Of Thieves And Do Gooders

Not ten minutes down the hallway and it came to a split. Neither Hayden nor Laura were anywhere in sight.

“Well this is perfect,” I said as I threw my hands up in the air. “What the hell is the point of a plan if you aren’t going to follow it?” I asked myself more than Amelia. She was just there as background noise.

But she answered anyway, “I don’t know.”

Very insightful.

I hit myself once in the forehead and then sighed, “Okay, so, here’s the new plan…” I trailed off, realizing I didn’t have a new plan. I tapped my foot impatiently, then sighed again. “Okay, I don’t have a new plan…you got any ideas?” I turned to Amelia, although I wasn’t expecting any moments of shining brilliance or a sudden epiphany from the depths of her great mind.

She stared blankly at me for a moment, and I could already feel myself getting impatient. Amelia opened her mouth once, closed it again, put a thoughtful finger to her chin, and then opened her mouth a second time, lifting the finger like she had a brilliant idea, and then closed her mouth yet again. She then proceeded to shake her head in silent disagreement with herself.

This may be a good time to point out that I am not a patient person when it comes to waiting on people, so, needless to say, I’ve never been good at stakeouts, I always got edgy. “Alright, alright, never mind. I’ll just think of one myself. A quick easy plan…” I murmured to myself. “Okay, so if they split up here, it’ll be easy to just find them at the end of the hallways, right? So if we split up and we find them, then we just bring them back to this point? Sound good?”

Amelia smiled and nodded. “Yeah, okay, sure.” She looked down both hallways and then asked, “Do you want the left or the right?”

“Right,” I said immediately, since Hayden had taken the right every time earlier, then that was which way he would go this time. I felt the need to yell at him for his stupidity, but in order to do that, I had to find him first. “Meet back here,” I reminded Amelia as I hurried down the hallway I had chosen.

Not more than five minutes of twists and turns and I came to a split in the hallway. Great. I took the right, hoping I knew Hayden well enough by that point to guess which direction he would go. Another five minutes and the hall split into three different corridors. I stopped and gaped at the problem. “Shit…” I muttered to myself, frowning and debating on whether or not Hayden would pick the right again. It seemed logical. But maybe Hayden didn’t like consistency and he had realized his choice by this point in time contained too much consistency.

“Raymond? That you?” I heard Hayden’s voice and saw him emerge from the left corridor.

Or…not.

“Yeah, it’s me,” I confirmed and turned my angry gaze on him. “Are you stupid?” I asked, glaring at him fiercely.

Hayden glared back, clearly not appreciative of question phrasing. “No,” he replied quickly and then continued by asking in a smug tone, “Would a stupid person find the way out of here?” He crossed his arms across his chest like a triumphant jackass...Oh wait, maybe he was a just a triumphant jackass at that moment.

I snorted. “No. A stupid person would split up when they weren’t supposed to split up and then lose track of Laura!” I threw my hands up to indicate my frustration.

“Well…do you know where Amelia is?” Hayden shot back.

I hesitated. Caught in my own trap, how embarrassing. “Um. Yeah, yeah I do. She’s somewhere back at that one point where you weren’t supposed to split up.” Yes, excellent cover up, flip the conversation around to target him yet again.

“But you split up at the same point where we weren’t supposed to split up which means you went back on your plan too. So. I believe that clears my record.” Hayden nodded to himself in agreement.

I glared at him. “I don’t care what you say, you’re still and idiot.” I stopped, remembering quite suddenly that Hayden said he had found the way out. “Wait, you found the way out of here?”

Hayden brightened instantly. “Yeah, I did. And I even remember where it is, it’s just down the middle hall to the right at the second split and then straight again at the three-way split,” Hayden said quickly, gesturing to indicate which direction he was turning.

“Yeah, yeah. I got it. You know where it is. Perfect. So now all we have to do is get back to where Amelia and Laura are and then you can lead us through this mess. Sound good?” I was already turning to lead the way before he could even respond.

It was only a matter of minutes before I reached the original split, since it was only a matter of following the twists and turns. The entire time I walked I kept chanting in my head please be here, please be here, please be here. Until finally I could see the end of the split, but I couldn’t see anything but the open space in front of me. Great. There were several long moments in which I held my breath and stepped into the open space before the split hallway.

It was hard not to grin when I saw both Laura and Amelia standing near the beginning of their own hallway. Amelia was murmuring excitedly and Laura smiling politely as she nodded, but she obviously wasn’t interested in anything Amelia was saying.

“Hey,” I called casually and Laura’s eyes locked onto me and she smiled, I was practically a savior.

“Raymond! Amelia said you went to find Hayden, did you…?” she trailed off as Hayden walked out of the hallway behind me. “Oh, hi Hayden. I guess you’re both here. Did you find the way out?” Laura asked instead.

“Yeah. We’re ready to get the hell out of here if you two are,” I commented before Hayden could speak, and already I could feel his glare on my back. Ahh, how I had missed that glare on my back. “Of course, Hayden found it, so he’ll be leading the way.”

Now I could almost feel Hayden’s smug smirk even before I looked at him over my shoulder. Yep. The smirk was there.

“Follow me ladies…oh…and Raymond.” He waved his hand as if to include me with the girls.

I pictured nervous laughter in my head, but physically I glared at him and pointed in the general direction of his crotch before making a chopping motion in the air. Yeah. Maybe that was a little harsh, but hey, I wasn’t feeling too friendly going off of no food for an entire day and then getting lost in a damn maze. Hayden raised an eyebrow in surprise but then rolled his eyes and gestured for everyone to follow him.

I was surprised to find that Hayden actually knew what he was talking about when he led us down the confusing hallways. I had half expected him to stop and pause and stammer at every turn. But despite the confusion of the hallways, Hayden stopped and pointed triumphantly to a normal sized wooden door.

“That’s it? It’s seriously over? Like, as soon as we walk through that door?” I asked, jabbing my finger at the door before going near it.

“Yeah. Pretty much. Test passed,” Hayden replied with a shrug and jumped when I bolted toward the door, nearly knocking him over in the process.

I almost hit myself with the door as I yanked it open and threw myself through it. I paused just outside the door when I realized my haste was unnecessary, since there were no devilish click’s which meant a trap had been triggered. This only puzzled me for a moment, and then I didn’t care. I was just so relieved to see Mrs. Killin Me standing with raised eyebrows and a clipboard in hand, reminding me of an owlish librarian.

“Mr. Fro--” she had begun to say, but was rudely interrupted…

“Freedom!” I shouted at the top of my lungs, in a bellow that could have very well rivaled Brave Heart. I made sure to throw my hands in the air in triumph.

…By me.

“Mr. Frost.” Mrs. Killin Me said sharply, clearly not amused by my theatrical antics. But I could only grin at her, even if she was the most sadistic, evil, crazy old lady at the entire school, I couldn’t help but grin.

“Yes, my lovely Agility teacher?” I crooned with wide innocent eyes.

“Where is the rest of your group?” she demanded, gaze pointed and boring into me over her sharp, beak-like nose.

“Present,” Hayden called lazily, slinking out of the door that I had practically knocked off of it’s hinges. Laura soon followed and then slowly Amelia who was gazing shiftily around the room as if the walls were going to start bleeding.

“Excellent, I see you all managed to make it out of there alive. Although your timing could have been better.” She scribbled away on her clipboard, probably something bad considering she was shaking her head in disapproval. “Your keys?” Mrs. Killin Me asked holding out her free hand while she continued to scribble away, the clipboard being balanced in the crook of her arm.

Amelia and Laura dumped their keys into her hand obediently while Hayden looked sheepish and stuffed his hands into his pockets. I patted myself randomly, realizing that I didn’t have the key I had thrown at the boulder. Hmm…That might be bad.

Mrs. Killin looked startled at the two keys and looked sharply at me, as if it were my fault that both Hayden and I didn’t have our keys.

“What?” I asked sharply, hating that look in her eyes, I always hated being blamed. And those were the most accusing appalled eyes I had ever seen in my life.

“You have two keys left,” she observed pointedly. I nodded slowly like she was stupid. “That’s impossible. That was the room with the most obstacles, you should’ve used all of your keys,” she informed me brusquely.

“Well, we didn’t,” I replied with a shrug, and silently wondered how I had become the front man of our little group.

“How did you manage that, Mr. Frost?” Mrs. Killin Me crossed her bony arms over her chest and waited expectantly for an answer I didn’t really have.

“I don’t know, we just didn’t need them. Don’t you have tapes of that stuff or something? So you can review what we did?” I asked indifferently. I had already assumed that they would keep surveillance on us while we ran the course, in case someone got lost, or if they really wanted to see who did well on the test.

Mrs. Killin Me’s face turned red--I think in anger--and then she thrust her chin out defiantly. “In all my years of teaching at Shadowstep Academy, I have never once felt the need to review the tapes. I can calculate perfectly well by the conditions of the students on how they progressed through the exam and what obstacles the encountered,” she stated proudly.

“Well, you might want to refer to the tapes if you wanna figure that one out.” I snorted and winced as Hayden jabbed me harshly in the side with his elbow. When had he gotten there?

Mrs. Killin Me squared her shoulders, scribbled on her clipboard and then clicked the cap back on her pen. “Three days Mr. Frost. That ought to teach you to keep better control of that mouth of yours.”

“What? Three days?” I frowned, confused and I felt Hayden shy away from me in that instant. I looked sharply at him and he looked apologetic. “Three days for what?”

“Bathroom duty as well as library duty. You will clean the bathrooms at exactly four PM everyday, and then report to the library at five until eight, eat dinner, and then report back to the library until ten. You’re dismissed.” Mrs. Killin Me jabbed her finger in the direction of another door.

“What?” I sputtered, staring at her in disbelief, “What about my other classes--whatever the hell they are--how am I supposed to focus on those if I’m cleaning toilets at four?” I demanded defiantly.

“It won’t interfere. Off you go.” She waved her hand in a shooing motion.

Before I could swear at her in every language I knew with every word I could think of, Hayden clapped his hand over my mouth and dragged me toward the door where Amelia was already holding it open. Once we were out of the room, Amelia hurriedly closed the door and looked at me like I was either crazy or an idiot--I couldn’t tell which, maybe it was both.

“Are you stupid?” Hayden barked, the moment his hand was away from my mouth. “She let you off easy that time, she could have given it to you for a month. You just don’t know when to shut up do you?”

I rolled my eyes. “Whatever, she’s just mad ‘cause I corrected her and may have hinted at her intelligence being a little below par,” I said simply, and then grinned as I added, “I bet she’s in there looking at our tape right now.”

Hayden groaned in irritation. “Why are you so casual about getting punished?” Hayden demanded, watching me carefully like I was an interesting specimen under a microscope.

I shrugged. “They tried it in regular school. It just doesn’t work on me.” I yawned and stretched and then caught sight of the stairs behind Hayden. “Ah! Dude! Move, you’re blocking the exit!” I shouldered past him--almost knocking him down the stairs--and hopped down the stairs two at a time. But that got dangerous about fifty stairs down. So I started taking them one at a time again.

My legs weakened as I caught sight of the first floor--my body always seemed to do that, get weaker when it knew rest was nearby. I jogged to the door despite my heavy limbs and yanked it open, throwing myself into the day--I paused, confused. It was already dark out. “What the hell?” I frowned, stealing a glance from side to side. How long had we really been in that godforsaken tower?

“Looks like we were in there longer than we thought, huh?” A quiet voice said from behind me and I glanced curiously over my shoulder: Laura.

“Yeah. I guess so,” I agreed and peered through the darkness, “Erm…do you know which way is back to the school? My sense of direction sorta sucks,” I admitted sheepishly.

“Sure do. It’s this way.” Laura stepped ahead of me and grabbed my hand, leading me in the right direction.

My hand was completely tense in hers. This was uncomfortable. I was a little more than certain that she’d gotten the wrong idea about me, and the physical contact was starting to make my stomach turn. As soon as we were heading in the right direction, I pulled my hand out of hers, feeling too much like a guy at that exact moment. Alone in a dark forest with a girl who spoke to me in a way a little too similar to flirting…I had to get out of there as soon as possible.

“Thanks. So, you’re new right?” I asked, striking up a conversation easily.

“Yep,” Laura replied.

“So, how’d they get you here? Kidnap you?” I guessed, assuming everyone was recruited the same way I was.

Laura looked over her shoulder at me, a strange look on her face, “No. The headmaster found me, told me about the school and asked if I wanted to come here. Obviously, I said yes,” Laura explained, leading the way, although I could easily see the trail now that we were walking on it.

“Hmm,” was all I said, seething on the inside when I realized I was probably the only one that got knocked out and dragged to the school. But I guess it was for the better, since it would help me in the long run. Besides, if they hadn’t kidnapped me, they likely would have never found me, and I most likely wouldn’t have believed them and declined the offer.

“How about you?” Laura asked, keeping her eyes in front of her.

“Well…I was sort of knocked out in an alley by Damion and Leon and then dragged here while I was unconscious,” I admitted with a shrug.

That startled Laura enough to make her hesitate a step. “Oh. That’s a bit different compared to my story,” She said with a bit of a laugh.

I laughed once. “Yeah, I guess so.” I scratched the back of my head, running out of things to say, this was way too weird for me. Sure, we were just talking, but being alone with her was freaking me out. “What do you think of Hayden?” I blurted and then smacked myself physically in the forehead with a loud slap. “Ah, jeez, that was a stupid question. You don’t have to answer that,” I told her quickly.

Laura laughed a little at my display, but stopped once we reached the edge of the forest and the school was in sight and said, “He’s cute. Like all the other girls say, but I guess I don’t know him well enough yet.” Laura shrugged and then turned and began walking toward the school. “See you at dinner Raymond.”

“Yeah. See you,” I called back, waiting until she was out of sight before I shivered and sat down on the grass wiping my hand absently like I was petting the ground. “Lesbian moment…” I muttered to myself and then fell back onto my back with a sigh and gazed up at the stars. It had been awhile since I had seen them. That was one thing about the city, you didn’t see the stars very often. And it sucked.

As soon as I spotted the big dipper a head appeared above me. I jumped and sat up quickly, startled by the sudden change of scenery. But I soon realized it was Hayden and rolled my eyes, falling back onto my back again. “What do you want?” I asked, stretching my arms out lazily.

“What was that about?” he asked sharply, falling into a seated position next to me on the ground.

“Huh? What was what about?” I asked casually, wondering what part of me and Laura’s conversation he was talking about.

“You wiped your hand off after Laura left. What was with that?” Hayden asked, looking at me as he continued to sit.

“Oh. She had something sticky on her hand. Like, sap or something,” I lied smoothly, although my heart had skipped a beat in anticipation.

I yawned and then suddenly realized I was in desperate need of my iPod. Last I checked it was in my underwear drawer…yeah, it’s a good hiding spot, okay? I sat up quickly and scrambled to my feet.

“Hey. Where are you goin’?” Hayden was already to his feet and jogging to catch up to me.

“Back to our room. I need to get something. Don’t worry about me, I’ll find my way to dinner,” I assured him as I reached the school door and he followed me into the building.

“Alright. We’ll be in the same seats as before, Lee and Dame are probably saving our seats. I’ll go meet them and tell them you’re on your way,” Hayden said as we split down separate hallways.

I found my room easily--thank you photographic memory…and room numbers--and opened the door, stepped into the room and in a matter of seconds, grabbed my iPod, took a step toward the door and froze. My eyes widened to the point where I thought they were going to pop out of my head.