Runaway- Book 1 in the River and the Romanovs series

The Plan

"Mr. Arang?" I knocked softly on his pine door, letting the smell flooding through my nostrils. "May I come in?"
"Yes, River." he replied gruffly. "You know the drill."
I opened the door, glanced and nodded up at Mr. Arang (who was sitting behind his mahogany desk) who nodded back. Then I walked to the back of the room, grabbed the plunger, and left to go to the nearest toilet. It was only a few halls down.
I opened the door, called out, "Anyone in here?", got no reply, then walked into the nearest stall and started plunging.
How are we going to get out of here? There is security at every corner of this place, security cameras in everyone's room, so we don't even get common privacy in here. I think that means Reygan and I can't actually draw a plan. And I think I overheard Mr. Arang talking about some stupid device that can read our minds. That won't help. I continued to think as I walked from toilet to toilet and kept plunging away.
Beepity beeeeeeep, beepity beeeeeep; my phone rang. I drew it up out of my pocket, and picked up.
"Hello?" I asked.
"ReeV! Ok, so while I was with Minnie Kate, I saw a tunnel through her room downstairs and onto the trail! We could use that to get out!" Reygan cried excitedly, and I could hear her thumping on the floor.
"That's amazing, Reggy! But the question is, when?" I asked. "I think we should do it after the trip to the city, because the security's going to find out."
"5 days. I can't wait that long. We can't wait that long because the security's going to find out. We have to run either today or tomorrow, otherwise it won't work."
"We plan our pranks a year ahead, and no one ever knows about any of the pranks we do."
"Point is?"
"We could pull it off!"
She laughed. "River, running away isn't as easy as pulling pranks."
"Wish it were. You know, pulling a prank would be an easy vehicle to get out of here..."
"We are not going to pull a prank to get out of here, Ree. That would be too chaotic, and that puts something else we have to plan on our shoulders. No."
"Ok, Mom!" I said scornfully. She hung up.
"Whatever. I got a job to do." I muttered to myself before I stepped a foot onto the toilet and stuck the plunger.
"Hey, River! You're done, same time tomorrow." Go to bed." the advisor of my age group (9-12), Ms. Beklyn called into my bathroom a few hours later.
"Thank you! Good night!" I called back, before I pulled the plunger out of the last toilet for the night, pushed the door open, and ran down the stairs to Mr. Arang's office. I knocked ("May I come in?" "Yes, then go to bed. It's 11:00."), jogged in, stowed the plunger in the same back area, ran out, tiptoed upstairs, and slipped into my room.
The lights were already out, and Reygan was asleep in her bed. But apparently she was awoken by me walking in (she's a super light sleeper), because she stirred and sat up.
"Hi, sis." she murmured, still obviously sleepy.
"Hey." I said, before I stalked over to our trunk, opened the 2nd drawer, and grabbed a t-shirt and athletic shorts to sleep in.
"Toilet duty kept you late, I presume?" she asked.
"Yup. 3 hours of thoughts and plunging up the toilets. Even the boys."
"Oh, Riv! I feel so bad for you!" she said.
"Mmmhmm. Ms. Beklyn and Mr. Arang said we have to get to bed." I replied.
"Well, obviously. Of course they want us to go to sleep. You know..." she beckoned me forward. She leaned over so she could whisper in my ear. "I think that they're up to something they don't want us finding out about."
"Oh my gosh! I overheard them talking about some device that can read our minds ever since Jake ran away, and Evelyn got lost on a trip."
"I'm finally not the only one!" she laughed. We high-fived. "And this gives us another excuse to get out of here!"
"Yep! How about the day after we go to the city?"
She signed and her shoulders heaved. "Ok." she agreed reluctantly.
"You'll get to celebrate Minnie Kate's birthday, you know. To make you feel better."
She smiled. "Thanks. 6 days. I'll mark that on my phone." she said before she walked to the trunk, grabbed her phone off it, and allowed the phone to light up her sleepy face.
I grinned, then went over to get my phone. I also had to mark it down on my calander, otherwise I would surely forget.
"Ok! Done!" Reygan said cheerfully. "Goodness, the light." she muttered.
"Uh, huh. Got mine down too. Can't forget!" I added.
"No! That would not be ideal. At all." Reygan agreed. "Well, are we going to go to bed, or what?" she grinned.
"Heck no! We have planning, and I figured out how to hack into the security cameras! So we can do some spying!" I shook my head.
"Nice! Well, I think I am too, because I didn't go to bed!" she admitted sheepishly. "Instead, I was spending my time writing out a genius plan! But, then I got tired, so I put it up until you got back."
"Rule-breaking twins!" I held up my hand for a high five.
"That's the way to do it!" she smacked it. But she missed and slapped my forearm, and my hand hit her elbow.
We laughed. "Redo!" we tried to high-five each other again - it went way better! Then came the footsteps from outside the hall; we looked at each other and nodded. We hurled ourselves into our comfy beds and pretended we were sound asleep, making no noise whatsoever.
Sure enough, Mr. Arang and Mr. Shocker (co-Headmaster) barged right on in.
"Alexander, are you sure you heard voices in here? Reygan and River are obviously sound asleep." said Mr. Shocker.
"I could've sworn it." Mr. Arang said gruffly. "I don't believe Reygan would've, but who knows what River could and will do, that little troublemaking child."
My fist clenched from underneath my covers, and temptation to leap up and give him a piece of my mind rushed through my bloodstream.
"Did you hear that, River? You're just a troublemaking little girl, only good for cleaning the toilets."
Stay calm, River. He's trying to provoke you. Don't give in, Ree. He's just trying to provoke you, and you know why you always cause this amount of mischeif. Stay calm, don't wake up. Go to sleep, it's 11:30 anyways. You're worth more than what someone as stupid as Mr. Arang and Mr. Shocker think of you. Don't him. Go to sleep, Ree. You're okay.
To my surprise, it was Reygan who leapt up. How do I know? Her bed bounced and she yelled, "How dare you speak of my sister that way! For the record, this place is even more boring than sitting around on the curbs, waiting for a bus to come, and she is one of the most brilliantly blessed people I know! And to be honest withyou, I don't blame her for always pulling pranks to get some entertainment in her life, because you force us to be all orderly and strict! So I suggest you get out of our business, or else we'll force you out of it! Do you understand me? Or do I need to make myself clearer?"
"Detention! Detention upon all of you and all of your family!" Mr. Arang yelled back and stomped around the room.
"Oh what was that? I couldn't hear you above the voice in my head saying, nah. He's the one that needs to get his rear end into detention because it's always cooler to be defending those who you really care about." I snapped.
He said nothing. Mr. Shocker walked out of the room while saying, "I'm staying out of this."
"Matthew! Help me with these girls! Ugh, just like their uncle."
I froze up. "How do you know my uncle?!" I asked quickly.
"Don't ask questions, kid. Detention, 8:00, go to bed."
"I  have to give Minnie Kate her medicine." Reygan said.
"You're excused, Reygan. River, 8:00."
"Toilets."
"OH MY GOSH, WOULD YOU JUST COOPERATE, KIDS?!?!?! I CAN'T DO EVERYTHING!!!"
"Sorry not sorry!" I bounced back into my bed, after grabbing my phone and snapping a photo of Mr. Arang's face, that looked at us in shock. I laughed.
"You should go to bed, Mr. Arang. Tomorrow you have to prepare for you Precious' birthday, and you don't want a sweet little 5 year old girl to be upset on her 6th birthday, do you know?" Reygan coaxed.
"TELL THAT TO MOM, REY!!!" I yelled.
"I WASN'T TALKING TO OR ABOUT YOU!!! GO TO BED!!!"
"SAME TO YOU!!!"
"THAT'S WHAT I PLAN TO DO!!!"
"GOOD!!!" Mr. Arang hollered, then walked out and slammed the door in our faces.
We stood there in silence, facing the door, as if we expected him to come barging back in. He didn't, and knew he wouldn't, but still we kept waiting.
Reygan was the one to break the silence. "Well, it doesn't look like Mr. Arang is coming back. I'll show you what I've drawn up." she whispered, before she once again opened the trunk and drew out a roll of paper. She strode over to her desk, and beckoned me forward. I walked over to her, and crouched down next to her.
"Ok, so here's what I think will work. You'll release Monsieur Peterok at dinner (right in front of Mr. Arang), and I'll be in the kitchen stuffing food into part of the bag. While everyone's freaking about some stupid mouse, one of us will run back to our room and grab out bags. Then, we run to Minnie Kate's room, slide down the tunnel, run into the woods, and boom! we make a run for it, and we're gone! Any question?" she asked sweetly.
"Yes. What about Monsieur Peterok? He's our precious!"
"Oh yeah! Well, hopefully, you'll be able to secretly grab and run out! Monsieur Peterok shan't die!" she fist-pumped.
"No! No, he shall not! Long live Monsieur Peterok!" I yelled.
"Ree! Shut up! Mr. Arang's gonna come up here again!"
"Whatever. I don't care."
My phone beeped. With a sigh and reluctance, I walked over, picked it up off my bed, and tried to see who it was.
I slammed it back onto my bed.
"Who was it?" Reygan asked.
"Mr. Arang." I replied.
"She facepalmed. Then she abruptly looked up at me. "How does he even know our phone numbers?!"
I stood there in silence for a moment. "That's what I'm going to go figure out!" I said, before I walked with purpose over to the door.
"Um, no, you're not. You're going to get in more trouble, and you're already in trouble than you already are, and soon they're going to be looking for us either way!" she protested.
"Exactly! We're going to be out of here in a few days! Who cares how much trouble I get into!" I argued.
She rolled her eyes. "We don't want to leave with a bad reputation. Calm down, and go to bed. It's already midnight."
"Ever heard of YOLO?"  I asked. I then slipped out the door and ran down the hallway before she could say anything else.