knees

5. the thievery

Fourth day

“Library books have been missing again,” Danny said as he placed his lunch on his table. “I am definitely going to file a request to put this on the newsletter,”

The three of them, Courtney, Danny and Flynn, sat on their usual lunch table. No one tried to steal it or anything—it was the peaceful part of the cafeteria. Sometimes, it’s even the peaceful part of the whole school. Courtney looked up from her History book, which was practically stuck to her nose. And Flynn cocked his head in confusion.

“What’s missing?” Flynn asked, tapping his finger against the table habitually.

Danny sat down on the seat across the both of them. “Oh, yeah. You just transferred,” he realized slowly. “Well, a little background on the subject. Since the second week of the semester, library books have been missing—stolen, they assume. No one knows how or who,”

Courtney smirked, an idea sparked in her mind. “Then why don’t we find out,” she suggested.

“How?” Danny inquired, putting his hands under his chin.

She looked around cautiously to see if anyone was listening and motioned them, Flynn and Danny, to huddle over. “Okay, here’s the plan.” she started with her friends listening keenly. “It’s obvious that the thievery happens during the night. So, why don’t we wait here until the school closes?”

Danny frowned, pulling out from the discussion circle. “Is that your proposition?”

Courtney crossed her arms in front of her and raised a brow. “Yeah, got any better ideas?”

“Nope,” he replied with a hint of chuckling in his voice. Danny liked the plan a lot. This would surely get me through college if I become part of the foliage of the thief’s plans, he thought to himself.

“But how do we get in if the school’s locked?” Flynn wondered out loud.

“We don’t,” Courtney said slyly. She explained the complete scheme in detail. The three of them were in for an adventure, judging from what was in store that night. It was the ultimate stakeout of their sophomore lives.

After she was done, Flynn smiled by force as his lip quivered. “That’s nice,” he muttered. At that moment, his comfort zone seemed awfully significant—and is in desperate need to not be violated.

❄❄❄

7:30 pm. Current situation: hiding and trying to gasp for air silently.

Danny was the one that was in charge of spying on the corridors to see if anyone was still around. He was lurking in the shadows of the janitor’s closet as he peeked through the door of it. Just around that time, everyone had gone home except for the three of them.

He carefully tiptoed out of the room and shut the door without any sound. He approached his locker and glimpsed from left to right. “Good thing, the school’s cheap enough to not buy any surveillance cameras,” he whispered as he entered the combination of his lock.

The lock clicked and the life-sized cubbyhole flew open. Danny jolted up in shock as Flynn plummeted out of it, drawing air in his lungs sharply. Flynn shifted on his feet as he got out of the locker; after hours of being stuck there, his limbs turned into jelly.

“Remind me why I was there in the first place,” Flynn said in between breaths. His hands were on his knees as panted. Once he regained his composure, he announced, “I’m okay. Let’s get Court,”

They began walking to where the final third of their team was.

 “You could’ve got out more quietly,” Danny threw in as they were halfway to the library.