"Skippah w-what diary?"
Skipper looked around the room thinking he might have dropped it. He moved papers, he looked under the copy machine, and all around the room. "It's gone."
"W-who was she?"
"I think that was Hans sister. Tenggaki. She used to be Tenggaki Youtu, but she took Hans last name Søpapegøjer."
"But Hans is alive, what did she meen?"
"People thought he died. Eitherway he's not who he used to be." Skippers eyes narrowed. "He's been different since he left our group in Denmark on family errands and didn't return for a week after he was obligated to." Skipper leaned on the copy machine with his back turned to Private. "When he did show up he was very upset and was facing a court martial for desertion. Since we all knew where he'd gone and refused to talk we faced court martial as well. We evaded court martial by actually deserting, but Hans betrayed us and was able to live out citizenship in his native land. Denmark." He finnished solemnly.
"Is that why you can't go to Denmark?" Privated asked amazed.
"Part of it yes. Lets find Kowalski and Rico. It's not safe here."
"What else happened?"
"Not now Private. We need to find the others. You don't need to mention any of this to the others."
Private had so many questions, but he could see a speck of pain under Skippers serious gaze. He nodded and they moved on. The moment they stepped into the hallway they heard a scream. They ran into the room it'd come from. Kowalski and Rico were huddled in a corner the shadow of a bony hand stretching over them. Rico reached into his backpack and pulled out a chain saw.
"Wait Rico." Skipper said straring at the shadow. "Shine a light at it."
Rico pulled a flaslight out of his back pack and pointed it toward the shadow. It turned out to be a hand reaching up to grab the window sill. Another hand grabbed on. Skipper and Private held their breath as a crop of brunnet hair apeered. They breathed again when they saw the hair was attached to the face of Marlene.
"Marlene!" The boys cried.
"Oh! Hey guys could you give us a hand." She asked in her chipper way.
The boys shared a look. "Us?"
"Yeah me and Annie."
"Actually it would be Annie and I." Kowalski corrected.
"Rather than-uh- inproving people grammer you guys could help me-grunt- get Marly through the window you know." Annie grunted from below. "You know for a past gymnastics star she's pretty h-heavy."
"You girls don't need to be here. Some strange things are happening." Skipper said.
"I have a peanut butter winky for the first person to h-help me!" Annie said straing.
"You really need to go. This place is actually haunted." Private said seriously.
Marlene disapeered with an oof. "Did Private just turn down a peanut butter winky!" Annie cried in suprize.
"Hold on Annie they must be playing some sort of trick on us." Marlene said.
"Actullaly the evidence would suggest they aren't. They weren't expecting us so they wouldn't have had time to plan and Private would never be one to give up a peanut butter winky for a game. Do you know how much information I've gotten out of him and Kyle for those things?"
Skipper gave Private an 'oh really' look. "We'll definatly discuss that, but now is not the time. You girls go home. We're leaving too."
"What about the bet Skipper? You guys quiting? I bet you haven't even searched half the school yet." Marlene retorted.
Skipper growled. "I don't care. I'm not puting these boys in danger over our bet. I'll suffer the punishment alone if I have to, but none of us are staying here."
"Punishment?" Kowalski asked.
Skipper blushed. "Again it can be discussed later. We're leaving. Marlene, Annie we'll meet you at the front door and escort you home."
"But the front door's locked!"
"No it's not that's how we came in." Kowalski said.
"Kowalski use some logic." Annie said sarcasticly. "Would I be hoisting Marly up to a window if we could have used the front door?"
"No." Kowalski said ashamed.
"Enough of this!" Skipper said. "We said we'll meet you at the front door, we'll meet you at the front door."
"Mmmmmmhhhhhhhh." The girls hummed together.
Skipper scoffed and marched to the front door. He pulled the left door. It wouldn't budge so he tried the right. Pulling at the handle reminded him of the water that had flooded behind him and how for some reason he was scared to death of it touching him. He pressed his back against the door and stared at the hall wide eyed and terrified. His team peered at him from the doorway of the classroom they were in.
"Skippah are you okay?" Private asked walking over to put a hand on his shoulder.
"Bloody handle..." Skipper muttered.
"Watch your language!" The british boy chastised harshly.
"No..blood on the handles."
"Nonsense."Kowalski said. He walked over to Skipper and pointed to the handles. "There's not a drop of blood on them."
The door swung open. The handle Kowalski had been investigating hit him in the head and Skippers head was hit by the door. Skippers head came forward hitting Privates.
"What do you know?" Marlene said loudly. "The door was open." Skipper, Private and Kowalsi held their heads. Rico shrugged and held his head too.
"Group concussion?" Annie asked skepticly.
"No. You hit my head with the door." Skipper said.
"Me too." Kowalski said.
"And Skippers head hit my head." Private said.
"Digewunbeleftowt."
"What?" Annie asked.
"He didn't want to be left out." Kowalski said.
"Oh really Rico?" Skipper said angrily. "Come over here I'll let you join the party-ow! Why does my head hurt so bad?"
"Well I don't know about you, but my head hurts cause it was hit by a much harder head." Private giggled then groaned. "Yes it does hurt."
"I concure. My frontal lobe is throbbing." Kowalski said.
"Ah it's like Johnson hit me with a bat." Skipper said.
"Or a nine-iron." Private said.
Annie survayed their heads. "They could have concussions. Maybe we should observe them overnight to be sure their alright."
The lights flickered off. When they came back on the leather diary was back. The cover opened and it flipped to a page that said 'They left me'. The lights went off again and the book was gone.
"The diary... we have to get it!" Skipper yelled rushing to the spot the book had been in. "It must hold intell about what happened here. What or who started that fire. How the kids that escaped were identified as dead." He touched the floor where the book had been. "We could solve this crazy mess."
Annies eyes lighted up she clapped her hands. "Solve, diary, dead?" She shreiked. "What are we waiting for? Lets find that book!" She ran off into the schools halls without a second thought.