“Are you sure no security alarms are gonna go off, man?”

“Just throw the damned rock, Rod! Christ! You’re such a pussy come crunch time.”

The young boy flipped off his impatient friend and finally heaved the large rock through the window, flinching in anticipation of an alarm. Peeling his eyes opened first, he had to laugh. “Yeah, call me a pussy…open your eyes, chicken shit.” Smacking his other friend on the back of his head, “You too, asshole.”

“What!? God…we’re here, we’re here. Now get the hell inside.” The blonde boy cupped his hands together and bent down so the shortest of the three could step up and go inside first. Once his feet disappeared into the room, he jumped up, hoping he wouldn’t get too cut up on the broken glass.

“Okay, Steve. You’re next. Grab my hand.”

The tallest of the bunch took hold of the blonde’s hand and together worked to get him inside without ripping his jeans or slicing his belly on the jagged window pane.

Brushing his hands of small shards of glass, Rod grabbed the goody bag. “Okay, boys. Let’s go.”

After the cans of spray paint were dispersed, the three boys set to work. Quietly making their way through the school library, they began quickly and forcefully pulling books off shelves, leaving them in splattered piles all along the rows. Once satisfied with that, they made their way into the media room and began the art of spray painting. Streams of red, blue and green covered the walls and equipment, getting into their inner mechanisms, making them not only a mess, but virtually useless.

With one final sweep of the main desk, clearing it of all of the papers, books and trinkets, the boys made their way into the hall to see if they could get any further with their destruction.

Just as they entered the science lab and Steve had knocked over a collection of beakers, their fun was brought to a grinding halt.

“Hold it right there! Nobody move!”

“Aw, shit…”

“Hands up…don’t move a muscle!”

Two of the three boys peaked up from wherever they were working and slowly turned to the booming voice, hands on their heads and eyes as large as saucers.

“Is this it? There’s just two of you!?”

“No…Hey, Asshole! Get up here, man…you’re payin’ right along with us.”

Finally a blonde tuft of hair peeked up from behind a movable sink, knowing full well he had just lost his last playing card in the game with the cops. He’d screwed up one too many times. Standing slowly, he brought his hands up and clasped them behind his head, looking apologetically at his two friends.

“Oh, well, of course. It’s you. Why am I not surprised?” Walking toward the leader of the pack, the officer took hold of the blonde’s arm and led him outside. “Come on. All three of you. You’re goin’ with me.”

The boys silently made their way to the squad car, cooperating fully with anything the officer asked before getting into the cars. Fear wasn’t always a bad thing.

“Hope you had fun today, boys. I reckon it’ll be awhile before you have any again.”

Various whispered expletives left the back seat as the officer drove the boys to the station. For Steve and Ron, it’d be just a glitch in their record. But for the blonde? He had a record already. He’d been warned to keep it clean. But he just…he couldn’t. He was uncharacteristically quiet all the way in, running various scenarios through his head, wondering how he might sweet talk his way out of this one. It wasn’t looking good.

Finally at the station, the three boys piled out of the car, grudgingly following the arresting officer inside. “Go sit down over there. And I’m not cuffing you because you’ve cooperated. Don’t make me regret it.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah…dickhead.”

No more words fell from the boys’ lips as they sat and contemplated the reactions they’d get for their plight this day. Moms, dads, teachers…and for the leader? Probationary officer. Social worker. He’d be paying for this forever. They’d all wanted attention and now they had it. Why did they get themselves into this?

Just as they were calming a bit from the adrenaline rush from the break-in, the vandalism and the subsequent arrest, they were startled out of their somberness when someone new was brought in. He was not as cooperative as they had been to be sure.

“Let GO of me, goddammit! Do you know who I AM!?”

“Yeah, and I don’t care. Now shut up, quit fighting and move the hell inside the gate. You’re just making my list longer.”

The three boys watched the exchange wondering who this person was, unable to really get a good look at him. He finally quit staring and leaned back on his bench with an exhausted sigh. That was his future if he didn’t get it together. Drunken arrests, arguing with the cops, making an ass of himself in public. Yep. Thing was, no one would care anyway. Why the hell should he?