(A/N): First of all, I'm again really sorry about the hiatus that was taken on this story. It ended up being longer than anticipated, but we're finally back at it again! Hopefully we'll get back into the usual schedule again, though for now updates may be a bit inconsistent.
The five girls met in Marie and Julie's room the next day, now ready to start working on the plan. Lana and Sophie's wounds were patched up by then, though Lana was still pretty pissed off to say the least. She wore a scowl and her eyes burned bright with fury like plumes of blue fire.
"So, when do we get to go into the teacher's lounge? I'm ready to get some revenge." Lana asked, crossing her arms. The other four looked towards her unamusedly. "After we get the stuff we need to escape, I mean."
"Like we told you, you'll have to get there between first and second period." Marie said. "We'll get the history teacher out of there, and you have around 15 minutes to do… whatever you have to."
"You better get what you need to escape. We're already setting some stuff up with a couple of the girls. If you go in there just to screw with the teachers, forget us." Julie added.
"It's not all about screwing with the teachers. I promise that we're going to get everything we need first, I've had it up to here with this place." Lana promised. "But I'm also going to enact some grody revenge on them that'll make them wish Sister Lucerna never picked up a ruler afterwards."
Everyone faced Lana with a look of concern and a bit of a fright. With the exception of Lisa who was not only the less surprised, but also kind of already expecting something as such.
"This one lost it quickly." Marie whispered to her sister.
"Tell me about it." Julie said, as she stood up from her bed. "Alright, first class will start soon. So, just follow your part of the plan, and we'll follow ours."
The other four nodded understandingly before waiting for the bell to ring. Lisa, Lana, and Sophie left the room as they made their way to their first class. They had a few minutes, so they weren't rushing in the long hallways towards their destiny.
"I can't believe we're actually doing this." Sophie said.
"You bet we are." Lana replied. "It'll be good to finally leave this place."
"So, Lana… I'm probably going to regret asking this, but how exactly do you plan on getting your revenge?" Lisa asked.
"Ehh, if there's any filters I'll take those down, and if there aren't then things will just be easier. They're gonna learn what a shock site is when I change the computer's desktop wallpaper."
"... so that's your plan? Creep religious adults out with content that will make them scream?"
"No no no, the plan is to get everything we need to get out of this joint. Creeping religious adults out is my revenge after we get what we need. I'm a girl of my word."
"Okay… somehow I'm surprised by this." Lisa shook her head. "So, Sophie… what are your plans after we get out of here?"
"What do you mean? I thought I could stay with you?"
"And you can, of course. But I believe it's not your intention to just live the rest of your life passively with us, correct?"
"I mean… I don't know where else I would go. I haven't really thought about that… like, what can I do?"
"How about we focus on getting out of here in the first place?" Lana interrupted. "None of this planning will mean anything if we just can't get out."
"True. I guess we'll just cross that bridge when we get to it."
The second bell rang and the three of them left their class, giving them the signal that they needed. They were confident under the cover of a swarm of students trying to get to class, and using that to their advantage, they went in the other direction without so much as a soul seeming to notice them. If anyone did notice, they didn't care.
"Okay. Sophie, you know this place like the palm of your hand, so where's the teacher's lounge?" Lana asked. "For real, this place looks like a maze."
"That way." Sophie pointed to the left as they reached a split path. She moved up to the front to lead the Loud sisters. They continued to follow her throughout the building. It was a long way away from where they were before, but eventually they came across two wooden doors at the end of the path.
"Hmm… the door is closed." Sophie said, as she tried the door handle. "And locked. Great."
"Maybe the twins haven't done their part yet. We'll have to wait to see." Lisa theorized. "But we should hide. Regardless of what happens we don't want to get caught."
"Where are we going to hide? There's nothing but walls, these doors, and empty space around us." Lana said.
"Well, this other door is a bathroom. We can stay in here." Sophie said.
"Alright, I guess Lisa wouldn't mind that either. After all, that was her favorite place to put cameras back at home." Lana snarked.
"Very funny." Lisa said. "As a matter of fact, all the material recorded was saved purely for study and scientific reasons and-"
"What's a camera?" Sophie asked.
Both Lana and Lisa looked at her with a bit of surprise.
"You're serious right now?" Lisa asked. "The other stuff I could understand, but a camera?"
"Okay, fine, I was just joking this time… even if I haven't seen a lot of them."
"Can we just finish this talk inside the bathroom?!" Lana asked, growing more annoyed by the second. "Someone will find us."
"You were the one stalling us, but okay." Lisa grumbled, then walked in as Lana and Sophie followed. She sighed when she heard Lana giggle, but stopped her with a 'shush' gesture before she could ask if the pun was intended.
"Now what?" Sophie asked.
"Let's wait. Maybe we can spy on the teacher's lounge, or try to hear someone approaching it."
"See what I mean about the cameras and the bathroom and the spying? But all jokes aside, let's do that."
"You just can't let it slide, can you?" Lisa asked. "What do you even believe I did with the data?"
"Do you really want me to answer that, Lisa?" Lana replied before going silent for a moment. "Okay, I don't really know, but come on, you gotta admit that it was pretty weird."
"Lana, considering our family, the definition of weird is basically nonexistent."
"Okay fine, but why did you need to have those cameras there? I don't think you needed to keep them there after that indoor snowball fight ended."
"Well, obviously it seems you can't comprehend my true objectives with leaving them there."
"You mean invading our privacy or-"
"That's enough!" Lisa exclaimed.
"You two seem to have a lot of… issues back at home." Sophie commented.
"You wouldn't believe it." Lisa replied.
"Come on sis, it wasn't that bad." Lana interrupted.
"When the CPS is called more times than the number of siblings we have you know something is wrong."
"Dang, and here I thought this place had issues." Sophie muttered.
"Ehh, once you live the Loud lifestyle you get used to it. At least, we used to be used to it…" Lana said.
Suddenly, they heard the sound of a nearby door opening. Their ears perked and their eyes widened. Careful not to make a sound, they slowly and quietly pushed the bathroom door open just enough to poke their heads out. They saw the history teacher about to enter the teacher's lounge, only for Marie and Julie to run towards her.
"S-sister Beatrix, I-I need your help. There's a rat in mine and my sister's room, and we need help to get it out!" Marie said.
They saw the history teacher nod and leave the teacher's lounge, with Marie following right behind. Before she made distance from the door, though, the three students saw her dropping something onto the floor. It didn't make enough noise to get the teacher's attention, and it blocked the door, stopping it from closing. After a few seconds, when neither of them were still visible, the three girls left the bathroom, and went towards the door.
"Huh, that was quite easy." Lisa commented, as she crouched to see a small wooden brick near the edge of the door. "But we have no time to waste. Let's go."
They went inside and looked around, marvelling about how comfortable it looked. Maybe it wasn't a five star hotel, but just by the fact that it had a couch, a table with coffee and biscuits, and a (unlit) fireplace, was already an upgrade from the stone hallways and wooden chairs of their classrooms. No wonder kids were always trying to get into the teacher's lounge back at Lisa and Lana's old schools. In the back near the center sat a desk and an old dusty computer. The monitor's screen flickered, showing that it still worked. Lisa and Sophie felt a tinge of hope while the urge for revenge burned within Lana.
"So… where should we start looking?" Sophie asked confusedly. Despite having been at the boarding school her whole life, she never got to see the lounge before and it wasn't at all what she was expecting. She expected it to look much older and worn out, like the rest of the establishment was.
"Let me see if I can find any sort of relevant data on this computer." Lisa said, getting in front of it, and looking towards a corner. "Huh… a printing machine… Lana can you turn that on?" She asked, as she began typing.
"Sure." Lana obliged and pressed the power button on the machine. It took a few seconds to start up, but eventually a loud noise started emitting from it as it did its job. "Thing seems to be running, Lis… oh boy with these things will be even better!"
"Uh… what should I do?" Sophie asked, a bit lost around that room.
"Try searching through cabinets around. There might be something useful for us."
"You mean… stealing?" Sophie asked, a bit nervously.
"It's not stealing. It's reappropriating objects. Lana, give her a hand."
"And it's only wrong if you steal something from someone that doesn't deserve to have something stolen from them." Lana added in. She went over towards the cabinets and started haphazardly sifting through the contents. Neatness was never her forte and they didn't have much time anyway.
They soon came across a folder that was bursting at the seams, tearing apart as it could barely contain the contents held within it. Lana took it out and blew on it, an opaque dust cloud blowing off of it and making the three of them cough in the process.
"What in the name of…" Lisa coughed, putting her sleeve up to her mouth. "What is that?!"
Now that the dust had been cleared, they could see the label much more clearly. "It's called dust, Lisa. And we found the student records, looks like they shoved it all into this one folder." Lana opened it up, letting out even more dust in the air like a puff of smoke. "With how old it is though, I don't think they added ours in. Or maybe they did and it's just that we've been here for so long at this point."
"Yeah, I doubt it." Lisa said.
"Wait… student files? Does that mean I'm in there?" Sophie asked.
"What do you think?!" Lisa said, a bit annoyed.
"Lisa, come on, take it easy on her." Lana scolded.
"If I wasn't trying to access the internet with a computer made before both of us were born, maybe I wouldn't be so stressed." Lisa complained. "And apparently they think Jesus will protect them from viruses, judging by the number of pop ups."
"Yeah, well Jesus isn't gonna protect them from me once I get on there. No matter how long it takes to load a webpage on that dinosaur."
Sophie took the folder and started going through them. They were organized in alphabetical order, so it was easy for her to get to the 'S' section. Her heart raced and she bit her nails as she went through each wrinkly paper that was yellowed with age. She pulled one of them out and examined it, nearly dropping the folder onto the ground due to how shaky her hands were.
"Hey Lana." Lisa called.
"Yeah?" Lana asked, as her head was turned, searching for something else in the cabinets. "What's up?"
"I think your friend over there is having a stroke or something, might want to check on her." Lisa explained. "And no I don't want a laundry discount!" She said clicking the mouse furiously.
"Huh?" Lana turned her attention to Sophie and cautiously approached her, not wanting to startle her. "Hey… hey, you okay?" She asked softly.
"T-t-this… t-t-this is m-me!" Sophie stuttered, holding a piece of paper in the air. "I-I-it has e-everything a-about me!"
"Yep, that's you alright. So… what's going on here? Anything surprising?"
"I-I-I have a b-birthday! A-and p-parents! A-and a s-surname! A-and a… I don't even know what the rest of this is, but I have it!"
"I think that's an address." Lana said. "Maybe where you lived before coming here?"
"Whoa… so if I get out of here… maybe I could go there."
"It says some place in Detroit. Huh, well that explains a lot."
"What would you even do there?" Lisa questioned, as she seemed to finally starting to manage her research. "It's a shot in the dark, and that was probably done years ago. It's highly unlikely that your biological parents even live there anymore."
"B-but I have to see! I need to know them!" Sophie explained.
"I don't know about you, but I wouldn't have such necessities for a couple that literally abandoned you here." Lisa replied.
"And who knows if they're even still there? How long have you been here anyway?" Lana asked.
"I already said, I don't know." Sophie claimed.
"Well your file must have some sort of data regarding your entrance here." Lisa theorized. "Okay, I managed to locate ourselves. I'm printing the maps of the local area and the state of Michigan, so we can route ourselves once we get out. We need anything else?"
"I dunno. How much time do we have left before we gotta skedaddle?" Lana asked.
"Around 3 minutes." Lisa estimated. "Grab whatever you need, put the rest in place now, and let's get out!"
"Wait! What about the revenge though? I promise I'll make it quick."
"Fine! Be my guest!" Lisa said, as she heard her papers being printed. "But I won't stay here and risk getting caught, and neither will Sophie, right?"
"Uh… I-I guess?" Sophie said.
"Nah it's cool, you don't need to see what I'm about to do. It's gonna be really grody." Lana said as she wore an evil grin. "They… they don't have filters. This is gonna be easier than I thought." With that, she started cackling maniacally as she typed away furiously. Despite the computer being slower than ever, she managed to quickly find something worthy, and continued laughing until she changed the computer's background "This is why you don't mess with Lana Lionella Marie Loud!"
"I worry about her quite often…" Lisa remarked.
"Why though?" Sophie asked, as both of them went towards the door to sneak out of the teacher's lounge.
"For starters that's not even her middle name. She just saw that one day and thought it sounded cool."
"Well it's my middle name now because I said so." Lana insisted and got up, following them as they snuck out. "And they won't know what hit 'em." She snickered.
"Judging by the way she's talking, they definitely won't know what hit them…"
After escaping from the teacher's lounge, and making their way through the rest of the classes like nothing has happened, Lisa, Lana and Sophie reunited back in their bedroom. They had maps, paper, pencils, files, and biscuits that Lana somehow stole from the teacher's lounge. Those things were still better than the mystery meat.
"Okay, so I've made models of the school's structure based on maps placed around the walls of this place." Lisa said as she finished doing some scratches on one of the papers. "Now we can begin to plan exactly how we're going to get out."
"We might need a distraction." Lana suggested. "If we can get the attention of security away from us for long enough, perhaps we can even escape through the front door."
"I agree. What kind of distraction would we use?" Lisa questioned.
"Oh I'm great with distractions. Maybe we could get one of the toilets clogged, one that's far away from the others while we're escaping, and while they go to check on it I'll join you guys as you make your getaway. Or since they don't like me that much anymore, I could piss them off and while they're focused on me, you guys make your getaways, I'll steer them away somewhere else and then join you. Or I could start a fight and get them to focus entirely on me, I think I could take on quite a few people if I'm cornered. Or maybe…"
Lana continued to list off various methods of distraction as Lisa and Sophie listened and took notes, Sophie mentally and Lisa writing them down.
"...Or I could even-"
"Okay, we got it." Sophie interrupted her. "I don't think distractions are going to be enough. We might want to avoid the front door if we could."
"Is there some sort of back door you're aware of that you could use?" Lisa asked.
"Sort of." Sophie explained. "There's this truck that brings food and water to this place once every two days, near the back of the school. Perhaps we could escape from where they stop to unload."
"So, how would we get to the truck, and quickly enough so it doesn't leave before we can get there?" Lana asked.
"There's people around there unloading the food, but if we sneak our way past them, we can make our way through the back gate." Sophie pointed on the map, at the opposite side of the front door. "That thing stays open until the truck finishes its delivery. It doesn't have enough space for the truck to park entirely inside."
"I guess that can work, but also Marie and Julie said that we'd need to bring others alongside the escape. They probably wouldn't notice three girls, but trying to sneak more than that would be more difficult. So how do we sneak everyone past?"
"You got me there… maybe we can just try to run for it, or make a distraction? They unload at night, so it's probably a bit easier."
"Maybe I could fight them-"
"Lana, no, you're not fighting anybody. We don't need you getting into more trouble than you're already in if it fails." Lisa cut her off with a 'stop' gesture before turning to Sophie. "Wait… you said at night?"
"Well, yes… why?" Sophie asked.
"There might be a flaw that we can exploit." Lisa said, scratching the pencil. "Us, alongside most of the girls, are located in the middle of the building. The main exit options are at West and East, both guarded by the school's staff. But there's a finite number of staff members around, which means they leave the north area mostly unsupervised." Lisa pointed at it.
Lana and Sophie both looked confused.
"Well, four eyes, we might not get caught in the north, but what do you think we'll do in there? It's the softball field, that place is walled in all four sides." Sophie explained.
"You're right. We don't have an exit, we only have walls. But since there most likely won't be anyone around, we might be able to go over the wall. The thing is not higher than maybe two of us pulled together. We could climb it."
"I'm not too good with heights…" Lana said nervously. "But I'm willing to try it if it'll get us out of this place."
"We could maybe try to find something to help us climb it. Ropes, or platforms, whatever that can aid us to get over. Perhaps the twins could provide us with such." Lisa suggested.
"And once we get over the wall, would we end up near the truck or would we need to do something else to get there before then?"
"I think we might actually be able to avoid the truck if we climb the right wall, and we will be free once we cross it." Sophie explained. "Maybe the one on the far end of the map."
"Huh, so we could save the truck for a backup plan, but try the wall first? Or the other way around?"
"I suggest we try the wall. That seems easier to use to sneak out rather than the truck." Lisa replied.
"Wait, what about Charles and Cliff?" Lana asked. "They're still in the pet club, we can't just leave them."
"You're not wrong." Lisa agreed, rubbing her chin. "Hmm… that's easy to solve. We could just sneak them out prior to the escape, and bring them with us."
"Hmm… alright, you still have those blankets we hid them in all that time ago?"
"They're still in the closet." Sophie said. "We can just wrap them up in there and bring them with us."
"Alright, but we have to be careful with them. I guess we have all the major stuff figured out, right?"
"Mostly, yes. We might want to check the routes we could do for some extra information, but the main idea is here."
The other two nodded in agreement. Now that they had the main plan in mind, all they needed was to set it all up before putting it into action. The first thing on the list, is to discovering who is going with them.
During the night, the twins' bedroom had much more girls than it had ever seen. Sure, there were only 10 in total, but that was a great number considering what they were doing. Most faces were familiar, but not close to Lisa and Lana. They had a couple names, like Jennifer, who despite not being very popular between the creators of the plan, paid well enough to be there.
"Alright, we're going to be using aliases for the sake of hiding our identities, should anyone overhear us or find our documents detailing the plan." Lana announced as she paced in Marie and Julie's room. Beside her stood Lisa, Sophie and the twins, while several other girls that made a deal sat on the beds.
"You are not to refer to each other by any other name while our mission is in progress. I assume that everyone knows why we are gathered here now, and if not then I suggest you leave immediately." Lisa added in. "Do not talk about anything that could give away who you are that could reveal your or others' identities either."
"All we want you to talk about… is what you're gonna do." Sophie said.
Lana cleared her throat as she went through the roster and started giving them their names. "I'm Miss Blue because I get first pickings. Lisa, you're Miss Green. Sophie's Miss Black, Julie's Miss Purple, Marie's Miss Pink, Jessica's Miss Brown-"
"Hey, I don't want to be Miss Brown, that's the color of poo!"
"What a coincidence." Lisa murmured.
"Why does Marie get to be Miss Pink, I should be Miss Pink!"
"You're Miss Brown because you got Sophie and I beaten with a ruler and I've had it with your shit!" Lana snapped, taking a step forward while trying to restrain herself from starting a fight.
"Why can't I be Miss Magenta then?!"
"You're not Miss Magenta… you're Miss Brown!"
"Okay, before you two start screaming and make our whole plan go down the drain..." Lisa interrupted. "Our alternative names don't matter that much. They will only be used for at most week."
Lana took a deep breath to calm herself down and she continued with the list. "She's right so just suck it up the way I am right now." She shot a glare at Jessica. "Ashley's Miss Yellow because she also pisses me off and you better not start an argument." Lana warned as she saw Ashley about to object. She didn't have any problems with the other girls and pointed at them to give them their names instead to get things done quicker. "Miss White, Miss Orange and Miss Red."
"Okay, distractions with colors that should only be considered fun for infants being done..." Lisa took a step forward, as the other girls surrounded her. "We don't know each other very well, and some might have their differences. But we'll forget those-"
"Then why am I still Miss Br-"
"We're past that now, we need to focus here!" Lana complained.
"Why can't we pick our own names?"
"Then everybody would be fighting over who gets to be Miss Blue, and we don't have time for that. Like Lisa said, we don't know each other well so nobody would back down. I pick, and I say you're Miss Brown." Lana growled. "Now zip it. Be glad your nickname isn't that of a shock site, Lisa talked me out of doing that."
"Who cares what your nickname is? We won't have them for long." One of the other girls said, just as done with everything as Lisa and Lana were.
"Easy for you to say, you're Miss White. You get a nice and innocent-sounding name, so if it's no big deal to be Miss Brown why don't we trade?"
"Nobody is trading names." Lisa sighed and facepalmed.
"What's a shock site?" Sophie asked.
"Nothing. We're getting off track, and it's gonna be lights out soon!" Lana exclaimed.
"Enough." Lisa said. "Let's make it like this. If anyone complains one more time, you'll be left behind. Everyone paid a high price to be here, and there's a lot at risk. We only have one shot, otherwise security will increase, and they will make our escape impossible. So the next girl that makes a single sound not related to the plan, you're out of this room. Understand?!" She exclaimed the last part.
"And no refunds!" Marie and Julie added in unison.
The other girls nodded frantically, surprised by the outburst. Jessica and Ashley continued to glare at them, but kept their mouths shut. They went over the plans and where everyone would be, while Lisa and Lana made sure to leave out the part about the pets.
"So, plain and simple." Lana concluded. "At midnight, we meet at the softball field. Once we're out of here, we don't hold responsibilities for no one. I know we have our differences, but we'll have to work together for this thing to work. Good luck to everyone."
And with that, the girls, one at a time, made their way out of the room, one at a time to avoid suspicious, until only the twins were left with Lisa, Lana, and Sophie.
"You girls are crazy, but your plan might work." Julie said.
"How come nobody ever tried to escape this way before? It does seem quite simple." Lisa asked.
"Jumping over the wall might be simple, especially if you have equipment. The problem is getting to the softball field." Mary explained.
"The last one that tried to escape years ago was never seen again after she was caught." Julie added.
The three girls gulped after hearing that last statement.
"I don't think anything bad happened to her. She was caught, but somehow she managed to hide in the school. Probably got out one way or another."
"Alright, so if we get caught then that's what we'll do. Thank you, by the way. We wouldn't be able to pull any of this off without you." Lana said, giving them a warm smile.
"You girls don't seem bad. Good luck to you out there." Marie said.
"You might want to get out to your room now though. You don't want to have to sneak around twice." Julie added. "And Sophie… it was nice knowing you."
"Uh… thanks?" Sophie said, a bit confused but appreciative nonetheless. "I guess… see you two someday?"
"We'll find a way to keep in touch." Mary said. "We always find a way."
And with that, the three girls left and rushed to their bedrooms. They couldn't wait to get out, but they couldn't celebrate yet. A lot had to go right, but if it did, freedom would be their best friend.