Locker #2375 Chapter 17

Posted on | May 12, 2009 | No Comments

THIS IS A DRAFT!

Locker 2375 c17

Saved by a mime.

Nathaniel grabbed me by the collar and pulled me as if he was trying to uproot a weed!

The lights in the room changed from the normal daylight white to a dim yellow, and there was this persistent beeping, the kind that happens when a microwave oven is finished cooking.

I looked over at the microwave oven, it was not on, the sound had to be coming from someplace else.

That was when the light went from a dim yellow to red and that was the exact moment that Nathaniel and I jumped through the door just as a solid sheet of Plexiglas slid down and separated the hallway from the lab.

At that moment there was a hissing, screaming and clanging sound as the lab, which we could see through the glass, filled with sanitizing seltzer steam and a series of laser trackers were activated.

And that was when we froze in our tracks!

On the floor of the lab there was what looked like a train making a familiar sound.

Nathaniel leaned into the glass and took a good look.

“Max when was the last time you were in detention?”

I looked at Nathaniel as if he was mad, “when was the last time you were in detention”, he asked again.

“Today, why?”

Two lights came on as I asked the question.

One light was inside my head and the other was inside the lab from some kind of tracking system that Mr. ½amoloculemissing had set up to keep his home and castle safe from the likes of, well students I suspect.

“Do you hear that sound?”

I did hear a sound, it was very familiar, “Nathaniel is that the sound that we hear coming from the floor in detention?”

I looked at my watch, “and this is the time that we usually hear that sound!”

Suddenly the steam in the lab was totally obscuring the little train and there was a loud bang from inside the lab.

At that exact moment the exhaust fans kicked in and the general security alarm system in the school began to scream.

What we could see as the steam was sucked out of the room was an empty net on the floor.

Well the net was almost empty there was a piece of paper on the floor, and it looked like it was pinned to the net.

Again there was screaming in our ears from Sam!

“You have 5 seconds before the security officers are at the door, you guys are toast!”

It was a stroke of luck that Kimberlee and Miguel just happened to be coming towards us and that they were in their mime club costumes!

There were only 2 mimes at our school and Kimberlee and Miguel were they.

Every week at the school assembly they would stand at the entrance, or on the stage, and once they hung from the ceiling, entertaining the school as a prelude to what was usually as enjoyable as a root canal.

Nathaniel grabbed both of them and said, “Please can you guys do a mime performance that might look like 2 mad scientists inventing an exploding toilet?”

Kimberly looked at Miguel and they both shrugged their shoulders and began to act like Mr. 1/2amoloculemissing after he had 2 Red Bull Sodas too many.

Then Miguel and Kimberlee stopped and looked at Nathaniel, “this is going to cost you lunch for both of us and ice cream ALL MONTH!”

Given that we were in no position to bargain, and knowing that Ana had figured out some way to preprogram the cafeteria pre-order system to deliver bargain priced lunches there was not an instant of hesitation and Nathaniel threw out his hand to cement the deal.

The mime team hadn’t been at it a second before 5 members of the school security squad seemed to come out of nowhere and push us all aside.

Charles looked at us and shook his head.

“Can’t you students think of any better place to be playing around? This is no place for two mimes and an audience of two to be hanging about so move on!”

Miguel and Kimberly looked at each other, went back-to-back and then preceded to do summersaults like a giant wagon wheel down the hall.
Charles took one look at us and said, “you two not hear me the first time?”

That was our cue and in our ears we heard Sam again, “out of there quick before Charles figures it out!”

Just in front of the nurses office Nathaniel and I stopped to catch our breath.

Of course this is dangerous territory given the close proximity to the staff room.

Nathaniel took one look and noticed that Ms. Shelley was gone, that was a good sign.

The snot-talkies came to life and Nathaniel and I both reacted as if we had sat on a tack, we jolted to attention.

“Guys that piece of paper that was in the net in the lab, well we have a problem.”

When Sam said there was a problem there really was a problem.

“We managed to use the power of all of the schools laptops, connected in series, to boost the pixel image of that piece of paper that we photographed using our tap into the schools security webcams”, Sam was really getting into this.

I am not sure why we were talking on the snot-cams given Sam was sitting on the recovery cot in the nurses room.

Sam figured that out and signaled us to come behind the curtain.

There on the cot was a military grade micro-laptop, a prototype courtesy of Ana’s cousins in Miami.

Sam looked at us, “All it says is Geyomi and 2375!”

Nathaniel for the first time was looking distracted and worried.

That was when I heard the running and commotion in the hall.

At least 10-armed security guards were descending on my locker and taking up tactical positions, with what looked like fire extinguishers and cans of whipping cream!