Private had to miss a couple of days of school, but it was fine as long as he got better.
The thing they were all looking forward to was Spring Break. Signups for the camping locations started a week after Barry's birthday. PARK B immediately signed up to go camping at Franklin Lake. Ramona was happy because she had tricked one of their classmates into signing up for a different camp. That specific classmate had been flirting with her nonstop much to Barry's displeasure.
"Let me at 'em!" Barry grumbled.
Private shook his head, keeping a firm grip Barry's arm. Allie had the other arm.
"Beating Terrence up won't do you any good." Private said.
"On the contrary, it will get you kicked off the trip." Allie said.
Barry froze. "They can do that?"
"Haven't you heard of little Mikey Cramer and Jimmy Randall?" Ramona asked.
The boys looked puzzled.
"You can't tell me you haven't heard of them!" Ramona gasped. "Jimmy Randall, He was the biggest reason they put those rules up in the first place. The whole elementary school heard about it. It was the biggest talked about event for two whole years!"
"Yeah, I was only seven and we understood everything! Someone's older sibling told them what happened and soon the whole school knew." Allie said.
Barry shook his head. "I started coming here when I was nine years old." He said.
"And I came at the second semester of fourth grade." Kenny said.
"Obviously this is my first year here." Private said.
"Oh darn, I forgot." Ramona said. "Private, I understand, but I forgot you two weren't even here yet."
"Any references went over my head." Barry said. "I heard their names, but no one bothered to explain it to me and you two weren't my friends until Kenny came."
"Sorry." Allie said. "But we'll explain it to you."
"Do we even remember?" Ramona asked.
Allie blinked. "Uh…actually, I don't really remember the details."
"Was anyone here five years ago?"
"The seniors were." Allie said thoughtfully. "Come to think of it, they were a year ahead-WAIT A MINUTE! Rocky and Rikki were twelve!" She squealed happily. "Even if Rikki didn't see it, she was bound to have known what ha-what?"
Private was shaking his head. "Rikki came here two years ago."
"Rocky told me she missed the incident." Kenny said. "And she hadn't gone to school for a couple of days before the trip because her mom and Skipper just moved back and they were homeschooled until they enrolled in this school."
I wonder if it has anything to do with the Denmark incident. Private thought.
"Anyone who knows exactly what happened is either a junior, senior, or graduated." Barry said.
"Or a teacher." Kenny said.
"We should ask Gloria, she's nice and she's a senior!" Allie said.
…
PARK B approached Gloria in early April. She was sitting with a group of friends at the lunch table.
"Er. Hello." Private said.
The seniors looked up, causing the sixth graders to become nervous. These seniors were nicer than the ones Private had first encountered. He could tell because none of them were scowling. The six of them looked rather curious.
"Don't worry, we don't bite." Alex said, grinning widely.
"Er. We wanted to ask if you could recall the story of Mikey Cramer and Jimmy Randall." Private said. "You see, these two don't remember the details and I wasn't here. Barry and Kenny hadn't been in the same elementary school at the time."
The seniors looked surprised.
"Five years ago." Marty said, scratching his head. "Gee, that takes me back."
"Yeah, we can recall that story pretty well." Alex said with the shake of his head. "Well, the parts we know."
"There's a lot we don't know." Another boy said. "My name's Ted." He smiled at the sixth graders.
"I-I don't know." Melman said nervously. "I'd rather not remember that."
"Don't be a scaredy cat!" Alex said.
"I don't really want to remember that either." The girl next to Gloria said. "I'm Shelly."
"First, you have to understand that none of the juniors want to talk about it." Gloria said. "I think Roy and Burt might know, but they both refuse to talk about what happened to this very day. Also, don't ask the teachers because you won't get anything out of them."
"So what happened? Did they start a fight?" Barry asked.
"Sort of." Marty said. "Help me on this, please." The other seniors nodded.
"Well, it goes like this…"
FLASHBACK
Alex and Marty had been playing basketball against Shelly and Gloria. Melman was watching and keeping score.
"Come on! That's the fifth time you missed a shot!" Gloria said. "Can't you do better?"
"Don't patronize me!" Marty whined with a smile. "I wanted to be a tennis player!"
"Yeah yeah, keep talking." Gloria teased.
Marty stuck his tongue out at her and then pointed behind her.
Alex cheered as he made a basket. "Oh yeah! I am awesome!" He and Marty high-fived and cheered loudly.
"Melman, don't add that point! It wasn't fair!" Shelly complained.
Melman started to erase the point.
"No, it was totally fair."Marty said. "Don't erase it!"Melman stopped erasing.
"GUYS!"
They turned to see Ted running towards them. He took a deep breath.
"You have to see this!" he said.
The five of them followed Ted as fast as they could. A crowd had gathered near one of the bathrooms where several police officers, firefighters and maintenance crews were going in and out of the boys' restroom.
A small scuffle was happening as a boy was resisting apprehension by authorities.
"Ted, what's going on?" Gloria asked.
"Jimmy Randall was mad at Mikey Cramer and they started a fight." Ted explained. "Poor Mikey is in the bathroom, but no one knows what's going on."
"I'M NOT TELLING!" Jimmy Randall yelled.
"Mr. Randall, please calm down!" An officer yelled, trying to lead the boy away.
Marty and Alex snuck their way to the front and attempted to enter the bathroom.
"Hey, you kids!" An officer said, pulling the boys away by the collars. "Stay out of there."
"But we want to know what's going on!" Marty said.
"None of your business, kid."The officer said.
"But Mikey's a fellow kid." Alex said. "We deserve to know what happened to our fellow middle schoolmate."
The school PA system squealed before a voice spoke. "Students, please return to your classrooms immediately. Further explanation will be provided later." The Principal said.
"But what about Mikey?" Gloria asked.
The others shrugged.
…
They sat in their last class of the day when another announcement came on.
"Hello students, this is your principal speaking."
The students, who ordinarily listened only out of politeness, were rapt with attention.
"Earlier this afternoon, we received word of a fight breaking out. One of the students has been suspended pending investigation. Rest assured that the other student is alive. He is currently in the hospital with several non life threatening injuries. He is, however, very traumatized and is unlikely to return to the school for the rest of the year. We are not quite sure how this started, but I have been told that it was over the sixth grade trip. I am adding a new rule so nothing like this may happen again. This rule will apply to seventh grade through twelfth as well. Let me make myself clear. If ANYONE starts a fight regardless of age, grade, or 'reason', their consequences will be severe. I am not merely suggesting detention. Fighting is strictly prohibited and we have been taking it loosely for too long. Anyone caught fighting will be put in immediate suspension and if we have reason to believe it may have gone too far, then expulsion will occur. Zero tolerance means ZERO tolerance. Nothing like this is to happen again. I hope I have made myself clear. You may pass this message on to the younger kids so that they may learn from this mistake and avoid repetition. Fighting is not allowed at this school and you would do best to remember this."
END FLASHBACK
"Their names were all over the school." Gloria said.
"Unfortunately some people forgot." Shelly sighed. "Poor Rico."
"I was so sure they'd remember that fighting was wrong." Alex said. "That announcement scared me so bad."
Ted shuddered. "Me too. We're not sure what happened, though."
"Someone said they saw them fighting, but it had looked like it was no big deal when Mikey walked away into the bathroom. Unfortunately, Jimmy found him." Marty said. "We weren't allowed to go in that bathroom for the rest of the day. Apparently, they had to take a toilet out because that stall was blocked off for a week until they got a new one."
"I heard they had to break it." Melman said. "But that might have been a rumor because I also heard that Mikey had been thrown into the sewer grate and they were trying to get him out."
"Those things are too small." Private said. "Then what happened?"
"Jimmy was expelled and Mikey came back for one more year." Shelly said. "Mikey tried to finish seventh grade, but ended up transferring after the first semester. He couldn't take the questions anymore. He was a wreck and constantly paranoid. I think that at one point he asked for an older kid to keep him protected. I think he asked the new kid and Skipper's brother, Brian."
"You knew Skipper's brother?" Private asked.
"Yeah, they came after the incident. Rocky hadn't been aware of the trip and she was too late to sign up so she hung out with us seventh graders." Gloria said. "We knew them when Toby, Brian, Rocky, and Skipper all attended."
"Wow, you almost got the whole family." Private said.
"Who was the new kid?" Kenny asked.
"Someone named Jackie. She came in as a freshman." Alex shrugged. "She didn't really talk much, but I guess she was a good enough body guard to keep the kids away from Mikey."
"Wow, she must be scary." Ramona said.
"Don't judge." Barry snapped. "You don't know anyone's back-story. You weren't there."
"Sorry." Ramona said. "Why are you all offended? It's not like you were there either."
"No reason." He muttered. "I need to ask my Science teacher something." He walked away before they could ask any more questions.
"Is he connected with this Jackie girl?" Allie asked.
"I don't know." Marty said. "I heard there was an incident involving her about a year after Mikey left, but I don't really remember it. It wasn't as widely talked about as Mikey and Jimmy."
"She was kind of avoided like Rico was." Gloria said. "I was nice though, but I think I was too energetic and she was a little put off."
"I feel bad that I took in all the rumors and avoided her." Shelly said glumly. "But she was Prom queen." She added as if that helped.
"I wonder where she is now." Allie said.
The seniors shrugged.
"Thanks for talking with us." Private said.
The seniors smiled and continued their chat.
"Is Jackie Barry's sister?" Ramona asked.
Private shook his head. "Her name is Alexis." He said. "I have no idea who Jackie is."
"I didn't even know her name." Allie said. "We're getting one step closer to solving the mystery of Barry."
Private rolled his eyes and Kenny snickered.
"Barry's not that big of a mystery." Ramona said.
"He is if he's keeping a secret." Allie said. "Don't worry, I won't talk about it." She added to Private's expression.
…
Barry refused to explain what happened and instead turned the chat into the upcoming trip. He promised he wouldn't start a fight. He really didn't want to be kicked off the trip.
…
The teens were having different deals. The high school Spring Formal was the Friday before Spring break and they were once again frantic for dates.
Kowalski decided not to go to the Spring Formal and was not being swayed this time. He said he had enough with the Halloween the Valentine's dances and didn't want a repeat. Rico agreed and decided that the two of them would just stay at the apartments and hang out. Rico had found a television show about shirtless ninjas and Kowalski said he thought it was fascinating. They also said they'd spend the night practicing martial arts. Rico had taken one class when he was little, but he couldn't afford the rest of the lessons so his friend Alan taught him everything.
Skipper was acting odd in the opinions of basically everyone who knew him. He would hardly speak to his roommates and hadn't said anything about missions. Kowalski diagnosed him with lovesickness. The leader didn't refuse that statement. He and Kitka had been hanging out a lot. Rocky was astonished to learn that they hadn't kissed yet.
Kowalski admitted he hadn't had a first kiss either.
Rocky said she had a kiss, but she didn't want to talk about it.
The fact that Skipper and Kitka were going out seemed to be what the entire ninth grade talked about as if there was no other subject.
Private hadn't actually met Kitka so he had no opinion except that Skipper was spending too much time with her and not enough with anything else. His schoolwork had been slipping a little and he stopped waking his team up early. As a tutor, Marlene was the one who usually tried to keep Skipper on top of homework but she was avoiding Skipper and refused to explain why. It fell on Kowalski, the second in command, to wake the team early and keep everything in top shape.
The other agents were wondering what happened to Skipper, but Kowalski kept his teammate's love life secret. The agents told the boys to lay low and they were looking into a possible mission that would happen at the end of the school year. They told Kowalski that the incident was directed towards another agent.
"They have other agents at the school?" Kowalski asked. "Who?" He was in HQ with Rico and Private. The big screen showed a dark room.
"Sorry, Agent Taro." A shadowed agent said. "We like to keep the identities of our agents secret. You understand, right? It's not that we don't trust you; it's to keep information from getting into the hands of the enemy in case they are listening. This also explains why you see me in shadow."
"I understand, Agent Simms." Kowalski said.
"Taro, how do you feel about Africa?"
Kowalski blinked. "Uh, I guess it's pretty cool. They have elephants." Kowalski said lamely.
Agent Simms laughed. Rico snickered.
"That they do, Taro." Simms said. "We were thinking about a recon mission for you four in Africa."
"That sounds fun. What's recon?" Private asked.
"Recon is short for reconnaissance which is the observation, and information obtained, about a specified location and the area around it. It's basically an inspection or exploration of an area." Kowalski explained.
"You want us to explore the entire continent?" Private asked.
"No, just a small spot. There have been several hidden villages across the world to hide victims of Blowhole." Simms said. "The one village in Africa has been quiet and we want to make sure they're still okay."
"What exactly has Blowhole done?" Private asked nervously.
"I won't go into details because I don't want to scar you, kid." Simms said. "But basically he's committed several crimes both nationally and internationally. He's threatened the safety of several world leaders, torn apart and killed many families and almost stole a bunch of nuclear weapons with the capability of taking out entire countries."
Private's jaw dropped.
"How is it that he hasn't been caught?" Kowalski asked.
"He's slippery. He has more ways of getting out of jams than we can count. We tried imprisoning him, but he disappeared off the map and the charges were dropped when he returned. This has happened several times." Simms said.
"Gee, I'd hate to be his parent." Kowalski said. "Are they in protection?"
"Blowhole doesn't have a mother and his sister and father are in protection." Simms said.
"Can you tell us-?"
"No, Agent Davis." Simms said. "That is strictly confidential. If you do find out, I suggest keeping it to yourself unless you find valuable information. I must go now. Good luck with your leader situation."
The three boys saluted as the screen shut off.
"I wonder if that guy was after a teacher." Private said. "Is Coach Forrest an agent on our side?"
"That seems quite likely." Kowalski said. "So, we might have a mission but our leader is who knows where…"
The boys sighed.
"We need Skipper back." Private said.
"Hey, you focus on getting ready for your trip and we'll see what we can do about Skipper."
Private nodded.
The entire week, his mother had been calling him to remind him to bring items or to make sure he knows where the bathrooms are…etc.
He had been driven to near insanity with her.
…
Friday night, he was in Barry and Kenny's room going over the list of things they'd need. Leonard, being in tenth grade, was already gone for the holiday. Izzy was going to leave in the morning so he decided to help the boys with the things they needed to get done. Of course, they weren't actually leaving until Sunday but it was best to be prepared and they'd have Izzy helping them while Kowalski and Rico took a day off from helping.
"Bug spray?" Izzy asked.
"Got it." Barry said.
"Affirmative." Private said.
"Check." Kenny said.
"Sufficient amount of clothing?"
"Good enough."
"Looks good to me."
"I guess."
"Enough clean underwear?"
"How much is enough?"
"Put more in."
"You definitely need it."
"Liquid shampoo and body wash?"
"Yeah, I wanna smell fresh for the ladies…or the bears…I was kidding, Kenny, there are no bears."
"Have enough for daily showers."
"I'm good."
"Flashlight?"
"Yeperdoodle."
"I brought extra batteries just in case."
"…I don't have a flashlight."
"Not to worry, roomie, you can borrow mine!" Izzy said. He went into his room and came out with a flashlight. "I'm sure I won't need it for a week."
"Thanks." Kenny said.
"No problem, buddy."
"I brought my camera so we can record our adventures!" Barry announced. He took out a camera. "Allie's bringing a video camera so we can actually take pretty cool videos." He grinned and took a picture of Private and Kenny with their suitcases.
"We leave Sunday morning; gee I wonder how long we're staying." Private said.
"We come back next Sunday afternoon." Barry said. "It's literally a weeklong trip."
"Awesome!" Private and Kenny cheered.
"You all have sleeping bags, right?"
"Mine has rips in it, but it should be fine." Kenny said. "Bradley let me use his."
"Mine's a hand-me-down." Barry said. "It's old but useful."
"Kenny, I notice you have a lot of borrowed things." Izzy said.
Kenny turned pink. "I wasn't prepared." He mumbled.
"Even though we've been talking about it since you became my friend?" Barry asked.
"Sorry."
"Eh, forget about it!" Barry said, swinging an arm around Private and Kenny. "Just think about the awesome adventures we have ahead."
…
Meanwhile, the Spring Formal was going well. It went better than the Valentine's dance anyway. Skipper and Kitka were dancing; he became lost in her eyes.
Doris looked at her handiwork with pride. She wanted to talk about it to Marlene, but the brunette had been avoiding her too.
"Something's off." Rocky commented.
"What do you mean?" Doris asked. "Just last week you were telling me that you were happy that your brother finally had a girlfriend."
"Yeah, but have you noticed she doesn't hang around at the places he normally goes to? She doesn't stop by the apartments. I wonder what's going on." Rocky looked at the girl skeptically. "Something is definitely not right about her."
Doris sighed. "You're looking too far into it. Oh, my date came back with the punch, got to go!"
Kitka excused herself to the restroom while Skipper went to the food table. Rocky approached him.
"Hey bro! Might I say you look exceptionally like a booger tonight?"
Skipper smiled goofily as he looked at his sister. "Hello, sister. Lovely night, isn't it?"
"Yeah it will be as soon as you come back to Earth." Rocky muttered.
"Yeah sure…" Skipper sighed.
"Oy…Skipper, why is it that Kitka hasn't met your friends? You've been dating for about two months and you haven't introduced her to me or Rico or Private or anyone else."
"Sorry, my lovely sister. Would you like me to?" Skipper asked.
"Yes, little brother, I would like to know more about this Kitka. For example, how many kids does she want?"
Skipper flushed. "I-I don't think that's-"
"Does she WANT kids? Does she LIKE kids? What does she like? Why does she like you? What's her favorite food? What would your wedding look li-"
"ROCKY!" Skipper said loudly, causing people to stare. "Just leave me alone." He grumbled, walking away from her.
"What was that about?" Kitka asked.
"Just my sister." Skipper huffed. "She can be annoying sometimes."
"Oh."
…
The night rounded off evenly with no incident. Rocky was still glaring at the back of Skipper as they left.
"So, Kitka, can I introduce you to my friends?"
"Why certainly!" Kitka said with a smile. "I've been wondering when you'd ask."
"First, I'd like to introduce my lovely sister." He turned around promptly, causing Rocky to change her expression into shock. "Rocky, this is Kitka. Kitka, this is my big sister Rocky."
"Nice to meet you." Kitka said, extending a hand.
Rocky hesitated, but put on a grin and shook the other girl's hand. She thought she had seen relief cross the girl's face, but couldn't figure out why.
"Nice to meet you too." Rocky said.
"What grade are you in?"
"Eleventh." Why the heck should that matter? Rocky thought.
"I'm sure my roommates are still up if you want to meet them." Skipper said as they entered the building.
"Sure. I'll wait out here." Kitka said. She sat in the lobby chair.
Skipper nodded and headed up the elevator.
A few minutes later, Skipper texted saying that it was okay for her to come up and that his roommate had two friends who were going to come over for a few minutes. Kitka smiled and waited for the elevator.
Rocky, who had been talking with another student, headed towards the elevator as well.
"And THEN a giant hotdog eated the ice cream!" Mort said as he came from the laundry room, carrying a basket of clothes.
"You have the weirdest dreams." Ramona's voice called out.
Eggy, who had been helping Ramona with a load of laundry, shook his head. Fred followed behind, looking bored. All three younger boys had small loads of Ramona's laundry.
"That's fascinating." Fred said in a monotone.
Kitka boarded the elevator with Rocky.
Ramona, carrying her heavy load, grunted as she carried it. "Hey, Rocky, hold the elevator."
Rocky complied, sticking a hand out to cause the door to open.
"Thanks." Ramona said. She and her brother entered the elevator, followed by Mort and Fred.
Rocky thought she saw Kitka's eyes widen at the sight of Ramona and the elementary kids.
"Hi!" Ramona said. "I haven't seen you around. I'm Ramona." She smiled. "I would shake your hand, but mine are full of laundry."
"Oh, how…delightful?"
"I'm Eggy!" Eggy said. "Hey, aren't you dating Skipper?"
"Yes, she is." Rocky answered.
Mort held up the laundry. "The hotdog commands you to sniff your approval of clean shorts!" He said.
Ramona and Eggy snickered. Rocky looked half amused.
"You keep hotdog in your shorts?" Kitka asked, sounding disgusted.
"No, but one time I keeped a yummy mango in there…it got yucky."
"Gross!" Kitka backed up slightly.
"Mort, you should write a book about all the things you do so that we may avoid doing those things." Ramona said. "And those are my pants."
"I don't get it." Mort said.
"This is our floor." Ramona said. "Nice to meet you, Kitka."
"Bye!" Mort chirped.
"Right…" Kitka said.
"I thought it was the elevator floor." Fred said.
Eggy rolled his eyes and dragged Fred off.
"Hey Barry!" Ramona said.
"Hi!" Barry said as he ran into the elevator. "HA! I win! Take that, you slowpokes!"
"You didn't give us a warning!" Private complained. He and Kenny joined their hyper friend on the elevator.
"Hey Rocky, how's it going?" Kenny asked.
"Good, I guess. This is Kitka, Skipper's girlfriend." Rocky said.
"Oh, hello." Private said. "It's very nice to meet you."
"Yeah." Kitka said in the same tone she said 'right'.
"I'm Barry!" Barry said. "This is Kenny, he likes pancakes."
"With whipped cream." Kenny said. Private and Rocky laughed.
"I don't like pancakes." Kitka said.
Barry gasped and clutched his heart. "I-I did not hear that…I couldn't have…please tell me it ain't so! Are you allergic?"
"No."
"Are you vegan?"
"No." Kitka started to sound annoyed.
"But why don't you like pancakes?"
"None of your business." She said. She swiftly exited as the elevator doors opened.
Rocky's phone went off and she looked at her messages. "Oh, Rikki needs something, I'm afraid I'll have to leave you." Kitka gave a short nod.
Kitka knocked on Skipper's door and put on a smile as he opened it.
"Hey, Kitka!" Skipper said. "Come on in, my third roommate should be here soon. Kowalski! Rico!"
I hope he isn't like those urchins. Kitka thought.
The two taller boys came out.
"Hey, I've seen you before." Kowalski said. "I met you, but didn't really get to talk to you. My name's Kowalski. This is Rico, he doesn't talk much."
Rico grinned.
"Hello, I'm Kitka."
Before the boys could respond, the door opened.
"I mean, really! Not liking pancakes without reason? What is this world co-" Barry froze as he spotted Kitka. "Hello."
Private and Kenny looked at the others questioningly.
Skipper put an arm around Private. "This is young Private, our newest friend and Kowalski's roommate."
Kitka's jaw dropped, but she quickly picked it back up. Skipper didn't notice, but everyone else in the room did.
"Hello again. We met in the elevator." Private said.
"What is with you and meeting girls in the elevator?" Kowalski said, trying to find humor in the situation.
Barry and Kenny gave forced laughs and Private mustered a grin.
"I just realized, I should double check my bag again." Barry said. "Let's go, Kenny."
He and Kenny exited the room.
Private kept a smile on his face, but couldn't help but feeling that Kitka wasn't too chuffed about him being Skipper's roommate.
"I'm going to check mine too." Private said. He hurried into his room.
Kowalski followed suit, muttering something about homework.
Rico pretended to be receiving a phone call and followed the other two into their room.
…
"Something's not right about her." Kowalski said. "I got a message from Rocky about a minute ago." He showed them the text. "I'll text her back."
Rocky: Hey, something's off with 'Miss Perfect'
Kowalski: What did you notice?
Rocky: Skippy said he had a sister. When she turned to see me, she seemed relieved. As if she was expecting something else.
Kowalski: Anything on the ride up?
Rocky: Bumped into Mort, Fred, Ramona & Eggy. Of course, Mort said something stupid, but Kitka looked at Ramona as if she had said something gross. Getting onto the elevator, she looked surprised to see them and not in a good way.
Kowalski: What about Kenny, Private, and Barry?
Rocky: Barry raced them to the elevator, no surprise there. Private was nice when introduced, but Kitka had a weird tone in her voice. She sounded like she wasn't pleased to meet him. Barry and Kenny mentioned pancakes (inside joke), and Kitka sounded offended. Mentioned she didn't like pancakes and Barry, as usual, became dramatic. He asked why she didn't like pancakes, but she got annoyed. Private can tell you about what happened.
Kowalski: She was shocked to discover Private as our roommate.
Rocky: Odd. I'll keep an eye on her.
Kowalski: Same here. Should we tell Skipper about this?
Rocky: Not until we can gather all the information.
Kowalski: Alright. Good night.
Rocky: Night.
Private explained the elevator scene.
Rico shuddered. "Luann." He said.
"You think so? Except, instead of not liking you…what doesn't she like?" Kowalski wondered.
"What do the seven of us have in common?" Private asked. "By that, I mean everyone who encountered Kitka in the elevator apart from Rocky."
"Mort, Fred, and Eggy are elementary school kids." Kowalski said. "Eggy and Mort are in fourth grade and Fred's in fifth grade."
"And PARK B is in sixth." Private said. "I bet she'd act the same to Allie if she met her." He added to Rico's puzzled expression.
"She basically met PARK B, minus one; two members of room 4Q, which Julien is in; and one of Ramona's brothers." Kowalski said.
"Middle school?" Rico suggested.
"They are all under high school age. Actually, they're all preteens." Kowalski said.
"Except Ramona and Barry." Private said. "Barry just turned thirteen"
"Yes, but she could be mistaken for a twelve year old." Kowalski said. "And with Barry's personality, he could be assumed to be a preteen."
They sat there, thinking about it until Rico's watch alarm beeped. He had set it so he wouldn't go to bed too late. He said good night and turned in.
"We better get some shuteye too." Kowalski said. "You have a big week ahead."
"Yeah." Private said.
"You know, a few months ago I was afraid you would never come back."
"Me too."
"Thanks for coming back."
"You're welcome."
"Promise me you'll keep your word."
"Kowalski?"
"Please?"
Is this Kowalski's way of reaching out to me? Is he asking for help? Private wondered. "I promise."
"Thanks."
Private could have sworn he heard relief in Kowalski's voice.
