The Academy

Chapter Seven

"Guys, meet me at the docks as soon as you can!" Carlisle shouted into Marisol and I's dorm room. She was holding the leather messenger bag that she always carried with her in her hands tightly, as if she let go, something important would slip right out.

"Right now?" Marisol asked.

"Right now."

We got up from where we were sitting (me at my desk, Marisol on her bed) and followed Carlisle out into the hallway. She grabbed Lindsay, whispered something in her ear, and Lindsay started to follow as well. The only one left we needed to recruit was Aspen, who, fortunately, was coming right down the hall as we walked.

"Docks, now," Carlisle said to her, pointing toward the elevator.

Aspen shot her a confused glance but didn't ask any questions. Instead, she followed the rest of us as we packed into the tiny elevator to go to the docks.

When we got there, Carlisle untied one of the large crew boats. She motioned for us all to hop in, and we did, one at a time. Carlisle hopped in last, grabbed an oar, and pushed us out farther into the water.

"Are we allowed to be out here?" I asked, glancing off the side of the boat into the water. I could see beige-colored fish swimming under the boat and gathering around it, trying to figure out what we were doing. They swam with perfect grace and speed.

"Yeah, sure. If the crew instructor asks, I'll say that I took you guys on a boat ride because you were thinking about joining the crew team." Carlisle sat down and fumbled around in her leather messenger bag for something. She retrieved a tan folder with a red stamp on the front that stated "Confidential" and handed it to Lindsay with a smile.

"Carlisle," Lindsay said, opening the folder and flipping through a couple of the pages before slamming it shut, her eyes widening, "where did you get this?"

"Well, my aunt picked me up yesterday. She wanted to hang out but forgot her wallet at her office, so she sent me in to pick it up, and I found that. I slid it into my bag."

I craned my neck to get a good look at the folder, but couldn't really see anything.

"This is the police file about Vivienne Aldridge," Lindsay stated, placing the folder on her lap. "Your aunt works at the police station?"

Carlisle nodded and grinned before closing her bag up and placing it on the floor beside her.

"You know stealing a police document is a felony, right?"

"We won't get caught, though. If they were searching for me, they would've found me yesterday." Carlisle took the file from Lindsay's lap and flipped through it a bit. "I mean, we wanted to know about her and why someone might use her name as an alias, so I thought her police file might have the best information."

"What the hell, Carlisle?" Aspen exclaimed, furrowing her eyebrows. "Do you want to get us all arrested?"

I was starting to think that jumping off the boat and swimming with the fishes to the coast would be a better option than staying here.

"You need to return this exactly where you found it," Lindsay told her. "And soon."

"No way," Carlisle replied, as if that thought was out of the question. "I'm not doing anything else with it until we analyze the shit out of this thing. I stole it, and returning it now won't do much good. Why not get the use out of it while we can?"

Lindsay shook her head violently. "I'm not apart of this."

"Oh, yes you are," Carlisle said, placing the file back onto Lindsay's lap. "You're the smartest person here. You'll understand what all this legal talk means. I said we should meet here so we wouldn't be bothered. Now get to reading and don't stop until you've figured out everything."