The girls paced to and from one end of the room to the other in the school gymnasium. Esther's hands were sweating and she was sure it wasn't because of the flu. Lisa felt her heart beating faster than usual. She wanted to chew on her nails but she had just got them done by her fellow cheerleading friends the previous week.
"How could we forget that our school has security cameras?" Esther asked herself. She was the Vice Student Presidents for heaven's sake. The cameras were something that she shouldn't have forgotten.
"We're first time perpetrators, of course it wouldn't be that easy for us to steal those documents and get away with it," Lisa said.
Esther sniffed before speaking. "I thought you said that you texted Andrew. Why isn't he here yet?"
"He was washing his clothes when I called him. He'll be here soon."
A little while later Andrew burst into the gymnasium. "What's the emergency?"
"We are in trouble," Lisa said, placing her hands on Andrew's shoulders. "The school is surrounded by security cameras, meaning that everything we did last night was caught on camera. If Principal Winter checks the camera footage, we're all toast."
"W-What?" Andrew stammered, turning his head to the top corner of the gymnasium. "There's no camera here. What are you talking about?"
"There's none here but there is one everywhere else – except the library, restrooms and bathrooms," Esther replied. "I also assume they're sensitive to sound. Dexter proposed that we get sound sensitive sounds towards the ending of last year. I'm not sure if they went along with his proposal."
Andrew gulped and nodded, "He said he is giving the perpetrator up to one o'clock. It was almost ten when I received your text which means we have about..."
"Three hours to erase the camera footage," Lisa completed the sentence with a deep sigh. She dropped her hands from Andrew's shoulders and turned to face Esther who was standing behind her. "But how are we going to do it? Do any of you know how to gain access to the camera footage in the first place?"
Andrew shook his head, "I know I don't."
Esther raised her hand slowly, "I know someone who does but we'll probably have to let him in on our secret."
---
"Please. Please. Just do this for us this once," Esther fell dramatically onto her knees, pleading with Korah.
Korah looked around the kitchen, all eyes were on them. Korah was on kitchen duty and his task was to wash all the trays and dishes used by the students for breakfast. It wasn't a mandatory task but the lunch ladies usually paid him money to help them.
Korah smiled at them nervously before pulling Esther up.
"What's wrong with you today? Has the flu got to your head? You haven't even told me what you want from me. You just barged in here at fell at your feet," Korah whispered to her.
"Oh, right," Esther laughed at herself. "Do you think there's any way you can hack into the school system and erase the camera footage?"
Korah looked around the kitchen once more. The lunch ladies had stopped paying attention to them. They returned to gossiping and preparing the food products that would be used to prepare lunch in advance.
"Excuse me, Bertha. I have to take care of something," Korah said.
Bertha was the chief cook of the school. She was also in charge of the cafeteria and the kitchen – the other lunch ladies included.
"It's alright, dear. Thank you for helping out once again," Bertha smiled.
"I'll be back soon," Korah said and dragged Esther out of the kitchen by her wrist.
Andrew and Lisa were standing outside the kitchen, waiting for Esther to return with good news.
"Who are you?" Korah asked the two of them, shocked to see the faces of people whom he rarely spoke to. He recognised Lisa as Jackson's girlfriend but he avoided her like a plague – except during this morning's breakfast.
"Seriously?" Andrew asked rhetorically. "I'm your Dorm Supervisor: Andrew Thompson."
"And you are?" Korah asked Lisa even though he already knew who she was.
"I'm Lisa White. Esther's Dorm Supervisor," Lisa replied.
Korah let go of Esther's wrist and turned to her with his hands in the pockets of his trousers. The sleeves of his sweater and shirt were rolled up to his elbows. "Why exactly do you need my help and what for?"
"You see... I and my new friends may or may not have gone sneaking around last night and locked William and Principal Winter in the ladies' restroom. We need you to hack into the school system and erase the camera footage."
Korah laughed, "Since when did you become great at telling jokes? It wasn't funny but you tried."
When Korah saw the look of embarrassment on Esther's face he knew that she was not lying.
"Wait, are you serious? Please tell me this is all a joke."
Esther nodded her head and sniffed, "I'm being serious. We didn't consider the cameras when we did what we did last night."
"Why did you lock them up in the restroom? The ladies' restroom of all places too."
"We needed to steal William's keys and break into Principal Winter's office," Esther said in a low voice.
Korah clapped his hands slowly, "Wow! Stealing keys, locking people up and then breaking into the principal's office. I'm guessing there must be a good reason for this."
"We want to find the missing students. I broke into the office to see if I could get any details on their backgrounds and whereabouts."
At the sound of that Korah's tone changed from that of disappointment to understanding, but he still could not believe what his best friend had got herself into. He turned to face Andrew and Lisa with an angry face.
"You two must have caused this," Korah pointed at the two of them. "You guys rarely know each other and you've already landed Esther into trouble. You just had to drag her into your mess, hadn't you?"
"A-Actually," Esther stammered and raised her hand slowly, "I was the one who suggested that we start this group to find our school mates. I instigated everything."
"We're all at fault, not just you, Esther," Andrew piped in.
"I can't believe this, Esther. I don't even know you anymore. Couldn't you at least tell me what you guys were planning?" Korah asked.
"When we started the group we said that we wouldn't tell anyone else. You're actually the first person we've told. Lisa is dating Jackson and she hasn't even told him a thing... I hope," Esther said.
"I swear I haven't said a thing," Lisa raised her hands in defense.
"I will help you but that doesn't mean I support you with this," Korah said. "I do want the missing students to be found, but be careful. You're playing with fire and you might get burnt. Let's go to the Computer Lab. I can't use my laptop in case it is tracked."
---
Esther, Andrew and Lisa kept their eyes on the computer screen as Korah worked. They did not understand a single thing that he was doing. All they knew was that after a long while an several taps of the keyboard, he had access to the school cameras.
"Wow!" Andrew exclaimed in awe. "Where did you learn to do that?"
"I'm a member of the ICT Club and I've been a member since Year Five," Korah simply stated.
"Yeah, but where did you learn to do that?" Andrew asked again.
"From my mom's younger brother," Korah replied.
"You mean your uncle?" Lisa asked.
"Yeah but he doesn't act his age. Sometimes I think that I'm older than him," Korah said. "Let's just say that he had a lot of hobbies and hacking was one of them. I forced him to teach me when I was younger."
Lisa smiled, "Could you teach me sometime?"
"It depends on how much you're willing to pay and whether your boyfriend would approve," Korah replied. "Now, let's get down to business. Which footage would you like to be deleted?"
"All the camera footage of us," Esther replied. "Even the ones of us in the classrooms because we once held our meetings in one of them."
"I won't delete every single one of the classroom footages. If they were all gone, then Principal Winter would know that something went wrong," Korah said and got on to deleting .
"If the school has cameras, then don't you think there should be footage of how the missing students went missing?" Andrew asked.
"Andrew, you're a genius," Lisa said and turned to Korah. "Korah, do you think that you can access the camera footage of the day Richard Jones went missing and the others too."
"Most definitely," Korah replied. "Let me just finish deleting and I'll show you guys. And... I'm done. When did Richard go missing?"
"Monday night," Esther replied.
"No," Andrew disagreed. "We heard about it on Monday morning but he went missing on Sunday night."
Korah searched for Monday's camera footage but he did not find it. He tried to rewind the camera footage to Sunday night but it skipped Sunday and went to the Saturday of the previous week.
"That's weird," Korah said, "Sunday's footage is not here. It jumped from Monday to Saturday."
"Huh? How come? What can you conclude about this?" Lisa asked.
"The conclusion is that Monday's footage was either wiped or the cameras were not in use that day," Korah said. "It's useless. You can't get any information from here."
"Alright thanks, Korah," Andrew said. "You know, I've never spoken to you before, and you were actually of great help to us. Thanks, man."
"No problem. I'd do anything for my best friend," Korah smiled, keeping his eyes on Esther. "Although I'd prefer she tell me everything in advance. So, what exactly do you guys call yourselves?"
"How do you mean?" Lisa asked.
"Like, do you guys have a group name?"
"H'm, never thought about it," Esther tapped her chin.
"How about The Trio?" Andrew asked. "It's cool, right."
"Technically, it's no longer The Trio because there's four of us here," Korah said.
"Does that mean you're joining our group?" Esther asked.
"Not necessarily," Korah replied. "I may not be present at your private meetings, but you can call me when you need someone to hack into the school system, or something of that sort. You don't have to go breaking into offices anymore."
"Thanks, Korah," Lisa said.
"I got it!" Andrew exclaimed. "How about we call ourselves The Rebels?"
"It's definitely not the best name but that's what we've got," Lisa said. "We'll take it."
Korah shut down the computer and stood up from his chair.
"So where are you guys going from here?" Korah asked.
"We have to check out the files that Esther 'borrowed' from Principal Winter's office, so we'll probably go to the library," Lisa replied. "There are no cameras there."
"What about Miss Briggs, the librarian?" Korah asked.
"She's always asleep or dozing whenever we go there. It makes no difference whether she's there or not because it feels empty either way," Lisa said.
"I guess we can leave together since we're not staying here any longer," Korah said.
Korah was the first to walk out of the Computer Lab, after thanking Mr. Stone, the teacher in charge of the Computer Lab, for allowing him to use the computer. Mr. Stone responded saying that he would buy him lunch the following week.
Korah was rather popular among the teachers than the students. He helped the teachers with whatever they needed and was favoured in their sight. The previous week he had helped Mr. Stone by fixing his phone and Mr. Stone promised him something in return.
"How are you so popular among the teachers?" Esther asked. "What's your secret?"
"It's the handsome face that does all the talking. I'm so handsome that all the teachers fall at my feet," Korah said and burst out laughing at his own joke. "Just kidding. Alright, I'll see you guys later. Bye, Esther."
Korah walked off with a bounce in his step, leaving the three to continue with their plans.
"Okay, let's get down to business," Esther said. "I'll go to my room and get the files while you guys go to the library. I'll meet you there."
Andrew and Lisa nodded and they went in their opposite directions.
---
Esther was glad that the files were still where she had placed them: under her pillow. She was glad that Alice had not snooped around her things. She grabbed the files, climbed down the ladder and walked out of her dorm room, leaving a sleeping Alice in the room.
She made her way down the stairs and to the library. As expected, Miss Briggs had her head on her desk and was snoring lightly. Esther identified where Andrew and Lisa were sitting –behind some book shelves – and made her way there.
The two seemed to be in a deep conversation about something and Esther interrupted them.
"Hey, guys. What are you talking about?"
"Lisa thinks that Korah looks like Jackson," Andrew said. "Do you agree or disagree? I don't think that even a strand of their hair seems similar."
"Come on," Lisa said. "They have a similar face structure. It's actually only their skin colours that differ. Otherwise, I think that they look alike."
Esther sat down on an empty chair that was surrounding the desk at which Andrew and Lisa were seated. She placed the files on the desk.
"I honestly wouldn't know," Esther said. "I've never taken a close look at Jackson. Can we get down to business? I still have things to do."
"Right," Lisa said. "What have we got?"
There were five files. Esther handed out one to each of them.
Andrew opened the file that he was given and pulled out the document that was placed in it. He had a look of confusion on his face as he scanned the document. Esther and Lisa wore a similar expression as they scanned the documents in their hands.
"What's this?" Andrew asked. "This is not the profile of any of the missing students."
"Neither is this," Lisa said, waving the document into the air.
"Let me check the other two," Lisa said and opened the other two files. The documents inside were not what they wanted either. "I'm sorry, guys, but these were the only documents I could find. Most of the drawers were either empty or contained things like pens and plain papers."
"Hold up," Andrew said as he scanned the document once again, slowly this time. "These are newsletters."
Lisa looked at the document she was given and Esther did the same with the first document she had.
"You're right," Lisa nodded. "We are usually the ones to hand over newsletters to our parents, so how come we didn't know about this?"
"Maybe he sent the letter by mail or it hasn't been sent yet," Esther suggested.
"Look," Andrew pointed at the file in his hand. "According to the date stamp mine says it was on the 13th of October, 2020."
"That was last year," Lisa said. "Read out your letter."
Andrew cleared his throat before reading:
Our dear parents and guardians, we greet you in the name of our Lord, Jesus Christ. This is a letter from our school administration to you, thanking you for your wonderful donations towards buying washing machines for the school.
The school raised an amount of 154, 807 Pounds from your donations and the washing machines will be available to the students on the 21st of October, 2020. We thank you from the bottoms of our hearts. May the grace of our Lord be with you.
Principal's signature:
Evan Winter.
13th October, 2020.
"What washing machines?" Esther asked and let out a loud sneeze. "After this I have to go hand wash my clothes."
"Read yours, Lisa," Andrew urged.
Lisa brought the document closer to her eyes, so that she could see the words clearer.
Our dear parents and guardians, we greet you in the name of our Lord, Jesus Christ. This is a letter from our school administration to you, thanking you for your wonderful donations towards buying dishwashers for the school.
The school raised an amount of 137, 202 Pounds with your donations and the dishwashers will be available to the students on 23rd November, 2020. We thank you from the bottoms of our hearts. May the grace of our Lord be with you.
Principal's signature:
Evan Winter.
10th November, 2020.
"What does yours say, Esther?" Andrew asked.
Esther held her throat and handed him the letter, "My throat hurts, you read it."
Andrew took the letter from Esther's hand and began to read it:
Our dear parents and guardians, we greet you in the name of our Lord, Jesus Christ. It is that time of the year once again: the end of the school year. This means that it is time we tally up the amount of money earned by the school fundraiser. You have been generous to us over the year 2020 and we thank you for your donations towards our charity: Preston Prep Academy Orphaned and Mixed Kids' Project.
We started this project as a way to remove the stigma faced by orphans and the children from Mamar in the school, and thanks to your donations we have been able to curb this problem. We earned a sum of 607, 873 Pounds towards our charity and we can't thank you enough as a school. May the grace of our Lord be with you even as we end the year.
Principal's signature:
Evan Winter.
4th December, 2020.
"Unbelievable!" Lisa exclaimed. "Where are the washing machines, the dishwashers, and what charity. The last time the school had a charity was in 1987 and that was towards sick and homeless children."
"After this meeting I have to go hand wash my clothes, and unless Korah is the dishwasher, I'm not sure I've seen any dishwashers in the school," Esther said, her voice becoming more hoarse by the second.
"And I'm pretty sure he's still racist towards you, Esther," Lisa pointed out. "What exactly is going on in this school? Something's fishy. Everything's fishy."
Andrew slammed the paper onto the desk angrily and stood up from his seat. He placed his hand in the pockets of his jeans and looked at Esther and Lisa.
"I'll tell you what's going on: Corruption, that's what. Our very own Principal Winter is swindling our parents and using the school's funds for other thing."
"889, 882 Pounds in total," Lisa said. "889, 882 Pounds have been paid by our parents for things in the school that don't even exist."
"My parents could buy a house and a car with that money," Esther said.
"And perhaps even more," Lisa said. "I hope my mom didn't contribute. I need to tell her."
"Don't!" Andrew shook his head. "We haven't confirmed this yet. We haven't even read the other documents."
"What are you children doing here?" A fourth party interrupted them.
The Rebels looked up to face Miss Briggs. She adjusted her spectacles and stretched her body before walking closer to them.
"I believe I asked you a question."
"We came to read," Andrew lied with a smile on his face. The smile faltered almost immediately.
"Why didn't you check in and what are those papers on the desk? Those are not even books," Miss Briggs craned her neck, trying to see what they had been looking at. However, Esther grabbed the documents and placed them into their respective files..
"Miss Briggs, you were sleeping when we wanted to sign in and we understood everything," Lisa said. "You need your sleep to look that great. Your skin is glowing."
"Flattery doesn't work on me, child," Miss Briggs said and crossed her arms. "Now tell me what you are doing here."
"Fine, Miss Briggs," Andrew sighed. "You caught us. Nothing can get past you. Next week Monday will make it two weeks before our mid-term examinations. It's the first examination of the year, and as the seniors of the school we automatically have to pass. We came here to study privately. Those papers you saw were-"
"Leakages," Miss Briggs assumed. "You came here to study privately because you didn't want to be caught using leakage."
"No, Miss Briggs. What makes you think that Andrew Thompson, Lisa White and Esther Brown would use leakage?" Andrew asked.
"I have no idea who the heck those people are but it seems like you three were using leakage," Miss Briggs said ignorantly.
Andrew heaved deeply, "Miss Briggs, we weren't doing anything against the school rules."
"Then let me see those papers and files," Miss Briggs said, stretching her hand out.
The three friends looked between each other, unsure of what to do.