Thanks so much! Okay, we're almost to the end! Please read and review my other stories! I have a Life With Derek one as well as a Zoey 101 story. Currently working on Ned's Declassified too! If anyone has any requests for stories, let me know, because I will have a lot of writing time pretty soon because my vacation plans fell through. So three chaps after this, and it's done. Hope you enjoy it.
Nathan continued to help Jake along through the ventilation system. It kept getting dustier, dirtier, and bad smelling the farther they went.
"Okay, can you tell me now? I'm really getting sick of this, especially since I have no idea where we are going." Jake leaned up against the side, his head just grazing the top of the vents. Nathan stopped crawling.
"Well, my dad's a construction worker, and he brings home blue prints a lot. So I look at a few of them sometimes, and I realized that the one thing all the buildings have in common is the vent system. There is always a way out of a building through the ducts, as long as you know where you're going. Which is why I thought that if we can find the way out, we will end up on the roof."
"And why do we want to be on the roof?" Jake asked as he pulled a spider off of his jeans.
"All of these cabins are pretty close together. So if we can get on the roof, we can most likely jump across on to the next roof. I remember that the girls are in cabin six, which is two cabins to our left. All we have to do is jump two roofs, get into the girls' cabins' vent system, and find the opening down into their cabin. Then we can make more of a plan." Nathan finished, catching his breath.
"Wow, I have to say, I'm impressed," Jake said. "Well, I guess we should keep going then." He and Nathan both got back on their knees and started crawling farther. Nathan stopped suddenly, causing Jake to run into him.
"Sshh!" Nathan said quietly. "Do you hear that?" Jake strained to hear, but he didn't notice anything. Jake shook his head. Then, he heard a clanging noise. It was coming closer... getting louder. A brown head emerged from around the corner.
"Oliver?"
"Okay, this is so not good. I am completely starving!" Lilly said, throwing up her hands. "Does anybody have any food?" Nobody said anything. Lilly sighed, rolling over onto her stomach.
"Presenting: The new and improved, much more pretty, Renae Sanders!" Ashley called. She and Amber stepped out of the bunk room, making room for Renae to come out. Renae emerged slowly, as if she was a little unsure of her new look. Everyone turned to look. Sarah's jaw dropped. Renae's long, red, normally straight, hair was in loose curls, her finger nails were now soft pink instead of black. Amber and Ashley had redone her make up, now instead of the thick coat of black eyeliner and mascara, Renae's eyes were soft and subtle, with glittery eye shadow. She was also wearing what looked to be Amber and Ashley's clothes instead of her usual band t shirt and holey jeans, which looked a little small, considering she was at least four inches taller than them.
"So? What do you think?" Renae asked uncertainly. Everyone was staring in disbelief.
"Nae, you hate girly stuff like that. What did they do to you?" Sarah stared in awe.
"You look great, Renae," Miley said with a smile, hoping that she wouldn't think too much of what Sarah said.
"You brought all this stuff on a field trip?" Mrs. Davenport asked. Amber and Ashley nodded. "But you didn't bring any food?" The girls shook their heads in unison. Mrs. Davenport sighed and muttered what sounded to Miley like "Figures..."
"Hey guys..." Oliver said. He was sliding along the vents on his stomach, using his arms to pull him along because of his broken leg.
"Oliver, what are you doing here?" Jake stared at him with a look of somewhat hatred. He still hadn't gotten over the fact that Oliver had punched him.
"I was gonna come to the cabin and try to figure out a plan with you guys." Oliver said, coughing because of all the dust around him. "Where are you guys going?"
"Well, Mr. Corelli isn't much help, so we figured if we could get to the girls cabin it would be better," Nathan told him, ignoring the nasty looks Jake was giving Oliver. "How did you know about the air ducts? Is your dad a construction worker too?"
"Nope, I just watch too many action movies." Oliver grinned.
"Well, If you're coming with us, we better get started, because its starting to get cramped in here." Jake sayed in an annoyed tone of voice. So, Oliver turned back the way he came, leading Nathan and Jake to the roof. They climbed out the door on the ceiling and onto the snow covered roof.
"How did you get across in the first place?" Nathan asked as he looked around, searching for some way of getting across to the next cabin.
"Well, I didn't really know how to get across at first, but then I noticed that all the cabins have fire escapes on the back. So I just climbed up the little ladder thing to the next cabin." Oliver hopped on his good leg, leading them to back of the roof, where, sure enough, a wrought iron ladder lead down the side of the building. It looked as though if you were on a high enough step, you could reach the roof of the next building and swing yourself up.
As Nathan and Oliver started down the ladder, Jake stood at the top thinking. "Wait a minute, guys. Why waste our time going through the vent system if we can just take the ladders and jump the roofs all the way across?"
Oliver stopped and grinned. "Yeah, that would probably be faster."
"You are so slow, Oken." Jake said, shaking his head. But, in the back of his mind, he decided that Oliver was actually okay, and if he hadn't been there, he and Nathan might not have found a way to the girls cabin.
"Do you guys hear that?" Miley said suddenly, sitting up on the couch. Everyone looked up, listening for the sound. There was a distant yelling, and a faint knocking sound. Miley got up and went into the second bunk room. There was a noise coming from the ceiling, and Miley noticed that it was shaking a little. Oliver, Jake, and Nathan were knocking and shouting for someone to let them in. Miley pulled up the tile, and stepped aside so they could jump down.
"Suprise?" Jake said with a laugh as the three climbed in the room. The rest of the girls came in the room, all were definately suprised to see them.
"Oliver!" Lilly said, running up to him and throwing her arms around him.
"Hey, Lilly," he said, squeezing her tightly.
"How did you guys get here?" Miley asked as she put the tile back on.
"Long story," Jake said as he brushed dust off of himself. "It was Nathan's idea in the first place, but we met Oliver in the vents and--"
"Vents?" Lilly interrupted. She looked up at Oliver. "I didn't know that you even knew what vents were." Oliver smiled.
Mrs. Davenport asked if Mr. Corelli knew where they were, and when they said no, she freaked out. "You boys will most likely get in trouble for this! Leaving your cabin with out permission--"
"Mom!" Chloe said, putting her hands on her mother's shoulder to calm her down. "I honestly don't think Mr. Corelli is gonna care. I mean, we're snowed in a ski lodge."
After everyone had settled down, they all went back into the main room to think of a plan.
"If only we had a giant snow plow or something..." Ashley mumbled. The room fell silent.
"Ashley! You're a genius! Why didn't anybody think of this before?" Sarah jumped up. "We just have to call our parents, have them call a snow plow, and we'll be able to get out after the plow clears out the snow."
Everyone started to talk at once. People were laughing, cheering, hugging, until Miley whistled to get everyone's attention. "Guys! Our phones don't work, remember? How are we gonna get to call anyone?"
"You guys haven't found your landline yet?" Oliver asked. "Every cabin has one. That's how I called the guys cabin earlier today." Oliver pointed to the back of the room, where a telephone was sitting on a table. "I thought it was kinda obvious..."
K, kinda weird ending to this chap but I didn't really know how to finish it. I think this is the longest chap I have ever written! lol. Well, review please, and I'll have the last three chapters up soon, hopefully.