Vandal quietly walked alongside Vi as she walked closer to the towering main school building. He restrained himself from “exploring” the environment by biting the second knuckle of his thumb and focusing on the building up ahead. He convinced himself that what Vi had to say was more important than climbing on the impressive-looking statue in the middle of the front courtyard of the school. He also had to ignore the swaying of the trees in the wind, because a few of the trees were very impressive and tall, more than adequate for tree-climbing. In fact, these trees looked almost sturdy enough to support someone at the end of the branch. Vandal imagined himself, reclined on one of the higher tree branches on a frigid winter day, enjoying a steamy hamburger and fries, the aroma of crisp, golden potatoes wafting towards him as he eagerly reaches for the first bite of his meal…

But, all too suddenly, he was thrown from his mental image by the feeling of liquid on his hand. He quickly released his hand from his mouth and subtly dried it with his shirt, blocking the signals of embarrassment he felt running through his brain from reaching his face. He managed to tune in just in time to hear Vi ask him a question, but when he realized that she was looking at him, he awkwardly shot his attention back towards the building. He paused for a moment, but managed to construct a reasonable response without too awkward a pause, “If what Simon told me is right, we’ll be here six days a week from sunrise to some time late in the afternoon all year, besides summer, for the next four years. ”

After another question from Vi, Vandal stopped moving next to a park-bench and commented, “If Boss doesn’t have us doing performances during our holidays, we could probably travel somewhere briefly. But remember, we will also have Sundays off of school. This city is pretty big, so we can probably get to know it better and find good places to eat or such with our free time.” He then looked ahead at the school building and commented, “I wonder if we can try the front door of the building.”

After a few moment’s pause to get Vi’s feedback, his feet began moving on their own, bringing him closer to the door. Within no time, he had reached the double metal doors with the long, wired windows, and found himself peeking in through the glass. Without a doubt, he was looking at the longest corridor he had ever seen. The door led into a long hall of metal and tile, leading on to what could possibly have been the other end of the building. Vandal tried pushing, pulling, twisting, shoving, and even unhinging the door, hoping to figure out a hidden mechanism which would undo the lock, but to no avail. “No luck, but man, that’s a really long hallway. Maybe there’s another way in…”

With this said, he backed away from the door and started looking around above the door, around the corner, and over at other doors on the other side of the courtyard. There was a much more obvious “front door” which had a large “welcome back” banner hanging over it, but what really caught Vandal’s attention was an open window on the top floor. The window was propped open barely enough to reach a thin arm through, but Vandal saw it as an opportunity. “Well, I know how to get us in,” he commented, looking over to his sister with a mischievous smile, “want to see how?”