DEEP

5 - trouble stirs up

A look of anticipation was plastered on my face as I increased my pace with each step. Isabella looked worried and escorted me without a word. Sigh. We turned around the corner and I caught a chill running down my spine with the mere sight of the room but I still couldn't understand why I was called. The blinds were closed this time and I could hear shouts coming from inside the room. Whew, at least I'm not the only one.

She turned the door handle and within an instant the room fell quiet. Four faces stared expectantly as we opened the door.

"Finally! What took you so long!? They'll be back any minute!" Jackson's face was red with frustration as he spoke.

Along with him stood Eleanor Lewis: Head girl, Blake Richards: the sports captain and Portia Lynes :editor of the school paper.

"Calm down Jackson."

"Calm down?! We're being sabotaged for goodness sake! How can I calm down?!"

Feeling confused and honestly quite lost amidst all this chaos, I whispered to Isabella asking what exactly they were going on about. Unfortunately I was overheard by a red hot tempered jock.

"Have you been living under a rock?! There's graffiti and paint all over our basketball courts and our swimming pools have been polluted with actual trash from their trash cans! "Blake replied in exasperation

"Not to mention our water fountain and vending machines have all stopped working" added Eleanor

"And if things weren't bad enough, we've got a couple of potential sponsors coming in today! We really need to raise this money. I'm serious. If we don't..." Jackson choked mid-sentence.

"..If we don't, we'll have to cut down on a few clubs and maybe even a few sports teams for a while." spoke Eleanor, finishing his sentence. She definitely tried hard to calm everyone down.

A few minutes before I arrived, Mr Irwing (the principal) and his assistant had left to pick up our sponsors to give them a chance to visit the school. They had just found out about the vandalism but couldn't do anything about it. The visitors had already flown in from halfway across the country and they had a busy schedule. Mr Irwing did promise though that he would try his best to delay his return which gave us a time slot of about an hour.

Thankfully, the sullen atmosphere was changed when Blake announced that he had called the boys from the football and basketball team to come help clean up the place in time. Portia also called up her numerous contacts and quite a few were ready to help out. Things were looking brighter and I could see a sudden calmness in their faces especially Jackson's.

We set to work immediately. Jackson, Eleanor and I had pool duty while the other three went to repaint the basketball courts. As soon as we reached the pool, I realized I had drawn the short end of the stick. Besides the food packets and scrap materials, we were welcomed by the stench of rotting food. Ugh. We fished out the floating debris and then drained out the pool. By then, our backup had arrived. When all the garbage was removed, Jackson and Eleanor left to get cleaned up. After all, they couldn't welcome their visitors smelling like that! I watched as they walked out the door. A moment later, Jackson's head popped back in.

"Hey, aren't you coming?" he seemed to be looking at me when he spoke.

"Yes you. Come on! The boys will handle the rest."

After remaining frozen for at least a minute,I got to my senses and followed them outside. I'm not usually this shy, but I lose my tongue whenever he's around. I don't like him or anything! I'm just.. I don't know.

"By the way, I really need to talk to you about a few things. But first let's get freshened up."

I nodded and we parted ways. I should really work on actually saying words when I'm talking to him.