Making the Grade (The Model Spy #2)

Chapter 17 - Completely

 “Ooof!”

I stumbled over the uneven ground as I made my way towards Haywick Cottage. Groaning, I brushed off my jeans and continued forward, straining my eyes. The cottage, dark and boarded up, loomed in front of me. Despite the term “cottage,” it was still a rather regal house. Or had been, at least until the fire charred its storybook exterior.

I almost said something out loud, thinking Max would hear me. Until I remembered I left without telling him, and without bringing any gadgets, except my contacts. Come to think of it, bringing the rest of the gadgets probably would have been a lot more useful than simply bringing me and my two clumsy feet.

It hadn’t been my intention to leave without Max. I felt pretty bad about it, thinking of Max searching the school for me so we could go on the mission together. Like the partners we were supposed to be. But I didn’t think I could face him, or anyone, after they heard everything that morning. You would think they were spies or something, the way they stood outside the door, listening to every word…

I hadn’t talked to any of them, since I stood by a window in Cheshire Hall and watched Zach and Lilly get in a waiting car and drive off. Then, I locked myself in my room and attempted to do the pages upon pages of homework piled on my wooden desktop. Besides an essay on Plato and thesis statement on Ancient Greece, I didn’t get much done. Now, if Googling pictures of Paris had been my homework, I would have been weeks ahead of the other students.

Pathetic. I was pathetic.

It was so silly to think that a city belonged to you, when in fact it was home to a million people. But for those few days Zach and I were in Paris, it felt like the city was ours. All of its sights and sounds and smells were ones I immediately attributed to Zach. The beeping car horns, as we ran through the city. The smell of the light rain as we sat at the café, where Zach called out Dylan and his designer shoes.

A part of me, a part of me I never realized existed until that morning, wanted Zach to remember me when he thought of Paris. I was worried Lilly would give him a more…memorable time in Paris, and the fun and adventures and even the terror we faced would be supplanted by her and her glossy hair, tanned skin, and full, pink lips.

But he told me he couldn’t step foot in that city again. I heard it. And so did everyone else, I remembered with a blush.

I fingered the necklace Max had bought me, just as the cottage towered over me. There was a slight breeze cutting through the night. Every time it blew past, it rattled the shutters and made the very walls of the home shriek. Up close, it was evident the cottage was condemned. I was afraid stepping foot on its small front porch would send it crashing down into a pile of dust and rubble, like waves and wind do to a sand castle at the beach.

I pushed open the cottage’s front door with the very tips of my fingers. I closed my eyes and held my breath as the door creaked open. The noise was so loud in the still night, it was as if the door was groaning and waking up from a long sleep. I expected every light in Cheshire Hall, a small building in the distance, to flicker on at the isolated noise.

I slipped into the cottage’s foyer and for a moment thought no one was there, that Jayden had gotten the day wrong. Knowing his pure stupidity, I wouldn’t have been surprised. My left foot was hovering in the air as I motioned to take a small step forward, when I heard them. Down the hall, low voices were muffled in conversation. A flickering light seeped out from underneath the door.

I stepped across the floorboards, my eyes adjusting slowly to the change in lighting. One of the wooden boards creaked under my weight and I froze like a frightened animal. However, the voices did not halt their conversation.