Chapter 7

            "So where'd you learn to fight like that?" Dane asked.

            "One of my mother's last attempts to control me was kickboxing lessons." I explained.  "That was the first time I got to use the punch, though."

            "Wow, so what do you want to do now? Defeat the gods at their own games, stake a vampire, duel a mobster."  He teased.  "Oh, I look like such a dork, now, don't I?"

            "No, no, I love Xena.  It's one of my favorite shows, along with Buffy, and Witchblade.  I like stuff about strong women who don't need any help from men.  To tell you the truth, I'm sort of fanatically obsessed with Buffy, although I haven't watched it in a long time." I assured him, smiling.

            "Well, we're just two of a kind, now, aren't we?" Dane laughed.  A waitress sauntered up and asked for our order, and about twenty minutes later, it arrived.  "I can't believe you could eat that whole thing, it was as big as my head!" He said, astonished as I popped the last bite in my mouth.  I smiled and took a big gulp of my shake.

            "Well, if it makes you feel better, I think I'm going to explode from eating so much." I laughed.  "I haven't had fast food in a while now."

            "But you haven't been a Harpy that long, have you?" Dane asked.

            "Just three days now, but it feels like longer.  My mother forbid fast food about a month before I came here.  She said my rage was due to the fact that my mind was rebelling against what my stomach craved." I answered, sucking down the last of my shake.  "Oo, brain freeze!" I whined, rubbing my temples.  I put my tongue to the roof of my mouth the way my dad had shown me the first time I had a slurpee.  I had been seven, and he had bought me one of those lemon icy things at Six Flags.  But that was long before they had split, and it's been quite some time since his last visit or letter.

            "Are you okay?" Dane asked, snapping me out of my reverie.

            "What, yeah, hey, what time is it?" I asked, struggling to grasp the here and now again.

            "It's about 5:30, why?" He answered.

            "Crap, I've got twenty minutes to get back among the ranks!  Come on," I said, tugging Dane sleeve, "we've got to go, now!"

            "Alright, alright, don't worry, we'll get there fast enough.  No one will ever know you were gone." He responded, reaching for the door as I dragged him out of his seat.  I snagged the car keys from his jacket pocket and was already inside the car by the time he got there.  He jumped in and I dangled the keys in front of him on my pinkie.  "Let's hope this car is as fast as that fancy engine we put in her!" Dane laughed as he started her up and peeled out of the parking space.

            We drove like crazy until we came within spitting distance of Harper Hall.  Dane pulled over and said, "We can't get back in the way we came out."

            "Don't worry, " I replied.  "I can get back in."  He shrugged and drove around to the lot.  He put the car in park and turned it off. 

            He turned in his seat to face me and asked, "When can I see you again?  This was really fun, and I'd like to do it again, sometime soon.  How can I contact you?"

            "The same way you've done before." I replied simply.

            "I can't just sneak into your room everyday, sooner or later we'll get caught." Dane argued.

            "I know, just send me notes like you did last night and when you're ready to go, knock on the laundry chute.  If I can't come, I'll knock twice, or I'll drop a note down to you.  Okay?" I decided quickly.

            "Okay." He agreed.  "Hey, wait, " He said as I struggled to get out of the car.  "One: aren't you going to change, and two: don't I get a goodbye kiss?"

            "Oh shoot, you're right.  Get out and stand by the wall, I'll just have to use the backseat again." I rushed.  Two minutes later, I was back in uniform, clothes bundled under my arm.  I jumped out of the car, gave Dane a big hug and a peck on the cheek, and ran off towards the back patio.  I faintly heard him call goodbye as I rounded the corner and smacked into someone.  I pitched backwards, but two strong hands caught my shoulders.

            "Whoa, easy there, we just keep bumping into each other, don't we, Elizabeth?  What are you in such a hurry for?" Ms. Evy asked.  Apparently, she'd been on her way home when I came blasting around the corner. 

            "Uh, uh, nothing, Ms. Evy." I said weakly.  "I was just getting a ball that flew too far, but I couldn't find it."

            "Uh huh, this sure doesn't look like a ball, Elizabeth." She replied, pulling the clothing from beneath my arm.  "This is definitely not school dress." She said sternly, examining the leather miniskirt.  "Did you sneak off campus, Elizabeth?"  She had found me out, and now I was in for it.

            "Ms. Evy, please don't tell." I pleaded.

            "You know what I think, Elizabeth?" Ms. Evy asked, bending down to level with me.  I shook my head, though I knew by heart the speech of responsibility that had to be coming.  "I think it's good to get out and have fun sometimes, so I won't tell if you don't." She whispered.  Then she winked at me and laughed, "Come on, if you're late, we'll just say you were with me, going over the homework, okay? Just promise me one thing?"

            "Okay, what?" I agreed.

            "Whoever he is, don't let him talk you into anything you don't want to do.  Even if it's something as small as sneaking out.  Promise?" Ms. Evy said, looking me straight in the eye.

            "I promise." I agreed solemnly.  We walked across the grass towards the sounds of laughter.  I gave her a big hug, then hurried off to join my floor just as Ms. Harper stepped onto the patio and whistled for the standard five lines.  We went inside and I had five minutes to drop off my clothes, wash the lipstick off, and get downstairs to dinner.  At six, promptly, dinner was served and I was right there, among the troops, hopefully no one the wiser.

            "So, Liz, where were you earlier?" Asked Laura (LA).  Danielle (FBI) shoved her and glared.

            "LA, you've got no tact whatsoever.  Liz was probably in her room, studying.  Right Liz?" FBI said, smiling wickedly.

            "Wherever Liz was, whatever she was doing, or whoever she was with is none of our business." Said T, drawing herself up straight, imitating Ms. Harper.

            "Unless you want to talk about it." Courtney (D) agreed quickly.

            "Do you?" Asked Shadow.  The other girls joined in the interrogation until I finally gave in.

            "I was in town." I whispered.  This just brought up other questions, like 'How did you get there?', 'Who did you go with?', and 'What did you do?'  "Dane took me and we had some grub at a nearby diner." I explained.

            "You had real food!" Cara exclaimed, to the shushes of eleven girls.      "How did you get out?" Asked Fire, a bit shy.

            "I thought you guys were the escape artists around here." I teased.

            "Well," Ice stuttered, "we are, but we want to know how you did it."

            "You guys can use this, but don't tell anyone you heard it from me, okay?" I whispered.  Eleven nodding heads answered me.  "Well, if you're small enough, you can drop down the laundry chute into the basement."

            "But that's a dead end, I've tried it before." Shadow argued.

            "Only if you look at it as four stone walls.  Over on the right wall, next to the cabinet of fresh sheets, there's a secret passage.  It's hidden, but if you find the switch, the wall slides away and you can walk right out into the backyard." I laughed.

            "Oh big deal, I've seen the backyard." Auzzie huffed.

            "Yeah, but Dane has a car and the fastest way to the parking lot is through the backyard." I retorted mildly.

            "Will you show us?" Fire whispered.

            "Sure." I answered; looking around to make sure no one else in the hall was listening.  "Tomorrow, after school.  We'll go down one by one."  I devised a plan to get all the girls out, unnoticed, and meet Dane at the end of the passageway.  There, he would give the girls a taste of freedom, diner food to be exact.

            After dinner, we were assigned our chores as usual, and sent to our rooms for the evening.  We were to do our homework, and then lights out at nine.  The girls crowded into my room and I showed them how easy it was to fit into the chute.  The girls tried it, and the only one who had trouble was Fire.  It turned out she had a rope and a flashlight wrapped up under her shirt.  "Mandy!" The others scolded.  Apparently, she didn't want to be unprepared for a walk in a dark unchartered passage.  "Don't worry, Fire." I said gently.  "Just drop it down before you jump and you'll fit in like butter."

            The next day went as planned.  My fourth day of being a Harpy, and I was already leading a rebellion.  I woke up to a note on my bedside table, from Dane, of course.  He was down with the plan and he'd stop by the diner on his way home from school.  At precisely 2:45, our mischief began.

            We walked to our rooms like we do everyday.  Rebecca came by for room checks at three.  At exactly 3:10, after Rebecca had walked away empty-handed, again, our escapade began.  First ones down were Fire and I.  Soon after, Melanie and Megan followed.

            "Shadow, Ice, you guys made it!" Fire squealed.

            "You too, Fire." Laughed Ice.  "Thought you might get stuck again!"  Next down were LA and FBI.  They landed almost at the exact time, and high-fived each other when they hopped out of their baskets.  I heard the telltale sound of someone in the thin metal of a laundry chute and laughed when Cara landed.

            "Glad you could join us, Cara.  What took you so long?"

            "UHG, I thought I might need some lighting." She explained, holding up a candle and a lighter.  I took it from her and helped her out of the basket.  I made a quick head count and sighed when I ended at seven.

            "Okay, there's supposed to be twelve of us, where's the other five?" I asked.  People looked around, counted heads, looked back at me, and shrugged.  "Well, I guess they chickened out, we'll go on without –" I said, but was cut off by the familiar thump of a body in a basket.  Two bodies actually!  "Well hello, nice to see you again." I laughed, recognizing the little Asian girls.

            "Okay, well, that's nine, where are the other three?"  Just then, the remaining girls dropped out of their separate chutes and landed with a plop. "D, T, Auzzie; I should have known you guys would hold us up.  Okay, this is everyone, let's move out."

            The girls followed me to the right wall and waited as I tried to hit the board just right to switch the door.  Frustrated, I bent down and ripped the board away, revealing three carvings.  "What the? Well, I guess one of these is the switch, not the board.  This is Roman, " I said, pointing to a symbol of Janus.  "This one is from India, its Krishna, and "I explained, pointing to the second symbol.  "This one is Celtic, I think.  It must be Fenrir." I pointed to the last marking.

            I thought long and hard before each god's particular power became clear in my memory.  "Fenrir is a giant wolf god with no real specific power.  Krishna is a god that is the Indian true image of god, he can do anything.  And this, this is Janus, the spirit of doors and archways, this must be it." I laughed, gingerly pressing the coin shaped mark.  The wall slid back, just as it had before.  "Thank you, thank you, I'll be here until six!"

            Fire flipped on her flashlight and handed it to me.  I led the way down the passageway and stopped next to the stairs.  "I haven't explored this passage, so I don't know where anything goes, except those stairs.  Dane said they lead to the sixth floor.  Everything else is unknown territory, so stay close." I explained.

            It was about twenty minutes from the laundry room to the end of the passage.  I found Dane, waiting for us, leaning against a dead end wall.  "Hey, what happened to the door that was there last time?"

            "I closed it." Dane answered.  He gently smacked his heel against the bottom of the wall and it slid back, letting in blinding sunlight.  "So who's who here?" He asked, kicking the wall again to close it.  I introduced him to everyone and he nodded politely to everyone.  "Okay, who wants delicious deep-fried food?"

            From there, talking faded into the sounds of girls enjoying the meal.  Not long after meeting Dane at the exit, conversations picked back up, and I told Dane about the symbol of Janus.  After close inspection of the door we stood near, sure enough, the symbol was there.  The number one conversation topic with the girls was the secret passage.  Who made it, how many others were there, where did they go, why were they here, and so on and so forth.  All questions I wanted answered myself.

            Before heading out, we planned to map the secret paths.  To map it all, we needed to look for other entrances, other exits, and other destinations.  Everyday two of us would track passages, while the rest stayed outside and played, so no one would suspect.  One by one, we filtered outside, into the woods, and then emerged into the throng of girls.  That way no one would notice twelve extra girls in two minutes, and wonder where we'd been.

            I was the last to go out, after a long tender kiss from Dane, of course.  When Ms. Harper's whistle blew, we were exactly where we were supposed to be.  After dinner, which none of us ate really, I went up to my room and started mapping out the school, the dorms, the gym, and the grounds.  At eight, when I had mapped everything I knew, on four sheets of paper, I decided to tuck in early.  I pulled my book out of my underwear drawer, and curled up in bed.  These last few days had been too hectic for me to get a chance to write in my book.