Jeno parked the getaway car several yards away from the entrance of St. Rosemunde. He turned over his shoulder, studying the group.
"Ready?" Miren wrinkled her nose. He was driving the Mercedes again. The one that apparently didn't belong to him. She shook her head, pushing the thought away. There were more important things at stake than Jeno's desire to recreate Grand Theft Auto.
She studied the regal white gates of the school, which looked even more eerie in the moonlight. This is it. She took a deep breath before nodding in confirmation, tapping her sneakers anxiously against the floor. It was an outfit-happy day for Miren, as she found herself in yet another disguise, a black cat suit. Well, it wasn't really a cat suit, but the black, skin-hugging attire might as well been one. She didn't know where the others got it, but they were definitely taking this spy theme way too seriously.
"Okay," Wallace said, handing Miren a card. "This is a basic access card. It's calibrated to allow you to enter virtually any entrance with a sensor pad. But you can only use it once. After one use, the door will encrypt a code to the card and render it obsolete. So don't forget anything."
Miren nodded. She hated this school too much to need a reason to go back.
"You have your St. Rosemunde I.D right?" he asked. Unfortunately, Miren thought, waving her shame card in the air. She was surprised she still kept the thing. "I deactivated St. Rosemunde's security cameras through their computer server, but you will need it for the gates."
"Theodora informed me that the voting ballot is kept in the headmistress' office, and they count them on homecoming," Jeno then said. "Get in there, fill the ballot with these, and get out." He handed her a stack of official-looking voting slips.
"Your second objective is to obtain Penelope's academic and disciplinary records, which should also be in the headmaster's office," Wallace informed her. "That way we can plan an appropriate punishment for her."
Miren exhaled, trying to make sense of all this information. Fill the ballot. Get Penelope's record. Don't get caught. Seemed simple enough. But simple goals were usually just difficult ones in disguise.
She slid open the SUV door, letting the cold October air assault her body and neutralize her toxic thoughts. "See you on the other side," she said. It was cliché, but she couldn't think of anything better to leave off with. If this didn't work out, it would surely result in her destruction, if not death.
"Good luck," Jeno said, nodding. "I hope you won't need it."
She offered them a small salute. Then she sped off, merging into the darkness.
As she approached the front gates of Rosemunde, she brought out her former school I.D card from her pocket. Unlike Rinzen, the school didn't have an active security officer on gate duty. Or maybe they did. She never made late night crusades. Either way, there was no one to spot her. She wobbled the gate door with her hand, only partly surprised that it didn't open. She glided her card on the access port, and watched the door swing ajar. She smiled. Success. Now if only getting to the headmaster's office would be this easy.
And it appeared to be. The scene was dark and vacant. Normally the sight would have creeped her out a little, but tonight it produced a slight level of comfort. She pressed on quickly, staying along the bushes that lined the gates, and away from the streetlights. Her footsteps were soft against the pavement, and her breathing was shallow and soundless.
The main office was still about twenty yards away, but she felt better with every step she took. The further she got, the less likely she would be caught. The cameras were disabled. Students had to be in their dorms by ten. Right now, in the cover of night, she was probably the safest she had ever been at Rosemunde.
Until she saw a security guard. Sucking in a gasp, she sank to a crouch, watching him with startled, beady eyes in the shadow of a shrub. He was a donut eater; the middle-aged man paced the campus with slow, heavy steps, waving his flashlight dismissively as he whistled show tunes.
Miren bit her lip, watching him cross the center of the campus diagonally, toward her direction. I could outrun the fat-ass, she though. But that would mean exposing herself. Her hand found the pebbled floor below her, tapping against it to get her mind flowing. She hissed when it hit a blunt object. She looked down. A rock.
Picking it up, she tossed it a few times in the air, contemplating what to do with it. She nodded when she came to her conclusion. Chucking it forward, she didn't see where the stone went as it sailed in the dark air. But she heard a clatter near the main entranceâsome fifty feet away. The guard spun around, heading toward the noise like a dog after a bone.
Relief flooded through Miren, but it only masked over her anxiousness. She couldn't waste any more time. Trying to balance cautiousness and quickness, she pressed forward, routinely taking glances over her shoulder. When the main office fully materialized before her, she felt her confidence rising. Almost there. The building looked rather demonic in the absence of light, but she ignored it, finding herself sprinting toward it. As she did so, her shoulder hit a branch. Her eyes widened when that same branch latched against her arm.
"Holy shit fuck!" She wasn't proud of what escaped her mouth. Panicked eyes tried to focus on the sight before her as it pulled her down.
"Shh! Calm the fuck down!" Chara whispered frantically, pressing her index finger to her lips. "I haven't seen you in weeks and this is how you greet me? Well, I'm doing quite fine, thank you for asking."
Miren blinked, her shock slowly leaving her. "Um, sorry?" She studied the sophomore before her. Chara was dressed in black as well, although she dawned a knitted koala hat on her head, its drawstrings swaying in the silent wind. Even on a spy mission she had to be distinctive. "What are you doing here?"
Chara shrugged. "Wallaby told me about the plan. But he didn't want me to get in trouble by intervening. Since he disabled the cameras, I climbed out of my window." She pouted. "Sorry. Just feels like I haven't been very helpful lately."
Miren shook her head. "You've been plenty. After all, you were the one who suggested all of this." And although Miren once thought that enrolling to Rinzen was the most stupid idea she had ever heard of, she was grateful for Chara's persuasion.
The girl nodded, instantly perking up. "Thanks!"
Miren couldn't help but smile. The somber atmosphere lit up, but she could quickly feel herself getting distracted. Maybe that's why the boys pushed for her to do this alone. With Chara's random appearance, she had almost forgotten why they were here. And Donut Dave could show up at any moment.
"We have to move," Miren said, resuming control of the situation. "Hopefully Wallace has educated you thoroughly on the mission." When Chara nodded, Miren started for the main office, now only a few feet away from them. Jogging up the stairs, Miren slid the black access card over the door. There was a delay in response, and Miren could feel her body fill with dread. A beep eventually sounded, and the door pressed backwards. They stepped though.
There was something eerie about school at night. As they passed through a few familiar corridors, it felt like they were in a foreign environment.
Finally, they approached the front of Headmistress Castro's door. They turned to each other.
"I'll keep look out," Chara then said. Miren opened her mouth to object, before closing it. Even two could be a crowd. She'd have to go alone. As planned.
"Alright. Tap the door if you hear anything suspicious." Miren slid the card over the port. It opened, as expected, and she went through. By now her eyes had adjusted well to the darkness, and she could see a golden-platted box on top of a tall cabinet in the office. Tilting her weight to her tippy toes, she reached for it, pulling it down. Her grip faltered slightly, and she feared that she would spill the contents. Luckily, she didn't. She placed the box on the headmistress' desk. After pulling out the blank slips Jeno had given her, she studied them.
Jeno told her to fill out whomever she wanted for Homecoming Queen. She thought about it for a moment. Jemma? The girl had shown her kindness recently, but it didn't justify the cruelty she condoned for years. And she was Jeno's sister. What if the two of them were crowned? She shook her head. She wouldn't be voting for her. Artemis? The righteous leader of her search effort? It seemed like the most appropriate choice, but somehow she couldn't bring herself to do it. Theodora? She was Jeno's girlfriend. Wouldn't it be cute for them to be crowned together? But Miren couldn't bring herself to do that either. Maybe she was being selfish, but wasn't it selfish to undermine any of them?
Sensing she was wasting time, she decided to go about the official plan. She pried open the box, careful not to damage the gold wrapping. The entries for each candidate were separately stacked and held by bands. Retrieving Penelope's stack, Miren removed almost all of the entries from the bunch, leaving about forty so it wouldn't look suspiciousâso she wouldn't win. She tucked those entries into her zipper pocket. Shuffling the blank entries Jeno had given her, Miren separated the cards into seven piles. It took a little bit of time to fill out an equal-ish number of entries for all the nominees that weren't Penelope, but she did it. After tucking them into their respective stacks, and making sure the numbers were proportionate to the student body, Miren capped the box and placed it back in its position above the file cabinet. There.
Let the odds be in their favor.
Moving over to the cabinets behind the headmaster's desk, Miren smiled at the foolish woman's simplicity. Below a drawer that read PROGRESS REPORTS, Miren found the one she was looking for. PERSONAL RECORDS (R-Z). Perfect.
But the woman's foolishness stopped there. In order to open the drawer she needed a key. Her hands patted against her pockets frantically. She didn't have a key. The masterminds never gave her one.
She closed her eyes, trying not to become frustrated. The personal record wasn't essential. But she wanted it. She wanted to know if there was something in Penelope's life that justified her wicked behavior. Then, and only then, could Miren have proper revenge.
But she couldn't mutilate the drawer and take the treasure. No, she was a Rinzen Raccoon. Raccoon's were sly and good at covering their tracks. She tapped her chin, thinking through this. Headmistress Castro wasn't the brightest light bulb, even if her doctoral diplomas on the walls were from Ivy Leagues. In any case, most people would put a spare office key in the same room they would use it in, wouldn't they? They wouldn't want it to get lost, right?
Miren's hands glided over his desk. She strained her ears, hoping to hear the customary chime keys made. But she heard nothing. She groaned, feeling her hope diminish. The damn thing could be anywhere! And the only place people put keys, besides counters or pot plants was under mats. Her hands patted the ground. There were no mats here. But, as she continued to feel, she realized the leather chair behind the desk was on a vinyl floor cover. Extending her hands underneath it, she felt a grove against the carpet, like where a floor electric outlet would be. There was no outlet. Her face relaxed as felt them.
Keys.
She pulled the bunch out, happy that there were only about four keys on the ring. The first was a dud, but the second fit perfectly inside the keyhole. She turned it and pulled out the drawer. She flipped over the last names beginning with R, and skimmed through the V's before pulling out Van Helsing. She smiled. Now this was success.
Shutting the drawer and placing the key back where she found it, she rose to her feet with the file in hand. She stood there for a moment, contemplating at least taking a little peak from the documents. But she had probably wasted enough time already.
Miren exited the office, finding her suspicions were true. She bent down, shaking Chara's shoulder. She had dozed off.
"Ahhh!" Chara screamed. Miren clamped a hand over her mouth.
"Just me, Chara," she said, pulling the shocked girl to her feet. "All done. Let's go."
Chara nodded, wiping the sleep from her eyes. "Yeah, sorry." She readjusted her animal hat. "I don't handle surprises in the dark too well."
Miren smiled, though it couldn't be detected in the darkness. "If we hurry, we won't have to worry about surprises for too long."
They walked toward the exit only to see that their 'surprise' outside was headed toward the building. Miren slapped a hand over her head as she peered from the window.
"Looks like we have company," Chara said. She looked at Miren with worried eyes. The fellow spy pursed her lips, gritting her teeth as she tried to conjure up a plan.
"Looks like someone's going to have to distract him." Even in the opaqueness, her eyes locked on to Chara's.
"It's not going to be me."
"It's going to be you."
Chara groaned, flailing her arms. "This is what I get for trying to be helpful?"
Miren shrugged. "You were the one whining about not feeling useful." Her eyes watched the guard. He wasn't looking directly at the building, but he was only about fifty feet away. And who knew if he was planning on making an entrance. "Well, now I need you. You have to get out. Now. Or we'll be locked in. Wallace said he'd only be able to disable the cameras for an hour at best."
"Or," Chara began, "we could wait for him to leave."
"Or you could just trust me."
"Fine," Chara snapped after a while. She opened the front door lightly for entry, slipping through the crack. "You're lucky I'm cute."
"That means you can get away with an excuse." Miren shooed her out. "Flaunt it, kawaii girl."
Chara gave her a strained look. "What are you, my mom?" But before Miren could respond, she disappeared into the darkness. Through the small door window, she could see Chara meet the guard under a streetlight. They exchanged some words before he started for the direction of the dorms, probably to walk her back. The koala-hat-girl offered her a thumbs-up.
With a deep breath of mild relief, Miren started for the gates, following along the darkened perimeter. With the absence of security, she reached the gate in record time, sliding her card through the opening. Trudging up the street, she found the getaway vehicle. She knocked against the passenger's door, panting.
"How goes it?" Wallace asked, handing her a water bottle.
"It goes well."
"How much of the plan did you execute? You finished a little quicker than expected," Jeno said, starting the engine of the vehicle.
"All of it." But she didn't mention Chara's support that accelerated her efforts. She handed Wallace the file. "Here. I believe everything should be in order."
Wallace opened the file before his eyes met Miren's lidded one's. "You sure you don't want to look at it first?"
Miren's eyes snapped open. Did I? She did. But not right now. "I will. Just not tonight." If she really wanted to, she would have done so earlier. Now that she thought about, what was the file going to tell her that she didn't already know? That Penelope was so evil that even hell didn't want her? She knew that already.
"If you're sure..." Wallace said, tucking the file into his backpack. "You can see it tomorrow. For now I can use it to solidify the plan we have for homecoming."
"Fine by me," Miren said, feeling exhaustion replace the adrenaline of the night. Jeno picked up on her tiredness.
"Get some sleep," Jeno said, making a turn. "We'll wake you when we reach Rinzen."
She knew that they were only a couple of blocks away from the school, but she didn't object. She closed her eyes, feeling herself detach from the conversation between the two boys.