Page 61 of The Other Side
“Too bad we didn’t find Narnia,” Chance quipped.
“I can’t do this,” I said, my voice shaky. “That was too close of a call. It’s bad enough we’re putting our lives in danger, but I can’t lose this job.”
“Hey.” Chance rounded on me, placing his hands on my shoulders. “It’s going to be okay. Just give me five minutes, Violet.”
I started shaking my head.
“Five minutes and we’ll leave, with or without the records.”
“Five minutes?”
“Five minutes.” He nodded.
“Okay.”
But he didn’t need that long.
In the top drawer of the headmaster’s ancient filing cabinet, which mercifully sported a broken lock, Chance found a dark brown accordion file with everything we’d been looking for: the student records, school records, newspaper clippings, faculty and student accounts of the incident, and even a copy of the police report.
I wasn’t sure how the headmaster had managed to get his hands on the report, but I was beginning to think he was capableof much more than I had initially thought possible. And maybe Chance was right that he could be behind everything.
Initially Chance wanted to just grab the folder and leave, but I was concerned the headmaster might notice its absence, so we used our phones to go through document by document and take photos that we could review without as much worry over being caught.
While we both wanted to start going through everything right away, it had taken a while to document everything, so we agreed to retire for the night. Chance left me only after ensuring I was safely tucked away in my room.
Finding it impossible to sleep as my thoughts ping-ponged between the mystery we were unraveling and trying to forget the way Chance’s body had felt against mine, I gave in, letting my hand snake down my stomach and under the hem of my underwear. Only after I was sated did I finally fall into a restless slumber.
