The door to the storage room stood just a few inches open. I seized Ryan’s arm and darted for it, heart hammering in my chest. Penny ducked on the other side of the window.
Ryan launched himself into the closet and shut the door most of the way once we were in. Darkness surrounded us except for the light coming in through the crack. I could only hope Penny had her cell phone out, ready to dial 911.
The rattling stopped. A second later, the classroom door creaked open. The plastic frogs all croaked as a set of footsteps thudded into the room.
Spots danced in front of my vision as Ryan practically breathed in my ear. I let out the breath I’d been holding. What if Mr. Gorfel noticed the storage room door was now shut when it wasn’t before?
Mr. Gorfel set his keys down on his desk with a jingling sound and walked towards the back of the room. My heart slowed a bit. He hadn’t spotted us. A scraping sound followed as he opened a tank. It seemed like he’d come back to feed all his animals. In other words: we’d have to hide in here for a long time.
Mr. Gorfel closed the lid and opened another. “Hey, girl,” he crooned. “I know you must be hungry.”
I really didn’t want to know what he was talking to.
He circled the room outside for several minutes, a few steps at a time. More aquarium lids slid open and closed. Then he must’ve finished feeding everything, because the footsteps grew louder. I let out a slow, quiet breath when his chair scraped against the floor and pulled up towards the desk. He was sitting down.
A lock jiggled again. Mr. Gorfel had just unlocked the drawer we’d tried to open.
The sound of shuffling papers followed. His evil plans? Files on us? At last the noise stopped and the chair squeaked like he’d leaned back into it. Mr. Gorfel sighed and started turning the pages to something.
My stomach lurched. This might just be what we’d come in looking for.
Ryan tapped my arm. I about jumped out the door. I’d forgotten he was standing there next to me. A line of light landed on his cheek as he pointed to the crack in the door. I knew what that meant. Our only chance to see what is was sat right in front of us.
He’d never get up the bravery to go peek, so that was up to me. I crept towards the door, careful to breathe out of the side of my mouth. Craning my neck, I squinted and peered out into the Biology classroom.
Mr. Gorfel sat hunched over his huge desk, a book open in front of him. The late afternoon sunlight poured in, right on the pages. And they were shiny pages, too, which meant I couldn’t read anything on them.
Great. Now I could only wait for a cloud to block out the annoying sun. Or for Penny to peek over the window and see what it was instead. I couldn’t bet on that, though. She’d get spotted. Only after my back started to ache did the sunlight in the room start to dim. Ryan’s hot breath blew against my ear as he leaned over more to see. The annoying shine faded, leaving a big picture in its place.
Ryan lost his balance.
His hands gripped my shoulders. Hard. I lurched forward, struggling to grip the door frame. Instead of getting the wall, my hand hit the door itself.
You can probably guess what happened next.
The door sprang open. But that wasn’t all. It also hit a metal bookshelf with a loud bang and sent a jar of greenish-brown slime teetering to the floor. It shattered and the gross stuff splashed everywhere. I gripped the door frame to stop myself from falling out of the storage room and into the mess.
Slam. Mr. Gorfel shut the book. A loud squeak followed as he pushed his chair back.
I froze, mind blank and legs turning to rubber. Ryan muttered a curse behind me.
“Who’s there?” Mr. Gorfel barked. “Show yourself!”
Heart thudding, I looked around for an escape. None. The storage room didn’t go anywhere. There was no use in putting it off, then. At least we’d have room to run out in the classroom. And Penny could hear what was going on and run for help if she had to. It beat letting Mr. Gorfel corner us in the closet.
I faced Ryan and shrugged, stepping out of the storage room. A. Gist’s voice rang through my head. We strike when no one can hear your cries for help. If Mr. Gorfel was with the Shadow Regime, we’d find out about it while he had us away from everyone else. In other words, now.
Mr. Gorfel stood behind his desk, stiff and trembling. His wide eyes relaxed when they landed on us. I wished I could do the same. Any moment now a portal might open and those goons would come out and arrest us.
Instead, he stood silent for several moments, doing that staring act again. His jaw quivered. “What are you doing in my classroom?”
Heat crept up my neck. Well, this was embarrassing. Ryan shot me a desperate glance. Excuse time.
“Uh…I forgot what my homework was and had to come in to see,” I sputtered, pointing at the board. “I tried the door but it was locked and I had to—”
Mr. Gorfel put a hand up. “Then why didn’t you come get me? Why did you hide in the closet? I thought…I thought you were someone here to rob me or something!” His fists clenched, but still no portal appeared. Turning away, he muttered something under his breath and walked behind his desk. He picked up the book and opened the bottom drawer.
That’s when I saw what he’d been paging through. Benton High School: What a Year It Was!
Man, I felt stupid. A yearbook. That was it. It was probably from the school he used to teach at. No evil plans. No secret cameras.
Mr. Gorfel tucked it back into the bottom drawer and locked it. Then he stood tall, folded his arms over his chest, and stared daggers into us. “Explain.”
Ryan swallowed. “She already did. It…it was a long assignment you gave us and I think we missed something. And we couldn’t find you, so—”
“Why don’t I believe that you’re telling the truth? Because you’re not,” he said. “You got angry over the essay and decided to come trash my classroom or something. Now get out of here!”
Mr. Gorfel stormed over to the door and yanked it open, making the plastic frogs all croak. My shoulders drooped and relaxed as we headed out into the hallway and into fresh air. Mission accomplished…sort of. Mr. Gorfel probably wasn’t working for the Shadow Regime. He would’ve turned us over right there if he was.
“Oh, don’t think you’re getting out of punishment,” Mr. Gorfel said. “I’m going to decide on that sometime this week. I think I’ll let the two of you brood on what it’s going to be while I decide your fates.”