“I KNOW IT LOOKS BAD, BUT IT WASN’T ME,” I PLEADED.
We were back in Ms. Pullman’s office. Neither of us had spoken during the long walk there from Agent Nineteen’s music room.
“Why were you even in that area of the school at all?” Ms. Pullman asked.
Her demeanor was different from the way it had been after the fight at lunch, but it was still calm. Controlled. Not at all the sputtering, shouting mess that Gomez always turned into when dealing with a disciplinary situation. It was sort of unnerving in an odd way. Like when your mom, instead of getting mad over something you did, just told you she was disappointed in you.
I wasn’t sure how to answer Ms. Pullman’s question. So I shook my head. Like an amateur. Sitting there shaking my head, opening and closing my mouth like a dying fish, was basically as good as an admission of guilt. That was me right then: Carson with gills and beady unblinking eyes, struggling to breathe.
The ultimate question was: If she actually was in cahoots with Medlock, then she knew darn well it wasn’t me who had ransacked the office, and if that were the case, then why had she gone down there at all, considering that a spy was trying to complete a mission there? More and more, the signs pointed toward Ms. Pullman being innocent, which raised the possibility that Mr. Gomez hadn’t been framed at all.
“Carson,” she said.
I snapped out of my daze.
“We’re not leaving until I get an answer,” she said firmly. “Why were you in that area of the school?”
“I—I,” I stammered. “I was walking through the halls, just on my way to meet up with my friend. And then I saw the craziest thing; it was this giant, like, rat. And its ears were human ears, or something, and then this tall guy with rat ears showed up and—”
“Let me stop you, Carson,” Ms. Pullman interrupted. “If the next words out of your mouth are anything but the truth, then we’re going to have a major problem. Trust, Carson, remember? You’re giving me very little reason to ever trust you again right now. Think carefully before you speak.”
I exhaled. Maybe she was right. And so I did the only thing I could do, something I’d never done before inside that office. I told the truth.
Not the whole truth, of course, about me being a spy and everything. But I told her that I had been breaking into Mr. Lepsing’s supply closet on a dare. I explained the years of rumors among the kids, and that I had drawn the short straw on being the guy who had to finally find out what he kept in there. I even told her about what I found inside his supply closet, wondering if that part might actually make her think I was lying again. Those wax figures were hardly any less weird or disturbing than a rat with human ears. Then I explained how when I came out of the classroom I saw a dark figure running from Mr. Jensen’s room and walked down there to investigate. And that’s when she found me there, looking guilty, and rightfully so, but for totally different reasons than she suspected.
When I was done, she nodded slowly. “That’s quite a story,” she said.
“I know,” I said.
“But I believe you. I appreciate your coming clean about breaking into Mr. Lepsing’s supply closet. That takes guts, Carson. And intelligence, too. Don’t you think?”
I shrugged. I seriously doubted I was that smart, not after finding a way to botch pretty much everything somehow.
“I’m proud of you,” she said. “Truly.”
“Um, thank you?” I said, shocked that the gamble seemed like it would actually pay off.
“That said,” Ms. Pullman finished, “you’re still getting one week of detention, an hour each day. And a stern warning, Carson. I’ll admit I’m a bit disappointed that you’ve gotten yourself into trouble so quickly, considering what I thought was a very nice meeting we had today.”
“I know,” I said, looking down. “I’m disappointed, too.”
And I really meant it. I liked Ms. Pullman. It was such an odd feeling, actually liking one of my principals. If it wasn’t for the whole secret agent thing, I think I really would have been trying to be on my best behavior. But, as it was, I was a secret agent now and I couldn’t change that. And so odds were that I’d find my way in here again before too long.
But unlike Mr. Gomez, Ms. Pullman wasn’t going to let me keep getting away with it all. She was a woman of her word. She knew it, and I knew it. If I wasn’t careful, I really would get myself expelled, whether or not I was able to save the world.