The Original Crowd (A Whole New Crowd 0.50)

“Yeah. Your name. What is it?”

“Garrett Larkins.”

“You want to go to a party tomorrow night?” I couldn’t believe I was doing this, but I already started it.

“Seriously?” He didn’t even ask which one.

“Yeah.”

“Sure,” he rushed out, smiling widely.

“Fine. Find me after school tomorrow.”

I watched him a second later, noticing that he had run over to a group of kids playing hackey-sack. It reminded me of Geezer and Grayley. They used to play that game too.

I crossed the street to my car. I’d taken to parking on the opposite side of campus where the parking lot was placed. It was just easier to avoid drama, but, apparently, drama like to single me out because I saw Tray leaning against my car door. His SUV parked just behind, with some of his friends. Mitch and some others that I recognized from the basketball team.

“Hey,” I murmured as I pulled my keys out.

He didn’t move, but reached to tip my head up as my arms moved to unlock the door, bringing me in contact with his body. “What’s the plan tonight?”

I shrugged off his touch. “I’ll call you when I have the device.”

“And when will that be? Like an approximate time.”

“I don’t know. Nine? Ten?”

“You can’t be any more definite? It’s not like we have all the time in the world. We’re going to be sitting around, planning on doing something pretty illegal, and you just expect us to sit around on our hands? What are we supposed to do? Twiddle our thumbs?”

Whoa. Evans was mad. Actually, inspecting him closer, I realized he was beyond pissed.

“What are you so pissed about?” I didn’t even know if I should ask, but it was already out of my mouth. “This was the deal. I go in, get the device and hand it over to my guy. You get it afterwards.”

“It’s not good enough. We could get caught.”

“And so could I!” I cried, now getting pissed in my own right. “What do you want? I’m not giving you a time-schedule for when I commit my crime. Is that what you want? Got a nice little deal worked out with the cops? You doing this to catch me?”

“Oh please,” he groaned.

“Are you? Because I’m starting to think that’s what’s going on,” I said tightly.

“Just get your end done and call me,” he said stiffly, pushing off my car and striding to his own. Climbing in, one of the guys smirked at me as Tray gunned the engine and peeled out into traffic.

He was infuriating.

*

This was my moment. This was my element. Standing atop the roof of my old school, the black night as my backdrop, the wind rushing behind me, I closed my eyes for a moment just enjoying the feeling. It was like nothing I’d ever experienced. I don’t know what it was, or how I could describe it, but even the hairs on my fingers were vibrating. I felt so alive.

The drive to Pedlam had been uneventful. Grayley had called and said he had Geezer, sober and on standby. Everything was ready and in place. I had memorized the blueprints and alarm time schedules from the info Grayley had gotten me. He, Geezer, and I had been a team, before I moved to Rawley. Brian had always wanted to be included, but I never let him. Grayley and Geezer were steady; Brian and I were just volatile together. With Grayley and Geezer, there was no drama, they did the job and followed through. I knew I could depend on them, even if they were pissed off or high.

But right now—this was the part where it was just me.

The PRS-500 was nicely tucked away t in the superintendent’s locked cabinet, in a locked drawer, behind, of course, his locked office door. His office was situated just inside the main office, which was behind another locked door. Not too hard for me to get to, but not the easiest either.

What was new, since I’d been gone, was a twenty-four seven shift of security guards. This made me wonder what else was inside this building that would need to be guarded around the clock. Obviously, the first thing I needed to take care of was the guards.

So this brings me to where exactly I was standing, or who exactly I was standing above—the guard’s office. I knelt at the venting shaft and unscrewed it, slipping inside, with the rope around my waist already secured around a handle outside the shaft. This venting system was different from Rawley because it dipped down, straight down so you aren’t able to just find your footing easily, so I had to rappel downwards, counting the distance inch by inch until I felt the ground beneath me.