Cat and Mouse

CHAPTER FOUR

TWELVE YEARS EARLIER

Phil was having a bit of trouble finding Dan. They'd promised to meet in the front of the school after their last class, but Dan was late. Tonight they were going to have their very first sleepover. They'd already hung out outside of school tons of times—which Phil always looked forward to. Dan would never say anything to him in school, but at home he would grant him with his voice a good amount of the time. With every passing day Dan found himself more and more comfortable speaking in Phil's presence. He couldn't help feeling like he was winning something.

Phil bit his lip guiltily as his mother finally pulled up in front of the school. He wandered slowly towards her car, leaning in through the passenger window after she rolled it down.

"Where's Dan?" His mother had taken a quick liking to Dan, claiming him to be the most polite and sweetest boy Phil could've ever befriended. "Keep that one close," she'd said mere days after meeting Dan for the second time, during which he'd only spoken to her twice. "It's not every day you make a friend like him."

What his mother didn't know was that Dan really wasn't that polite. He rolled his eyes when people asked dumb questions in class and scoffed under his breath at anyone he deemed less than intelligent. He judged everyone for everything and spent half the time using his eyes to glare. If Phil hadn't managed to become his friend he was sure that Dan would be doing to same to him.

"I don't know," Phil answered anxiously. "I think I should go and look for him..."

"That's okay," his mother said brightly. "Take your time, I'm sure he's in there somewhere."

Phil spun on his heel, heading right back inside Jefferson Junior High. The halls always seemed eery to him after school hours, all the students and teachers gone except for the occasional stray. It almost seemed like a different world, the hallways—normally so boisterous and lively—practically dead. As Phil walked through the school, glancing curiously down the halls, he passed a few custodians, who smiled politely at him.

He couldn't help wondering where Dan had gone. Maybe he'd forgotten that he was coming over tonight? Phil wasn't sure how Dan could've forgotten about their sleepover—it was all he'd been thinking about for the past week—but it was a good enough explanation. Or perhaps he'd become nervous at the prospect of sleeping over with Phil and had walked home instead of telling him?

With a huff, Phil traipsed into the sixth grader's area of the school. Their classes were bunched around here, towards the back, all scattered around the main area full of lockers. Phil had just taken to peering down the locker aisles begrudgingly, sure that Dan was long-gone, when he heard a cough.

He froze before spinning around, attempting to find the source of the noise. "Hello?" he finally called, confused.

"Phil?" a quiet voice murmured, and Phil spun around for a second time.

"Dan? Where are you?"

There was a moment of terse silence. Another cough. "Locker."

Phil gasped, horrified for his friend, and rushed towards where Dan's voice had originating from. He pressed his face against one of the lockers and peered through the slats, saddened to see Dan staring back.

"How'd you get in there?" Phil demanded.

"Doesn't matter," Dan muttered. "Just get me out."

Unfortunately, neither of them knew the locker's combination, as it wasn't either of theirs, and Phil was forced to go hunt down a member of the staff. They were lucky that there was still anyone here at all, but there happened to be a school counselor lingering in the main office, which Phil came panting into.