“Unoriginal, but effective. You and your classmates, you loved it, didn’t you?”
“Of course we did.”
“And everyone knew who did it, right?”
“Yes.”
“Did any damage occur from the prank?”
He shifted uncomfortably. “There was some chipping of the marble floor.”
She nodded. “Fixing a marble floor isn’t cheap. I imagine the principal wasn’t amused by the prank or the bill to fix the floor.”
“I wouldn’t know,” he admitted.
“Oh, really? Why was that, do you think?”
“It was a long time ago, Officer Hookstead. Kids these days are very different. I’m sure those boys back then were caught, punished, and learned their lesson.”
Rising from her seat, she chuckled. “I bet you’re wrong. I bet everyone knew which students were involved, but I highly doubt they were punished. And I’d bet you dinner that they didn’t learn a damn thing from the whole situation except that for one day, they were considered badass to every one of the two thousand kids in this building.”
“So we should just let the kids do whatever they want, and let the taxpayers pay for the damages?”
“I didn’t say that. But what is far more important than covering the repair bill is that these kids learn to value the school like it’s their personal property. The fact that they felt justified in vandalizing their own school is the root of the problem. We need to change the narrative because issuing tickets, fines, and court appearances just perpetuates the current one—that adults, especially school-related adults, are out to get them.”
They sat in silence for a moment. When he looked at her, his lips twitched, showing he couldn’t quite hide the humor he wasfeeling. “So you raided the enemy at homecoming, huh? Such a deviant in your youth.”
Her brain flashed back to her ex-husband’s email—on the word “deviant,” and then she squashed it down.
“Tell me, Officer E, were you a part of your senior prank?”
She loved that he used the students’ nickname for her. It made their working relationship feel much friendlier and gave her a slight tickling sensation in her belly at the intimacy of it.
“I planned the damn thing,” she admitted.
His eyes widened, and the smile kicked into full gear. “Oh, really? What naughtiness, pray tell, did you dream up?”
“Nothing damaging,” she admitted. “Although I do think it was rather original. We borrowed some tires from a construction company—with their permission, as long as we returned them—and put them over the flagpole.”
He broke out in laughter. “That flagpole is thirty feet high.”
Grinning, she leaned back in her chair. “Like I said. Original.”
“What happened?”
“Physics teachers took their classes out to try and figure out how to get them off the flagpole without cutting them.”
“Did they succeed?”
“Nope. The construction company came and got them that night. Had to use a crane to do it.”
He squinted at her. “But you and your friends didn’t use a crane to get them over the pole, did you?”
She shook her head.
“How did you do it?”
“I’m not telling. I just might help some seniors do it this year. Can’t give away all my secrets,” she teased.
