Overexposed

by Adrianne James

  “You can either come with, or wait here. Either way I am going. You do not get to decide what I will or will not do. I am older than you are, remember? I am going to call to check in with Dad, and then I am going in. Think you can make up your mind before then?” I turned my back on him, and pulled out my little cell phone. It wasn’t a smart phone. It wasn’t a flip phone. A simple cell phone that only made phone calls. So cool. Yeah, right.

  “Just checking in, still alive,” I said when Dad answered. I said what I needed to so I got off the phone as quick as I could and turned to see that Jason had crossed over the fence. “Good, let’s go.”

  I led the way through the trees to the mouth of the shaft. The boards had been moved around and I could see fresh tracks in the snow. Brock was definitely here.

  “Wait. We can go in, but I am calling the Sheriff first to meet us here. That way if anything does go wrong someone knows where we are.” Jason pulled out his own phone, the exact replica of mine, and called the station.

  I listened to him tell Max where we were after asking to speak with the Sheriff. I had begun to wonder where the Sheriff could be all day. I had called earlier and now Jason had called and he still wasn’t around.

  “This way, watch your head.” I lead the way into the dark tunnel. I took the flashlight from my brother and twisted the top a bit to widen the ray of light. Moving slowly, we made our way deeper into the tunnel and around a few turns until we found an alcove that still had the old carts. Exactly where I had taken Ashley and Macy to hide after the dance.

  There was a lantern glowing a brilliant orange in the middle of the ground, casting an eerie glow across the alcove. I stepped in and looked around. Brock had brought a bag of groceries from Jenson’s Market, which were in a paper bag, and his little speakers that hooked up to his MP3 player.

  “Brock, I know you are in here, do I really need to look behind the cart?”

  I heard a groan, then some feet shuffling and Brock stood up. He was covered in soot and his face was busted up worse than it had been after his fight with Jason.

  “What the hell are you doing here?” he asked. Jason took a step forward, placing himself beside me.

  “Do not talk to her like that. She isn’t the reason everything is falling apart.” Jason was being protective. A protective baby brother, that’s a new one.

  “She isn’t? Her and her little freak friends had to go and open their mouths. Now, everything is ruined. Everything. I had to hide out just to keep my ass in one piece. But do either of you care about that?”

  “Hey asshole, why do you think we came out here looking for you? Your mother is worried sick, and all anyone could think of was whoever your supplier is had you, or you ran away to keep from being caught. I had a feeling if something was wrong you would hide here. Some things never change.” I had to grit my teeth while speaking, otherwise I think I might have screamed at him, and screaming in a mine is never a good idea.

  “Just go. Leave me the hell alone.”

  “You can tell them the truth. Tell them who the supplier is and they might just go easier on you. I can’t say for sure, but the Sheriff isn’t an unreasonable man. Just tell them.” Jason was still hovering near me, but he was letting me handle the talking. I liked that, he was the brawn to my brain. Yeah, that fit us well.

  “You don’t get it, do you? The Sheriff may be trying to find out what is going on, but so many other people are trying to keep it covered up, to save their asses and all of ours. This will ruin our lives and you don’t seem to care.”

  “All I cared about was my brother’s life. And if you didn’t want your life ruined, maybe you should have thought about that before doing something so stupid! Forget it. I don’t want to help you. You don’t deserve it. Max should be here soon, I will tell him where you are. He can take you to the station to keep you safe from whomever you are hiding out from. Speak or don’t, your choice, but they will find out everything eventually.” I tugged on Jason’s arm to get him to follow me.

  “Wait! You told Max where to find me? Shit! I have to get out of here!” Brock started grabbing his lantern and music and ran passed us. I took off after him but Jason caught up before I did.

  “What is your malfunction? Max is a deputy. He can help.”

  “No, you idiot. Max is the one who gave me this black eye! Did you happen to remember that just five years ago Max was on the Varsity hockey team?”

  “Max? Max is your supplier?” I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I mean, Max was a police officer. He had been helping the Sheriff to help my friends and me.

  “No, Max is part of the whole thing. We needed someone to keep us from getting caught, and it had been working. Until you had to start in with your goody-two-shoes morals and shit. It’s not like we forced people to buy. Hell, it’s not like we even used ourselves. That was the first rule. Never sample the product.”

  “So who is the supplier?” I asked while leading the way through the mine. If I remembered right, there was a path from one opening to another one, opening up behind all the houses on Harrington Street. Max wouldn’t know how to manipulate the tunnels.

  “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”

  “Try us,” Jason said, clearly getting more irritated the longer Brock held out on us. We were helping him after all, the least he could do was be honest with us.

  “Mrs. Nash.”

  “YEAH, RIGHT.” What did he think I was? An idiot? I pushed an old cart out of my way, and kept moving forward. I had to keep track of each of the turns we were making to keep from getting lost.

  “I mean it. Why do you think she is giving you guys such a hard time for doing what any normal teacher would be praising you for?” Then I stopped moving. He was right. She had been manipulating the entire situation the whole time. The lost card, the lying, it wasn’t to keep herself from looking like a bad principal for losing the card, it was to keep herself out of jail for selling and supplying to teenagers.

  “Oh, my God.” Jason put his hand against my back, and whispered to keep moving in my ear. I just nodded and walked on, thinking over and over how this whole situation was either about to get much better, or much worse.

  Another three turns and probably close to a mile later, we emerged from the south mine entrance behind the houses.

  “Brock, you have to go home and call the Sheriff. Maybe your Dad has the Sheriff’s home number or cell, or something. You need to tell him everything.”

  “Whatever, Vi.” Brock ran ahead of us, and we watched him head straight for his own yard. We still had three blocks before our house was even in view.

  Once we got a few feet away from the mouth of the mine, both our phones began to ring.

  “Shit. We forgot to check in,” I said to Jason before answering my phone.

  “Vivienne Marie McCall! You better be lying in a ditch somewhere, and couldn’t answer or call for the last hour. What happened to every fifteen minutes?”

  “Sorry, Dad. We didn’t have signal. It’s a long story, but we are almost home. Can I tell you when we get there?”

  “Just get your asses home.” Then the line went dead. My Dad hung up on me. He has never sounded more angry. Just what I needed, more trouble.

  “How bad?” Jason asked. I let out a large sigh and pointed ahead of us. Since we made it to our street, we could see Dad, standing in the front yard, arms crossed. He was waiting for us. “Shit.”

  “My thoughts exactly. Let’s get this over with.”

  “I don’t care what your reasons are, you two should never have been in the mines! Do you have a death wish?” We hadn’t even been able to tell Mom and Dad the whole story. The minute I said the word mine, they went off.

  “I’m sorry! Okay? I won’t go back. I just knew he had to be there,” I said. Sitting in the old wooden armchair that was near the fireplace made me feel like a young child. We always were sent to the wooden chair for timeout when we were little. Mom and Dad were pacing the floor in front of me,
so I had to look up at them.

  Jason was sitting on the couch, with his head leaning back, and was staring at the ceiling. I was the one they were directing their anger at, because I was the oldest after all.

  “I don’t care! You could have called the Sheriff’s office. They would have gone.”

  “We did! But a fat lot of good that did us! Max is in on the whole thing!” I yelled back. I was pressing my luck but damn it, they needed to hear me out.

  That was when they stopped pacing and stared at me. “What do you mean, Max is in on it? He is the deputy”

  “And he used to be on the varsity hockey team. Apparently, this little drug ring goes back a few generations. Brock told us who is responsible for it all. Max isn’t the only one. Apparently, Mrs. Nash is the supplier.”

  “That is a big accusation of the principal of the school and the deputy of this town. Did you ever think that Brock was lying to you? Why would he all of a sudden give up after torturing you and breaking a million laws?”

  “Because he was beat the hell up,” Jason finally spoke up. I thought he was going to leave it all to me. “And it was way worse than what I did to him. He was scared when we told him Max was coming, like shaking in his boots, thought he might pee his pants, scared.”

  Mom and Dad both sat down to digest the information we had just given them. There was a knock at the door and we all looked to the clock. Someone was coming to the door at nine thirty at night. That is completely unheard of and considered completely rude in our little town.

  “Who on earth?” Mom said as she stood to go answer the door. We all stood and followed her. With everything else going on, whoever was at the door had to be involved.

  Mom opened the old wooden door, and the Sheriff stood before us with his hat in his hands. “I apologize for calling on you all so late, but I need to talk to Vi and Jason.”

  He didn’t look pleased with our detective skills. Oh joy, another lecture.

  Sitting back in the living room with all three adults staring me down was very uncomfortable. I wasn’t exactly expecting to be praised for searching through the mines, but a little pat on the back for helping to unravel the stupid case might be nice.

  “You two could have been seriously hurt today. You didn’t know whose door you knocked on, and then the mine?” The Sheriff let out a sigh of frustration and shook his head as if he was trying to shake loose whatever was trying to bubble to the surface. Probably something along the lines of ‘you two are the dumbest teenagers I have ever known’. “Luck has been on your side today. It won’t always be if you keep putting yourself in these dangerous positions.”

  “We said we were sorry. But what we found out helped, right?”

  “Yes, it did. Mr. Blake found me earlier, and told me about his time in high school. Brock’s mother called to let us know he had come home and where he was. The two of you will need to go to school tomorrow as if everything is exactly how it was when you left today. Do not tell anyone about Mrs. Nash. We need to notify the school board and get a warrant for her arrest as well as a warrant to search her home. If she catches wind of anything, she may take off. No one hears any of this, am I understood?”

  Jason and I nodded and watched as Dad shook the Sheriff’s hand and walked him to the door. When we heard the soft click of the lock, I stood up and headed for the table to grab my phone. I had to talk to Ashley.

  Just as I opened it, Mom plucked it right out of my hand.

  “Hey!” I turned, and tried to take it back.

  “You heard what he said. No one. I know you and Ashley tell each other everything, but there is a first time for everything. You can tell her all the details after the Sheriff does his job.” She walked over to her desk and dropped my phone in the top drawer, then locked it. “You can have it back in the morning. I mean it, Vi. Not one word.”

  “She wouldn’t say anything!” I knew I sounded like a whining baby, but I had to talk to someone, and I always talked to Ash.

  “No. It is late and you have had a long day. Go on to bed and I will see you in the morning.” I knew she wanted me to leave, hell Jason knew she would tell him to go next so before she could, he stood and left the room. I let out a dramatic sigh, and headed up the stairs myself.

  My room was pitch-black, but instead of turning the light on and waiting for Ashley to come to the window, I went straight to bed. If I saw her, I would want to tell her everything.

  AT EXACTLY SEVEN-FORTY, Ashley was at our door, knocking loudly. She knew any earlier, and she might get an eye full of my Dad walking around in his tighty-whities and any later and we would be rushing to get to school on time, making it hard to actually talk to each other.

  For the first time ever, I had hoped she would get a ride from her parents. I wonder what had changed in their house to go from keeping her away from me to allowing her to walk to school. Either way, I knew that keeping a secret as huge as ‘our principal is a drug dealer’ was going to kill me.

  I took my time putting on my shoes and jacket, hoping to take up a bit more time in our morning. Ashley was eying me warily and went from wide-eyed and bouncing to standing perfectly still with her arms crossed staring at me.

  I yelled good-bye to my parents, and grabbed my cell phone that mom had freed from her drawer, and ran out the door with Ashley.

  “What gives?” she asked.

  “I don’t know what you mean. Let’s just get to school and get this day over with.”

  “You know exactly what I mean. What happened last night? Why did the Sheriff come over all late and what not?”

  “I can’t tell you,” I whispered. I felt horrible, especially after Ashley stopped walking and looked at me with this look like I kicked her puppy or something.

  “Since when? We tell each other everything.” Her voice was soft and I could hear her trying to control her emotions.

  “Since the Sheriff told me in front of my parents that I can’t tell anyone anything and if he finds out I did, or if anyone finds out, then the whole case could fall apart. I want to tell you. I even tried to call you last night but Mom stole my phone. Please don’t be upset with me, Ash. Please?”

  “Fine, but the minute, no, the second, you are allowed to talk you find me.” She reached out and linked our arms.

  “Absolutely.”

  “So, how did you break free of parental supervision?”

  “I didn’t. I snuck in and turned their alarm off last night and when I left, I wrote a note. Mom had today off so she won’t be late or anything. Just don’t expect me to be able to do this again.”

  We both laughed loudly and walked on.

  ***

  Surprisingly, the school day ran extremely normal. I was beginning to question if the Sheriff was even able to do what he wanted. By the time lunch period rolled around, I was convinced that nothing would happen until at least the next day.

  Ashley and I sat together at the table right next to the table that Macy sat at. She sat on the end of her table, and we sat at the end of ours. Not technically sitting together, so Mrs. Nash had nothing to report to Macy’s parents. I really hoped that once the whole mess was over with, that we could go back to being normal friends again.

  Mrs. Nash had been walking up and down the aisles between the lunch tables, keeping an eye on the students. Occasionally, she would say something to someone about manners or engaging in too much PDA. Her face went from her typical scowl to utter shock.

  I looked around trying to see what she was seeing that caused such a face when I noticed the blue and red light bouncing off the wall. It was coming from outside, shining through the windows. The whole student body slowly became aware of the impending police intrusion for the second day in a row.

  Mrs. Nash turned around quickly and walked at a competitive racer’s pace out of the cafeteria. I elbowed Ashley and pointed in her direction. I kept staring at Ash with wide eyes, hoping she would pick up on my mental vibes.

  When she finally turned to look away fr
om the doors that Mrs. Nash had just exited, realization struck.

  “Oh, my God! You cannot be serious!” I just nodded my head. I hadn’t broken the rules, I didn’t say one word. It’s not my fault that Ashley knows me well enough to read my thoughts.

  “What? What is going on?” Macy asked, looking between the two of us. “You guys! I haven’t been around long enough to know the best friend silent cues yet. Someone tell me!”

  “I was personally threatened by my parents if I were to speak one word…but Ashley on the other hand…”

  Ashley leaned across the gap between the tables and whispered in Macy’s ear. She let out a gasp and looked to me. “For real?”

  I just nodded again. Still following the rules. I looked around and saw that not one teacher was paying attention to the doors of the cafeteria. They were all standing by the window, watching the large group of uniformed men and women descend upon our school.

  “What do you think girls, one last undercover mission to complete the whole story? We have the beginning and the middle, seems a shame to miss out on the end.” I reached down and pulled my camera from my bag, slipping the strap around my neck.

  “What the hell, it’s not like Mrs. Nash will be in any situation to tell my parents,” Macy said while rummaging through her own bag for her camera.

  I looked to Ashley, hoping she would come even without a camera. The smirk on her face was enough to tell me she was in, but when she reached down and produced a camera that looked the same as mine, I was shocked.

  “Where did that come from?”

  “Mr. Bennett said I could borrow it! Let’s go!” The three of us stood up casually, putting our backpacks on and walked toward the door. Ashley took a drink from the water fountain beside the glass double doors, I grabbed the bathroom pass, and Macy just headed out and to the lockers across the hall. With a second glance at the oblivious adults, we were racing down the hallway. The best part about having a small school was that everyone had lunch at the same time. There was no one to catch us and send us back, except for maybe one of the police.