/Author's Note: Yessir, a new chapter, not only in the same year as the last one, but the same month! Truly a victory dance or jig of some sort is in order. School has started though, and I've been informed that this semester is the 'semester of death', 'the semester that'll make you want to quit school', 'the best semester to come to class drunk to', among other things. Hence why I'm trying to get out as many chapters as I can now, while the workload is still light!
So here we are - Chapter 50. Yes, 50 chapters, over almost 4 years... Wow. This story has indeed come along away. Sadly, this chapter isn't super long or even hugely significant - it was actually supposed to go in an entirely different direction, but the two 'main' characters of this chapter ended up taking way too long to write, and thus two small 200-word parts blew up to be about 1500 words each, so I decided to slap them together and make it a chapter. But hey, it meant a quicker update for you guys! And, I've, uh... officially topped 2009 in that I've released two chapters this year as opposed to 2009's... one, sole chapter... Haha... ha...
And on that note, I just wanted to thank everyone for having faith in my updating (in)abilties, and for everyone who keeps coming back, and especially to everyone who keeps leaving reviews :) Encouraging words as well as constructive criticism really help me to keep at it, so it's always in your best interest to drop me a few words on the latest chapter :) I really, really appreciate it!
Anyway, enjoy the 50th Chapter, and thank you all for coming this far with me into my crazy little highschool world! There's still so much more to come, so I hope to be able to see you all once we get to the eventual end. Enjoy! End Author's Note/
Chapter 50: Flowerbud Oven
Doors.
It was such an insipid, such an asinine reason for a business trip. Yes, the state of doors in a school. As if there would be any principal who would get on a plane and fly out several dozen miles for a business conference on classroom doors! Any normal principal would scoff at the very idea - which was what made it so perfect: Principal Theodore Wallace was no normal principal.
He was so simple.
Lyla sat comfortably in the chair that usually belonged to Theodore, behind his desk. It was usually in disarray, but the pink-haired girl's compulsive need for cleanliness had rendered it prim and proper. She was in the middle of her lunch, though her eyes were momentarily fixed on the poster of waffles across from her, pinned sloppily to Theodore's door. 'Waffles...' she scoffed to herself, 'Really...'
It was just too easy - Lyla had all the cards she needed, right there in her hands. Theodore was gone for an undetermined amount of time,she had easily gained access to his personal office, and with it, all the documents and data on the school she would need, and, her brilliant plan involving that red-haired pawn of a news anchor was blossoming into a stupendous success.
Still, as with all plans, when they were coming together a bit too seamlessly, one had the tendency to worry. Was Theodore as simple as she believed?
'Of course he is,' she shook her head in spite of herself, her silky pink hair swaying at her sides, 'Unless he has ulterior motives...'
Almost robotically, Lyla pushed her lunch out of the way - three remaining quarters of a cucumber sandwich with its edges impeccably cut off, lying on a pink plaid hankerchief - and turned on the monitor in front of her. A login screen flashed in front of her, and she bit her lip. Still, simplicity was on her side so far, so she made her first attempt:
' Waffles '
No cigar. Her eyes narrowed and her mouth curled into the tiniest of smiles, and she continued to smile as she made further attempts, altering the spelling, the capitalization, adding in words of adoration - and she smiled still, when after five minutes, she was still met with a Login screen flashing up at her. The buffoon had to have written it down somewhere - there was simply no way he remembered a password on a daily basis.
Lyla pressed a soft hand on her good luck charm, also present on the desk next to her lunch - a petite velvet box, which looked big enough to contain a deck of playing cards. As if some sort of sixth sense had kicked in, Lyla's smile grew and she could hardly suppress a sugary laugh. Getting up, feeling as if her body would show her the way, she walked slowly around the desk, and towards the door, already feeling the beginnings of triumph. Knocking off one of the thumbtacks lodged in the door, she curled the corner of Theodore's poster, and saw, in that maddeningly familiar handwriting, a phrase:
' MiaForeverAndAlways '.
Eyes going slightly wide in surprise - a rare occasion for the girl - Lyla was, if anything, impressed, that the Principal's stubby fingers could possibly type in something that lengthy each and everyday. Still, if she was right in thinking that this was the password, it simply proved that luck was on her side. Feeling like a spoiled little girl whose daddy had just promised her a pony, Lyla skipped back to the desktop and typed in the words, same capitalization and all. She stood at the desk, bent over the screen, and only took a seat once she realized she had succeeded in infiltrating Theodore's computer.
Any possible substance Lyla thought Theodore to have vanished the second she saw his desktop - a wallpaper of a stack of waffles, thick syrup cascading down the toasted delights. She quickly opened his personal planner and began clicking through the months, landing on April. Empty, empty, empty. Not a single day had an event planned. She checked various dates she knew were important - festivals, holidays - just to see if Theodore had actually taken the time to put his planner to use. Nothing!
'Maybe it's to be expected,' she thought to herself, a slender finger to her chin, 'He seems like the doddery old fool who'd be the type to use an old-fashioned agenda to plan his weeks.'
Still... Theodore had been gone for far longer than she thought he would be. This worried her; she still needed the facade of a principal being in control of the school if she wanted to accomplish anything. He had left in April, and it was now late May; she had had no reason to contact him in a while, and aside from a letter penned by the portly old man to Nami Linette, informing her of her new position as Spanish teacher, he had not bothered to contact them either.
'It's really no bother,' Lyla concluded, reminding herself that the man she was dealing with had the IQ of a turnip. All was going smoothly for now, and she decided to revel in her plan's success rather than dwell on unsubstantial doubts.
With nothing much left to do, the young woman pulled her sandwich back towards her and began browsing Theodore's computer aimlessly. With the luck that she was currently enjoying, she might just stumble upon something worthwhile. Though not entirely expecting to, Lyla perused all his folders leisurely for good measure.
With a quarter of her sandwich to go, Lyla found herself coughing slightly. A bit of bread flew from her mouth on to the monitor screen, and she glared at it as if it was its fault for making her cough. Wiping it off with her hankerchief, she found herself coughing violently again. She got to her feet, and nearly had to sit down again in an instant - just the motion her body had made by standing up had made the dainty girl dizzy, and her eyes were suddenly swimming with tears. Vision distorted, she got to her feet and held the piece of plaid cloth over her mouth when she saw it - smoke was entering from under the door.
Now alarmed, the rose-haired girl swiftly switched off the monitor and disposed of her mess, making sure to pocket the tiny velvet box. She lunged for the door, fingers entwining themselves around the door knob and pulling. Her heart beat began to quicken, as the door refused to budge, yet the room continued to fill with thick smoke. It seemed her luck had finally run out - she had had to fiddle with the lock to get in, and it seemed to have backfired on her, for the door now seemed to be jammed. Biting her lips, she took a few steps backward, a part of her mind thinking of Theodore, at his conference, where the rotund old man would no doubt be haggling for new doors, and paused to enjoy the immense irony of the situation.
The moment passing, she focused all of her mind on what to do next. She could bang on the door and there'd likely be someone passing by at this time of day who could be alerted of her presence - or she could wait for the firemen to inevitably come and check every room for possible students. But then... there would be questions, there would be interrogations, there would be suspicions - being found in the Principal's office, which was meant to be locked, while said principal was away, after all, would inevitably lead to that.
Lowering her hand to her side, she felt the small rectangular lump in her pocket, and she pressed her hand against it again.
'I hate to waste one... but being found here - or worse, dying in some fire - would be highly... detrimental. Yes, detrimental.' she decided. Her hand dove into her pocket, and she pulled out the box. Her hands were sweating now, as the room rose in temperature, though she took no notice.
Removing the lid, Lyla revealed a small deck of cards - not a full deck, for it was missing a majority of the cards, but Lyla had no intention to play Solitaire or any sort of game with this particular deck. No...
Pulling out an ornate Six of Hearts, the girl closed her eyes and muttered something, her voice inaudible to even her own ears. In an instant, the smoke dissolved, the door dissolved, the office dissolved from her vision, and in a flash of light, Lyla felt her own body dissolve, the last image fresh in her mind being a poster of childishly drawn waffles.
In one hand, Nami Linette held a binder strategically to her mouth, in an attempt to obstruct the smoke from entering her precious lungs. The other hand, meanwhile, frantically waving in an attempt to corral students towards the nearest emergency exit. Any chance she had of keeping her class together had been shot out the window the minute that damned girl had yelled out 'FIRE!', needlessly pointing out the obvious and sending the class into a bedlam to boot. Having since lost track of more than half her students, Nami decided to stay her ground and help as many students as possible to the exit, if for nothing more than to save her own hide when it was found out that nearly all her students had run amuck.
"Is it hot in here, or is it just you and those fiery locks of yours?" she heard a familiar voice say from behind her. Wheeling around, she saw Alex approaching her, and she replied to his question in the swiftest way possible - by whacking him on the head with her binder.
"Yikes, don't be such a hot-head." the doctor joked, adjusting his hair.
"What's the situation?" Nami coughed, her head pounding from all the smoke - she had no intention to even humor Alex, not at a moment like this.
Alex stood there, maddeningly unaffected by the smoke, and replied, "We're all to evacuate. The source of the fire can't exactly be found - hell, neither can the fire itself - which has lead us to believe it might be in the walls, or in the vents," His thick eyebrows furrowed and he continued, sounding slightly more worried, "The upside is that most students and actual belongings should be safe - the downside is the time it might take to find and extinguish it. The firemen are on their way, but it's definitely going to take a while."
Alex shifted his gaze directly to Nami now, "All teachers are to evacuate to the soccer field with their classes to take attendance."
Students continued to run by them, some - especially the younger ones - were positively gleeful at all the chaos.
"Uh..." said Nami, still directing the students absently. She turned around slowly, already fully aware of the fact that she'd not see a single face - only to see that she was, actually, quite wrong - for one student remained.
The bespectacled Mary shuffled her feet awkwardly. "Er, I didn't... think I should really... I mean, the rules do state..."
Resisting the urge to slap her palm to her forehead, Nami said sweetly, "Mary, it's fine! You've done well. So, uh... where have all your... friends gone?"
Alex, on the other hand, could not quite resist his own urges, and after a swift slap to the head, he let out a sigh and answered in Mary's stead, "They ran off, didn't they?"
Eyebrow twitching ever-so-slightly, Nami turned back to Alex, "I couldn't do anything about it!"
"Mary," the ebony-haired doctor crossed his arms as he addressed her, "Did you see where they ran off?"
"Ah..." the young girl peered from side to side meekly, "They scattered off in different directions...I couldn't stop a-anyone..."
"Alex - " Nami started, only to see that he had flipped out his cellphone and had someone on the line already - most likely on speed dial.
"Gina? Hi," Alex greeted.
Forgetting, somewhat, about the students, Nami blurted out, "Gina? Alex, now isn't the time to be - "
"Have you already evacuated? Alright, then - are you near the intercom room at all? Perfect - I'm really sorry, this'll only take a second, I promise - some students may have run off during the pandemonium. I think the best way to round them up would be to issue a message over the intercom, just let them know that Nami Linette's class is to head straight for the soccer field as soon as possible, and that it's crucial that they are there for attendance. Can you do that? ... Alright, thank you so much, Gina. Get out of there as soon as possible afterwards!" Concluding the conversation, Alex flipped his phone down and pocketed it, glancing at Nami. "Trying to catch flies, Nami?"
Realizing how long she had been staring with her mouth open, Nami forced her jaw upwards and coughed at the smoke she had inhaled wihout noticing. "Y-you're asking her to do something like that? That frail little secretary girl? She's going to risk her life for -?"
"For the students? Yup, and I think I speak for all -" he paused, giving Nami a scrutinizing look, " - of my colleagues when I say that any of us would do the same. Besides, this is hardly life-threatening, she'll be in and out of there in a few moments, and the fire isn't spreading anywhere anytime soon. Good to see you ... care, though." The doctor cocked an eyebrow before turning on his feet, "We should start heading for the field."
Nami followed along idly, with Mary behind her, keeping an obvious distance from the hot-headed teacher. His plan made sense, that went without saying, despite the feeble pale blue-haired secretary being a gawkish mess half the time - but if Nami was going to be honest with herself, it was not Gina's ability (or inability) to complete the task that bothered her. It was how Alex... was with her. He was more amiable, more gentle. There were no stupid jokes. His general disposition was more genial.
She felt like she hadn't seen that Alex in a great deal of time...
Preoccupied with her thoughts, Nami started when she heard the scratchy feedback of the intercom system as a voice - usually soft, feeble, and mild - boomed throughout the school.
" All Students who were just in - in Ms. Lin- Linette's..." the voice suddenly let out a violent cough that resonated around them, " Ms Linette's Spanish Class, p-please report to the Soccer..." her coughing got worse, and Nami sent a sharp look in Alex's direction. He didn't meet her eyes, but stared intently at the nearest speaker, eyebrows contorted in worry. "...to the Soccer Field, where you will then wait for - for attendance to be ta- taken. This ... this is cru... crucial... "
Another of Gina's coughs played back fiercely before the intercom cut off. Nami and Alex exchanged looks of distress before darting down the stairs. A flustered Mary remained at the top of them, knees buckled, when Alex yelled back, "Don't worry, Mary! Just get to the field!"
The two staff members raced down the stairs and down the hall, black and red hair respectively whipped back as they did so. Nami ran with her mouth buried in her elbow, for as far as they could see, the smoke was even thicker on the lower floors. Luckily, there were no students in sight - they had all managed to evacuate safely. A pang of guilt - actual guilt - resonated in Nami's stomach. As sure as she was of the fact that this was not her fault at all, there was a tiny part of her that did not want to see any of the kids hurt, and a large part of her that did not want to deal with the ensuing consequences if there were any injuries, or, Goddess forbid...
Alex skidded to a halt in front of the intercom room and Nami followed his lead, her heart beating significantly faster and her vision blurred with smoke-induced tears. The back of her throat felt scratchy, and her skin was getting clammy. Flowerbud High had become, more or less, a human oven, and as Alex fiddled with the door, Nami couldn't help but think of Gina as its first well-baked dish...
Before the doctor in front of her could twist the doorknob to open the door, it opened on its own, revealing to them a gasping secretary with brilliant azure hair tied in two horribly old-fashioned braids.
"A - Alex!" she wheezed, she stepped out and with her came more thick smoke, "I - I have no clue why I thought it would be a good idea to close the door behind me... Out of habit, I suppose..." she mumbled, and Alex swiftly put an arm around a shoulder and steered her out of the room.
"Well, I guess we'll... have a starting point we can direct the firemen to," Nami remarked, finding it hard not to notice how thick the smoke had become. Feeling light-headed, she stumbled over to Alex and wrapped an arm around his shoulders, using him for nothing more than support. She opened her mouth to state this, expecting Alex to completely misconstrue her intentions, as he often would, but found that she had no need, as the dark haired doctor was paying no attention to her. At all.
"And to think," the demure Gina mumbled, "I wanted to be a nurse at some point... Look at me, I'm as dainty as a mouse," she managed a tiny smile, which Alex returned.
"You'd have made a fine nurse, Gina. Take it from me, I've been told on occasion that I make a pretty okay doctor!" he laughed lightly.
Nami's expression soured and she let go of Alex, letting him go ahead with his pretty little secretary. He took no notice until he was a good few feet ahead, when he called, without turning around, "C'mon, Firehead, pick up the pace! We don't need the rest of you catching on fire back there!"
Taking herself by surprise, Nami found herself grimly smiling to herself, Suddenly unaffected by the smoke, the crimson-haired teacher quickened her pace, but kept a considerable distance from Alex and Gina. keeping her narrowed eyes intently on their heads.
"Oh Alex, you wouldn't know fire if it sprang up and scorched the hairs on your pretty little head..."
