The recess supervisor never let go of my arm as she led me through the side doors. In fact, her grip seemed to get tighter as we went deeper into the school. The inside was kind of like my school in some ways, but then in many other ways not like it at all.

It stunk, for one. Literally. I didn’t know what my school smelled like, probably not good either, but this one smelled really funny. And not funny ha-ha. It smelled like a mixture of beef gravy and Urinal Cocktail (you know, it’s that thing that sometimes happens in boys’ bathrooms where no one flushes a particular urinal for a while and then everyone keeps using that same one like we’re all involved in some sort of unwritten contract together to see if we can make it overflow).

I felt numb as we went down halls, around corners, and past classrooms, likely on our way to the administration offices. I could barely keep up with my captor as she charged ahead. Luckily she pulled me along hard every time I started lagging. I couldn’t believe I was going to be expelled over this. Just like that. I mean, I was retired. This was exactly why I had quit, too. This sort of thing wasn’t supposed to happen to kids who had retired.

A few kids were in the halls. They stopped and stared as we passed. Teachers we came across looked at me sullenly and shook their heads slowly. Was it just me or did this school’s lights seem to be a lot dimmer than at my school? It seemed like the lighting was only getting darker as we moved deeper into the school, too.

I was looking up at the lights, trying to figure out why it seemed so dark, when suddenly water splashed on my face and the recess supervisor let go of my arm. Her right shoulder and face were drenched, and a broken and deflated rubber balloon stuck to the curls of her dark hair. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, another balloon soared in and nailed her in the right leg. She jumped back, rage engulfing her face. We were being assaulted.

“Run!” I heard a voice yell.

I didn’t need another prompt. I took off sprinting down the hall in the direction we’d just come from.

“Hey!” I heard the recess supervisor shout at me.

I glanced back just as another water balloon pelted her in the back of the head. She turned around to see who her assailants were, but the hall looked empty. They were good, whoever they were. I darted left down another hallway. The recess supervisor, frozen with indecision between going after me or her assailants, had a ton of ground to make up now if she ended up choosing to chase me.

I wasn’t going to waste my lead. I weaved in and out of the halls, looking for an exit or place to hide. A teacher popped out of a classroom as I passed. He started walking after me.

“Hey,” he said. “Hey!”

I bolted left around another corner. This place was like a maze. I just needed to find an empty hallway where I wouldn’t be seen entering a room of some kind. From there, well, I’d figure out what to do, but I just needed to find a good hiding spot to collect my thoughts.

If everything else so far that morning had gone about as bad as could be expected, then you couldn’t blame me for being shocked at my fortune when I rounded the next corner to find a completely deserted intersection in the hallway. I knew the one teacher was probably still walking after me and maybe the recess supervisor, too, so I had to act fast.

The left branch was a long hallway that stretched for what seemed like infinity with a billion doors. The right branch was much shorter with about five doors, including a glowing green exit sign posted above the last one on the left. I needed to decide now whether to cut my losses and make a break for it or stick around and try to carry out the mission. I heard footsteps approaching behind me.

I moved quickly down the shorter hallway to my right, glancing at the doors as I passed them. The first few were definitely classrooms. I wasn’t about to try to hide in a regular classroom. I was likely only seconds away from giving up and bolting for the exit when I caught my second break.

The second-to-last door on the right looked to be an old storage room of some kind. It still had a long, narrow glass window like the other classrooms, but instead of regular rows of desks and chairs the dark room just held a bunch of boxes, piles of chairs, and really old wooden desks.

I tried the handle and was somewhat shocked to find it unlocked. It seemed as though my luck was turning in an epic reversal of fortune that could probably be matched only by three straight Chicago Cubs World Series titles.

I slipped inside and shut the door behind me as quietly and quickly as I could.

The room was dark, but the light coming in through the small window in the door was just enough for me to avoid tripping over any boxes or clutter as I moved toward the back. I heard the bell ring, signaling the end of recess. I found a large pile of boxes near the back and wedged myself in behind them. And . . .

Well . . .

Now what?

I wasn’t really sure at all what I was supposed to do next. I still intended to try to meet with Ken-Co if I could and fulfill what I came here to do. But how? I mean, here I was hiding behind stacks of boxes. How was this going to help me?

Hopefully, anybody who had been chasing me would just assume after enough time looking that I’d exited the building and was gone. I heard the faint noises of kids moving through the halls, heading back to class. Well, I was guessing there wasn’t much more I’d be able to do until lunch, since likely Ken-Co and all of his employees would have to be in class until then.

I sighed.

At least I’d found a relatively safe place to hide until then. I could use this free time to try and figure out exactly what my next move should be. I took out my phone and played a game to kill some time and help clear my thoughts. Sometimes my best brainstorming was done while mindlessly fidgeting with my phone or playing a game. Besides, I likely couldn’t make another move until lunch so I had tons of time to kill. Two hours may not actually be all that long, but when you’re cramped in the corner of a dark storage room alone, two hours is basically a lifetime.

I was just starting to settle in when the door to the storage room opened. I pocketed my phone as quickly as I could, careful not to make any noise. I only hoped whoever it was hadn’t seen the glow of the screen first.

“Well, he definitely came down this way,” a man’s voice said.

The lights flicked on, and I had to shut my eyes tightly and cover my face from the sudden blinding glare. I had been getting used to the dark.

“Who is he?” another male voice asked.

“I don’t know, but he was outside bullying our students,” said a voice that I recognized as that of the recess supervisor.

So they clearly hadn’t given up their search, after all. And look what I’d done. I’d had my chance to escape, but instead I’d chosen to corner myself in this room like a penned animal at one of those horrible hunting farms where basically rich, dumb people who want to pretend they’re hunters pay to go inside a large fenced area and shoot defenseless animals.

And here I was, stupider than those animals who probably didn’t even end up in those pens by choice like I had. Idiot. I smacked my forehead with my open palm without realizing what I was doing.

“What was that?” one of the men said.

“Probably a cockroach, knowing this place,” the other guy said, and then all three of them laughed.

I heard them start to shuffle through the boxes and clutter at the front of the room. I probably only had a matter of minutes before I’d be discovered. I went through my options.

I could make a break for it. If I moved quickly, I might catch them off guard and be able to slip right by them and out into the hallway.

I could grab a plastic chair and fight them to the death.

I could try to use the Force and conjure up some sort of crazy tornado of boxes, desks, and junk and use it to tear a hole in the roof that I would then fly out of.

I could just keep sitting here thinking about ridiculous scenarios until I was caught, turned in to Dickerson, and expelled.

As much as I hated to admit it, option four seemed to be the most likely to occur. One of the searchers was just around the pile of junk now. It was the recess supervisor; I could hear her heavy breathing, like a siren warning an impending storm.

Then I felt a hand grab the back of my shirt. The wall I’d been sitting against was suddenly gone, and I was falling backward into the dark.