Chasing Blue

Guts & Feelings

s o m e t i m e — 3 years ago

Austin

"911, what is your emergency?" 

I glare at Liam and grabbed the phone that he was shoving into my hand. "Uh, I'm calling from Frankfurt High School. The storeroom on the football field caught fire," I keep my sentences crisp and brief.

I'm still glaring at them because this is not a prank I initiated or carried out. It was both Liam and Izz respectively. But what do people say about being in the wrong place at the wrong time? I should've paid more attention to the warnings that sayings give out. 

"Sir, who do you identify as?" the officer from the other end was already on the move. 

I gulped. I obviously can't say my name. "Um, I'm--" I see Izz trying to think of someone we can use as bait with wide eyes. I know she wants me to put it on Jacob but this is arson. This blame would be too easy on him, I wish to torture him for the rest of his life in front of my eyes, so no. I see Jason pulling his hair in fright. My eyes slowly drop to the now visible boxer lines from Jason's shorts. "Calvin," I read out the label and I look around until my eyes fall on May's All The Bright Places book kept upside down on top of Izz's bag. "--Finch. I'm Calvin Finch." I shrug making up the stupidest name. 

The officer on the other end sounds confused but I just told him about a storeroom in a high school catching fire so he'd have other things to worry about. 

"Mr. Finch, are you a student, or are you from the management?" The officer bought my lie. 

"I'm a sophomore student," I honestly tell and Izz smacks the back of my head. Her eyes tell me I'm the dumbest person she's ever seen and a second later, I realize why. There is no Calvin Finch in our grade so the legal authorities would be suspicious when they rummage around for a non-existent person, bringing more suspicion on the actual prank-conductors. 

"Mr. Finch, we'll be there in three minutes, please stay away from the storeroom and try to keep everyone away from the fire too. How many people are stuck inside?" The officer says and we can hear the tires slashing on the road. 

"None," I say. "The room just caught fire and it's been abandoned for a while now." 

"Okay, please evacuate everyone on the field too." The officer said and Izz already holds up her thumbs with a smile. 

"Did that. We sent everyone home, actually. The fire is out too." I say eyeing Liam, Jason, and Izz. "We don't want to go in and hamper the already burnt things, so I thought calling you was better." 

"You did the right thing, kid." The police officer hangs up. 

I see the phone in my hand and I gulp the guilt inside my throat. "I'm not even feeling bad for stealing his phone." I dismantle it until I have the sim. I break the sim and throw both the parts into the trash bags outside the detention room. I go back inside and completely restart Jacob shithead's phone until every memory in it is erased and the phone is brand new. 

"We couldn't use our phones, come on. Better him than us." Jason shrugs taking the phone from me and pushing it into his pocket. "And you both are a pain in the ass." He eyes the prankers. 

"I can't believe you both set the storeroom on fire to make people believe it's haunted." I roll my eyes as we close the detention room and walk out.