I kept repeating it in my head: enter the building, go to the basement, block the door, cut the power.

'Easy,' I tried to tell myself as I slunk towards one of Rutherford's side entrances, a ski mask pulled securely over my head. 'Simple and easy. It'll be over in no time."

The sunny morning did nothing to help me sneak around, providing no darkness for me to hide in. This meant I was relying a lot less on sneaking, and a lot more on moving as fast as possible.

I nodded to Roy, who was standing a few yards away, next to the window I would be coming out of in a few minutes. There were no security cameras outside of the school, and we figured he would look less suspicious without a mask, so he was standing there in the open without any disguise. Just another element that made me want to get this done as fast as possible.

I was nervous, to say the least. Security had been boosted ever since faculty caught wind of the competition, and guards were on a schedule now, making rounds throughout the school every thirty minutes.

I made it to the double doors and peered in one of the windows, catching a glimpse of a guard just as she turned the corner and headed down the hall. Most likely, she wouldn't pass through this hall again until a half-hour was up and it was time for her to check her designated sector.

I could do this. Everyone was in class, and only ten feet or so laid between me and the basement door. I waited for thirty seconds longer, giving the guard time to walk further away before I opened the door and stepped inside. I pulled it shut gently so it wouldn't slam, and started taking wide strides across the hall as quietly as possible.

I reached the plain wooden door to the basement staircase. One of my shaking hands reached for the handle and turned it-- I let out a breath, thankful that it wasn't locked. Ian said it never was, but I had worries about everything that could possibly go wrong.

I hurried inside and shut the door, heart racing. My eyes darted around the space as I began descending the stairs-- the room was dark, all browns and greys with concrete flooring, brick walls, and a single, dim light. Exposed pipes lined the ceiling and various boilers and generators hid in the dark, cobwebbed corners of the room. Positioned under the window was a large metal desk littered with scattered paperwork.

I grabbed the blue school chair sitting in front of it and rushed back up the stairs, sticking it underneath the door handle-- it was the same way I always locked my room at home. If we were lucky, it would hold, and it would take staff a while to get inside and turn the power back on.

I made my way back down and to the table, climbing on top of it to unhook the window while forcing myself to ignore the spider webs that surrounded the glass. A cool breeze came in once I pushed it open, and I waited as Roy knelt down to talk to me.

"Everything going okay?" he asked, eyes surveying what he could see of the room.

"Yeah. Just get ready to send the okay to Ian, I'm gonna cut the power now."

"Got it." He reached for his phone, unlocking it and pulling up the group chat. He typed for a second, thumb hovering over the send button. "Ready to send whenever you say so."

I hopped down, the soles of my shoes loudly smacking the floor, causing me to grimace as if there was anyone around to hear it. I walked to the far end of the room, where the breaker box was located against the wall. Just like Ian said, a red lever was protruding from the side.

'No time to waste,' I figured, grabbing it and pulling it down. The darkness came instantly, swallowing almost everything in the room-- there was only a small rectangle of light coming in from the window, shining against the metal desk and casting a golden shape on the floor.

"Okay!" I called to Roy as I pulled out my phone, turning on the flashlight. "It's off!"

"Sent it! Ian and Maddie should be starting any second now," he said. I stepped up onto the table again, my eyes adjusting to the sunshine that glared down at them. "Now let's get you out of there before someone comes."

Once the two of us got back to where Roy and Ian parked in the woods, I felt like I could breathe again. My task was done, and all I had to do was wait.

As I quickly realized, waiting just meant more time to think about all the things that could go wrong. As I unwillingly brainstormed all the different ways Maddie and Ian could get caught, my chest filled with more hope-dampening weight.

I leaned against the side of Roy's car, looking out towards the school, which was barely visible beyond the trees. "I feel so useless just waiting for them, you know? Just sitting here like this... but what else can we do?"

"I could think of a few things that would pass the time," he said coyly, resting his arm on the top of the car and facing me.

My head snapped towards him, face growing hot. He was smiling-- he was teasing me. I wanted to mumble out a cute "shut up," or flirt back with something smart, but all I could manage to say was a mildly pathetic, "Are you being serious about all this?"

"About what?" he asked, tilting his head to the side.

"About... about having an interest in me," I clarified, not knowing how to phrase it. The words didn't even feel right in my mouth, the topic too unfamiliar to bring me anything but uncomfortable uncertainty.

"I'd say it's a lot more than just an interest," he replied. The disbelief must have shown on my face, because he took one look at my expression and continued. "Why does that surprise you?"

"I don't know. Because I'm... me."

"That's why I like you."

The simple words filled me with so many nerves that I couldn't keep the eye contact we were holding any longer.

"It's interesting," he continued, "because I feel like even though I've spent more time with you than anyone else in the group, and even though we have this sort of... thing, I still know the least about you. You don't talk about yourself much."

"I'm not mysterious, or anything like that," I clarified, not wanting him to have the wrong idea. "There's just not a lot to say."

"Somehow I doubt that." There was that smile again. Between that, the soft look in his eyes, and what he was saying, I could hardly manage to put up a fight-- I wasn't even sure why I was trying to. I wanted to bask in what he was saying, not argue with it. But certain questions and doubts clouded my mind, forcing their way out of my mouth.

"Well okay, so what if you start getting to know me better? Won't you just end up getting bored?"

"I don't think that's even a possibility," he said, shifting his body against the car so that the two of us were more at eye level. "And frankly, I think that's a little insulting to both of us."

He was right-- it wasn't fair for me to assume that of him. "Sorry."

"Look," he continued, "I like the way I feel when I'm around you. I like that I can talk to you about real stuff. I like the way you get nervous, and I like the way you make me nervous, which isn't an easy thing to do. I just like you, Jade. And I like liking you."

"Really?" The word was the only thing I could think to say, some mixture of wonderment laced with unshakable disbelief.

He smiled, nodding slowly. "And I don't know if you've noticed, but you're very attractive. So that probably has something to do with it too."

I let out a laugh, shaking my head. His words filled me with a buzz that seemed to travel through my body, coursing through my veins, replacing my blood with something electric. But despite the feeling of elation, and the way his lingering eyes made my stomach flip with anticipation, my mind couldn't seem to shut off.

It raced with uncertainty, spewing worries, telling me all of this was too good to be true. I tried to fight off the negative thoughts, which only added to the mess in my brain as I willed myself not to overthink.

Then Roy's eyes traveled down to my lips and stayed there, gaze seeming to trace them for a second. And when he started leaning in, for once, my mind went blank.

who's.