Chapter 37
Their lips touched softly, and their arms were wrapped around each other.
"I'm gonna miss you!" whiffed Rachel into her boyfriend's ear before she kissed him again.
"Oh for fucks sake, he's just gonna be gone for two fuckin' days," threw Chloe in, sighing into her hand that was covering her face.
"Good gosh, you ol' joykill, just let 'em smooch," mentioned Steph in return, giving her girlfriend a punch on her shoulder. "Honestly, I'd be happy, if you'd gimme some of that attention."
The four friends were standing in front of the school bus that would bring the group of teenagers to their field trip. Most students had already stored their backpacks and equipment, and were sitting in the bus, ready for the trip.
Only a few were still outside, either to say goodbye to their parents or their lovers. Two of those students were Nathan Prescott and Eliot Hampden, who were sharply ogled by the four friends as soon as they had become aware of them.
"I still don't get it
why those two shits hadn't gotten expelled, yet," mentioned Chloe, her arms crossed while flipping off her ex-boyfriend as he was glimpsing at her.
"I guess, Wells received some fat paychecks that convinced him, that abuse and sexual assault are just some minor felonies," replied Max, having his eyes fixed on Nathan.
"Plus a couple of crooked certificates by Oregon's finest, bribable Psycho-docs, and swoosh…all charges dropped against some more checks," added his step-sister, spitting onto the curb. "Never gonna touch that dirty money they had given us."
"See it from the bright side," Rachel chimed into the conversation, giving the strawberry-blonde a slight nudge. "You'll never touch that money since it already payed for a new truck and your college."
"Stephanie! Max! Stop the chitter-chatter and get on the bus or we're wasting too much daylight!" Ms. Grant called over to the four friends. One last time they said their goodbyes before Steph and Max embarked the bus, which left a couple of minutes later, leaving Chloe and Rachel behind.
"Well, that's that," announced Chloe nonchalantly and was about to head for her new truck at the parking lot, right before Rachel stopped her by holding her arm.
"You remember the favor I asked you for?" she asked, her demeanor dead-serious.
Chloe on the other hand just rolled with her eyes, answering "Yeees, I do. Wanna do it tonight?"
"Yes," the blonde confirmed as she then followed the other girl. "Wells is at a convention, Ms. Grant and most of our grad-year's gone. Security will definitely be put in fifths tonight. Perfect for our lil' coup."
"Pft, lil' coup," Chloe scoffed, shaking her head. "Breakin' 'n' entering into Blackwell and into the security office is some tough shit. Hope you got that weed ready."
"It's in Max's room. Didn't dare to bring that much into Blackwell. Not, since I'm already on Wells' shitlist."
"Pah, which normal person isn't on his shitlist?" Chloe scoffed again as she pulled out the keys of her new, cobalt-blue colored pick-up truck. "Still, risky move, though. Imagine Van finding it."
"I'm her favorite daughter in law, so…"
"Ha, bullshit! You've never seen her gettin' really off like a freakin' Saturn 4 rocket. Believe me, you're dead. No matter that you get boned by Max. She'll rip your head off, put it in some concrete and will sink it deep into the Mariana trench."
Both then entered Chloe's new vehicle, whereas Rachel mentioned dryly "Wow, very graphic description, Chloe, thank you!"
"You're welcome," the taller teenager replied as she started the engine and drove off the academy's parking lot. "But now seriously, how're we gonna do this tonight? Got a plan?"
"Right after curfew, the guards will sweep the grounds for stray students, leaving their office unattended for at least 15 minutes. This will be the time we break into it, get the laptop and then meet Brooke and Victoria at the dorms. Brooke then will do her magic and find out who published my pictures. After that's done, we'll return the laptop during the second sweep. Then, you go home and I'll go back to my room. Sounds easy, right?"
"That's your plan?!" Chloe exclaimed in unbelief, stopping the truck at the side of the road. "Just in and out, easy-peasy?"
Giving her friend an annoyed glare, Rachel returned "You got a better idea, Price, then spill it, 'cause I don't. I know, it's a lotta improvisation, but I think we can do this!"
Huffing out a quiet "Shit!", Chloe started the truck again. "If this goes south, we'll be as good as dead."
"Then let's die together!" returned Rachel with a smug smile, while flinging one arm around Chloe's neck.
Field trips.
Maxine actually hated field trips. Though not because of the always fascinating destinations, which mostly delivered perfect opportunities for awesome photos, but because of the travel and the other students.
Loud, pubescent teenagers in old, rundown school buses was just a mixture that never agreed with Maxine. She was just glad for earplugs and portable music players. They helped, but sadly couldn't fade out thrown balls of paper and bumpy roads. And Steph seemed to feel the same since she was mainly focused on her smartphone while listening to music as well.
The bus hit another pothole, causing it to get shaken violently. Most students cheered like they're on a rollercoaster while Steph just cursed.
Luckily, they had reached their destination a minute later and new chaos broke out as all students wanted to leave the bus simultaneously. Not even Ms. Grant's yelled command could bring some order into this flock of headless chickens.
Steph and Max remained seated until most of the others had left the bus before grabbing their backpacks and joining.
"Okay, listen up, y'all!" Ms Grant tried to yell over the group of students. "Grab your stuff and form a line! No dawdlin'! We still have a lot on our list for today."
It took the students more than 15 minutes to form a decent line, so that they finally could enter the camping grounds and start to build up their tents. And while Steph had a practical Pop-up tent, Max had to build up his one the old-fashioned way.
"And remember, y'all, sex over sexuality. No mixed tents! If I find a boy in a girl's tent and vice versa, you'll go immediately home on your parent's expenses!"
Max was still desperately fumbling with the tent's rods when Steph came over, asking politely "Need some help?"
"Ugh, can't I just hog a place in your tent?" he complained with a loud sigh, causing Steph to chuckle.
"You know that Ms. Grant will lose her shit if we sleep together in one tent, no matter if I'm gay."
"Welp…then we better get to work!"
The young teenage-boy was just glad for the help and took it without any hesitation. And as they both worked together, they had fun. Cracking jokes or talking about nonsense, the latest gossip and nerd-stuff. Eventually, the last tent peg got hit into the ground and both were standing in front of their combined work effort.
"Not too shabby, huh?" mentioned Steph proudly, her hands resting on her hips, as she ogled the red tent. "Now I'm the one who wants to hog a place in your tent."
"All right, kids, gather around!" Ms. Grant then announced in the middle of the camp, waiting until every student was around her. "Okay, you'll now pack everythin' you need for a hike. Some food, water, weatherproof clothing. But pack light, we're gonna be gone for a couple of hours. Nathan, Eliot. You two are under supervision and will stay with me all the time. The rest, keep eye contact with each other and don't wander too far off! Now, get going, people! We wanna use every bit of daylight."
The night was pitch-black, the stars and the moon covered by thick clouds. The scent of rain was lingering in the air, carried by a strong wind, foreshadowing an upcoming storm. The perfect night for a coup!
Rachel and Chloe were hiding behind the school's pool building, watching the main campus in front of the main building.
A person, clad in the uniform of a security guard, left the building through the main door, which he locked before he switched on his flashlight and started his patrol around the whole campus.
"Alright, let's go!" whispered Chloe and left her cover, Rachel following her right away. They cautiously snuck through the shadows, avoiding the light of the scarcely present lanterns until they had reached the main door. One last time they both took a look around, before Chloe brought forth a key and simply unlocked the entrance.
Befuddled, Rachel looked at her friend with wide open eyes, mouthing "What the fuck?!"
Chloe, however, just gave her a wink and a smirk while opening the door and letting the blonde in with a pompous gesture. She then locked the door again before she started to tell the story.
"One of the former guards used to like the same music as I do. Once, I met him at a concert. At the end of the evening he was so wasted that he dropped his keys. I picked 'em up, made a copy of Blackhell's general key and returned 'em to the owner. Knew that they'd come in handy some day."
"Well, well, well… Color me impressed. Hope you made a copy of the security office's key as well."
"Dude," Chloe returned dryly with a stinky eye as they walked along the dark hallway, only the light of Rachel's phone giving some brightness. "When I say general key, I mean that it's general."
They were now standing in front of the security office. Chloe had already pulled out the key again and let it glide into the lock. And, of course, it opened the door again, which the strawberry-blonde billed with a victorious smirk.
"Fine, Price, you're officially awesome. Now let's find the laptop," Rachel mentioned, rushing into the office. Chloe followed right behind and pointed at a steel cabinet on the wall.
"This is where they lock all the stuff that they confiscate from students. Those fuckers once took my old phone and dumped it in there. Saw it when I had to get it back."
Immediately, Rachel tried to open the cabinet, but it was locked as well. Cursing under her breath, she inspected the small keyhole. "Guess, your awesome general key won't fit in here. Any ideas on how to get in?"
"Pft, guards are lazy motherfuckers. It's probably around here, somewhere."
"Great. Just fuckin' great," was Rachel's cynical reply, right before they started to search. And again, Chloe was right as they found the cabinet's key right in the desk's upper drawer, lazily thrown in.
Quickly, Rachel unlocked the cabinet, took out Victoria's laptop and then brought everything back into its original state before leaving.
With the wanted object in their hands, both girls made their way to the dorms, avoiding any security guards on the way. Weather Lights were now enlightening the horizon, giving this whole endeavor another tense component.
Eventually, they reached Rachel's and Brooke's dorm room and entered it. Inside, Brooke and Victoria were already waiting, whereas the latter one snarked "Finally, what took you so long?"
"Next time, Icky-Vicky, you'll get your shit on your own," was Rachel's reply as she put the laptop in front of Brooke, who immediately booted it up.
"Password, please!" she said and reached Victoria the laptop to log into her profile. Then, the younger Asian girl began her work. She opened the browser and started the domain of the Vortex Club website by using the pre-saved password. And though the site was closed for the public, it still opened in the editor, showing Rachel's nude pictures right away.
"Damn, nice pictures!" commented Brooke, receiving a "Thank you!" from Rachel and Victoria simultaneously, who then looked at each other with piercing daggers. But there was no time for rivalry as Brooke began to tell her conclusions.
"Those pictures have definitely been uploaded by your profile," she mentioned towards the pixie-cut blonde. "And even from your laptop, still got the path here. When was the last time you had changed something on this site?"
"Uh, I dunno…" replied Victoria, pinching the bridge of her nose. "Maybe three weeks ago. Announcing the big Halloween party."
"Well, she's at least not lying 'bout that," mentioned Brooke, Rachel chiming in right away.
"But it also doesn't proof her innocence. The pictures had been uploaded with her laptop, that's what we know for sure. Anythin' you wanna tell me, Vicky?"
"I didn't upload these fucking pictures!" Victoria defended herself with crossed arms. "I thought she's here to give us the answer to who it was. Not to put all the blame on me, again."
"Then who did it, Victoria?" Rachel kept on pushing, closing in on the arrogant girl. "Who else had access to your fuckin' laptop? 'cause it's crystal clear that it had been used to do that."
"Gosh, I dunno. Courtney and Taylor use it sometimes for their homework. But they don't know shit 'bout publishing or web design. Um… I…I-I don't…"
And then, it hit her like a lightning strike.
"Nathan!" she whispered at first to herself, but then spoke to the others. "It must've been Nathan. The day before your pictures had gotten published, he had asked for my laptop. Said that his own computer had caught a virus and he needed a computer for his essay. But… It's not possible. He didn't even have the card."
"Well shit," added Chloe dryly with some amusement. "Nathan Prickscott. Mister untouchable himself?"
Rachel inhaled sharply through her nose with closed eyes as she could already imagine what had happened.
"After you worked on my pictures, did you - by any means - delete the back-up files?" she asked with a sharp tone towards Victoria, who just stayed silent, which said more than a thousand words. "I can't believe it…" she then sighed before yelling "You gave that raping piece of shit your fuckin' laptop with those freakin' pictures and an auto-filled access to the Vortex domain? Are you nuts?!"
"I trusted him, okay," Victoria returned defiantly, crossing her arms again. "Yes, he has his episodes, but…"
"Episodes?" Chloe scoffed as she joined the argument, siding with Rachel. "Tryin' to rape someone isn't a fuckin' episode. This asshole belongs in a looney bin or in juvie, not in the open. You just served this sick fuck a perfect opportunity for revenge, which he got. Nicely done, Bitchtoria!"
"B-but I… I didn't…"
"Uh, hello-oh?" chimed Brooke's annoyed voice into the conversation. "Not that I mind a good bitch-fight in the evening, but can I get my money now and ask you to leave? 'cause my job's done and I wanna hit the sack soon. Sooo…"
Sighing in annoyance and rolling her eyes, Rachel just grabbed the laptop and dryly mentioned "Pay her!" before she went for the door, whereas Victoria exclaimed "Why me?"
One last time, the budding actress spun around, hissing "Because it's your mess and we did the dirty work, Vicky! Now pay up or you can bring that laptop back to the security office on your own."
Without awaiting an answer, she and Chloe left the dormitories and were faced with a new problem. It was starting to rain, and - well known to them both - high-tech and water mostly didn't get along fine. So, they started to sprint towards the main building again, laptop pressed tight against the young blonde's body. Strangely, there were no guards to be seen, and the reason became obvious after they had entered the building and had almost reached the security office again.
"I hate this fuckin' weather in this fuckin' town."
A male voice, chiming from the bright enlightened security office.
"Then why did you move here, anyway? Should've stayed in Cali, if you want better weather."
Another male voice. A second guard.
"Blame my stupid wife. Oh darlin' the sun's killin' me…blabla…skin cancer, bla-fuckin'-bla…"
"Don't bust your ass too much, Jenkins. I'll do one last sweep through the building and be done with it for the night. Kids ain't gonna roam the campus in this weather, anyway. Just get that beer ready!"
They heard the click as the door got opened and immediately panic broke out. Hissing a quiet "Shit!", Chloe grabbed Rachel by her arm and dragged her along the hall and then into the next bathroom, where they hid in a toilet stall, both standing on the toilet while leaning against the stall's wall.
They heard how the guard's steps were echoing through the building, closing in on the bathroom. Its door got pushed open and the light cone of the guard's flashlight enlightened the whole room for a moment, even under the stalls. Luckily, and as Chloe had predicted, he was indeed lazy and didn't even bother to check everything, but moved on right away.
Huffing out the air, both girls had held in, they stepped down from the toilet, whereas Rachel surprisingly opened Victoria's laptop and booted it up again.
"What're ya doin'?" Chloe asked, one of her eyebrows quirked as she watched her friend with befuddlement.
"Deleting my pictures and enhancing the Vortex website while you try to find a way how we can return that bitch to the office."
Being a bit curious, the lanky girl looked over her friend's shoulder, witnessing how she deleted almost the entire front page and replaced her pictures with an image that showed Nathan Prescott's head on a pig's body. She then shut down the laptop again.
"So, came up with a solution?" Rachel asked, almost hoping to catch Chloe off-guard. However, the lanky girl just gave her a toothy grin.
"On my signal, you bring Icky-Vicky's schlepp-top to the office and bail out. We meet at my truck, got it?"
"Okay, but, uh… What's the signal?"
"You'll see…" returned Chloe while sauntering out of the toilet like she owned the place. And Rachel had no other choice than to wait and wait. Minute after minute, almost fearing that her friend might've gotten caught.
Suddenly, the school's deafening fire alarm began to blare through the night, causing Rachel to hold her ears shut for the first few seconds. She then heard yelled curses and commands that soon vanished in the distance under the loud noise.
Expecting the guards to look for the source of the alarm and therefore not being in their office, she took her chance and ran. And indeed, the office was deserted. Quickly, she grabbed the key, unlocked the cabinet and put the laptop back in. She was just about to close it as the alarm died and silence settled in again, only broken by one of the guards yelling voice that was echoing through the hallway.
"Fuck, Jenkins, get on the horn and tell the Fire Department that it was a false alarm!"
This voice was distant, but the other even closer.
"Yeah-yeah, I'm already on it. Just check the building again for those clowns who triggered it!"
The guard with the name Jenkins was very close, probably already about to enter the office, but definitely in eyesight. So, there was no chance for Rachel to escape through the door unseen, not to mention, to leave the building through the main door.
She had to improvise. A treat she had learned to master as an actress. So, she looked around and immediately figured out that the only exit was through the office's window. Not wasting another second, she unlocked and opened it and jumped out.
"HEY! YOU! STOP RIGHT THERE!"
She heard the voice, yelling behind her and ran as fast as she could through the rain that had picked up even more. Strong winds were wiping the water right into her face, making it hard to see where she was going through the darkness. A lightning was illuminating the cloudy sky for a moment, followed by the rumbling of thunder a few seconds later.
A car stopped with screeching tires in front of her. Hell, she hadn't even noticed that she had reached the street already. Luckily, it was Chloe, who pushed open the passenger door, yelling "C'mon, get in!"
Rachel didn't need to think twice. She just jumped into the vehicle before they both sped off.
"Oh man, what a thrill!" said Chloe as she was drying off her hair with a towel, just wearing a bathrobe.
"Yeah, almost too much thrill. Damn, I thought I was toast as those assheads returned so quickly," Rachel mentioned in addition. She was wearing one of her boyfriend's wide t-shirts and boxer shorts.
Both were in Chloe's room, reminiscing about the aftermath of their coup, whereas VmChloe took the big bag of weed she had received from Rachel as payment and started to roll a joint.
"But honestly," she returned, licking the paper to contain the tobacco and marijuana. "It worked better than I thought. So, I think we earned ourselves a chillaxin' moment."
Chuckling "Damn straight, Price!", Rachel sat down on the bed, took the fresh rolled blunt and ignited it before taking a deep draft. The drug worked instantly and let her feel like she was hovering on a cloud. No wonder that she let herself fall onto the mattress. And Chloe did the same.
"Daaaamn, this stuff's the shit, Amber. Who did you have to fuck to get this high-graded weed?"
"Nobody," returned Rachel, taking another draft. "Just paid a shitload of money for this. My dad's money, of course."
Silence settled in, only the thunderstorm outside and the patter of the strong rain on the roof disturbing it.
Inside, Rachel asked herself if Max and Steph were fine, but then got disrupted by Chloe's words.
"Can I be honest with you?"
Of course it was a rhetorical question, and all Rachel did was to shrug with her shoulders to give her friend a confirmation.
"Those pictures of you were really hot. I mean, grade A. Makes me really wanna get busy with you."
"You got a girlfriend, Chloe, and your step-brother is my boyfriend. So, it will sadly be nothin' more than a part of your wild phantasy. So, stop hitting on me, Price, before you burn yourself."
She felt something. A strange force, like something was controlling her. But that was probably just the weed. Or was it?
Chloe leaned up, shifting closer to Rachel. Something was strange about her behavior as well. It had to be the drugs.
"But they're both not here. C'mon, just a lil' bit of foolin' 'round between friends."
The strawberry-blonde closed in even more, her face moving closer.
"Chloe…" was everything Rachel was able to whisper. She wanted to get away, but her body didn't listen to her. She wanted to scream, but her lips stayed close until they got touched by Chloe's.
She could feel some sort of energy passing between their locked lips, sparks that seemed to be more intense than the lightning that were illuminating the dark night outside.
Rachel's body seemed to be paralyzed. She felt Chloe's soft touches, but couldn't move at all. She felt her touching her small breasts through the t-shirt, but soon her hand wandered under it, fondling those small hills, before it ventured deeper down into her shorts, caressing her intimacy.
She moaned and leaned back. Rachel didn't want to enjoy it, but she did. Everything. She enjoyed Chloe's hands, her mouth and even her vagina as it was rubbing over hers.
She was trapped. Trapped in a realm of unwanted pleasure.
She felt the strong orgasm, heard her loud moaning like she was just watching a freaky porn movie and saw two pairs of eyes that were watching them in disbelief and anger.