After class, the five of them gathered in the cafeteria again, though this time the mood was less chaotic and more… confused. Leo immediately pulled out his phone like a detective about to present a breakthrough, while the others leaned in with varying levels of interest. Maya stood with her arms folded, already prepared to correct everyone, Ollie looked excited to guess something completely wrong, Zara rested her chin on her hand like this might take too much effort, and Owen looked deeply concerned—as usual.
Leo held up the photo of the blackboard from the storage room. “Alright,” he said, lowering his voice like this was extremely important. “What does ‘HS’ mean?”
Owen didn’t hesitate. “Happy Soup,” he said confidently.
There was a pause.
Maya blinked. “Why would it be Happy Soup?”
Owen shrugged. “Soup can be happy.”
“No,” Maya said flatly.
Zara raised her hand lazily. “Heroically Sleep,” she suggested. “Because sleep is important.”
“That makes even less sense,” Leo muttered.
Ollie leaned forward, clearly proud of himself. “Historic Semporors.”
Maya turned to him slowly. “Semporors is not a word.”
“It sounds like a word,” Ollie argued.
“That doesn’t make it a word.”
Leo nodded like he had been waiting for his moment. “Hopeful Sneakers,” he said. “That’s what it means.”
Maya stared at him. “Why would sneakers be hopeful?”
“They just… are,” Leo replied.
Maya took a deep breath and pointed at the bottom of the message in the picture. “‘So they follow me everywhere,’” she read. “We should focus on that. That’s the actual clue.”
Leo straightened immediately. “Actually, it’s my turn to lead,” he said. “Everyone got a turn except me.”
Zara slowly raised her hand without lifting her head. “I didn’t get a turn,” she said. “It’s my turn.”
Leo’s eye twitched slightly. “No, it’s not.”
“Yes, it is,” Zara replied calmly. “And I think it means ‘Heroically Sleep.’ Because sleep follows you everywhere.”
Leo stared at her. “That makes no sense.”
“It makes perfect sense if you’re tired,” Zara said.
“It does not make sense!” Leo insisted. “And it’s my turn, so I’ll decide what ‘HS’ means!”
Maya stepped in quickly before things got louder. “Or,” she said, “we could stop arguing about leadership and just solve the mystery.”
Leo looked at her, clearly annoyed. “I didn’t even get a turn,” he said again, like this was the most important issue in the entire situation.
Maya sighed. “That’s not the point.”
“It is the point,” Leo snapped.
There was a brief silence.
Then Leo crossed his arms. “Fine,” he said. “I quit.”
Everyone blinked.
“You… quit?” Ollie repeated.
“Yes,” Leo said firmly. “If I don’t get to lead, I’m not part of this team.”
And with that, he turned and stormed off.
Owen gasped. “He’s been possessed.”
Maya closed her eyes. “No, he hasn’t.”
“By a hamburger,” Owen added.
Maya groaned.
Leo marched down the hallway, still annoyed, and pushed open the nearest classroom door. He didn’t even check which class it was. He just walked in, sat down next to a random kid, and crossed his arms again, still replaying the argument in his head.
The kid beside him didn’t even look up.
His name, as Leo quickly noticed from the name written on the top of the notebook, was Ethan. Ethan was quietly solving a math problem with the kind of focus that made Leo feel slightly uncomfortable. He didn’t react, didn’t speak, didn’t even blink much.
Leo glanced around.
Something felt… off.
The classroom was too quiet.
Not normally quiet. Not “everyone is concentrating” quiet. It was the kind of quiet where even breathing felt loud. Every student sat perfectly straight, their notebooks open, their pencils moving at the same steady pace. No one whispered. No one looked around. No one even sighed.
Leo frowned.
Then the door opened.
Miss Lampshade walked in.
“Good afternoon, class,” she said cheerfully. “Today, we will be learning about atoms.”
Normally, that would have caused at least three groans, one complaint, and possibly someone dramatically falling off their chair.
Instead—
“Good afternoon, Miss Lampshade,” the entire class said at the exact same time.
Leo’s head snapped up.
He looked around again, more carefully this time.
Miss Lampshade smiled. “I’m so glad everyone is following the rules perfectly.”
Leo slowly leaned toward Ethan and glanced at his notebook.
Written clearly at the top of the page were the letters:
HS = Perfect Students.
Leo blinked.
He quickly looked at another student’s notebook.
The same thing.
HS = Perfect Students.
Another one.
Same thing.
Leo leaned back in his chair, his eyes widening as everything suddenly clicked into place. The strange messages. The writing. The behavior. The silence.
This wasn’t random.
This wasn’t normal.
This was—
“Hypnosis,” Leo whispered to himself.
He looked at Miss Lampshade, who stood at the front of the room, smiling calmly like everything was completely fine.
But it wasn’t fine.
Not at all.
Leo sat up straight, his earlier anger completely forgotten.
Because now—
This wasn’t about leadership anymore.
This was about something much bigger.
Miss Lampshade wasn’t just suspicious.
She was controlling the students.
And somehow…
Leo Carter was the only one who had figured it out.
🌀 What Just Happened?
- The team argued over the meaning of “HS” and who should be the leader.
- Frustrated, Leo quit the spy team and stormed off.
- Leo accidentally walked into one of Miss Lampshade’s classes.
- He noticed the students acting strangely and found “HS = Perfect Students” written in their notebooks.
- Leo realized Miss Lampshade might be hypnotizing students—and uncovered the team’s biggest clue yet.
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