commented on her thick glasses And no one offered to be her friend Ana glanced toward the restroom doors She knew she shouldn’t have had a second glass of orange juice for breakfast If she went now she’d be late for class No one was ever late for class It was against the rules But she really really had to go Guess I’ll be a rule breaker after all she whispered Then she walked fast to the bathroom She hurried but it was no use The bell rang as she was washing her hands Ana dried her hands quickly using only one paper towel One paper towel was another rule Then she peeked out of the bathroom door The hall was empty except for a boy drinking from the water fountain Ana stared at him You’re late for class she whispered
The boy grinned and whispered back So are you Ana slipped out of the bathroom and walked toward the boy It surprised her that he didn’t sound worried at all Everyone here seemed worried about breaking the rules Being late is against the rules Ana announced Aren’t you scared The boy shrugged Everything is against the rules I overslept and my mom had to drive me No big deal Ana thought it was a really big deal After all everything that wasn’t perfect was a really big deal here Just as she was wondering if the boy was actually a student at Middlehurst he pointed down the hall Look at that he demanded Ana turned to look at what he was pointing toward When she turned all she saw was a
row of lockers with no doors It looked just like every other wall in the school Yeah It’s lockers What about them she asked The boy just shook his head at her He turned and jogged toward the lockers At the end of the row he shoved his hand into a dark crack where the lockers met the wall Don’t you see This crack leads somewhere Help me pull he demanded That’s got to be against the rules Ana muttered But she walked over to help Together they slowly swung the lockers away from the wall The opening revealed a hallway behind the lockers that extended into the dark The boy turned and grinned at her We just found a secret passage in our school he whispered How cool is that Let’s find out where it goes
