Looking Through the Cracks

Chapter 1: Once in a Lifetime

    TapTapTap. Nervously, beneath the desk, Ivy's legs shook. Her eyes rapidly bounced back and forth between the incessantly clicking clock and the math equation written on the whiteboard.

    "May I have a volunteer to solve this equation?" asked Mrs. Scarlet at the front of the classroom, her voice lost to the utterly distracted Ivy. As she scanned the classroom of students before her, the teacher discovered Ivy's attention had gone amiss. "Miss Fitzgerald, come up and solve this equation for the class, please" a saccharine smile etched into her aged face.

Ivy's lips pressed into a line as she fought the urge to sass Mrs. Scarlet. Again she looked at the clock: 11:30. In three hours Ivy's all-time favorite author, John Green, was going to be doing a meet and greet at the local Barnes and Noble. Sadly for Ivy, local meant a two-hour drive to the closest city, and a remaining two hours left of school. She knew how to get out of the school: a fire drill. Her only problem was, she couldn't come up with a way to pull the fire alarm without getting caught. That is until an opportunity presented itself in the form of Mrs. Scarlet.

    When Ivy did not respond immediately, her teacher sniped, "perhaps you would not be so startled if you were paying attention, rather than daydreaming, Miss Fitzgerald." Unbeknownst to Mrs. Scarlet, Ivy was concocting her escape. All she had to do was upset her teacher enough to get sent to the office. From there she could pull the alarm and escape before either her teacher or principal knew she was missing.

    Confident with her plan, Ivy mumbled loud enough for Mrs. Scarlet to hear, "well if you were more interesting I wouldn't have to."

"What did you say to me?" snapped Mrs. Scarlet, her right eye twitching like it did when she was extremely aggravated. It rarely happened, but Ivy just had that gift.

Ivy whipped the worksheet off her desk, jumped up from her seat, and strolled up to her teacher with enraged confidence. "I said," emphasized Ivy, "I'd rather stab myself in the cornea than listen to you drone on about the mind-numbing process that is 'finding x."

"That's it, Miss Fitzgerald! Go to the office!" She flung open the heavy door and shooed Ivy out of the classroom. Following Ivy's exit from the classroom, Mrs. Scarlet slammed the door shut. Unfortunately, she did so with such force that the door reverberated back open. With a wave of newfound anger at Ivy and the uncooperative door, the teacher made a second attempt at slamming the door by aggressively shutting it while her hand remained on the handle.

And just like that, step one of her plan was complete. Like a performer at roll call, Ivy gave a low curtsey, her imprudence enhanced by the depth. With a satisfied grin, she casually strolled down the hallway towards freedom.

It soon became clear that Ivy would not be able to escape as easily as she had intended, because at the bottom of the stairs stood the principal Mr. Kidd. Apparently, Mrs. Scarlet didn't trust Ivy to actually go to the office. Now, Mr. Kidd liked to think he was a stern and intimidating principal, but it was all a ruse the student body kept up. He made it well known that he preferred to get to the "root of the problem" rather than punish a student. This made it very easy for his students to avoid getting in any trouble.

"Hello there, Miss Fitzgerald. Heard you had a little spat with Mrs. Scarlet" Mr. Kid said in a confiding, trustworthy voice.

"She started it! I was just sitting there minding my own business, and then she started giving me an attitude" lied Ivy

"I'm sure it's all just one big misunderstanding. How about we go into my office and talk about it."

Dragging her sneakered feet along the tiled floor, Ivy slowly followed the principal into his makeshift kingdom. Upon walking inside his office one would think she had stepped into a hunting lodge. Scattered across all four walls were various images of Mr. Kidd and the many animals he'd hunted. On the back of his office chair, Mr. Kidd haphazardly hung a camouflage jacket.