Florescent lights blinked overhead as Chase waited in the hall for Gage to pass. Minutes felt like months as his inside fluttered with the news he had.
He’d been working on this in secret for months, and finally, he’d cracked the code.
He had a way to help his grandfather, and there was no way in hell he was going to pass it up.
The lights buzzed, humming gently above their heads, casting a sickly white glow over everything it touched.
Finally, after what felt like forever, he saw a mop of golden curls coming toward him, washed out in the white emittance and for the first time in a long time he felt giddy.
As the other approached, he reached out into the crowd, grabbing Gage’s arm. Before his friend was even fully aware of what was happening, Chase was pulling him into a janitor’s closet.
The door closed quickly and quietly behind him, and Chase pressed a hand over his friend’s mouth.
“It’s me! It’s just me,” he assured, pushing a few flyaway strands of his dyed green hair out of his eyes.
“Don’t freak out. I just needed you in here and I needed to do it as quickly as possible so we didn’t get noticed.”
As he spoke, he unzipped his bag, pulling out a pile of papers that all had multiple questions and answers crossed out and the reanswered until things fell just as he needed them to.
“I did it! I found a way to beat the fucking system and I can help my grandad, but I…. Gage, I need help. I can’t do this by myself….” He was talking so fast he hadn’t even really realized he hadn’t fully explained himself yet so he backtracked.
“I found a way to get us topside. I found a way to get us to the fucking surface.”
He of course knew the risk that was involved if they were caught cheating, and he knew this was an insane suicide mission…. but he hated to admit, he was terrified of acting alone.
Each and every day seemed the same these last few weeks, nothing but prep about the ‘test’ that everyone had to take. And the fact that it solidified your place in life for the rest of it, was just not something that should’ve hinged on one test. Unfortunately, he should’ve been used to that now because that was how life was. You had a “choice” in theory, but in the end, it wasn’t your idea at all. And the way things where it wasn’t something that you questioned either. Thankfully after tomorrow, it would all be over.
Now in the bustle of the hallways, the light in there was enough to make anyone do as they were asked without question simply because there had to be something better than this. Or, so that was a thing that was dangled from time to time. However, it was the fact that what getting to the surface meant wasn’t all that great anyway, unless you were one of the rich. He’d barely sidestepped a group that was excitedly talking about a study group for the test that really had no “wrong” answers.
“What the-” Gage said, as he was suddenly yanked into a small space.
When he realized this wasn’t some sort of gag it was Chase…and what the hell was going on about?
“Whoa! Slow down-” he began finally getting the hand from his mouth, “…you could nearly suffocate someone like that.”
Chase was really the only one is the school that he could say he dealt with on a regular basis as well as they seemed to wind up in a lot of the same places at the same time. So it was safe to assume that they did know each other and even safer that they were friends. Perhaps it was because of Chase’s energy because he was always so outgoing about things it was impossible not to notice unless you weren’t there. But aside from that he was a good guy and seemed to a way about picking out the good in most, even him though he tried his best not to let that be seen.
Gage’s eye went wide as he saw the contraband contents of his friend’s bag, “Jesus are you crazy? Having that could get you in a world of hurt-”
Then he heard the part about leaving if anyone could think of a way to do that it would be Chase. It was the execution of it that was risky one wrong move would be deadly.
“Really Chase slow down, how can you help your Grandad? And how do you expect us to do anything that deviates without causing suspicion? Like now us talking about this here?” he whispered while he listened to the sounds of the others students going by in the hall.
Then there was yet another announcement about tomorrow’s test, “You want me to go where?”
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