EQAO

Chapter 4 - The Kat Came Back

The very next day, the rain had stopped. I looked out my window and saw the bright sun shining down on everything. My sister, Janelle, walked into the room and saw me looking out the window.

"What's out there?" she asked.

"Just a beautiful day." I answered.

"Uh huh."

I stepped away from the window and walked out of the room. I felt my phone buzz in my pocket. I pulled it out and saw that I had a text message from Anika. It read,

"My house in 15 min. Going back to school"

I put my phone back into my pocket and walked into the kitchen.

"Hey mom, is it okay if I go back to Anika's house today?" I asked casually.

"Sure honey." she said, but then looked like a horrible thought had occurred to her, "You won't go near the school though, right?" she asked, looking up from her laptop.

I bit my lip. She looked really anxious, and I hate lying to her.

"Of course not," I lied. Ugh, here comes the guilt, "even if I wanted to, there are police everywhere. You can see them from Anika's house." I added quickly, seeing the look on her face.

"Promise me, okay? Promise me you won't go near that school." she said in a hoarse whisper.

"Um..."

What had gotten into her?

I bit harder into my lip and tasted a little blood.

Go on, make a promise to your mom that you can't keep.

I couldn't. I was about to open my mouth to speak, but then my brother, Dennis, came into the kitchen saying,

"Mom! Do we have any more cereal? There's no more in the cupboard."

Thank you Dennis!

"There's more downstairs." my mom said, standing up. I took this opportunity to walk out of the room, grab my stuff, and leave the house calling,

"Bye mom!" as I shut the door behind me.

—*—*—*—*—*—*—*—*—*—*—

Nine minutes later, I arrived at Anika's garage door to find that Sameera and Kat were already there.

"Great, you're here. Now all we need is for Michelle to show up, then we can plan our break in to the school." Anika said, ushering me in to her garage.

I looked at the table and saw a sheet of paper that said,

BREAK IN PLANS

- Scout around for a way in

- Don't get caught

"Great plans guys." I said smirking.

"You have any better ideas?" Sameera shot back.

I guess she's still in fight mode with me.

"Actually, what if, we look over by where the Kat got caught?" I proposed.

"Why? Because your super observation skills says so?" Sameera's voice was icy.

"Okay! Sameera calm down. Let's hear what Jessica has to say." Kat interrupted.

"Thank you Kat." I continued, "As I was saying, that place would be a great place for a secret passage way. Why would the teachers just let a whole bunch of thorny bushes grow on school property? There's something fishy about it."

"Maybe the janitor is just lazy." suggested Kat.

I raised my eyebrows at her. If our janitor, Mrs. Stan was anything, it wasn't lazy. She scrubbed the entire school everyday, and if any kid tracks in even a tiny bit of mud, Mrs. Stan would go ballistic.

"Okay, forget I said that."

"Well, we may as well go with Jessica's idea. It's at least a good starting point." said Anika.

"Thanks Anika." I said

"Thanks for what?" asked Michelle as she walked in, "Sorry I'm late, I was eating breakfast when you texted."

"No problem. Sit down" Anika said as she gestured to a chair with the springs showing.

"We were just saying that we were going to go back to investigate the back wall of the school." I explained.

"Ohhhh. Okay cool." Michelle said, "Well what are we waiting for? Let's go!"

—*—*—*—*—*—*—*—*—*—*—*—

We had silently made our way into the forest-y area behind the school. From there, I was supposed to stealthily make my way towards the wall to see if there were any cops nearby. I had volunteered for this, because it had been my idea. If the coast was clear, I would signal to the rest of the group, and we would look around for ways of getting into the school. If there's a cop, but he/she didn't see me, I would quickly hide and sneak back. If a cop had caught me, I would yell to alert my friends that there was a cop, and that they should stay hidden.

I really hope it doesn't come to that.

I carefully made my way forward, keeping an eye out for cops.

Please let there be no cops, please.

I stuck my head out of a bush and...

No cops.

Relief flooded me. I stepped out of the bushes and gave a thumbs up to the trees. Slowly, Michelle, Sameera, Anika, and Kat came out into the open.

"So, what are we looking for again?" Anika asked.

"Anything that looks suspicious or like an entrance." I answered.

So we hunted. For about a solid twenty minutes. Looking over our shoulders every two minutes in case a cop happened to take a stroll in our direction. I looked under rocks, in bushes, along the wall, and even in the thorn clusters. I still hadn't found anything, and by the looks of it, neither had anyone else. Another ten minutes passed, and I was frustrated. I knew someone had been over here before, but why? I needed to find out, but I was finding nothing! I was just about to say that we should give up, when Kat exclaimed,

"Guys! I found something!"