Snowed in Together (4 page)

Ellyce laughed too, a soft, sweet, jingling laugh.

"Well, Charles," Tenray said to Korman, "we've had our laugh for today. We'll let you get back to whatever you were doing. Let's go, girls."

My heart stopped. They were leaving, and taking the dawn with them.

"Wait!" Korman said suddenly.

Tenray and the girls stopped, looking at him in surprise.

"Actually …." Korman said. "Uh … actually, we're all done here. I'm driving the fellas home. If you'll wait a second, we'll walk you to your car.”

We weren't all done. We had another shelf of boxes to go. And Korman hadn't said anything before about driving us home. I mean, he lived in the opposite direction. But I sure wasn't going to mention it.

"Why, thank you, Charles," Ms. Tenray said. "But that's not necessary--"

"Oh, but … but you can't be too careful these days," Korman said quickly. "You never know when … when some weirdo might be hiding out in the parking lot, just waiting--"

"Oh, Charles." Tenray waved off his concerns. "We'll be fine." She started to leave.

Suddenly Tony sprung to life. "No, no. We insist. Think of all those unsuspecting victims in slasher movies." He waved Macbeth's head right in Tiffany's face.

For a second she just stood there, as if she didn't know what to think. Then she screamed a perfect blood-curdling, horror-movie scream. Cool!

"All right." Tenray slapped her hands over her ears. "Please. Walk us to my car."

I couldn't believe it. Tony had made a move. A weird move, admittedly, but a move. One small step for the socially inept!

Before Ms. Tenray could blink, we shoved our clipboards onto the bottom shelf, grabbed our jackets and started escorting the girls to the parking lot. What we were going to do once we got there was a mystery. But at least it was a start.

"Oh, just a second," Korman said. "I have to turn off the heater."

"At least you can turn up the heat in this room," Ms. Tenray said. "The gym was freezing. I'm glad I dressed warmly."

As soon as we left the art room, I could feel the cold. I zipped up my jacket, not that it did much good. I hoped Korman's car had a working heater.

As we started down the hall, Tony offered to help Tiffany with her jacket. "Let me, m'lady," he said bowing deeply. "Sir Walter Raleigh at your service."

I couldn't believe it. Somehow, from some hidden reserve, Tony worked up the nerve to actually speak to Tiffany. Even though he was joking around, it was progress. I held my breath, wondering how she'd respond.

"Why, thank you, Sir Walter," Tiffany said in a British accent. "But I believe you're supposed to throw your own cloak across a puddle, so I won't get my dainty feet wet. And by the way, it's 'your Highness,' not 'm'lady,' when you're addressing the Queen of England.”

Ellyce elbowed Tiffany. "Give the guy a break. Not everyone has written their history term paper on Queen Elizabeth the First."

"No problem," Tony said, not quite in character as Sir Walter. "I'll gladly put my jack--er, cloak over a puddle for--"

I wondered why Tony was just standing there, staring down the hall. We'd just rounded the corner and I could see he was looking at the front door. What I saw next made me gasp.

The outside was a white blur of whirling snow. I couldn't even see the parking lot. We all stood there, momentarily speechless.

"Well, folks," Tony finally said. "I guess we can stop worrying about puddles. I think we're snowed in."

Chapter Five

We walked to the door and peeked out. A monsoon of fat snowflakes seemed to pile up in inches before our eyes.

"It doesn't look as if it's going to stop any time soon," Korman said. "Tony's right. We're snowed in."

"I've got chains in my trunk," Ms. Tenray said. "Maybe we could all pile into my car." She pushed the front door open about a foot before the snow piling up on the other side stopped it.

"You can't even see--" Korman started to say.

Ms. Tenray charged outside and fell on her ass. (She's a teacher--can I refer to her, uh, backside that way?)

"Leslie!" Korman straddled the doorway, and helped Ms. Tenray get up. "Are you okay?" he asked as he helped her inside. "Anything hurt?"

"Just my pride. I think." Tenray rubbed her …butt. Backside. Whatever. "There's a layer of ice under that snow."

Cold and snow blew in through the open door, so as soon as Korman and Tenray got back inside, I pulled it shut. Part of me was worried about being snowed in, but part of me was thinking how great it was that I was snowed in with Ellyce. If only I could think of a way to take advantage of that.

What could I do? What could I say? I'd stay off the subject of parents, that's for sure. One, boring. Two, if Ellyce knew the truth about my folks, she'd lose whatever microscopic interest she might find in me. Why did I ever, even in my wildest fantasies, think I could get anywhere with Ellyce? I let out a long sigh of gloom.

"What did you say?" Ellyce asked.

"Huh?" I looked at her. Was she talking to me? Why would she be talking to me?

"I asked if you said something." Ellyce gazed at me with her beautiful emerald-green eyes.

"Me?" I pointed to myself and shook my head. "Huh uh. Nope. Not me." Brilliant response! Just brilliant. The girl of my dreams asks me if I said anything, and all I could do was babble incoherently. Why didn't I just crawl inside a locker and close the door behind me?

"Oh." Ellyce shrugged, and turned to Ms. Tenray. "How long do you think we'll be stuck here?"

"I don't know," Ms. Tenray said, still rubbing her … whatever. "Quite a while, I imagine. But don't worry, we'll be fine. We … we could call someone."

Everyone, except me, 'cause I don't have one, pulled out a cell phone, then got an "Oh, yeah," look on their faces and put their cells back in their pockets/handbags as they remembered the school was perfectly situated out of range of any cell towers.

"We could use the office phone," Tiffany suggested.

"The office is locked," Korman said. "We're not breaking into it."

I don't know if Korman was worried that he wouldn't get tenure or if he'd be charged with breaking and entering, but I could see he wasn't going to change his mind, and Ms. Tenray wasn't saying anything to change his mind, so whatever he was scared of, maybe she was, too.

Well, that plus the fact that one time someone broke into the office and tried to steal the petty cash--or something, but the official word was petty cash. After that, Mr. Glenn had solid-core doors and burglar-proof locks installed. The office was like a fortress.

"The old pay phone by the gym," I suggested.

Ms. Tenray snapped her fingers. "Of course!"

We headed down the hall toward the gym, huddled together like a pride of penguins. I think we were all worried, but no one wanted to say so.

When we reached the phone, Tenray started searching through her handbag. "I'm sure I must have some quarters."

Korman fumbled through his pockets. "I have some change. Let's see. Pennies, pennies … ah, a nickel, two dimes. We're getting there."

"I totally must have some quarters." Tiffany slid her tote bag, which was the size of
New Jersey
, down her arm and let it rest on the floor.

Tony, Jeff and I developed a sudden interest as she bent over to rummage through the tote bag, revealing a great shot of her well-rounded … posterior. Though temporarily mesmerized by that vision, I did briefly wonder how she thought she'd ever find any change in that bulging tote bag.

It took less than two seconds for Tiffany to announce, "Ah!" as she handed some change to Ms. Tenray.

It could've been my imagination, but I thought I saw Tony swell with pride at Tiffany's accomplishment.

"Let's see," Ms. Tenray said, dropping the change into the slot. "I guess I should call Mr. Glenn first and let him know we're still here and that we're all right."

We all stood there in silence while Ms. Tenray talked. I tried to sneak looks at Ellyce without her seeing me sneak looks.

Tenray filled Mr. Glenn in on everything and was just saying something like, "Do you think you could call--" There was a pause, then she said, "Hello? Hello? Mr. Glenn? Are you there? Can you hear me? Hello?" She hung up and said, "I think the line is dead."

Suddenly I remembered my Dad. I hadn't left a note for him. Would he panic if I didn't come home? Would he think I'd run off? Or would he be so drunk he wouldn't even notice?

"I have to let my mother and great grandpa know I'm okay!" Cari flickered around on her tiptoes.

"Don't worry," Tenray said. "Mr. Glenn knows we're all here. If his phone is okay, I'm sure he'll call everyone and let them know you're all safe."

"It's probably just temporary," Korman said. "A line must be down. We'll try the phone again later. Meanwhile, let's go back to the art room. At least we can be warm in there."

"Good idea," Ms. Tenray said.

I thought so too. With the heater blasting away in Room Five, Ellyce wouldn't need to wear her coat and I could gaze at that lithe body covered only by her skimpy cheerleading outfit. Hey, it would be something to do while we waited for the snow to stop.

We marched back to the art room in a tight unit, as if one of us might disappear if we weren't packed together. Once there, however, there was a splintering effect. Korman and Tenray broke off first. He turned the heater back on, then they went to a corner and got into a serious-looking discussion with words like "responsibility" and "survival" flying around like spitballs in the lunchroom.

The girls drifted off to another corner, dumped their coats, which met with universal approval from us guys. The girls then pulled out mirrors, combs and lipsticks and went to work.

Tony nudged me in the ribs and almost sent me sprawling. "Are they fixing themselves up for us?"

"They probably just want to look good on TV, when they're featured in our rescue," said Jeff, who couldn't move his eyeballs off Cari.

"I don't think there's going to be a rescue any time soon," I said. "First, no one could see to drive in that storm, so it's got to stop snowing first, and who knows how long that'll be. Second, how's anyone going to rescue us, anyway? No one around here is prepared to deal with a snowstorm like this."

"Okay," Tony said. "So let's go talk to the girls, while we have a captive audience."

"Talk to them?" Jeff sounded completely panicky.

"Yeah," Tony said. "It was your idea to come to school in the first place. Don't wimp out now."

"I don't know." Jeff cracked his knuckles. "It was a lot easier to think this'd all work out when it was just an idea. This is reality."

"Tony, what makes you suddenly so bold, anyway?" I asked.

Tony shrugged. "Maybe I'm just desperate." He thought for a moment. "I mean, when I flashed Macbeth's head at Tiffany, that was kinda just a reflex action. Joking around is automatic to me. But when she let out that fake scream, I dunno, I thought,
Hey, she likes the comic approach."

Tony clamped his hand on Jeff's and my shoulders and nodded toward the girls. "Are you with me?"

There was a major silence. Finally, Jeff bit his lip and nodded.

I gulped and stammered, "S-sure."

Tony led the way, and Jeff and I tagged along, almost crouching behind him as if he were a hedge.

Tiffany had somehow fluffed out her black hair so that each strand stood almost perpendicular to her head. She reached into the bottomless tote bag and pulled out a can of hair spray.

"If we're trapped here for long," Tony said, grinning, "you might have to cut back to three cans a day instead of six."

"Really?" Tiffany raised an eyebrow, pretending to look insulted. "Well, if we're stuck here, you may have to learn to go without kidding around for more than thirty seconds."

"Touché," Tony said, a relaxed smile on his face.

I couldn't believe it. He looked as comfortable talking to Tiffany as he did talking to me or Jeff. So, okay, Tony and Tiffany were both just joking around, but maybe he could work his way up to a real conversation with her, if he worked at it.

"Excuse me," Tiffany said. "I'm so not done with my hair. I need my hammer and chisel." She bent over to hunt through her tote bag.

I shoved my hands in my pockets and took a moment to appreciate her big, ripe body, reminding myself that it was Ellyce's ethereal, fawn-like beauty that really sent me over the edge.

"Ah!" Tiffany pulled out a comb and attacked her mound of black hair.

I shifted my attention to Ellyce. While Tiffany's enormous boobs strained the thin fabric of her cheerleading sweater, Ellyce's gentle curves created a subtle ripple. In contrast to Tiffany's stiff black hair, Ellyce's shiny brown curls seemed to bounce with the slightest move of her head as she and Cari talked.

Cari's high-pitched voice
 
reminded me of someone keying in words at about a hundred a minute, except she talked faster than that. Ellyce, on the other hand, had a soft, liquid voice that was as soothing as a gentle rain.

They were talking about some new cheer or something, I think. I really wasn't listening.

I was wondering if I could work up the nerve to tell Ellyce how beautiful I thought she was. I wished I could tell her something, anything. I wished I could at least open my mouth and a decent sound would come out.

I glanced over at Jeff. He was staring at Cari, but he looked like a piece of petrified wood from Geology class, so he wasn't functioning any better than I was.

" … and what will we do for food?" Cari was asking. She seemed to be addressing the room at large, but was looking ever-so-vaguely in the direction of Tony, Jeff and me. Since the local Board of Education considered vending machines to be the work of the devil, food, or rather the lack thereof, would definitely be a problem.

Naturally, the mention of food made my stomach rumble fiercely, which was not only embarrassing, but did nothing to help the situation. Another point off for me.

"Maybe Tiffany has a pizza in the bottom of that Pandora's Box," Tony suggested, licking his lips and rubbing his hands together.

"Fresh out of pizza. But!" Tiffany thrust one finger skyward, then dove into the tote bag. Out came three chocolate bars, two rolls of breath mints and a bag of cheese curls. "Ta, da!"

"Hmmm." Tony rolled his eyes. "The three basic food groups."

"This might be all there is between us and starvation." Tiffany ran a finger along the top of the cheese curl bag. "You should totally be glad I'm willing to share."

"Now, now," Korman said, his forehead all furrowed. "Let's not hear any talk about starvation." He and Ms. Tenray transmigrated to our side of the room.

"That's right," Ms. Tenray said. "We'll all be fine. Just fine. We'll be fine." The tight, pinched look on her face was not exactly reassuring that we'd be, you know, fine.

No one was going anywhere as long as there was a zero-visibility snowstorm, and who knew how long it would snow? Sometimes it rained for days. What if it snowed for days? Sure, that'd be pretty weird for around here, but any snow at all was unusual.

The tension must've been contagious, because suddenly Cari squeaked, "What if we're stuck here for days? I mean, how long can people go without food?" Her eyes widened. Her tiny hands shook.

Out of the corner of my eye I noticed some movement. It was Jeff, making his way in a trance-like state toward Cari. He looked right at her. "D-don't worry," he said. "You … you can have my share of the food."

Crud! Jeff was coming to Cari's rescue. What was I doing? Standing around, doing nothing, that's what. Absolutely nothing.