Children's Book : Spy School (3): Competing for the Promotion (Detective books for Kids, detective Series, Mysteries for kids, Book for kids ages 9 12)

by Amma Lee

  Chapter Three

  “So you can only participate in the competition if you’re making a potion?” Kyle asked Paul confused. It was yesterday that Kyle, Jenny, and Paul came up with a plan to use the lab when nobody was around. Yesterday they also found out that they’d be competing with their class to figure out how to transform George back into an adult. When they finally got off of the windowless bus and walked towards their first hour class, Paul told them that his mother would only let him do science experiments. No building what-so-ever.

  “Yeah, but I’m not good at things like that. I do my best with mechanical engineering not science experiments.” Paul sighed.

  “I’m good at science,” Jenny said with an expression on her face that suggested that she was thinking hard about something. “But I probably couldn’t come up with an edible potion.” Kyle scratched his head.

  “I’ve never done well in science and I definitely couldn’t come up with a potion. That’s sounds like witchcraft!” Kyle shook his head in disbelief. “I think we should still go with the sneaking into the lab plan.” Kyle whispered that last part as students walked passed them. Jenny gave up trying to persuade Kyle to think of another plan. She was going to leave the decision up to Paul and Kyle. Paul nodded his head.

  “I think that would be best,” Paul looked over at Jenny and grin. “Everything will be alright so have no fear.” Paul said in his best superhero voice. Jenny smiled, remembering that Paul was only ten years old and full of fantasies and imagination. Kyle looked at Jenny and Paul and smiled. He decided if anything was to go wrong, which it wasn’t, he’d take the fall for it. They walked into the class and saw Rebecca, the woman who had helped them prepare for the Lola school’s challenge, and Mr. Dove speaking with each other.

  “Hello students,” Rebecca said smiling widely as the students’ walked into the classroom. The class mumbled their hellos and took their seats. “Aw.” Rebecca said and placed her hands on her hips. “Now I know you all can come up with a more chipper greeting than that.”

  “Hello Ms. Rebecca!” the classroom shouted in unison and Rebecca grinned.

  “That’s the spirit.” Rebecca said and turned back towards Mr. Dove.

  “Do you think they’re angry with me?” Kyle whispered. When any of the teachers spoken to Kyle, none of them brought up the fact that it was his watch that had turned George into a kid. They just told him that he was improving a lot and walked to another student once they were done evaluating him. Paul shook his head.

  “Do you know how many things go wrong in a spy’s daily life?” Paul said looking Kyle in the eyes. “This is probably something so minor that they’re not worried about it as much.”

  “Yeah,” Jenny nodded in agreement. “Besides if anyone was seriously angry at you, they would have said something to you about it.” Paul’s and Jenny’s words lifted his spirits up a little bit to the point that he found himself smiling again.

  “That’s true, I’m sure they would’ve said something by now.” Kyle took a deep breath to calm his nerves. Nobody was angry with him because these people knew that they’d have to experience some of everything when they decided that they wanted to become a spy.

  “Alright class, settle down, class is starting.” Mr. Dove said as he walked to the front of the room. Mr. Dove went over the competition with the class again and told them that Rebecca would be assisting him with the lessons for a while. Kyle took out his notebook and began taking notes.

  ****

  “Are you sure this is going to work?” Jenny said once Kyle positioned himself outside of the door to the lab.

  “It’ll work. Trust me.” Kyle said as he tried his best to not look suspicious. Paul had temporarily shut down the cameras that were right outside the door. This gave Paul around thirty minutes to work with. The surveillance system at Montgomery was high-tech and disabling the cameras for longer than thirty minutes would raise suspicion. Jenny sighed, but she nodded her head.

  “Knock three times if you see someone coming. We’ll be as quiet as possible so that we could hear you if you do.” Kyle nodded his head and Jenny closed the door to the lab. Kyle knew standing in the hall outside the door looked suspicious enough as it was, but he had the perfect plan for that. Thankfully, restrooms were located directly in front of the lab. If anybody asked why he was standing right there, he’d simply say that he was waiting for his friend to come out of the bathroom. He’d add that he thought that waiting in the bathroom was odd, so he wanted to wait outside of it.

  “I hope this’ll give Paul enough time,” Kyle said to himself as he began shuffling on each foot. He looked at the cameras and saw that they were no longer turning from side to side. He hoped that whatever Paul did to stop the cameras would last for the full thirty minutes. Paul reassured Jenny and Kyle that it would work, so all Kyle needed to do was to trust Paul.

  The hallway was bare. Students didn’t stay in the hallways for too long out of fear that they’d be scolded. Kyle was so deep in thought that he didn’t initially hear footsteps approaching him.

  “Oh it’s just you,” a voice said and Kyle blinked and jumped when he saw Larry standing in front of him.

  “What do you want?” Kyle asked nervously. Out of everyone that Kyle could have seen at that moment, he was disappointed that it had to be Larry. Larry smiled and leaned his back against the door. Kyle began shifting uncomfortably.

  “Oh nothing,” Larry said still looking at Kyle and grinning. “Why are you standing around out here? Shouldn’t you be somewhere having Jenny fight for you?” Larry laughed and Kyle frowned.

  “I don’t have Jenny fight my battles for me.” Kyle leaned to his side in order to shield his arm from Larry’s view. He lightly tapped on the door three times.

  “Where are Jenny and Paul by the way?” Larry asked. “Are they in the lab? You know I heard that Paul isn’t allowed to be in the lab rooms. It’d be a shame if he was in there and one of the teachers found out.”

  “He’s not in the lab!” Kyle shouted irritably. He just wanted Larry to mind his own business. “He’s in the bathroom; I was waiting for him to come out.”

  “Then why are you over here standing in front of this door instead of on the other side?” Larry said with his pudgy cheeks growing wider.

  “I can stand anywhere that I want to stand, Larry.” Larry moved closer to Kyle and Kyle took a step back.

  “Well let’s have a look in here then.” Larry said and turned the knob. Kyle had to hold his breath once Larry began opening the door. He hoped that Paul and Jenny had heard his knocking and had hidden. Larry opened the door and turned on the lights. It was empty! Larry walked around the lab and looked into every corner. He frowned when he didn’t see anyone. He came out of the lab, shut the door, and glared at Kyle. “I’m watching you.” Larry said menacingly. “Don’t think that you and your little friends are going to get this promotion, because it’s going to be me.”

  “Ha! You’re not meant to be a spy with your arrogant attitude!” Kyle shouted upset by Larry’s unnecessarily rude behavior.

  “And you don’t belong in this school!” Larry countered. “I’m watching you and don’t think that I won’t find out what you three are up to.” Larry stared Kyle deep in the eyes and began walking the opposite way down the hall. Once he was out of sight, Kyle sighed in relief. Kyle knocked two times to signal that the threat was gone. After a few moments, Jenny came to the door.

  “Ugh, I wished it was me out here instead of you.” Jenny said looking down each side of the hall. “Don’t listen to what he had to say. You have just as much of a right to be in this school that he has.” Kyle smiled a little.

  “Thanks. How’s it going in there?” Jenny sighed.

  “Paul lost some of his time, but he said that he should still be able to finish the watch.” Kyle nodded his head.

  “Well he needs to hurry up,” Kyle said looking at the clock that was on the wall. “It’s almost time to go to our next class.” Jenny n
odded her head.

  “I’ll let him know.” Jenny smiled at Kyle and closed the door. Kyle needed to make sure that he didn’t let Larry get to him because if he slipped up, all of their planning would go down the drain. Kyle placed his back firmly on the door and waited patiently.

  Chapter Four

  Paul had finished the watch a minute before their last class of the day started. Not having enough time to see if it worked the exact same way that his previous watches did, he shoved it into his pocket, and he and Jenny began cleaning up the lab.

  “Hurry up! Class will start soon.” Kyle knocked on the door three times and shouted. Kyle heard commotion coming from all directions and he needed Jenny and Paul to come out of the lab now!

  “We’re coming,” Jenny said and the door flew opened almost knocking Kyle onto the floor.

  “Hey!” he said and rubbed his back. Jenny smiled apologetically and began walking up the hall. Paul grinned as he walked out of the lab room behind her. “Did you finish?” Kyle asked and began walking beside Paul.

  “Of course,” he said placing his hands behind his head. “And the cameras should be back on in three… two… one.” Just then, Kyle saw the camera turning from side to side.

  “Cool,” Kyle said and grinned. “So?” Kyle asked trying to see what happened.

  “He didn’t have enough time to check.” Jenny said as she pushed her way through the crowd.

  “Can you check it at home?” Kyle asked Paul. Paul shook his head.

  “No, my mom is watching me like a hawk at home. I’ll probably be able to look at it on my way home, but I need one of you to take it afterwards.” Kyle knew that Paul wouldn’t be able to take the watch home if his mother was watching him that closely. Kyle would have volunteered to take it home with him, but he feared that something would go wrong if he took it home.

  “I don’t want anything to happen to it.” Kyle said walking into the classroom. “Can you take it home with you, Jenny?” They walked up the stairs and took their seats. Jenny nodded her head.

  “Sure, I won’t do anything to it. I don’t want to end up two years old.” Kyle looked at Jenny and blushed. She didn’t mean to make him feel bad, so she looked towards the front of the class and made it look like she didn’t notice him looking at her. She avoided eye contact with him the remainder of class.

  ****

  “Neither the bus rides nor the train ride seems to get any easier,” Jenny said once their blindfolds were taken off at the train station. She thought it was pointless to be blindfolded on a bus and train that had no windows.

  “It used to bother me back when I was in elementary school,” Paul said as they began walking up the long stairs to the main subway line. “I don’t even notice the blindfolds anymore because it’s second nature to me now.” Kyle followed behind Paul. He looked around at all of the other students. He wanted to talk a little bit about the watch that Paul just made, but he didn’t want anyone to overhear them. He specifically didn’t want Larry to overhear them.

  “So we’re stopping by the park for a little while right?” Kyle asked as people walked quickly by him. He was constantly being squished by other students who were in too much of a hurry.

  “Yeah, but we can’t be long. My mom wants me in the house at a specific time.” The darkness surrounding them eventually faded once they came out of their secret train area. The subway for normal people was filled with people trying to get on and off the trains.

  “Okay, let’s get there quickly so that you can look at it.” Kyle suggested and they began walking quickly through the people.

  It took them fifteen minutes to get to the park and once they did, Paul immediately grabbed the watch out of his pocket.

  “Now let’s see what we have here.” Kyle and Jenny watched Paul as he examined the watch with blank expressions on their faces. It looked like a regular watch so they didn’t know what they needed to look for. “Hmmm,” Paul furrowed his brow and looked into a small crack that was on the side of the watch. “I noticed the other watches looked like this, but this isn’t supposed to be like this.”

  “What? What did you find?” Kyle said looking at the watch closely.

  “You see this wire here?” Kyle had to squint in order to see what Paul was talking about.

  “I guess.” Kyle said unsure. Jenny leaned in closer to look as well.

  “Yeah, the little white wire right?” Jenny said and Paul nodded his head.

  “It has a very slight electrical current going through it that it shouldn’t have.” Kyle and Jenny looked at each other in confusion.

  “What does that mean?” Jenny asked and laughed. Kyle heard what Paul said, but he didn’t understand a lick of it so he busted out laughing as well. Paul smiled and blushed.

  “Sorry, it basically means that the electrical current is nine times out of ten the problem.” Kyle nodded his head.

  “So, how did that change George into a kid?” Kyle asked his head. Paul stopped and thought about that for a moment.

  “That I am not sure of,” Paul said after a while of long thinking. “I have some theories, but I want to be absolutely sure that they’re correct before I share them with you.” Kyle and Jenny still didn’t look convinced. “Besides, it’ll give me enough time to think of a way to explain it to you without confusing you.”

  “Thank you” Jenny said and laughed again. “I think my head is going to explode. I’m smart, but what you’re saying is far more advanced for people our age.”

  “Well, I guess you to need to read higher level books.” The three of them had a laugh and Kyle felt relaxed and happy. Jenny and Paul really knew how to turn a bad day good again. Kyle was hoping that Paul would have more information to share with them tomorrow. The three of them decided to go their separate ways and Jenny made sure to put the watch into her bag so that nobody could take it from them.

  They walked away and when the coast was clear, Larry stepped out from behind a tree and grinned.

  “Busted.”

  Chapter Five

  Kyle happily jumped off of the bus once they had made it to school. He was looking forward to seeing what Paul had found out. They had a few minutes to talk before they had to hustle to class. Layla and Robyn, two girls who had become close to Jenny, walked towards Kyle, Paul, and Jenny. They hadn’t talked much since they began the competition because Layla and Robyn wanted to get promoted just as badly and Kyle, Jenny, and Paul did. At that moment, they were rivals.

  “Hi,” Layla said a little less chipper than normal. Jenny could tell that something was off with her friend.

  “Hey, how are you?” Jenny asked with a warm smile on her face. Kyle and Paul, said hi to Robyn once she smiled their way.

  “I’m okay, but we can’t talk long. Robyn and I are working on something. There’s something that I think you three should know.” The seriousness of her voice caught Kyle’s attention.

  “What’s wrong?” Kyle asked her with a concern expression on his face. Whatever she had to tell them, he knew that he wasn’t going to like it.

  “We didn’t hear much, but Robyn and I overheard Larry talking about you three this morning.” Kyle, Jenny, and Paul looked at Layla in surprise.

  “What did he say?” Paul asked.

  “Well he told some boys that he caught you doing something that you’re not supposed to be doing and he was going to expose you during our next break.” Kyle and Jenny looked at each other. “That’s all I know. See you later.” And just like that, Robyn and Layla walked away. Kyle looked around and made sure that nobody was paying attention to them.

  “I think he might have been at the park with us last night.” Paul said all of a sudden.

  “What makes you think that?” Jenny asked.

  “I felt like someone was watching us when we were talking, but I was so busy with my watch that I thought it was all in my mind. Now I’m absolutely sure that we were being watched and it was Larry who watched us.” Kyle’s palms started to sweat as he s
queezed them tightly together.

  “Hey,” Kyle said calmly, much too calm for him when they were in a sticky situation. Jenny and Paul looked at Kyle. “We have to try to change George back today.” Jenny looked at Kyle like he was out of his mind.

  “Are you crazy? Do you honestly think that he figured it out that fast?” Jenny asked glaring at Kyle.

  “Yes, because he has.” Kyle was sure that Paul figured out how to change George back. Even though Paul appeared to have been shocked about Larry, he didn’t seem as worried. Kyle stared at Paul long and hard knowing that he was right. Jenny looked at Paul then, but he was wearing an unreadable expression on his face. Then all of a sudden he grinned and placed his hands behind his head.