you're the most introvertic person I've met in my entire life."

Ivar's face spreaded into a wide grin.

"I'm starting to like this guy," he muttered to me. "Good personality."

Robert's screen displayed a defeat, and he spat out some colorful language into the mic. If I had a quarter for every time he said something not within the PG boundaries, then I'd be a millionaire at this point.

"People these days," Robert groaned. "Don't even know how to use a keyboard."

He exited from the game, which sent me into a panic. What if he started playing something else? Talking to him about one game when he was playing another wasn't exactly the best way to communicate with someone.

His mouse hovered over an icon that looked somewhat like a dirt block- it was pixelated, and it's coloring was green on the top with some brown overtones on the bottom. The block seemed somewhat familiar to me- where had I seen it before?

"That's Minecraft," Ivar supplied to me. "Jawa and Chip spent five hours last night playing it. You should've called them over instead, Erica."

"Oh, trust me," I waved his comment off. "You're much more helpful than them. If they were with me right now, they'd be flirting and trying to show off. Staying quiet and supplying me with info- which is what you're doing right now- is good enough."

Ivar flushed with this compliment. "No need for thanks. I'm nothing compared to the other agents. You should be insulting me."

I turned my gaze back over to Robert, who opened up a blocky world, moving around and- was he using his hand to break wood? That makes no sense whatsoever. And now he's placing two sticks and a log to create a sword? 

"This game doesn't look very appealing," I said to Ivar.

"Trust me, download it yourself and try," he said. "It's fun."

"Games are nothing to me," I said coldly. "If I get addicted to something like that, then I would never forgive myself."

"Five bucks," was all Ivar said. "Five bucks that you'll be addicted."

I grinned. "Bet's on. Show me how to download this thing afterwards."