How To Become A Spy

Chapter Twenty-Two

"Aren't you eating lunch, Tasha?" I asked as I watched her suck on some green smoothie in front of us. 

She shook her head furiously with the straw still in her mouth. After a moment, she stopped drinking and took it out of her mouth. "I'm on an all juice detox thing until the dance to make me feel less bloated."

Did that kind of stuff even work? I maintained a serious face while I listened to her explain to me how many calories were probably in the chicken wrap I was eating but I let the noises of all the other people in the cafeteria drown her out.

To be honest, it was always a miracle for me to keep a straight face during lunches with Tasha and her friends. We sat in a big group of her, me, Charlotte, Violet and a few more girls who were considered popular but not popular enough to hang out with Tasha. To think there was once a younger part of me that aspired to hang out with the pretty and popular girls in high school seemed stupid. I would rather be sitting at a table with people trying to memorize the first 72 numbers of pi than listen to their unintelligent conversations.

The one thing that I had worked out during my last period when I didn't pay attention to my science teacher's boring drawling voice was that if Eric was going to be gone for today and tomorrow, I should at least get closer to cracking this case. I didn't want him to seem like I had achieved nothing during the time of his absence.

"Hey guys," I said in a low voice. Tasha stopped her conversation on the amount of weight you could gain if you ate gluten every day and looked at me. I swallowed nervously and tried to think of a way to ask the question. "You know how on my first day you said you'd help hook me up with some NT drugs, did you guys actually work out how to do that yet?"

"Oh, I didn't tell you?" Tasha asked.

I could feel my heart race in an instant. "Tell me what?" I leaned forward slowly.

"There's a number. You text it and say that you're in need of a hook-up and then they text back with a location and you meet them there. That's what Henry said anyway." Tasha answered and she went back to sucking up her smoothie.

It made so much sense. All the weird meetings in classrooms were starting to look like they were obviously drug swaps. The RUA had been on the right track this whole time.

I took a deep breath before wondering whether if I asked more questions, it would look suspicious but then figured that this drug was starting to become so common that I probably wouldn't look shifty at all.

"Do you know the number? The one to text?" I asked while trying not to look too eager to find out. I took another bite of my wrap to look more casual.

"I don't have it stored on my phone. Just in case the narks start doing some serious investigation." Tasha answered.

"Narks?" I asked while feeling my heart beat faster.

"Yeah, you know, the police whose job is to specifically solve drug cases and all that," she explained.

"Yeah, I'm familiar with the term narks, I just don't know why you'd be worried about them. Do you think that there are people trying to find out who is behind the drugs?" I asked squeezing my hands shut tightly.

"Well, obviously. I mean you heard the principal over the speakers a while ago." one of the skinny girls with thin long straight black hair answered.

She was right. They had said they were trying to catch on to who was the dealer no too long ago. I just hoped that no one was suspicious of undercover students here. Otherwise, I could be screwed.

"Anyway, look," Tasha began as she zipped open her bag. She reached in and pulled out a piece of paper that was stored inside a compact mirror. You had to admire her creativity. She held out the piece of paper for me to grab.