MY BEST FRIEND IS A SECRET AGENT, Book 2: How C.H.I.P. Took a Dive to Dash...

Chapter 14: "My Bold Move"

With the C.H.I.P.-mobile a big success, I was feeling on top of the world.

So I decided to try to talk to Carla Mawhinney again. I know, you're thinking, give it up, Nort. She's out of your league! But this was my logic: All my recent accomplishments had filled me with such self-confidence that it was oozing from my pores! How could Carla not be attracted to me with all that self-confidence oozing all over the place?

So I summoned the courage to walk right up to Carla and ask her out for a boat ride on Lake Vortville.

"You have a boat?" she asked, intrigued.

Hmm, I thought. She likes boats. One point for me. Then again, I also had a C.H.I.P.-mobile. That I designed and built myself. But that I couldn't show her for fear of revealing C.H.I.P.'s identity.

Fate can be so cruel.

Anyway, after convincing Carla I wasn't lying about the boat, she said yes! Which was really nice of her because I'd almost blinded her the last time I tried to ask her out.

I confidently gave her a little wink and headed off to math class.

And then I started to panic. This was my first date! Uncharted territory! Somehow this seemed like even more of a challenge than building the C.H.I.P.-mobile. I longed for the comfort of locking myself up alone in my basement and inventing some cool new gadget.

But I knew I had to step out of the shadows, to expand my world in order to get the things I really wanted in life. And I'd taken the first step! I'd asked Carla out!

And now for the second step: I had to buy another bottle of fizzy apple juice.