March 1990
My whole team was sitting around the table, waiting for Fuller to come out of his office. We were all in the middle of talking about our upcoming weekend plans when Fuller came out with a pile of Manila folders in his hands. Tom tapped my shoulder, and poured some blueberries that he was eating into my hand. I silently thanked him, and flicked one in my mouth.
We all quieted down and Fuller started with me. He flicked the folder my way, and it slid smoothly on the table before reaching me. I picked it up with one hand and tossed the rest of the blueberries in my mouth with the other. I chewed and I opened the folder to read through the first page as he gave me the debriefing.
"Elara is the newest drug out there. We have traced it over to Bushmont High School, and we have reason to believe that it's the chemistry students who are making the drug."
"Why not bust them?" I asked, "do they really need me?"
"Every time there's been a bust operation, there's some whistleblower who tips off the chemistry students. They always come back clean. They haven't been able to get anyone to come clean or provide concrete proof, so we want to put someone on the inside. That's where you come in," he said and handed everyone else their assignments.
I continued to quickly read through my papers, "chemistry classes? Physics? That's a lot of science classes."
"If they're going to let you in on what they do, you're going to have to commit," Fuller said, "you and your partner."
I looked around at my lovely teammates, but I wasn't able to see any of them being able to pass off as a nerd. Maybe Judy, but she was stuck on a case at St. Joseph's Mount Evergreen Convent. She had to be a nun for her assignment, one that she's been working on for over a week. I've done a geeky assignment before with Ioki years ago, and he hated it so I didn't see him doing this one either.
"Who is going to nerd-out with me?" I asked and Fuller smiled closed-lipped at me. I heard someone clear their throat behind me, and I turned to see Tom squishing his face while chewing and point to himself over and over while puckering his lips.
"You?" I asked and I raised an eyebrow playfully.
"Yes, me," he said and plopped some more blueberries into his mouth.
"Fuller asked you... Tom Hanson... by name?"
"Yes. Any more questions?" He asked through his chewing.
I chuckled and shook my head, "no. Not anymore. Just thankful it's not Doug."
"Hey," Doug whined.
"I'm joking," I promised. Doug smiled at me and reached over to try to mess my hair around, but I dodged his hand just in time.
"Let's not do all of that," I joked.
"You two, dismissed," Fuller shooed us off, "I want this case closed as soon as possible."
"You got it, Cap'n," Tom said and we gathered our belongings and left. I turned myself into Michelle Nardo by wearing a white long sleeve shirt and a lavender sweater vest on top of it, paired with brushing my hair with my head upside down to make my hair look poofy. Tom wore thin circle glasses and brushed his hair down a middle part to become Tom Reiger. He wore a baseball cap, as well as a bright orange jacket that I always tease about how it makes him look like a traffic cone.
Tom and I had a lot of the same classes at Bushmont High School, but not all of them. Our first class was together for a chemistry laboratory course, where we were partnered up with other students in the class to perform an experiment with chemicals in glass beakers.
Mr. Ignatowski, our chemistry teacher, paired us all up with assignments. My partner, Nicholas, was a short junior with a blonde mullet. He wore a bright pink shirt under his chemistry apron, and he seemed not very impressed with how he was partners with me, the new kid. Luckily for me, I've had to take my fair share of chemistry classes, learning the same information over and over and a few lessons stuck with me. Tom and his partner were across the room, talking.
"At my old school, I guess you could say it was my job to mess around in our chemistry lab," I said as I poured peroxide and potassium iodide in the glass beaker, which together formed what is called 'elephant toothpaste'. The thick mixture shot up from the column in foam before landing down on the counter. It was the only thing I knew I could create by heart that had a chance of impressing him with my nonexistent chemistry skills.
Nicholas's eyes grew wide and he fixed his safety goggles on his face, "what did you make?"
"Oh, all sorts of things," I said in a low voice.
"Are you... out of the job?" He asked, acting busy by writing in his science journal.
"At the moment, since I transferred schools," I nodded, "I'm looking for... new opportunities."
"Where did you transfer from?" He asked.
"Wilcox High," I told him.
He nodded, "must have had a lot of customers over there."
"Yeah, I did," I said. Wilcox is quite notorious for their drug dealers.
"You know, we are looking for another one to join our crew, but I think you should meet the gang before we settle anything. How's about lunch?" He asked.
I nodded, "yeah. Can I bring my friend, Tom?"
"Tom?"
I pointed to Tom across the room, who was talking to his partner who was trying to complete the assignment. I said, "he was one of my advisors at Wilcox."
It took a moment to talk Nicholas into letting Tom join, but I reassured that he could be trusted. Nicholas finally agreed, and said that he and the other dealers were going to meet at a restaurant off campus for students. On the surface, it was going to be a "welcome to the lab" lunch.
Class was over when the bell finally rang, and I promised Nicholas that I would meet him there. I walked over to Tom as the students began to filter out of the classroom, and I waited for him to put his books away in his black backpack.
"My partner, Nicholas, invited us to go to The Lunchbox for lunch today. He and his dealers."
Tom's eyebrows raised as he slipped his pencil behind his ear. He asked, "it's him?"
"He wants us to join in on their operation," I said, "I told him that I made the drugs that came out of Wilcox and you were my advisor."
"Well, uh—" he checked his watch with a goofy face before looking back at me with a dashing smile and he said, "I think we can squeeze that in."
"Great, hopefully we can get pizza or something for dinner tonight since I was gonna come over anyway."
"Sounds like a plan." Tom's smile broaden and his eyebrows slowly raised.
"What?"
"Can you wear these tonight?" He took off his fake glasses and slipped them onto my face. His expression was twitching, like he was trying not to laugh at his own joke.
I swiped them off and put them back on him, upside down. I chuckled and said, "let's go, we are going to be late to class and you, sir, have to take a long and cold shower."
After third period, Tom and I met outside of the front doors to the school before we made the short walk off campus during the lunch period and found our way to The Lunchbox. The inside was designed just like a cafeteria with a buffet style, but the meal options were a lot more desirable.
I got in line to get a slice of pizza and a soda. I almost got a salad, but I can never eat a cafeteria salad again after the urine incident at Henry Clay High School.
With my tray, I glanced around until I saw Nicholas' bright pink shirt. He found me too and waved me over. I waited for Tom, and we walked to the table where Nicholas and the other dealers of the school were sitting.
"Michelle tells me that you were her advisor at Wilcox," Nicholas said to Tom while the other guys around us stared at him.
Tom didn't lose his cool though. He answered, "oh yes, Michelle and I have worked together for years now."
"Where are your suppliers?" I asked. I would have assumed that they would be part of this meeting too.
"They'll come later," Nicholas reassured.
"How long were you in the business for?" One of the guys sitting beside Nicholas asked.
"Since freshman year, but it's been a hobby even longer," I stated.
"I started selling dope in seventh grade before I turned to making stronger stuff," Tom answered.
"You grow grass?" One of them asked.
Tom nodded, "I've got a garden in my backyard."
The dealers seemed to like that, but they carried on with their interview. One of them said, "we are looking for someone who can make Elara. Of course, we will teach you, but you need a vast knowledge of chemistry in order to create it properly."
"I won the Outstanding Chemistry Reward in the district last year," Tom gloated his fake award.
"That'll do it."
"I've heard of Elara that's been coming out of here. Who was making it before?" I asked.
"You know that saying, don't get high on your own supply?" Nicholas asked. When Tom and I both nodded, he followed up with, "John didn't know that, so we had means to... fire him."
"Is he a student?" I asked.
"He was," Nicholas said, which made me feel uneasy. What happened to John?
Tom brought his apple up to his mouth and took a bite. I noticed that something caught his eye which made him freeze in mid-chew, and he pierced his lips in thought.
"What is it?" I asked in a hushed voice and tried to turn around.
"No, don't turn around," Tom mumbled. I took his warning, and fought every urge I had to not turn around and see what he was looking at. He picked the sticker off his apple and leaned forward to stick it on the arm of my shirt. I looked down at it, then back at Tom, and he just smiled and took another bite of his apple.
"We will talk to our suppliers, but I think I can speak for everyone when I say that I think we can make good business together," Nicholas said.
"That's great," Tom said and we shook all their hands. Tom suddenly looked down at his hand, and we both noticed that Nicholas had slipped him some of the drugs in a little bag.
"Looks like candy," I mentioned.
"That's something that helps set us apart from the others. If we get leaked, the cops just overlook the candy," Nicholas pointed out. Then he checked his watch and said, "oh dear, class starts in five minutes. We best be off."
We said our goodbyes to the guys, and Tom and I lagged behind. We slowly picked up our things and threw away our garbage as we discussed the conversation.
"So that's why we haven't been able to catch them, it looks like candy," Tom stated.
"And can blend in with a bag of real candy. Man, I wish I got their names," I said.
"We can get them from Nicholas tomorrow," Tom said.
"You know, when I was a kid, my dad used to take fentanyl that looked like candy too. He would pass out, and it would be right there. Just right there. It's a miracle that I didn't see it, think it was candy and die of an overdose. I wouldn't have been the first one," I said with a low voice.
"That's a good point, these kids will be dropping like flies. They probably think that if it looks like candy, it can't be that bad."
"Or if they have a young snoopy sibling that pokes through their backpack," I pointed out.
"God, how are kids this dumb?" Tom growled.
I sighed softly. "I don't know."
We kept trudging through our walk with thick silence between us as we both brainstormed the case in our heads. I really don't want this case to have a death, but it's bound to happen if we don't put a stop to it immediately.
"Now, be honest with me," Tom spoke up.
"I'm listening."
"Do these glasses make me look like a dweeb?" He asked.
I wasn't going to say yes to his face. I hesitated a bit before I wobbled out, "no."
"You're lying."
"I am not."
"Are too. You're just saying that because you're my girlfriend," he pouted.
"No, you look great. I like them. I really do."
"I look like a dweeb."
"Yes, but a very hot dweeb."
He opened the door for me and we walked out of the restaurant. A balding man with a dark jacket and dark sunglasses stepped in front of us, not allowing us to pass him.
"You two in chemistry?" He asked us. I couldn't see where his eyes were looking, because of how dark his sunglasses were.
"Yeah, we are," Tom answered cautiously.
"I thought I recognized you. It's hard to tell from the safety goggles, but I'm Mr. Ignatowski."
I didn't recognize him as our chemistry teacher until he said so. Why did he look so sketchy?
"I've got a... sort of after school project for you if you're interested," he said.
"Oh yes, sir," Tom said excitedly.
"We are very interested," I said.
"Great. Meet me in the school parking lot at seven o'clock tonight," Mr. Ignatowski said.
"You got it," Tom said to him. He began walking of, and we looked back at him as he walked away from us.
"That sounds fishy," Tom said as we turned back and continued walking to the school.
"Do you think he is the supplier?" I asked.
"Could be. He was in the restaurant earlier too," Tom said. He must have been who Tom was looking at.
"Why didn't Nicholas or his friends notice him?" I asked.
Tom shrugged, "maybe it was the sunglasses. Or, they knew that he was there and just didn't give him any attention."
"Probably," I said.
"How many suppliers do you think they have?"
"It's probably just the one because the drug is so small. If it were to go to different schools, they'd probably gather more."
"Maybe that's why they're recruiting us to make it... because they are planning on expanding to other schools," Tom said as we kept walking down the street, closer to the school.
"Then we have to get this bust as soon as possible," I said.
Later that night, Tom and I met at the parking lot of the school where the chemistry reacher agreed to meet with us. We were given a civilian car from the station to avoid using our personal cars. When he finally pulled up in his car, he walked up to us in the dark and then asked if we were associated with The Blazers.
"No, we aren't," Tom shook his head.
"The Blazers are a gang from the other side of town. They've been trying to get a hold of our information. Now, since Nicholas trusts you, I trust you too. And see, y'all are new so The Blazers won't know that y'all are with us," he explained.
I nodded along, and said, "that makes sense."
"I've heard that you guys dabbled in some cooking at your old school... is that right?" He asked.
"Oh, of course!" Tom said with a kooky grin.
"I'm going to cut to the chase... I've heard great things about Wilcox, so I want y'all to join my team. We've started cooking Elara, and I want you guys to come to the... what we are calling 'the cook-out', tomorrow morning. We want to get these selling like hot-cakes in the surrounding districts."
Mr. Ignatowski handed Tom a stapled packet of papers and began walking away. As mysteriously as he came, he disappeared.
"What is it?" I asked after Mr. Ignatowski disappeared in the dark.
"It's how to cook the drug..." Tom said as he flipped through it and we read it together.
I frowned, "that looks complicated."
"It's no wonder why rival gangs are trying to find this information," Tom said, "I've never seen anything like this before."
"Fuller is gonna wanna get his hands on this," I said.
"And I'm sure a lot of other people will too. Let's get out of here," he said and we ran to the car.
Suddenly, the pops of guns whizzing by our heads made us bolt faster to the car. The doors were already unlocked, and the sounds of guns kept popping around us. I sunk low in my seat as Tom frantically shoved the keys in the ignition and floored the gas petal down. He revved the engine loudly as we peeled out of the parking lot and we bolted down the street.
"Who the hell is that?!" Tom asked, darting his frantic eyes between his rear view mirror and the road in front of us.
"Could be The Blazers," I answered, still low in my seat. I couldn't see the road over the dashboard.
The car of people shooting at us followed us through the dark and tranquil streets of Metropolis in a high speed chase. I took my gun out of my pants and clicked off the safety. I took a breath before I leaned out the window and started shooting back at them, and ducking when they were shooting at me. I was finally able to hit both of their wheels.
Their tires squealed and they stopped immediately. I fell back into my seat as Tom kept driving fast down the road. I looked back and saw that they were at a dead stop because I had shot and burst their front tires.
I put the safety back on my gun and put it away. Tom asked, "they're stopping?"
"They don't have their tires," I chuckled. I was relieved that it was over.
Tom slowed down but drove until we reached an empty parking lot in the dark. Tom got out to call the station from the nearby payphone and tell them that they have to pick up some guys from The Blazers on Main Street.
I noticed a pair of headlights coming toward us slowly, and I had a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. I grabbed my gun again, and slowly got out of the car without my eyes leaving the newcomers.
"Tom?" I called out to him as I could hear him talking on the phone. This has happened before... and I really didn't like the ending.
"Yeah?" He asked loudly. I was still looking at the car, and I knew that he turned to look at them too. He told the station that we were going to need back up, and I heard him drop the receiver.
That's when shots fired from the car. I covered Tom, shooting back at the gang as he ran back to the safety of our car. He took out his gun too, and we had a shoot out in the middle of the empty parking lot. Our only shield was the car, which was being pelted with bullet holes.
"Police! Put your weapons down!" Tom ordered but they didn't listen. They continued to shoot at us, so we had to shoot back.
"How do we always find ourselves in shoot outs?" I asked as I took another shot at the gang.
"It's almost like we are looking for trouble," he joked and took a few shots himself. I heard a bullet whiz by his head so he dropped to the asphalt and caught his breath.
"More like trouble finds us," I said and let my finger get trigger-happy. My ears were beginning to ring at the loud blasts of all of our guns. For some reason, I wasn't afraid. I felt empowered and unstoppable... when in fact I was very stoppable because a single bullet would definitely do me in. I can't explain it... but I felt alive.
The sweet sound of a siren approaching gave me the motivation to finish this night on a high note. The uniformed cops came bursting into the scene, and immediately arrested the gang members.
Tom and I emerged out from hiding behind our shield, and walked up to one of the officers who was making a statement.
"There's a kid at Bushmont High named Nicholas Freeman, he is a dealer along with a few of his friends. Mr. Ignatowski, the chemistry teacher, is involved too. He tried to recruit us to make the Elara drug," Tom explained and gave the officer the packet of how to make the drug as our proof. "The Blazers were trying to get this, but it needs to go into evidence."
"Yes, officer," the officer said and walked with the packet to their cruiser.
Tom turned to me and asked, "are you ready to go home?"
"I'm more than ready to go home," I said with a yawn.
Tom and I decided to go out for Chinese food for dinner before heading home and catching the newest episode of Cheers on cable.
This one was inspired by the gifs 😂
Bonus points to whoever can guess what TV show I took their undercover last names from!! (and the teachers name too) 🤩
Next chapter is the entire chapel goes on a hiking retreat!