Sorry, Mom, I thought before I pulled her lanyard from my pocket and flashed her ID card across the door’s sensor. There was a softbeepas the red light turned green and then theclickof the lock. We were in.
The student center was pitch-black. “We can’t turn on the lights, can we?” Manik asked once we’d all slipped inside and carefully closed the door behind us.
“No way,” Zoe said. “Lighting up the whole first floor? Campo would be on us in seconds. There are so many windows here.”
“How are we supposed do this, then?” Manik countered.
“Fear not,” Tag said, “for we have the magic of flashlights.”I heard him unzip his backpack again and someone else unzip theirs too.
“You said you didn’t know what we were originally doing,” I muttered to Alex.
“I didn’t,” he muttered back. “My email said to come equipped with flashlights.”
He and Tag began switching them on while the rest of us watched. Why did Tag and Alex have so many mini flashlights?
It was a rhetorical question. Just, of course they did. They had everything, including a contraband cat. Rumor was that they’d found a stray kitten in town and smuggled it into their dorm room.
“Turn on your phone lights too,” Tag instructed. “We’re going to line these up from the yearbook office to the storage room—”
“We’re hiding the Almanacs in the storage room?” I blurted as the others simultaneously asked, “Whatstorage room?”
“The storage room at the other end of the lounge,” he answered. “Right behind the Hub.” I recognized something wry in his voice. He was pleased, pleased that most of the group had no idea what he was talking about; it boded well for the prank.
“But that’s so close,” Maya said, her voice strained. She was definitely going to puke again. “Why hide them here when we could hide them across campus?”
“Because transporting them would be too much work,” I guessed. “Carrying all those heavy boxes for that long would slow us down and pose more of a risk of getting caught.”
“Exactly,” Tag said. “Hiding the Almanacs as close to the office as possible is the safest and most unexpected move.”
“And the funniest,” Alex said with a laugh, and again, I suspected he knew more about this prank than he was letting on.
“I like it.” Manik nodded. “I’ve never seen this storage room before, but it sounds secure enough.” He reached for a flashlight. “I’ll head to the office.”
“Zoe and Maya, if you could go too?” Tag asked as I handed Manik my mom’s keys. The yearbook office was locked. “Start moving some of the boxes? Alex and I should have the runway finished soon.”
“Oh my god,” Zoe said. “Are we the muscle, Swell?”
Tag chuckled. “I wasn’t going to put a label on it, Wright, but…”
“I love it,” she said and exchanged a grin with Maya. “Instead of two lacrosse lugs, you chose us.”
“I’ve seen you in the gym and Maya in the workshop,” Tag said. “You’re both much more capable.”
Egos extremely boosted, Zoe and Maya turned to follow Manik to the yearbook office. Although Maya soon made a detour to the restroom.
Uh-oh.
I blinked when I heard Tag ask if I could go open the door to the storage room. “Sure,” I said softly, remembering when we had first explored it together. It was down the hall and around the corner from the Hub, its door partly covered by a large blue-red-and-gold Ames flag. We’d never given it a thoughtuntil Josh had brought it up at dinner at my house one night. Apparently he and the Alumni Relations office were in a heated battle over who deserved use of the space. “They haveplentyof room in their offices upstairs,” he’d said, stabbing his pork loin in frustration, “while I don’t havenearlyenough in the kitchen!”
Tag and I’d checked it out to find the room filled to the brim with supplies for reunion weekend. Storage shelves lined the walls, housing boxes of table linens, graduation flags, and even old class T-shirts. Circular tables, folding chairs, speakers, andDO NOT PARK HEREsigns covered the floorspace. “I’m sorry, but I have to side with Alumni Relations,” Tag had said. “This is a lot of crap.”
“A lot,” I’d agreed, suddenly very aware that we wereveryalone.
Tag had thrown back his head and laughed as I backed him into a dusty corner. We’d had to brush some dirt and cobwebs from our clothes before leaving.
Yes,I concluded with a twinge in my ribs.It’s safe to say no one will find the Almanacs in here.
After kicking the door stopper into place, I reunited with the others in the yearbook office. About thirty cardboard boxes were in the far corner, and Manik looked like he was about to tear his hair out, watching as Zoe and Tag each hefted a heavy box onto their shoulders. “Where’s Maya?” I asked, even though I had a pretty good guess.
