Noah nodded. “Yeah, deal. That’s more than I was expecting so I’m not complaining.” He grinned. He was so excited to help. But tried to play it cool as best he could. He wanted to show his mom he could handle this. Then maybe she’d ask his help again in the future.

Noah laughed a little. He hadn’t wanted to press his luck by trying to bargain for more. Thought it best to take what he was offered. “Yeah! Tell me already. What am I doing? How am I helping? Do I get some cool gear or something? Do I get a gun?”

Noah laughed. He didn’t actually expect his mom to give him a gun. He wouldn’t know how to use it anyway. “Undercover? I hat am I going to be doing? Will I get to interrogate anyone? I could be bad cop.”

“Okay, what kind of information?” Noah asked, folding his arms on the back of his chair and resting his chin. He was eager to help. But knew he needed to be careful, and subtle, while gathering information. He would tone it down after a bit of the initial excitement wore off.

Noah considered for a moment before nodding. He would do whatever he could to get someone talking. Anything so he wouldn’t disappoint his mom. If he pulled this off, she might ask for his help again sometime. “Yeah, I think I could talk to some people. Ask around a bit.”

“We do not blab.” He rolled his eyes and laughed. “But yeah, I think if I ask around a bit, someone will give me something. I just have to ask the right people. Maybe turn on the charm.” He was just joking about the last part.

“Alright, some people post too much on social media. I’ll give you that.” He nodded. But that gave him the idea to do some snooping around on Instagram and Twitter. “Are you saying I’m not charming? That hurts, mom. I’m basically a rockstar. That’s all the charm I need.”

Noah ducked his head away from her hand and huffed in annoyance at her messing with his hair. He reached up to fix it. He might be in need of a haircut. “Does having most of it done count? I can finish the rest in the morning before school.”

Noah looked over at her when she mentioned a haircut. It was like she read his mind. Kind of freaky the way moms can do that. “As in a good portion of it finished. But not all of it. I only have a few things left to do. But more important things to focus on now.”

Band practice is going great. So productive.

Pizza? Can’t say no to that. And maybe some food will fuel some ideas on new lyrics.

“You should be nicer to me. Or I won’t buy you cool things when I’m famous.” He shook his head. “Nah, we’re good. Unless you suddenly became a master lyricist.”

Vacation? Where to?

Uh… is it somewhere warm? I ask to go a lot of places.

So you’re not taking me to Hawaii? Uh… music, obviously.

I’m drawing a blank here, mom. I should probably be able to figure this out. But it’s no clicking.