Word: Rebel

College AU

1.8k words

"Okay, that might have been a little too much…"

Dakota's words were practically lost as they darted through the throng of college students, only a few paying them attention.

"Vinnie! Setting off the water system is more than 'a little too much!' We'll be in so much trouble with the headmaster!"

And Dakota laughed, the cheeky thing, as he ducked around a football player, motioning to hide out in the auditorium. Cavendish followed suit quickly, narrowly avoiding collision with a kid- was that Mary from his psychology class?- as he followed Dakota closely.

His roommate took some strange twists and turns, ones that left Cavendish's head spinning and completely lost in the massive auditorium which housed an old gym about to be removed, a bunch of renovated theatre areas, study rooms, and at this point, who knew what else.

Suddenly, Dakota skidded to a stop, and Cavendish barely avoided colliding into him. Both males were panting heavily, and Dakota's hands shook a little, likely from adrenaline, as he grabbed at...a poster?

Shouts were getting louder behind them, and Dakota grinned as he finally yanked the poster to the side, revealing a small cawl-in door, which he pushed open, and squirmed into. Cavendish only had a second of contemplation before he jumped in after Dakota, the shouts of angry staff winding around the corner.

The push-up door shut silently behind them, leaving them in pure darkness, and he heard a faint sound as the weighted poster returned to its original position. Both students held their breath as the shouting got louder, and definitely was right outside the crawl door.

"Where did they go?!"

"They must've kept going down the hall."

"Right, you keep going that way, Donnovan, I'll take that other corridor. We need to find out who did this!"

Cavendish heard a soft sound behind him, and lightly smacked Dakota's (hopefully) foot, warning him to keep from laughing. He listened closely as footsteps pounded away, the two professors clearly desperate to find them. At least they didn't seem to know who they were.

"I think they're gone." Cavendish murmured, trying to keep quiet just in case.

He stayed still, too scared to move in the darkness of wherever he was, hoping that Dakota had some idea. Though, after a second of no sound, a tang of fear started to press into him if Dakota had left him without him hearing, if maybe he-

"Do you have your phone?"

Phew. He wasn't alone. Dakota was still here.

"Oh, uh- I think- no, I left it in our room because it was dead. Do you have yours?"

Cavendish's question met silence, before a bright light flooded the area, making him grunt and close his eyes.

"Heh, sorry Bal. There ya go, though."

Slowly, Cavendish blinked open his eyes, looking into the little crawlspace they were in. And it was very little. Cavendish wasn't claustrophobic, but comfort was far from what he felt in here. The top was just a few inches above his head, though it seemed wide enough. The pebbles and gravel underneath him were cold, and wind from somewhere made him shiver. He glanced up, managing to keep in a yelp as Dakota's face was right in front of him, illuminated by the flashlight on his phone. "Hi, Bal."

"Hello, Vincent." He said, rolling his eyes. "Where are we?"

At that, Dakota grinned. He managed to wiggle so that he was facing the other direction again, away from where they'd entered. "Follow me, and you will see~"

Cavendish huffed, but did as he was told, trying to ignore the horribly uncomfortable feeling of cold pebbles and dirt on his hands in favor of crawling after Dakota, the light from the phone swinging about wildly.

After about a minute of crawling, Cavendish could hear something...some strange sounds starting to echo their little cave. After a half minute more, he could see soft impressions of colors starting to dance in the crawlspace. Just as he was about to question Dakota on the strange sounds and sights, he stopped, and twisted so that he was feet first, on his back. He shimmied a little forward, dropping down to somewhere that Cavendish couldn't quite see. He crawled forward a little more, almost hitting his head on the low ceiling as Dakota popped his head back up.

"Sorry. Here, it'll be better if you go feet first, I'll catch you."

"What? What are you on abo-"

"Just trust me!"

"I already trusted you and we might get expelled!"

"Dakota rolled his eyes. "Okay, don't trust me on that, but trust me on this!"

"Vinnie, I don't-"

"C'mon, Bal! Please!"

And, damn him, Dakota should've long outgrown those puppy eyes, why was he still so good at using them? "Ugh, fine. But you better catch me!"

Dakota nodded enthusiastically while Cavendish shuffled himself around, poking his feet out of the hole first, feeling a rush of cool air that made him shiver. His face colored as he felt Dakota gently grab onto him, and lead him onto solid ground, which sounded...metal? Just as he was about to hop out and check for himself, a hand covered his eyes, right before he got out.

"Vincent!"

"Shhh! I just want to give you a little surprise...follow me! Carefully, though. Just a few steps."

Despite wanting to argue, Cavendish kept quiet, letting Dakota guide him. He instead focused on listening to some sort of soft singing, floating up from somewhere below him. It was beautiful.

"Alright. Just don't freak out when you look down, okay?"

"Whatever do you me- GOOD HEAV-"

Dakota slapped a hand over Cavendish's mouth, eyes wide. The singing paused from below, where Cavenidsh could now see a girl in a gown, singing on a stand at least three floors down, if not more. He could just about see her through metal grates that they stood on.

Some inaudible words were exchanged down below, before the girl returned to singing, once again to that soft tone that he'd heard when leaving the tunnel.

Slowly, Dakota removed his hand, breathing out a sigh of relief.

"Bal, I get that that was scary, but you nearly gave me a heart attack! I thought we were going to get caught…"

"Right, sorry- that was just terrifying." He shuffled a little, trying to get a better sense of where they were in the slightly darkened area.

From what he could see, they stood above a grand auditorium, one of the finer ones on campus. It stretched, far and tall. Below them, some kids were working on stage props, while a girl sang out, someone nodding along. He only now recognized it as a piece from the Hamilton musical- Burn- as she raised her voice.

What he guessed was a floor below them hung the catwalk and lights, two college kids walking about and checking on the lighting. One glanced up, and made eye contact with Dakota. Cavendish froze for a moment, because though he didn't know where they were, he knew they were not supposed to be there.

But instead of saying anything, or calling attention to them, the kid on the catwalk glanced at his partner, before looking up and nodding at the duo, giving an upside down peace sign which Dakota replicated. He turned, leaving the two to their own devices in the darkened area above the theatre world below them.

"Vinnie, where are we? What is this place?" He followed as Dakota started to walk along the metal grates precariously, towards a larger area. He kept his voice low in case.

"Auditorium B. We're high above the cast, they're practicing for the upcoming play, I think they're doing Hamilton. The catwalk is below us- that's what most people think is the highest part of this place. But we're on the maintenance walk- they use this to check the ceiling for possible cracks, and whatever piping and electricity goes through up here. Pretty cool, right?"

"However did you find this place?"

Dakota turned, and in the dark, he could just barely make out the heterochromatic pair of eyes winking at him.

"That's a secret for me to know, and you to maybe find out."

Cavendish simply hummed, not sure if he did want to find out how Dakota found a secret tunnel behind a random heavy poster on the fourth floor of the old gym-turned-auditorium that lead to a rickety metal grate for footholds and shaky metal railing to hold on to, practicing students many, many feet below him. Though, he supposes it's better than thinking of what would happen if he fell.

"Don't worry, I promise this thing is sturdy." It was as if Dakota read his mind.

"Are you certain? It doesn't seem to be…"

"Yeah, I know, but trust me, it can have over ten people up here. Don't ask me how I know."

"Noted." He muttered, taking a seat next to Dakota, nervously following his movements of letting his feet swing over empty air, slight fear shooting up him despite knowing that he's safe.

After a few moments of silence, the fact that they're still in the air and not splat on the ground reassuring, Cavendish decided to speak. "Hey Vinnie…"

"Yeah, Balthazar?"

"Why'd you do that?" He glanced at Dakota sideways.

"What? Hide here? Didn't think they-"

"No, no, I mean- why did you set off the fire alarm like that? We shouldn't have even been in the chemistry rooms! Especially not messing around with the chemicals! We're going to be in so much trouble!"

"If they find out, we are. If they don't, we're fine!"

"How could they not find out?! There are cameras everywhere!"

"Not where we ran." Dakota said, so matter-of-factly that Cavendish stopped for a second.

"...Pardon?"

Dakota looked up from where he was watching the girl sing, smiling at him gently. "Do you really think I'd let us get into trouble that easily? Look, if we're going to be rebels, then we better not get caught! I know where there aren't cameras- that's the way I ran. You followed me. Thus, we're fine."

Cavendish stared at Dakota for a little while, stunned. Finally- "Don't call us rebels."

Almost immediately, Dakota cracked up, leading Cavendish into a chuckle of his own.

"Oh my god, Bal, you don't get to call us rebels. Especially since you're more of a stick-in-the-mud than a rebel!"

"Excuse me, I am no such thing!" Cavendish pouted as Dakota stuck out his tongue, laughing.

"Well, not after that stunt! Oh my god, it's going to take them so long to clean all of that elephant toothpaste off of the chemistry walls and tables!"

Balthazar chuckled, because, admittedly, the image of their overly strict and nightmarish teacher cleaning elephant's toothpaste whilst grumbling about 'those damn kids' was pretty funny. "Well, yes, I suppose that is funny…"

Dakota giggled, leaning against his shoulder, and they watched the play recital below them, already wondering about their next great campus prank.

And the fact that there was an article on the "anonymous campus pranksters" in the campus' newspaper two days later only fueled their rebellious excitement.

Those damn kids...Hope you enjoyed this story! If you did, I would love to read your thoughts on it, or a piece of constructive criticism you may have for me! I hope you have a breathtaking morning/afternoon/evening/night, and look at a hobby that you haven't done in years, see if it still interests you!