The Arts

29 - How It All Went Down

ROBBIE

Everyone was called in for questioning in groups. Depending on who they were with when they were caught.

Since Extended Vacation was the first to be caught with actual stolen goods, they were questioned immediately. Then Gianna and Ivan. Then Andi and Tyler. Then Jack and Meg.

Robbie and Kiara were called in together.

He opened his hand, lacing his fingers between Kiara's, and looked at her. "You ready?"

Kiara nodded. "Let's get this over with."

          Hand in hand, they walked into the smaller room in Ms. Brown's office, where she was waiting for them on one side of the desk. She instructed them to close the door, and they sat down. Ms. Brown's pen was poised over a large notepad.

          "I don't want to keep you here any longer. But in your own words, I need you to tell me your whereabouts of tonight."

           Robbie and Kiara looked at each other, then back at Ms. Brown. Robbie knew what was going on. She was getting everyone's account to make sure the stories all matched. Still, he knew he'd have to fess up to breaking into a room to count the homecoming ballots. And he wasn't looking forward to whatever punishment that entailed.

          "Well, Kiara and I were counting ballots," Robbie started. "Not that we were on homecoming committee or anything."

"I gathered that. It's certainly odd that the girl caught counting ballots ended up being announced homecoming queen," Ms. Brown turned to Kiara, who flushed red and dropped her eyes to the floor, embarrassed.

"That wasn't what we were trying to do, I swear. Kiara's got more integrity than that," Robbie cut in, coming to Kiara's defense. "This might sound a little crazy. But basically, Gianna and Ivan came up to us for help when their donation money went missing. And we thought if we could stall The Flaming Wolves from having to go on by announcing the homecoming king and queen early, it would give us more time to help them look for the culprit."

"I see," Ms. Brown replied, scribbling something down on her notepad. Robbie tried to peek at it out of the corners of his eyes, but her handwriting was too tiny and loopy for him to read upside-down. "But that doesn't quite explain how Kiara was announced homecoming queen."

"That was nothing more than a cruel prank," Robbie clarified. "Meg and Marty won, and we had every intention of announcing it as such. But Meg and Jack caught us, and Meg wanted to embarrass her. She's been picking on Kiara ever since they met, and this was just one more opportunity for her to be a bitch— sorry. I mean, a bully."

Ms. Brown nodded as she continued to take down Robbie's account of the night's events. Kiara was too stunned to speak. Robbie figured she was afraid of muddying the stories. Or maybe she was far too embarrassed to say, out loud, that Meg had it out for her from the beginning, and was cool with Robbie doing all the talking.

Robbie looked over at Kiara, wanting to open the opportunity for her to say anything she thought necessary, and noticed a tear escape her eye. From under the table he brushed his hand against hers, and they laced their fingers together, bracing for whatever Ms. Brown had to say next.