EQAO

Chapter 2 - Pushy Dirt

The school had been closed for ten days now. No one knew why, and every time anyone got anywhere close, police officers would appear. That day was a rainy, peaceful Sunday afternoon. The perfect weather for snuggling up inside, and reading with some tea. However, Anika had invited us all to her garage. Anika's garage had become our little place that we go to when we didn't want anyone to bother us. It was a mess in there. But we had made it a sort of cozy mess. We had a mini fridge, some busted up chairs, and even a table with a broken leg.

"Why do you think they closed the school?" asked Sameera.

The rain could be heard on the roof of the garage.

"Maybe because they saw your face." joked Anika, poking Sameera in the stomach.

"Or maybe they heard Michelle's burp and thought it was an earthquake!" Sameera said.

Michelle belched loudly,

"What are we talking about?"

We all burst out laughing.

"But really," I started, "I wonder why they shut down the school for so long."

"Who cares?" Michelle said popping some chips into her mouth, "No school! No homework!"

"Hey fatty! Save some for me!" Anika reached for the chip bowl.

"No!" Michelle said in a baby voice and pulled the chip bowl away from her.

"What if we go find out ourselves?" I said mysteriously.

"You mean go to the school?" asked Sameera.

"Yeah! It'll be fun." I answered.

"What if we get caught?"

"Well we'll just say we're nosy kids! They won't care."

"Better than just sitting around here and making up rumours." said Anika.

—*—*—*—*—*—*—*—*—*—*—

While we were walking to the school (Anika's house was conveniently very close), we thought about how we were going to get in.

"I think we should sneak around the back." suggested Anika.

"No..." I started, "That's too obvious. There will be police there."

"Oh."

"What if," Michelle said excitedly, "we climb on to the roof, cut a whole in a roof, and-" but she was cut off by Sameera laughing and making ninja moves in the air.

"Okay... well I think our first step is to find an area where there aren't any cops guarding it." I said.

"What about right there?" Sameera pointed to the school front doors that were now in view.

"It's worth a try."

We walked to the doors and pulled. They were locked.

"Well duh they're locked," said Michelle in exasperation, "why would they guard the whole rest of the school just to have the front doors open?"

But I wasn't really listening. I was looking for some other way in. I looked at the window, but quickly dismissed the idea. The school windows opened at a slant, didn't open all the way, and could only be opened from the inside. I looked at the muddy ground, and realized that someone must have been here recently before us. Small patches of earth had been pushed in as if someone had been walking...

"Guys, follow me!" I shouted as I sprinted along the path of footprints that were now being washed away by the rain.

They seemed to be headed over... Huh, that's weird. They were headed toward the back brick wall of the school. That was the place where no students were allowed to go because of all the thorny weeds that had grown. But why did this person go there? Just as we got close, a voice called,

"Halt!"