The Original Crowd (A Whole New Crowd 0.50)

“I don’t know if I can,” she sniffed, her eyes glued to mine, “I’m…I’m not like you.”

“That’s bullshit,” I said firmly, not blinking. “You just haven’t gone through what I have.”

“Yeah, but—”

“No, Mandy. First thing first though,” I glanced to Grant, “can you give us a ride home? Devon was our ride here.”

“Yeah, sure,” he said in surprise.

“I want to get even. Tonight,” Mandy cried. “I want to—”.

“Mandy,” I interrupted, “you need a shower. You need to calm down—slightly—and then we’ll figure out what we’re going to do.”

She stared at me, seemingly enraptured by whatever she saw in my eyes, before she nodded slowly. “Okay.” She sniffed, moving to follow Grant as he was already walking outside.

As I moved to follow, Tray pulled me back and asked quietly, “What are you planning?”

“Why?” I shot back. “You want to get involved?”

“No, but Devon’s a good guy even though he cheated on her. He doesn’t deserve whatever you might be dishing out.”

“That is just like you to say he’s still a good guy. He’s a cheater. He’ll always be a cheater.”

“Look, just don’t…paralyze the guy or something. He’s our best

linebacker.”

I wrenched my arm away, fixing him with a cold stare. “And we’re back to the precious football team…with their new game book.”

His eyes went cold as he stepped back. “Whatever.”

I walked out, letting the door slam shut behind me.

*

We didn’t end up doing anything that night. Mandy cried the entire ride back to our house. After she showered, she curled up on my bed and cried herself to sleep. I wasn’t sure what to do, so I slept on the couch in my room. I figured Mandy didn’t want to be alone and she probably wouldn’t want me to sleep in her room. The next morning, she cried again—through breakfast, lunch, and dinner. She didn’t once ask about getting revenge on Jasmine or Bryce. After she went to bed early that night, around eight, I dressed in some black work-out clothes, and slipped outside to my car.

Mandy might have cooled off, but I hadn’t. I knew what she would probably meet in school the next day, so it was in my hands; I needed to do something to help take the heat off of her tomorrow.

Driving to school, I parked on the road by the football field. It was far enough away from the normal parking lots that no one would look at it suspiciously and, if need be, I could easily run through the football stadium and evade anyone in the trees that outlined the perimeters if I got caught.

Coming up to the school, I circled around to the janitor’s office and hooked a leg onto the fire escape. Darting up, I pulled myself onto the roof and crossed to one of the heating fans. Seeing it had been turned off, I unscrewed the shaft and lifted it clear off. Then I went to work on the fan—wedging a rock between the blades, just in case it turned on, I slipped my hands through and found the bolts. After they had been unscrewed, I lifted the fan up and then slipped through. My feet touching the ceiling, I ran my hands around the flooring until I found the hatch that led to the venting shafts. Again, I lowered my body down, and then crawled through the vents until I measured the distance in my mind, counting every inch I moved forward. When I thought I was in the main office, I lightly kicked the screen out and quickly caught it before it fell to the ground. My estimation had been correct—I was in the main office. Climbing out, I went to P.A. system where it was located by the principal’s office. Turning it on, I went to work, changing the alarm timings and preferences. I programmed it to play some rap music (left on the desktop from when the student council had persuaded the administration to let them play music at the end of the day) around the clock. Then I protected that command with a password, followed by a second password.

It paid to have criminal friends sometimes.

The music should work first, and hopefully they won’t be able to shut it off for a few hours, and then after that, the alarm system should kick in, making the alarms ring every five minutes. The last command, I protected it with another three passwords. The only way they would be able to stop them immediately is if they shut off the electricity, completely. And they won’t do that, not until they were desperate.

That should cause enough chaos.

Hoisting my body back through the venting shafts, my only thought was that I needed to remember to bring some ear-plugs tomorrow. I’d make sure they got passed around to the students; maybe put them in a bag on one of the lunch tables.

*

Mandy drove separate from me the next morning. She barely said a word at breakfast, but I could tell she was terrified because she was completely white in the face—she looked like death warmed over. When I asked if she wanted to ride with me, she’d said that she had cheer practice and then a student council meeting after school.

And me, my plans for after school, entailed meeting up with Grayley and getting the blueprints to the new school Pedlam had built last summer. They’d had tight security when I went there so I didn’t know if they would’ve kept it up or loosened it since I no longer attended. I needed to find out what I was walking into Thursday night. Grayley would get me everything I needed.

The parking lot was already full so I had to park on the street. I saw students talking on the lawn, which wasn’t unusual but normally it was only a third of the students. Today the number had tripled, guess the music had deterred people from hearing their gossip inside. I could still hear the music blaring through the open doors. Walking inside, I passed the office and saw the entire faculty jammed inside, well, probably not all the faculty, but enough. They all looked pissed.