"So, last night Josie and I got to talking," Tracy said,"And we need some information. Embarrassing middle name, weird medication, whatever. And we can get that all from their files."
"Right, we'll just walk to the counselor and ask for their files, they'll understand," Bob said sarcastically.
"Well, we aren't going to ask," Frank said.
"Right, we'll just have to sneak in when they aren't there."
"The mandatory pep rally," Charlotte said,"All the staff go except for a few office clerks and the janitor."
"There's one problem with that, it's mandatory, we all have to go," Mikey said.
"We've cut pep rallies before," Josie said,"But you're right, we'll need a good excuse in case we get stopped in the hall, but we'll figure that out in a minute."
"The door's screwed up," Gerard said.
"What?"
"The door to the Senior Counselor's office is messed up. It locks automatically whenever it closes and it won't stay open. You need the key to get in and out."
"So we'll need a key too."
"And how do you plan to get that? Maybe we should forget the file thing." Ray said.
"We have our sources," Tracy said before yelling to a girl across the courtyard,"LOLA! COME HERE A SEC!!"
"Weird Lola?" Bob said.
"Shh!" Charlotte hissed.
A girl with short black hair that went about two inches below her ear stood up and began walking over. Her bangs were always in her face, hiding stunning blue eyes. Blond roots were visible in her hair and she wore leather gloves with the fingers cut off all the time.
"Yeah?" Lola said.
"We need a key."
"Master?"
"Yeah."
"When do you need it by?"
"The Pep Rally Friday."
"What are you going to use it for?"
"A little Revenge scheme... we need some dirt on some people."
"I can get you dirt too you know."
"Yeah, I know, but right now we just need a key."
"One key for all .... eight of you?"
"Yeah."
"And you're using it for?"
"The Counselor's office."
"Okay. I can get it to you. You know my terms right?"
"We get caught, we've never herd of you," Josie said.
"Right. My rate for a master key is thirty dollars."
"We'll give you twenty and three packs of spearmint gum."
"Make it two packs of spearmint, one pack of cinnamon, and one pack of tropical breeze and it's a deal," Lola said.
"Fine."
Tracy and Lola shook hands before Lola walked into the cafeteria.
"What the hell?" Gerard said.
"You ever wonder how the seniors kept getting into the school for their pranks every year?"
"Kinda."
"Lola. And her older brothers and sisters. Her family's been getting keys to people for generations."
"Rumor has it that that's how they pay for college."
"I herd that's how they pay for food," Frank said.
"Okay, so moving on," Josie said, pointing to the Gym on the map,"We'll start here, sneak out, avoid the clerks, get to the counselor's office, get the information, sneak back."
"Why should we have to sneak out? Couldn't we fake sick or something?" Ray said.
"Nah, it's been done."
"We could say we lost something like a necklace that had a lot of sentimental value in our last class and ask for a pass to go look for it," Charlotte said.
"That could work. Especially since I think only one of us should go to look at the files."
"Maybe two, that way one could read the files and the other one could write things down," Gerard said.
"Who's going?"
"One guy and one girl?"
"Okay."
"How do we choose who?"
Mikey took out a die and said,"I'm number one, Bob's number two, Ray's number three, Gerard's number four, Frank's number five, and if we roll six then we go again."
"Who's rolling?"
"I will!" Tracy said.
She rolled the die and it landed on a four. "Okay, so Gerard's going. Now, Josie, you're one and two, Tracy, three and four, and Charlotte you're five and six," Mikey said.
"Mikey, why were you carrying a die in your pocket?"
"Actually I had dice...."
"Why?"
"....um..." Mikey coughed and avoided the subject before he rolled the die. It spun on one corner for a few seconds before Frank pounded his palm against the table and it finally fell to it's side. Six.
"Great..." Charlotte said dully.
"You guys are excused from the next one," Mikey said.
"Okay."
"So when's the rally?"
"Last period."
"Yes! We miss P.E.!" Gerard said.
"Ms. Janarie's easy to persuade to give you a pass, just tell her you lost something and Gerard's going to help you look," Josie said to Charlotte.
"Okay."
They entered the salon, the door ringing a bell as the came in. They saw Mindy standing with her fists and teeth clenched, glaring at the woman at the front desk.
"There must be some other hair dresser available then her," She spat.
"I'm sorry, but Donna Rush is the only dresser that doesn't have any appointments right now."
"Donna Rush?" Gerard said.
The clerk's eyes widened when she saw Gerard and quickly diverted her eyes back to the papers in front of her.
"Here to get a decent haircut?" Mindy said smugly to Gerard. "Does Mummy still cut your hair, or does she let you go to the barber shop like a big boy?"
"Here to get a decent hair coloring? Last time I saw a pattern quite like that was on a picture of a skunk."
"Oh, so while you were looking through your family photo album?"
"No, your baby pictures."
Gerard and Mikey walked back to Donna's station and found the list at the mirror by a picture of Gerard and Mikey when Gerard was eight and Mikey was five.
Donna came back from talking to another stylist and gave Gerard some money to get the grocheries and gave each of them a quick peck on the cheek.
Gerard and Mikey left to go get the grocheries. That night their parents had to tell them something.
"What's up?" Tracy asked Mikey.
"Well, it's official..." He said.
"Hmm?"
"Mom and Dad are filling out the divorce papers. That explains why the salon now calls her Donna Rush."
"I'm sorry, I know what it's like, I've been there," Tracy said. Her parents had divorced when she was nine.
"Mmhm."
"Call me if you need to," she added to Gerard who had been leaning against a nearby locker.
"I'll keep that in mind," He said. "Are you going to tell Josie or Charlie?"
"I don't know, do you not want me to?"
"I'm not entirely sure."
"Then I won't."
"Okay. Charlotte might already know though, you know how your dad and her dad are friends and everything."
"Yeah, you'd think Mr. Miller would like me a little more..."
"Don't feel bad, the only guy our age he likes is Ray, and that's just cause he's their neighbor and he's seen him grow up."
"Hmm..."
"And you know how protective fathers can be over their first born teenage daughters."
"Right."
"Besides, you and Charlie are just friends, so it's not a big deal that he doesn't like you."
"Mmhm."
"Unless you want to be more then friends," She said, raising an eyebrow suggestively.
Gerard laughed,"No, that would be so weird, she's like my sister almost."
Tracy smirked and rolled her eyes,"Oh, look, Lila's spying on Frank."
"Let's watch, this is bound to be entertaining."
Frank sat on a bench in front of some lockers, lost in thought. No one was quite sure what he was thinking about. Course, neither was he. He was staring at a lock on one of the lockers, but didn't seem to notice that he was.
Lila casually walked over and sat down next to him on the bench.
He glanced over and saw something. A little clump of something... on the corner of Lila's eyelash. It was just....there. It was bothering him. He wondered how she couldn't notice it. Finally he could take it no longer.
"You know," He said.
"Hm?" Lila said, batting her eyelashes, which only bothered Frank more because even after a few bats, it was still there.
"You've got something in your eye."
Lila closed her eyes and leaned forward slightly. Frank figured that she just wanted him to get it, so he plucked it, eyelash and all.
"Ow!" She said, turning her head and rubbing her eye. He wiped the eyelash on the sleave of her cheerleading uniform before getting up and walking away.
"For a second there... I thought they were actually going to kiss," Tracy whispered.
"Frankie didn't even know what was going on," Mikey said.
"Yeah, I don't think he did either," Gerard said.
"Tracy," Lola said, walking over.
"You got the key?"
"You got the payment?"
Tracy took out four packs of gum from her backpack and two fives and a ten out of her wallet before Lola gave her a master key.
"Here Gerard, you keep this, your uniform has pockets."
"Okay, here goes, you have some paper and a pen?" Charlotte said.
"Yeah, in my pocket," Gerard said.
Charlotte walked up to Ms. Janarie and said,"Ms. Janarie? Um.. I lost a locket my grandmother gave me just before she died, I think I might have dropped it in my computer class. It has huge sentimental value, could you write me a pass to go look for it?" Charlotte was shaking quite convincingly, breathing heavily and bitting her bottom lip, pretending to be on the verge of tears.
"Oh, of course, do you need anyone to go help you look?"
"Um yeah, Gerard said he'd help me look," Charlotte said.
"Okay." Ms. Janarie wrote them a pass and they fought their way through the students comming into the gym to the hallway.
They got to the front office and walked into the doorway. There was always two office clerks. One was getting coffee at the moment, and the other, luckily, was turned around in her chair facing the opposite direction chatting away on the office phone. There was three small hallways attached to the main office. One went to the counselors' offices, another to the deans' offices, and another to the nurse's office. There was a door to the principal's and vice principal's office behind the clerks' desks.
Charlotte and Gerard slowly walked to the corner of the counter and got on their hands and knees. Charlotte pulled on her skirt to make sure nothing would be exposed before she lead the way, crawling down the small hallway that lead to the counselors' offices. When they were out of eyeshot of the clerk if she happened to turn back around in her seat, they stood up. Gerard got out the master key and opened the door to the Senior Counselor's office.
The door closed behind them and Charlotte turned on the light. It wasn't a large office. It had two filling cabinets, a desk, a few plants, some pictures of the counselor's family. To one side of the door there was a trash can and to the other side nothing but bare wall.
"Please be unlocked," Charlotte said as she went to open the drawer marked,"A-K."
Lucky for them it was unlocked. "Okay, who to look up first," She said.
"Lila Grimela?"
"Okay," She said, opening Lila's file.
"Let's see... she ranks 190 out of the 213 seniors here..."
"Better then I thought she'd do."
"Mmhm. GPA of... 2.0. That's just enough to be able to cheer... Let's see. Failed Algebra I.... three times, detention for chewing gum... ooh... she and Joe Green got detention for PDA [Public Display of Affection], and that's when Joe was dating the head cheerleader and when Lila was dating the lacross captain."
"How do you remember that?"
"They all talk so loud like they're so important, you can't help but know things that are so useless. But we could definantly use that against her."
They went through to nearly every cheerleader and jock, as well as some other people that they just didn't like and the current mascot for Josie.
"I'm almost out of room on the paper," Gerard said.
"That's okay, I think we're done," She said, blowing a bubble with her gum.
"Okay."
Gerard folded the piece of paper back up and stuck it and the pen back in his pocket. They checked the clock. The pep rally would be over in ten minutes. Charlotte turned off the light and Gerard was about to take out the master key when they herd the Janitor whistling outside the door as he looked for his key.
"Shit! What's he doing here already?" Charlotte said.
"Oh this is great," Gerard muttered sarcastically.
"How are we going to explain that we're locked in here during a pep rally?" Charlotte nervously chewed her gum.
The idea came to Gerard quickly and he grabbed Charlotte's wrists. "I hope this won't affect our friendship," Gerard said quickly as they herd the janitor's key slip into the lock.
"Wha-"
He opened the door to the office and didn't see what he'd expected to, to say the very least.... (to be continued in the next chapter :P)
"Trust Me"