Agent Orange Tuesday

Marcus thought he was being smooth. Really, he was just failing at being a seventeen-year-old **spy** behind the gym dumpster during third period. His target: Luna Rodriguez, reading alone on the bleachers like she always did on Tuesdays. Not in a creepy way—or so he told himself. He just needed to know if she actually lived in that vintage band tee or if it was some kind of artistic statement about existential dread.

Then Buster escaped.

Buster was the janitor's **dog**, a chaotic golden retriever mix who treated the school grounds like his personal buffet. Marcus watched frozen as Buster bolted across the quad, directly toward Luna, something bright and fuzzy clamped triumphantly in his jaws.

"BUSTER, NO!" Marcus shouted before his brain could intervene.

Luna looked up, eyes wide behind dark rectangular frames. The dog skidded to a halt at her feet, tail helicoptering, proudly depositing his treasure: someone's half-eaten, completely mangled **orange**. Luna stared. Marcus's stomach dropped through the pavement.

Then she laughed—not mean laughing, but actual, doubled-over laughing.

"Is that... is that a citrus heist?" she called out, still giggling. Marcus found himself **running** over without a plan, which was basically his entire life philosophy anyway.

"That's Buster. He's a criminal mastermind," Marcus said, breathless. "Also, I've been technically stalking you from behind that dumpster for twenty minutes, and I feel like now is when I should confess before things get weirder."

Luna raised an eyebrow. "Technically?"

"I was working up to saying hi."

She grinned, and Marcus felt something in his chest do that annoying fluttery thing. "Well, Agent Marcus," she said, closing her book. "You rescued me from a very aggressive orange. That's gotta count for something. Want to sit down or are you gonna go back to your surveillance post?"

Marcus sat. Buster settled between them like a furry, judgmental mediator. And Marcus decided some missions didn't need briefing reports—sometimes you just had to let the dog steal the fruit and see what happened next.