Should've Said No

Fire Alarm Fiasco

The next day, Rosenda arrived at school when Robin came up to her.

"Hi, Rosenda," Robin smirked. "I just came to show you my new G-Phone." She took out the phone, to Rosenda's surprise.

"The G-Phone?" Rosenda gaped. "That's the reason you went to Guatemala?"

"Well, we couldn't order it online because there was no way they'd send it to my house because it's not legal in America," Robin sniffed. "Anyway, I got this pretty necklace, too." She was wearing a pendant that looked like a double-headed snake with a ruby in the center.

"Fancy," Rosenda said.

"Hey, Hero, what do you think of my new necklace and phone?" Robin asked.

"Is that the G-Phone?" Hero asked.

"It sure is," Robin confirmed.

"Nice," Hero said. He turned to Rosenda and said, "I like your necklace, Rosenda,"

"Thanks," Rosenda smiled. "My dad gave it to me." She opened the locket to reveal a picture from Saturday.

"Aw, is that your family?" Hero asked.

"Yes, we took that picture when we set up our art studio with new supplies," Rosenda smiled.

"Aw, that's so sweet," Hero smiled.

Robin was dismayed that Hero wasn't saying anything about her pretty necklace—and she was sure that if she had Rosenda's, people would say things about it...not to mention think Rosenda stole it from her. Robin was sure that would fix Rosenda's little red wagon.

Later, it was sixth period, and Rosenda had history class at this time. Today, the students were doing an exercise from the textbook. Right now, the time was 1:25. While the others were busy, Robin saw this as the perfect chance to take Rosenda's locket. She carefully went up behind Rosenda—but just as she had the chance to take the locket, the fire alarm went off. All the students were surprised.

"Okay, remain calm," the teacher, Ms. Sullivan, said. "Let's get into a single file in the front of the room."

The students calmly formed a line at the door. All the students and teachers were calmly exiting the building. This just had to be a scary experience, a fire in the school. Soon enough, all the students and staff were outside the building, wondering what happened. The firefighters and police had come to the rescue. After about 10 minutes, the students and staff were allowed to go back in—there was no fire, and that was quite a relief. But after that, all the students and staff were sent to the gym for an emergency assembly—and the police and firefighters were there, too.

"Okay, students and teachers," Principal Winston said. "I'm aware that was a scary experience, and it's a relief that there was no fire—but someone pulled the fire alarm as a prank. We all know that's dangerous. Anyone willing to confess that he or she did it?" After three seconds of silence, he said, "Okay, I talked to the police and fire chief, and we made a bargain. We'll be having three strikes if anyone pulls the fire alarm again and we don't find out who did it. We've already gotten strike one—if we get strike three, then you'll all have Saturday detention by performing community service."

All the students groaned—they didn't understand who would pull the fire alarm or why. They didn't like the idea of being in trouble for something that someone else was responsible for. By the time the students and teachers returned to their classes, sixth period was already over. Now it was seventh period. Rosenda usually loved art class, but what happened today made it hard to enjoy what she was doing.

"I don't understand who would play such a dangerous prank," Hero said.

"It happened yesterday at the Uptown Department Store, too," Rosenda said. "My dad said they had to double the security there in case it ever happened again."

"I'm tired of someone pulling the alarm when I'm concentrating on what's important," Robin muttered. "Yesterday, the alarm went off when I was seeing the makeup, and today, it went off when I was trying to..." Then she realized what she was trying to say, and she didn't want Rosenda to know that she wanted to steal her locket.

"Trying to what, Robin?" Hero asked.

"Concentrate on the exercise in history class," Robin lied. Then she took out her G-Phone and saw what it downloaded. "Oh, marvelous! My G-Phone just downloaded the latest flick, War of the Cosmetologists!"

"That's great, Robin," Hero said.

"Hero, I want to invite you to come over to watch it with me," Robin said.

"Sorry, Robin, I can't," Hero declined. "I have homework to cover."

"But I want you to," Robin complained.

But Hero shot Robin an angry glare, which was enough to silence her, and she went back to her easel. Rosenda and Hero looked at each other and shook their heads.

Later, at home, Rosenda's family was talking about what happened that day. Apparently, Ricardo was one of the police officers that came to the school when the alarm went off.

"I don't understand why anyone would do such a thing," Luisa said.

"All I know is maybe whoever pulled the alarm at the department store yesterday could've done the same at Briarwood," Rosenda surmised.

"There's a great chance, mija, but who knows who in the school could've been at the department store?" Ricardo asked.

"Well, hopefully, whoever did it learned a lesson in playing such a dangerous prank," Rosenda remarked.

"I hope so, Rosenda," Elena smiled.

That night, Rosenda was in bed, thinking about today. She was mostly thinking about whether or not she should turn Robin in to the police for smuggling the G-Phone into the United States. She wanted to do that, but she didn't know why the G-Phone wasn't legal in the first place, and she didn't want to be a tattletale.