Delaney Blake's Guide to Detention

Step #10: Get Another Detention

We tumble into each other, half-collapsing into the familiar buzzing science lab I have grown to miss in the short time we weren't even in the same dimension.

"What now?" Milo asks.

I don't want to answer.

Mirror me is poised and intentional and can do cartwheels and, as I hear, gives good blow jobs. I don't know if I do or not. That's a lot of pressure. Meanwhile, I accidentally opened a portal. That's the kind of person I am. I can open portals by accident. I can break up with boys by accident. How am I supposed to compete with somebody who knows what she's doing?

"Follow the sound of trouble?" I ask, "where would you go if you wanted to make it rich and get your alter ego into trouble?"

Milo considers this. "The office? Our Ms. Isaakov opened the portal. Maybe portal Ms. Isaakov needs our Ms. Isaakov. She could be trying to clear her name."

That's an excellent point. Actually, that's a really good point. The portal was created from this side. Maybe that means something. It has to mean something.

"That's really smart," Emma adds, "It would be a pretty good idea to have someone on their team on this side of the portal."

There must be a paper trail of Ms. Isaakov's crime. It doesn't end at the school records, but it starts there.

We spill out of the science lab and into the hall. My heart pounds in my chest as we head down the hall, trying to be quiet while all this adrenaline is pumping.

Milo skids to a stop. "I just thought of something. I'll catch up."

I want to reach for him. "Remember what happened last time we split up?"

He grins. "Yeah, we got tricked. But this time, we can lay the trap."

Milo runs off in the other direction before I can protest further. It's just me and Emma now. We bound through the portal together, but now that there's no Milo, Emma has remembered her distance policy. She looks everywhere but at me. My stomach sinks, but we keep moving.

"This way," Emma points, leaning in a little to hiss closer to my ear. She leads us through a door into a narrow hall I didn't know existed. I knew it. I knew she got special access to teacher-only areas. There is clearly a door to the teacher's lounge, and around a corner, a gigantic printer where she no doubt hears all the faculty gossip. Praise for Emma's secret passageway.

We slink. Our breathing feels too loud, loud enough for the voices around the corner to hear us, but they keep talking.

"Do you have the replacement files?" Ms. Isaakov asks.

"Right here," mirror me replies.

Emma touches my shoulder, getting my attention so I look at her. Finally, she looks me in the eye, mouthing words as she gestures me closer. I tilt my head to bring my ear nearer. Emma's lips are so close I can feel her breath on my skin.

"If I circle around, we can force them back toward the science lab. Like your original plan," she whispers. Goosebumps rise on my skin, my body tingling as she speaks.

I nod my speechless agreement. It's a good plan, as long as they don't try to kidnap her again.

Emma slips back the way we came, as feather light as an angel as she creeps out. I follow, but only as far as the first door she took us through. My heart races, threatening to beat right out of me. If a doctor decided to press a stethoscope to me right now, they'd go deaf.

Waiting kills me. Part of me is deadly afraid to hear another one of Emma's earth-shattering screams. I don't breath in the meantime, in case me breathing is so loud it keeps me from hearing the smaller, more important sounds.