The Hijinks War

24. Don't Drink the Water

When Emma finally gave us the all clear, she did so one at a time. Eddie squeezed me, pressed a kiss onto the top of my head and skittered out of the room, across the open space and into one of the racks. When it was my turn, I scurried in another direction, taking cover like he had within the racks of books.

We took different routes back to residence, so we wouldn't be accused of conspiring if we were by some chance stopped. In my room, we watched the feed that Eddie had tapped into. Not long after we joined Jess and Emma, several guards showed up to the library. It was a terrifying sight considering Waterbridge was merely a private boarding school. There was no need for that many large, armed men.

The wardens disappeared into the detention room and returned moments later dragging or carrying unresponsive students. The rest of the students were prodded out of the room before the replacement Mr. Kramer locked the doors and took one more lagging student back to the dorms.

Rob wandered in, as we stared at the now dark and empty detention hall. "Mark's just a bit loopy, he'll likely sleep it off."

"Thanks, Rob. In the water..." I watched as Eddie took a half empty bottle of water from him and marked it with a skull and crossbones. "I don't suppose it would be as simple as telling everyone not to drink the water?"

"Probably not." Rob shrugged awkwardly. "Mark had to drink some of it."

I slouched into the couch, an unsure feeling taking hold of me. How the hell were we supposed to battle this? We were kids! Battling each other was entertaining; battling huge muscled prison guards was terrifyingly real. Something that none of us, in our spoiled lives would ever have had to imagine.

"We need to figure out what that is then—"

"Secobarbital!" We all jumped, equally as surprised by my door slapping open a second time. Kellen tossed a couple of empty vials before I could recover from the intrusion. "It's a sedative. We found the discarded bottles and syringes in the kitchen dumpster."

Jackson leaned against the shut door, and nodded at the bottles I was examining. "They're injecting it into the sealed water bottles. It explains why the effects are different with everyone—it depends how much of the water they drank, and how fast."

"What the hell are we going to do?"

Kellen looked around my room and tensed as if he was wary of having revealed anything in front of the others. "Jess, Cole, I'll see you at mine in a few."

-.-

"Should I call Katia?"

Kellen glanced at Jackson and shook his head in answer. With only the four of us there, it felt like Jess and I had replaced Leon in the Trifecta, but as he was still recovering, Kellen had deactivated him out of worry. I found it strange that the only people discussing the issue that affected all the students were the four of us. The Hellhounds needed to know about our discovery too, but a cursory glance at Kellen told me why they weren't there. He didn't know what to do.

"What was the name of this drug again?" Jess asked.

"Secobarbital," I said before Kellen could. "It's a barbiturate sedative. Highly addictive." As they all looked at me, a slight heat rushed to my face.

"Um, how...?"

"My mom used to take it for insomnia and then got addicted to the high. It's pretty messed up shit."

My apathy was unsettling to them, and they fidgeted instead of addressing what I'd said. Jess' hand found mind for a moment, squeezing it as she typed on her brother's laptop with the other. "Ummm... guys? It says it can be lethal."

"Any drug can be lethal, Jess—you can overdose on anything."

"No, Jacks! Like they use it for doctor assisted suicide kind of lethal." She clarified.

"How fast can you get addicted?" Kellen asked, both he and Jackson sporting mirrored looks of alarm.

Jess narrowed her eyes at the article she was reading; the short time—two weeks—could be sped up by variations in size of doses. "So, the random amounts that people are consuming from the water bottles is a bad thing," Jess sighed.

"And if people keep getting detentions then..." Jackson looked at us all in horror.

"So, no more detentions." Kellen proclaimed matter-of-factly.

"It's not that easy," I said. "If we aren't getting detentions anymore what makes you think they won't put it in our meals?"

"We can worry about that later. What we need to do is make sure that the drugging stops." Kellen's tone was final, and I bristled at the implication that my suggestion was being ignored.

"Kellen!" I urged, "It's not going to stop! If they're drugging us in detention, they won't think twice about drugging us another way. Why are they drugging us? Why with a sedative? Because they want us to be easy to control? Why?"

We stared at each other for a long time, me on edge, daring him to tell me I was wrong, and him, with a slowly slipping resolve.

"I get it, Hero." His words were a defeated whisper. "But...shouldn't we try to stop it? I have to stop them from being drugged."

It wasn't too hard to read the meaning of the expression in his hooded but glistening eyes. Too many people waited for his words—his orders—and blindly followed them. The fear that caused his eyes to dart around worriedly and his hand to tremble was real. The question written on his face was screamingly obvious; what if he decided the wrong thing?

"Fine. Try." I stood and headed for his door, backing down, even though I really wanted to push the issue. "But I'm not going to wait for you to tell me I can find out what's going on. I'm an insubordinate little bitch, remember?" 

"Nicole!" he called out after me. "Don't—"