Red Herring ✔️

29. The Lion's Den

"That's the mask you brought?"

"It's all I had on such short notice." Mazie rolled her eyes dramatically which probably looked a lot sexier than intended behind the covering of her black lace masquerade mask.

On the other hand, there was Christian in a full face black balaclava mask which completely rendered his identity unknowable. She, however, might be recognized if someone knew her. Maybe she would smile. Then they wouldn't know. She didn't do a whole lot of smiling.

"You look cute. You're not supposed to look cute."

"I didn't know there were stipulations on appearances when it came to breaking and entering," she bit back sassily, crossing her arms over her chest.

Because that's exactly what they were doing. Breaking and entering. Trespassing. Whatever he wanted to call it. In every sense of the word, their actions were entirely unlawful and premeditated because Christian parked a street over so that none of the cameras picked up images of his license plate (premeditated), unlocked the door to the gym with a key that he stole from the after-school care teacher and made a copy of said key (premeditated), and decrypted the alarm system with a code from aforementioned teacher which he knew changed every week so he planned this excursion for this specific night (premeditated). It was so extensively thought out that there was no way either of them could deny their invasion, which was certainly a misdemeanor.

It was her own fault; she asked too many questions.

Masks on. Hoods up. Heads ducked.

Once inside the school, neither of them felt the need to breach the silence. It felt forbidden. Perhaps, more forbidden than committing a crime. They tiptoed together through the gymnasium into the school hallways and circled around the high school lunch room towards the head office.

The little creaks, the imagined sounds that haunted her every step, rushed her forward a little faster than necessary. Christian carried the same pep in his step; whether it was fear or excitement that drove him, she was unsure. She focused on keeping her cool, evening out her breaths, and keeping her head down so that the cameras posted in all the hallway corners wouldn't capture a quality image of her face.

There was no getting around the fact that the camera would record them. There was no denying that the school administration would immediately turn to the video evidence to try to pin a crime on the trespassers. Their goal was simply to be unrecognizable. If they couldn't identify Christian and Mazie, it didn't matter.

Christian informed her that he had a backup plan - a cover story. Their 'cover story' was tucked away in his black backpack. She didn't know what it was. She didn't ask. He told her that their presence in the school office wouldn't even matter because the head administrators would be distracted by something else more interesting.

At first, she was like whoa, not another crime. Then she was like, what's another one to add to the list? And so she nonchalantly - sort of - went about their business without much concern or worry for things hiding in Christian's book bag.

Christian's repertoire of illegal activity continued with another spare key he copied that unlocked the head office and picking the lock to the high school counsellor's office in the far back corner of the office area. The entire time she stood beside him, holding her head in her hands, contemplating what she would tell her dad if they got caught. She lived with a lawyer. Surely, Rob would help her out. But that didn't mean her dad wouldn't kill her. She wasn't sure that Rob could help her avoid death.

She didn't ask how Christian learned to pick locks. Plausible deniability and all that garbage. They were in so deep she wasn't sure that it mattered anymore.