The Spy in the Hat

Chloe's worst nightmare had arrived: swimming unit in PE. She'd spent the entire morning strategically applying her acne-fighting vitamin serum, praying her skin would behave, but the fluorescent gym lights had other plans.

She kept her baseball cap pulled low—teachers weren't supposed to let her wear it, but Coach Martinez let it slide because he knew.

Then she saw him. Ryan. Eighth-grade obsession material, leaning against the bleachers in his snapback. Their eyes locked. His freckles. That tiny smile.

"You look like a spy," her best friend Maya whispered. "Channeling your inner mystery energy."

Chloe snorted. "More like hiding my face so nobody sees the giant zit on my chin."

"Girl, nobody notices that stuff but you."

But someone noticed. Because as they changed in the locker room, Chloe's hat—which she'd placed carefully on the bench—was gone. Her heart dropped. Ryan had been near that bench. Had he taken it? Was he messing with her? Was he secretly a spy investigating her weirdness?

She spotted him outside, near the woods behind the school. She crept closer, fully committed to spy mode now, breath catching in her throat. What if he was laughing at her? What if—

A rustle in the bushes.

An actual fox emerged, sleek and copper-colored, something clamped in its jaws.

Her hat.

The fox dropped it at Ryan's feet and nudged his hand like a puppy. Ryan laughed, scratching its ears. He looked up, saw Chloe, and froze.

"You saw that?" he called. "She lives back here. I've been feeding her since winter."

"You—you know a fox?" Chloe stepped forward, weirdly breathless.

"Her name is Ginny." Ryan scooped up the hat, dusting it off. "This yours? She stole it from the bench. She's a thief."

He held it out. Their fingers brushed.

"Sorry," he said, suddenly nervous. "I was gonna bring it back. I wasn't being creepy."

Chloe's face burned, but not from embarrassment this time. "You're not creepy. You're like. A fox whisperer?"

"Something like that." His ears turned pink. "Hey, you doing anything after school? Ginny likes company."

The fox yipped, like it understood. And just like that, Chloe's worst swimming unit day became the day everything changed.