Lost Horizons

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Sixteen

"Jigsaw falling into place," -Radiohead

Tristan's heart was beating like a drum being played wildly. The digital clock on his nightstand indicated 8:59 in bright red letters. The students officially had one minute left of imaginary freedom. Of course the curfew wasn't about to stop Tristan from completing his mission. The curfew wasn't an obstacle, it was actually the perfect opportunity to break into the school office and find the file he was looking for. At nine practically everything at Oak Wood High shut down for the night. Students and teachers retired to their dorms, the cafeteria closed, lights were dimmed in the hallways and the guards came out to watch over the sleeping people.

9:05

Without thinking further into it, Tristan grabbed his bag, his flashlight and dorm keys before turning his door knob and looking both ways. Tristan had observed the behavior of the guard and every day after sitting five minutes in his watch chair, he would walk around to check the surroundings at 9:05. It took the guard on his floor exactly two minutes to go around the building's first floor and that would give him more than enough time to make a clean escape.

Gripping his utensils in a tight fist he made his way to the heart of O.W High; the main office. Inside this building lied everything Tristan needed to set his plan of leaving the school into action. When he finally made it to the door, he sighed in both relief and anxiousness.

Making it in to the office would've been a difficult task for a common person. Luckily Tristan had been friends with some questionable people back at his old school who'd known a few things about hacking systems and computers which they'd shared with him. His mother had always criticized him for hanging out with the 'wrong crowd' but he had known the knowledge would come in handy someday. Besides those guys were the only ones who'd been too busy with technology and distracted with their own geeky problems to pester Tristan about his own. He liked it that way. They accepted him no questions asked, unlike all the other cliché groups at his school.

The lock of the door wasn't a simple 'pick it with a clip' kind of mechanism. It was something a bit more complex. This required a passcode which consisted of seven numbers. On the right side of the door was a small device, similar to the one where you swiped a credit card through, where the code had to be punched in.

He had contacted one of the only guys from his group of geeky friends he still kept in touch with to help him figure out the passcode and now he prayed it worked. Garry, his friend, had warned him that if by some abnormality he was wrong about the code, Tristan only had two more shots to try unlocking the door before the alarms went off throughout the entire school. If he exhausted the opportunities he would have to wait twenty four hours to try again. The lock system reminded Tristan of the passcode lock on his iPhone.

After a few seconds of hesitation, Tristan punched in the numbers one by one and gave a silent thanks when the red light turned green and he was able to push the door wide open. Now came the hard part. He had to locate the files he needed, erase his profile from the school system and exit without being caught.

Nerves were getting to him so he tried his best to set his mind at ease by thinking of how far he'd already come.

Just breath and get it done, he reminded himself.

The office was very prestigious with white Chinese porcelain tiles, comfortable waiting chairs, potted plants and expensive looking computers and printers as well as other office devices. Tristan observed the secretary desks before glancing towards a door that had the title HEADMASTER engraved in the glass. Under that there was a plaque with the name Mrs. Hale on it. Should he waste time looking for the files out here by the reception desks or would it be more productive to enter the other office? He wondered.