Summer Wind

Author's note: Thanks to all who reviewed my first few chapters. Please let me know what you think of this one.

Summer Wind – (A Midsummer Night’s Dream)

"But, we are spirits of another sort...

May all to Athens back again repair,
And think no more of this night's accidents,
But as the fierce vexation of a dream.
But first I will release the fairy queen.
Be as thou was wont to be;"

Chapter 6 - No More Puck

This was not a good idea, Warren knew. However, you can’t exactly call the girl you just slept with an idiot without expecting repercussions. There had to be a better way to curtail Jameson’s plans without igniting a firestorm. Warren just hadn’t thought of it yet.

At the moment, he was following Jameson across the back campus of her school, tracking her footsteps carefully.

“Stay close,” she called back to him, when he began to lag behind. “There’s holes in the camera sweeps, but they’re very small. You’ve really got to stay on my trail.” She waited for him to catch up, then continued on to the back door of the gym.

When she slipped a pass key from the pocket of her jeans, Warren wrapped his arms around her and whispered in her ear, “I’m sure there are other ways we could spend our time tonight.”

“Yes, but we did it your way awhile ago, remember? Now, it’s my turn,” she opened the door and pulled him inside.

Quickly typing in the pass code she shut down the motion detectors and cameras. Then grabbing his hand, she pulled him across the gym. “C’mon. We have work to do.”

Their footsteps echoed in the empty hallways as Jameson led them deeper into the heart of the school, up stair cases and through teacher lounges. Warren had been at Sky High before when it was night, but never when it was deserted. He supposed it would seem as eerie there at night, but the fact that he had never been in Jameson’s school in the day, much less at night lent an ethereal quality to their excursion.

There was a ghostly aspect to the hallways they traveled. It wasn’t just that they weren’t supposed to be there. It was the absence of the hundreds of fellow students that Warren knew was supposed to populating the campus, like the ship of the dead that he had read about in one of his novels. It didn't seem natural for the buildings to be so silent. They weren’t just quiet, they were dead.

The only light in the school came from a few windows along the outside walls and from the glowing exit signs, but Jameson had no trouble leading them through the maze of corridors. Before long, Warren could see lab tables, Bunsen burners, and rows of test tubes lined against walls of empty classrooms. He knew they must be in the science department.

Jameson stopped before a closed doorway, and after examining the keys on her key ring, carefully unlocked the door. She pulled Warren inside, closing the door behind them. She pressed him up against the wall, running her hands down his arms till she reached his hands. Entwining her fingers in his, she raised his arms up to shoulder level, pinning him in place effectively. Stepping closer, she studied his face. Breathing in his scent, she lowered her head to kiss him slowly along his neck and throat. Tonguing the indentation between his collarbones, she felt him inhale sharply and press forward towards her. She knew she had his attention.

“You now have the opportunity to join the MLF,” Jameson said, smiling, as she released him and backed away.

“The what?” Warren struggled to clear his vision and focus on her words. Once more she had teased him into an inner battle where he was trying to remember his earlier resolution to keep them both out of trouble and a refreshed desire to stay close to her in hopes of feeling her bare skin against his again.

“The MLF,” she repeated, seemingly unaware of his conflict. “The Mouse Liberation Front. It’s up to us to release these poor mice from their imprisonment and from their continued torture and degradement at the hands of sophomore biology students. They are being used as the objects of countless tests and trials. They have been belittled and teased beyond their endurance”

“I think I know how they feel,” Warren muttered under his breath.

Jameson either didn’t hear him or was ignoring him. Instead she grabbed two empty cages from a shelf and, handing one to him, began transferring the mice from the cages along the wall to hers.

When Warren didn’t move she turned to stare in his direction. “Well, are you helping or not?”

Deciding this was not the best time or place to make a stand and start an argument, Warren began loading mice into his cage. Not surprisingly, the mice weren’t as appreciative as one might think. They didn’t appear to want to be liberated, and resisted being caught and handled.

After being peed on twice and bitten once, Warren put down his cage and studied the rest of the room. There were other containers stacked around the room, plastic buckets, cardboard boxes, and lots of labeled bottles. This seemed to be more of a storage or supply room instead a classroom.

After Jameson had loaded up all of the mice, she wandered to the front of the room to inspect some of the buckets on the floor. Warren noticed she had had to put some of the mice into a third cage. Between the three containers, there had to be close to a hundred mice. What were they going to do with them, Warren wondered.

“Hey,” Jameson called from the front where she had pried the lid off of several buckets. “Do you know anything about frog CPR?” She asked, studying the contents of one container.

“As in mouth to mouth for frogs? That would be no.” Warren inspected one of the glass bottles closest to him.

“Okay, then, these guys are goners.” She let the lid fall back down on to the bucket and wiped her hands off on her jeans. “What have you got back there?”

Warren swirled the liquid in one jar, before resorting to reading the label. “Hmmm, pig fetus, it says.”

“Alright, don’t want to even consider that. Let’s just grab the mice and go.” Jameson grabbed the closest two cages while Warren got the third.

Following her back through the maze of passages, Warren soon realized they were not returning the way they had come. He stopped in the middle of the hall. “Wait, where are we going?”

“To the office area. It’ll be the perfect new home for these little guys.” She kept walking.

“We’re letting the mice go in the administration offices?” Warren asked in disbelief. “Why can’t we just let them go out side in the alley or the park?” he said, still not moving.

“Are you kidding? With all of the cats, dogs, hawks, and other predators out there? That’s not liberating them, that’s turning them into snacks. How humane is that?” She winked at him and motioned with her head for him to follow. “C’mon, I need to be home early tonight. I need a good alibi.”


Reluctantly, Warren followed Jameson to the door of the offices, where she produced yet another key. Emptying the mice behind the counter that separated most of the room from the reception area used for visitors and truant kids, Jameson studied the angle of the cameras. Taking a chocolate bar from her pocket, she broke it into pieces, placing tidbits at strategic locations around the room.

“They might need a snack later,” she explained, before leading Warren back through the school and to the backdoor where they had entered earlier. They had paused only to stash the empty cages in a janitor’s closet, before hurrying through the school.

“What’s the rush,” Warren asked as Jameson reset the cameras and readied the alarms.

She pushed him out the door before answering. “The night watchman will be here soon. We need to get off of the grounds.”

“Now you tell me,” Warren growled in response as she grabbed his hand and dragged him back along the pre-ordained pathway. The risks that she was exposing him and herself to were infuriating.

When they had reached her car, he pulled her in roughly. “Jamie, I can’t do this. I can’t get in trouble with the police. Not for some foolish prank.” He reached out to touch her hair. “I can’t believe you’d want to either.” He watched her eyes, waiting for the hurt, the look of betrayal. But it didn’t come. She merely smiled.

“Alright, Oberon. Don’t worry. I’m going to be good now. It’s track season. I can’t be thrown off the team. What else would I do with my afternoons, if I couldn’t run? This was just a last hurrah,... and a little bit of vengeance.” She looked contrite for a moment. “But I am sorry. It was irresponsible of me to risk your reputation, too. Just didn’t realize you had one to be worried about.” She grinned. “I mean, your looks and leather don’t exactly jive with the position of resident hero. But, hey, if that’s the goal you’re working for, I don’t want to jeopardize it.” Suddenly serious, she watched him for a moment. “I really am sorry.”

Warren slid closer to her, angling himself around the gear shift, “What are your goals, Jameson?” He really did want to know. So far she had sent so many mixed messages that he had decided he was going to need a play book to keep track.

“To get as far away from here as possible.” She leaned in to kiss him, touching her tongue to his lips lightly, licking along their softness. She felt her blood quicken as his tongue flicked out to meet hers. His body warmed quickly under her fingertips as she slid her hand under his shirt. His stomach was rock hard and her mind drifted to earlier in the evening and the intimacies they had shared. There wasn’t time for a repeat at the moment but she couldn’t pull herself away.

Warren felt his blood singing with desire and an almost unquenchable heat. Almost unquenchable. He remembered what she had said about needing to be home early. His fingers ached to reach under her shirt and run his hands across her bare skin, but he knew if he did he wouldn’t be able to stop.

Breathing heavily, he pulled out of the kiss. Eyes glazed, he pushed the flames that wanted out back down into his core. When he was able to focus, he thought of what he had told her earlier in the evening. Whispered in the moment of desire, in heat and weakness, he wasn’t sure to what depths he had meant it when he had said he loved her, but he was certain of one thing. He wouldn’t be able to let her go easily. She had wormed her way into his life, and citizen or not, he couldn’t step away. If she had insisted on leading him down the path to hell, instead of redemption, he would have followed her. Reluctantly, but still he would have followed. Now, with an uneasy truce, he needed to keep up his end of the bargain. Loyalty, allegiance, and support. Despite her assurance of ‘being good’, he wasn’t sure how strong her resolution was going to be. He would need to be there to back her up. Starting now, with making sure that she got home on time. “Start the car. We need to go.” He kissed her on the forehead and slid back to his side of the car.


…………………………………….

She was safely ensconced on her living room couch, wrapped in an afghan and watching a horror movie replete with fake monsters and pretend blood, when her father stormed into the house. Still in his business suit, she could tell his late dinner had been interrupted suddenly. “What’s up?” she called.

He stopped to stare in her direction. “I thought you were going out with your friends this evening.”

“Nothing going on this weekend. Why are you home so early?” she inquired.

“Something has set off the motion detectors in the administration offices at school. I’ve got to go down and meet the police at the school. The security guards aren’t authorized to enter the offices, and the police won’t go in unless someone from administration is present.” He pulled off his tie angrily.

“No one else was available.” Jameson questioned.

“No one else has a key.” He replied.

“Perhaps you should stop being such a control freak and share the responsibilities, and keys, with some of your staff. Just a thought.” She turned back to the movie.

He watched her suspiciously for a moment. “How’s the calculus class going?”

“Fine, why do you ask?” she said, not turning her head.

“Just curious,” he said, heading up the stairs, to change and grab his keys.

Jameson knew he would be out most of the night straightening out the problem with the school. She smiled and settled in to watch the rest of the movie in peace.