Team Player

The Disappearance

"What took so long?" Gareth greets "I texted, like, 8 times before you responded."

"It doesn't matter," Jimmy retorts, looking at Gareth then turns to look at us, "what matters is they're here now. Follow us." We start walking to the front door of the school. 

"So, what's wrong?" Jess asks

"You'll see," Gareth says disappointed. We go threw the doors of the school and walk in complete silence to the main office. Jimmy reaches in his pocket to take out the keys to the office that our secretary gave us so we could put any money we raised into the safe without having to find someone to let us in. 

We enter the office and stand around the safe placed on a shelf. Jimmy punches in the code and opens the door. There we all stand starring at a very empty safe. I collapse to the ground. Jimmy rushes to my right and Jess rushes to my left. Pushing my self up to a seated position, I look at Gareth and Jimmy and ask, " How did this happen?"

"We have no idea,"Jimmy responds disappointed in himself.

"Then how did you find out?" Jess questions Gareth and Jimmy's innocence. 

"Last night Jimmy came to my house for the night," Gareth begins, "and little did I know that my grandparents were coming over for the weekend. Every time I see them they give me $100.00 so I thought I should add it to our fundraising. This morning we came to drop it off and when we opened the safe, this is what we found,"

"So, someone stole all the money," Jess points out as if it weren't already obvious.

"Yeah," Gareth sighs

"Well, we have to find out who did it," Brandon says, "then we can get back the money."

"Yeah, but how are we supposed to find out who did it?" Jess inquires "We can't look for finger prints cause now everything is covered in our finger prints."

"Well let's see," Gareth starts "There aren't any signs of somebody breaking in so it must be someone who has a key to the office other than us." 

"Good point," I say, intrigued. "Well there are only two other keys to the office. One belongs to Mrs. Fisher, but it couldn't be her - she is the nicest woman alive. When I broke my arm playing rugby sophomore year, my parents weren't in town to take me to the hospital so she left the desk and drove me to the hospital. She even waited for the ex rays, waited for the nurse to put the cast on my arm and drove me home. So I think we can rule her out."

"Agreed," Brandon says "The only other person with a key is our principle,"

"You're right!" Jimmy says "But we can't just jump to conclusions and say it was him. It'll be his word against ours and that's not a position we want to be in. We need proof."

"What proof do we have?" I ask "There is nothing around here that looks any different than usual."

"Well, let's think about this," Jimmy says "what would he need with our money?"

"He is doing an office renovation," Jess points out "He could be using it for that."

Gareth quickly walks over to a door in the office with a label that says "Principle" and tries to open it. "Pass me the key," he says to Jimmy and he throws it to Gareth. Gareth tries to fit it in the key hole but its doesn't work. 

"He must use a different one for his office," Jess suggests.

"He didn't always, though," Gareth replies, "I used to sneak into his office and steal his candy stash in sophomore year." Everyone looks at each other confused because that doesn't sound like Gareth at all.

"Really?" I ask.

"Yeah," he brushes it off.

 "Okay. So," Jimmy begins a thought "if he is using this money for his office, where is the money that he is using from the school budget going?" 

"Maybe it's all to renovate his office," Brandon suggests. I take a moment to think, then jump up and run behind the Secritary's desk and open a filing cabinet. I found a file labeled "Budget cuts", took it out and opened it to read it. 

"None of the money is going to renovate his office," I continue to read "he is using it all to buy a mansion." 

"Isn't that kind of against the rules?" Jess asks.

"Yup!" Brandon says a little to happily.

"Alright! So, this is our proof," Jimmy adds. I think oh, if only it were that simple.

"Well, look at these documents," I point at the sheets of paper I am holding and make them visible to everyone "They have no special marking to say that it is a document printed up by the school. So, if we were to appear before a courtroom, they would laugh at this for evidence because we could have printed it up ourselves." Just as I finish that thought, I look up at a corner in the room and gasp for the first time in my life. 

"Look!" I indicate a security camera while gleaming.

"I suppose that's our proof!" Jess says sarcastically.

"Okay so here's the plan," I huddle everyone and explain that on Monday we are to tell our secretary the situation and she cannot tell our principal. We ask is she can give us the footage and we play it at the lunch assembly to show everyone he is a guilty man. Then he will be arrested and forced to return the money. 

"Sounds good," Jess agrees.

"Break!" Gareth, Jimmy, and I yell and everyone laughs.

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A/N Hey Y'all! So this is my new chapter... duhhhhhh. Sometimes I question my own sanity. Anyway, Please comment and tell me what you think cause I love hearing about peoples opinions! Particularly on my stuff. Also remember to vote if you likey my story. Ya! Thanks guys. Love y'all!