In the Middle of Nowhere (23 page)

I started to get spooked the minute I left
the Lexus. I could swear someone was following me so I ran as fast
as I could, actually sprinted, in order the catch up with Tessa and
the boys. I never realized how fast I was able to run and
contemplated signing up for the track team, once the spring sports
season rolled around.

I found the three of them behind the school.
When I reached them, Connor had already removed a small metal door
from its hinges with a pocketknife. He stuck the knife in his
jeans, put the door to the side and crawled through it. Rocky and
Tessa followed him and I did, too. It was freezing outside and I
was glad to be anywhere that was heated.

When I stood up, I brushed off my knees and
saw that we were inside a small janitor’s room. Brooms, mops and
feather dusters hung from the walls. I couldn’t imagine what
purpose the little metal door served, but I didn’t care enough to
ask anyone either.

Connor opened another door, which led to a
darkened hallway, and looked both ways before entering it. He used
the flashlight app on his cell phone as a guide so we wouldn’t trip
and kill ourselves as we followed him. The four of us looked like a
troop of Boy Scouts on their first camping trip.

We reached the school’s gymnasium and walked
inside. Connor left us for a second and switched on the lights.

“Give me one,” Tessa said to Rocky. He handed
her a beer.

Rocky turned to me. “You sure you don’t want
one? We got plenty.”

I put my hand up and shook my head. “I’m
good, thanks.”

Connor grabbed a beer, walked toward the
wall, grabbed a cord and pulled down a hinged lunch table that was
folded up inside its own little alcove.

Connor sat at the rectangular table and we
joined him. Tessa sipped her beer and looked at Connor. “Now
what?”

“What do you mean, now what? You said you
didn’t want to go back to your house. Where else did you want to
go?” Connor was definitely irritated.

We all just sat there and looked at each
other. The three of them drank their beer while I fiddled with my
phone. I checked to see if I had any new texts. Not one.

Connor piped up. “Rocky, tell them about the
time you drank so much, you went skinny dipping in the principal’s
pool.”

Rocky chuckled as he remembered.

“Which principal, which pool?” Tessa
asked.

“The principal at this school, um …” Connor
thought. “Mr. Roberts, I think.”

I shook my head in confusion. “Brian
Roberts?”

“Yeah, I think that’s him,” Connor said and
took a swig. “Tall dude. You know him?”

“Maybe, but he’s a fifth grade teacher not
the principal. Mr. Woods is.”

“Well, he used to be the principal here three
years ago when Rocky decided to do a belly flop in his pool at two
o’clock in the morning,” Connor laughed.

“I was so wasted. I hardly remember,” Rocky
said, “but I do remember his wife coming outside and screaming at
me. She was pissed.”

Again, I shook my head. “Wife? He’s
married?”

“He was back then,” Rocky said.

“Didn’t she say she was going to call the
police on you?” Connor asked.

“Yeah, and her husband had to calm her down;
told me he wouldn’t call the police if I got dressed and got
lost.”

“What did she look like?” I wanted to
know.

“Who?” Rocky asked.

“The wife!”

Rocky shook his head. “I don’t remember. It
was three years ago and I was really drunk.”

Tessa looked at me quizzically and inquired
about all my inquiries. “Willow, why the hell do you care so much
about this Mr. Roberts and his marital status?”

“Never mind,” I said and looked away. Just
then my phone rang. It was my mother. I signaled to the others to
be quiet.

“Shhh. It’s my mom.”

I picked up. “Hello?”

“What are you doing?”

“Just watching TV.”

“Okay. Brian and I will be going out of town
next weekend and I wanted to make sure you don’t make any plans and
will be home to watch James.”

I rolled my eyes. “Yeah. I guess.”

“Great, thanks, dear.”

“Mom, I have a question.”

“What?”

“Was Brian ever married?”

“No. Why?”

“Are you sure?”

“Of course I’m sure. Why are you asking me
this, Willow?”

“Just wondered,” I said. “See you tomorrow,
Mom.”

I hung up, put down my cell phone and looked
up to find three sets of eyes staring at me as if I had two
heads.

• • •

“What the hell was that all about?” Tessa
wanted to know.

“Nothing.” I didn’t want to tell them
anything and hadn’t realized they were listening to my
conversation.

Tessa grabbed my arm from across the table
and pulled on it. “Come on. Tell us.”

I pulled my arm back and was firm. “No.”

My head was spinning with questions about
what I had just found out. Why wasn’t Brian the principal at
Orchard Elementary anymore? If he hadn’t ever been married, who was
the woman at his house who yelled at Rocky? Did this mysterious
woman have anything to do with the woman I saw getting cozy with
Brian, or someone who looked exactly like him, in the parking
lot?

Tessa was relentless. “Willow, you obviously
know Mr. Roberts somehow. What’s the big deal?”

I was not going to tell her anything about
Brian, especially in front of Connor and Rocky. “Forget about
it.”

“Forget what?” Tessa moaned. “Tell us!”

I couldn’t take her or her questions anymore.
I stood up and stormed off toward the gym door and was just about
to push it open, when it magically opened for me.

“Freeze!” a policeman shouted as he stood in
front of me with his gun drawn. “Put your hands up! Now!”

Un-be-freakin-lievable! I threw my hands up
and turned toward the others as another police officer rushed in. I
had known from the beginning that this was a bad idea and realized
that I needed to start listening to my beer-less gut more
often.

• • •

The two officers lowered their weapons when
they saw it was just a bunch of teenagers hanging out and drinking.
The first policeman made me walk over toward the others.

Rocky looked at Connor. “I thought you never
made the same mistake twice.”

Connor shrugged.

“Do you kids have IDs?” the officer asked,
the one who tensely greeted me at the door. He was short and chubby
and looked like a cartoon character with his bulbous nose, big ears
and thick unibrow.

We all shook our heads.

“How’d you get the beer?” the other one
asked.

Rocky pointed toward Tessa and said, “Her
brother—“

Connor elbowed Rocky in the ribs to shut him
up. “We paid some random guy at the store to buy it for us. And he
did.”

Rocky caught on. “Yeah. Some random guy.”

Rocky sounded like an idiot, but I knew that
saying Tessa’s brother bought it for them would get Jaques into
trouble and they couldn’t show their fake IDs or else they’d get
into trouble.

“How old are you kids?” the second officer
asked as he took out a small pad of paper and pen from his front
pocket. He was young, tall and fit, actually quite handsome, and
could have been a movie star.

“Seventeen,” Connor responded.

Rocky looked completely baffled, but said,
“Yeah. Seventeen.”

Tessa pointed to the two us. “We’re
sixteen.”

“If you kids were eighteen, you’d be charged
with breaking and entering. You know that?” Officer Cartoony said
as he scowled and reprimanded us.

“Come on. Gather up the beer cans and let’s
go,” Officer Movie Star ordered.

Connor and Rocky put all the beer cans back
in the cardboard carrier and lifted the end of the table so it
folded back up into the wall.

“Whose car is in the parking lot?” Officer
Cartoony wanted to know.

Connor raised his hand. “Mine.”

“You have your license?”

“Yup.”

“Let me see it.”

Connor slowly opened his wallet, careful not
to reveal his fake ID.

The officer looked at it and handed it back.
I couldn’t believe the cop didn’t realize that Connor was really
eighteen. Rocky was, too. Luckily for them, they both got away with
it.

“Since you’ve been drinking, you’re not
driving anywhere. You can either leave the car here or have your
parents come and pick it up.”

“How will we get home then?” I asked.

“We’ll be driving each of you,” the cute one
answered, “straight to your parents. Officer Mueller will take the
boys.”

I panicked. I couldn’t go back home. My
mother would kill me if she found out, especially because she
worked there.

I stammered, “But, um, my mom isn’t home,
nobody is, and I’m staying over at my friend’s house.” I pointed to
Tessa.

Officer Cutie looked at Tessa. “Will an adult
be home if I drive you girls there?”

Tessa nodded. “Yeah, my older brother can
vouch for us.”

Yikes! I thought to myself. Jaques vouch for
us? Stoned, incoherent Jaques? I was better off going home and
facing my mother or even a firing squad.

I looked at Tessa with big eyes. She shook
her head and dismissed my concern. “I’m just gonna text him to tell
him we’re coming.”

“That’s fine,” the officer said.

We all started walking toward the gym
door.

“What were you kids thinking?” Officer Big
Nose asked. “Why would you break into an elementary school in the
first place?”

Not one of us had an answer. The officer
shook his head in disgust.

Connor spoke up. “Can I ask you
something?”

The policeman nodded.

“How did you even know we were in here?”

“The school’s silent security system went off
at the monitoring station after one of its motion sensors detected
movement in the hallway and then in the gymnasium.”

Connor looked at him puzzled. “Is that
something new?”

“What? The security system?” asked Big
Nose.

Connor nodded.

“Yeah, they installed it a few years ago
after another bunch of foolish teens broke in. Why?”

“No reason,” Connor said as we followed the
police officers out of the school the appropriate way, through its
two, glass-paned front doors.

CHAPTER
THIRTY-TWO

In the parking lot, Officer Handsome took our
names and said he was going to hand them over to the school’s
administrators. It would be up to them to dole out a punishment, if
any. He said he figured we’d at least have to suffer some sort of
consequence back home once he showed up at the door with us in tow.
But, because I was going over to Tessa’s for the night, he said he
would make sure someone at the school contacted my mother to fill
her in on what had had happened. Little did he know how easily my
mother would find out. I panicked at the thought of it, but didn’t
let on as he escorted us toward Tessa’s front door.

Tessa opened the unlocked door and we
followed her inside.

“Jaques!” she screamed. Her voice echoed in
the big, empty foyer.

As we walked toward the back of the house,
Officer Cutie seemed to scrutinize every nook and cranny. When we
reached the family room, Jaques appeared from the direction of the
mysterious hallway. I looked around and realized that the family
room was completely cleaned up. No popcorn bowls or empty soda cans
were in sight.

Jaques held out his hand. “Jaques
Anderson.”

Officer Cutie grabbed and shook. “Officer
Collins.”

The officer flashed a quick, cute smile, but
then got down to business. “How are you related to the
suspect?”

Suspect? I thought to myself. I wanted to
chuckle, but didn’t dare.

Jaques got serious, too, and, thankfully,
didn’t seem one bit high. “I’m her older brother, Officer Collins.”
How the heck did Jaques sober up so fast, I wondered.

“Where are your parents?”

“They’re staying in Portland tonight, but
will be joining us tomorrow.”

“Are you willing to take responsibility for
your sister and her friend, here?”

“Absolutely. I will make sure that Tessa and
Holly don’t leave again tonight.”

The officer was confused. “Holly?”

Tessa quickly butted in. “He means Willow. He
always confuses my two best friends Holly and Willow ’cause they
look so much alike.” Tessa tilted her head and flashed her pearly
whites.

I smiled calmly when Officer Collins looked
over at me, even though I was horrified on the inside.

He seemed satisfied. “Fine. And girls. I
suggest you not try anything like that again. Next time you might
face criminal charges.”

Jaques stuck out his hand. “I’ll see to it
that they won’t, Officer, and will make sure to tell my parents
first thing tomorrow morning.”