My Undercover Life

Episode 11

“Hello?”

Hearing a string of curses, and a groan, I tried to make out the voices on the other end. All I heard was someone saying my name but I knew for a fact that it wasn’t my boyfriend’s voice. The voice was way too deep to belong to Dennis. I didn’t even had the chance to figure it out before the line went dead.
“What happened?” Megan asked, probably hearing the loud bang not even a second ago.
“I’m not exactly sure…” I told her the truth. “I was just talking to Dennis like I normally do, and then I heard weird noises before I heard another guy’s voice. And then the phone went dead.”

She shrugged, her shoulders rolling up. “It’s probably one of his roommates.”
I bit my lip. “I don’t know…”
“Look,” Megan started, reading me too well. She could probably tell I was feeling really anxious about this. “At least it’s not a girl’s voice you’re hearing, right?”
“Yeah.” I nodded after a while. “You’re right. But I’m still a bit worried. I mean those noises…”
“Call him again,” she suggested.
“I don’t know, what if he’s still—”
“Who cares, you’re his girlfriend. If it’s just his roommate, he’ll answer it.”
Making up my mind, I nodded my head. Unlocking my phone, I dialed his number. Shaking my foot—a nervous habit of mine—it rang three times before Dennis picked up.
“Hey Lily,” he spoke, his voice a bit rough. My eyes narrowed at that. Is he cheating? “I’m so sorry I hung up on you. My roommate came in asking if I wanted to go on a beer run with him. When I told him no, he practically tackled me towards the ground, and stole my phone from me. Even now, he’s making fun of me for ditching him to talk to my girlfriend.”
“Oh.” I blew out a sigh of relief when I heard the clear chuckle in the background. He’s not cheating. “That’s okay. Go. We can talk later.”
“Um, you sure?”
“Of course!” I exclaimed, “go have fun with your friend.”
“Alright.” I could picture his dazzling smile, smiling at me right now. “Thanks baby. I’ll talk to you later. Love you.”

“I love you too,” I whispered before ending the call.
“So…?” Megan asked with smug look. “Was I right? Or was I right?”
I rolled my eyes at her. “Yes. You were right. It was just his roommate wanting to hang out with him.”
“Told you! Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to head upstairs and practice my new songs. I’ll see you later tonight for dinner.”
“Alright, but don’t play too loudly! I have homework too you know!” I shouted at her, laughing quietly.
I heard her chuckle, as her shoes clicked every time she jumped from step to step. “I’ll try but no promises!”
“Try harder!” I yelled, as I ran after her.
“Again no promises.”
I shook my head, chuckling under my breath. I knew for her fact, she’ll live up to her non-promise.

---

Since I didn’t want a repeat of yesterday, I decided to wake up extra early. So early that when I was fully dressed, both Megan and my mom weren’t even up yet. I had to actually knock on their doors for once. They were surprised when they saw me come in—their eyes wide and their mouth open. After getting over their shock, they headed into their respectful bathroom’s and was in the kitchen fully dressed and ready in half an hour.
They quickly had their breakfast while I put my dishes away, and waited for them in the garage. Demitri and Skylar were both already parked right outside our gates waiting for the long day ahead of them.

Hearing the loud slam of a car’s door, I knew they were both buckled in, and ready to go. In about twenty minutes we were parked in front of school’s parking lot. This time my mom didn’t bother parking inside, instead she let us off at the front. She gave us both a kiss good-bye and told us to have a fantastic day.
“Where do Demitri and Skylar go anyways?” Megan asked, as her electric blue eyes scanned the almost empty lot; save for some cars and the early-bird students lingering around.
I shrugged. “I think they hide themselves a building over or something.”
She nodded, as she pushed open the front doors, letting me go in first. I whispered a small thanks, in which she returned with a smile.
“So, I’m guessing you don’t need me to show you to your classes today?” she asked, switching topics.
“Nope,” I popped the ‘p’, as we made our way up the stairs just like we did yesterday. “I’m good.”
“Oh, thank gosh,” she blew out. “Now I won’t have to worry about being late.” She chuckled.
“Ha-ha. Very funny.”
“You know it.” She winked, flipping her blonde hair back. “I’ll see you during lunch then?” she asked, pausing outside my homeroom.
“Of course.”
After giving Megan a hug goodbye, I headed into the classroom, as I heard her descending footsteps. I was surprised to see that I wasn’t the only one there since I was about twenty-five minutes early today. But I was even more surprised to see that it was Bradlee. He was sitting in the back, scrolling through his phone again. From what I could tell, he still hadn’t noticed me walking in yet. That, or he’s ignoring me—again.
“Good morning Avery.” Mr. Meyer smiled. He waved at me behind his desk with a pen held in-between his index finger and thumb. From the looks of it, he was probably getting some grading done.

I greeted him back, before I made my way over to my seat across from Bradlee. He, of course never looked up once. But when I sat my bag down on the table, I saw the slight movement of his eyes.

As I pulled the stool out, I heard the annoying screech, as the metal legs connected with the marble floor. Flopping my butt on the chair, I clasped my hands together, as I stared at him. Tapping my foot impatiently, I waited for Bradlee to do something, anything. But after a minute of silence, I concluded that he wasn’t going to do anything beside being on his phone.
“Good morning,” I decided to say. I tried to made my voice sound as friendly as ever. I s—-d in a breath, hoping he would at least look up and acknowledge me. But after thirty seconds had gone by, he still didn’t show any signs of looking up. Getting annoyed, I slammed my hands down on the table, causing Bradlee to jerk a little.
“You know,” I barked, knowing I have his attention now. “You could at least say something back. I know you don’t talk or whatever, but it’s just common courtesy to at least give a nod or something when someone greets you.”
His pale grey eyes snapped up at me, but to my utter disbelief, they held no fury whatsoever in them. Given his past record I thought he would be incensed with me. Instead his eyes held a soft glow, almost smothering me with it’s kindness. I bit my lips in guilt.
As I studied his movements, it looked like he wanted to say something, but at the last second he decided against it, and went back to staring at his phone’s screen.
I let out a loud audible sigh, as I felt the gust of wind blowing the strands of hair on my forehead. So close. Feeling the silky texture under the pad of my fingertips, I swept my bangs back in place. What now? Do I keep talking and push my luck a little bit more? Or should I just let it go and be glad he even looked at me?
After having an inner debate with myself, I finally decided to go for it. With that in mind, I reached out for my bag, and started searching through piles of folders and textbooks before I felt the smooth outline of my pencil case. Taking it out of my bag, I pulled the zipper opened. Digging through the many pencils and pens I had, I finally found his pen buried at the bottom.
Setting the pen in front of him, I beamed when I saw him glancing back up. He cocked his brow, and gave me a weird look, almost like he was asking me why I was even giving him this.
“You left this yesterday,” I explained, seeing the confusion wiped away. “Thought I’ll give it back to you.”
He lowered his head in a nod before snatching the pen in his hand. When his attention went back to his phone, I couldn’t help but catch the small flicker of a smile gracing his lips.
I s—-d in a breath of air, gasping in shock. Even though the reaction was small, it was still a smile. Bradlee smiled—at me. He smiled at me! And, it wasn’t even one of those fake smiles people randomly give people they don’t like. No—it was a genuine smile. Something I never thought Bradlee would ever give me in a million years. But he did.

With that in mind, I let one of my own smiles ghost across my face. Though, that smile was quickly wiped off when Mr. Meyer announced we were having a pop quiz when the class finally started. Of, course I wasn’t the only one groaning in detest. Everyone, but Bradlee was complaining about the quiz as Mr. Meyer started making his way around the room.
“You guys will be fine.” Mr. Meyer laughed. “Don’t think of it as a quiz. Just pretend it’s a worksheet.”
“Does that mean we can help each other out,” a girl with really long blonde hair asked.
“No,” he immediately answered her. “It’s a quiz.”
“But you just said—”
“I said pretend, Kimberly.”
I could see the annoyance in her eyes, but she reluctantly nodded and got to work.
When Mr. Meyer got to our table he gave one to Bradlee, and then one to me.
“Try your best Avery,” he told me, “but don’t worry about it if you don’t do so well. I won’t count it since you just transferred.”
“Thanks,” I said even though I knew I could pass this quiz with flying colors.
“No problem.” He smiled before he made his way around the many lab tables and back to his desk. “You guys can begin if you haven’t already.”
With that, I heard the flipping of papers, and the rustling of pencils and pens. I did the same and saw the word Enzymes labeled on the top page. There was only twenty questions, and thankfully they were all multiple choice.
Seeing the Times New Roman font, the first question asked us what organic molecule Enzymes were composed of.
Seeing the choices, I knew it wasn’t DNA or sugar. The obvious choice was proteins.
The rest of the quiz went by in a flash and before I knew it I was already circling my last answer to question number twenty. Letting my pencil dropped, I peeked under my eyelashes and decided to see how Bradlee was doing. His paper was underneath him as his head la!d on his elbows. His eyelids were closed, his breathing deep and relaxed. The muscles in his face looked at peace, his guard down. His lips were parted open a bit, as I felt a gust of warm air coming from his mouth. It smelled sweet, almost like mint.

As I moved closer towards him, I could practically make out the light freckles decorating the tip of his nose, and the little creases on his plump lips. My eyes soon made it’s way up to his hair. It was dark—almost black, like his brother’s. But his style was different. He had his bangs swept to the side, covering half of his ears, while the rest of his hair ascended an inch above his shoulders. As I glanced closer, I noticed a small round thing peeking out of his hair—where his ear was at.
Before I could even make out the item, I saw in the corner of my eyes Bradlee’s hands immediately going up to his ears. He ran his hands quickly through his hair, making sure it covered his ears, before he scanned the rest of the classroom in panic. When his eyes met mine, they were wide-eyed, looking almost ashamed and embarrassed.

Thinking that he didn’t like people staring at him while he slept, I was about to start apologizing like mad, but no words left my mouth when I realized Bradlee was fingerspelling using the ASL alphabet. And that’s when I realized, that Bradlee wasn’t embarrassed that I was looking at him while he slept but because I saw the round device in his ear—his hearing aid.
Bradlee . . . he’s hard of hearing.