The following day the entire school was in a gloomy mood. The students were careful wherever they went because they did not know who would disappear next.
Esther, Andrew and Lisa went about their day as they regularly did, and they chose to meet at lunchtime. They chose to eat in the library at the same desk where they had met the previous day.
Andrew took a bite of his chicken sandwich before speaking up. "So, where do we start?"
"I think that we should identify the victims first," Esther replied.
"We already know who they are," Andrew said.
"I meant to say that we need to identify them as who they are to the school," Esther explained. "We need certain details that only the school would know."
"Doesn't that mean that we would need the school's private documents and files?" Andrew asked. "Wouldn't we have to hack into the school system, or break into the headmaster's office?"
"I'm out," Esther raised her hand and said.
"What do you mean you're 'out'?" Andrew asked. "You're the one who started this group."
"And the same person who said that we needed the files just now," Lisa added. "You being 'out' makes completely no sense."
"This is the first meeting and I'm already nervous about this," Esther admitted. "I've never done anything like this without Dexter's permission."
"Have you ever done anything like this in general?" Lisa asked.
"No," Esther mumbled.
"Then what do you have to lose?" Lisa asked.
"My scholarship," Esther replied. "Principal Winter may demote me and take away my scholarship."
"Don't be a wimp," Lisa said after a moment of silence. "Don't worry about your scholarship, we'll be careful. And if you're worried about being demoted, what difference does it make? Principal Winter elected you into power but he does not even listen to what you have to say. Everyone knows that he only listens to Dexter Paige."
Esther thought about it for a long while. She was indeed overlooked by Principal Winter. He never paid any attention to her. Not that she ever did anything to gain his attention, but still.
She nodded her head in agreement with Lisa, "So, how do we do this?"
"We need someone to act as a distraction and another person to break into the office," Lisa said. "We also need to do this at a time when no one will see us."
"So, probably during prep time after classes," Andrew suggested. "By then everyone would be in the prep room studying."
"But I have eyes on me as the Vice Student President, and the two of you are Dorm Supervisors. You are the ones supposed to conduct prep, so how will we manage to do it?" Esther asked, her voice laced with concern.
"You can excuse yourself from the prep room first," Andrew told Esther. "Make up some excuse and leave. You'll be the one to enter the office. We'll communicate by text messages. Lisa, you should be the one to ensure that there in no one in the principal's office and look out in case anyone is coming to the office. I'll provide the distractions and keep the headmaster busy. Esther, if you can't find the documents, then just escape."
"Why do I feel like the two of you planned this beforehand?" Esther inquired.
"We communicate telepathically," Lisa replied with a straight face that Esther did not know whether she was joking or telling the truth.
"We can read each other's minds," Andrew laughed.
"Right," Esther said dryly.
"I guess we should exchange numbers now if we are going to text each other," Lisa suggested.
"Yeah," Andrew agreed and retrieved his phone from the pocket of his coat.
He and Esther immediately exchanged numbers and then turned to Esther for her own phone number.
"What's your phone number, Esther?" Andrew asked.
"I don't have a phone," she replied honestly.
Her parents had promised to give her first phone when she graduated from secondary school. They wanted her to focus on her education and not get distracted by electronics. Esther trusted herself and knew that she would not neglect her education because of electronics and her parents knew it too, but they still chose not to buy her one.
Andrew placed his phone back into his pocket, "What are we to do?"
"Let's not worry about the phone issue. The plan should just go on, if Andrew informs me that the headmaster is coming to his office, I'll barge in and drag you out," Lisa told Esther.
The three nodded, content with their plan, and carried on eating their lunch.
---
Prep Time could not come any slower. Esther, Lisa and Andrew were filled with anticipation when the time came. Lisa and Esther were in the same prep room because Lisa was the Dorm Supervisor of Esther's dorm. So Andrew was in another prep room. Esther's prep room was filled with about sixty other girls, making her nervous to stand up and carry out the plan, nevertheless, she mustered the courage and walked up to Lisa – who was seated by the door of the prep room – to ask for a Hall Pass.
"M-may I leave the room? I need to use the restroom," Esther asked. Her hands shook and sweated more than usual.
Lisa handed her a Hall Pass with a small smile and Esther rushed out of the room. A few minutes later Lisa stood up from her chair.
"I'll back soon," Lisa announced to her dorm, "all of you should remain silent. I want pin drop silence by the time I return."
Lisa ruled her dorm with an iron fist and no one dared to speak up. Satisfied with the silence, Esther walked out of the room and into the halls. Esther was just a few feet away from her.
"Esther, wait up!" She whispered but loudly enough for Esther to hear her.
Esther stopped walking and turned around. Lisa ran up to her.
"I have to confirm that the principal is not his office first," Lisa reminded her.
A beeping noise filled the silence of the halls.
"Is it just me or are phone notifications much louder when you're doing something wrong?" Esther asked.
"It's the both of us," Lisa replied.
Lisa retrieved her phone from her skirt pocket and unlocked it. It was a text message from Andrew.
"It's a message from Andrew," Lisa reported to Esther. "He said that he just saw Principal Winter leave the school. He just made our job easier."
Esther nodded, still feeling nervous. Without a word, she headed down the stairs and to the principal's office. The headmaster's office was located quite far from the prep room, but it was located in an open space. It was located downstairs beside the seniors' classrooms while the prep room was located upstairs on the second floor of the school.
Literate of the school, Esther did not counter any trouble in identifying the headmaster's office. Lisa followed a little distance afar from her.
Esther looked around, making sure that no one was coming down the hall. After confirming that there was no third party, Esther turned the door knob but the door did not budge. She kept turning the door knob but after the door refused to open, she concluded that it was locked.
'It's locked,' she mouthed to Lisa.
"Really?" Lisa asked and came up to the door herself. She tried to open it as well but she got the same response.
With a sigh she let go of the door knob and kicked the door.
"What are you doing?" Esther asked.
"The school's almost two hundred years old," Lisa replied. "It might just be jammed.
Lisa continued to kick the door and push it with all her might. Defeated, she turned back to look at Esther.
"I think it's locked."
"Oh, really? What was your first clue?" Lisa asked sarcastically.
"What are you girls doing here?"
The two girls jumped and turned around to see who had caught them.
Miss Greene was staring at them with a frown etched on her face. They had not seen her smile in the past three years but her frown was deeper than usual.
"Wow!" Miss Green exclaimed as she clapped her hands together dramatically. "The Vice Student President and a Dorm Supervisor presenting a bad example by being at the wrong place, at the wrong time and kicking your principal's door? Just when I thought you seniors couldn't get any more rebellious, you two just had to come and prove me wrong."
"N-no, it's not what it looks like," Esther stammered as she shook her head in denial. "We were just..."
"We were just looking for Principal Winter," Lisa lied. "We have some concerns with the food served for lunch."
Their lunch had been more than perfect but they could not use 'perfect lunch' as an excuse to visit the headmaster.
"You know very well that all matters such as these should be discussed with the Student President, and should be brought directly to the headmaster by him," Miss Greene said, her green eyes glaring daggers at them. Everything about the woman from her looks to her voice was terrifying.
"I'm the Vice Student President," Esther added politely.
"Vice," Miss Greene said with a sneer. "There is a line between you and the Student President."
Esther looked down in embarrassment. Not a day passed by without her being embarrassed in some way or the other.
"And don't you know that prep is mandatory? Hurry and return to your prep rooms before I give you two weeks of detention."
The girls wasted no time in returning to their prep rooms.
"That was frightening," Lisa said once they arrived at the door to their prep room.
"You think?" Esther asked rhetorically. "We almost got caught and we didn't even get what we went there for."
"Let's just enter the prep room. I'll send Andrew a message and tell him that it was a flop."
"Take a deep breath before you enter," Esther said. "You look flustered. People will be suspicious if you go in looking like that."
Lisa nodded without saying a word and Esther entered the room first. She placed the Hall Pass on Lisa's desk and returned to her seat.
"Where were you?" Alice, her desk mate and dorm roommate asked her. "You took so long in the restroom."
"N-nothing happened. I just decided to take a short walk around the school," Esther lied.
She opened her book and began reading. However, her mind was far away from what she was reading. Lisa entered the room a little while later. Her face was no longer flustered but she still looked uneasy.
Nothing worked out in their favour but there was always tomorrow.