Hey everyone, sorry for the long wait. Got a bit of writers block plus I was busy with several ongoing video projects. As such, to make it easier on myself and to update more often, I've pre-written several random chapters and shortened them a bit to make them more manageable. Let me know if the shorter format works or if you'd rather I write the longer chapters. Anyways, enjoy the long awaited chapter.

Chapter 5: Secret Suspicions

"Well that took forever…seriously you couldn't have waited after lunch to break into his office? I'm starving!"

"Janey, shush!" Lisa looked nervously around the cafeteria, which was mostly deserted except for three students listening to their laptops at a far off table and two lunch ladies that were too deeply engrossed in their magazines to pay attention.

"Relax, no one's gonna hear us." Janey said casually as she grabbed a lunch tray. "Besides, the firefighters are too busy trying to fix the sprinklers in the gym."

After spending nearly an hour waiting outside in the parking lot, students were finally allowed back into the school after firefighters had finished putting out a small fire in the men's bathroom. Luckily there was no damage or injuries, just a lot of confusion and wasted rolls of toilet paper. Unfortunately, classes had to be cancelled due to some of the sprinklers malfunctioning, much to the joy of the students and to the chagrin of the staff. With everyone else heading back to their homes and dorms for the day, Lisa and Janey were able to meet privately back up in the cafeteria, which remained open and relatively dry.

"You know, there wouldn't have been a need for the firefighters to come if you had stuck to my original plan." Lisa said grabbing a lunch tray.

"Hey you try setting several rolls of toilet paper on fire and throwing it through a narrow window without burning your hands off!" Janey replied following after her.

"All I asked you to do was hold a lighter up to the smoke alarm! You didn't need to actually start a fire!" Lisa exclaimed, as she made her way to the salad bar and began piling lettuce onto a plate.

"Give me a break. I couldn't reach the alarm, even when I was standing on the toilet. Speaking of which, you owe me a new pair of sneakers!" Janey said gesturing to her wet, blue stained shoes which squished along as she walked over to the snack stand to grab a tuna sandwich along with a bag of chips.

"But why the men's room?"

"I did it to throw off suspicion. Now the teachers will think a guy did it. Pretty genius right?"

Lisa rolled her eyes and went to go grab a table. Janey followed soon after and the two sat by a window, being careful to stay out of any potential earshot.

"I'm just so nervous about this whole thing. I never did any rule breaking of this magnitude. And it's only my first week of school. This feels like something Bart would do…"

"Hey you got the flash drive right? No was hurt and no one was caught, meaning it was all worth it. So relax!" Janey said as she immediately dove into her tuna sandwich.

"Perhaps you're right…" Lisa sighed, digging a fork into her salad.

"Of coursh I ham." Janey said through a mouthful of sandwich.

"But now I have another problem to worry about. I told Prof. Sullivan that I wanted to apply for the assistant gardener position on Saturday. If I don't show up he might get suspicious."

"So come up with an excuse then." Janey asked, swallowing the tuna. "Say you came down with the flu or diarrhea or something."

"Eww, no." Lisa said in disgust.

"Fine, you think of something then." Janey said, swallowing another bite of her sandwich.

"Wait, I got it!" Lisa said, a light bulb going off in her brain. "How about I show up for the first day, let him show me what needs to be done, then say that I changed my mind and can't do it. There should be other students there to help him out so it won't matter if I say no. It's perfect!"

"How do you know there's going to be others?" Janey asked. "It's not like he's holding auditions for 'So You Want to Dance with a Millionaire.' Gardening's not exactly the most fun or glamorous of after school activities."

"Well…then I'll find some people who would be interested." Lisa said with determination. "How about it Janey? It'll just be for this Saturday until we find someone more suited-"

"Sorry Lise," Janey said shaking her head as she put down her sandwich. "No can do."

"What? Why not?" Lisa asked.

"For three reasons." Janey counted off. "One, I plan on joining the fashion arts and crafts club which meets on Saturdays. Two, I just nearly set a whole bathroom on fire trying to help you out, so forgive me if I'm a little apprehensive about helping you now. And three, you seem to have forgotten that I hate vegetables."

"You wouldn't need to eat them, just learn how to take care of them for one day." Lisa explained.

"Sorry Lise but I'm putting my foot down this time." Janey said crossing her arms. "I can't even stand looking at vegetables, much less faking an interest in wanting to actually grow them."

"Well that's a shame." Lisa said sticking her fork into her salad. "Because you could really benefit from the crisp, refreshing taste of a veggie or two."

She then ate a mouthful of salad and immediately spat it out. "Oh GROSS! Ugh, this salad taste like Saran wrap!"

"That's probably cause there's some in it." Janey said, picking out a piece of the clear flimsy plastic.

"Oh yuck, it's mixed in with all this wilted lettuce!" Lisa exclaimed dropping her fork and picking through the salad. "And look at the state of these other vegetables! There tomatoes are rotten, the carrots are dried out and the mushrooms are growing mushrooms!"

"So much for crisp and refreshing…"Janey said looking at the unappetizing piece of mushroom with three tiny heads growing out the two large heads protruding from its stalk.

"I'm getting to the bottom of this!" Lisa said getting up and going to the register where the cashier had her back turned.

"Excuse me but I have to talk to- Nurse Gale?"

"Oh hello there Lisa." Nurse Gale said as she clipped a name tag onto her shirt. "Fancy seeing you here. How's the noggin? Better I presume?"

"Yes, very much so." Lisa said, looking at her with confusion. "Forgive me but I thought you were the school nurse?"

"Oh I am. And a lunch lady." She said putting on a hairnet. "I get two paychecks this way."

"I see." Lisa said uneasily. "Listen I hate to bother you, but I need to voice my outrage to someone over this horrendously kept salad bar. Everything is either dried out or rotten and I'm sure violates several health codes."

"Sorry Lisa but having freshly kept vegetables is more of a luxury then a mandate for us." Nurse Gale explained. "Such a shame considering how much healthier it would be for the students. Alas, the school can't find it in the budget to have the trucks deliver the fresh stuff on a weekly basis, but since we're required to have a vegetarian option, we get one produce truck that delivers every other week. If I were you, I'd only eat here on the second and fourth Tuesday every month for the actual fresh stuff."

"But what am I to eat on the other days? Everything else here has meat or some meat like substance added into it." Lisa protested.

"Well we got vending machines. And these peanut butter and jelly sandwiches." Nurse Gale said holding up a tightly wrapped sandwich. "I'll give you this one free of charge, seeing how your salad was less then edible."

Lisa reluctantly took the sandwich, which looked about as appetizing as the three headed mushroom. "Thanks…I guess I'll learn to live off this for the next couple of months."

Lisa then returned to her seat, annoyed and angry at having her meal options once again limited. It was like being back at Springfield Elementary all over again.

"Cheer up Lise, I'm sure there's other restaurants and stores nearby you can buy food from aren't a half hour drive from campus." Janey said, digging into her chips. "Worst case scenario, you can work for Prof. Sullivan and have him pay you in carrots."

"Haha, very funny." Lisa sneered, taking a moment to stare at her sandwich before unwrapping it and taking a very hesitant bite. She immediately recoiled and had to force herself to swallow it. She then quickly grabbed a water bottle and immediately chugged it down to get the horrid taste out of her mouth.

"And on that note, I think I'll be living off vending machines for a while…got any change for a ten?"

Just then, an alarm went off followed by the sprinkler system.

"Not again!" Janey cried out as she and Lisa raced out of the cafeteria along with the other students and cafeteria staff, trying to dodge the downpour. Two firefighters appeared at the entrance, glancing up at the malfunctioning sprinklers which began emitting sparks and burst into flames.

"I told you not to cut the blue wire!" said one firefighter, slapping the other upside his head.

The rest of the school week continued to go by horribly for Lisa. Not only was her diet now restricted by what she could afford at the vending machines, but her school career was already off to a bad start as well. Her new school books, which she had to order second hand through the school website, had still not arrived and were causing her to fall slightly behind on her homework. This gave Prof. Cantwell, who was always looking for ways to humiliate Lisa, a chance to single her out and use her as an example of 'poor planning and work ethics'.

"But I didn't know I was going to this school till last week!" Lisa protested.

"Well that's what you get for not assuming things ahead of time!" Prof. Cantwell snapped as she stamped a big zero onto her essay sheet.

Then, presumably just to spite Lisa, she assigned a paper on the first four chapters of the book due the following week. Things were made worse by the fact that Janey, who wasn't as quick a study as Lisa, had dropped Cantwell's class in favor of another easier course and had already sold her book by the time Lisa found out hers wouldn't be arriving on time. Her other professors were more understanding of her situation but refuse to change the due dates on their assignments and instead told her to just borrow study material from her fellow classmates. Unfortunately, many of them were less then helpful and mostly avoided Lisa based on rumors spread by Fredrick, who continued to straddle the line between bulling her and hitting on her, neither of which she welcomed.

"Think I liked you better when you were shouting nonsense at the teacher." Fredrick scoffed, knocking Lisa's papers to the ground after she rejected his lunch date offer for the third time that week.

Ironically, the only class in which she didn't have to worry was Bob's, as he didn't believe in assigning homework on the first week and provided his own reading material which he allowed the class to copy from. Yet while she was thankful for him not adding to her growing workload, Lisa couldn't help but feel uneasy whenever she sat at her desk, as she would occasionally catch him glancing in her direction, as if he were expecting her to jump up and shout again.

Unfortunately, since most of the students still thought her to be crazy, Lisa had no luck in convincing others to try out for the assistant gardener position and was now dreading the prospect that she'd have to spend Saturday alone with Bob. She thought of using her overabundance of homework as an excuse but doubted that he would believe that she, of all people, had managed to fall behind on her studies.

As Lisa poured worriedly over her poetry book, Bob glanced up her from his desk, trying to remain as inconspicuous as he could while grading papers. Turns out he was indeed watching Lisa but for different reasons. Since catching her outside his office on the day of the fire alarm, Bob had become highly suspicious of Lisa and was convinced she had tried to sneak in and steal the flash drive from him. Unfortunately he had no way of proving it, as the door had been locked when he arrived and the flash drive was still in its secret hiding spot, along with the audio files which still remained on his powered down computer. Nothing else was missing from his office that he knew of and he couldn't even check school security cameras as all the hallway cameras conveniently faced away from his door.

His suspicions were raised further when Lisa had volunteered for the assistant gardener position, as he knew that under normal circumstances, she wouldn't want to work anywhere near him. With no other students inquiring about the job, the thought of having to spend Saturday alone with Lisa filled Bob with extreme paranoia and the fear that she would unearth more hidden secrets about his past and current life. With that in mind, Bob decided to take drastic measures to ensure that wouldn't happen.

"Class before you head out, a quick announcement if I may." Bob declared standing up from his desk. "I just wanted to let those who planned on coming to the greenhouse this Saturday know that the meet up has been cancelled, as I have found someone to take over the gardening position. My apologies to those who may have had to cancel their plans to attend but do know that your interest was very much appreciated."

Bob looked around at the students, most of whom had no reaction whatsoever to this news and glanced over at Lisa, who seemed to have a strange mix of surprise and happiness on her face. His attention then immediately turned to Fredrick who was letting out obnoxiously fake cries of sadness.

"Oh noes! Gardening doody is cancelled!?" Fredrick cried out dramatically. "And I was SOO looking forward to playing in the dirty and planting pink posies with you professor! Whatever shall I do with my Saturdays now I wonder?"

"Hopefully work on your public speaking Fredrick, as your grammar and diction need much work." Bob retorted resulting in a small snickering from the class.

"Pff, whatever. Gardening's lame anyways." Fredrick scoffed as the bell rang, signaling the end of class.

As the class got up to leave, Lisa found herself breathing a sigh of relief. What luck that Bob had managed to find someone last minute to fill the position so she wouldn't have to worry about showing up. Finally, something in this horrible week had gone right for her.

"Please stop by my desk on your way out to receive your grades." Bob called out as students herded over to him to receive their graded poems.

Slinging her backpack over one shoulder, Lisa was the last in line to receive her poem, which of course had a one hundred percent grading at the top.

"Very nice job Lisa." Bob remarked handing over her paper. "Your poem on the subject of feeling trapped was quite exhilarating. That tall, lurking, knife-wielding monster you described truly gave me the shivers. May I ask what your inspiration was?"

"Oh, umm…let's just say personal experience…" Lisa said awkwardly putting away her paper. "So you got someone to help you with the garden then? That worked out pretty well for you."

"Oh yes, I got a call a few days ago from, uh…an old colleague of mine who has some gardening experience and said he would help in his spare time." Bob said, thinking quickly.

"Such a shame though, I was really looking forward to working in the garden with you." Lisa said, lying blatantly through her teeth. "Guess I'll just use the extra time to catch up on homework then."

"Well if you ever want to come and look around sometime, don't let me stop you." Bob said, trying to stay casual despite his insincerity. "The garden is open to the school after all. But please, don't let it distract you from your homework. School does come first after all."

"Oh I wouldn't dream of it." Lisa responded before a thought crossed her mind. "But I am curious though, if your friend called you a few days ago, why are you only cancelling the meet-up now. Won't it be a pain for you to take down all those flyers and inform all the students in your other classes about the cancellation? I mean the date is tomorrow after all-"

"My goodness, look at the time!" Bob said getting up quickly as he hastily began packing his briefcase. "I just remembered that I have a…a thing to get to so I really much be going. Why don't you run along now before you miss your lunch period?"

"Lunch period? Oh that's right!" Lisa said checking her phone. "I have a book I need to pick up! Gotta go, bye Professor!"

As Lisa raced out of the room, Bob quickly closed the door behind her and let out a sigh in relief. He had done it. He had come up with an excuse to get rid of Lisa. True it wasn't the best excuse and she nearly caught him lying about it, but at least now he wouldn't have to worry about her constant presence lingering over him. As far as anyone outside of Lisa's class knew, the tryouts were still on. Now if only one of his students from his other classes would show up on Saturday, he'd have one less thing to worry about. With any luck, by the beginning of next week, he'd finally have a new assistant to rely on.

Later that evening, Lisa returned to her dorm and immediately set to work on her homework, as she had finally gotten one of her new books in and was determined to catch up on one of her subjects by the end of the night. She worked diligently yet quickly as she wanted to make sure there was some free time left before Janey came back from her new night class. As the class was three hours long, this gave Lisa plenty of time to do what needed to be done.

"Finally, I'm all caught up with my Literary Theory homework." After over an hour had past, Lisa finally closed her new book and stored ten freshly written essays within her homework folder. "Let's see Cantwell try to fail me now."

Once all her work was packed away, Lisa reached into her purse and pulled out the flash drive she took from Bob's office. Because Janey was always hanging around, Lisa had been putting off listing to the recording on the device as she didn't want her overhearing Bob talking about his secret identity and thus risking her personal safety. She also didn't feel safe listing to it anywhere else on campus less she be overheard, particularly by Bob, and instead waited for the right moment to examine the device she had risked so much for.

"Alright, time to erase all the evidence." Lisa then inserted the flash drive into her laptop and clicked to begin uploading. However, instead of a list of folders, a black box appeared with the word 'Password'.

"What? Bob put a password on his flash drive?" Lisa said in surprise. "That's…actually really good thinking."

Lisa then started entering different passwords, including words like 'theater', 'musical', 'Pinafore', 'Hammerstein' as well as several variations on the words 'murder' 'crime' and' kill'. But nothing worked. Finally Lisa resorted to going on the internet to figure out to hack the drive. Unfortunately the closest thing she was able to find was how to reveal password hints. Typing in the shortcut code, Lisa was able to reveal the hint which simple read 'Favorite flower'.

"Flower? But there's at least four hundred thousand different species!" Lisa exclaimed. "How can I figure out which one Bob likes?"

She at first started racking her brain, trying to remember if Bob ever mentioned naming his favorite flower during any of their past encounter. When nothing came to mind, Lisa decided to wing it and immediately set to work, typing in every flower type she knew and then some, but none of them were accepted. After her seventy eighth attempt, she heard the door knob turn and quickly closed her laptop.

"Oh good you're here." Janey said throwing her backpack onto her bed. "Can you help me with this math homework? My professor wants me to explain and present an example of the Pythagorean Theory."

"Uh yes, sure thing." Lisa said, quickly putting aside her laptop as she went over to help Janey. "So which part is giving you trouble?"

"Um…all of it." Janey said uneasily. Lisa let out a sigh and went to work on showing her the formula.

After spending nearly an hour and a half on homework, Janey finally packed it up and went into the bathroom to prepare for bedtime, allowing Lisa to go back to her laptop.

Starring at the box still containing the word 'Password', Lisa came to the conclusion that the only way she'd be able to figure out the real password was for her to inspect the garden Bob kept and see if any clues lied there. She remembered him mentioning that the garden was free to the public and that she could visit anytime and with the Saturday meet up cancelled, it would be the perfect time for her to inspect without anyone noticing. With that in mind, Lisa went back to browsing the internet, intending to brush up on her gardening skills and knowledge, with the hope that she'd be able to spot the mysterious flower and the key to getting rid of the evidence that lingered over her once and for all.

Next chapter to come real soon! Stay tuned!