"Do you see anybody?"
"It's five in the morning! What do you think the answer to that question is?"
Heartland Academy; it was a prestigious school that both parents and students alike were known to flock towards. The laid-back attitude and atmosphere that the teachers gave, as well as sustained, gave students room to breathe without fear of constant rules being piled onto their backs. With such a stable environment, the school's approval and graduation statistics were some of the highest in the country; a fact that has not been overlooked by a few thousand parents. Families have flocked from all over to get their children into the learning establishment; some for a chance to better improve their children's futures and others...needing a way to get away from their past.
So, with such an outstanding reputation, it makes you wonder just what the hell we're thinking breaking into the place?
"God, this makes us look like a bunch of thugs! What's taking so long with that gate?"
"It's this damn key! Fucking thing is acting all janky for some reason."
Well, the reason is a bit more complicated than "two misfit teens about to pull some juvenile pranks". You see, back at the start of the school year, my brother and I may have...ticked off the wrong people? It's all a blur, but what happened that day kinda cemented our high-school experience to be as panic-inducing and terrifying as you can imagine. We weren't able to hang around after school without risk of getting our asses beat, going out in public was a complete hassle even without getting seen and don't even get me started on what it's like during passing period. Not to mention, these two annoying pricks that like to hassle us about 'interviews' for their newsletter or blog or whatever the hell they run. Those little shits have gotten us into a few predicaments because of that stupid thing. But back to the matter at hand.
"Ah-ha, finally. I got it open, let's go."
We were able to coerce one of the janitors to give us keys to most of the school; out of all of the facility in this joint, the janitor is the only one that seems to understand how serious our situation is. He said that so long as we lock it back up when we enter the school grounds and don't cause any damage to a lick of property, we could come in as early as we want with his keys. Guy is retiring in about three months anyways, so he knew that if he got caught, there wasn't shit they could do to him. My kind of guy, really.
The iron-barred gate wasn't an old, rusty thing and we were thankful for it. Last thing we needed was for some unholy racket to sound off and wake up half the goddamn city. Both of us managed to slip inside without much hassle and I slipped my arms through the bars to re-lock the gates behind us. I found myself scanning the darkness for anything suspicious and was relieved to find nothing out of sorts. A simple thumbs-up signaled it was time to get a move on.
Anyways. We have to wake up before the sun's even up most mornings to get here before they do. At least this way, they can't be waiting for us at the start of school like they were before. Main reason we did this was because we were running out of ways to sneak inside with the crowd and those plans were already pretty….'extravagant'. I think there was one time we used trash cans as disguises.
The second key wasn't as stubborn as its brother and opened the doors with ease. It was always so creepy to see the place so deathly still; I've always associated schools with buzzing activity akin to a beehive, so seeing it before classes was more than a little disturbing to me. However, my brother, Riichi, saw it in a different light. Said something about how 'cool' it was to be able to see the school as a normal building instead of the 'epicenter of our collective doom'. That and he just loved being able to run up and down the halls without getting scolded by any of the teachers. Our destination didn't take long to get to; we knew that just running around the hallways until school was officially open wasn't the smartest thing to do. In fact, it's a sure fire way to get the police involved real quick. So, we built up a 'foxhole' in our little hideaway/clubroom; the school's boiler area. Despite what most people think about boiler rooms, this one is actually kept surprisingly clean. None of the janitors here were exactly slouches when it came to their work, so it made things easier for us.
Now, I bet you're wondering why the hell we're going to such drastic measures. One; those people I mentioned before, the ones we pissed off? They are part of a gang. Not one of those 'oh, we don't fit into the status-quo, so we're bad' kinda gang, but full on hardcore gang shit. Money, drugs, you name it and they've probably got their hands in it. Too bad we learnt this little tidbit of information when it wouldn't do us any good, otherwise it could've saved us from the gigantic headache we have now. You might've heard about them; "The Seven Barians", I think is the name they go by. Fuck if I know what "barian" means, but it's been known to invoke fear into the hearts of a fair amount of people. Which brings me to my second reason; we are below average. Most teens have a standard amount of strength on them, some going above and beyond in the name of sports. My brother and I have spent a good majority of our lives as couch potatoes, leaving almost no room for any muscle growth to happen outside of the natural. It has left us riddled with 'noodle arms syndrome'; we couldn't even take a fucking well-trained middle schooler let alone teenagers that get into gang wars on the monthly.
Sooooo. If we don't do this, we're fucked three ways from Sunday….
"School doesn't start for another three hours and fifteen minutes. We can get some more sleep?" I suggested. A nod with a sleepy yawn was my answer. My feet dragged against the cold, cement floor as I shambled my way towards the darkest corner in the room. From out of the darkness, I pulled out a sizeable container before dragging it back over to where my bro was. If we got up at the crack of dawn everyday and kept ourselves awake out of sheer willpower till homeroom, we'd be asleep at our desks in seconds. So, we took some preemptive measures and tucked away little sleeping kits down here; it wasn't the warmest place around, but it was better than nothing. The minute Riichi situated himself against the soft comforter, he was snoring up a storm. Myself? I just couldn't do it. I mean! We are about to go to fucking sleep in the basement of our school, in a boiler room, because we were too fucking scared to go to school normally.
"How the hell did things get so fucked up?" I murmured underneath my breath, my hand resting against my eyes.
Bet that's what you're wondering too, right? Well, let me take you back through the harrowing months of high school we've lived so far. Through all the fear, the close calls and all of the drama that is customary in high school; this is our story.
[So, this is an idea I've wanted to write for a long time and I am proud to have a wonderful co-author to help me with finally putting it out there. This story will start off in a lighthearted 'ruh roh, Raggy' kind of tension with how they deal with everything before picking up into 'oh my god, we can actually die' territory. So, enjoy the fun while it lasts because shit will hit the fan eventually.]