Madeline 38-41

11

The next morning, Skye and Kristen found that they were the only ones with Saturday detention. This meant that they were the only two students who weren’t sleeping in, or waking up to a hot Saturday morning kitchen feast. About ten minutes into detention Skye had fallen completely asleep. Having absolutely nothing to do herself for the next two hours, Kristen tried to fall asleep while sitting upright. After about five minutes without success. Kristen just sat and let her mind wander wherever. Eventually her subconscious arrived at the last nights fair. As the previous nights events unfolded in her mind Kristen became puzzled. Everything was about Sam. As she watched her thoughts as if in a dream or movie, Kristen saw that at every point of the night she had either been with Sam or talking about him. She paired up with him for rides, shared all of her food with him, and yammered on about how sweet he was being, while she was talking to Skye. When the two were at the games she even saw some signature Kristen flirt tactics! Was it possible that she liked him? As soon as the thought passed through her brain she knew that it was true. She had always thought he was cute and funny, but now it was more than that. The things she had always considered dorky about him were actually admirable. Even his obsession over getting good grades, and the obvious results in the class room showed that he was going somewhere. Now that she had had this revelation though, she didn’t know if she would act differently around him because she had no idea how he felt about her. After a few minutes of super analysis about every thing he had ever said to her, Kristen was jolted back to reality by the shrill sound of the bell.

“So can I ask you a favor?” Asked Skye as the girls walked out of the detention room.

“Sure.” Said Kristen cheerily.

“Well I have to make this mosaic for art, and I was hoping that maybe you could come with me to gather creek glass for it.” Said Skye.

“Oh yeah sure, no problem.” Replied Kristen.

“Ok thanks!” Said Skye enthusiastically. “I’m actually scared to go by myself. I always think that I’m going to slip, hit my head and die, like the girl from

The Bridge To Teribithia.” She added, her face reddening.

“Well, I never would have guessed you’d be the type to freak out about stuff like that.” Said Kristen.

“Oh shut up!” Replied Skye with a laugh.

Once they arrived at the creek, the girls waded into the cold water. They walked along in the water talking, and looked for bits of glass that had drifted down the long and winding creek. As they walked along the girls moved a blockage of leaves that were caught against a few upturned rocks. Once the leaves were cleared, the girls made a shocking discovery. Wedged haphazardly between the rocks, was a bundle of cold, hard, cash! The girls were stunned. As Kristen pulled out the money and counted, she was shocked. In that one bundle there were twenty-five, twenty dollar bills!

“Holy cow!!! There’s five hundred dollars here!” Said Kristen in disbelief.

“Five hundred dollars!?” Screeched Skye as she grabbed the cash and counted for her self.

“Oh my gosh! We’re rich!” Screamed the girls in unison, as they jumped around joyfully.

Amidst the celebration reality struck Skye, “shouldn’t we turn this in? I mean someone is bound to be freaking out right now. I know I’d be having a heart attack if I lost five hundred dollars.” She said.

“Ugh, you’re right. Let’s take it up to Sister Mary-Janice’s office.” Replied Kristen glumly, her bubble of excitement completely deflated.

Trudging, up the hill towards the office, the duo found their headmistress sooner than expected. As Kristen and Skye walked past Carl’s little hut they, stumbled into a heated conversation between Sister Mary-Janice and Carl. When the adults saw Kristen and Skye they abruptly fell silent.

“Um, I’m sorry for interrupting, but we found this money and we thought that maybe you would know who had lost it.” Said Kristen apprehensively.

When Kristen produced the money an excited look came over Sister Mary-Janice’s face, and Carl let out a gasp.

“Where did you find that!?” Demanded Carl.

“In the creek.” Said Skye

“Are you positive that’s where you found it?” Asked Sister Mary-Janice.

“Yes! We just found it laying there in the creek!” Replied Kristen in an exasperated tone.

“Well, we really appreciate you girls for turning the money in to us. Now, why don’t the two you go and grab some lunch ok?” Said Sister Mary-Janice in a sugar-coated voice.

Not wanting to argue, or stick around longer than needed, the girls handed the money over and left. As they walked, they tried to make sense of what just happened there.

“What do you think they were arguing about?” Asked Skye.

I have no idea, but it wasn’t a very friendly conversation, that’s for sure” Replied Kristen.

“Oh my gosh! What if they’re terrorists and they are plotting to kill us all!” Said Skye in a scary voice.

“They are not terrorists Skye. Ninjas maybe, but not terrorists.” Said Kristen laughing.

“Oh you are so right! I can totally see them both doing high kicks in tight black body suits.” Said Skye sarcastically.

After a second of imagining their headmistress and janitor in tight black clothes, the girls lost it.

Once they finally stopped laughing, Kristen said, “ ninja or not I say we take Sister Mary- Janice’s advice and eat. I am starving.

“I totally agree. I’ve had nothing in my system since the fair.” Said Skye.

As the girls made their way over to the dining hall for heaping plates of food, Kristen couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something very wrong with the meeting they had witnessed. She had no reason to worry, she hadn’t done anything, but her gut told her that something was not quite right.