Undercover Friday

The fedora sat on my head like a neon sign screaming 'please notice me.' Mom called it my 'detective phase,' but really, I just needed something to hide behind. Crowds at Northwood High felt like ocean waves sometimes—crash, retreat, crash, retreat—and I was just trying not to get swept under.

"Nice hat, Sherlock," Maya called from her locker, spinning her combination lock with practiced ease. That was the thing about Maya—she noticed everything but made it sound like she was barely paying attention. We'd been best friends since seventh grade, back when I still thought cargo shorts were a legitimate fashion choice.

"Gotta keep the mystique alive," I shot back, adjusting the brim. My phone buzzed in my pocket—again. Third time this period.

I checked under the pretense of checking my nonexistent notifications. A text from an unknown number: 'ur gonna want 2 meet me behind the gym after school. important.'

My stomach did that thing where it forgot how to stomach. I wasn't exactly on anyone's radar, unless 'people who accidentally set off the fire alarm with too-strong body spray' counted as a demographic. Who would want to meet ME? Secretly? Behind the gym? This felt like the start of either a very good day or a very bad one. Or both. That happened sometimes.

"You good?" Maya asked, eyebrows doing that concerned crinkle thing.

"Yeah. Just... thinking about that history test."

"Liar."

"Caught."

The rest of the day passed in a blur of fluorescent lights and muffled whispers. Every hallway conversation felt like it might be about me. Was someone spying? Had I done something? The possibilities multiplied like anxious rabbits in my head. Maybe I'd accidentally walked through the wrong door again. Maybe someone found my old FanFiction account. Maybe—

"Earth to whatever planet you're currently orbiting," a voice said.

I jumped. I was behind the gym, where the cracked asphalt met overgrown weeds and the school's discarded hopes. Standing there was Ethan—the same Ethan who sat behind me in bio, the same Ethan whose hair somehow looked good even after PE, the same Ethan I'd been lowkey crushing on since September.

"Ethan?"

"The one and only." He shifted his weight, looking uncharacteristically nervous. "So, this is gonna sound weird."

"Weirder than the fedora?"

He laughed. "Fair point." Then he got serious again, pulling a small orange bottle from his pocket. "I noticed you falling asleep in class lately. And your hands shake sometimes when you're taking notes. My sister had the same thing—turned out she was low on B12. Like, really low. Her doctor put her on these vitamins and she's way better now."

I stared at him. The moment felt suspended, like someone hit pause on reality.

"You've been... watching me?"

"I mean, yeah?" Ethan rubbed the back of his neck, suddenly finding the weeds fascinating. "I sit behind you every day. It's kind of hard not to notice when someone's head keeps doing the nod thing. I was gonna tell you sooner but I didn't know how to not make it weird. Which I clearly failed at, considering we're meeting behind the gym like this."

"Spying on me," I said. "You've been spying on my sleep patterns."

"I prefer 'concerned observation,' but spy sounds cooler."

I laughed. I couldn't help it. Here I was, thinking I was being summoned for something terrible, and instead, someone had noticed enough to care. Real noticed.

"Thanks," I said. "For the vitamins. And for... you know."

"No problem." He handed me the bottle. "Start with one. And maybe ease up on the energy drinks?"

"Deal."

I walked home with the vitamin bottle in my pocket and the fedora feeling less like a shield and more like just a hat. Maya was right, as usual. Some things don't need hiding behind. Some things just need someone to notice them.