ELEVEN

Sundae Heaven. That’s what I thought about as I stood in the living room that evening with my parents and Jaisen Bax. I tried to distract myself with thoughts of a tower of ice cream. It didn’t work.

My parents were cooing over Jaisen Bax. Seriously, they were cooing. Plus, they thought Saving the Whales was a great idea. Who were these people and how did I come to be related to them?

“So Jaisen,” Dad said. “What do you think about the whaling practices that are still going on in other countries? Why can’t we all agree that this is a travesty? You came from Europe, what do they think about it over there?”

“Whaling is harmful to the entire world, but it’s important to understand why those countries continue with whaling practices,” Jaisen said.

I played with the hem of my silky white button down shirt while Jaisen explained differing world-views on whaling practices to Dad. Mom offered Jaisen yet another whole grain rice krispie bar. At least my outfit didn’t suck and I wasn’t for one moment going to entertain the thought that it was probably because of Jaisen. My shirt was even long sleeved and I had plain black pants. My clothes were Save the Whale Black and White, apparently the Save the Whales organizers thought that dressing the volunteers in whale colors would bring us closer to the whales or something.

Of course, my parents hadn’t noticed that these clothes didn’t belong to me. I don’t think that they would notice what I was wearing unless I had swear words written across my chest.

Although Jacque came up with a few outfits that might grab their attention.

My parents. So clueless. They didn’t even suspect that the blonde guy standing in their living room calmly discussing international whaling practices was an International Spy. Who, by the way, had made out with their daughter in the line of duty just a few nights ago.

“I’ll be right back,” I said and ran upstairs to my bedroom to grab my purse. Glancing at the posters on my wall I silently asked Buffy and Batgirl for luck.

When I made my way back down the stairs, it was time to go. I had to drag Jaisen away from Mom before she brought out pictures and further humiliated me. Baby pictures would be bad enough, but knowing my mom, she would bring out pictures of our trip to Hawaii two years ago and no one should see those. Ever. Why did my parents let me get bright pink glasses and a bad haircut, when I already had braces? Thirteen was not an attractive year for me and the evidence really should be destroyed.

Wasn’t it bad enough that I was still a Novice Spy, Level 3? Did I have to suffer further humiliation at the hands of my own mother?

“Have fun!” Mom waved to us from the doorway as we made our way to the car.

“I can see why you decided to go into undercover work,” I said once we were in the car, which I noted was the same luxury spy car that we had gone out in on Tuesday. “Great acting back there, but seriously, eating five rice krispie bars may have been a little over the top. They aren’t that good. They aren’t even homemade. They’re store bought from the whole foods co-op–no trans fats, no sugar, whole grain rice krispie bars. And I am not the kind of girl that a guy would choke down five terrible rice krispie bars for.” I had to stop because I had run out of breath.

Jaisen smiled. “I like rice krispie bars.”

Aaaahhhh! How could one person drive me so crazy? And why did he have to be such a good kisser? Couldn’t he have kissed a little worse? Not eaten the rice krispie bars? Why did he have to take everything so far?

That’s when I realized something. I was not even going to get to use my undercover name. Tonight I didn’t even get to be Veronica LeSage. There would be no slipping into an interesting undercover role. I was just plain old Katie.

To make matters worse, who was the first person that we saw at the Save the Whales fundraiser? Alice Hersher, Norshore High’s answer to the raging hormones of teenage boys. What she lacked in actual beauty, she made up for with her artful application of cosmetics. Hugging her skinny frame was a black and white outfit that made the outfit that I had been wearing on the make out mission look like a nun’s habit. Skin showed through all over her skimpy see through outfit. For one tiny second I wished that I wasn’t quite so covered up.

Immediately she was all over Jaisen. “Hi, I’m Alice Hersher,” she said in her baby doll voice. “You must be Jaisen, I’ve seen you around school, but I had no idea that you cared about the whales.”

I turned to Jaisen to see if he recognized her name from our conversation at ONC Corp. where I had described her as the easiest girl at Norshore High. He recognized it. His eyes twinkling, he held out his hand to shake hers.

Ignoring me, she took Jaisen by the arm and led him off into the kitchen. “I bet you’ll be a big help in the kitchen with all of those muscles of yours,” she said as they disappeared through the swinging doors.

Gag me.

Sighing, I followed them. While Jaisen was being cooed over for the second time that night, I was handed an apron and a tray of champagne flutes by one of the other volunteers, who didn’t bother looking at me to realize that I was too young to serve them. I entered the dining area. Giant videos of whales were projected onto the wall, making me feel as though I were at an aquarium. Whale sounds were piped in over speakers. A tiny drop of Save the Whales fervor niggled its way in–not that I would ever admit this to anyone.

“Hey, you’re a new volunteer, aren’t you?” A shortish guy with bad skin that I recognized vaguely from Norshore was at my shoulder.

“Um, yeah.” I smiled.

“Looks like table five could use some alcohol.” He smirked and pointed at a table in the middle of the dining area. It was full of stuffy looking over sixty men and women, diamonds flashing. I headed over to the table and passed out the champagne. Everyone was smiling.

Then I spotted Mrs. Patent. She matched perfectly the picture that the car computer had come up with–her smile stiff and painted on. Veronica Sabre Name Stealer sat beside her, her mammoth purse at her feet. I was out of champagne so I scuttled back to the kitchen to try and get reloaded before Mrs. Patent’s table got served.

I was five feet from their table when I heard the voice again at my shoulder. “Watch out for that one, she looks dangerous,” accompanied by a little giggle. The short guy was back and was gesturing towards the scrawny Veronica and making some weird cat fight gestures with his hands. This guy wasn’t helping at all. What I needed was to get close to the table and listen for any dropped hints about Franklin Culpepper and why he had disappeared.

“Thanks.” I shot forward as quickly as I could without spilling the drinks. Mrs. Patent smiled her painted smile at me. Veronica smiled at me too, but the smile never reached her eyes. It gave me the creeps. Giggle boy had even noticed her, so it wasn’t just me. I made my way around the table leaning in with my tray. Two of the others seemed normal enough–they had that boring businessman look about them, but the third man was out of place. He was large and beefy–stuffed into the elegant suit he was wearing. His large clunky fingers closed around the last delicate champagne flute on my tray. All of these people had probably known Franklin Culpepper–did any of them know where he was now?

I made my way back to the kitchen where I found Jaisen lifting heavy boxes with Alice hanging on him. Obviously, Jaisen couldn’t resist depraved adoration. Why was I stuck with a rookie who didn’t even realize that he should be out there with Margaret Patent and not in the kitchen having a rendezvous with Alice Hersher? I was the one with bruised elbows AND I was the only one working.

Alice turned away from Jaisen’s rippling biceps long enough to notice me. She pursed her lips. “Dinner will be ready to go out in about five minutes. There’s a list of patrons and their dinner choices for each table by the door.”

I nodded.

She sighed. “I better go check on the rest of the servers.” She pulled herself away from Jaisen. “I’ll see you later.” One last simper and she was gone.

“Katie.” Jaisen’s eyes lit up. “How is it going out there?”

“You would know if you weren’t so busy showing off in here.”

“Alice asked me to lift some boxes for her. I didn’t want to be unhelpful.”

“Of course not. God forbid, you should be unhelpful.”

“Especially to that sweet Alice,” Jaisen said, a huge grin on his face.

“Sweet Alice, my ass. Maybe you should focus on being a good little server.” I tossed him an apron. “Alice really doesn’t need another guy after her, Jaisen.”

“What does Alice need?” Jaisen said, one eyebrow cocked.

“Among other things, self-confidence.”

“I see,” Jaisen said.

“Women shouldn’t have to have a man to be happy. I’m not saying that having a guy around might not be nice, but women should be able to get along without one.”

“Yes, I agree,” Jaisen said. Right.

I shook my head and went to go find the list for Mrs. Patent’s table. It looked like she was sitting at table four. I memorized the rest of the names of the people at her table, just in case any of her table-mates were significant.

I brought my tray into the dining room. Something had changed. The atmosphere was different. There were no longer beautiful whale songs in the background. I looked up at the screen. Now, instead of happy whales frolicking in the waves, there was footage of whales with spears sticking out of them. Blood spurted everywhere and there was a boat nearby in the red water. Whalers. My earlier Save the Whales fervor died a quick death. This was dinner entertainment?

I spent the rest of dinner fighting between my desire to hide in the kitchen away from the dying whale footage and my desire to find out something interesting about Margaret Patent and associates. My desire for information won out (along with my spy sensibilities) and I personally attended to all of the needs of table four. I listened carefully to the voices mingling at the table–Mrs. Patent’s rich low voice, Veronica’s nasally thin one, the beefy man’s gruff low one, and the two other gentlemen’s voices lofting at a range in between. I could have saved myself the agony, though, because I didn’t learn squat. Mrs. Patent was one of the most ordinary boring individuals on the planet as far as I could tell. The conversation didn’t stray to topics more interesting than the lobster bisque in front of them or the post-modern rendition of The Oresteia playing at the Rep.

Servers took turns eating in the kitchen and I stopped and popped a few leftover appetizers in my mouth. Stuffed mushrooms, crab puffs, and wontons–a little cold, but still good.

Back in the dining room the after dinner entertainment took the floor. I had noticed a little stage set up with a mic and a drum set earlier in the evening, but it had been empty throughout dinner. Now, however, the stage was filled with the most astonishing thing: three cute guys.

“Since we are just about finished cleaning up here, you can head home whenever you want,” Alice said as she walked by me, standing in the doorway staring at the band. “His name is Alex and he goes to East,” she tossed back with a mischievous grin before she disappeared into the kitchen.

The lead guitar. She had to be talking about the lead guitar. Here was a man after my own heart. All long hair and dark soulful eyes, he held his audience captive with his whale loving lyrics, despite the advancing age of his audience. The bass player and the drummer shared a similar look of grungy hotness, but the lead guitar had all of the magnetism. Alex. How did Alice know this guy’s name? She did make it her business to know every hot guy within a hundred mile radius. I just wondered how well she knew this particular hot guy.

After a while people started getting up and leaving, talking right out loud. Didn’t they realize that there were musical geniuses in the room? How could they be so rude?

The band finished playing and the room was already half empty. I started to look around for my partner, but I had lost track of him. Then I turned around and bumped right into the person behind me.

“Sorry, I…” I said and then I looked up into the brown soul searching eyes of Alex the guitar player.

“No problem,” he grinned down at me. He didn’t turn away. He leaned forward and looked like he was about to say something, but then a voice came from behind me.

“There you are, Katie. I have been looking all over for you.” Jaisen came around to my side.

“Your mom wanted you home by ten. She said that was your curfew on school nights,” Jaisen said.

Whatever Alex had been going to say died on his lips. He turned and left without a backward glance. The man of my dreams was walking away and the only thing he knew about me was that I was klutzy and had an outrageously early curfew.