CHAPTER SIXTEEN

out of sight



there was no way i could exit the classroom without drawing attention to myself. fennel didn't let people just walk out. so i strategically waited until she was yelling at some instigator and the class was too focused on them to make my way to the door. once i was in the hallway, i listened closely for the yelling to stop and for walker to ask to go to the nurse.

fennel just kept on rambling though, something about colleges not letting in rapscallions like that student. i peaked through the window to find that walker was looking for me too. he mouthed, "should i ask now?"

i gave him a stern nod and he raised his hand, morphing from an average miserable fennel student to someone who could have been on their deathbed in the blink of an eye. these were cases where i was so grateful he had acting skills. they must have been convincing enough that fennel actually stopped her roaring and called on him. "mr scobell, if you're about to complain, this is not the time."

"your yelling is making my headache worse, miss. please, can i go to the nurse," he cried.

"your complaining is going to make my yelling worse, so please, leave," she snapped back.

i saw him mutter "thank you" with a once again healthy smile and head toward me as fennel resumed the berating. the door squeaked but it was barely audible. and once it closed there was a sense of peace hanging in the newfound quiet.

phase two had just begun. to progress forward, we needed to split up, disperse the flyers, and meet back at the door within a reasonable amount of time. i had my half of the supply in my hand. "alright. see you in ten to fifteen minutes with empty hands?" i asked him. walker revealed the rest of the prints and gave me a thumbs up with his free hand. then we parted ways.

i headed down the stairs and he stayed on the third floor, just like we had planned. we already knew to tape up the bathroom areas, the cafeteria, and the gym, where most students pass through every day, but i had also given him other tips since i obviously have much more experience here. one thing i told him was to try and find wall space near the principal's office, where a concerning amount of kids were sent.

i also let walker in on the prestigious drama program we have in this school, which is bursting with great actors. i figured i would go there first because the drama hallway was near impossible to come across for a new student. frankly, it was difficult for someone who's been teaching here for twenty years to find.

i was told in middle school that it was hidden away in a corridor within a corridor behind a door at the end of another corridor. i also remember on the tour i was given before entering freshman year, i asked where this applauded drama program could be found. my senior tour guide literally said "follow your heart." that whole group of people could be in some theater cult for all i know.

after using some intuition and my limited knowledge of the location of this hallway, i eventually stumbled across what could have been the first landmark in this maze of a building. it was kind of eerie roaming the halls, them being completely empty and all, so it was a relief when i found the corridor that was normally deserted.

i felt like an alarm was going to go off and a mob of theater kids were going to jump me if i even opened the door, which just had to be the tallest, darkest, and most foreboding in the school. but i forced myself to take my free hand and slowly twist the handle. the hallway spanned many classrooms; the door at the end of it was so small from my perspective that i was pinching the air.

it took almost a minute of my precious time to reach that door. i had a funny feeling that the drama hallway would be on the other side of it, that those directions were just an exaggeration. i was just about to take a leap of faith with the hopes of landing on some lush ground, when i heard footsteps from somewhere far behind me. they were crescendoing, too.

fear started to set in as if the theater cult was sending their heinous overlord to kill me. i was at the end of the hall which led to an even scarier hall, so maybe i just felt trapped, but there was unease growing in me along with the volume of the footsteps. i decided i would face the door as if that would camouflage me.

then the sound of their shoes ceased, silence renewed. there was someone some thirty feet behind me. i could feel their eyes on my back. then the person spoke. "y/n, is this where the principal's office is?"

it was walker. i was in a cold sweat because of walker. of course, he has my heart racing every time i talk to him, but this time, it was just stupid.

humiliated, i gracelessly turned my body around to answer him. in the midst of doing this, i must have leaned awkwardly, because the door behind me swung open and i fell straight onto my back into the next hallway. it hurt like hell until i glanced around from the floor and realized where i was. "oh my gosh! i found it!"

walker had to have teleported to me or something, because the next thing i knew he was standing above me with wide eyes. "are you okay?"

"i will be," i laughed. "come on, help me up."

he offered his hand and i took it. "what did you find?"

"this is the long lost theater hallway. and if you're still wondering, no. the principal's office is on the other side of the school."

"oh... alright. i only have two flyers left. what about you?" we both looked down at the untouched amount in my hand. then he checked his phone. "shit, it's already been seven minutes. you haven't put out any?"

"no! okay, it's okay. we have to just rush through this hallway and then we can hit all the other focal points within minutes."

"sounds good," he said. "but i think we're going to have to stick together this time. i keep getting lost."

"sure thing, don't want you walking into the teacher's lounge thinking it's the bathroom. some kid already did that. it didn't end well."

walker and i proceeded to hang up three flyers sporadically through the hallway, not knowing where the theater kids actually have classes. our voices echoed through it. we thought we were alone. but just before we were about to leave, my fingers grazing the door handle, we heard a third voice.

"hey, are you new here?" the person sounded like a cross between a frog and santa. and when i turned around, i came to find out that they looked it too. he stood in front of the nearest classroom.

"yeah, i am," said walker.

"i'll let this one time slide then," the kid i didn't recognize said threateningly. "in the future, though, you don't wanna come back here."

i needed to know why. for research purposes. "why is this hallway so off limits?"

he hesitated dramatically, biting his lip. "i see you're new here as well. you must not know the famous fennels."

"oh, we know them," walker and i said in synchrony.

"have you heard about mr fennel's deep hatred for theater?"

"no, i haven't." i crossed my arms, now intrigued.

"it was years and years ago, back when dowery was a young principal. you know, after principal meyers was hit by a truck? anyways, mr fennel thought dowery's naivety could be used to his advantage. he wanted to have power vicariously through her. he would 'help' her around the office on his off periods, just to gain her trust. that was when the rumor of him cheating on mrs fennel started, but that's a whole other story."

as the kid was telling this entire history textbook of my history teacher, my eyes progressively grew wider and wider. i had never heard about half of this.

"so a few months into the school year, students reported seeing mr fennel entering dowery's office and not leaving it for the day. there's only a substitute when the man is sick or something -- i've heard he has some sort of chronic condition -- so people knew something was up. the day after that, though, it got bad. dowery made an announcement on the loud speaker, listing off the names of each and every theater student and requesting their presence in her office." a few other people started to pour out of the class behind him. he didn't even notice them, he was so immersed in the story he was telling.

"i'm a senior now, but the seniors when i was a freshmen told me that it was the most horrifying day of their life." he made a melodramatic pause. then, in a suddenly saddened tone, he said, "they claimed, and i quote, 'the principal told us that the theater program was officially disbanded from here on out."

i waited a few moments just to be sure he was done talking. the kid waited for us to react, but i was speechless. i didn't know if i was supposed to laugh, cry, or start sympathetically punching the wall? that wasn't even an answer to my question. i guess i was just left to assume that the class had to operate in secret.

walker broke the silence. i forgot he was even there to be honest. "well, you should check out the flyers we just put up. it's a good opportunity if you can't act in school."

for some reason that seemed so rude of him to say after such a performance, but the kid didn't mind. he just smiled at us. "will do!" then his voice and face darkened. "but don't think i'll ever smile at you again if you tell anyone about this."

"okay, thank you," i muttered, fiddling with the door handle. "we have to go now. bye!"

walker and i rushed out into the previous hallway and shut the door behind us. "are you sure we want those kids in our film? they're kind of scary," i said.

"they're better than most of the people in our school," he chuckled.

"true." i took a deep breath. "let's talk on the way back, though. we've been out for a while now."



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thank you for reading chapter 16!

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