Spy School: Danger is my Middle Name

Phone Call

--- Agent Benjamin Ripley's POV ---

The second I fell asleep, my phone immediately sprung to life, bringing me to its existence by vibrating the heck out of my countertop, toppling my hotel flowerpot, and shattering it into a million pieces right next to my bed.

I took a look at the caller ID. This better be worth it, since the hotel was going to make sure to sue me for breaking their flowerpot. Maybe Erica would make my mind feel better.

I flipped over the phone. It was from Zoe.

Well, this wasn't really worth it, but okay. I'll take it. But if it was from Jayden, well, I would make sure that the next time he took a trip to the bathroom, the stalls were all locked. An then I would super-glue the floors to make sure he couldn't climb under the stalls.

"Hello?" I said, shaking the grogginess from my head. "Zoe, what do you want?"

I heard something that sounded like a groan from the other side. "You mean what do you want? I'm asking what you want for Christmas, since I'm browsing the aisles of this store, and I have no idea what you want."

"It's 3:00 AM!" I said exasperatingly. "And you're shopping for Christmas presents?!"

"Yeah," she said simply. "What do you want?"

I rolled my eyes. Girls these days. "I don't care. Get me whatever."

Zoe's voice turned to annoyance herself. "I'm betting if Erica were the one who called you, you would be explaining to her with a four-page long essay of what you would want."

I retracted. This was exactly what I would be doing, though I certainly didn't want to be admitting it to Zoe.

"No!" I said in a counterattack. "I'm just too sleepy to say anything else! After all, we're supposed to wake up tomorrow at 5:00 AM!"

"You boys are supposed to," Zoe said. "But we don't have to. We have a day off."

My eyes widened in realization. "Yeah, that's true. But aren't these secret Santa presents supposed to be clandestine? You shouldn't be asking me for something- it's meant to be a surprise."

"Yeah," Zoe said. "Well, I guess there was no point in calling you then."

"It's okay," I said. "I haven't talked to you much these days, so this is pretty nice."

"Then why won't you tell me what you want for Christmas?" she said. "I just want to buy something that you like!"

I pursed my lips. "I understand, but listen: You're one of my closest friends I've ever had. Whatever you get me, I won't care."

"Did you just friendzone me?" Zoe said.

"No, I- ahh! Why do you change the topic to something negative?" I said. "And no, I didn't friend zone you. I was just stating something."

"Well, it sounded like you did," Zoe pouted. "And you still aren't telling me what you want for Christmas."

I sighed. "Look, Zoe- right now isn't the time to argue with me. My brain is short-circuited right now, and I'm not in the mood to converse with you."

"You're just ignoring me," Zoe said, and with this, she dutifully hung up with a small pout.

I crashed back onto my bed, chucking my phone onto my pillow in the process. I needed some more sleep, and spending my time arguing with people at 3:00 AM wasn't probably very good for me. 

It was at that exact second that my phone rung once again, this time vibrating my whole bed instead of my countertop. This was even more annoying, since my head was currently rested against the pillow, and that's where the phone was.

So my skull rumbled against the hard metal of the phone, and I sat up once again, looking at my phone and flipping it over. It was at that second that I realized it was Erica who was calling me.

I immediately perked up, answering the call as fast as I could.

"Hello?" I said with the voice of someone who'd just gotten their morning coffee. "Is this Erica?"

"Of course it is, Ben," the familiar annoyed tone rung through my ears. "Why are you still awake? And how did you manage to answer the phone so fast?"

"I-i was talking to someone else before you called me. Anyways, what did you want?" I said. 

"We've got new leads on the Croatoan. Meet me in my hotel room in an hour."