~Lockdown in Detention~
X
*Izzy*
The boys were silent while they followed me through the halls as I guided them to the classroom that held our bags and items. Edward was still carrying every bit of disgusting evidence that we had found in Greene's office - the drugs, the tapes, all of the papers. I knew that Emmett wanted to drill us with questions but he was going to hold back on it; likely he felt it was better to wait until we had the others together and we could inform everyone all at once.
I was still reeling in shock at what Edward and I had found. I had a sinking suspicion the whole time we've been here, that Greene intentionally locked us up in the school and forgot about us on purpose. I had this feeling the minute Edward had discovered that we had been left in that classroom and that he saw only the custodian was here just before the sun went down. Regardless of how much you hate the teens that tried breaking out of their detention in the first place - busting out by picking the locked doors, running from the teachers and stealing a landscaper's cart before totaling it -, you don't just forget about them in a musty ass old classroom with no ac, no access to a toilet and poor conditions to be sitting in. I always knew that Greene absolutely detested Emmett and I after all of the crap we had pulled over the years while attending school. It was always a shock we weren't outright expelled, but I guess we still had some semblance of decency to not totally fuck things up for ourselves else we would end up in juvie before we graduate.
But screw trying to avoid trouble now when we needed to break out of the school asap. Greene has been hiding this under our noses for who knows how long. He's been dealing drugs with an awful gang based off what Edward's told me briefly about two of the members we stumbled across. He dragged a toad like Newton to be a scapegoat no doubt, in this mess on top of that. But the worst of it all is that he willingly employed a registered sex offender, letting him work here under a fake name, and is this close to almost letting him have Rosalie be held back for a detention session. Part of their 'contract' was that he couldn't have any female students held back for detention and yet, Greene was almost slackening that clause. No way in fucking hell would I ever let this sit now after finding out about everything - after all of the shit Rosalie's been through as is, I wasn't about to idly stand by and let some creepy sleazy pervert have a chance at being alone with her.
It definitely sounds out of left field after how long we've had our animosity towards one another. But after finding out about what she has been through when she was a pre-teen, I understood just how fucked up mentally and emotionally the poor girl is. It still didn't excuse what she did to me all those years ago, but I also knew she was in between a rock and a hard place when she didn't want me going through the same thing as her. And I honestly was starting to like her as a friend the more we spent our time in here; hell we were working on bonding while we were making food earlier. So like hell would I be okay letting that girl get hurt again.
Finally, we came to the classroom that had our bags. I made them stop and said out loud, "This is the room."
Emmett nodded and tried the door; of course it was locked. "Figures." Edward muttered, not surprised in the least bit that the door was locked.
"Well nothing that I can't handle." Emmett boasted and after raising his leg, he easily kicked the door in. It gave way to his strength with wood splintering from the frame and it swung open. I stepped in and noted it was just an abandoned classroom - it was an old one of the school's that likely just hadn't been fitted for a teacher to take over. There were some old broken desks in here, a dusty scratched teacher's desk, broken chairs here and there. Nothing on the walls, but the whole room was definitely in need of a dusting. Off against the wall under the windows, were all of our bags; on the teacher's desk were clear plastic tubs that held all of our items that they originally confiscated from us when we first started our detention. Edward and I went towards our bags so he could dump some of the findings in there while Emmett went to retrieve our stuff.
"I'll put this stuff in my bag." Edward stated quietly, holding up the drugs, money and tapes. I nodded to him while taking the files from him, and shoved them into my bag.
"Well looks like our phones are dead." Emmett commented dryly. I turned back around to see that Emmett was fiddling with his phone, scowling.
"They likely died due to having no charge since we've been stuck in here overnight." I pointed out the obvious and he snickered at me. "There's not much we can do about our phones. But let's get everything back in our bags and go back to the others. We're going to go find a new place to sleep in tonight." I continued, shuffling over towards him.
"Is it in relation to whatever you and Ed found in the office?" Emmett asked me, raising a dark eyebrow up at me in question. I sighed but nodded my head gravely. I took a tub and went back over to Edward where we worked out on sorting all of our stuff. Edward took his dead cellphone and tossed it into his backpack while I took out all of my stuff to drop into my backpack. I did the same for Emmett's things, before I divided the Hales' items into their respective bags and Edward took care of Alice's things. Once we had everything sorted, we each grabbed our own bags to sling over our shoulders. I took Rosalie's backpack, Edward took Alice's and Emmett took Jasper's. There, I led us out of the classroom and we hurried back to the others who were no doubt wondering where we've been.
"Where have you guys been?" Jasper asked out loud once we finally reached the lounge. Jasper and Alice were sitting together on the couch drinking some soda, while Rosalie was leaning against the wall by the door. They each took in the fact we had our backpacks and their eyes grew wide. "Whoa! You were able to find all of our shit!" Jasper exclaimed as the three of them rushed over to us and took their respective bags.
"We need to leave the lounge and find a new sleeping spot." Edward immediately got down to business, looking warily out the door. He was on high alert, as he's been tense ever since we first heard those scumbags when we wandered over to Greene's office. I think he was putting his guard up more now and reverting back to his defensive tense state due to his homeless background. Edward was no doubt worried at the possibility that any of those goons could return at any time, and he was deathly afraid of us being caught up with guys like them. He knew what to expect of them and how they'd be towards us, and didn't want any of us caught off guard.
"What? Why do we need to move from the lounge?" Alice asked in a squeak, staring up at him with wide, frightened eyes.
"What the hell is going on?" Jasper demanded, looking between us with narrowed eyes.
"What did you guys come across?" Rosalie asked at the same time as Jasper, frowning heavily.
"Edward and I will explain once we get into our new spot. Please, just listen to us when we say we need to leave this lounge and sleep somewhere else for the night." I pleaded with them, wandering over to Edward to take his calloused hand in mine.
"Just listen to them for now you guys. It sounds serious." Emmett backed me up.
"Did they tell you what's going on?"
"Not yet." Emmett answered Jasper, sighing. "But I know when Bella's not fucking around with this shit - and I think it's better if we did move."
The three of them were still so wary and confused as to what the hell was going on, but they must've seen something in Emmett's face. Eventually I heard them all hum their agreement and together we left the lounge. I stuck close to Edward's side, squeezing his hand with mine every now and then. "We should get to the gym first. I want us to arm ourselves." Edward muttered in a grim tone and I grimaced. In only the short time I've come to know him since we've been locked up, he's never sounded this serious before.
"Arm ourselves?!" Rosalie asked flabbergasted.
"There's bats and stuff in the activities closet there." I surmised for him, ignoring Rosalie. "Maybe we should get some scissors too." I added, realizing also that while blunt objects are good to have, having something sharp doesn't hurt either. Edward after all had his switchblade but we needed more than just one blade to have. Edward glanced down at me when I offered the second option and he nodded his head firmly, agreeing with my idea.
We hurried through the halls to get to the gym first, not wasting any time. We raced over to the closet and after Edward broke into it (using a loose, free fire extinguisher that was in the big gym, he used the butt of the extinguisher to break the lock on the door) we dug around for some of the sports equipment inside. Edward handed some baseball bats over to Emmett and Jasper, while also taking the heavy lacrosse sticks that were inside. "These should do. Let's go get some scissors too." he stated and we ran out of the gym with the equipment in our arms, along with the extinguisher. Edward amended that having the extinguisher could also be used for brute force if needed.
The plus of our school being multileveled was that we could run all the way to the top floor of the school and be as far as possible from the bottom floor, where likely it was enough distance from any possible entrances that these drug dealers would likely be breaking into the school. Jasper, Rosalie, Alice and Emmett were confused as to why Edward kept directing us all to get to the upper floors of the school. They had no clue yet to what possible dangers we were all in still, and felt that any new room - any classroom - would've been more than suitable for us. But Edward was adamant in his methodology in running us around until he felt like the final room we came across on the top floor was suitable for us. Once we were ushered inside the classroom, Edward set his stuff down and after closing the door, he turned to Jasper and Emmett. "Help me move some stuff in front of the door." Edward ordered. Emmett and Jasper looked at one another, confused.
"Please, just listen to him." I murmured, setting my bag down in one of the desks. The girls copied me and looked over at Edward still lost on what all was going on. Emmett must've still heard the grim tone in our voices since he eventually sighed and nodded his head to Edward. While the boys worked on shoving the stuff around to have it set against the door, I took in the surroundings that would be our new room to sleep in for the night. It was a standard classroom for the school - rows of desks, windows against one wall that was currently letting in some gray light. The storm was still happening yet it wasn't nearly as violent as it was earlier. Yet still, winds were blowing it was still occasionally thundering, and the rain was still ongoing. What set this room apart from any other classes was the fact that there was a door to the back. The door led into an adjacent classroom. The school back in the day when it was built here in little old Forks, had for the most part standard classrooms that were not connected with other classrooms. But there were some that the school had designed to have this additional door to be connected to the room next door. There could've been different reasons as to why it was included but nothing that ever made sense. Be it if the teacher in the next room over suddenly needed to get to the first room for an emergency, or it was shared subjects being next to one another, I didn't fully know what the real answer was.
But this would definitely help us out. We were blocking one escape route for us for the night as we didn't want any of the thugs possibly coming back in the middle of the night and being able to enter our room, catching us off guard. But with this additional door, if we really needed to leave we could escape to the classroom next door and make our way out of the school.
It took the guys a bit before they finally had the teacher's desk, and a couple extra desks stacked against the door. Edward also locked the door from the inside, before the three boys joined us girls. Edward stood close to me, wrapping an arm around my waist tightly.
"Can you guys tell us what the hell is going on?" Alice pleaded then, grasping onto Jasper's arm in midst of her fear. Emmett took to standing closely next to Rosalie, where all four of them looked over at Edward and I worriedly. I glanced up at him and saw he was looking serious as ever.
"We need to leave asap tomorrow. There's a lot more brewing under the surface than we expected." he stated to them grimly.
"Wasn't the plan to wait until Monday morning to be let out? If we break out of the school before then, they'll pin us for vandalizing the school." Jasper retorted, his blond eyebrows furrowing.
"I frankly could care less if they wanted to do any of that. We need to leave earlier than planned regardless. We're in danger just being sitting ducks the longer we stay here." Edward told him, shaking his head. "Look, it's a lot that we're about to unpack. Before we do, Jazz - do you have all of those pictures still, from Harmont's class?" Edward cut in then, looking over at him with hardened eyes. Jasper looked even more perturbed as to why he was suddenly asking about that, but otherwise dug through his pants pockets from his gym clothes that he was still wearing, and dug out the photos. Even though he had grabbed those from yesterday, I guess he took to keeping them somehow in between bathing and/or just left them in his pants without bothering to take them out.
"Why are you asking for those?" Rosalie asked quietly, looking over at Edward with hardened eyes.
"It's related to what we found." I murmured to her, feeling my stomach churn recalling at all of the information we did find in Greene's office.
"Seriously. You two need to tell us what the fuck is going on." Emmett stated gruffly, his eyes narrowed into a glare. I looked up at Edward while he took the photos from Jasper and brought his backpack forward. Edward looked down at me, his lips pressed tightly together. He briefly nodded his head to me - silently telling me we needed to have all of our evidence out - and I nodded back to him. I brought my backpack forward and opening the backpack, I pulled out all of the papers. Edward did the same for his stuff; the three who hadn't seen the stuff gasped in shock. Emmett had seen it when he collected us originally from the office.
"What in the fuck is all of that?" Rosalie cried when she saw the bricks.
"Greene's been a shady shit this whole time." Edward grumbled, setting his findings down on top of a nearby desk. "Bella wanted to go to Greene's office originally during our searches because she had suspicions that there was something that wasn't adding up while we've been trapped here. She made some smart points: she didn't think it was right on the paperwork we had found in Clapp's office about how Emmett and her were classified as the worst students he's had. She also thought it was creepy that Greene had Harmont working here when it was clear to us he's a pervert towards the female students - and you in particular Rose. Finally she felt it was weird we were locked up here and forgotten about in the first place. None of it made sense and she wanted to find evidence of whether or not there was weight behind what we were thinking - that we were left behind here for a reason." Edward started, sighing. Everyone looked at him quietly, patiently waiting to hear where he was going with this. "So when we reached Greene's office, imagine my surprise when we came across some drug dealers breaking into it."
"What?!" Alice hissed, gasping with Rosalie.
"What do you mean drug dealers? Why would anyone like that would be here in the school?" Jasper asked confused, looking over at us dubiously.
"That's what I was thinking too." Edward replied to him, running a hand through his hair anxiously. "But I recognized the two of them. You all know my past - I was a runner for my old dealer, Embry. The two who had broken into Greene's office are exceptionally worse than any other dealer around Washington. Their names are Alec and Demetri - Embry always told me to avoid them like hell. It was a good thing I'm a fast runner because I was always able to stay out of their way. Alec's known for being aggressive with his scare tactics against rival dealers and their runners; I've heard horror stories of how if any runners were to fall into his hands and not give into the usual threats, he wasn't above lopping off fingers... or the worst I've heard, tongues." he paused when the whole group made noises of shock at hearing this. I shivered still from hearing this, and Edward reached over to kiss my forehead lovingly before continuing. "Demetri always had a knack for sniffing out rival dealers and runners. He was labeled as a tracker as it was his goal to snuff out rivals and keep the business locked under his control as he's the leader of his group. Embry was rivals with them and never backed down to their scare tactics but they're likely also the ones that came for him that night that forced me on the run."
"Why were they here though?" Emmett pressed.
"They were here because Greene had this stashed in his desk." Edward answered, pointing down to the stash of drugs that we had found. "They were trying to break into it before we arrived but they were impatient with how long it was taking to get into the drawer. Along with it was some money, and they were going on about how apparently this deal was made with not only Greene but Newton as well."
"What?!" Rosalie hissed.
"Who's Newton?" Alice questioned, interrupting. Well it only made sense that she really had no clue who he was really; she was brand new to the area let alone the school. She didn't have a chance to meet the jackass that was Mike. She was currently lucky that she hasn't.
"Mike Newton. He's a fucking prick that likes to kiss ass to teachers yet bullies a good handful of students. He's got a superiority complex being a football jock, a tool that cheats on his girlfriend Jessica Stanley on and off, and thinks he's god's gift to women." I told her, my tone becoming biting the more I rambled on about it.
"He's especially a fucking nuisance to me since he found out about me being homeless and likes to really rub salt in the wounds with me." Edward added in a grumble. I mirrored his action that he had done earlier with me, and leaned over to kiss his rugged jawline. His cheeks reddened briefly and I smirked at the sight.
"I pointed him out to you earlier yesterday when I was showing off the school to you; he's the blond, blue eyed guy that was stalking some of the cheerleaders." Rosalie informed her, waving her hand dismissively. "But that doesn't make sense, why is he involved with this drug nonsense with Greene?"
"I could only make a guess in that he's got a secret drug problem." Emmett pointed out, rubbing his chin while all eyes fell on him. "Dude tries so hard to be little mister perfect to everyone but the smart teens who know better. I always knew the weasel's got something wrong about him and this just makes sense that he's got an addiction and probably got involved with this drug situation which led to Greene finding out. He might be using it as blackmail to get him to do all of his dirty work and then Greene promises to keep it a secret so he doesn't land in trouble with the law or his family." he further theorized.
"Which doesn't mean Greene won't also use him as a scapegoat." Edward countered. "Mike was in charge of getting the money from their latest deal - all of this." he paused to again gesture to what all was on the desktop beside us. "If things went sour or anything to cover his own ass, Greene could put all of the blame on Mike and claim he was being the responsible adult confiscating this bit of stash to later turn in to the police." He sighed then and looked over at the others with a serious expression. "The main reason though I had us move from the lounge is because they're planning on coming back tomorrow with tools to further break into Greene's desk and try to get at the stash."
"Jesus..." Jasper murmured.
"Wouldn't it have been smarter to just leave the crap behind while we safely blow this popsicle stand?" Emmett pointed out dryly, looking over at Edward with narrowed eyes. He was once again skeptical with everything, and that entailed my boy's choices.
"It would've but I can't let Greene get away with this crap. There's more to it than just him being a sneaky dirty piece of shit dealing with all of this behind the scenes." Edward informed him and then jutted his jaw to me. I brought forth all of the papers that we came across and began to explain to them just how deep everything really went.
"It was originally my plans as is to try and figure out if Greene was doctoring our reports and grades since I noticed that on Clapp's reports about Emmett and I, I noticed what looked like white out over the notes. As well as with that to me at least, it looked like someone forged his handwriting. So when we went to Greene's office, we found these." I pulled up our doctored papers, showing each of them the columns of the grades that were obviously altered along with corresponding notes about us that would reflect the fake grades. The others could see the obvious signs of things being written over due to the white out on the columns for our grades, as well as the commentary that was originally put. The Hale twins seemed shocked to see their grades reflecting as low as it did on these papers.
"What the hell?" Jasper growled, yanking his report out of my hands. "I sure as hell know I'm not doing that bad in these courses."
"The five of us all have something like that." Edward pointed out from beside me, shaking his paper slightly in frustration.
"When we were digging around in the office after the two thugs had tried ransacking it completely, we found out there was a hidden safe in Greene's office." I continued to explain and the four of them looked up at us in shock. "Edward set about looking for the code - and of course much like how he was with the door's code, he also put a code down somewhere behind a painting. Edward opened it and that's where he found the baggie of meth," I paused to point to the little plastic bag. "Some tapes and a cassette player, as well as some more paperwork and a key." I then pulled out the other papers we had gathered - the original documents that were our reports. "The key led to a drawer that was holding the bricks and money as well as another tape. But look at these papers." I then passed out our reports and they all glanced over them.
"Knew it!" Emmett hissed, slapping his original report. "The fucker's been lying about us."
"But why would he lie and change our grades?" Rosalie questioned then, looking frustrated and beyond pissed. "Jasper and I weren't any bit of trouble like you and Emmett had been for the school. Greene's always had a vendetta against you two so I'm not surprised he was trying to make you two look worse." she continued and I heard Edward sigh.
"Along with the bricks and money, we also found this." Edward gestured to me which led me to pulling out the made-up contract Greene had written out with 'Mr. Harmont.' I also included the sex offender registry that was found in our search and I gave it to the group to read it. They began reading it while Edward went about detailing everything behind the papers. "Bella and I have come to the conclusion that Greene only was forging your marks to be lower than it really was, because of 'Mr. Harmont'. We found that made up contract explaining that Harmont's not to ever have any female students be kept back for detentions. But based off the fact that he's got a hobby of taking pictures of female students - and more so you than anyone else Rose, we came to the conclusion he's got a specific attraction towards you. It led us to fearing that Greene was getting closer and closer to letting there be a reason that you should be held back for detention with Harmont - you'd be stuck with a sex offender alone for who knows how long and who knows what he would've let him do to you." he said in a dead tone, looking disgusted all over again as he described our plausible theory.
"Son of a bitch!" Jasper roared, slamming his fist into a desk. "Like hell I would allow that sick bastard anywhere near my sister!"
"He'd sooner meet my fists than even getting a chance to blink in her direction." Emmett seethed, flexing his fingers and cracking his neck, looking downright murderous. Rosalie appeared to be shell shocked while staring down at the papers in her hands, leaving Alice to come up to her side and pull her close to offer a hug in means of comfort.
"I think all of us would love to beat 'Mr. Harmont' and Greene to a pulp now that we know the truth. But I think it's better if we bring all of this up front to the police." I said then. "We're better off just letting the police handle this than trying to get physical about it. Both the school system and the police will come down harder on them than we ever could."
"And you think they'll believe us?" Rosalie asked quietly, handing me back the made up contract with her expression appearing dubious.
"Everything that we found here is bound to be enough evidence to lock up that creepy teacher as well as revoke Greene's rights to being involved in the academic system." Edward assured her, his voice wrought with determination. "I mean, we have the drugs and cash they exchanged, the registry and 'contract', our reports. And we haven't even scratched the surface on these cassette tapes; likely what's on them will be conversations between each of them regarding everything that's been going on." he added, gesturing to the tapes.
"So our plan is to leave tomorrow morning?" Jasper cut in then, handing me his report to which I stuffed it back into my backpack. The others followed suit.
"Yes."
"Why not leave now?" Alice questioned then, her eyebrows furrowing. "You two said it yourself, we have everything we need to nail them. If there's a threat of these drug dealers coming back who knows when, we should get the hell out of here instead of sticking around." Alice offered, waving her arms about in slight panic.
"The main issue is the fact the storm is still going on." Edward grumbled, and looked out the window. I followed his line of sight to see that it was still storming rather badly outside. It wasn't nearly as bad as it had been earlier today - to the point in which it knocked out the power in the school - but it was also not calmed down entirely. The winds were still raging, still raining pretty heavily with lightning and thunder happening every so often. "Trying to drive during this when no doubt a lot of power lines outside were likely knocked down would be dangerous - or who knows, the streets could be flooded or there's a lot of trees fallen over too. It's not safe for us to leave until the storm passes and well... who knows how long this one will last today? I'd rather we leave when it's calmed down, and it might be calm tomorrow versus tonight. There's also the slight chance that if we leave today - regardless of whether or not they had said they will be back tomorrow, that doesn't rule out the fact that any of the drug dealers in Demetri's gang can easily come back here. I don't think any of us want to risk a sudden encounter with one of them if we leave at the wrong time." Edward continued, shaking his head.
"Either leave and risk our safety out on the roads, or wait around here for the night and hope we can leave safely in the morning." Jasper surmised, running a hand through his blond hair in frustration. "Both options are not ideal."
"I'd rather we'd wait until it's safe to leave - and if that means we have to wait until the storm's passed then fine." Emmett grumbled. "We just need to stay in here for the night then. If we have to use the bathroom, we either leave as a small group - having at least two people go with us - or we make a makeshift bathroom to use in here and just toss it when we leave. We can get some food and bring it up here to eat and we probably should go do that now and be quick about it because there's no way in hell I'm going to go the night without some damn grub in me." he ordered, his face looking serious. It was rare to see him this grim looking, it being a stark contrast to his normal jovial self.
"I won't say no to food." I muttered, shrugging my shoulders. "Looks like the pizzas will just be a no go for now." I lightly joked; this at least earned a couple snorts and small smirks from the group at my weak attempts of a joke.
"Then let's hurry about it and get some food. The quicker we are in getting our food, the sooner we can at least still be up here in this locked room." Edward stated, setting his bag down and wrapping an arm around my waist. "As much as we can prepare this room to be secure, we still need to be diligent when staying here overnight."
"Is there anything else we can do to at least protect ourselves?" Alice asked out loud while we went over to the other door in this classroom. After we opened it and quickly shuffled through the next door classroom to the door, we peeked out of the doorway to make sure everything was clear before leaving it.
"What do you mean by that Alice?" Jasper asked her back while we quickly hurried through the halls back to the cafeteria.
"Well for one we still need to get some more weapons - like scissors - to protect ourselves." I reminded the group while we descended down the stairs.
"We can go look for some on our way back up to the classroom." Edward reassured me, and I nodded my head to him.
"I was thinking maybe we could set up traps?" Alice finally spoke up, finishing her train of thought out loud. I, Edward and Emmett stopped then when she said this out loud. The twins stopped to look at her in surprise and Alice looked sheepish. "I mean, I don't know what we can find in the school to set up traps, or how many we can make with what we got. But maybe if we set up like either noise traps to alert us or maybe traps that would scare the dealers - or slow them down a bit - we might feel a bit safer?"
"Hot damn pixie!" Emmett suddenly cheered, causing all of us to jump in surprise. "I didn't know you had it in you to think like that!"
"Uh... thanks?"
"She has a point though." I surmised, nodding my head to her.
"But what kind of traps can we make with the stuff here in the school?" Jasper asked then, looking rather unsure that we could make anything with ordinary school supplies.
"You leave that to Izzy and I. We've got our ways of making anything out of nothing. Especially if it's going to be making lots of noise or be destructive, we've got our wits about us in sorting that out." Emmett mused, getting a wicked gleam in his dark eyes.
"Hey, don't forget about me." Edward grumbled and I looked up at him to see he was pouting.
"You know how to make stuff like them?" Rosalie asked him warily, raising a blond eyebrow.
"More or less. I used to be a terror of a kid and I vaguely recall making like nail bombs or noise traps with aerosol cans." Edward murmured and I smirked up at him.
"My little destruct-o." I purred and sidled up to him, leaning up on my toes to kiss his cheek. His cheeks reddened and I giggled.
"Okay stop trying to make me vomit rainbows you two." Emmett teased and I glared at him while this eased the group, causing the others to chuckle at us. "You two just seriously need a room by this point because I don't know how much more of this lovey-dovey bullshit I can take from you two."
"We did have a room earlier." I muttered.
"And you rudely interrupted us." Edward added in, and the both of us smirked at Emmett when he grimaced. The others now began to laugh at our banter.
"Look I don't need a reminder of what I saw."
"Ew! Don't tell me you saw them naked!" Alice shrieked, covering her ears. Jasper was doubled over laughing hard by this point, and even Rosalie was red in the face from her own giggling.
"As much as he's already seen it all with me, I think he got a little bit too much of a peep show from Ed than he wanted." I teased while Emmett frowned heavily. Edward snickered. "Though I think he was just jealous at how bi -"
"Please stop, I know what you're going to say and I'm telling you right now that I'm -"
"Both of you stop!" Rosalie hissed through her giggling, shaking her head.
"Yeah I don't think I want to hear about a size comparison contest between you two lugs!" Alice gasped out with her face red - not with laughter but with embarrassment. Jasper pretty much had ended up on the floor by this point, unable to control his guffawing. Edward and I joined in with the laughter just at the sight and hearing poor Alice's mortification of where the conversation was heading. Emmett rolled his eyes and threw his hands up in defeat, finally dropping the conversation.
"Anyways, let's just drop it and focus back on the task at hand. First, let's go get our food to have tonight, and then we can take care of the task of getting some traps along with additional weapons before we stick it out for the night." Emmett stated, reaching down to roughly pat Jasper on his back in hopes of waking him up from his laughing fit. Jasper was rattled hard enough from the patting and once Rosalie had helped him up, we got back to hurrying down to the cafeteria once more to get our leftover food. On the way, Emmett and I with Edward chiming in set about explaining all types of traps we could make with stuff we can likely find in the janitor's office, as well as some classrooms if we got lucky. We hastily made it back to the cafeteria and gathered up the few we had made previously for our food tonight, before making our way towards the janitor's closet. It was unlocked surprisingly and there we found all of the goodies we needed to start working on traps. There were aerosol cans a-plenty - freshener, disinfectant, W-40, glass cleaner just to name a few. Along with all of that, there was a little compartment on the shelves that held some sturdy supplies used for repairs - one of them being a box of nails. We grabbed all of the nails and cans we needed first for some sound traps as well as nail bombs. We also grabbed some heavy broomsticks that after taking off the head, we were left with a heavy stick that had a sharp end.
"Emmett I honestly don't think that's going to work." I teased my brother-like best friend when he grabbed a huge rake. He had said aloud he wanted to use this as a trap just for the dealers to step on it and hurt their feet - pretty much exactly like how the bad guys in children's' cartoons would act when stepping on a rake.
"Aw don't be a spoil sport on my dreams Iz." Emmett whined, taking the rake anyways. I rolled my eyes at him.
"I don't know I feel like it'd work out." Rosalie defended his choice, which caused Emmett to grin toothily at her.
"Thanks sweetcheeks for having my back."
"I'm just saying it might work if they're just as boneheaded as you can be sometimes."
"Hey!"
"I'm saying that out of the kindness of my heart and it's the least insulting thing I could ever say to you, you lug." Rosalie tried to quickly reassure him, smirking. Emmett narrowed his eyes at her briefly, but then his face melted into a sweet smile and he winked at her.
"Thanks toots."
"Don't stroke his ego too much with the rake idea Rose; soon he's going to think every hair-brained scheme of his is genius - and normally it's my plans that work out better than his ever does." I teased her, winking in their general direction. Rosalie snickered, finding it amusing at what I said as well as Emmett's resulting glare in my direction. Soon, we had what we deemed enough weapons and materials to work on traps - or at least just what all we could carry back to the classroom along with our food. We decided it was good enough and on our way back to the classroom we'd be staying in for the night, we stopped by and raided some more classrooms looking for some scissors. We found several and now everyone had one on them, ready to use against any drug dealers should we come across any between now and when we leave in the morning. Once we finally returned to the classroom, we set everything we had brought with us down and set about making our traps first.
"So..." Jasper suddenly began talking in the midst of us carefully working on our traps. Emmett, Edward and I set about showing them on how we make the nail bombs and noise traps, along with spiking some of the broomsticks with nails that we'll set in a rig that if triggered, it'd swing down and stick any unsuspecting victims. We glanced back up at him when he trailed off and Jasper grimaced. "Okay I don't know where I was going with that initially. Almost wanted to like create some idle chatter so we're not working in silence." he muttered once he felt all eyes were on him. Then he quickly snapped his fingers. "I just got an idea. Did we want to hear what was on those tapes?"
"I mean... probably what's on those tapes are just general recorded meetings Greene's had with the dealers and Newton." Edward guessed out loud then, shrugging his shoulders. I nodded in agreement with his statement, thinking that made the most sense.
"But it also doesn't hurt to hear them just in case. You know, hear what all he's said to them, what plans he's made with them." Rosalie countered, pursing her lips.
"I'm game to hear it if you guys are." Alice piped up, putting in her two cents.
"I don't see anything wrong with listening to them." Emmett added.
Edward then put down his tools he was working with and went over to grab the cassette and the tapes. He dumped them on a nearby desk before randomly selecting a tape and sticking it in the player, and then hit the play button. The first tape crackled to life and we began to listen to what all was on them.
"This is the first tape of recordings for meetings regarding the deals. It is currently 4:45pm on February 6th." Greene's voice spoke up then. We set all of our tools down and listened intently. "Alright Michael... what all did you manage to score?"
"Loads worth - cleaned out inventory and managed to get about $1,323 for it all." Mike Newton's voice popped up then, sounded fairly smug at what he was able to sell. Edward rushed over to the pile of evidence we had on Greene, where he grabbed the stack of money and worked on counting the amount while Mike on the tape continued. "Had to take a bit of a seller's cut but I don't think they'll mind."
We heard Green give a short grunt that sounded annoyed. "Seller's cut? Boy are you trying to get yourself maimed? You don't take cuts from this before the money goes into the head dealer's hands! If you're lucky you'll get a share of the profits after he counts it all and sees you were honest in selling it to his patrons. If you take any before he sees it, you're bound to get serious heat for it." Green chastised him. It sounded like Greene was an expert in this case - at least mildly experienced in knowing the dealers' temperament and knew now to mess with them.
We heard Mike give what sounded like a scoff and a harsh chuckle. "Is this your means of a scare tactic to get me to work like a weak puppet to you guys? I'm not scared by this nonsense nor any other intimidation tactic like you think I will be, Greene. I risked my ass selling all of our inventory for Demetri and his gang." Mike complained but Greene gave another grunt.
"I mean it Michael, you're playing a dangerous game thinking you could take a seller's cut so brazenly. If you'd rather risk losing a finger or worse over some extra cash before you'd get your cut through Demetri's hands, then that's on you. I'm trying to keep your dirty habits quiet. You're lucky we get this extra supply to sell for him through your dad's work and the fact I've been keeping quiet about this for two months is even a blessing we haven't been found out yet." Greene continued to lecture him on the politics that was drug dealing. Once we heard the amount of months that had passed, Rosalie paused the tape to where we all looked at one another in shock.
"This shit has been going on for two fucking months." Emmett muttered.
"No, it has to be longer than that." I stated, shaking my head. "He said on this tape it was February 6th. And right now it's... April 2nd." I sighed once I realized the date.
"So you think they started back in December and it's been going on for five months? Or even further back than that?" Alice questioned out loud, her black eyebrows rising high in disbelief.
"Roughly, but honestly don't know for sure just how long these two have been doing this for Demetri." Edward replied, setting the stack of money down. "I counted $1,487 in this stack. This has to be from their latest sell, so the sell stated on this tape is from an old deal - and it makes me wonder if Newton's been taking cuts from them this whole time. Demetri and Alec were saying Newton owes them on their last two orders so my guess is they finally caught onto the fact he's been taking a share each time." he pointed out to which the others nodded their heads before looked back down at the cassette player. Rosalie hit play and the tape continued.
"Relax old man, I doubt they'll notice that some of the cash is missing - they have a vast majority of it anyways." Mike reassured Greene but with the following huff, I could tell that Greene wasn't exactly convinced completely on his word.
The first tape ended there other than just Greene making sure that Mike wasn't seen at all during his sells nor when he was picking up the drugs from his dad's store. I never would've guessed that shipments of these drugs were being delivered to his dad's store - an outdoor and sporting store no less, harboring illegal drugs and narcotics. They must've been good at hiding any information on this business, considering before I had been kicked out of my dad's place he never once mentioned about there being any tips or leads pointing to that little store hiding such a thing. But I definitely knew that once we could get these tapes to him, my dad's first stop would be the Newton's family business. Once that first tape had finished we breezed past three more of which the next few were essentially similar to the first one; Green would lead into the date and times of meeting with Newton after school in the course of the next two months from the first month they had started recording, and Greene would document just exactly how much Newton managed to make on selling their inventory. Each time he'd make note of the total amount and again, mention he took a cut from the amount he sold. These tapes essentially made us believe that each portion he'd take was adding up to the nearly $1,500 cash that we had in our hands now, to which we also thought that this money in our hands had to be all of the cuts he took from the total and he was going to work on giving it back to them. On the second to last tape, two things were mentioned that also answered some things we were wondering.
"So on this latest sale, you also have gotten the exchange yes? The high quality, purest form of cocaine?" Greene asked Newton after he made note of the new tally of money from their latest sell.
"Yeah yeah I have it. Those kilos are definitely worth a hefty price so Demetri better be pleased with what kind of bullshit I had to do to get them." Mike complained, sounding flippant.
"Good. And the other thing I told you to look into? Any leads?"
"Yeah found out the info you wanted on Masen - he was definitely involved with the drug ring years ago with Embry. He might have some information on where Embry is now since Demetri and Alec have a score to settle with him." Upon hearing Edward's last name, I snatched the tape and hit pause. Everyone's eyes bugged out and they all looked over at Edward who held a pissed off expression.
"Greene pushed Newton to find out about you and your past." Emmett huffed, crossing his arms angrily.
"I'm going to strangle the toad's neck." I hissed, clenching my fists tightly while slamming the cassette player back onto the desktop. Edward breathed heavily through his nose, leaning forward on the desk.
"Keep playing it." Edward demanded, refusing to look up. I pressed play and the tape continued.
"Excellent then, be sure then to divulge it to Demetri when we meet with him for this final sale. I've already got a plan set in the works of how I'd like to trap him and we can just easily exchange him over to them. It'll be easy to fudge details on his whereabouts considering he has no actual guardian we'd have to contact." Greene mused, chuckling. The sick fuck.
"Even better that he's homeless since I saw him hiding out one day when I was out with my friends. And that past I've dug up just explains everything - the freak's got no one to go to, no home. He's an orphan and been one for years, ran away from a half-way house young before suddenly showing up at this high school with a 'guardian' named Embry before his 'guardian' split town and is unreachable. It'd be easy to come up with a story of him just falling through the school's cracks." Newton gave his input with a raucous laugh. I could hear several noises of upset and anger around our little circle when we heard this.
"Those bastards..." Alice hissed under her breath.
"What plan though do you have cooked up, Greene?" Mike then asked out loud. It took a few minutes before finally Greene answered.
"Well as much as I don't want to include this information on the tape, it's only just going to be for myself and no one else will hear it. I plan on trapping a few others with Masen - once I can find a good enough reason, I'll be sentencing him, Swan, McCarthy, and the Hale Twins to detention. They'll likely get stir-crazy and break out, leading them to be locked up in a more secure room in which I plan on 'forgetting about them' and leaving them in here. In the meantime that'll allow me to set up an exchange with Demetri and his gang - I can pass Masen off over to him, and the rest of the group will face severe punishments, be held accountable for any damage they might've caused when breaking out, and can have everything drug related pinned on them." Greene admitted blatantly. Each of us made a noise out of anger and frustration, realizing that he indeed had this all planned out against us; it wasn't just tied to our school records being doctored. I hit pause and we looked up at one another, anger evident on our faces.
"Just as a complete side-note," Emmett began, sighing heavily. "This man is downright evil and demented and I cannot wait to nail his ass. But... he's an awful villain for admitting his plan out loud, details and all." he continued, where even through his anger, a small smirk was threatening to slip out on his face. "Greene's an utter dumbass."
"That much has since been established - between him being an outside thinker with the door code, to writing down his 'to-do list-where-I-get-this-awful-group-of-teens-into-trouble-and-I-must-get-away-with-it' plans." I surmised sarcastically, shaking my head. My crack managed to even get Edward as a small smirk was almost on his face now.
"If this isn't enough evidence to have Greene fired and arrested, then I don't know what will." Jasper muttered sighing.
Finally we were onto the last tape. I switched the tapes out to put in the last one we had, and once it was settled inside I hit play.
"Are you sure this tape is secure enough, Greene?" A new voice came through on the tape, to which I could hear Jasper give out a growl of pure rage. It was 'Harmont's' voice on the other end now. It was a tape between Greene and our local registered sex-offender of a teacher.
"Yes Seamus, it's secure. No one is ever going to hear this - it'll stay between us. This is just more so for record keeping that I like to have on file." Greene reassured him. Edward quickly pulled out the papers we had on 'Harmont' and looked through to see if the name checked out. He then gave a nod, informing us of Harmont's actual first name. I heard 'Harmont' - or Seamus rather - give a sigh.
"I guess so but whatever."
"So, I just want to get the facts straight. You know I'm stretching my neck out real far letting you get away with so much while you work here. I should've let you go from this job the minute I found out about your past - but I let you stay just because I can't afford to hire another teacher for cheap like I can do for you. You agreed to this pay cut so I could let you freely continue your habits but only up to wanting to take pictures of the female student body that you're so fascinated with." Greene began again, giving his own heavy sigh. So that would make sense then as to why he was fine with 'Harmont's' hobbies - all because of keeping a cheap teacher on his lineup so he doesn't have to shell out more money for a different teacher. After he sighed, he continued. "You also only agreed that it would just be photos and you're under my contract that you're not to be left alone with any students after school. Yet here you are pressing me that you want me to allow you close to a student. Is that correct?"
"Yes." Seamus answered bluntly.
"Can you tell me who you're looking at?"
"Rosalie Hale. I know I said and agreed to not go near any female students or ever hold them back after school for anything. But... I'm just so attracted to her. The way she's so beautifully built, the way her golden locks flow down her slender back, her beautiful blue eyes and full lips... I often have to peel my eyes away from her blossoming bosom or her tight ass, Greene. It's unbearable and I just want her so badly." Seamus admitted out loud, going into disturbing detailed descriptions of what he was so attracted to Hale. Jasper snatched the cassette player and stopped it, nearly breaking the button. I looked up at Rosalie to see that her face almost looked green with disgust as if she wanted to throw up. Alice mirrored her expression, holding a hand to her forehead.
"God I want to throw up just hearing all of that." she muttered out loud.
Emmett leaned over and rested a hand on Rosalie's back then, which caused her to look up at him. Her expression softened slightly in that she gave him a small sad smile, but to me it looked like a grimace. "The minute I see him again Rose, I'll be punching his lights out and personally castrating him." Emmett murmured to her, giving her a warm reassuring smile. Rosalie chuckled lightly at his promise, but nodded her blond head.
"I'll hold you to it."
"That's if you can beat me to it." Jasper inputted, raising a blond eyebrow up at him. Emmett snickered before the two of them bumped fists in agreement.
"Save me a piece, I'd love to break every single finger of his." Edward murmured, and I smiled up at him.
"You take his fingers, I'll be sure to come in and break his legs." I stated, and Edward nodded his head strongly.
"Thanks guys." Rosalie murmured, smiling while Alice hugged her quickly. We stood there in silence after our promises of violence against this scum-bag, before finally Jasper nodded his head briefly and pressed play once more.
"Seamus..." Greene muttered. "Look, this is honestly just a line I'm not sure I'm willing to cross. I've done a lot for you as is and this could seriously backfire on me if you are left alone with Hale. I know you and I know you wouldn't be able to control yourself around her."
"So?! I know what you're really planning with her along with some other students - like Swan, McCarthy, Masen and Rosalie's brother. I know all about you messing with their grades." Seamus boasted confidently where we heard Greene balk.
"How?!"
"Margrett Cope. She's been gossiping about it with me." Seamus responded; even through the tape I could envision his smug smirking face. He thought he had all the cards laid out in his favor to trap Greene into giving him what he wanted.
Greene was huffing and haa-ing here and there for a few minutes, trying to figure out a counter-argument to what Seamus revealed. Yet he was drawing blanks. Finally, Greene grunted. "I'm going to suspend that damnable cow if it's the last thing I do... Fine you have me there. I'm not keen on this idea but since I still have my own agenda with those cursed teens... I'll work it in that you can only have one detention with Rosalie Hale. It'll be believable once I make their 'new' grades public that it'll look as if she needs to be held back in your class for one day. If this comes back to bite us in the ass or the police find out about your position here, I will personally murder you with my own hands Seamus. This is my final allowance to you." Greene relented. Jasper hit the stop button, ending the tape.
The six of us stared at one another, processing the information now laid out before us.
"It's just as we suspected." Alice murmured in dismay, shaking her spiky-haired head. "The doctoring of your guys' grades from the very beginning would play into this whole ordeal with the drug dealers, and it was going to play a role in Rosalie being left along with 'Harmont'." she surmised grimly.
"It's a good thing you two found this then." Rosalie muttered, taking the tapes and cassette player from Jasper before handing them back over to Edward. He put them away in his bags while she continued. "This has to be enough evidence to get him fired and sent to jail or something."
"Well we're going to make sure 'Harmont' is sent to prison." I grumbled, reaching over and patting her hand. "I'll die trying before I'd ever let that creep anywhere near you or another female student, ever again." I added, giving her a small smile. Rosalie smiled back and nodded her head to me appreciatively.
"This no doubt will get Greene arrested, big time, or there'll be hell to pay." Emmett cut in then, pummeling one of his fists into his hand. "No way in hell am I okay letting this old bastard get away with all of this shit. Imprisoning us in detention, scheming these drug deals in the background with Newton, plans of capturing Ed to trade him over to these drug dealers, doctoring our grades and letting that sick fuck think he's going to be alone with Rosie here to ultimately pin everything on us - everything that's gone on is about to be put to an end. Greene will pay for this." he promised with conviction.
"You'll just have to try and stop me from reaching that vile excuse of a teacher, first, so I'm not sent away for murder. I'm going to make sure he wished his testicles could shrivel up inside of him when I'm through with him." Jasper growled, looking down angrily at the desktop. Alice reached over and grabbed one of his hands in both of her tiny ones. He looked down at her and blushed when she gave him a beaming smile.
"Can I help in ripping out his fingernails at least?" Alice asked with a giggle; this simple question caused all of us to stare at her wide-eyed. She looked around at our faces when Jasper didn't immediately answer her and she pouted. "What?"
"Remind me to never mess with you pixie." Edward muttered, smirking. We all chuckled then, and Alice shrugged her shoulders. "Plans for murdering aside, I think this should definitely be enough to have these two fuckers arrested - and possibly even have the police involved in shutting down Demetri's ring, and bust Newton's dad for what they've been stashing in secret. We just need to focus on keeping this evidence safe with us, and focus on making it through the night to escape in the morning. Let's plan to stay in here for the night; if we need to use the bathroom at all, we are going to go as a group period. No one is going to be left alone, to ensure we'll be safe on the off chance we risk being ambushed by Demetri's gang." he murmured next, slipping back into a serious mindset and focusing on our plan. We all nodded to his statement, and went back to working on our traps.
It was only a matter of time before we'd be out of this school, and bringing forth our evidence to the police that'll have these two bozos booked and jailed. Sure I was extremely uncertain about the fact that we were choosing to stay at the school overnight versus leaving immediately. Edward had a point though earlier that with the fact it was still storming outside, we could risk our safety on the roads - or worse risk running into rogue dealers that wanted to come back to the school and scope out the place. We likely indeed have a better shot waiting until the morning for the storm to pass and the roads could be cleared down if there was any damage outside be it fallen power lines or fallen trees. We still were at a high risk for waiting until the morning to leave since those drug dealers planned to come back tomorrow at some point; the question of when was lingering in the air. It's why we were armed and preparing ourselves to protect each other, creating these traps that could be used in our advantage. Still, that unknown factor of what we were going to be facing was scaring me. We didn't know exactly what we'll be up against - the dealers could easily be a group of idiotic shitheads that are full of themselves and in over their own heads. Or they could be intelligent dealers, easily side-step our traps and catch us off guard. I was praying for the first scenario but I knew that it was better to be realistic.
Nevertheless, we were going to try our damnedest to make it out of this school alive. I was finally feeling happy where I was at now. I have my best friend, the big lug that is Emmett, here as the big brother as always protecting us. I've met Alice through this detention and it turns out her high-energy personality and infectious positive attitude wasn't nearly as annoying or grating as I had thought it to be. She might fit in more with Rosalie's crowd yet here I am bonding with her. Even more surprising is the fact this detention locked me in with the Hale twins, where I learned about the truth of our disturbing past and why Rose did what she did. It might not excuse it completely and it was definitely something that utterly traumatized me. But I was warming up to her and her brother minute by minute and I could see that we could be friends. And of course, this detention brought me to Edward - the mysterious nobody that I never knew existed, and never knew was someone that I needed in my life. I glanced over at him while he was busy working showing Alice and Rosalie how he was setting up his nail-bomb, and smirked. He was imperfect but perfect in any other sense for me, and I knew that I loved him with my whole heart. This detention started out so shitty and horrible, but through every twist and turn we've been through up to this point, I think in the end it was worth it.
We'd be leaving this school as friends for certain. We're going to make sure 'Harmont' and Greene get arrested. I was not about to let Edward be traded over to the dealers; it'd have to be over my dead body before I'd even let that happen. It was going to be the last thing I'd ever do, ensuring that we leave this school in one piece - even if that meant I die trying.
And that's a promise I'm going to keep.
A/N: Well not sure if it's a great end to this chapter but felt like it'd be easier to end it on that note. More-so this chapter was just a matter of divulging overarching details, of the whys and how these teens eventually ended up in detention together and what is really going on behind the scenes.
I may consider bringing up another chapter with the adults but don't know if it'll be the immediate next one or if I'll just jump us into the action that I've been mentally planning. Going to give it some time while I plan it out.
As always, apologies for any grammar mistakes, spelling errors or what not. I work on proofreading as I go and just before I set to publish the chapter. But things are bound to still slip past me since I'm merely human.
Any feedback is always appreciated! Until next time,
~Lady Eleanora~
