EXPLORING THE TUNNEL

I had no idea what I was going to do. I looked at Ollie but noticed a look of sheer bliss at the sight of the two boys fighting. He obviously won't want to stop the fight so I'll have to do it myself. I threw myself at the two of them and we all fell down. At least they cushioned my fall.

"Vee!" Oliver shouted coming to help me up,"You should have let them fight."

"They'll get into trouble." I said and I looked down at Markus and Jake.

They were glaring at each other like hens fighting over eggs. I pulled Markus to me and took him aside for a while.

"What are you doing?" I asked,"Are you trying to get into trouble?"

"Sorry. My cousin is just annoying." he apologized sheepishly while playing with his trousers.

"I was going to tell you something but now I've forgotten." I said trying to remember why I wanted to speak with him in the first place.

Why.did I want to talk to him?! Oliver walked towards us with a smile leaving Jake standing alone.

"Tunnel." he whispered for the two of us to hear.

"Aha!" I exclaimed then I lowered my voice because I didn't want Jake to hear,"Are you too busy right now?"

"Yes. What is it?"

"Vee wanted to checkout the tunnel to see where it leads. She wants us men to accompany her." Oliver answered in my behalf.

Markus smiled when Oliver referred to them as men but then he frowned right afterwards.

"Why? It could be dangerous. Not to forget Elise and now with Sr Patronelle back it only means Elise won't be merciful." Markus explained.

"Freckle boy. Think about it. Elise will be super busy finding offenders to take knitting and she won't be thinking about us."

"I'll will exclusively be thinking about the three of you."

Elise! We were all startled and even Jake walked away. Elise was here! Did she hear what we were talking about?! Her eyes fell on me and I felt like her gaze was piercing right through my chest. I'm sure I started sweating because a small smile spread on her face and it was anything but friendly. She must have heard.

"What do you plan on doing?" she asked walking closer.

"We wanted to play a game in Vee's room after cleaning." Oliver answered pouting his lips and Elise's smile faltered like he was affecting her,"We don't want you there."

"If I can't be there then there's no game." Elise said sounding a little hurt.

She turned around and started to walk away then Oliver followed her and he looked genuinely worried. Markus pulled me towards him and we hid behind a tree.

"What happened?" I asked startled.

"Sr Patronelle." he said and I peeped from behind the tree to see Sr Drevin walking with a short and chubby woman.

She looks familiar but I can't remember where I saw her. Markus pulled me away and led me back to my classmates via a thicket of bushes. He left without saying anything and I felt sad that he didn't utilize the bushes to steal a kiss. I joined the work again and soon Oliver came back looking upset....or sad. He started pulling out weeds next to me but he said nothing and whatever he was feeling he let out on the poor weeds.

"What happened?" I asked after a while.

"Elise said we will be playing in her room." Oliver said sulking.

"I'm sure we can shake her off. We'll be playing when everyone else is out of their rooms, right?"

"Right?" he said questioningly.

"We can make her play hide and seek then while she looks for us we will go to my room."

"She'll know we are in your room." he replied sighing.

"Not if we start off by hiding somewhere else."

Oliver turned to look at me and he smiled. We straightened and dipped our fingers in each other's dimples. Once we were done with our work, most of the students sat around chatting their time away. We found Elise and Markus and headed to her room. Markus was clueless about the plan and there was no way of telling him.

"What should we play?" Elise asked looking at everyone individually.

"Hide and seek!" Oliver and I answered smiling.

"I'll seek." Markus suggested and my smile quickly fell,"What should I count to?"

"Twenty." I said frowning at him.

He closed his eyes and started counting. Elise was the first to exit the room followed by Oliver who looked happy for some reason.

"If you find Ollie or me pretend you didn't see us. Elise should be seeking so we can go and check out you know what." I whispered as fast as I could.

I run out as well and went to my room. I left the door slightly ajar and knelt where Elise had been looking this morning. There was definitely a hole there. I went to my suitcase and took out a hairpin and started picking out the dirt. Markus passed by my room then he came back to wave at me. He was shocked to see what I was doing but he left anyways. The hole looked like a key hole and what an oddly shaped key it was. I heard some noise and got up after hiding the pin in my pocket and blowing away the dirt. I slid under the bed and Markus walked in fallowed by Elise. Markus got down on all fours and looked at me.

"Found you." he said,"Elise is seeking."

"I'll count from here." she said as I got out from under the bed.

"No peeking." I said trying to sound cheerful but my voice came out shaky so I cleared my throat,"We can hide anywhere right?"

"Yes." she answered,"Just don't move things around."

"Even the rooms on the other floors?" I asked and she nodded.

"Let's go." I said grabbing Markus' arm and I dragged him out with me.

We saw Oliver in the corridor and we took him too to go and hide in the floor above ours. I made sure we made a lot of noise as we went up so Elise would know where we were. It'll be easy to tiptoe back down because the steps are made of concrete instead of wood. We hid inside one of the rooms and soon we heard Elise's footsteps. She entered one of the rooms and we came out of the room we were in to go down the stairs. We were quiet and I made sure to quietly leave a couple of doors open to occupy her.

When we got to my room I closed it while Markus and Oliver moved the wardrobe. Finally we could know where the door led. It was a dusty and narrow passageway. The floor was uneven and the wall as well. I noticed that there were some random vents there which explains why the was a breeze. We had to Walk slowly and quietly. I was the one in front and I could here how heavily Oliver was breathing, probably because of the dust.

"There are stairs." I whispered looking at the steep stairs ahead of us.

The part where the stairs started was clean and wet like it had been cleaned just a while ago and at the bottom of the stairs there was a door.

"Let me check." I whispered starting to descend the stairs slowly because it was slippery.

"Be careful." Oliver whispered back.

I reached the bottom and noticed there was another small passage on the right. It was just another set of steep stairs leading to another closed door that I noticed had some chains and locks. I heard noise from the other side of the door I was standing right in front of and I turned to start climbing back up. I used my hands to help me climb so I wouldn't slip and I whispered for Oliver and Mark to start going back. Oliver extended his hand for me to take and at the same time I heard a clanking sound coming from behind me. When we were on the slightly straight part of the tunnel we started speed walking.

Whoever was down there couldn't see us from here at least. Oliver slowed down in front of me and when I peeped at the side to see what was happening, I felt my blood drain from my face. Elise! She was standing with her arms crossed and she looked disappointed. Behind me I heard some footsteps and I pushed Oliver.

"Someone's coming?!" I whisper screamed and he started moving. When I was back in the room Markus and Oliver pushed the wardrobe back in place quickly.

"Out." Elise ordered and none of us had the energy to say no or protest.

Elise led the way out and we followed her with our heads bowed, except Markus. She led us far from the school buildings and I got worried wondering if she wanted to take us directly to the sewing room. We ended up in a corner field and the corn was quite dry.

"A dream huh." Elise said gritting her teeth as she looked at me.

"I'm so....."

"Don't Olive. With what you know I expected better from you." she reprimanded me,"And you Dupree. You are supposed to be a leader yet you followed a little girl's demands and did something like this!"

No one spoke for a long time and she eventually told us to sit down.

"If you are so curious about the tunnel then I'll tell you." she said also sitting.