Spoiler Alert: They Ain't Gonna Make It

13. That Awkward Moment When Food Is Simplier Than Life

Hello!

Another chapie! :)

Anyway, I'm almost done writing this in pages, and once that happens, I'll have updates maybe everyday. I don't know, but be prepared for many updates at once!

Anyway, I give you

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MISS SMITH AND FOOD

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As Miss Smith sat tied up in an uncomfortable wooden chair in the depths of the janitor's closet, she thought.

At first, her thoughts consisted of food and money and food and her students and food and the copies and food and (stragely) her online friend, RedHead100. But mostly, her thoughts were about food because she was very hungry.

Anyway, her thoughts about her students were mostly about her hoping that they were okay and haven't lit the school on fire. (She didn't smell smoke and the fire alarms weren't going off so she sure they hadn't. Yet.) She should have put someone in charge before she left. Someone smart and nice and reasonable and liked and someone who people will listen to, like Kai. Man. If she had put him in charge before she left, she would feel so much better because no one was as trustworthy as Kai was. If he was in charge, Miss Smith believed they'd all be alright.

Her thinking surrounding RedHead100 was a bit different. She thought about the six months they'd been talking and how wonderful that's been. His charm and cleverness was thrilling to the single teacher, even though he had a bit of an ego. (Or a huge ego to be correct.) He even worked with animals, which was adorable enough for Miss Smith to swoon over. She couldn't help but imagine him, whoever he really was and whatever he looked like, crashing into the closet and saving her from the awful red-headed, idiotic, (but also (kind of) smart) narcissistic zookeeper. She would definitely fall in love with him after that.

Then, her thoughts wavered from food to food, wishing that she were eating the delicious meals rather than them tantalizing her. Cakes, burgers, pastas, chips, breads, vegetables (where did that come from?) fish, just about anything really.

After that, her thoughts changed dramatically. She tried and tried and tried again to figure out who the person who had given their keys to the blasted zookeeper guarding the door outside was.

First, she pictured the staff. She ruled out the elderly Mrs. Oldenburg from the bunch because how could an old lady who made such good cookies give away her keys to such a blackhead? Mr. Fletcher, who was a recluse and had a phobia of everything there could be a phobia to, was also taken out of the bunch since he wouldn't trust anyone with... well... he didn't trust anyone at all. So... yeah.

Many more teachers and staff members were plucked from the list until all that were left were Hardy, the janitor who had supposedly stolen the floor tiles to one of the science rooms, (how he did that, she didn't know) and Dr. Caine, the most dependable adult in the building. Surely Dr. Caine, the guy who was in charge of everything, knew about everything, and basically was everything in the school, wouldn't give keys to the zookeeper. That left Hardy for the blame.

Unless the key-giver was one of the heads of Jeff''s partners in education! But Miss Smith doubted Bucky from Bucky's Ice Cream Parlor or Sydney from the local nursing home would hand over their keys.

But what about Mr. Ford, Kai's dad? His company, the National Association of Congress, was the newest partner the school had, them having joined the school around six months ago. Could they give up their keys?

Nah. They wouldn't. She thought. Besides, if Kai was trustworthy, then his dad must be, since Kai had to learn his stuff from somewhere.

So it was Hardy then.

But wait! Hardy had been fired a week ago from spraying Miss Glazeberry in the face with cleaning spray! He wouldn't have the keys to this building if he didn't work here!

Then who gave away their keys?

A student! A student must have stolen keys from Mr. Dopey, the teacher who lost his underwear while he was wearing his pants, when he wasn't looking! Gosh, it would have been so easy to!

But which student?

Miss Smith gasped. The only two students she knew of that would do such a thing were Jasper, the school's bad boy, and Harry, the school's idiot. Jasper could take keys from Mr. Dopey like taking candy from a baby. Plus, that boy would have many motives for wanting to do so, since he got detention more than he got homework and Hardy was (coincidentally) his uncle. It was easy to imagine Jasper being the bad guy since he was a bad guy.

Then there was Harry. Miss Smith didn't really want to blame Harry for any crime because, despite his stupidity, he was a nice guy. But, if anyone dared Harry to steal keys, there was no way he wouldn't do it. He didn't think ahead to punishments as great as the on he would get if people caught him in the act of stealing Mr. Dopey's keys.

The only thing that confused Miss Smith was why either of them would give the keys to a zookeeper. If she remembered correctly, Jasper had never been to the zoo and Harry was banned from ever going back. Neither of them had ties to this random zookeeper, so why would they give the keys to him?

Then again, Miss Smith did see a paper in Harry's backpack with the initials NAC on it. NAC happened to be the initials for the New Andrew County Zoo, a place that Mr. Douche Keeper worked at. Did that go together? Or did the NAC go with the National Association of Congress? Or was it something different like Nerdy America Club? Was Harry a nerd?

Needing a break from all the deep thinking, Miss Smith day-dreamed about, for the ninth time in the past ten minutes, food.

Because food was simpler than everything else at the moment.