Baby, You're a Rich Man

Chapter 7

Patty, Bryan, and Mary didn't need to be asked again. My heart pounding so loudly I was sure someone could hear it, we all shuffled through the demolished wall of the Milford Hideout, but while the other four scrambled behind the back wall, I headed for the tall grass.

"Get back here," Patty whispered firmly, grabbing me by the collar and yanking me into hiding.

We all squatted, with Bryan peering through one of the destroyed windows.

"Anything out there?" Ritchie asked him.

"Yeah, Professor Grundy," Bryan whispered back.

"Oh really?" Patty spat sarcastically. "Maybe we need someone a little more intelligent keeping watch."

"Sim, Bryan, this is not the time," Mary groaned, and I noticed with annoyance that even she called Patty by her middle name.

"He's coming into the hideout," Bryan said suddenly. This time it was I who pulled him down, out of eyeshot of Professor Grundy.

"I know there's somebody around here," I heard a gruff voice exclaim from inside the hideout.

Run, I mouthed, fearing for my life, but Patty shook her head.

Ritchie took the lead, crawling around to the side of the hideout, motioning for us to do the same. We did our best to follow suit without making noise, but I winced as I heard the soft shuffle of the grass with every movement we made.

Bryan snuck another peek into the hideout, but Patty elbowed him in the side.

"He's leaving the hideout," Bryan whispered angrily, clenching his side in pain.

"Now we run," Patty said in a perfectly audible voice, and I didn't have to be told twice. We rushed towards the tall grass at lightning speed. Once we reached it, I heard an audible, angry "Hey!" and I knew that Professor Grundy had seen us, or the backs of us at least, but if he didn't catch us, he wouldn't know which students to punish. I realized now how ingenious Patty and Ritchie's plan had been...luring Professor Grundy into the hideout in order to make a quick escape in the other direction. My mind had just been in fight or flight mode.

I snuck a quick peek behind me and noticed that the distance between Professor Grundy and us was growing. If he really was as old as Patty claimed he was, I knew that we would have no problem outrunning him.

By now we had escaped the tall grass and had a safe route back to the dorms.

"Why would Henry Milford-" I panted between strides, "-keep his office so far away from the main building?"

"Same reason he would hide a fortune in his school," Bryan answered with a grin. "The guy's a freak."

"Will you two stop chatting and run?" Patty demanded.

"It's cool, I think we're losing him," Mary told her.

"The guy's not exactly a star athlete," Ritchie added.

"We still have to go straight to our dorm rooms. He's probably gonna walk past all the doors to check for lights out, and that'll be a dead giveaway," Patty informed us.

"Of course, Sim and I are probably safe," Mary said. "I wouldn't expect him to check the girls' side of the dorms. It's you three boys we have to worry about."

We rushed past the school building, and I could see the dorm building closely ahead.

As Mary, Bryan, and I rushed towards the building, I couldn't help but notice that Patty and Ritchie still had time to sneak a good night's kiss.