14;

"I know he's lying."

"Look, I think so too, but what if we're wrong? What if what's on the surface is all there is and Sam really got fostered out yesterday? Maybe he just kept quiet about it."

The girls were again window shopping the stores along store front street that they hadn't already gotten involved with. A thick layer of clouds hung in the air and brought with them a slight breeze. Winter wasn't far off and the clothing they wore, even their jackets, would soon be insufficient.

Riley stopped walking and had a pleading look in her eyes. "Ellie, I need you to believe me."

"I do." Her voice quieted. "Mostly."

Riley sighed and broke her gaze. "I get it, you're unsure. I just need something to convince you."

She stared through the store window intensely trying to conceive of an idea. A large cloud floated its way under the sun and manifested a shadow down the entire street. The temperature dropped quickly and sent a chill through their jackets and up their skin.

She spun back around with her eyes wide. "Notebook."

"Huh?"

"His notebook. He constantly writes in that damn thing but always closes it whenever we go into his office. I bet we could find something in there."

"I really doubt he would keep a record of stuff he would want to keep secret."

"I know… but I think it's worth a shot, don't you?"

"Is it really? He locked you in the basement… and what he said. I don't know what he'd do if he caught us trying to steal his stuff. Especially with our reasons."

"Well that's why we're not going to get caught. I know it's asking a lot, Ellie, but please."

Ellie gazed at her for a moment before letting out a groan. "Fine. I can't believe how weak I am." She stuck a finger at her. "But if we don't find anything then you have to give this up. All of it."

"Deal. Thank you. Now I guess we just have to figure out how to get it."

"We. Fantastic. Any ideas?"

Riley spoke slowly and braced herself for a reaction from Ellie. "I do have one."

"...that doesn't sound good."

Riley held up her pinky finger with a silver ring hanging around it. "We can do what we normally do when we grab these guys."

She thought for a moment about what she meant. "I don't get it. Steal it? I thought that's what we're doing anyway."

"I'm not going to steal it, that'd be stupid if we kept it with us. I meant we do what we normally do when we steal these things."

"As in… oh come on, seriously? You want me to distract David?"

"I think it'd work. Unless you can think of something else."

Ellie sighed with her eyes closed. "I'll think about it. Let's just finish our browsing. I'd like to enjoy my last day of freedom before he sticks us both in that basement."

"Not funny."

She returned the serious disposition. "Wasn't supposed to be."

"I know this is risky, stupid too, but if anyone gets caught it'll be me. I'll be the one in his office doing the dirty work so you can deny being a part of it. Cool?"

"Yeah cool. But how about you just don't, you know… get caught. Like at all."

"I don't plan to. Just be as good as you normally are and I won't."

They finished their lap up and down both sides of the street and headed back out on to the main street and towards the orphanage. They stopped on the sidewalk outside and sat on the curb, preparing for what's next.

"So, how are we doing this?"

"You'll just need to distract him and get him out of his office for a bit. Once he's out I'll sneak in and go through his notebook and see what I can find. Simple."

Ellie scoffed at her casualness about it. "Simple."

"Well the plan is at least. Just give me as much time as you can. I'll be in and out."

"And how am I getting him out of his office?"

"I'm sure you'll think of something."

"Yeah, I don't think so. You're dragging me into this, you're gonna help me with it."

Riley chuckled at the reaction. "It was worth a shot. Um… you could start a fight."

"I think that's more your thing."

"It could be our thing."

"Yeah… no. Keep thinking."

"I don't know then. Just make some loud noises or something."

"That's… actually not bad."

"What? Really?"

"No not really, it was bad, but it helped me think of one. I'm ready."

Riley looked at Ellie with an obvious look of confusion as to her mystery plan. Ellie ignored it, got up, and walked up to the front door. She put her hand on the doorknob and turned around.

"Ready?"

"I don't even know what we're doing."

"Just do your part and I'll do mine."

"…okay."

Ellie finished twisting the knob and pushed the large wooden door open and walked straight past David's office without so much as a glance. They parked themselves as far from the office as they could in the small cubby near the back corner of the house where the staff slept. Ellie nodded her head and took a dive. She hit the ground and grabbed at her ankle while letting out a yell.

Riley stood baffled until Ellie told her to go in an impatient command. She understood and ran back to David's office and up to his desk. "Ellie's hurt, she needs help!"

"What? Where is she?"

"By the TV."

David pushed himself out of his chair and hurriedly made his way past the girl and to the other. When he turned the corner he saw several other orphans already surrounding her and a few others looking on in interest.

"Ellie, what is it?"

"I tripped. I think I twisted my ankle."

Riley watched from the doorway of the office as David disappeared around the corner toward the groaning girl. She quickly ran around the desk and started pushing around stacked papers looking for the notebook or anything obvious.

She moved quietly, whispering under her breath. "Come on, where is it?"

"Where does it hurt?" David knelt down next to Ellie and felt the side of her ankle.

Ellie inhaled sharply. "Yeah, right there."

"Sorry!"

"Do you think it's broken?"

"I don't think it is, fortunately for you. I think you may have just sprained it."

"It's gotta be here somewhere..." Riley started pulling out the drawers only to come across folder after folder. She was hastily searching every corner she could, though carefully enough to ensure she wasn't leaving a trail of evidence.

"I think it might need to be wrapped. Do you have something for that?"

"Of course! Don't move, I'll grab the first aid."

David headed for the kitchen which sent a panic through Ellie due to how easily he could have went back towards his office. Fortunately he kept straight and disappeared through the kitchen door.

Riley pushed aside even more folders and a stack of papers in the bottom right drawer of his desk. The brown upper corner of the notebook shown through the mess which Riley immediately grabbed and dropped onto the desk.

"Finally. Let's see what this asshole's hiding."

She flipped through moderately quickly, no faster than her ability to take in the summary of each page would allow. It mostly revealed day to day notes of the goings-on of the orphanage, much of it expenses and the rest mostly inventory or personal notes.

"There, that should do it. How's it feel?"

Ellie very slowly rotated her foot in a circle in order to buy as much time as possible. She looked up and nodded at the man knelt at her side. "Still hurts, but that should help."

"Good. I'll help you up." He extended a hand which Ellie very hesitantly reached for and was pulled up to her feet. She played it out and made sure to keep off the 'injured' foot by slightly hovering it.

"Excellent! Just make sure to not put any weight on it for a while, okay? The last thing you want is a broken ankle."

He oddly chuckled at his own advice to which Ellie made sure to feign a smile. She again began to panic as he turned and started to walk off.

"Uh, David! What should I… should I put anything on it, or what?"

Riley flipped through page after page of notes. She stopped hard on one page and flipped it back several after overshooting something that slightly stood out than the rest. Large bold numbers were written in the upper corner of a page, different than the style of the rest of them.

"17, 53, 6. Huh."

The numbers were of no importance or relevance, but she kept repeating them to herself as they were the only thing out of place in the entire book that she could find. She dropped the notebook back into the drawer and covered it again with the piles of paper and folders that had initially hid it and slammed the whole thing shut.

"Nope, not for a sprained ankle. It'll be just fine on its own, just make sure to keep it elevated on a pillow. Don't worry." With a smile he turned and headed back toward the office.

Riley shoved the rest of the drawers in and hurried around the desk and out the door. As David rounded the corner back to his office he caught a glimpse of the back of a heel heading into the bedroom area but thought nothing of it. He sat at his chair and reached into the bottom drawer and pulled the journal out, un-noticing of anything peculiar. He grabbed his pencil and continued where he left off before being pulled away a few minutes earlier.

Ellie made sure to hobble as she headed back to the bedroom. She was worried that she was about to see David and Riley talking about why she was in his office but was relieved when she turned the corner and it was perfectly quiet. She continued to favor her foot as she reentered the bedroom.

She spotted Riley sitting on the bottom bunk of her own bed rolling her fingers along the pillow. Riley spotted her at the entrance and grinned harder the closer she got.

Ellie sat next to her and let out a large exhale. "Holy shit that was intense. You owe me huge for that."

"Yeah, I know. Just add it to the list."

Ellie held her bandaged foot out and wiggled it. "You should have seen me out there. I was pretty amazing."

"Did he actually wrap your foot? That's hilarious."

"I know! Isn't it?"

Riley responded with the same tone of accomplishment. "And I don't doubt that you were for a second. But let's be honest now, I think I deserve some serious praise for actually going through David's desk."

"I still can't believe you did that." Her smile disappeared and her face turned more curious. "Did you find anything?"

Riley sighed and fell the rest of the way back onto the bed. "Nothing really. By the time I could hear David finishing up I was barely done scanning his journal thing."

"After all that too. Can't say I'm sorry you didn't find anything though. I'm glad you didn't actually. I mean, maybe he's just an asshole and that's it."

"Yeah, maybe."

"Wait, what did you mean by nothing really? You made it sound like you found something."

"Well, there were these numbers on one of the pages. They sorta looked out of place so I memorized them."

"And?"

"17, 53, 6. Mean anything to you?"

"Nah. What was the rest of the book like?"

"Bunch of financial stuff and inventory amounts. Nothing interesting."

They both remained quiet after a tiring effort that ultimately ended up fruitless.

Ellie fell onto her back as well and pushed against Riley to get some room on the bed for herself. "Hey, you know what? It sounds like a password or something."

"The numbers?"

"Yeah."

"What, like a pin number?"

"Something like that. Think of anything around here that uses a password?"

Riley shut her eyes in concentration. "His computer maybe."

"I don't think I've ever seen him use it."

"True."

"What about the basement door. It's locked."

"Yeah, but he's got a regular key for th- oh shit!" Her eyes shot open and she smiled at her realization. "I bet it's the cooler door. It's got a padlock on it."

Ellie passed it off for a brief second as unlikely but immediately came around. "Well if it does, you might be right."

"Of course I am. But we still have to figure out how the hell we're gonna get down there."

"Well…"

"Well… what?" Ellie looked at her as though it was obvious, which caused it to click in Riley's head. "Fuck no, you're kidding right? I'm not gonna do anything to piss David off again and get kicked down there. Keep thinking."

"Yeah, I didn't' think so. Sorry. But you were just there, did you see anything?"

Riley let her eyes go out of focus and pictured the room again. "Uh, windows maybe. If they're not locked we might be able to get in through there."

Ellie gradually nodded. "Assuming one of them is open. We'll have to climb down the hole things."

"You're really getting into this."

"Maybe a little." They stared at each other for a second before they both bust out in a grin. "I can't help it! This is the only interesting thing I think I've ever done in this place. Beats the hell out of just sitting around waiting for nothing."

"Yeah…"

"Anyway, when do you want to head down there?"

"Why not tonight? Sneak out after curfew when it's pitch black out."

"Tonight it is."

Riley leaned up and cracked her back with a satisfying stretch. "Thanks for going along with this. I know it seems kind of…"

"It's cool. Like I said, it's better than nothing."

"And if there's nothing down there then I'll shut up and you can brag all you want."

"You know I will."