[Kokopelli25]

CHAPTER 11

“We’re here and it looks like your parents are waiting! I know everyone’s tired, but if we all pitch in we’ll be done quickly and you can get you home to your comfy beds. I asked Mr. Grant to pull up right to the main entrance. Everyone take a quick moment to look around and pick up any trash before we get off the bus!”

*****

Ellie didn’t spend any time in the speech room, she simply reached in and turned the lights off. Closing the doors, she set off down the hallway to the main staircase by the entrance. She’d go grab her clothes and get dressed for the first time in awhile and then finally head home. She started to realize just how tired she was - the adrenaline had mostly worn off and exhaustion was kicking in.

*****

“The light up there just went off.”

“What?”

“Mr. Jackson, there was a light in a room on the second floor but it just turned off.”

“Okay,” Mr Jackson sighed to himself. “Section leaders, please make sure all of your instruments make it off the bus and get checked in at the music room. Don’t leave until you’ve checked in with me - I’m running upstairs quickly. Let’s go, everyone off the bus - be careful carrying everything!” Mr. Jackson, the band director, was the first one off the bus. He walked over to the front doors and started to unlock them as the first students filed out of the bus.

*****

Ellie continued down the hall, deeming herself dry enough that she could get dressed now. Her hair was still wet but there was nothing she could do about that, other than putting her hair up using her keychain bracelet. Approaching the main staircase she put her arms up as she started to manipulate her wet hair into a bun. She lowered her head and looked down, both to make it easier to put her hair up and so she wouldn’t trip going down the stairs. It was tricky with her phone wristlet getting in the way, but by the time she hit the landing halfway down she had gotten it. She looked up and glanced out the window, her heart stopping as her eyes went wide.

She couldn’t breathe, couldn’t move. She knew the bright lights outside and the darkness inside made the window a one-way mirror which should keep her from being seen, but she was worried that any movement she made could still be noticed somehow - the human eye is drawn to movement, she knew. What she didn’t know was that the whole notion of a one-way mirror only worked if it was nearly pitch dark on one side, which it wasn’t, and the lights on the other were precisely aimed, which they weren’t. The result was a sort of after-image style, where a person on the lighted side could kind of see their reflection and kind of see inside, an overlapping of images that looked blurry and distorted, making it tough to see what exactly either image was.

*****

“Um, Mr. Jackson? I think there’s someone in there.”

“What? Where?”

“On the stairs - it looks like someone’s on the stairs, and it looks like...”

“What? What does it look like?” From where he was by the doors, Mr. Jackson couldn’t see the stairs so he started walking back to the bus where the students were standing around.”

“It looks like the person is, well, naked.” The observant student and a few others pointed at the window.

“Damn, one of your classmates playing a prank, no doubt. Okay, everyone start taking your stuff in to the music room. I’m giving the key to Mrs. Turner - Shannon, please get everyone checked in. Section leaders should stay, everyone else is excused when the bus is unloaded and everything back in the music room. Tom, once the bus is empty will you lock it and join me inside to see what’s going on? The kids said they also saw a light get turned off on the second floor so meet me up there.”