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Well, I wasn’t going anywhere fast. After another drink from my coffee, I dug around in my backpack and pulled out my spiral-bound notebook, and the three-ring binder where I’d clipped all the syllabi and broken them down by subject. As the year went on, I’d add three ring binders to the classes that needed it, otherwise I’d work out of these two books.
Flipping the spiral-bound to the second page, I wrote the date out in pencil and then flipped to the syllabi for government. “Are we doing this in my class order, or do you want to do it in the order you asked me?”
Helping them with homework had been one of the supporting columns of our friendship for years. It was how I navigated the shark-infested waters between the various cliques. By high school standards, Archie and Bubba shouldn’t even be friends. They ran in completely different circles and had for years. They had almost nothing in common, except Jake—who in addition to being into sports and probably Bubba’s best friend was also into robotics and engineering, like Archie. Then there was Coop, who didn’t do team sports or engineering, but he was a whiz at physics, even if he downplayed it.
I’ve had classes with all of them, but since freshman year, we hadn’t shared one class with all five of us in it. The closest had been AP Physics in junior year with Coop, Archie, and me. That had been great, or it had been until the week before AP exams. Shaking my head, I dispelled that thought and then eyed the guys who were all being conspicuously nonverbal.
In fact, Jake and Bubba were actively glaring at each other. Archie caught my gaze, flicked a look to the boys, and then rolled his eyes. Fine, they didn’t want to volunteer? “Coop?” I shifted to glance to right.
He grinned. “Still want to do an escape room where all the clues are based offThe Death of Ivan Illyich?”
“I think it’s weird,” I admitted. “But also kind of cool. How are we planning to present that? A model?” We could do a diorama, but that would take a lot of work to plant the clues in a clever and inventive way that was also easily translatable.
“We design the room with the clues in mind… have you ever done an escape room?”
I stared at him. “Nope.” Never had the desire either.
“Project is due next week, so let’s hit an escape room Friday, they’re always doing them—they have one called the Budapest Express, I think it would be a perfect model for this.”
That sounded great but…
“The first game of the season is on Friday,” Bubba said. “You can’t miss our last first game, Frankie.”
“Then let’s go to the escape room tomorrow,” Archie suggested. He already had his phone in his hand. “You don’t work until Wednesday, right? If not tomorrow, what about Saturday evening? You working days or nights on the weekend?”
“It’s kind of our homework project,” Coop pointed out. “Frankie doesn’t even like football.”
“I don’t dislike it,” I said, kicking Coop lightly with one foot. No, I wasn’t a fan, but Jake and Bubba both played. Hating on it would be like them hating on my…well, on my reading or something. Bubba didn’t read like Jake and I did, and he’d never treat it that way.
“You don’t have to go to the game,” Bubba said almost immediately. “Would the escape room get out in time for you to meet us after?”
“No, she absolutely has to come to the game,” Jake countered. “Then we all go out to eat afterward. Tradition.”
We’d done that for the last two years—that didn’t make it a tradition, exactly.
“Besides,” Jake continued. “I kind of want to see what the escape room is all about.”
“There are tickets for tomorrow and Saturday,” Archie tossed into the fray, waving his phone.
“What time on Saturday?” Bubba had already asked if I had plans the following day, but he wasn’t arguing about doing this the next day. Still… he probably needed tutoring, but he hadn’t wanted to discuss it in front of Coop.
“Last one to start is at 10:40 at night.”
I’d be done with work, even if I had evening shifts.
“I get off at six.” I was due in at ten and I worked until six. Then I didn’t go in until noon on Sunday.
“They have one at eight,” Archie suggested. “That good?”
It would give me time to go home and shower, feed the cats, and get the laundry sorted to do on Sunday morning. “How much?”
“I got it,” Archie said dismissively. “It’ll be fun. So, five tickets for the eight o’clock. I’ll pick you up at seven?”
“Why don’t I pick her up at seven?” Jake said dryly. “I’ll get everyone, since everyone fits in my car.”
Which was true.
Archie made a face. “That works.”
