Ink and Ashes (25 page)

“We’re counting on you to get the door to the classroom
and
the desk drawer unlocked?” Nicholas combed his fingers through his hair again and put his fedora back on.

“Yeah.”

Nicholas cursed. I hadn’t shared any of my lock-picking skills with the guys, so I suppose I deserved that, but I didn’t have time to explain.

“If someone starts to come back, you’ve got to text us, Fed, so we can get out of there.” I looked at Avery. “If Mom or Dad even look like they’re about to leave, you need to try and stall them.”

“I can do that,” Avery said.

Forrest raised his hand. “So what am I supposed to do?”

“I need you to get our kimonos, and then your job is to keep my dad away.”

Forrest cursed.

I turned to Fed. “I’m going to need to borrow your date.”

Fed cursed.

“And her costume,” I said.

He cursed again.

ASHLEY MET ME
in the girls’ bathroom.

“So why am I doing this?” she asked. She took off her Sailor Moon costume and draped it over the stall.

I traded it for my kimono and sash. “Payback,” I said.

We both knew she didn’t care if I got payback. Ashley and I had been soccer teammates, but that wasn’t the bond that brought her here. She was here because of Fed, and anyone who was willing to do something because it was important to Fed was someone who’d automatically earned a lot of my respect.

“Does this have anything to do with Chase?” she asked.

“I’m about to find out.”

Ashley was a little smaller than I was, so it was a tight fit, but I squeezed myself inside. It hugged every curve of my body, which was disgusting because of the way it fit, and because the dress was still wet. She was in my wet shirt and shorts, so I shouldn’t have been complaining when Ashley was the one doing me a favor.

I exited the stall and looked at my reflection in the mirror. If I bent over too far, someone was going to get a show, and I’m not sure where she’d gotten the outfit, but the V-neck collar went much lower than I was comfortable with. I wasn’t necessarily well-endowed in the chest area, but the tight fit of the costume made the top half more like a corset.

“Uh, I’m going to need help,” she said from inside the stall. She opened the door and walked out.

She had gotten the kimono on, with my shirt and shorts underneath, but needed help with the obi. I wrapped the sash around her waist, and had to concentrate because tying it on myself was different than tying it on someone else. When I finally figured it out, I bloused the top half of the kimono over the sash so the bottom didn’t drag on the floor.

Our hair was the same color and straight, but her hair was a lot longer than mine. She took the elastics out of her hair, then pulled it back and started to twist it into a bun.

“I’m going to need to hang onto some of these bobby pins,” I said, “but you can use the rest.”

Fortunately Mom had used a lot of pins to keep my hair in place. I pulled the pins and the kanzashi from my hair and set them on the counter for her. She gave me her hair elastics so I could put my hair into pigtails, and I stuck four bobby pins back into my hair, two at each pigtail. I helped stick the kanzashi in her hair, hanging the ornament to the right side of her head.

We checked each other out when we were finished. All in all, I thought we looked pretty good. She agreed, and we went outside, where the rest of the guys were waiting. Fed’s face bloomed into a big smile when he saw Ashley. She pranced over to him and hugged his waist. Based on his reaction, I was pretty sure I was one of the only girls not related to him who’d given him a hug before. He didn’t hesitate to embrace her back.

Forrest had changed back into his kimono by the time we exited. He grabbed me, tugging me closer, and gave me a sly smile.

I shoved him in the chest. “Can you please look at my face and not my boobs?”

Forrest continued to stare. “They’re so . . . squished.”

“Perv,” Avery said behind him.

“Gross,” Parker said, ducking his head into the bowling ball.

Nicholas shoved Forrest’s back.

“The dress is a little fitted, that’s all,” I said, twisting and adjusting myself so I didn’t fall out. “Okay, Ashley, you go with Forrest and try to keep your back to my dad when you’re dancing together. If Mr. Tama leaves the gym, you need to text us, Avery.”

Avery nodded.

“The things I do for you,” Forrest muttered.

Fed let go of Ashley, and Forrest led Ashley back into the gym.

I took a deep breath.

“Should we synchronize our watches?” Fed asked.

Nicholas rolled his eyes.

“Let’s roll,” Parker said, smiling.

Parker, Fed, and Nicholas kept watch while I sneaked into the teacher’s lounge. I scanned the lockers until I found the one labeled with Mrs. Davenport’s name. Apparently they hadn’t gotten around to changing it yet. The door was secured with a cylinder lock. Some were harder than others to pick, but I wouldn’t know until I started. The only locks I’d picked so far were family locks. My pulse beat furiously, but I knew I could do this. I took a pin from my hair and broke it in half. I bent one half and slid it into the bottom of the lock as the tension wrench, and the other half I slid into the top as the pick.

If I’d had my pick set, I could use a rake pick and jiggle this thing open, but as soon as I applied tension and moved the pick, I knew I’d have to move each pin individually. I maneuvered the pick, listening for each pin, and was able to open it in what I assumed was under two minutes. I cracked open the locker. Except for bread molding in a plastic baggie, the locker was empty. I grabbed the baggie and slammed it into the garbage can on my way out.

Parker, Fed, and Nicholas had hopeful faces when I exited, but I shook my head.

“We’ve gotta go to the classroom,” I said. The longer we were gone, the greater the chance was Dad would notice. I didn’t know if my dad or the teachers scared me more. We needed to hurry.

Parker and Fed were able to lure the teachers away as planned. Nicholas and I tore down the hall. I unclenched my hand with the bobby-pin tools when we got to the door and slid them inside the lock. Nicholas jerked his head up every few seconds to check for people.

“Could you be a little less obvious? You’re making me nervous.”

“Sorry,” he said, jerking his head again.

I moved my left wrist, applying tension with my right hand and picked the door to the classroom.

“You are frightening.” Nicholas shuddered.

“So I’ve been told,” I said. “I’ve done this a few times. Desk drawers, cabinets, dresser drawers, glove compartments. Pretty much any place my parents might hide something.” Come to think of it, it was surprising it had taken me nearly to my seventeenth birthday to stumble upon the picture of my fathers together, given what a snoop I was. But I couldn’t think of either one of them, or my thoughts would be sucked into a downward spiral.

We slipped inside. I pushed those thoughts out of my head and focused on the desk. The room was dim, but there was enough light to maneuver around.

“Check bookshelves, behind posters, anywhere you can think of,” I said.

“What am I looking for?”

“Anything that would place him in my room or prove motivation to break in to my room in the first place.” I used the same pieces of the bobby pin to open the desk drawer. If nothing was here, I’d have to break in to his house.

Once the thought crossed my mind, I realized how far I’d gone—how far I was willing to go. What we were doing wasn’t right, but breaking in to a house seemed to be a whole new level. Had I made the right decision?

The messenger bag was there. I exhaled the breath I’d been holding, and threw it open, going through everything as carefully as possible and remembering the order in which everything had been stacked. Lecture notes. Ungraded quizzes. In the left front pocket of the bag, I found his wallet.

“Nothing,” Nicholas whispered. “We should get out of here.”

Our phones buzzed. The time flashed 10:55. Fed had sent a text.

Someone is coming.

Our phones buzzed again.

Stay there.

“Underneath the desk,” I said, throwing the bag into the drawer but keeping the wallet in my hands.

We scrambled under. With the two of us, it was a tight fit. I thought I might pop a seam in Ashley’s dress. I hugged my knees close to my chest and could feel my heart pounding against my legs. I rolled the chair as close to us as I could. The dance would be ending in five minutes. They were probably checking all the doors before they left. If we didn’t get out of here soon, the dance would be over, and Dad would definitely notice we were gone.

Voices came closer, and the doorknob jiggled.

“This one’s unlocked,” Mrs. Kenton’s voice said.

“Probably just forgot,” the other one said. Coach Cesar.

The door opened. A light turned on. “It’s empty,” Mrs. Kenton said.

The light turned off. The door clicked closed.

I let go of the breath I was holding.

We waited a moment, and then I pushed the chair away. I let my head rest against the desk, and exhaled. I opened Mr. Tama’s wallet.

Beneath a clear plastic pocket was his driver’s license. My heart stopped. My hands ran cold.

“Nicholas.” I held the wallet in the light streaming through the window of the door and angled it for him to see.

Mr. Tama’s picture was on the license issued in Hawaii, but with a different name. Nicholas read it and raised his head slowly. “His name is Lionel Bart?”

I knew that name from somewhere. From the Internet.

How could I have missed this? I’d read so many articles about my father and the people who had grudges against him in the last few months, but even the sheer number wasn’t enough to assuage this feeling I should have recognized Mr. Tama from the pictures in the articles about his case. I should have known.

Behind the license was a piece of paper. Nicholas slid it out and showed me a temporary Utah license issued under the name of Marcus Tama. He stood up and extended his hand to help me off the floor. “Do you think this temporary license is a fake?”

“I have no idea. Maybe we should take the licenses as proof,” I said.

He slid both licenses back in the wallet then shoved it in the bag. “Proof we broke in here?”

We heard Mrs. Kenton say something on the other side of the door.

I straightened the bag, put everything back in order, and locked the drawer with the pins.

“Let’s go.” I raced to the door.

“But the teachers are still out there,” he said.

“Does it really matter at this point?”

He shrugged. “Guess not.”

I opened the door, and we started to run.

“Mr. Russo. Ms. Takata,” Mrs. Kenton called.

We stopped and turned around.

“What are you doing down here?” she asked.

Nicholas put his arm around me. “Looking for somewhere private.” He winked at her.

“I suggest the two of you get back in there,” she said.

We both nodded and resumed running.

Maybe we should have taken the wallet with us. I couldn’t believe everything had gotten so bad that stealing had become okay.

Fed and Parker ran into us first, close to the entrance. Parker’s right ankle was taped and shoeless. His costume was deflated and draped over his arm. “Mr. Tama isn’t who he says he is,” I said. “But I don’t know what to do. We can’t tell Dad, can we? We have to call the police.”

My phone was in my obi, around Ashley’s waist. We passed the faculty lounge, and I ran inside. I picked up the landline phone on a table by the refrigerator and dialed 911.

“911. What’s your emergency?” the female dispatcher said.

I told them I was at Franklin High School, and there was a teacher there by the name of Marcus Tama who was a convicted felon, and I was worried he was putting someone’s life in danger. When the person asked my name, I said, “Anonymous.”

“I’ll send someone over right now,” she said, and I hung up.

Fed, Parker, and Nicholas stood behind me.

“They’re on their way,” I said.

We jogged at a slower pace to the gym, and I tried to explain as much as I could while sucking large amounts of air.

What if Officer Schwartz was assigned to this case? As far as I knew, he’d done less than nothing so far. I brushed the thoughts out of my head. I couldn’t think that way. Everything was going to be okay.

I didn’t stop until I found Forrest waiting for us with Ashley at the entrance. I tried to catch my breath. The gym had emptied except for the clean-up crew, which included my parents and some teachers. Mom and Dad were at the other end of the gym. Mom cleaned up the table with drinks, while Dad helped kids from student government take down decorations.

Nicholas caught Avery’s attention and motioned for him to come over. I looked at Fed, who had his arms around Ashley, her back facing us, and lowered my eyes in her direction. He closed his eyes and nodded. I knew he felt like a jerk. I felt like a jerk, but she couldn’t be here.