December. Adventures in liminal spaces p.2

Midterms week came and went. On Friday at 3 p.m., Gar walked through the hallway throwing his study notebook in the air and catching it.

"So what's the deal? We don't use these again till the next round of exams?" he asked Raven.

"Apparently." Raven was carrying the last exam's attendance record to the office.

The school was deserted. Everyone had cleared it as soon as it was humanly possible. After she handed in the folder, she too would be free.

They stopped at the Secretary's window and knocked on it. As the Secretary slid the window open and took the record from Raven's hands, two other girls approached the window sill.

One of them was nearly bouncing in place. "Hurry up and hand that in, Cass. The mountain slopes are waiting."

Gar looked over at them. "I'd like to be tucked away in a log cabin with you two, ladies."

The girl who was bouncing stopped moving. "Ugh," she went, and walked away.

"Brooke!" her friend demanded, upset at being left behind. She left a permission slip on the Secretary's side of the sill and went after her friend. "Hey, you forgot your notebook!"

Gar shrugged as they left. "You have to put yourself out there," he told Raven, who was thoroughly unimpressed. "Shoot your shot and whatnot. It's all a numbers' game, you know."

"Uh-huh." Raven was about maxed out on her Gar tolerance for the day.

And she had to endure him yet a little longer. He'd offered to walk her to the bus stop and wait for her bus together. The boy seemed to want to spend the least amount of time in his own home as possible—which was fine. She of all people got that. But that didn't mean he necessarily had to pester her.

The Secretary leafed through the folder and gave Raven the okay.

Raven told Gar, "We're free, let's go."

Gar was rummaging through his bag. "Hey, you seen my notebook?"

"The one you just had on hand?" asked Raven.

Gar looked around and tried to rewind time in his head. "Shit, I think that girl took it," he said. Then he smiled. "Heh, guess I can't study for the rest of the year!"

Raven wasn't laughing. "You lost the study notebook?"

"Yeah." Gar shrugged.

"The one where you drew that offensive cartoon of Mr. Mod in the first page?"

Gar looked like the world had fallen to bits around him. "…Oh no."

Moments later Gar was running out of the school, looking frantically at all sides. Raven came up behind him seconds after. Gar pointed to the bus parked at the bus stop. "There!"

Raven managed to see the two girls taking a seat in the bus.

And then the bus took off.

Raven looked at Gar apologetically. "Well," she started in a deflated tone.

But Gar still had that crazy look in his eyes. "We gotta follow the bus!"

"You're not serious."

"Raven, my life will be over!" he yelled, grabbing her by the shoulders.

She removed his hands from her shoulders and tried to speak patiently. "Gar. The bus already left. You can't follow it, and even if you took the next one, you won't see where that girl got off. Forget it, it's over."

"My life will be over if that drawing gets out! Steve's gonna know I did it! Everything's gonna go to hell!"

"I understand that, but she's gone."

"We can find out where she lives."

Raven peered at him. "Does Steve have a record of students' info?" It was the only way she could conceive he could see a way out.

"No…"

"Then what are you thinking of?"

Gar got a look in his eye that almost scared her.

Victor opened the door to a frantic-looking Gar and an incredulous Raven.

"I don't know why I'm here," she said in a defeated tone as way of greeting, and then Gar was grabbing the collar of his shirt.

"Vic! I need your help! Raven won't break into the school with me!"

After a minute of explanations, Vic was fully caught up. "You say this girl gave her friend your notebook," he began, sitting on his porch and massaging the bridge of his nose.

"Brooke," said Raven. "That girl thought it was her friend's Brooke and gave it to her."

"And you," Vic turned to Gar, "you're proposing we break into the school, get some girl's personal records, and somehow retrieve your notebook from her house." Gar nodded profusely. "How important is this notebook?"

"It's life or death! As in, Steve is gonna kill me!" Having made his final appeal, Gar shot up. "Look, I'm gonna do it! Whether you guys help me or not!" And he walked away without looking back to see if they were following.

Raven and Victor exchanged a look, had a moment of indecision, and then the sense of responsibility won out over the sense of self-preservation. They followed Gar.

Vic parked his car a street away from school.

Technically, he wasn't supposed to be driving without his dad on the passenger seat—which meant he wasn't driving much at all, and that his dad would definitely lie in a few months' time when he had to declare how many hours of supervised practice Vic had gotten. But he figured he was about to break into his school, so clearly the law was not his top concern today.

They decided Raven would stay outside and keep watch while the boys snuck in. They tried all the side doors and they proved to be closed. Then they tried the main door, and that happened to be open. Gar looked at Vic wonderingly, but they took the boon from the universe and went in.

They walked through the silent, dark halls.

"I can't believe I'm back here in my first day of break," muttered Vic. "I'm gonna get back at you for this."

"Help me find my notebook so I can live, and then we'll talk," replied Gar.

The teacher's lounge was also miraculously unlocked, as was Blood's office within it.

"Okay, we're looking for a freshman named Brooke, right?" Vic asked, as he looked through the files. He pulled one out. "You're so lucky, there's only one Brooke in ninth year."

"Take a pic and let's get out of…" Gar trailed off. He dropped his voice to a whisper. "Hey… Can you hear that?"

Vic listened. A moment later he heard it. A steadily growing shuffle in the hallway—like a considerable number of people were walking through it rather slowly. Victor was suddenly glad they had closed the lounge's door. The shuffling got louder as it got closer –the people seemed to be coming from the back of the school going towards the front- and then it subsided.

"What was that?" Vic whispered when it was over.

Gar didn't answer. He skulked out of the lounge, cranked the door open a tiny bit, saw nothing, and went fully outside.

"Gar," hissed Vic. He scrambled to follow him, stopped himself, leafed through Brooke's file, memorized the address, put everything back and then followed.

Gar was at the other end of the hallway, following the sound of low chanting.

"It sounds like they're in the auditorium," he whispered when Vic caught up with him.

"Why are you trying to go to people? Let's just get out!"

"The door's a bit open. Let's just check it out," Gar insisted.

The curiosity got the better of Vic too, partly because now he could say Gar had pushed him to it if things turned sour.

They got to the auditorium door and peeked through the crack, Vic crouching under Gar and Gar standing on his tiptoes to get above Vic.

There was no easy way to process what they saw. About two dozen people, covered head to toe in red robes, stood with their arms raised above their head. One person in a white robe was walking through the room towards the stage. The windows had been covered in black cloth, and the room was illuminated by candles only.

They could now hear what they were chanting.

"Brother Blood, Brother Blood, Brother Blood…"

Vic and Gar broke apart from the door to face each other. Then they found they had nothing to say to each other, and went back to looking.

The person in white had now removed the hood of his robe, and was unmistakably Principal Blood.

"My children!" he said in a booming voice. "The world we live in has succumbed into isolation and despair. We are the ones who have transcended the ways of wicked excess! We remember the truth of the rites of blood! We are fated to rise from the blood of our enemies!" As he spoke, he was met with cheers and applause. "Now, my children—pray!"

Gar and Vic both seemed to decide they had seen enough. They broke away from the door and walked away, until they treaded a long enough distance that they felt safe to talk.

"That… that was Mr. Blood," said Vic, intelligently.

Gar cleared his throat and tried to throw humor at the situation. "I mean, his name makes more sense now, right? Like what, um… what else would you be with a name like that?"

"A surgeon. A biologist. A chemist. A freakin' dentist."

They fell in silence.

Vic said, "Maybe… maybe we'll deal with this after Winter break."

"Yes," said Gar immediately. "Good idea."

Both of them seemed to know they were never going to talk about this again.

The auditorium door was too close to the front of the school. Concluding those guys would hear them if they tried the front door now, the boys went to try the doors in the back of the school, but they found everything else locked. The classrooms were locked too, as they painstakingly tested out.

"We have to get out of here quick," said Vic. "They might leave out the front door and Raven might think it's us."

Gar gave the back door one last tug. "You know this school better than me. What else opens to the outside that's not a door or a classroom window?"

Vic closed his eyes to think. "Okay. There's a boys' bathroom in this floor with windows."

"You think they won't have locked the bathrooms?"

"Well it's our only shot."

They collected a stray chair from the hallway and went to find the bathroom. Thankfully, it was unlocked.

Vic stood on the chair and touched around the tiny window. "What the hell? Where's the lock on this thing?" He explored around the window more, and then blanched. "I think they're on the outside."

"What!?" reacted Gar. "What do you mean?"

"I think they installed this window backwards," said Vic, throwing back his head.

Gar was in disbelief. "Vic, they couldn't have…"

"Well, where's the lock then? Look! This is the outside part of the window! There's bars in every classroom window and yet this school has a completely stupid security hazard!" Vic cried. "Oh, and we can't call Raven cause she doesn't have a phone! I should have left her mine. Stupid!"

But when Vic climbed down from the chair, he saw Gar had his phone to his ear.

"What are you doing?" asked Vic.

Gar fixed him with a crazy determined look. "Getting outside help. I'm doing whatever it takes to get that notebook back, Vic. Whatever. It. Takes."

Raven was standing outside the school, bored of conjuring scenarios in her head as to why the boys were taking so long. She would have thought they had left without her ten times over, if not for the fact that she still had full view of Vic's car.

She was even more confused when Kori walked up to her, striding over like she was on a mission. She took Raven by the hand, only said "Come," and dragged her towards the side of the school.

Raven was caught up by the time they reached the boys' bathroom window. Kori propped Raven up and Raven unlocked the window.

A moment later, Gar came flying through the window, evidently having been propelled by Vic on the other side, and fell face down onto the ground. Then Vic himself climbed out carefully, getting a leg through, then an arm, then jumping to the ground.

Once both boys were released, they received Kori like the saving angel she was, swarming her with hugs and thank you's.

Gar could tell Kori was torn between looking disapproving at the situation and flattered at the gratitude. So he hugged her some more just to be safe.

They all climbed onto Vic's car, who was breaking the law a bit more with each new passenger, and drove to Brooke's address.

The address was for an apartment building. Vic said the file had only specified 'Fifth floor', so they had to assume it was one of those apartments where you owned the whole floor. The four stood across the street in front of the building.

"Okay, we're here, what's the plan?" asked Raven.

Gar said, "We break in, find this girl's room, get the notebook… get out."

Vic rounded on him. "Wait, wait, wait, no, no, no. This is someone's house, not a school! I thought we were gonna knock on the door and explain the situation calmly!"

"And in the time we explain, she can look at the notebook and see the drawing! We have to do this quietly!" Gar countered. "Look, the building has a fire escape! That's gotta be a sign!"

"Please, hush," said Kori, putting a hand up. "Dick is calling me," she said, and answered the phone.

"Don't-!" went Vic, too late.

They were silent as Kori talked to Dick. "Hi. I… do not know what we are doing tonight. I do not know if anyone is doing anything. …Well yes, I am with our friends… What we are doing?"

The other three gradually realized Dick was going to end up finding out the truth.

"Uh…nothing fun," Kori said.

Vic buried his face in his hands.

At the other side of town, Dick laid in his bed, more confused the longer the call with Kori went on. He'd only meant to find out where everyone was, if maybe they were up for celebrating the end of exams. Now it was clear he'd interrupted something stupid.

So he let Kori ramble on for a while longer. Then he asked, "Kori. What's going on?"

Kori paused. Dick heard someone talk to her in the background. Then Kori came back on the call and told him where they were and why.

Dick shot up from his bed.

"What's the address? …Okay, I'm coming over there. No one's breaking and entering, you hear me?" Dick dictated, putting one of his arms through his jacket as he left his room. "You tell Gar to stay put!"

Dick only breathed when he arrived and saw the four were lounging around on the sidewalk across from the building. Only Gar wasn't sitting down, being that he was a bundle of nerves.

"Finally!" he spat at Dick. "Now can we move?"

"No!" answered Dick. "What I wanna know is how all four of you thought the best solution for losing a notebook was breaking into-"

"We don't have time for this!" cried Gar. "We have to move!"

"Look, man, I kept thinking about it," said Vic. "Maybe Gar's right. 'Cause if we just ring the doorbell how do we explain that we knew her address?"

Dick thought to ask 'how did you get her address?', because Kori hadn't told him that part, but he decided that didn't matter now. "I don't care. I am not breaking and entering."

Raven stood. "Hey, look. She's leaving."

They looked across the street. Brooke had left her building and was walking down the street, oblivious to her five classmates considering breaking into her floor.

"And without her bag," noted Vic.

Gar looked at Dick defiantly. "It's now or never."

Dick grabbed Gar firmly by the shoulder. "We're getting your notebook, but not the way you think. I have a plan. Just follow my lead."

Dick, Gar and Kori rang the doorbell to the fifth floor of the building.

"And if there's no one home?" asked Gar.

"We're fucked," said Dick.

The intercom buzzed regardless. A woman's voice asked who was there.

"Hi, we're friends with Brooke?" Dick said to the intercom, flawlessly switching to his talking-to-adults voice. "I think we swapped notebooks. Can we come in and check?"

And then they were in Brooke's room, her exceptionally trusting mom having left them to check themselves. Gar went straight to the school bag as soon as the door closed.

Across the street, Raven and Victor stared at relevant floor like they were going to see anything in the first place.

"We didn't think one thing through," said Raven.

"What?" asked Vic, who felt sick to his stomach as it was.

"What's gonna happen when Brooke gets told her so-called friends were in her room going through her stuff?"

Vic was about to answer, but the words caught in his mouth, and his eyes widened. "We have bigger problems!" He pointed Raven to the end of the opposite street, where Brooke was walking back home.

"Text Dick," said Raven. "Now."

"It's not here," Gar said, and his voice sounded alien to his own ears. He went through Brooke's bag again even after he said it, unable to believe his own words.

"What's you mean it's not there?" Dick rejoined.

"The only study notebook here is hers!" said Gar, taking it out and flipping the pages at Dick as proof.

"Did she take yours with her?" asked Kori.

"Why would she!?" replied Gar.

Then two things happened at once. Dick's phone went off with Vic's text, at the same time the apartment's front door opened. The three inside Brooke's bedroom felt their blood freeze.

They scrambled—each seemed to have a different idea, as Gar bolted for the window, Dick searched through the bag himself, and Kori tried to order the things they had displaced. Then, seeing each other's reactions, they switched; Dick half-heartedly made for the window, Kori went for the bag, and Gar smoothed the bed cover.

By the time Brooke entered her room, Dick had one leg off her window sill and Gar was hiding the school bag behind his back, but Kori had changed her mind and was now advancing towards Brooke, obscuring the other two from her view.

"Brooke, please do not be upset. We need your help," she said, hands clasped in earnestness. "We have told your mother we were your friends in order to access your room and find my friend Gar's notebook, which held documents which may well ruin his reputation and his life. Please, understand that we did what we did to help our friend."

Dick and Gar had made their way over and tried to look appropriately contrite. Brooke looked at the three of them. It looked like she believed them. It looked like she'd take pity on them.

"Please," smiled Kori, "return my friend's notebook to him."

Brooke looked at Gar. "I don't have your notebook."

Everyone looked at Gar. "What?" he made out, feeling the universe crumble around him for the second time that day. As Dick and Kori's gazes burned into him, he went back in his memory. "No, I… I saw your friend give you my notebook."

"And it wasn't mine, so Cassie took it."

Gar sat down on the floor, suddenly feeling very tired.

"Where does your friend live?" Dick asked, taking over.

The four phones of all present buzzed at roughly the same time. Gar looked at it on instinct, as Brooke gave Dick her friend's address. It was a notification that someone had tweeted tagging the school.

"Dick," Gar said, tugging his friend's jacket. His voice was hollow. "Don't even bother."

Two weeks later, school was back on, and the five started the new term with a visit to Blood's office.

As if Brooke's friend posting the Mr. Mod doodle on her Twitter wasn't enough, she'd also posted the front of the notebook where it said Gar's name, leaving absolutely no doubt as to who the author was. Then Brooke had commented on the post about the five coming to get the notebook, linking all of them to the crime.

Cassie only got a request to take down the post. The five were told they'd talk when the term started.

Currently, Blood was taking out each of their student records in a painstakingly slow succession.

Vic and Gar avoided looking at each other. The memory of the last time they had seen their principal was still too fresh. They didn't need to look at each other to know the other was thinking it too.

"Androkinova," Blood said as he took the records out of the box. "Logan. Roch. Stone." Kori and Vic's records were the lightest. Raven and Gar's were a bit thicker, and more or less the same size. And then the last one was so fat Blood used both hands to set it on the table. "…Grayson." He looked up at Dick. "I was surprised to see such a record. But I must say… it does explain a lot."

The other four looked at Dick. Dick kept staring straight ahead. Sometimes, even when Dick wasn't wearing sunglasses, it looked like… he still… was. It was hard to explain. But now was one of those times.

"With the exception of Stone and Androkinova, none of you have spotless records," he said. "And that might just be because I could never get a hold of your old records back in your home country, Miss Androkinova."

Kori was standing with her back straight in her regal pose, returning Blood's gaze.

"Miss Roch, you're not new to disciplinary action. Although character defamation is a new one."

Raven remained with her arms crossed, looking past the principal to a point in the wall.

"Mr. Logan, how did you know Mr. Mod used to have a clothing store?"

Gar shrugged. "I have a cousin who remembers him having the store," he said, which was the lie he'd planned.

"Right," droned the principal. "Your father being a member of faculty has nothing to do with it."

"Adoptive father," Gar muttered.

Blood ignored him. "It's only the second term of your freshman year. I suggest you calm down, or you'll be regular visitors in my office." He waved a hand as if dismissing peasants. "Detention. Two weeks."

They filed out onto the hallway to another type of punishment: people had been waiting to take pictures or direct mocking looks at them.

"Great way to start the term, Gar. Thanks a lot," said Dick as he walked past him.

"I can't believe I have a mark in my record for the first time in my life thanks to you, Gar," said Vic.

Kori walked by him rubbing her arm. "It is lamentable that I should already have a mark on my new record."

Raven didn't say anything, but she shook her head at him when she passed by, which maybe stung worse.

But Gar had lived the two weeks of winter break in fear of Steve finding the tweet. He'd smiled through Hanukah gifts while feeling like a fraud inside. Rita had asked Steve to be nice for the holiday—Steve now had two weeks of forced good behavior to offset with anger when he found out about this. Now Gar could be absolutely sure going home would be a nightmare, but at least he was sure now. The very slim silver lining was that he could now stop worrying about it. Now, he just felt tired.

So much for a smooth ride from here on out, he thought.

End of December.

I think this chapter really sets the tone for what this series is gonna be like tbh. Fun fact: I laughed my way through every draft of this part.

Sanzojoe: Oh there's gonna be a whole tradition of Gar not listening to Steve ;)

Next up: January. The life-saving trick of opening up about your weird traumas.