Night time came fairly quickly in anticipation of what would happen today. The goal was to test it Korin was going to steal something from our food storage. I was skeptical to begin with, but also intrigued with finding out the truth.
Skylar, Niko, Cody, Connie, and I all gathered in the same room about six hours after the initial meeting, where we started to come up with the main plan.
"So, Connie, where were you watching Korin from? Do you have a hiding spot or something?" Niko initially asked. He started to trace out a map of the lunch room on the table from earlier, and Connie pointed to the back left corner of the lunchroom facing the front of the school.
"Back here, by where all the toys are at in the closet," Connie proudly said. She had a little bitt of a backstory where she refused to play with toys, so hearing that she was hiding by where all the toys were was... confusing, to say the least.
"Was the door peeked open or something? Well, that doesn't matter as much. Who was the last one in the lunch room besides Korin and you? Any adults at all? We should figure out if he's specifically avoiding somebody," Niko suggested. I understood where he was coming from now. If Uncle Brandon or Tete were in the lunch room before Korin went to steal something, it's likely that he would be avoiding them.
I was pretty absent from the discussion, just like Cody. I was thinking the whole time about why Korin would be stealing, of all times right now. There's nothing to worry about any more... what's with the attempt at conflict? I couldn't wrap my head around it.
Even when I tried to think like Niko, I was just left baffled instead of left with answers. There had to be two sides. Could he be stealing for somebody else's sake? What about for one of his family members?
"Okay, so you're telling me that all of us are going to hide in this toy closet, when we're all heading to bed? I mean, people are going to suspect things and we'll be in trouble too," Niko dragged me back into the conversation with that, as I realized there was a number of different factors that started to change the way we would handle this situation.
"Well, what if all of us don't do it, and one of us stalls? Like, I could stall for you guys if anybody asks where you are," I offered to Niko. He shook his head and began again.
"You'll be a necessary part of this journey, so I want you to be in that closet over all else. Skylar or me can take away any of the adult's attention in case they ask. However, Cody and Connie have different parents, so it might be difficult to cover all bases. Anybody have ideas?" Niko asked the group.
"Yes! What if we all had a sleepover of sorts? We hide out in one classroom, then while everybody is in bed, we can make our strike," I thought of. Niko seemed impressed, nodding his head with a slight smile.
"Perfect, I'll go tell everybody that we're having a sleep over then. In the meantime, I want Skylar and Connie to see if they can find Korin right now. Stay hidden, or wave if he asks anything. Cody and Leon, you two will hold out here and come up with any other ideas. Sound good everybody?" Niko asked us. We all nodded, and immediately left the room to start our operation.
"Alright! So, with everybody gone, why do you think Korin's stealing the apples? Does he get hungry for them specifically?" Cody asked me. I thought to myself how stupid that was, and then interjected again.
"No, that sounds ridiculous... I'm thinking it's to feed something, it has to be, right? Or... to whittle down our resources? He would just burn the entire thing though if he was trying to do that," I said to myself, picking back up after a quick second of thinking, "Or, do you think it's possible that somebody is giving him permission, like Niko said? I mean, it doesn't sound too far fetched..." I muttered. Cody nodded with me, agreeing with everything I had said.
"We should really just go ask him, but this is much more fun! The adults solve their problems, and we solve ours. We're like the second adults here! If we confront Korin, he would just do better to hide what he's doing if it's important enough, so we have to sneak around, it's the only logical option," Cody told me. He got out of the chair and walked to the opposite door, peering out of the window to see the hallway.
"I agree! It makes me feel like we're playing that one game, where we had to piece a bunch of mysteries together in order to solve the big puzzle. What was that called again...? Well, it doesn't matter," I said. Again, I had paused while thinking of a better idea, when it finally hit me.
"I'll steal too! Right beside Korin, so he thinks that I'm fine. When I join him to steal with him, he'll reveal everything and we won't even have to do a spy mission. Doesn't that sound good?!" I asked Cody. He nodded, lightly clapping his hands at the mention of my smartest plan yet.
With this plan, Korin would still steal, we could stay hidden from the adults, and I can figure out not only what he's stealing, but also why he's stealing. It was foolproof in my mind, and I was ready to start it as soon as possible.
"As soon as Niko gets back, I'll dish out the plan," I said. I slightly bounced around while looking through the opposite door on the other side of the middle room.
"My smartest plan yet! I'm finally starting to match up with Dad..." I muttered to myself.