Rita Morse and the Sinister Shadow

by Holly Hook

  * * * * *

 

  We shot each other nervous glances all hour in Acting, the last class of the day. Of course Penny didn’t like my plan at all, but she agreed to it. I felt pretty bad for her. If she got caught, I didn’t want to imagine what her parents would do. Probably ground her for a year.

  I didn’t like the thought of breaking and entering, either. I wished I could just ask Jerry for a list of A. Gist’s minions—he’d help in a heartbeat—but it was even more dangerous to try to talk to him. Man, I wished I could ask for his advice right now. He always had something to say to make me feel better. Be yourself, Rita. Who cares if those snotty girls didn’t invite you to their party? You’ve got better friends.

  Still, we had to do this. This would tell us if I could even go home tonight. Or ever, for that matter. Plus we had the problem of not getting caught. No pressure, right?

  Right.

  “If I even find a piece of paper in there with my name written on it, I’m spending the night at your houses for the next month,” I said, resting my chin on my forearms. I didn’t care how dirty Ryan’s was. I’d help him clean it if I had to.

  We had only a few minutes before the final bell rang. What would Mr. Gorfel have in his classroom if he worked for the Shadow Regime? A license to serve the Shadow Ones? Secret cameras? Notes about me? If he had any evidence, it should still be there, since it was the first day of school. Penny brought that point up already. I was glad to have her along to help us figure things out. I couldn’t keep my head that level in emergencies.

  The bell rang, and everybody put their chairs up on their desks. Time to get this done.

  Ryan gulped. “I really hate the idea of breaking into Mr. Gorfel’s room, even if he isn’t with the Shadow Regime.”

  My hands twitched. Agreed.

  We forced our way through the crowded stairwell, brushing elbows with about half the school. I couldn’t breathe again until we got down to the first floor. The three of us stood against the wall in the main hallway while the school cleared out. Lockers slammed. Chatter got quieter. People ran out the doors in a hurry, nervous about finding the right buses to get on. Good thing the three of us usually walked home and didn’t have to worry about that.

  “There he goes,” Penny said.

  I turned my head. Mr. Gorfel strode out of the science hallway and down towards the office. Well, I hoped it was to the office. If he left the school, that was bad. He could hand my address over to A. Gist any time he wanted.

  “Let’s not stand here,” Ryan said, hugging himself. “We don’t want to be in the halls alone when he’s around.”

  I led the way down the science hallway. “Maybe he left the door unlocked.”

  My hope vanished a minute later as I tugged on the doorknob to his classroom. The door refused to budge. “Crap,” I said, heart leaping up my throat.

  “Look on the bright side,” Ryan said, wiping his sweaty palms on his jeans. “This means he probably isn’t coming back here today.”

  I nodded, imagining the Shadow Regime breaking down my door. We had to get in there, no matter what. I peered through the little window and into his dim classroom.

  Bingo.

  Sunlight poured into the room. Two of the windows were cracked open, probably to clear out the smell. I couldn’t believe our luck.

  I waved Penny and Ryan towards the exit. “We can still get in. Come on.”

  I shoved open the brown exit door and stepped outside into the sunlight. We’d lucked out double-time. Mr. Gorfel’s room was at the back of the school, near the fence and the woods. In other words, nobody except the squirrels would see us sneaking in.

  “Unless someone sneaks back here to smoke, we’re pretty safe,” Penny said, digging into the grass with her shoe. “I think one of us should stand out here and be a lookout, though.”

  I knew what she meant. No way was Penny going in there to get busted. Not that I could blame her, though. And I’d still have Ryan with me. If he got in trouble, it wouldn’t be as bad dealing with his mom. “You’re right. You can stand out here by the window and wait for us. We might need someone to run and get help if things get hairy.”

  Silence hung in the air as we stared at each other. We all knew that “hairy” meant if portals open and shadow people come out to drag us away.

  “But only if it’s the Shadow Regime,” I added. “If a janitor comes in and yells at us, that’s okay.” I dropped my backpack against the side of the school and made for the window.

  The window was cracked open about a foot. I peeked inside. The tank of Venus flytraps blocked half of the window. At least it wasn’t the tank of green slime. That might just make me give up my mission. “If we’re careful, we can get in without knocking that over,” I said.

  Squeezing in was easier said than done. Schools always have those windows that only open a foot or so at the bottom. I got myself stuck a couple of times, and Penny had to help shove me in. Finally I crashed onto the floor, barely missing the flytraps. I hoped the classroom door opened from the inside, or it was going to be even less fun to climb out.

  Ryan had an even harder time. He had to slide in backwards. Plus he banged his knee on the radiator.

  “Okay. Hurry up,” he said once standing.

  I didn’t know where to look first. Mr. Gorfel had a bunch of long homework assignments on the board and left a few pink Detention Slips on top of a cabinet. Nothing weird for him.

  “Look in the drawers,” Penny whispered through the window. She pointed at the boat that was his desk. “He knows students won’t go through there.”

  “Bossy as usual,” I joked. But she was right. If he had anything to hide, it would be in there. I nodded to Ryan and ran for it, heart pounding. “You take that side of the desk and I’ll take this one.” Yeah, the desk was that big.

  Drawers flew open with squeaky noises that someone down the hall would’ve heard. Pens and pencils rolled around inside the top one. Diagrams of frog anatomy stared at me from the second. The third drawer? A huge stack of detention slips that probably wouldn’t last too long sat next to a confiscated mp3 player.

  “That d…doesn’t tell us anything.” Ryan pulled open another drawer. “There’s just a stapler and some red ink pens in this one.”

  “That’s good, though,” Penny said. “The more boring stuff you find, the less likely it is he’s working for the Shadow Regime. Unless he memorized your address. Or has it in his pocket.”

  Leave it to her to always find the positive. But if she was right, there was nothing we could do about that. Maybe breaking in here hadn’t been such a bright idea after all.

  I reached down to open the last drawer.

  It didn’t budge. “Locked,” I said.

  Penny tapped on the glass. “It looks like if there is anything incriminating, it’ll be in there. What else would someone lock up?”

  Ryan let out a breath and lifted a stack of papers off the desk. “You’re right. Maybe there’s a key in here somewhere.”

  I went to search through the other drawers again when a lock jiggled. Ryan must’ve found the key and unlocked the drawer. I faced him, but he’d frozen like the deer my dad almost drove his car into last year.

  It wasn’t the lock on the drawer jiggling.

  Rattling filled the room. The noise came from the classroom door, not the drawer. The doorknob twisted side to side, then stopped, then started again.

  “Oh, crap,” Ryan said.

  Mr. Gorfel had come back.