For Everything

Proposition

Felicity and I continued to walk down the long grey hallway, arms linked, until she decided to break the silence. "What's your locker number?" I had totally forgotten that I even had a locker until now.

"Oh, the number in on the sheet that I have in my," I trail off as I look down to see empty palms, "hand." While I was packing up my bag after all the papers fell out, I must have shoved it into my bag by mistake. "Shoot."

"What? Where's the paper?"

"In there," I say shoving a thumb at my backpack. Felicity giggled again. "I'm sorry," I say, "I'm new to this whole thing."

"Oh my gosh don't be sorry. You're getting me out of science class. What more could I ask?" followed by yet another giggle.

"Um ok," I say, "Do you mind helping me find the paper?"

"Not at all, the longer we take, the better."

So I open my backpack and literally dump everything I have out of my backpack onto the hallway floor and for the next ten minutes Felicity and I wade through my pile of papers, notebooks, and binders, with no luck. I was just about to give up until Felicity shoots her hand up in the air and waves a paper back and forth, "I've got it!" she shouts.

I walk over to her and take the paper from her hand, "Thanks for helping."

"No problem. Now I'll put all your things away while you figure out your number and combination."

"Why are you being so nice to me?" 

Felicity stared at me as if I had three heads, "Because I'm your mentor. It's my job to be nice to you." She looked so serious but just for a second before she started bursting into laughter. "I'm just kidding! Oh but you should have seen the look on your face. Seriously dude, lighten up." Felicity giggled again. "No, I just like you Hunter, and if I like you, why wouldn't I be nice to you?"

"I-I don't know."

Felicity giggled, "You're funny." I have to admit, having a girl like me already on the first day felt amazing, but I also have to admit that this was my fatal flaw. Felicity Lyone would forever and always be the downfall of me, I just didn't know it yet. From the first time I laid eyes on her, from the first time she ever gazed upon me and smiled, I was damned to the pits of Hell. She was the devil, and she was trying to recruit me to be one of her minions, and I'm sorry to say, I did eventually become one of her slaves to darkness. I'm spoiling too much of the story for you though. Back to reality. "Hunter!"

"Y-yes?" I ask, dumbfounded.

"Hunter, you've been staring at the wall for like five minutes, are you okay?"

"Yeah, yeah I'm fine Felicity, thanks. I'm good now. Let's get this cleaned up."

"Okay," Felicity eyed me awkwardly while we cleaned up. I finally got to get a good look at my locker number, but my heart sank when I saw the number. "What's your locker number?" Felicity wondered. 

"Is this a joke?" I ask.

Felicity looked at the paper, "No, it's real. Woah, dude, you're literally right next to me! Come on, I'll show you where it is." So Felicity guided me back down the hallway (we had passed the locker when we were walking down the hall) and to a large wall of lockers with all sorts of random numbers, except the first four characters were exactly the same. "Here we are, the 221B wall."

"221B wall?" I ask.

"Yeah, the school organizes locker systems by famous numbers from movies or books. 221B Baker Street was the address where Sherlock Holmes lived."

"Right, what other numbers are there?"

"Well, I do know there's the 24601 wall from Les Miserables."

"24601? What's the significance of that?" I ask.

"24601 was the prisoner number Jean Valjean was given when he was in prison."

"Oh. I don't read a lot so you'll have to keep telling me these things."

"I can tell. Well we are at your locker. See how the sequence starts at 221B10, then goes to 221B11, 221B12, 221B13, and so on until the sequence ends at 221B20. You're number is 221B16, right next to mine which is 221B15."

"This whole thing is so confusing."

"You'll get the hang of it eventually."

"Right, so what's my combination? This thing only says 'I'm ____ Locked'. That's not what the password is, that's exactly what the keypad on the locker says."

"You have to figure it out. This school is all about puzzle solving and building independence. They throw you in the deep end and expect you not to drown. It's okay. Every locker has the same passcode. I'll type it in for you."

"Isn't that not smart, putting the same passcode on all the lockers?"

"Nothing of value ever is in these lockers, no one cares about anything anyone else has in these boxes." Felicity types in the blank part of the passcode: S-H-E-R. Ironic. The door swings open and reveals a bare locker with several empty shelves in it. "Give me your bag, quick." I do as she says. Felicity tears it open and shoves all the loose papers into binders and notebooks, while also shoving binders and notebooks onto shelves in my locker. Soon enough my books looked like they never were touched, with the ones I didn't need in my locker and the few I did need sitting in my grey pouch. "Come on, it's almost lunch," Felicity says, pulling me along.

"You organized those books quickly," I say.

"I learn to do it fast. The faster I get my things the faster I put some distance between those lockers and I. I hate them. I hate everything about this school, I want to destroy it. Hunter, someday I'm going to destroy this school, and you're going to help me," Felicity turns to me and smiles, "You're going to help me right?" I don't know why but Felicity's smile almost puts me in a trance, and I nod my head. I would never destroy a school, but I felt like I would do anything for Felicity. The devil has made a proposition, an offer I can't refuse, and I'm going to take it. I would never believe that someday I would destroy this school, but I will, in the future, starting with the address of Sherlock Holmes. Felicity smiles again and tugs me along into a small classroom right as I realize what I've just done.