The Red String | ONC 2024

3. The Next Morning

"Seriously! You don't even know how awful it was!" Emma said, slamming her tray down on the table in front of her. She took a seat next to her best friend, Abby.

She still couldn't believe she'd spent the entire night stuck in the gym with Logan. It meant that she couldn't do any homework that wasn't already in her backpack, she had to sleep on the hard, unheated gym floor, and she couldn't even brush her teeth when she was finally able to get out of there.

Coach Robins had unlocked the doors just before seven. To say he'd been surprised to see her and Logan languishing under the basketball hoops would have been an understatement.

They'd turned the lights off sometime in the middle of the night, hoping to get a bit of shut-eye while they could. The sound of the bulbs blinking on, and the flash of blinding light had been what woke her up that next morning.

"What are you two doing here?" Coach Robins had asked, staring at the two of them. He looked like he was trying to decide exactly how much trouble they were in.

Emma shot up to a seated position. Then, she inched away from Logan just a bit. They hadn't actually done anything last night, and they weren't even sitting all that close together anyway. But she didn't want to give Coach Robins the impression that they might have. This whole conversation was going to be awkward enough as it was; she didn't want to give him the wrong impression. Or, any impression more wrong than the one he clearly already had.

"Oh... Hi, sir..." Emma started awkwardly, getting to her feet. She was trying to come up with some kind of excuse, but Logan jumped in before she could figure out exactly what to say.

"Hey, Coach." he said, yawning. "Door got stuck yesterday after school."

"Is that so?"

"Yep. I went to grab some things out of my locker and when I came out, it was locked."

"...You two have been here this whole time?" the coach asked in disbelief.

"Yeah, sorry." Logan said as he picked himself up off the floor.

Emma's phone buzzed in her pocket. Then it buzzed again and again and again. She pulled it out, a feeling of dread washing through her. Eleven missed calls and six text messages— all from her parents.

"Oh, they're going to kill me." she mumbled to herself.

"At least the phones are working now." Logan told her. She looked up and saw him give a kind of halfhearted shrug before turning to his own phone.

Emma made a quick call to her dad, trying to explain what had happened. He wasn't particularly impressed with her excuse, especially about how her phone had conveniently stopped working as soon as she'd managed to get herself in trouble. She didn't even mention that the person she'd been stuck all alone with had been a boy. Instead, she left him with the distinct impression that it was one of the girls in her science class.

At least she didn't get in any actual trouble. She'd expected her dad to yell at her, maybe ground her. But he didn't. He'd sounded disappointed, but he just told her to be more careful next time. Even Coach Robins didn't seem overly concerned. Emma wasn't sure if it was because he actually believed Logan or if he just didn't want to have to deal with the two of them. Either way, she wasn't about to question it.

She hurried to her locker to change out her books and get the spare sweatshirt she'd stuffed in there sometime last week. It wasn't too wrinkled, and it would at least keep the rest of the school from noticing that she was wearing the same clothes two days in a row. She popped a piece of gum in her mouth, hoping it would help hide any morning breath she might have. Then, she walked to first period, trying desperately to look like this was any other day.

The only good thing she could see about the day so far was that the halls were practically empty as she made her way to class. Well, that and the fact that it was now Friday. She'd only have to make it through this one day. Then, she'd have the weekend to catch up on all the work she hadn't been able to do last night.

The first half of her day hadn't gone too bad. Coach Robins had agreed to write both Emma and Logan notes to help explain why they hadn't done their homework and requesting that they could each have an extension. Logan was excited enough that Emma was positive he'd be using it for every single class, regardless of whether or not he'd been able to do the homework in the gym. Emma, on the other hand, took hers guiltily. She knew it wasn't her fault, but this was still the first time she'd missed an assignment since she started high school.

Of course, when she'd walked into the cafeteria looking exhausted and disheveled, Abby had instantly wanted to know what had happened to her. She'd started grinning as soon as Emma told her she'd spent the night locked in the school. And when she'd told Abby who she was with, her grin had only gotten wider.

"So you spent the night with Logan Harris?" Abby beamed.

"Don't say it like that." Emma snapped. The last thing she needed was for someone to overhear her. She was a serious student with a reputation to worry about— a reputation that someone like Logan Harris could only tarnish.

Abby just laughed, like it was the best joke she'd ever heard. Emma, however, was having a hard time finding the humor. She turned indignantly to her lunch, eyeing the bun of what apparently passed for a chicken sandwich around here. But Abby wasn't quite done with the subject yet.

"So, what was it like?" Abby asked. "The gym at night, I mean. Was it creepy?"

"It was cold." Emma said. "You thought it was bad in the daytime? It's nothing compared to the middle of the night when you're not running around with a hundred other kids. And, yeah...the shadows were pretty creepy."

The widows up near the ceiling were way too high to see out of, but they were still able to let in the light from the streetlamps in the parking lot. They cast strange shadows across the walls of things that Emma couldn't identify. And the sounds of the building settling around them had echoed off the cavernous walls.

"Good thing you had Logan there to protect you." Abby grinned, her eyes glowing mischievously.

"Oh yeah. Thank god." Emma laughed.

"But, better than being alone, right?" Abby asked, turning somewhat serious.

"Hmmm...." Emma tapped her finger on her chin, pretending to think.

"Oh, come on!" Abby said, pushing her playfully. "Yeah, he's a little obnoxious. But at least he's cute."

"Oh, well in that case..." Emma grinned. "Besides, it was dark most of the night anyway."

"So you got to spend the night with Logan Harris in the dark?" Abby practically squealed.

"You know, I think you're having just a little too much fun with this." Emily told her.

"I'm sorry." Abby said, struggling slightly to put a serious look on her face. Finally, she succeeded. "It must have sucked to be here all night."

"It did." Emma agreed, somewhat pacified. As enjoyable as it clearly was for Abby to make fun of Emma's misfortunes, at least she did understand why Emma had been less than thrilled with the whole thing. And by the end of the period, she was hardly making fun of Emma at all.

The bell rang, and the two of them got up, making their way to the English class they shared. Emma saw Logan in the hallway, but she pretended not to notice. She glanced over at her friend, ready to ask about the test they had coming up next week. Emma didn't really have a question; it was more of an excuse to ignore Logan. But Abby was looking down towards the floor, her English book covering most of her face as she clearly tried to suppress her grin.