“What are you doing?” Eric asked.
She ignored him. “Fiona, come in.”
“What is it?” Fiona’s voice came out of the strap. It was low and hard for Eric to hear.
“You’ve got a radio?” he asked.
“Shhh,” Keira told him, then into the radio she said, “Potential surrogate confrontation. Three incoming.”
“On my way,” Fiona said.
Keira dropped her strap. “I don’t think she’s going to get here in time.”
“Then what are we going to do?”
Keira thought for a moment. “How far now?”
“Fifty feet.”
“Okay. On three, you start walking toward the school. Find someplace you can hide. But don’t run. You run, they’ll run, too.”
“What are you going to do?”
“Distract them. Ready?”
He nodded.
“Okay. One. Two. Three!”
Eric took off, using all his will to keep from breaking into a sprint. After a couple of seconds, he looked over his shoulder.
Keira had moved toward the gang of three, her arms outstretched. Though Eric couldn’t hear her, it was obvious she was trying to talk to them. Peter seemed to pause for a second, looking a bit confused.
Eric didn’t wait to see what happened next. He sped up as fast as he could without running and headed for the safety of the north entrance to the school. At least he thought it would be safe. Looking back once he was inside, he realized he’d been mistaken. Keira wasn’t anywhere in sight, but Peter and his friends, though perhaps slowed by a few seconds, were still following him and would soon reach the same door he had just passed through.
Eric looked around. The cream-colored walls of the school were covered with hand-painted signs saying things like “Studying Hard Now Pays Off Later” and “Always on Time, Always Ahead.” They were all part of school district’s campaign for “creating better students.” To Eric they were just reminders of the problems he’d been having.
He forced himself to focus on finding a place to hide.
There were several classrooms nearby but each had only one way in and out. If Peter started searching rooms, Eric would be trapped.
So where should he go? The basement? No way. He’d seen too many horror movies and knew that was the last place where he wanted to hide. Upstairs to the other classrooms? Same problem as on this floor.
There was really only one foolproof solution — the school office. If he could make it there, the most Peter could do was wait outside until he came out. Which would be a problem at some point but he could figure that out later.
Eric checked the trio of bullies’ location again and saw that they had almost reached the stairs leading to the door. Forget walking, he needed to run.
He sprinted down the hallway, racing toward the intersection with the corridor the office was in. He had nearly reached it when—
“Stop right there!”
Eric’s sneakers screeched on the tile floor as he skidded to a stop.
Vice Principal Rose stood in the doorway of a classroom on the right. He was a big man, not just tall but with a chest that jutted out a mile, which was nearly matched by the size of his stomach. The joke around school was that if he got really mad at you, all he’d have to do was sit on you and that would be that. As always, he was decked out in a blue suit and yellow tie, the Valley View school colors. And though he wasn’t in danger of losing any of his hair, he kept it short, military style.
“What do you think you’re doing?” he asked.
“Uh, I was just going to—”
“You were running in the hall, isn’t that right?”
“Yes, sir. I guess I was.”
“You guess?”
Eric said nothing.
The vice principal stepped into the hallway and approached Eric. On the hallway wall behind him was another sign. This one read: “Rules Are Not Guidelines.”
“We’ve talked recently, haven’t we?”
“Yes, sir.”
“What’s your name?”
Eric could hear several people walk up behind him then stop. Someone let out a low, short laugh. Peter, Eric was sure of it.
“Eric Morrison, sir.”
“Right. Morrison. Eighth grader?”
“Yes, sir.”
“You were sent to me…when was it? Yesterday, I think. Because you were tardy.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Well, Mr. Morrison, you’ve been here more than long enough to understand our rules. But just in case you were tardy, running in the hallways is not acceptable.”
“Yes, sir. I’m sorry, sir.”
“Where were you going in such a hurry?”
Eric hesitated. “To the office.”
“The office? Is there a problem?”
“Um…yes, sir. I’m being chased.”
“Chased? Like in a game?”
“No, sir. Like if I get caught, I’ll get beat up.”
Vice Principal Rose suddenly looked concerned. “Who’s chasing you?”
Here it was — a chance to take care of his problem. “They are, sir,” Eric said, pointing down the hall behind him.
The vice principal looked over Eric’s shoulder, then back at him, his eyes narrowing. “Who?”
Eric pointed again. “Them, sir.” This time he turned to look. But instead of seeing Peter, Tommy, and Kyle, all he saw was an empty corridor. “They were there just a second ago.”
“There’s been no one there since I stopped you,” Vice Principal Rose said.
“But…” He’d heard their footsteps. He’d heard Peter Garr laugh. Vice Principal Rose had been standing there then. It wasn’t his imagination. Unless…
Fiona had called it vocal projection. Could they also have projected their footsteps?
“Mr. Morrison, I’m going to let you go with a warning this time. But in the future you will not be so lucky. Now, I suggest you head to your next class so you’re not late.”
“Late?” Eric said. “But lunch just start—”
Before he could finish, the warning bell rang and the hallway began to fill up with students heading to classrooms and lockers. He looked around, confused. When he turned back, Vice Principal Rose was gone.
10
Eric walked in a daze toward his history class.
Twice that day, time seemed to have jumped. Fiona had even commented on it, said it was normal. Eric really wished everyone would stop using that word because he was starting to lose all sense of what normal really was.
He turned into the corridor where his next classroom was located.
“Whoa, there, tiger.”
Once again, he had to stop in his tracks to prevent himself from running into someone. Only it wasn’t just one person this time. It was two. Fiona and Keira were standing shoulder to shoulder, blocking his way.
“We need to get you out of here,” Fiona said. “The situation is more serious than we expected.”
“Uncle Colin and Uncle Carl expected it,” Keira said under her breath.
Fiona shot her a look then turned back to Eric. “Here.” She held out a piece of paper.
“What’s this?” he asked.
“An excuse to get you out of class.”
How would a note from a fifteen-year-old girl who was pretending to be a thirteen-year-old eighth grader get him out of class? “So the office is going to let me go because you excused me? I don’t think so.”
“Just take it.”
He grabbed the note and opened it.
Please excuse Eric Morrison for the rest of the afternoon for a doctor’s appointment.
Thank you,
Patricia Morrison
Eric had to read it twice to make sure he was really seeing what he was seeing. The note looked like it written by his mother. He’d recognize her handwriting anywhere.