Operation Beautiful

Chapter 8: It had something to do with....

it had something to do with an easily persuaded male broadcasting club advisor

I walk into home room and start drumming on the table with my fingers. In 2 minutes, the two students who do the announcements will come on. Jessica and some other cheerleader. They always pick cheerleaders to do the announcements. I don't know why. Matt said it had something to do with an easily persuaded male broadcasting club adviser and a deal with one of the head cheerleaders. I didn't press further.

"Hey, everyone!" comes a sickeningly sweet voice over the PA. I can never tell which overly peppy voice is Jessica's, mainly because people talk through the announcements. If it weren't for them saying their names at the end, I wouldn't even have known it was her.

Boring announcements go in through one ear and out the other until there's a long silence and someone says: "Oh my."

My head snaps up.

"Um. The principal's secretary just handed us a pink sticky note that she says needs to be read over the announcements." I wait with baited breath.

"It says: 'yes' and 'reset location.' Oh! And then it has 'Do you have short hair?' at the bottom. We don't know what that means, but...hopefully that means something to someone?"

The principal's secretary? The principal's secretary is my mystery girl?

The initial heart attack fades as I realize that my mystery girl said 'yes,' meaning she was a junior. Phew! Not the principal's secretary.

Reset location...that's not too hard. She must be talking about that poster.

The minute homeroom ends I dash to the bulletin board and find the poster in question. Underneath there's a small piece of pink paper and another green paper. I peel both off the wall and put them in my pocket. I need to find that secretary before it's too late.

"Um, hi." I'm standing awkwardly at her desk, not sure where to begin. I didn't think to bring Janice with me, which was a mistake.

"Can I help you?" she asks. She doesn't remember me at all.

"I was wondering who gave you that sticky note." She looks at me.

"Sorry?" I try again.

"They said on the announcements...you gave them a pink sticky note to read?" She shakes her head.

"What are you talking about?"

Huh?

"Did you listen to the announcements?" I ask, confused.

"Of course! Except for those few minutes when I went to the bathroom."

"Oh. Okay. Never mind, then. Thanks!" The bell rings and I hurry off to my next class. Then my mystery girl must be a friend of whoever read that sticky note out loud. Because then she could ask her friend to read it and pretend it was from the secretary. Either that or the secretary is lying...

I figured I would answer more fully here instead of over the PA. Impressed, no? But I won't tell you how I got the principal's secretary to hand the note over. That'll be my little secret.

How did I know you were in Negrutot's third period? Well, the very first day you asked me to drop it off in Negrutot's during break. Meaning you would pick it up after break, meaning third. It was just an educated guess. I probably should've asked if you had him before lunch and then narrowed it down, but you asked that ridiculous compound question so I thought that if you could do it, so could I.

Anyway, so I grabbed a copy of the attendance the other day. MUAHAHAHA! Its only a matter of time, buddy. As you heard on the announcements, my question is this: do you have really short hair (like, shorter than your ears)?