The Great Escape
By Celia MalloryChapter 1"No!" I shouted. "BOO! GO HOME, WISCONSIN!" My friends and I shouted. We were at a Women's Basketball game (as usual), and Michigan, OUR team, was losing (as usual).
"Why can't Michigan win for ONCE??" My friend, Renee, exclaimed.
" I don't know. Heck, why do we even go to their games anymore? We all know that they're going to lose!" I joked. We all knew why we came to the game. We came to the games for two reasons. One, was we all had a huge love of Basketball. The second reason was because we're almost all in different classes, so besides lunch, we RARELY get to hang out, so we go to the games to hang.
"Hey, I'm gonna go get some popcorn and a soda. Anyone else wanna come?" Mike asked.
"Sure, I need some more gummy worms!" I said.
"I'll come, but you guys have to wait for me. I gotta get some cash from my dad." Derek exclaimed, walking up the steep steps from his seat in the row in front of me. Mike and I got to the top of the stairs, then waited for Derek. After about seven hours (well, not REALLY) of Derek begging his dad for a dollar, we were all on our way to the candy counter.
"PSST!" I heard, and I spun around. It was Renee. "Hey, lets ditch the guys and go sit over by Michigan's hoop!"
"Sure! I whispered. Now, you might be thinking this was a little bit mean, but my friends and I do this kind of stuff all the time. Someone "ditches" someone else, then we all go find each other. It's like a game.
" Hey, Tori! You comin'?" Derek asked from a little ways ahead.
"Uhh, yeah! I just gotta' run back to my seat to grab an extra dollar!" I shouted back. I turned around, walked around the corner. Then, Renee and I took off. Once we reached the opposite side of the stadium, we found some good seats and sat down. The score changed, the second period started, and the guys still hadn't come yet. We went back to our original seats to find that they had all picked up their stuff and moved.
"What?" Renee exclaimed. As we walked through the three rows we took up with our stuff, I saw a piece of paper on the ground, so I picked it up and read it:
Hey guys, meet us in front of Gate C . Hurry!
-Derek
PS. We know you ditched us!
"Renee! We have to go meet the guys in front of gate C!" I exclaimed. We both charged out of the rows and up the stairs.
"Which gate are we by now?" Renee asked.
"Gate B." I said. " We need to go… that way!" I said, pointing in any random direction. It happened to be to the right, past a candy counter, and over by what would wind up being at Gate A.
"Uh, why don't YOU go that way, and I'll go this way!" Renee exclaimed, pointing in the opposite direction. She was probably right, and I didn't want to be proven wrong.
" What's THAT?!" I exclaimed, pointing towards the right. Her head spun around, and I took off towards the left. I don't know just where she went, but when I found Gate C, it took her about five more minutes to get there. All the guys were there. Mike, the goofy one, Derek, The odd one, Josh, the athletic one, Craig, the crazy one, and Sam, the funny one. They all looked extremely excited about who knows what, so I couldn't help but be excited too. When Renee finally arrived, the guys started picking up their stuff, like we were going somewhere.
"You guys, what's going on?" Renee squeaked, after huffing and puffing from her long run.
"You'll see." Mike smiled mischievously.
" But you have to come with us." Derek said, bouncing up and down. So, Renee and I picked up our stuff and followed them.
"What took you so long?" I whispered to Renee.
"Well, thanks to SOMEONE, I wound up at Gate A, so I had to go ALL the way around the stadium to find you guys!"
"Well sorry!" I said, exaggerating the word sorry. Finally, after a long time of walking, Mike and Derek brought us to an area none of us had ever been to before. It was like a little storage closet. Mike started digging through one of the boxes.
"Uh, Mike? Are you SURE we're suppose to be here?" Sam asked. We WLL knew the answer to this question.
" You're never SUPPOSE to be anywhere, Sam. It's just a matter of whether you're allowed to or not." Mike replied. That's what he ALWAYS said whenever he was asked if we were supposed to be anywhere. Suddenly, he pulled out a poster. It looked like it was new, like it had JUST been made. Mike read it allowed to us:
"Back to back Michigan verses Wisconsin games! Friday, January thirteenth, two thousand eight! Starts at six o'clock and goes till' ten! Come! Tickets five dollars!" He finished.
"Sound cool." I said. "Let's go to it!"
"Tori, that's not what the I showed you this poster is!" Mike exclaimed.
"Well, than what IS the reason?" I asked.
" The reason is WHY they're raising the money. Ann Arbor is running out of money, so the big businesses are leaving. People are starting to have to pay more taxes, they might even have to close down things that are charging money, but not making very much, like Schools!" Mike exclaimed. We all gasped. I mean, we didn't really enjoy school that much, but life without going to school?? It was unimaginable!
" That's terrible!" Renee murmured.
" I know." Mike said. All of a sudden, I remember something I had learned in a class I had taken at my school.
"You guys! I've got it!" I exclaimed. " I've got an idea!"
"What is it?" Everyone started asking at the same time.
" I… I took a class about Ann Arbor. It's heard that there's this book… no, a Diary of the girl our town is named after. It's called… it's called… ' The Great Escape of Anne Arbour and the Cadillac Cowboys.' It's supposed to be worth a million bucks!"
" And what exactly can we do about it?" Craig asked.
" It was said to have been buried right around the area of Crisler Arena, and during construction, some guy found it and put it away in storage. It's hidden somewhere in this building!" I said with a dramatic conclusion.
"Awesome! If we find it, we can donate it to the school, and then the school can pay the town! Ann Arbor Open won't shut down!" Derek exclaimed.
"Are you children REALLY supposed to be in here?"
5
