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I drop my pencil to the table and raise my eyes, looking at her pointedly.
“Don’t say ‘he’ like you know it’s him doing the vandalism. We don’t know
that. And besides, he just started today. The vandalism has been going on
for over a month.”
I don’t want him taking the fall for something I know he’s not doing.
“Fine,” she snaps, rolling her eyes and picking at her shaker salad. “I
wonder how ‘the guy’ is getting in at night then?”
“Well, I have an idea,” Ten offers. “I don’t think he leaves the school,
actually. The one doing the vandalism, I mean. I think he stays in the school
overnight.”
J.D. bites into his hamburger again. “Why would he do that?”
“Because how else would you get around the alarms?” Ten argues.
“Think about it. The school’s open late—swim lessons at the pool, the GED
class, the teams using the weight room, tutoring… He can leave after
school, eat and do whatever, and make it back before the doors are locked
around nine. And then he’s got all night. Maybe he even lives here. The
attacks are happening nearly every day now, after all.”
I finish my final equation, my pencil digging slowly into the paper. It’s
a good point. How else would someone get around the alarms, unless they
hide out and wait for the doors to be locked?
Or unless they have keys and the alarm code.
“There are no homeless kids at this school,” I point out. “I think we
would know.”
It’s not a huge high school, after all.
“Well, like you said,” Lyla shoots back. “He just arrived, so we don’t
know anything about him yet.” I see her look over my head, and I know
exactly whom she’s watching. “He could’ve been here for the last month
before starting school and no one would’ve known it.”