Eda had spent long nights out before, so it wasn't anything new to her to have to sneak back into her own house at times.
She quietly opened the front door, and walked inside. The lights were all off, so Eda safely assumed that everyone else was asleep already.
Sighing in relief, she walked quietly down the hall... Taking a moment to peer into King's room as she did. He was sleeping peacefully on his bed, cuddling his rabbit plush.
Eda couldn't help but smile at the sight, before continuing on towards her own room. She creaked open the door... And saw her spouse already in bed, asleep. An exhale of relief left Eda's mouth. She slumped into bed next to the sleeping Raine, and laid down on the pillow as she looked up at the ceiling.
Eda still felt as if she was dreaming. Like as if the conversation she just had with her old student felt made up in her head, for some reason. Had she really just made a deal with a teenager to cook meth with her? It made her brain twist and turn as she tried to wrap her head around how many turns today had taken. Most of the choices she made today were compulsive... But now that she had made them, Eda figured she might as well ride it out and see what happened.
They'd need lab supplies to do it, that much she did know. So Eda knew what she was doing tomorrow morning. But all she wanted to do right now, was sleep. She was about to do so, closing her eyes... When she felt a weird, yet familiar, feeling in her crotch region. Eda turned to her left to see Raine was half-awake... And their hand was under the blanket and near her midsection. She smiled as the wonderful feeling continued on.
Happy Birthday to Edalyn Clawthorne, indeed.
Eda pulled into the Noceda house's driveway, and could see Luz through her rear-view mirror. She was sitting in a lawn chair on the edge of it, a cooler nearby with a few canned drinks in it.
Eda got out of the car, and approached her. "Well, you ready?" Eda asked.
Luz looked up at her after sipping from one of the cans, "For what?" she asked back.
"To get the supplies we're gonna need to do this! Duh!" Eda answered.
"What, you found a store that sells it all or something?" Luz questioned, taken aback.
"Better. All the stuff we actually need to get started is stored in the High School!" Eda explained, "You're gonna come with me to the school and help me load it all into the car."
"But, won't someone see us?" Luz pointed out, "I'm not really allowed at the high school anymore, remember?"
Eda waved it off, "Oh please, nobody is at that place during the weekends. They have better things to do." she claimed.
"Aren't there cameras, or security guards in case someone robs the school?" Luz asked, weirded out that the school didn't have anything to stop them from just walking in.
"Noceda, would YOU rob a school?" Eda deadpanned.
"...Fair point." Luz smacked her lips.
"Great. Now get in the car." Eda told her, pointing at said car.
Luz shrugged, and walked over to the passenger side and got in. Eda glanced around for a bit, before following.
God, they were really doing this then.
Eda unlocked the chemistry classroom door, and creaked it open. She gestured for Luz to follow her.
"Wow... I haven't been in here for years!" Luz remarked, glancing around.
"Yeah, I bet there are a lot less scorch marks than you remember too." Eda joked, as she walked past the tables towards the storage room door.
"Ha, ha... Very funny." Luz rolled her eyes, hiding her amusement at the comment.
Eda unlocked the storage room, and opened the door. She allowed Luz to follow her inside, and began to scan the shelves.
"So, what stuff are we taking?" Luz asked, holding a glass tube curiously.
Eda snatched the tube from her, "Only stuff we actually need... We won't be needing test tubes." she answered.
Luz then picked up a small volumetric flask. "How about this tube? I use a larger version of this to cook meth." She claimed.
"If you do... It can't be good meth." Eda snarked, "You don't heat volumetric flasks."
"Uh, yeah you do-" Luz began to try and correct her.
"Are you REALLY going to argue with the chemistry teacher?" Eda deadpanned. "You use volumetric flasks for mixing, not boiling. You really learnt nothing from my class, didn't you?"
"This isn't chemistry though! It's like... Completely different!" Luz claimed.
"Oh really?" Eda chuckled in slight amusement, "How so?".
"This is ART! Cooking crystal, is art." Luz explained, which only made Eda chuckle more.
"Well, news flash... Chemistry, is what MAKES your so-called art." Eda smirked.
Luz opened her mouth to refute, but couldn't think of a good point to refute with, so she shut her mouth again.
"I say so-called, because I saw your setup back at that meth house you were cooking in with... Whoever the fuck your partner was." Eda explained.
"Maggie." Luz replied, "Her name's Maggie. She was in the same classes as me before she ditched school."
Eda paused. "...You mean the same Maggie who spray-painted my classroom three separate times a couple years back?" She asked, to which Luz nodded.
"Yeah, she was in your class same year I was in it." Luz added.
"Okay, wow, so TWO of my old students got into cooking meth... Jesus." Eda mumbled to herself.
Maggie had always been... THAT student in her class. Always getting into trouble, messing with other students, and generally being an ass in general. She had ditched school around the same time Luz had gotten expelled. Eda never liked Maggie, and she thought Luz never did either... So it surprised Eda that she had been working with her to cook meth until now.
"You don't have to make a big deal about it... Plus, you're no better! You're about to cook too, Mrs. Clawthorne!" Luz pointed out
"Touche." Eda nodded a bit, "Let's get these boxes to the car."
Luz shrugged, and picked up a stack of two cardboard boxes. They both carried their share of lab equipment out to Eda's car. Eventually, everything had been taken outside, and was now being loaded into the trunk.
"So, where are we taking this stuff? You got a meth house we can use or something?" Luz questioned, putting a box of lab equipment in the trunk.
"What do you mean?" Eda asked, "I thought we were going to be cooking at your place-""What?! No! Are you nuts?!" Luz exclaimed, appalled at the mere idea of it. "We can't cook METH at my house!"
Eda groaned, "Well, we sure as shit aren't doing it at my place!" she replied back.
"Hmm, what about those storage places? You know, with the orange garages?" Luz suggested.
"No, those places got dogs that sniff around... We wouldn't last a week." Eda claimed.
The two both sighed, unsure what to do now... Until Luz mumbled something.
"Hm? What was that, Noceda?" Eda perked up, curious about what Luz had said.
"An RV..." Luz repeated, "That's what you want. Imagine that, a mobile meth lab... You can take it anywhere you want, hide it from the cops and everything. That's the dream right there."
Eda blinked, before thinking it over. An RV could be possible... VERY possible! It'd make the problem of having to hide the meth lab much easier. But she'd need money in order to get a decent one.
And there was only one place she knew of where she would be able to get that money over the weekend.
One more shift at this place. That's all she needed to afford that damn RV... That and most of her life savings up to this point.
It had to have been the most painful and long shift Eda had ever spent at the car wash in all her years working there. Every minute felt like an hour to her, it didn't help that she had fallen back into thinking about her cancer diagnosis.
Eda knew she would have to tell her family eventually. But the problem was that she didn't know HOW to do it. Facing her family with such horrible news, would be very painful for her... Possibly just as painful as it would be to them.
She had been so in depth into thinking about ways, that she barely noticed Jim walk up to her. He had a new haircut that made his hair fizzier.
"Clawthorne. I need you on car washing duty again." He told her.
Eda blinked a couple times, turning to Jim. "Sorry, what'd you say?" Eda asked, genuinely not having heard him.
"Car washing. Go do it." Jim ordered again, pointing toward the station.
Eda groaned, "But I did it a couple days ago and-" she began to protest, but Jim cut her off.
"I don't need your complaints, I need cars washed. Now go, you'll get overtime if you stop complaining." Jim ordered once more, getting impatient.
"But Jim-" Eda tried again.
"Now. Or you're fired." Jim glared hard at her.
"Okay. I'm going." Eda managed to mutter out, keeping her cool as she began to walk to the washing station.
"Oh by the way, I'm gonna have to dock your pay for the next few weeks. Company problems and all." Jim added, leaning on the counter as Eda paused mid-walk to the station.
That was it. That was the final thing Eda was gonna take from this guy. That's what finally snapped her.
"...Fuck you." Eda said softly, barely even a whisper.
"What did you just say..?" Jim asked, not sure he heard her right.
"Fuck you Jim! FUCK YOU!" Eda snapped, throwing her rag away against the station wall and flipping him off, "Fuck you, fuck your car wash, and FUCK your new haircut!"
Eda huffed as Jim looked shocked at her outburst. "Send my last paycheck in the mail. I quit." Eda finished, eerily calm.
She stormed away out the car wash doors, flipping Jim off one final time before she did.
"...A-Alright then." Jim said to nobody in particular after Eda had left, still stunned.
Luz had just finished breakfast, when she heard a vehicle pull up outside. Confused, she put her bowl in the sink and walked outside. She knew her mother couldn't have been home from work yet, as she said she'd be working late again. So Luz had a good idea who it was...
Sure enough, Eda was in the driveway, leaning on a medium sized RV.
"So, what do you think?" Eda asked, "It's not the best, but it's what I could afford."
"Wow, Mrs. Clawthorne... You hit the jackpot here!" Luz remarked, glancing through the RV window at the inside.
"It'll do... At the very least." Eda murmured, glancing at the RV as well. "Should have enough room for the lab equipment in it."
Luz tapped the RV's hood ornament, which resembled that of an owl. "Mrs. Clawthorne... Can I ask you something?" Luz said, not looking up at Eda.
"What? Do you not like the hood ornament or something?" Eda questioned.
"No, no... It's not that. Just... Why are you doing this?" Luz asked.
"What do you mean?" Eda raised an eyebrow.
"This! I mean... It's sorta random how, you were this down to earth teacher last time I saw you... And now here you are planning to cook METH with me." Luz explained, "Don't you think that's kinda out of nowhere?"
"Not really. It's called a midlife crisis." Eda bluntly replied.
"Well, this is some midlife crisis!" Luz exclaimed, "I mean, Christ..."
"Look Noceda..." Eda sighed, "All you need to know, is that I wanna cook meth in an RV with my old student. Is that so wrong?"
Eda could feel the irony in her tone as those words escaped her. Luz shrugged, sighing as well as she glanced around.
"So, now what?" Eda asked, trying to change the subject back to the matter at hand. "Are we gonna cook now?"
"Well, it's like a mobile meth lab now... We can take it anywhere we want to cook!" Luz claimed.
"It's gotta be a good few miles away from town..." Eda pointed out, "We're gonna be fucked if we're caught doing it in broad daylight in town. The smell will give us away."
"Good point, good point..." Luz murmured, "How about we take it like 30 or so miles out into the forest, you know, barely anyone out there?"
"Yeah, that could work!" Eda agreed, "It's nice and far away from town as well..."
"Then let's go! I'll drive!" Luz said, walking over to climb into the RV.
"No. I'll drive." Eda walked in after her. "Last thing we need is this RV in a ditch somewhere."
She climbed into the front seat, and started the RV. It pulled out of the driveway, and started down the neighborhood street.