The Day We Met

Cahpter 28

"Let's go!" I say. We leave to search for the "Drawers - Office" door. We all tip-toe across the office and I am relieved when I find out no one else is in there. Mrs. Covey was the last one.

I take out my phone to look at the time. It is 3:10 pm. The school locks in twenty minutes! I think we have enough time. I hope.

The three of us walk passed the counselors office in the dark. I turn around and look at Edward and Haylee and give them a "shh!" We turn around the corner and I see a door. Just a regular brown door with no label or anything.

I grab the key from my back pocket and stick it in the door knob. I turn the key around, meaning it was the right door! We found the room, now we need to find the absence folders to see who was absent that day.

The three of us walk in and I tell Haylee, "Go outside and see if Mrs. Crum or someone could be coming." She sighs and walks out of the room. I set the key down on the table next to the drawers.

I check the time on my phone again. It's now 3:12 pm. Eighteen minutes. I look around the room, which had drawers that were maybe a foot deep. Each drawer had a label. There was a whole section with a bunch of class names on them.

I open a "Calculus" drawer. I see a folder labeled, "Ferry". I pull it out and see another folder labeled, "Adsense" and I now know how to find absences in classes, but I needed absences from two years ago. I close that drawer.

I look over and see a drawer labeled, "Absence". I reach to open it, and Edward does the same.

"You go." He says. I quietly laugh, and open the drawer. There are what seems like millions of folders labeled by years. They go way back to 1999. Wow. I scan through the folders to look for the year of 2016. I find it and go to grab it, but Edward gets it before me. He opens it and looks for the month.

"What month did this occur?" He asks me.

"I remember it being at the beginning of the year, so in August." I say. He takes out the August folder and pulls out some papers.

"It looks like each paper had a list of the students that were absent on a specific day." I say.

"Yeah. Do you know what day?" Edward asks.

"No." I say, "what's the first day?" He searches through the papers to find the earliest day. It was the eighteenth.

"Look through the first seven papers and look for Emma's name." I demand. He does so, and he finds her name on the 24th.

"I think the 24th." He looks at me like I need to make the next move.

"Is there anyone else on the list that's a suspicious person?" I asks. He looks down at the single piece of paper and reads down the list. I do too. There where a bunch of names of people who I know as I guess innocent people. What I mean be innocent, is they wouldn't betray people or anything like that. Emma was the only one on there who I think would be the person in that car.

"I'm pretty sure it's Emma," I say. "No one else on this list would do such a thing."

"I agree." He says.

"The only thing I'm confused about is that she was in the drivers seat. But we were only sophomores." I say.

"You're right." His eyes widen, "how long have you known Emma?" He asks.

"I don't know, since I moved here. Which was almost ten years ago. But I never knew she was in our grade until a year ago. Kind of sad, but she's been hiding." I tell.

"Do you know her age?" He asks.

"I don't know." I say. Edward sighs.

"Darn! I thought we were onto something!" He says.

"Well, I could ask her about her age tomorrow." I say.

"That'll do." Edward says as he puts the papers back, then the folder back, then the other folder back, then closes the drawer.

We both leave and close the door. I check the time on my phone and it's 3:27! We gotta go!

"We gotta hurry! The school locks in three minutes!" I tell Edward. Haylee follows us as we sort of run across the office.

"You guys go on and maybe grab my backpack at the art room!" I say.

"Got it!" Edward goes to run through the halls. I got to turn off the lights and lock the door. I walk back and realize I closed the door. How stupid can I be? I go to open the door and it's locked! I shake the door knob all around and can't get it. Crap! What now?

I look around the office to look for a paper clip. The only chance is if it's in a drawer in the front desk. I run up to the desk and open the drawer. There are a bunch of unorganized school supplies. Really? Now is not the time for this!

I shuffle through the supplies and fine no paper clips. I move to look through the other drawer. I shortly pray so I could find some. This is my ONLY chance. I need to sneak that key back to Mrs. Crum.

I open the drawer and immediately see a box of paper clips. Thanks God! I take out the box and set it on the desk. I open the box with my sweaty, shaky hands. I grab one. As I run back, I check the time. It's 3:28! Two minutes.

I bend the paper clip so I can fit it in the door knob. The first few tries, it doesn't even go in, but I finally get it and open the door. The lights were still on. I immediately spot the key on the table, grab it, and run out, realizing I have one minute!

I turn off the lights and lock the door. I run and throw away the paper clip in the trash can and throw the box back into the desk drawer. I run out of the office and start my run to the art room. I see Edward and Haylee running towards me with their backpacks on. This is the part where it's all in slow-motion.

Edward is struggling to carry both his and my backpack. I wait for them to catch up to me, grab my backpack, and join them.

We head on our way and sprint to the front doors. The lights of the school turn off, and I sprint even faster. I feel like I'm in an action movie. Can anyone relate?

We reach the doors and I pull one open.

"Go!" I say as I push when both through. We made it. I look at my phone once again and it's exactly 3:30 pm. We all stand there out of breath and hear the doors lock.

"Thanks for going and getting my backpack. I really appreciated it." I thank Edward.

"No problem." He says, "I gotta go home. See you guys tomorrow!" He runs off to his car.

"Back away from him." Haylee says and walk to her car. I roll my eyes and go in my car. Silent ride it was, especially while thinking of Edward.