I grumbled, roughly erasing the total on the balance sheet as I stared at my calculator. The debit and credit sides weren't balancing, which means that I did something wrong somewhere.
Four times in a row.
"Wow, Fallon." Demetri joked. "You must really be off your game today."
"Shut up, Metri." He was right. I hadn't been able to think about anything but the gold all morning. We came so close to finding the Karkaroff fortune when we were in Kyler's that night. By all accounts, we should have found gold bars and Russian bank notes, not Marijuana in that closet.
Did that mean that Kyler already found it and moved it somewhere else?
I turned back to my balance sheet, ready to individually check each value against the textbook (again) when my phone began to ring on the desk. For the third time in the past hour, Corey was calling.
"Piss off." I mumbled, declining Corey's call as Mrs. Dunmore gave me a look from the front of the room. "Sorry, Mrs. Dunmore."
"Put your phone away, Miss Fallon. You should be concentrating."
It's not like I took accounting because I wanted to. When your mother is a CPA for the biggest firm in the valley, you don't really have choice.
"Sorry." I apologized again, lifting my phone from the wooden desk and criging as it vibrated in my hand. "Clearly somebody is desperate to get a hold of you." Mrs. Dunmore raised an eyebrow.
There wasn't much I could do except continue to apologize as my cheeks turned pink and I tried to hide my phone in my bag.
COREY: RINGO ANSWER THE DAMN PHONE
RINGO: IM AT SCHOOL DUMBASS
COREY: I KNOW WHERE THE KARKAROFF FORTUNE IS
COREY: RINGO ANSWER ME DAMN IT
I didn't see the last message, zipping up the front pocket of my backpack.
+++
After school, I met up with a few of the other Miyagi-do kids, namely Sam, Demetri, Robby. The plan was always to carpool over to Sam's and watch Debby Ryan's 'Night Teeth' on Netflix. Robby's vote had originally been for Alexandria Daddario's 'Die In a Gunfight', and Sam wanted 'Lost Girls and Love Hotels', but ultimately Demetri and I got the winning votes. Thank god for Sci-fi and vampire nerds.
"I don't understand why you thought the men would be comfortable watching Alexandria Daddario have sex with a mob boss who's like three times her age." Demetri whined, criticizing Sam's movie choice
"Oh, shut up Metri," I joked. "We al know that if it was Twilight you'd be all in."
Robby snickered, and Demetri cried out in protest.
"Listen here, just because I had a crush on Kristen Stewart three years ago, does not mean you can still bully me!"
The four of us laughed among ourselves, descending the stone steps in front of the school building as a certain beat up Honda Civic came tearing into the roundabout, almost running over two kids in Cobra Kai shirts.
Serves them right.
"Ian?' I shouted, eyes widening as I took in the Wheatus music, the smell of weed and the crap in the backseat of his car.
Ian rolled down the window, screaming to be heard over 'Teenage Dirtbag'. "Ringo, why haven't you picked up your damn phone?"
"Because I was in class."
"Whatever, just get in the car!"
Sam looked confused and concerned. She'd met Ian before, but he'd made a pretty shitty first impression after he tried to drink soup out of a pint glass. "But my mom was supposed to pick us up, there's a movie night."
Ian pounded on the horn, making us all jump. "There's no time! Corey's already there!"
"Already where, Ian?" I asked, beyond annoyed. "I swear to god, if you're high right now-"
"He's at the Karkaroff House!"
Robby and I froze, turning to look at each other. This could only mean one thing.
"Son of a bitch." Robby muttered
"He found the gold."
Demetri stared at us, jaw slackened. "Corey found what?!"
I grinned. "Get in the car, I'll explain on the way. We're about to save Miyagi-do."
Robby lunged for the back door of the civic, and I thought the door was going to fall off from the sheer force the Keene boy exerted when he opened it, a mound of half-empty potato chip bags and empty plastic bottles of Faygo and Mountain Dew spilling from the backseat.
"I'm not getting in there!" Demetri protested "I could get a staph infection!"
Robby rolled his eyes, "Come on, Eddie Kaspbrak. I don't think you'll want to miss it when we stick it to Kyler about the fortune buried under his house. Finder keepers, none of it is going to him."
Sam paused, halfway into the backseat. "We're going to Kyler's?"
"Yeah." I replied, pulling open the passenger door. "He lives in the Karkaroff house. There's a lot we never told you."
"Clearly!" Demetri agreed, still reluctant to get in the car with Ian.
"Come on, kid!" Ian attempted to persuade, turning off the radio. "I've got pickaxes and shovels in the back, you can commit murder today if you wanted and I'd never tell."
Demetri glared at me. "That doesn't exactly make me feel safe."
I rolled me eyes. "Demetri, the way that I see it, you could either come with us, or we could leave you here at the mercy of Eli Moscowitz and his Cobra Kai death squad."
That did it. At the prospect of getting the shit beaten out of him. Demetri was quick to get in the car, Robby clambering in after him. Ian had barely waited until the door was closed before he took off out of the kiss 'n ride area, almost running over the guidance office secretary as she tried to cross into the staff parking lot, a box of donuts in her arms now scattered over the asphalt.
It was time to find some gold.
NOTES!!
ONE MORE CHAPTER BROSKIS!!!
also merry Christmas!!
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