The Academy (Part 2 of the Syndicate Series)

Chapter 18- Their Own Kind of Riot

Rosine:

"It's getting later," Phoenix hissed, her anxiety finally showing through.

I couldn't blame her, the clock was on 7:55, and we were watching the seconds at this point. This type of high stakes situation was something I was more used to, however, so while the other girls nervously skittered around the room, I merely sat back against my bed and took deep breaths, just like how my uncle Claude taught me.

Forte seemed nervous, but more calm than the others as he leaned back against the wall next to me. "Are you two ready?"

Nyoka and Daitan threw glances at each other, finally breaking each other's stares to turn back to us and nod. Daitan pressed her lips together as Nyoka spoke for both of them, "We're ready."

"You're going to have to play up the innocence," Phoenix nodded pointedly at their tense stature.

Daitan just shook back her shoulders and closed her eyes for a second, letting her entire facade suddenly fall into a carefree look. It was almost a little frightening how quickly her affect changed, especially when it was in contrast to Nyoka, who required a few deep breaths to reach the same level of peace.

I gave them my own grim nod, "And remember. As soon as those lights go out, you get back here as fast as possible."

As the clock flickered closer, they opened the door and stepped out into the hallway. When it was closed behind them, Phoenix, Forte, and I, all hurried to the door and pressed our ears to it. We could hear a knock at the door on the end of the hallway, and excited voices of other girls. After another few seconds, other doors could be heard opening, and more people could be heard. The girls did their jobs well, whipping people into what sounded like quite the frenzy of excitement.

"It's almost sad to me how excited these kids are to just break the rules of curfew," Forte mused. "It's probably the closest chance any of them had at being rebellious."

The voices started to dim as the students all began to merge together and head towards the cafeteria. I stood upright once they couldn't be heard anymore, "I know they won't smash any windows or cause physical damage, but after knowing what this school really is, I almost wish they would."

"Trust me, this is big for these students," Phoenix grinned, grabbing a small backpack with our emergency tools for cutting the power. "It's their own kind of riot."

"Let's just hope that it draws all of the staff down there," I muttered, making sure that my shoes were double knotted.

Forte slung his own backpack over his shoulders, duffel resting underneath the bedroom window with ours. "You two be careful. Especially you, Rosine. Take it easy on those ribs, even with the pain meds. As soon as those lights go, they're going to send someone to the breaker room. Get as far away as possible as quickly as you can."

"We should have time," Phoenix assured him. "Once we cut the power, you'll be able to raise the garage door manually and get a car out without alerting anyone. And we'll meet the others back here, hopefully we'll be able to get our window open before they get the alarm back up. Then we make our way around the building to you without anyone the wiser or looking for us."

"I'll be waiting," He guaranteed before dodging out the door and disappearing down the hall.

Phoenix checked her watch again, "I think we can go. It'll take us a little longer to get to the electrical closet, but that's good. Nyoka and Daitan are going to need an extra couple of minutes to really get the party going and put some momentum into it. We can't make it easy for the teachers to calm everyone down."