It's Just A Skirt

by Matthew Potter

  “Ok so after getting into the room?”

  “I go to the trunk,” I said with a confident smile. “If we’re lucky then these morons will have everything we’re looking for right there”

  The rest of the plan was the easy part. I grab the things and take them back to Cherry.

  Bam mission accomplished.

  “I’m not sure why I’m putting on the girl’s uniform again, though”

  “It's all part of the plan”

  Uh huh.

  **************

  Jade and I were in the quad waiting for everything to start. Quinn had just gone into Curtis a few minutes ago. I was actually a little nervous, to be honest. We were, after all, breaking into a dorm room and stealing something. Of course said some things were already stolen but it was still breaking and entering. I was also a bit excited too. When I agreed to steal the necklace before it was about the money but now it felt like I was doing something important. I was helping people getting back something that belonged to them.

  It felt good to help people.

  “What’s taking so long?”

  Jade was fidgeting next to me. To calm her, I reached over and grabbed her hand. It kind of surprised both of us. First of all, it was the first time I’d ever really held a girl’s hand. It was soft and smooth and strangely a lot like mine. Second of all, though, I kind of flushed a bit when I did it. Jade’s cheeks went a bit red too.

  “Thanks,” she said softly.

  I smiled. “Anytime”

  She opened her mouth to say something else but I quickly stopped her with a hand.

  Quinn and Frank were coming out of the building.

  “Finally,” said Jade as she got up from our bench.

  “Wait” I held her hand, keeping her in place. “Something’s wrong, Henry isn’t there”

  Jade stopped moving. The two of us watched as Quinn led Frank across the quad toward the girl’s dorms. As she passed us, we locked eyes. I saw it in her eyes, we were screwed. I quickly waved her on, she shrugged then turned to Frank with a giggle. She lightly put her hand on his elbow and led him on. Ok so no Henry was a problem but I could handle it. If he was there I would just have to improvise a bit.

  ‘We should abort”

  “No,” I said, giving her hand a squeeze. “We’re not going to get another shot like this. I promised your sister I’d get those things back and today is the day. I can handle Henry”

  So the two of us went ahead.

  In the room---before coming out here---it was decided that she should provide backup. So Jade put on a pair of my jeans, sneakers, and a hoodie. It wasn’t the best disguise but honestly, she looked like most guys did on Friday nights. The plan was for her to linger about in the dorm, acting as a look out and possible backup if I needed it. It made her excited to be a part of it too I think. When I suggested it, she was practically giddy. It was also a bit of payback on my part. If I was going to get all girled up for this then she was going to get boyed up for it too.

  We looked an interesting pair.

  Her in my baggy hoodie and jeans, me in my borrowed girl’s uniform and blonde wig. It was kind of ironic actually.

  Getting into Curtis wasn’t actually a problem. I slipped my arm into her’s and giggled like a fool. It did the trick for the man at the desk because he barely looked up at us. It being the weekend, the opposite sex was allowed in the dorms. That is as long as they were accompanied by a resident of said dorm. Also, they weren’t allowed to stay after six at night. Hopefully, neither of us would be here that long.

  “This way,” I said, taking her hand and leading her to Frank’s room.

  Thankfully the hallway was deserted. It was five now, we had about an hour before I would be “kicked” from the building. Knowing my skill, I could be done in ten minutes.

  “What’s that smell?”

  Jade was pinching her nose.

  The smell in question, I’d actually noticed it too lately. It was a pungent odor, like motor oil mixed with sweaty gym socks. I was pretty sure where the smell was coming from and was happy to report that it did not, in fact, come from me at all.

  “It's boys,” I said, rolling my eyes.

  Hey I was only technically half of one.

  Both halves currently in trouble because our plan was falling apart.

  “Quinn just texted,” said Jade after a moment, holding her phone.

  I was glad there was no one in the hallway. Jade’s masquerade would have been shattered if anyone saw a “boy” holding a cell with glittery pink case.

  “Henry’s still in the room as we suspected,” she said, texting away like a pro.

  A plan formulated in my head at that exact moment.

  “Text Maddie,” I said quickly.

  Jade gave me this “umm huh” look. It was kind of cute actually.

  Instead of explaining right away, I took her by the hand and led her over to one of the alcoves in the hall. In a normal situation, this might have been seen in a different light. I’d seen many a couple sneak off into said alcoves. As it was now, I just wanted to be out of sight so I could explain my plan to her.

  “Maddie is Henry’s sister, right?”

  She nodded and then I saw the light bulb.

  Figuratively of course.

  She quickly starting texting.

  “Maddie is calling him now,” she said excitedly.

  It didn’t take long for Henry to leave the room. In the split second I saw him, though, I panicked. What if he recognized me or the wig? Without thinking, I pushed Jade against the wall and wrapped my arms around her neck, giggling like a moron as I did so. The alcove being so small, the embrace was quite intimate. I saw shock flash across her face before her cheeks turned a scarlet red. I felt a burning in my cheeks as well. I felt something else too, a tingling in my chest.

  Did I just get aroused?

  Blushing myself, I pulled as soon as I knew he was far out of sight.

  “Sorry, I panicked,” I said quickly.

  “No I get it,” she said with an awkward shuffle of her feet. “You thought he might have recognized you”

  The awkwardness fell into silence for another minute or so.

  Then without thinking, I took her hand and led her back to the room.

  Just like Cherry’s room, the door was locked but I was becoming quite the pro at lock picking.

  Bingo.

  “Where did you learn to do that?”

  “I have brothers”

  She gave me a weird look and a little nod.

  ‘You stand watch, I’ll get the goods”

  Finally letting go of her hand, I left her in the hall.

  I didn’t know how much time Maddie or Quinn bought us, so I worked fast. The trunk in question was pretty much where I thought I saw it---at the foot of Frank’s bed. I rushed over, hoping it wasn’t locked. I was confident at picking a door lock, not so much a padlock. Thankfully Frank wasn’t as cautious as I thought him to be. I got into the trunk without a problem. It was loaded down with the usual crap I expected to find in there---trinkets, clothes, useless other junk.

  No stolen goods.

  Definitely no necklace.

  Cursing, I was about to give up when I remembered something. My brother Mike used to have a trunk similar to this one. His trunk used to have this false bottom. He used to stash money in there. I may or may not have found said false bottom once. Thinking that Frank might just as paranoid, I started to look in the same place my brother had it. Sure enough, my search was not in vain. Tapping my knuckles along the bottom of the trunk, I could clearly tell it was hollow. One of the corners was chipped away a bit. I was able to get a finger in the crack and lifted up, revealing the contents underneath.

  A large zippy bag full of said stolen items and a notebook.

  I grabbed the bag then decided to give the notebook a look.

  It was full of surprises.

  It was also pretty old, at least twenty years or more. All of the pages were
yellowed and had that dusty smell to them. Ninety percent of the pages were filled in too. From what I could gather it was some kind of ledger. The first date was 1985 so it was a bit older than I thought. It was a detailed list of items, stolen items. Most were stupid things like lipstick, panties, other clothing products. Some of the stuff that the girls that Cherry told me about were reporting had gone missing. Some of the other stuff here was a little more intense like necklaces and bracelets.

  The curious thing about the older entries though was that all the items were returned. At the end of the year apparently. So whatever this was, it really did seem to start out as a prank game. Take the girls things then give them back with no hard feelings. A Curtis Hall tradition it would seem. About ten years ago---according to what I could gather from reading---things changed. Most of it was still misc. junk like before but there were other things too. More expensive things. One year it even looked like a car had been taken. There was a name next to the theft and a price tag.

  Oh shit.

  Getting to the last few pages, things settled down again.

  I found the things Cherry said were missing.

  Looking in the zippy bag, I could see they were still in fact here.

  I was about to call the case closed as it was but then I noticed something.

  Cherry’s necklace wasn’t on the list.

  I double checked to make sure but sure enough, it wasn’t there.

  Cursing, I pulled out my cell.

  Jade wasn’t answering.

  “You’ll have to call her back,” said a cold voice from behind me. “She’s not able to answer at the moment”

  I snapped around, ready for anything.

  What I found was Frank standing in his doorway, holding a distinctive pink glittery cell. From behind him he grabbed someone and whipped them into the room. Jade stumbled and fell to floor, unhurt but frazzled. I rushed to her, hoping she was all right.

  “What the hell” I snapped, glaring at Frank.

  “I should say the same Georgie,” he said, slamming his door behind him. “I thought we were pals. Do pals break into one another’s rooms?”

  He had me there.

  I was ready, though.

  “I don’t know,” I said with a smirk. “Do pals force their other pals to steal other people’s things?”

  I was still holding both the zippy bag and the notebook.

  I had him dead to rights and he knew it.

  “A harmless prank,” he said with a shrug.

  “Where’s Cherry’s necklace then?”

  I saw it right there---the look on his face---I had him.

  I’m not sure what he was up too but he knew he’d been got. If it was such a harmless thing like he said, the necklace should have been in there.

  “It's not hers” he snapped “it's mine. I bought it, I gave it to her. I have every right to take it back if I want!”

  “That’s what this is about?” spat Jade. “You being a spoiled brat because my sister kept the necklace you gave her”

  I could see the anger.

  Frank was clearly pissed.

  “No, it about that little dyke humiliating the hell out of me. Me, Frank Curtis. No one dumps me and gets away with it. No one fucks with me and gets away with it either”

  Frank lunged at us. It was at that moment that I cursed myself for not taking those self-defense classes when my father offered them.

  Frank was almost upon us before he was on the ground. I’m not sure what happened for a second until my brain caught up with things.

  Or more importantly Jade.

  Whatever I thought about how awesome she was, what I just saw double it.

  She tore him apart.

  One second she was there next to me, in the next second, her foot was up to the side of Frank’s head. He didn’t even have time to react before she spun around, using the very same leg to sweep his feet out from under him. He was on the ground now, Jade up top of him, her knee on back of his neck, one of his arms pulled behind him.

  “Move and I’ll break it” she snapped.

  “I’m sorry, please God I’m sorry” Frank was whining now.

  Me, I was in total shock.

  “What in the what?”

  “Taekwondo,” she said with a heavy breath and a big smile.

  “You’re awesome!”

  She was too.

  “Thanks,” she said then pulled on Frank’s hair, yanking his head back. “Where’s my sister’s necklace?”

  “I don’t have it anymore” he gasped. “I sold it”

  “Sold it, why?”

  “I needed the money”

  “You’re rich,” she said, yanking his hair more.

  “My Dad cut me off” he gasped. “He got tired of me squandering it away”

  That made sense. That’s how I got into this mess in the first place after all. I mean if I could just learn to budget my money a little better than I would never have been enticed by Frank’s offer, to begin with. Then again, though, it was the best thing that ever happened to me. I mean I got to meet Jade and I learned to accept and like myself.

  ‘So you thought stealing my sister’s necklace squared things away?”

  “It's mine” He snapped, Jade grounded her knee, he gasped. “I’m sorry ok. I had a debt I needed to pay.”

  Jade looked like she wanted to kill him. Me, I think he’d had enough. Though I wasn’t about to let him off the hook that easily.

  “If this is all some prank, why that stupid thing with Janet and Craig at the mall?”

  “It was a frame up” he gasped, Jade yanked his hair, even more, I could actually see some of it in her fingers now. “If things went south, I was going to blame it all on George. I mean look at him, he’s a little fag already. It was easy. Especially after I saw him in that uniform. It was all there. We got the pic. I was going to humiliate him with them then say he took the necklace because well…”

  “I’ve heard enough,” I said, wanting to kick his ass myself.

  So it was all a lie. I mean I knew there was something going on but I never thought it was going to be like this. Not again.

  “I’ve heard enough too,” said a new voice.

  Jade and I looked at each other, shocked. Not only because we’d been so preoccupied with everything but also because we had no idea where Mr. Downes had come from. He wasn’t the only one either I saw. He was flanked by a shocked and confused Henry and smirking Maddie. She was no doubt smirking at Frank on the ground, his ass having been handed to him by her best friend.

  “Sir, I can explain”

  Frank was trying to weasel his way out of this.

  “Not going to happen, this time, Mr. Curtis,” he said then turned to Jade. “Miss Flynn, can you let him up, please. I’ll take it from here”

  Jade nodded sheepishly and crawled off Frank. Frank didn’t have a chance to get up on his own though because Mr. Downes quickly pulled him off the floor, placing a stern hand on his shoulder.

  He turned to address the assemblage.

  “Now how about all of us reconvene this conversation in my office”

  Busted.

  We all nodded and made our way out of the room.

  Me, I was more confused now than ever.

  Ch.10

  I was still confused.

  “What do you mean the whole school heard everything?”

  Maddie had just finished explaining to us what had happened. Or more importantly, how Mr. Downes had known what was going on in the first place. It was actually a little hard for me to believe. Somehow, everything that had happened in Frank’s dorm had been broadcast to the whole school. I’m still not sure how but someone recorded everything going on in said room then tapped into the PA system, sending our entire conversation out there for everyone to hear. Of course, that included the principal. Of course, that sent Henry running back to his room, Maddie followed close behind.

  She and her brother arrived about the same time the Headmaster did.
/>
  What I wanted to know was how?

  I mean sure I could do something very similar but I needed to have the right tech to do so. I’d also have to have said tech in place, beforehand. It wouldn’t be that hard to accomplish either. The only problem was access. I’d only been in Frank’s room once before. Whoever pulled this off had to have been in there more than once, even alone. I looked at everyone currently in the waiting room, besides maybe Maddie, the only other person who could have done it was Henry. Right now he was currently sitting with his head in his hands.

  Frank and Cherry were in the office right now.

  We couldn’t hear what was being said but Mr. Downes had raised his voice once or twice.

  We knew it couldn’t be good.

  Henry looked about as surprised as anyone.

  So that left…

  ‘Maddie, did you bug your brother’s room?”

  “Eww gross,” she said, shuddering.

  OK so maybe she wasn’t the sharpest tool in the shed.

  “No dumbo,” said Jade with a sigh. “did you put some kind of device in your brother’s room, you know so someone could record what was going on in there?”

  “Someone did that!?”

  Ok, so it definitely wasn’t Maddie.

  Which left a mysterious third party.

  A mysterious third party who I was pretty certain I now knew. The only question, of course, was why?

  Before I could find time to dwell on, the office door opened up.

  Frank came out first. He looked at all of us. His eyes lingered on Henry for a minute then went right to me. I saw it in the look---pure hatred. So I hadn’t made a friend in Frank Curtis. It was his own fault, though. Frank was a jackass. Not only did he use me but he tried to blackmail me, set me for a crime I didn’t commit and called me some pretty nasty names in the process. Well, to be fair Cherry tried to blackmail me too but she had good intentions. Frank was only covering his own ass. What’s worse, he humiliated me in the process.