Quickly declaring he'd keep an eye on the little ones, Danny made his escape from the new gym. Katie bouncing and whooping in celebration right ahead of him. Jon had taken a look back, bit at his lip, then continued trailing after Matt.
Same as the time before, Danny played with Katie and Gavin and the rest of the littler kids. All given freedom to roam rather than parents forcing them to sit still for the ongoing JV volleyball game. Only having one warm up ball this time, they ended up grouping into a large circle, attempting to bump and hit the ball within the circle.
Katie was very informative as to how to properly bump the volleyball, having been shown from Elizabeth. Not that any of them, Danny included, were very good at it. Or kept trying for too long. Reverting to hitting it any way they could. As long as it, hopefully, stayed up in the air. There was lots of failure and goofs and laughter.
Slam!
The sound echoed, reverberating through the old gym, causing screams. Danny shifted around the group of kids, twisting his body toward the cause of the sound, hands fisting. Heart in his chest...and then his narrowed eyes flew wide, jaw dropping.
Covered in dust and clinging onto the open door above the bleachers, the kid pushed off the wall, swinging the door back, and got their feet back onto the opening.
And laughed breathlessly, giggling gleefully, their grin big.
"I did it! Ha! I did it!"
"Dustin! How'd you get up there?" Katie sprinted forward, Gavin and a few others doing the same, eyes wide in awe. "What's up there? Can I see?"
The girl was already climbing the folded up dented metal bleachers.
Rushing up, Danny grabbed her.
"I don't think so."
And kept his eyes upwards rather than anywhere near Katie and her whining and pleading and sure to be sad eyes aimed at him.
"Danny!"
Dustin had spotted him, eyes filling up in delight. His arms moved about wildly, dust flying off in drifting poofs.
"Check it out! I did it! Maybe not how you managed it, yeah, I definitely would have been spotted doing that during lunch time, but."
The kid cracked into crazed laughter again, crashing onto the floor of the upper area, and unable to continue speaking.
Danny stared at the kid.
"Sweet! Dustin got it open!"
Matt, a couple of his buddies, Jon, and a few high schoolers came bursting into the old gym and toward the open door. Apparently they'd been on the other side of it. In the cafetorium. Had helped Dustin pull this off.
One of the high schoolers Danny vaguely recognized, probably one in his grade or a class with him, stopped dead in their tracks.
"Aw, Danny's in here? We could have just asked to have him to do his Bond thing!"
Danny, unamused and in disbelief, stared.
"But I did it! I got it open!" Dustin managed to tap down on his hysterical laughter to shout out. "You got a way to get it open if you can't find Harry!"
"H-how?" Danny stuttered out.
"That's what we want to know, secret agent man."
"I know how I did it," Dustin reiterated proudly.
Danny stared, still in disbelief and stunned.
"All right." Dustin stood up in the open doorway up on the wall above the bleachers and gazed down at everyone, pleased as punch grin not dying one iota. "Who wants to come up and check it out?"