Revenge of the Undercover Nerd

Six: Victor Vansbottom?!

Over the course of the past few weeks, I'd been hanging out with Ethan, trying to get to know him just a bit better.

It was obvious he was the school's icon or celebrity, so he would be useful in gathering information about the other students that were perhaps involved with The Living Mystery.

But it was hard.

Every time I tried to approach him in the hallway, I'd get shoved past by eager girls and even sometimes guys. We sat next to each other in one class, and it was Social Studies, first period taught by S, or the slut. She made sure to always walk around the room to the back purposely showing off her body to Ethan. Slut was there all the time. Like the entire class period. When I tried to talk to Ethan while she was around she would clear her throat and tell me to focus on my work or points would be deducted. She was spending more time trying to seduce Ethan than teach the class, that bitch.

But sometimes I wondered if it were better that I really wasn't able to get to know him hat well. Maybe it was a signal that if I tred to get close to him like before, he'd throw me away again. I'd have nobody again. Yet something made me keep coming back, trying to get his attention. It was fairly obvious he wanted to talk to me too, with the look of desperation in his eyes as he got carried away by a sea of excited fangirls, or the reassuring smile when the slut scolded me for talking to him.

"Hello? Elodie? Earth to Elle, helooooo? Anyone home?" A hand waved in front of my face, snapping me back to attention. The lively chatter of the lunchroom slowly resurfaced and I faced a worried Caleb next to a confused Kristie.

Kristie raised her eyebrows at me. "What're you thinking about that's so important right now?"

"Nothing--go on,"

"I was just saying that I got our first absolute suspect."

"An absolute suspect? It wouldn't be a suspect if we're not sure if he contributed, right?" Caleb asked, taking a huge bite of his apple.

"I don't care," she snapped back, grabbing the apple out of his hands a taking a bite of it herself just to prove a point. "The boss sent me a message that we have a guy to kill. A few guys, actually."

I felt excitement building up in the pit of my stomach. Stuff was about to go down.

"Who?"

"Well they're all in some kind of gang that sells weed. The leader goes to this school," she had that intense look on her face, her eyes swiping the cafeteria for suspicious activity. "His name?" her voice now a low whisper. "Victor VansBottom."

"Ooh, how evil..." I replied, sarcasm dripping from my voice.

"Hey! The way your mom said it, I could literally feel the chills running down my spine! Don't judge," she complained, pouting and angrily eating her lunch.

Suddenly, she spit the half-chewed carrot out, some brown sauce dribbling down her chin. Caleb and I cringed with disgust as she slurped the thin sauce back into her mouth.

"Mind your manners!" I said in an old granny voice, slapping her arm. She laughed and chewed with her mouth open at me. Then she spit out her rice.

"Ooh, I forgot how bad school lunch is..." She frowned, wiping her mouth.

"Anyway, who're the cronies?" Caleb asked, pointedly looking everywhere but at Kristie's lunch tray.

"I dunno. They go to a different school, but back to Victor, he talks to no one...except other nerds," she looked straight at me. It took me a moment to process what she meant but when I finally understood...