Also Known As by Robin Benway

want it,” I said, and then found myself blushing a little. “You’ll have to show me sometime.”
    I was so, so, SO thankful that this conversation wasn’t secretly being recorded. I think I would rather have been targeted by a sniper than have anyone overhear it.
    “We’ll see,” Jesse replied, then tightened Max’s leash around his hand. “C’mon, buddy, let’s go. Bye, Spy Girl,” he added as Max trotted past me, leaving a drool trail behind him. I watched them leave while mentally readjusting my to-do list.
    Number one: make Roux my friend. Number two: convince her to throw a Halloween party. Number three: invite Jesse Oliver.
    And somewhere in there, figure out how I became such a bumbling, ridiculous spy.

Chapter 4
    The next morning, after tossing and turning for most of the night, I had a shiny new plan.
    And like most of my plans, it involved deviousness, blatant lying, and coffee.
    I started with the coffee first.
    I had come up with the shiny new plan (SNP, because acronyms always sound more important) about three in the morning, after I realized that what I had said to my mom earlier was true: I was cracking a person, not a safe. Jesse Oliver didn’t have a keypad attached to his forehead, and this “let’s make googly eyes at each other” business was going to be a lot harder than I thought it would be. Let’s just put it this way: I’ve never had a safe make googly eyes at me.
    The first step: changing my class schedule.
    The second step: making Roux my new BFF. (Acronyms, like I said.)
    I strolled into the school’s office at eight the next morning, large coffee in hand, still wearing my boring and itchyschool uniform. (Unfortunately, my SNP didn’t involve accessorizing. I’m a talented person, but some things are just out of my league.) Kids were filling the hallways, each person looking cooler than the next. Were teenagers always this loud? I was going to need to buy an economy-sized bottle of aspirin before this job was over.
    “Hey!” someone yelled, and when I turned around, I saw Roux strolling toward me. “Seriously, not even a pin or something?”
    “What?”
    She waved her hand toward me. “Your uniform. Didn’t we discuss this yesterday?”
    “Oh.” I glanced down at my plaid monstrosity. “Um, I thought that was more of a theoretical conversation.”
    Roux just stared at me. “Theoretical conversation? Are you for real?” She continued on before I could even answer. “Look, please, do it for me. My eyes, they burn when I look at this situation. Help me help you .”
    I’ve met a lot of people in my life, but this girl took the cake. “You realize that it’s just a uniform, right?” I said. “It’s not the be-all, end-all of who I am.”
    “Good thing,” she replied. “Because if it was, it would be saying, ‘I’m boring.’”
    “Boring?” I cried before I could stop myself. “ Boring ? Are you kidding me?” I started to laugh. “Oh my God, you have no idea.” Boring people do not flee the Luxembourg government , I wanted to add, but I kept my mouth shut.
    Roux gave me the side eye as I tried to compose myself. “ Riiiiight ,” she said. “Okay, I’m just going to back up slowlyand hustle myself to class while you figure out something to do about this.”
    “You do that,” I told her, still giggling. “I’m sure I’ll come up with a creative use for some safety pins and paper clips in the meantime.”
    “That’s the spirit,” Roux said. “Trust me, I’m trying to save you from social extinction.” Then she turned and walked down the hall, so confident in her stride that people moved to get out of her way.
    I could see that step 2 of SNP was going to need some revising. As was my uniform.
    I shook it off, though, because I had bigger fish to fry. I needed to get my class schedule synced up with Jesse Oliver’s, which meant I needed to get into the school’s computer system.
    This is always my favorite part of the job.
    The