My Kind of Crazy - Robin Reul Page 0,29
next period with Vaughn, Nick. I don’t know if that’s a great idea,” I say, feeling a little nervous about pushing the envelope so soon after what happened last night with Dad. “Plus, I gotta be home by six. My dad knows I’m not working tonight.”
“You’ve got plenty of time. And, dude, Vaughn is totally cool with people ditching class as long as you bring him back a cheeseburger.” Nick laughs.
“We won’t be coming back though,” I remind him.
“I’m sure he’ll take a rain check. But how are we gonna get out of here? There’re security guards at the exits, and they only let seniors out during free periods.”
“Unless there’s a distraction and security is needed elsewhere. Leave it to me,” Peyton says. “Meet me in the faculty parking lot during next period.”
“How? Just get up and leave?” I ask.
She says, “You won’t have to. You’ll already be outside.” Nick and I look at each other in confusion as she adds, “Bring your backpack to class. By the time they figure out we’re gone, school will be over.”
“What about my bike?” I ask.
“You’ll come back for it later. Trust me. I have a plan.” She takes a final bite of pudding, drops the empty container on my tray, stands up, and walks away. Clearly this is not her first rodeo.
Nick watches her leave. “That girl is an enigma, man. I am so completely turned on right now.”
“Look, I don’t want to get busted, Nick. I’m kind of walking on thin ice at home as it is. Maybe just you should go,” I tell him, but he shakes his head furiously.
“Hank, don’t be such a pussy. You gotta go. I think she’s nervous is all. Like with dinner. She wants you there too, like a chaperone or something. And that’s cool. If I can talk her up a little, I can get things going. Then you can take off or whatever. C’mon, you gotta do this for me, man.”
He gives me a pleading, desperate look before one eye starts roving toward the window, and between that and the stains on his pants, I can’t help but think about Peyton’s comment and the kind of friend I want to be. So when the fire alarm goes off during English because, rumor has it, someone set a small fire in one of the classrooms, I can’t help smiling because I have a pretty good guess who was behind it.
The administrators are freaking out because this is no drill. It’s a bona fide fire, and even though it only burned a bunch of recycled papers in a trash can—and a teacher put it out with an extinguisher—you’d think it had been an inferno. Teachers are flailing their arms and barking directions and hustling us out of the building to the athletic field. Taking in the controlled chaos, it hits me. Peyton set a real goddamn fire. It’s serious business pulling an alarm, but setting an actual fire? Is she crazy? What if someone had actually gotten hurt?
The fire engines arrive on the scene, their sirens wailing and lights blazing. It will easily take the whole period to line everyone up and wait for the fire department to give the all clear, and by the time they let us inside, last period will be underway, so there won’t even be enough time to take attendance. It’s perfect. Nick and I find each other and slowly maneuver our way to the back of the pack, slipping out the side gate with ease while everyone is distracted, just as Peyton had said.
We make a beeline for the faculty parking lot, shooting glances over our shoulders like we’ve just pulled off a jewelry heist. And there’s Peyton, casually sitting on the hood of Principal Drucker’s car, lighting a stack of flyers about an upcoming pep rally one by one and casually reducing each to a pile of ash on the ground beside the front tire. There’s a look in her eyes that rattles me a little, as if she gets some sort of a release from this, like scratching an itch.
She sees us and a smile spreads across her face. She abandons the remaining flyers and jumps down, leaving a slight groove in the hood where she’s been sitting.
Nick keeps on moving, all arms and legs, anxious to get out of the parking lot undetected, and he motions to us to hurry and follow him.
“C’mon,” I urge her because she’s moving in slow motion and I’m starting to