“That’s good, Jace. I was worried December would be enough to pull him in that direction… What? Nah, nah… Don’t feel bad. Colin will turn out great. Besides, he sounded pretty miserable in the universe where he did go. Thanks. Enjoy the cake.”

           He hung up and admired his wall of work, covered in a few layers of notes for every classmate that would make a detailed, if not slightly paranoid, private investigator happy. He took another peek at the calendar, now having only a few key dates with notes in red remaining. Colin’s school decision had been one of his last concerns.

           “We’re almost in the clear,” Wes muttered to himself. “Just a little longer…”

           May 31st: Graduation. June 10th-23rd: Summer Camp. June 30th: Toy Run Submission. And on July 3rd, a plan in development that read: Possible Class Party”.

 

           The ornery playground monitor, Mr. Drake, seemed determined to catch kids in the act of hanging out by the dumpster for the remainder of the school year. Each time he came close, the party was broken up, with club-goers scattering across the field or hiding in the giant bin. It had reached the point where they needed a secondary guard dog farther out from The Dump, keeping an eye on Drake and radioing in his position to Delilah. Jace figured that if some big screw-up happened, he would just use a quartz to redo the day. But that had yet to occur; as close as the calls had been, his adult uncle had assured him that the secret club would survive to see another school year.

           But on May 31st, the last Friday and day of school all over again, things at recess got unreasonably tense and dramatic. It all began as the doors to the playground opened for the last time for the 1996 fifth-graders. It was a bright, sunny day, and as usual, Zach and his friends took their time heading to the club, letting it fill up with other regulars across the classes first. It also served as a safety measure, so that the owner wouldn’t be stuck inside if things immediately went bad at the very start of recess.

           In any case, today Zach and the others wanted to start with a nostalgic walk around the entirety of the playground, thinking about epic or personal moments of the past. Some kids waved to him as he went by; others stayed inside their own little worlds. There were some that had never visited The Dump at all, or were otherwise unaware of Zach’s social standing, because things like “cool levels” never factored into their time at Desert Tree Elementary. Zach still wanted to commit those kids to memory, too.

           Wright was back to taking dares again, and was showing an audience how long he could chug a can of soda. Park was having a fifty-percent off sale to clear old merch, and had brought along three backpacks full of goods—the older packs being from third and fourth grade, Zach could recall. Under the shade of Bob the tree, Tammy was reading a book while Trudy was diving deep into another tween mag. They were still best friends, but had steadily become slightly less attached at the hip as of late. Up on the fort, the rapping girl Sadie once battled was dropping lyrics, while Millie finished up her end-of-year notes at the bottom of the slide. The tour ended at the basketball court, where Carson was listening to music, Spice was doing makeovers, and Marianne was showing off her jump rope skills, the two girls handling the rope looking quite bored about it.

           “We had a lot of fun out here over the years,” Zach said to the group. “It all looked so much bigger back in first grade, but it’s still got a good layout for a school playground. At least out of the ones I’ve seen. Too bad ya only had a year here, Jason.”

           “Yeah, what’s Sherman Miller’s playground like?” Colin wondered.

           Jace shrugged and replied, “Oh, you know. Mostly the same. Um… but bigger?”

           “Celeste says they have two forts,” Sadie added. “I bet she’s tried to conquer and hold both at the same time. She must be saying her goodbyes today, too…”

           Zach looked towards The Dump, and he could barely see just how packed it had become. “Well. They’re probably waiting for me to make my grand entrance,” he sighed.

           “You got some big speech planned?” Arthur asked. “Or snacks again, at least?”

           “I had a few ideas, yeah… I just want to make sure… Geez, where is he?”

           Wearing his backpack to recess for some reason, Wessy asked, “Where’s who?”

           “Drake. He’s probably sneaking around again. Creepy weirdo.”

           They all turned to Reynold Weichster, a shorter curly-haired boy from Zach’s class, and the current patrolling Dump dog on duty for the day. Posted about fifty feet away, he noticed Zach’s gaze and gave him a thumbs-up, a walkie-talkie at his side.

           “Reynold’s not worried,” Ash said. “Let’s just head over. It looks clear.”

           Zach wasn’t so sure. He looked at The Dump again, studied its entrance area, and realized things were less than nominal. “Something’s off,” he reported, “D’s not at her post. Hutch is there, stickin’ out and doing a bad job at keeping a safe capacity.”

           “Huh? Why? Delilah’s never just walked off,” Jared noted.

           “Millie! Hey, Millie!” Zach called out to her. “C’mere a second.”

           She looked up, let out a huff, and ran over to them. “What? I’m busy.”

           “You seen Delilah around? You would know if something’s up.”

           “Oh, um. Yeah, she’s in detention. It happened, like, just before recess?”

           “What the heck for? She knows better than to get in trouble. She has a job.”

           “No idea. Saw her getting dragged off by Drake in the hall. She looked surprised about it, too. Maybe he’s gone off the deep end and there’s no official charge.”

           “Oh, I see how it is,” Zach grumbled. “Last day of school, nothing matters. Let’s just turn the place into a police state. Reynold!” He turned back to him. “Hey, I need­—”

           Mr. Drake had already gotten to him. Taking everyone by surprise, it was like he had slipped behind the kid without anyone noticing. Reynold was frozen in fear just by Drake’s presence, who held the kid’s walkie-talkie over his head with a near-crushing grip. The recess monitor wasn’t playing around anymore, as he made clear when he stared right at Zach with cold, dark eyes. He was determined to bust the club today.

           “Crap,” Zach muttered. “Make a break for the trees!”

           “Drake’s on a warpath, man!” Jared exclaimed as they ran into the woody part of the playground. “He’s trying to take down The Dump. What are we gonna do?”

           “If he finds the club today, no class will get to have it again,” Colin added.

           “A good club-runner always has a plan,” Zach assured them and started digging in the dirt by one of the trees. “I’ve been ready for this since before I was the boss.”

           “It feels like I only just started hanging out there,” Sadie bemoaned.

           Jace, unsure of where this was going or how it would end—his uncle had never mentioned the club being in danger—stayed back and tried to not interfere with Zach’s “plan.” Still, he double-checked that a quartz was in his pocket, just in case it went bad.

           “Found it…” Zach said, sounding relieved as he pulled out a walkie-talkie in a plastic bag that had been buried by a marked tree. “Backup comms, up and running.”

           “So… now what?” Wessy asked him.

           Zach looked around and found Drake through the trees, on his way to The Dump. Hutch, a mediocre backup-bouncer, had no idea he was coming.

           “We need distractions while I try and evacuate the hideout,” Zach said. “Come on, we have to tell everyone who cares about the place but isn’t there to help us out.”

           Walking parallel to Drake but going in the opposite direction, Zach kept an eye on him as the group emerged from the trees and rushed back towards the playground fort. Park was the first kid they passed by, who was showing a few others his wares.

           “Got some golden oldies here from years past,” he did his schtick. “Half off today, too. Real classic stuff. Could be worth a bit someday. Hey, Zach, wanna look?”

           “Dump’s in danger,” Zach told him. “We need to piss off Drake, distract him.”

           Park looked at the monitor stomping towards their club and getting dangerously close, and knowing what to do, yelled, “Hey, everyone! Free soda here! Don’t miss out!”

           He continued with his wailing, attracting greedy sugar-deprived kids from across all of recess. Drake, with a good pair of ears, had to stop mid-step and change course.

           “You are not giving away soft drinks, Mr. Myung! Stop this at once!”

           “I need the rest of you to help, too,” Zach told the group as they kept walking. “We need to buy enough time to evacuate everyone.” He pressed down on his walkie-talkie’s button and continued to try and hail the bouncer, “Hutch! I know you can hear me! You have a walkie in your pocket just like you always do! Get useful and pick up!”

           “H-hello?” his voice responded a few seconds later. “Who is this?”

           “Who do you think? We need to empty the club, and Delilah’s in jail! It’s up to you, man. Drake’s looking to shut us down. He can’t find anyone back there. Take down everything and send out kids in small groups while he’s not looking. You can do this!”

           “O-oh, okay. Uh. How many kids can we get in the actual dumpster?”

           “It’s full of week-old green bean casserole, big guy. No one gets left behind today. And we made Drake angry this month. Got a feeling he’ll look in the bin, anyway.”

           The curmudgeonly monitor was pushing his way through a crowd of kids to get to Park, while also making grabs at the soda cans some of his freeloaders were trying to run off with. Once Drake got too close, the school merchant, unwilling to lose all his swag, grabbed his three backpacks and made a run for it. Instead of pursuing him, the monitor turned his attention back to The Dump and resumed his march towards it.

           Luckily, Park’s diversion lasted long enough to give the group a chance to break up and tell others what was going on, and get them to assist. Jace stuck by Zach and Wessy, both of them leading the charge in the effort. Zach stayed in communication with Hutch and kept pointing out for Wessy the next kid he should ask for aid.

           Wright, another one of the kids who had great respect for the club, was the next to come up with something worthy of Drake’s attention. After Arthur enlisted his help, the daredevil-gambler made a beeline back towards the doors.

           “Okay, I’m doing it!” he shouted. “I’ll jump off the school roof for fifty bucks!”

           “Mr. Brody!” Drake bellowed before he had even turned around to find Wright.

           He caught him, but Wright put up a struggle, exclaiming that he had to fulfill his dares. Meanwhile, a dozen kids left The Dump without getting seen, safely rejoining the playground populace. Zach was handling a delicate situation with poise and confidence.

           Before Drake had a chance to turn back towards the club again after dealing with Wright, Sadie went running up and asked him if he wanted to hear her newest rap. He looked disgusted by the idea, but not as revolted as he became when he saw Felicity take out a small effigy of himself, which she slowly stabbed with a pair of safety scissors.

           He barreled up to her to grab the doll, which she had made for reasons only she could understand, but stopped short as a gang of Dump regulars from another class ran by him, pretending to chase down the smallest among them with tree branches. All the while, more kids from the overcrowded Dump made an exit, Hutch ushering them out.

           For a brief, beautiful moment, the playground fell into chaos as club-goers put in their attempt to delay Drake, and other kids just saw an opportunity to get some revenge on the guy. Carson danced by him smoothly, his headphones in plain sight. Drake tried to yank them off his ears, only to find himself surrounded by kids from all of the classes fearlessly insulting his outdated, uptight fashion sense. Jared got into it too, crawling on the ground in an almost successful attempt at tying Drake’s shoelaces together.

           Zach, overseeing things from the fort, grinned and murmured, “I’m so proud…”

           “Enough!” Mr. Drake suddenly burst out and pushed his way through the crowd, his eyes falling on Zach. “Mr. Pentino, no more games! Give me that device, now.”

           “No way, man.” Zach held his ground. “Pfft. What’re you gonna do about it?”

           Looking angrier than ever before, Drake stomped over to the fort, stretched out his hand, and threatened, “I can still punish you, even today. I'll dig out your permanent record and label you as a troublemaker. That will follow you the rest of your life.”

           Many of the fifth-graders gasped. Zach looked at his walkie-talkie, then back at Mr. Drake. He almost looked ready to surrender it. Jace gripped the quartz in his pocket.