RIFT

Chapter 1- Tunnels

THE sound of pattering feet echoed through the empty school halls, they couldn't stop, being caught would mean big trouble. "Chris, we need to hide or something, Mr. Codobra is not giving up this time!" Jerome shouted, running close behind his best friend, Chris, who took a moment to look behind them both. He winced, boy did Mr. Codobra look angry today. "Yeah, I agree, but where will we go?!" Chris shouted back, still running at full speed down the halls. "Somewhere! If we get caught we'll be expelled! You know my parents are-" Jerome tried shouting back, however Chris fashionably interrupted him. "Yes, yes! I know, your parents are serious about you being in school, and think I'm a terrible influence! You say this every time we're spotted when skipping class. Regrets? None, it's the only time I can hangout with you, bro." Chris smiled truthfully, and offered his hand for a fist bump. Jerome smiled back, and happily gave Chris a fist bump. While their friendship had been rudely disrupted by Jerome's rich and posh parents, Chris still found ways to hangout with his best friend, even if it meant skipping class for the chance to see him. Jerome's parents had told Chris that he is a bad influence...which is true, but did that stop him? Clearly not.

"STOP YOUR RUNNING!!" Mr. Codobra yelled, barely managing to choke his words out because of how out of breath he was. Mr. Codobra is a short, chubby Indian man with a heavy accent, but he's still one of the deans. No doubt he was starting to slow down, Chris turned around and ran backwards smirking at Mr. Codobra. "StOp YoUR rUnNinG!!" He mimicked in a poorly executed accent, causing he and Jerome to laugh. Mr. Codobra scowled and finally stopped running after them, placing a hand on the wall for balance. "Remind me why that guy is a dean again? He's gotta be like 60 years old now, he should look into retirement." Jerome joked, he and Chris stopped running a few halls away to catch their breaths. "I don't know, man...hey, uh, we kinda can't go back to class now. We'll be expelled regardless. I say we ditch school completely, and plead innocent tomorrow." Chris explained, taking a drink from the water fountain nearby. Jerome shook his head immediately. "Oh nonononono, I'm not skipping school entirely. I've got a law studies quiz later for my 7th period! You know how badly I want to be a lawyer." Jerome responds, also taking a drink of water from the fountain. "So what do you suppose we do then, huh?" Chris asks, raising his arms in the air with an obvious attitude. He understood that Jerome cared about his studies, and frankly, he wanted nothing more than to see him succeed. However, skipping class and getting good grades didn't mix so well, for him at least. Jerome had nearly perfect grades and a promising future, even despite his attendance, on the other hand, Chris did get good grades...but his attendance has let him down. Totally unfair, teacher's fault all the way. 

Jerome shrugged, suddenly someone yelled at them from a few ways down the hall. "HEY, GET BACK HERE!" Chris and Jerome shared panicked looks, and saw that 2 other deans had found them. "Uh oh, that sounds like Mr. Wrenier! No doubt Mrs. Wrenier would be following him too. We can't outrun them! THEY RUN TRACK!! I'm telling you, we need to hide somewhere, we stand no chance!" Jerome exclaims, clutching the collar of Chris's hoodie shaking him. Meanwhile Chris nodded, breaking free of Jerome's grip and headed straight for the stairs leading to the ground floor, quickly swerving past Mr. and Mrs. Wrenier unexpectedly. Both deans stopped running, watching as both boys escaped them in shock. "WAHH! I'm guessing you have a plan!?" Jerome shouted, running after Chris, narrowly dodging the deans. "You bet, jump the stairs, it's faster!" Chris responded, picking up speed to successfully jump the fleet of stairs before him, Jerome doing the same. Mr. and Mrs. Wrenier looked downright furious now, seeing that Chris and Jerome made it down the stairs with little to no effort. Chris was right, jumping was much faster, especially since the deans couldn't do it, they had to walk down them normally. Hah, losers.

Chris ran down the downstairs hallway, making a straight beeline for the janitor's closet, that of which he had the only key too. He had stolen it right out of the janitor's back pocket months ago, and since then the school didn't bother trying to call someone to get the door open, as the janitor had a history with losing his key to the door anyways. Chris smirked, how convenient and dumb of the school admins not to consider that someone stole the key, he knew it would come in handy at some point, never telling Jerome he even had it. They both reached the door, and Chris quickly scrambled to get the key out of one of the pockets in his backpack. "Dude, this closet has been locked up for months! What do you plan to do, break it open?? Unless you have an axe in your bag then-" Jerome tried, but then paused upon seeing Chris pull the key from his backpack. "Oh. That's totally fine, you have the key." Jerome rambled, clearly baffled by what he was seeing. Chris made quick work at unlocking the door, and pulling Jerome inside. Just in time too, right as Mr. and Mrs. Wrenier passed by the closet, running and blaring their whistles like normal. The closet itself was cramped and dusty, filled to the brim with old cleaning supplies, but there was just enough room for the both of them to stand and sit comfortably if need be. "How did you get a hold of the key?!" Jerome whispered and smiled, Chris always had the best getaway plans, he never disappoints. Sometimes he wonders why he keeps skipping class to hang out with Chris, especially when they're both at risk of being expelled, but this is exactly why. They've never been caught, always getting away and managing to make every dean and school admin angry, knowing they can't be punished with just their allegations alone. Otherwise, they'd have Jerome's very upset parents on their hands, they believe he's nothing but a good boy, which was true. "I'm the reason it went missing in the first place, I stole it right out of that old man's pocket." Chris whispered back, chuckling deviously while swinging the key on his finger. Jerome scoffed and rolled his eyes, still smiling, "Man, you're evil. The poor guy got fired because of you! Now janitors from the other buildings have to work overtime!"