Page 163 of Vexatious Queen

“No way. Is that true?”

Blake snorted, making me giggle.

“No, of course it’s not. And why would I tell you about the cameras here when we’ve never had to come down here until now?”

“Jerk, I thought you were gonna pull out like a pirate’s map or something next. Lead us through secret passages to a treasure below the building. That woulda been cool,” Myles said.

He was such a kid at heart.

“Can I ask why they turn the cameras off? That seems…fishy,” I said as Blake held up his hand and peered around the corner to the hallway that we wanted.

“All clear, and I don’t know. I didn’t really care, so I didn’t ask,” Blake said as we reached Sharpe and Martelli’s door.

He pulled the keys out of his pocket, and I used my phone as a flashlight so he could find the right one.

It was dark along this windowless hallway, and I was getting intense high school slasher-horror-movie vibes. The hair bristled on the back of my neck, and it felt like we were being watched, but there were no signs of anyone else. Still, it creeped me out.

Blake unlocked the door, and we quickly slipped inside before Myles relocked it behind us. The office wasn’t much to look at, apart from the massive desk that wrapped around the outer part of the room. There was a divider separating the teacher’s spaces, but it all blended together. The chair that Vicky had been sitting in the last time I was here was joined by three others. There were two filing cabinets, one on either side of the room, and a single bookcase right beside the door.

“Be as quiet as possible,” Blake whispered.

We got to work, but all I found were old tests, notes on classes, and textbooks. All things you would expect. Walking over to the books, I pulled them down one at a time and shook out the pages to see if there were any notes or hidden pieces of paper, but found nothing.

Myles was reaching into the filing cabinet like he was trying to find a secret passage.

This was pointless. All the earlier adrenaline of sneaking in and finding something suspicious quickly faded.

I gave up on Sharpe’s side of the room and began pulling open Mr. Martelli’s drawers. He had nothing but paperclips and an unhealthy number of pens. And I thought I was bad.

Flipping open the file on his desk, I froze. It was a stack of poems.

Twinkle, twinkle, near and far,

Every wish, a distant star.

When the night turns dark and deep,

Hope remains while we sleep.

Rest your mind and weary soul,

And calm surrounds you, head to toe.

Twinkle, twinkle dreams anew,

Guiding hearts the whole night through.

“Snowflake, you okay,” Myles asked.

I turned my head to look at him, but all I could muster was to hold out the paper. He read it over and then handed it to Blake.

“Are we looking at the wrong teacher?”

“I don’t know, but I don’t like any of this,” I said.

“Neither do I. I think we need to tell Dean Henry,” Blake whispered. “Student, teacher, or otherwise, he should know if someone on the property is a threat. And it has to be someone who knows about this assignment.”

“Yeah, I agree.”