Max shut the door of her dorm building behind her, careful to not make a sound. Jesus, this day... just too insane. I need to see Chloe on the main campus. Poor Kate...
The fireflies above her glowed in and out of existence as she moved through the courtyard. The lamp posts, minus the broken one that she made note of tell Samuel about in the morning, dimly lit the path to the gate where Max could just see Principal Wells drunkenly attempting to enter his dorm. Raising her hand, Max began to rewind time to sneak past him when she was pulled behind the wall, another hand covering her mouth.
"Mmph!"
"Caulfield, keep qui- OW, you bitch!"
Hearing Nathan's voice, Max bit his hand in a panic and pushed out of his hold.
"Nathan, what the hell are you doing? Trying to drug me next?"
"I didn't-" Nathan paused to lower his voice, listening for the Principal, and continued, "I didn't drug the Jesus freak, okay?"
"I'm sure Kate would beg to differ. She tried to jump today, because of you and your stupid Vortex Club and-"
"So why didn't you say anything today to the Principal about it then?"
"Why didn't I..." Max's mind drew a blank. "I... Cause she doesn't have any solid proof..."
"No proof. Exactly. You can't prove anything, Caulfield."
Max couldn't meet his eyes until that moment. The dim light in the courtyard softened his jawline and shadowed his already dark eyes, sunken from lack of sleep.
"Are we done, Prescott?"
Nathan paused for a moment, leaning in slightly, speaking, "Not by a long shot, Max," then turned and left for the boys' dorm building.
What the actual fuck was that about?
A little shaken, Max turned and found that the Principal had somehow made his way inside, and she herself made her way to the main campus.
"Boo!"
Max gasped loudly, turning and swinging with her right arm blindly, which was caught by a soft hand.
"Woah, chill out dude!"
Chloe's harsh voice cut into the air, dissuading Max's panic immediately and lighting a fire in her.
"What the hell, Chloe? Now is so not the time for pranks, especially since I saved Kate from committing suicide today! God, you can be so fuckin' insensitive!"
The joking smile on her best friend's face died a bit, before dropping completely as it was replaced with guilt.
"Shit, Max... you're right. Sorry, I wasn't thinking."
"Chloe, my powers failed today. I was in some kind of limbo, holding onto it as I got onto the roof with her. We can't fuck around with it like this anymore."
"Max, look, I'm sorry, what else do you want me to say? You're some kind of superhero, of course I was excited to mess around with your power!"
"I know Chloe, but we can't anymore, alright?"
"Yes, fine, I get it. Now," Chloe pulled out a ring of keys and swung it around her pointer finger, "Let's see what the Principal is hiding, shall we?"
"How did you get that? David-"
"-was fully prepared to hand the rest of his things in tomorrow, which left us no choice but to snoop around tonight. You ready?"
Max sighed. "Yeah, let's go."
Unlocking the main doors, Chloe and Max snuck through the halls of Blackwell with only two flashlights to light the way.
"Damn, it's fuckin' scary at night, hey?" Chloe's somewhat nervous tone cut through the sound of the keys jiggling in the lock of the office.
"No better than during the day."
"Bet."
Moving to the next door, Chloe knelt down and started picking keys and shoving them in the lock, getting increasingly frustrated as none of them worked.
"Shit, he was head of security! You'd think the head of security it would have a key to the Principal's office! What now?"
"I think I have a plan..." Max said as she reached into her back pocket and pulled out her phone, typing in Warren's number.
"Hey Warren, hypothetically... if I wanted to break into a locked room, how could I do that?"
After a few moments, Max hung up and her phone beeped a few times as Warren sent her the details, along with a concerned message. It's just hypothetical, Warren. Extra credit kinda thing for Ms Grant's class, Max typed back. She turned to Chloe and said, "Okay, Warren gave me a way to blow open the door. I'm gonna go look for the ingredients, won't be too long."
"Is that a challenge?"
"Well, now it is."
Max heard Chloe snort as she left the office, phone in hand, and made a beeline for the science rooms. Checking her phone, she noted down what she needed mentally. Sugar, soda, duct tape, sodium chloride. Sodium chloride? Where the fuck will I find that? Max rolled her eyes as she picked up the sugar from Ms Grant's desk, then eyed a textbook on one of the benches. That should tell me what sodium fucking chloride is, thanks Warren. Weed killer. Okay, yeah that is definitely kept inside and not in Samuel's shed. Max walked to the back of the room and looked at the skeleton. I guess you can't smoke your lungs away if you don't have lungs, Max thought as she snapped a picture. She spotted duct tape on another bench on her way out and picked it up, making half-hearted circles around her arm with it playfully. Max made her way to the nearest soda machine and popped in a quarter, flinching slightly as the machine rumbled and dropped the can. Now, where might I find that weed killer? Max idly wandered through the halls, in and out of classrooms until she found a high cabinet with a container marked "Weed Killer". Plain as day... or night, I guess. Max pulled over a stool and knelt up on it to get it down. All four items now in her possession, she headed back to find Chloe still trying to pick the lock.
"Not enough time spent with Frank?"
"Too much time with that fucker, more like. You got them all?"
"Somehow. Let's blow this shit up."
Setting up the bomb, Max stepped back as Chloe lit the fuse with her lighter and they ran to hide. The pipe bomb blew, blowing the door to the Principal's office wide open.
"Yes!" Whooooooop. Whoooooop.
"Fuck. Quick Max, what do we do?"
"Shit, hold on!"
Ducking her head as her ears rang with the alarm, she stepped inside the Principal's office and rewound. The door swung closed and bathed the room in darkness, and Chloe's irritated voice could be heard mumbling on the other side of the door.
"Gotta get this done before she's back and she can't rewind on me..."
Opening the door with a flourish, Max stood aside as Chloe almost lost balance and fell inwards.
"Tada!"
"Damnit Max, did we get in and you rewound on me?"
"Unless you wanted to be caught by the fire and police departments, I'm sure I did you a favour. Now let's see what's here..."
"Shit, Max, that was gold! I still can't believe you totally snitched on him to Mom!"
"It wasn't so much like that Chloe... he was going off on you for no reason."
"There kinda was a reason, he just couldn't prove it," Chloe giggled, her smile just as cynical as usual but gleaming with pride.
"That was pretty funny. Still, Joyce doesn't deserve this."
"Oh who cares, he brought it on himself. Anyways, we need to check out Prescott's room later, yeah? See if Kate's drugging has a link to Rachel disappearing."
"Yeah, after classes okay? He leaves campus most days after class."
"Creepy, you know his schedule."
Max blanched a little, thinking back to the previous night, then recovered. "Chloe, his SUV peels out of here minutes after the last bell. It's not hard to hear from the main building."
She snorts as a reply. "See you later Max. And see if his truck has anything on this!"
Slamming the door shut, Max took a few hasty steps back and watched as Chloe skidded out of the parking lot, reminiscent of their escape the night before, then turned and made her way for the dorm. She was pretty proud of herself for not giving into Chloe's demands that she join her for swimming, and was glad that her clothes weren't stinking with chlorine. Now that's a decision I wouldn't be able to take back. Ugh...
Max's head began to swim, red spots appearing at the edges of her vision as she stumbled into the dorm's courtyard, which was empty in the early hour. No... not now... Blood began to drop from Max's nose as her head began aching, pounding and flashes of the impending storm broke through her vision. Just... hold on...
"Max!"