"I'm so excited!" Payton squeals.
The four of us look at her, annoyance on our faces. The rest of us are anxious and her excitement is a little bothersome.
She rolls her eyes and heaves a heavy sigh. "Sorry..."
Jason checks his watch. "It's 7:32. Where is Robbie?"
I'm right here, calm down..." Robbie jumps down from a few stairs up, making a loud noise as his feet hit the floor.
"Shh!" we all hiss.
"Everyone has Study Period now. We have to be quiet or someone could hear us," Alex says to Robbie, swatting him on the arm.
"All right, geez," Robbie mumbles. "But wait, before we go, did you guys all bring your cell phones?" We all nod or shrug to say that we did.
Robbie smiles. "Good." He pulls a small bag out of his jacket pocket. "I have new SIM cards for all of us, which in case you don't know-" He glances at Payton, "basically turns your phone into a new one when you put it in." He distributes them to us. "You guys did remember to back up your phones to your laptops to save all your data and pictures, right?"
We all nod and start to slide the new SIM cards into our phones, except for Payton, who whines, “Why do we have to do this?”
Robbie rolls his eyes. “If the headmaster or anyone were to attempt to find us, our phones have tracking devices, so anybody could locate us if we give off any signal, send a text, make a phone call, you name it.”
Payton groans, but still slides the new SIM card into her phone. She knows Robbie thought this all through.
I glance at Jason in a sideways way and try not to grin at how cute he looks in his sweatshirt. The blue really brings out his eyes. I watch as he stares outside at the black night sky, biting his lip. He’s just as nervous about all this as I am, which is slightly comforting.
Suddenly, the sound of the bell to indicate that Study Period is over clangs. Footsteps quickly fill the hallways near us, and we all stand, frozen, with wide eyes. My heart speeds up and my thoughts start racing as well. Someone could come around the corner at any second and catch us, and then we’d have to face the headmistress’s wrath and more than likely hefty punishment. I begin to feel sick to my stomach, and I even consider turning back for a spilt second. But Jason’s strong hand grabs my arm and, while the loud bell is still chiming, Alex flings open the heavy metal door of the school open. We all dash outside, lugging our bags along with us, and Alex holds onto the door so that it closes quietly. The six of us sprint down the paved pathway that leads towards the main roads, and my heart races with excitement. We very rarely, if ever, are allowed to leave the school building, so breaking out and knowing we'll never return feels beyond exhilarating to me.
We stop running after some time and pause in the middle of an empty road, drop our bags on the ground, and pant to catch our breath. The cool autumn evening displays a milky black sky with a full moon casting a pale, dusty light on the street. We are all grinning from ear to ear. I think that the rest of them are just as excited as I am now. My old life at the boarding school is gone. The only life I have ever known is now just one that I used to know.
I smile to myself and think about my daydream, the one where I look in front of me and see an empty road of freedom. Every time that dream came to my mind before, I would dismiss it with an embarrassed thought of how silly I was being. I never believed we could really run away, that where I am now could become reality. But here we are, our school a speck on the horizon.
This is no dream. This is my new life.
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