The air duct is … well, an air duct. It’s not nearly as well-lit as they always are in movies, just a long, dim, narrow metal box, like a coffin made of space blankets. The library vent seems to be at the end of a short branch off the main trunk, because a few feet ahead, a slightly wider duct intersects with this one and stretches perpendicularly into the darkness.
Chloe is very completely inside the ceiling of the school. Like, she is up there. No arguing with that.
“Shara fucking Wheeler,” she mutters, as she twists around on her stomach until she can see Rory below.
But when Rory tries to use the cart for a boost, some ancient, rusted screw decides to give up the ghost, and the entire top shelf breaks off with a grinding, metallic crash.
Two dozen hardcovers avalanche to the floor, clattering against one another and smashing open with pulpy slaps against the bookcases. Across the library, there’s the sound of the office door being thrown open, followed by the portentous stomp of Ms. Dunbury’s orthopedic sneakers.
“What are y’all doing back there?”
“Shit,” Rory hisses.
“Oh my God,” Chloe gasps. She’s going to be ripped straight out of the ceiling and into a permanent suspension. She glances at the grate resting inside the duct, wondering if she can drag it over fast enough to seal herself in.
But when she looks back down, she sees Rory, knee-deep in books and visibly calculating a hundred ways he could still outrun the law, and she stops.
“Come on,” she whispers, extending her arm down to Rory. “You can make it.”
She doesn’t know if it’s true—the library’s not that big—but she can’t leave an enemy of the Willowgrove Code of Conduct behind.
“Heyyyy, Ms. Dunbury!” says a sudden, jovial voice from what sounds like the library entrance. “How’s my favorite librarian doing this fine afternoon?”
Rory exhales. “Smith.”
“Mr. Parker! What are you doing here?”
“Just finished training. Gotta stay in shape for the fall, you know what I’m saying? I was stopping by my locker when I saw the library was still open and I thought, ‘Man, when’s the last time I checked on my girl Debbie?’”
Ms. Dunbury giggles. A diversion. Damn, he’s good.
“What is he doing?” Rory mumbles to himself.
“Saving your ass,” Chloe hisses. She waves her hand at him. “Let’s go!”
With a parting glance at Smith and a shake of his head, Rory scales the bookcase in one breath and grabs hold of Chloe’s arm with the next. Together, they haul him up into the duct, and as soon as his last foot is in, he crawls over Chloe to pop the vent back into place.
They’re both momentarily silent, piled on top of each other, illuminated only by thin slats of light through the vent.
“Oh my gosh, you have so much to carry,” Smith says. “Can I help you?”
“Oh, I couldn’t ask you to—”
“With all due respect, Ms. Dunbury, what is the point of these protein shakes I drink if I can’t carry some books?”
“Oh, you’re an angel,” Ms. Dunbury says, predictably melting. The microwave dings, forgotten. “I see why Shara’s so sweet on you.”
“Ha, yeah.”
“How is she, by the way? I heard she’s off taking care of her sick aunt. That’s our Shara, isn’t it?”
“Uh-huh,” Smith says. “Got your keys? Great, let’s go.”
The doors close, and half a second later, Chloe can barely make out the click of the automatic lock.
“Was that incredibly convenient timing,” Chloe says, squinting at Rory in the dark as he clambers off of her, “or did you tell him what we were doing?”
“I may have stopped by his locker after seventh hour and mentioned that some of us were actually going to be trying to find his girlfriend after school today.”
“You know what,” Chloe says, “it worked out for me, so, can’t complain.”
They take stock of their surroundings: the tunnels extending in different directions, the specks of light from vents, the low whoosh of air.
“Do you hear that?” Rory asks.
Chloe listens: a muffled, faint sound of music playing, echoing down the ducts to their left.
“Sounds like it’s coming from the admin office.”
“No,” Rory says, pointing right, “the office is that way.”
“No, that way is the chem lab.” She points left. “This way is the office.”