Free Flower Feud by Catherine R. Daly

weirdo!
    “Yeah, it’s true,” I said hastily. “Is that it?”
    “It is?” said Hamilton. He looked at me closely. “I just don’t get it. I’m sorry, but he’s such a … jerk.”
    I shrugged. “Like I had a choice?”
    Now Hamilton looked really confused. His brow wrinkled. “You didn’t have a choice?” he asked.
    “It was assigned,” I explained with a sigh.
    He gave me a blank look.
    “By our teacher,” I clarified.
    Hamilton opened his mouth as if he were going to ask me another question. But nothing came out. He shut his mouth and frowned.
    Just then Poppy poked her head out of the door. “Del!” she called. “Wait till you see, come quick! Aster just made a …”
    I shook my head as crazily as Buster does when he’s playing with one of his squeaky toys. “I’ll be there in a minute, Poppy!” I shouted frantically before she could spill the beans. “Go back inside. Right now!” Poppy stuck out her tongue at me. But she listened. I turned back to Hamilton. “I’ve got to get back to work,” I told him.
    Hamilton let out a long sigh. “Okay. Bye, Del,” he said somewhat sadly.
    Without giving him another glance, I marched back inside. The bell rang, mocking me with its merry tone. I was officially ticked off.
    “Look at this, Del!” Aster said, holding up a double ring corsage. She’d glued two plastic rings together and covered them with tiny flowers and sparkling jewels. It was seriously cool looking, but I was still seething.
    “Who came by just now?” Dad asked, glancing out the door.
    “Oh, just some kid I know from school,” I replied through gritted teeth. “Not a customer. At all.”
    “Hey, honey,” Mom said, not noticing my anger. She held up my phone. “Let me take a picture of the ponytail holder.”
    I turned around so she could get a good angle, and realized with horror that I’d worn it in front of Hamilton. Had he noticed it? Would he report back to his mother? Would she steal our cool idea?
    How stupid of me! I couldn’t believe I had ever been interested in a blatant spy like Hamilton Baldwin.
    The war had escalated. Hamilton had gone behind enemy lines. It was time to counterstrike.

Chapter Eight
    I realized there was only one way to find out what Hamilton had learned from his spy mission. I would spy right back. It was only fair, right? And I would do it alone, I decided, remembering my last spying mission with Becky. She had cracked under pressure, big-time.
    I couldn’t tell Mom the truth, because then I would have to explain about Hamilton. And I just wasn’t ready for that yet. So the next day, I asked for a ride to the mall, saying that I needed to go shopping for the prom.
    Mom smiled. “Oh good,” she said. “Dad and I have some errands to run today and I wasn’t sure what we were going to do with Poppy.”
    I shook my head. I did not want to take my five-year-old sister on a top-secret spying mission! But Mom was firm — if I didn’t take Poppy, I was not going to the mall. End of story.
    So that’s how my five-year-old sister and I ended up being spies together.
    “Now, this is a secret,” I told her once Mom had dropped us off with strict instructions to meet her at the south entrance at four o’clock. “A special, oldest sister–littlest sister secret we have to keep for a while.”
    Poppy nodded solemnly. “Keep it secret. Check!” she said. She reached into her evening bag and pulled out a notebook and a pen. “I’ll take notes,” she told me.
    I rolled my eyes. Poppy doesn’t know how to write yet.
    “Okay,” I whispered. “They don’t know you at Fleur. But I’ve been here before. I don’t want to be recognized, so I’ll have to wear a disguise.” I reached into my shoulder bag and pulled out a floppy hat and a pair of sunglasses.
    Poppy scribbled some jagged shapes in her notebook. “Disguises. Check!” Then she looked at me. “I definitely need a disguise, too,” she said.
    When I told her she actually