Eachtra

Two's Company, Tree's a Crowd

"One. Two. Three."

My breath releases in a cloud of fog as I slam my body weight onto the crowbar wedged in the window sill. The window squeaks open another laborious inch. The Benson Campus Center is supposed to be available 24 hours a day for students, so technically I'm not breaking and entering. I just need to get to the Christmas tree.

My advisor, Dr. Kennedy, offered to give me extra credit if I complete a project on the eight pine trees native to the northeastern United States, so why not use Christmas break to gather the samples? It's not like I have anything better to do. I could have gotten a needle sample from the Christmas tree during the day, but the ladies who work in our campus store might have found it suspicious if I started removing needles from the carefully decorated ten foot tall tree at the center of the campus center. Thus, I've resorted to stealth.

"Okay, one more time," I whisper and groan as I slam my weight onto the crow bar one more time. The window squeaks open another inch, but there's still no way I'm going to fit through the six inch slot. I haven't exactly been laying off the Christmas cookies despite my dislike of the festive season.

"Crap," I growl. My goal is to stay here at college all through Christmas this year to avoid my family and all merriness as much as possible, but if I want two extra credits for an independent study with Dr. Kennedy, I need a Virginia Pine sample.

I lean closer to the window and wedge my shoulder under the pane and push up. With a sound like the squeal of tires on a race track, the window slides open enough that I think I can wriggle my way through. I toss my backpack with my sampling equipment through the window first and then stick my hands and head through. My shoulders and torso fit well enough, but when I launch my hips through the window sill, my feet dangle in the air and I lose all my leverage. I now hang halfway out the window in a gap not quite big enough for my butt. Awesome.

Typically, I would expect a student or campus police officer to find me right now, but the campus is abandoned. It's the 20th of December after all, and after 11:00 at night. No one will be on campus at this time except for me, Keidy Henshaw, and I'm not leaving until I get data from the campus Christmas tree.

The window opens into a sitting room by the counseling office, so I reach for one of the pastel chairs and use it to pull myself in a few more inches. My butt is finally through and I fall in a jumbled mess onto the floor of the sitting room, banging my head against the wooden arm of the chair. I might have a few bruises for my trouble, but I'm in. Finally.

"Excuse me, y'alright, Miss?"
Someone just saw me. I jump to my feet and rub my bruised tailbone. I spin in a circle, but there's no one in the room with me. No, someone stands outside after watching my whole ordeal with the window and the crowbar I abandoned in a snowbank. I stick my head out the window to confront my accuser.

"I'm fine," I bark. In the shadows of the campus center, I can't quite see who the guy is, but he just caught me breaking and entering, so I doubt we're going to become new best friends. "Just mind your own business," I add.

"I saw you take quite a hard fall there. Are you sure you're alright?"

I peer deeper into the darkness. This guy isn't an American--Scottish, maybe? Or British? In any other circumstance, my curiosity would be piqued--I've always had a thing for Gerard Butler--but I'm on a mission and now is not the time.

"I'm fine. Now can you just leave me alone?"

"I could, or I could call the campus police. I'm pretty sure they wouldn't take kindly to a girl breaking into the campus center."

I groan and bang my head against the window. A gust of wind takes a few strands of my Velma-style dark hair and tosses it into my eyes, further obscuring my view of the shadowed stranger with a hot accent. "It's for a class."