In the Middle of Nowhere (Willow's Journey #1) by Julie Ann Knudsen
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 i
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