When I woke up, it was like coming out of one dream only to be pushed into another, a halo of golden sunlight shining in through my window. I felt refreshed and relaxed, my sleep wonderful and undisturbed.
I pushed my covers off and sat up in my bed, rubbing my legs. The cold chills I'd felt the previous night had officially worn off, my hands and feet no longer cold to the touch. With that out of the way, I got ready for school. I stood up and collected my clothes for this school day. Despite how chilly it still got at night, I was still warm during the day.
I dressed in medium-wash jeans and a soft dark blue short sleeve shirt. I paired my outfit with light gray ankle boots. I always changed in my walk-in closet, and peered at myself in the mirror I had in there, still debating what I wanted to do with my hair.
Things like this, moments like these, were so simple in my crazy life. I cherished them, knowing I'd have to dive right back into the Supernatural business the next time I talked with any of my friends. But these moments also felt like they no longer belonged to me. The new me. The old me, yeah, they did, back when I didn't shapeshift, and knew nothing of Supernatural business except for what I read in books and saw in movies.
I decided to leave my hair down that day. I couldn't really brush it out without it frizzing out like a lion's mane, so I applied styling gel to it and only brushed the top layer of hair. I really only brushed my hair after showers, unless I wanted to rip it all out of my skull. My wavy hair flowed from my scalp in lustrous tendrils, framing my face and making my dark green eyes pop.
I finished up my morning routine in my bathroom. After that, I grabbed my school bag and my phone, jogging down the stairs, checking my phone as I did. Our group chat had been blowing up while I'd been asleep. As usual, I was the only one who hadn't answered yet. And apparently Austin had been added to it. I didn't remember that. Maybe I was still too tired.
It read:
Sakura- Anyone awake yet?
Isabella- Yeah I'm here
Shawn- Same
Austin- Yeah
Autumn- Yes. I'm guessing Vera's still asleep though
Isabella- Probably
Sakura- Anyway, I think we should meet up again after school today. By the bayou's edge and our rope swing?
Shawn- Sure. I can make it
Autumn- Me too
Isabella- Same here
Austin- Yeah
I answered as I walked into my kitchen.
Vera- I'm awake now, and I can come too
Sakura- She lives!
Vera- Ha ha ha. So funny I forgot to laugh
Autumn- See you all there
I clicked my phone off and slipped in my right back pocket. Stepping down the last few steps, I walked through the hall and into my kitchen, making myself breakfast and packing myself a lunch.
I had lunch with Isabella and Austin that day. While we ate, Austin peppered us with questions, about what we were planning to do next, where we would go from there, and so on. As soon as I'd answered one question, another one was springing from his lips, to a point where both Isabella and I were laughing at him, nearly spitting out my food as I giggled.
After lunch, I had Honors English Literature, where we had a pop quiz on a book we'd been reading. I didn't have the time to read the last assigned chapter, so I had to guess on the questions concerning that chapter.
When time was up, I wordlessly passed it up the classroom, my mind already somewhere else.
Then I had study hall, where I read more chapters in my English book. I'd made eye contact with Shawn as I entered the classroom, then we broke our contact and I sat in my assigned seat.
The bell rang to end that class period and the school day. I thought Shawn might've tried to grab me after class, but I'd slipped away to my locker before he got the chance.
I spun my combination and hurriedly shoved my necessary books into my backpack. I simultaneously zipped up my backpack and closed my locker door at the same time. I threw my backpack over my shoulder and headed for the exit, a mass of teenagers congesting towards the exit, filling the doorways to their capacity.
Maneuvering my way through the crowd, I managed to get away, my small size coming in handy at moments like these.
Since my house was on my path to the bayou clearing, I quickly darted into my house and dropped off my backpack. I left a quick note for my father, and headed out again, this time with nothing pulling my weight down. I darted in and out of the forest, following the bayou along the edge, slowing getting steeper and steeper as I trailed after it. I turned into the forest again, the trees meeting the bankside. I came back out on the other side and had to stop short, the bayou drop-off cutting into my path.
My feet skidded to a stop right on the edge, dirt falling into the water far below. I gulped a breath. As steadily as I could, I backed up back into the trees and veered a bit more inland until I came back out, resuming my trek to our rope swing.
***
"Why did we think we could find anything?" Autumn ranted, pacing the bayou's bankside, gesturing wildly with her hands. "Most people don't just leave evidence lying around. The truth is the hardest thing to find. Why did we think a group teenagers could find it by just snooping around our houses?" She huffed an exasperated breath, a look of hopelessness falling over her.
Silence descended on our group, Autumn still pacing.
An idea crossed my mind. "Then we look in the places they wouldn't think we would go."
"Like where?" Shawn asked with his arms crossed over his chest.
Sakura snapped her fingers, her brown eyes lighting up excitedly. "My mom's mayoral office! She always tells us to leave her stuff alone there. I bet that's where you'd hide something as important as this."
"When could we go and check it out?" Isabella asked, stepping closer to Sakura.
"Tonight. We could sneak in during their office hours, and hide until they close up."
Shawn smiled, uncrossing his arms. "This may be our lucky break."
I grinned along with him. Maybe we could actually pull this off. A spark of hope ignited in my chest.
Austin chuckled. "This is so cool."
After we planned out what to bring and when and where we'd meet up later, I headed back home, hunger rumbling in my stomach. So when I got home, I set to work on making an after-school snack. I needed them most days, school or a recent shift draining my batteries. It didn't help that my favorite activities were fencing and rock-climbing, draining my batteries even more.
I ate my snack while I started up on my homework, sitting at my desk. I shifted through different things to keep my mind occupied until it was time to meet up again. After I finished my homework, I picked up in my book again, and when I was bored with that, I switched to music, humming along to the soft tunes.
Eventually it was time to head out again, bringing a flashlight in my waistband, nowhere else to put it. I headed down my driveway and turned out into the road, veering towards town. My sneakers slapped against the pavement as I jogged.
Soon enough, buildings sprang up on either side of me as I continued to run down the sidewalk, stopping only when I reached the park pavilion, where we'd decided to meet. It was only a block away from Asuka Lazarov's Mayor's Office.
Sakura and Isabella were already there, sitting on the steps and talking quietly. I approached with a small wave. They smiled back and made room for me to sit. I sat next to Isabella, tiredness from my jog catching up to me.
"You look beat," Sakura stated. "You okay?"
I nodded, taking another gulp of air. "I jogged here. Probably not the smartest move, but I was feeling restless."
Isabella laughed. "Join the club."
About ten minutes later, everyone else had met up with us at the pavilion. After Autumn got there, the last to arrive, we set out.
We looped around the park and came up to the office building around the back, through the back entrance. Using Shawn's enhanced strength, he snapped the lock off and ushered us inside. It was about five o'clock, the office closing in about two hours. So we had to find a place to hide until then. Somewhere the workers wouldn't check before they left for the night.
The building was two stories tall, both levels being used in office spaces. Most of them. There was a section on the top floor that no one used. So that's where we headed. Shawn and I were in the lead, using my sharpened hearing as a way of knowing if anyone was coming out way.
There was one staircase to get upstairs, and it was center-stage on my main floor, right by the front desk. When I saw her, I backed everyone else up behind the staircase, out of sight.
"We're not getting past the lady at the front desk," I whispered. "We need a diversion."
"I'll do it," Sakura offered.
I nodded. "Go up to her, and say you're there for your mom, and that she needs something from the room behind her."
Sakura nodded as I explained my idea, then added, "I'll ditch her afterwards and meet up with you guys again."
Then she left. I could hear her voice, but couldn't distinguish what words she was saying. I peeked my head around the corner and could hear better.
"-in the room behind you," Sakura was saying.
Then I saw the lady at the desk turn around and head into the back room, Sakura following her. This was our chance.
I started forward, keeping my footsteps silent, but I still jogged up the stairs, skipping every other step. The others were close behind me.
We barely disappeared from view, turning around the corner and booking it for the deserted section of the building when I heard Sakura and the lady exit the back room. Sakura headed up the stairs, saying she would give this to her mother right away.
She rounded the corner to the left, where the used offices were, dropped the file on a printer in the hall, and dashed over to our side, on the right.
All together again, we asked Sakura if she knew the best place to hide over here.
She nodded. "I used to play hide and seek in here all the time when mom was working and my dad wasn't around anymore to watch me at home. I'd been six or seven at the time."
Autumn nodded. "I remember. And if I recall correctly, I used to join you." Autumn smiled. "We got in a lot of trouble one time when we were playing and Sakura was stuck in her hiding place. Then we were banned from playing it, but that didn't stop us."
I laughed softly, remarking in my head how long Autumn and Sakura have been best friends.
After that, Sakura led us down the hall, stepping softly and deliberately with every step. I stepped on an old floorboard, making it creak. I flinched, but then kept walking, tiptoeing now.
We went all the way to the far back wall, and spread out from there. While I scanned our surroundings, I saw Austin head for the storage room at the very end of the hall, Shawn following him. Autumn ducked into an abandoned cubicle and hid behind a file cabinet. Sakura and Isabella were still figuring out their spots when I decided on mine.
I dashed into the cubicle closest to me and slid behind the desk, holding my knees close to my chest. Out of curiosity, I poked my head around the side of the desk and saw Sakura slink into a large file cabinet room, and Isabella stuffed between the wall and three sets of filing cabinets. It wasn't the best hiding spot, but it would do.
Time passes on slowly, trudging along as if stuck in quicksand, barely able to lift its feet. I saw the sun slowly move through the sky through the window in the hallway, dusk falling. Then sunset faded altogether, the only light coming from the half-moon hanging near a curtain of clouds.
We also heard the thumping and rustling of people backing up for the day, leaving the building. Most of the noise came from across the hall, but some from the main level as well. I tensed when people started turning down the hall and heading down the stairs, praying no one would see us.
No one did. Once everyone was gone from the upper level, only then did I let my caught breath go, releasing it from my chest. We waited for the lower level to be clear, the noise so faint I was sure only Shawn and I could hear it at that point.
Then there was no noise. Everything was silent and still. The lights went out, switched off from downstairs. The door opened and closed one final time. I waited a few more minutes for the people leaving the building to leave the streets, and get in their cars. I still hadn't moved yet, but when I was about to, a voice from the hall called out to the rest of us.
"Ugh, can we please start searching now?" Isabella called out from her hiding spot.
"Fine, yes, go," Autumn declared in a sassy voice from her cubicle.
"Are you sure?" Sakura questioned.
"I'm sure everyone's cleared out by now," I reassured her.
"Positive?" Austin asked.
"Yes," Isabella emphasized, clambering out from behind her hiding spot.
I did the same, sitting up and squeezing my way out of the cramped cubicle and back out into the hall. Shawn and Austin were coming out of the storage closet when I stepped out, Sakura the last one to come out from the file room she was hiding in.
Everyone pulled out their flashlights, and we whispered to each other as we spread out to search. We'd already planned out our groups by the bayou, so we knew where to search and who to search with. Isabella, Austin, and I crossed the hall over to the used side and fanned out, starting our search. Our flashlight beams bounced and danced as we searched, guiding us along.
While we did that, Shawn, Sakura, and Autumn hurried down the stairs and fanned out their search as well, trying to cover as much ground as possible all in one night, while also trying to stay silent.
We rifled through file cabinets, searched desks and cubicles, checking for hidden compartments. It was a bit mad in there. I'd say we were all paranoid at this point, but I didn't know if that was true, or if we were just trying to expect the unexpected. One of those.
The three of us all met in the hall after we'd searched every inch of the upper floor. We even went back and checked the unused side, even though none of us had seen any files or papers or anything while we were hiding. And none of us were hiding in the same spot.
We descended the stairs and rounded the corner, finding Autumn stopped over a box of files.
"We didn't see anything upstairs," I whispered to her. "Any luck yet down here?"
Autumn shook her head. "I'll finish up on this side. You three go help Sakura and Shawn; there's a lot of building back there, and most of it isn't empty."
We nodded at her and continued on down the hall, flashlight beams shining on the floor, lighting our way. I saw Sakura and Shawn up ahead, both searching separate boxes, flashlights in one hand giving them light, the other hand furiously moving, flipping through file pages.
"Need any more help down here?" Austin called out.
I think even if he'd snuck up to each of them and tapped them on the shoulder, their reaction would have been the same, each of them jumping and pressing a hand to their chests as he spoke.
It took everything in me to stifle my laugh, though I didn't do it very well. I earned scowls from both Shawn and Sakura, which I may have deserved.
"We didn't have any luck upstairs," Isabella explained.
"And I had none in the front," Autumn called out in a stage-whisper, jogging down the hall.
"We've only gotten to this point in the boxes so far," Sakura gestured around her. "The open ones are boxes we already checked. If it's closed, search it."
I headed for the right wall and the large pile of boxes stacked up along it. My same group joined me and the others did the same to the left wall. For a while, all that was heard was the creaking of cardboard, the rustling of papers, and the clinking of flashlights. We could've turned the lights on, but someone could see from the road, find us in here, and get in a lot of trouble.
After a few more minutes, Autumn and Shawn turn down one hallway to the left and Sakura goes down another to the right, leaving Austin, Isabella, and me alone. We finished looking through all of our boxes and were just about to go help Sakura when Shawn called out to us.
"Hey, guys? I think I found something!"
We dropped what we were doing and headed towards Shawn and Autumn, nearly colliding with Sakura as we all rushed to see what they found. We jogged down the hall and found Shawn and Autumn crowded around a large filing cabinet, a thick vanilla file resting heavily in Shawn's hands.