Eye Spy

 Sweat trickled down the back of her neck and her fingers threatened to tremble, yet she remained stoic underneath the scrutinizing gaze of Ms. Avery. The sharp green eyes of her history teacher scanned her face for any hint of deception behind tacky red glasses.

Only when the older woman looked away with a sigh and a nod did Kayla relax in relief. She still kept her expression the same and walked away calmly, but couldn’t help but break into a wide grin when she met the eyes of her best friend, Colby.


The blonde girl had been rather tense and worried when Kayla had approached Ms. Avery, but it worked out in the end. The teacher had a rather fearsome reputation for giving no mercy to her high school students, but Kayla had always been charismatic. Everyone had a soft spot, and underneath her tough exterior the history teacher did genuinely care for her students.


“Did she buy it?” Colby asked when she came closer, eager to confirm her success. Kayla nodded in response and her friend beamed. The other students in the field trip group were scattered around the museum hall, so nobody was near where they stood by the ancient mining tools exhibit.


“Don’t smile so widely,” Kayla hissed while glancing at the teacher who was looking their way with a raised eyebrow. Colby followed her line of sight and quickly pretended to cough into her sleeve.


She sighed as she watched her friend fumble while pretending to be sick. All that work to convince Ms. Avery that Colby needed to leave the tour group to find some water to ingest the medicine for her illness, and her best friend comes close to ruining her efforts.


“How are you supposed to be a spy?”  Kayla muttered scathingly under her breath, giving the girl a stink-eye. She rolled her eyes when the supposedly sick girl glared at her offendedly. “What? You can’t act to save your life.”


The spy looked around to see if anyone had heard what she said, before replying under her breath. “I don’t usually do jobs like this. I’m a hacker, not a field agent,” She complained, clearly still annoyed at her boss for assigning her this role.


Kayla giggled at her friend’s annoyance, but ushered her friend towards an exit. She pretended to be interested in the rotting canoes behind one of the glass panes as Colby coughed and groaned exaggeratedly. She could tell Colby was dramatising it to make her laugh, and gamely played along as they walked out of the hall.


The moment they were out of everyone’s sight, the young spy halted her play-fainting and grew more serious. A normal-looking Nintendo Switch was pulled out of her grey backpack, and Colby fiddled with it for a few minutes.


Her friend watched patiently, keeping a look-out for anyone coming their way. She glanced back at the girl with the gaming device when she exclaimed in triumph. “Got it! Now the cameras in this area have been looped, and I can get into the records room.”


She paused for a moment before looking at Kayla with wide puppy-dog eyes. “Can you help me? Please?”


The other girl squinted at her in annoyance. They had a brief staredown in the middle of the empty hallway, a Nintendo Switch between them. Finally, the friend looked away in defeat and endured Colby’s excited hugging.


As Kayla watched the short spy use her Switch, which was definitely not a Switch, to open the electronic lock on the records room door, she contemplated her reasons for helping her friend break into unauthorized areas.


If she was caught being an accomplice in this mess, she definitely would be in huge trouble. It would make far more sense for her to want no part in this. But as she remembered Colby’s exaggerated acting and laughter from a few minutes ago, her heart softened.


Kayla kept one eye on the open door, and one on the end of the hallway. A small smile threatened to creep onto her face, but she ruthlessly squashed it. She had to be vigilant, to help her friend.

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