Tara didn’t answer.
Neither did Zee.
I got Bubbles on voice mail, which was somewhat amusing, because she’d had technical difficulties programming her phone, and the whole prerecorded message was just her going, “Is this thing on? Is it working? If I like say something, will … oooh, what’s that beep?”
I had no desire to call Chloe, and I wasn’t exactly looking my best postmission, so I decided to avoid calling the twins as well. I tried Lucy—who, after all, deserved some major kudos for the bobby-sock bomb, even if it hadn’t saved our mission. When Lucy didn’t answer, either, I dialed the last number on my list.
April.
She answered on the third ring.
“Toby?”
“Yeah,” I said, feeling more than a little awkward. Of all the girls, April was the only one my age, and the one I’d interacted with the least. We didn’t really know each other, andonce upon a time, she’d been Hayley Hoffman’s second-in-command, which meant that the few times I’d registered on her social radar pre-Squad, she hadn’t exactly been friendly. “Listen, I’m at Brooke’s house, and I kind of need a ride. Do you have your license yet?”
“No, but I have a car,” April replied. “Actually, I have two, so it’s no big if I wreck one. I’ll be there in a few minutes—it’s on Calloway Street, right?”
I wasn’t sure, but that sounded good to me. “I think so.”
“Okay. Just hang tight and give me five. Later!”
I hung up my phone, and as I stepped off Brooke’s front porch and walked down her driveway, I hoped that April would hurry.
The sooner I could get away from this place, the better.
CHAPTER 25
Code Word: Kisses
While I was waiting for April, my phone rang. It was Zee.
“Sorry I missed your call,” she said. “I was doing yogalates.”
I wasn’t exactly sure how to respond to that.
“Don’t roll your eyes at me,” Zee said, and I realized that was exactly what I had been doing. “There’s nothing wrong with yogalates. You can’t honestly expect me to spend all of my spare time working on my latest criminology dissertation.”
“I didn’t even know you were writing one,” I said. “And honestly, I thought you didn’t answer because you were either still selling Cheer Scout cookies, or because you were on the line.”
Gossip queens and phones sort of went hand in hand.
“What do you need?” Zee asked. She seemed to know that I wouldn’t have called unless I really needed something, and that even though I’d accepted my position on the Squad, I was loath to ask for help.
“I just needed a ride,” I said. “April’s coming to pick me up.”
“Good,” Zee replied. “You two haven’t spent much time together.”
She sounded like some kind of twisted matchmaker. I was about to hang up, but just as April’s car pulled into view, I remembered that there was one thing about the conversation with Brooke’s mom that was still bothering me.
“Zee? What’s Brooke’s deal with guns?”
Zee didn’t answer, which caught me off guard. Zee always had an answer.
“Zee?”
“You don’t want to know,” she said, “and if you do, look it up yourself. There’s an information superhighway out there, and you’re the web equivalent of a biker babe.”
I just loved crappy metaphors.
