Chapter 4: Shock

Drew was directed to go to the principal’s office; when she entered, she saw a boy sitting in a chair there.

Huh. What’s this? She wondered.

“Hello again, Miss Harper,” Walters greeted her. “This is Mr Evan Werser; he’s also a freshman...”

Walters’ words sunk in. I just heard Evan Werser’s name—it was in the announcements for the Program kids during home room! So why is he ... no, why am I, here now?

Her answer came very quickly.

“I had a report about you from Mrs Steward about you interrupting a class demo. So I had you called just now because this week’s chosen freshman girl wasn’t in school today, so in her place, and for your interference with a class, you’ve been selected as one of this week’s freshman Program participants and Mr Werser will be your partn...”

“NO! I can’t do that!” Drew cried. “I was sexually assaulted and... no! I just can’t!”

“Sorry, but you must. You don’t have any choice about participating, Miss Harper; you’ve been selected for this week. The nurse said that because you can’t take the shot, you must avoid engaging in sexual intercourse while you participate this week. And now, both of you, please start undressing. Clothes go in those boxes next to the table there.”

She shook her head in denial. “But I can’t!”

“You must, Miss Harper. The Program is the law in high schools now; you were chosen as a substitute and you have no choice about participating; it’s required. There will be legal consequences if you don’t obey the rules. I asked you to begin removing your clothes; now do it.”

The boy began to speak. “Sir, she’s as scared as I am, but...”

“NO! I won’t!” Drew interrupted. Her fright was rapidly turning into panic. They can’t make me do this. They just can’t. she thought wildly.

She whirled around and ran for the door.

“I just won’t!” she called as she flung the door open and tore out of the room.

She ran out of the office, into the hall, and headed for the school entrance door.

A rent-a-cop guard was there and moved to intercept her, but Drew, using her soccer skills, dodged around him and was out the door before he could react.

As she ran to her house, Drew tried to gather her thoughts. How can I get out of being in that naked Program? I think that they’ll try to get my father to make me do it. Or maybe the police will come, since there’s a law or something. I can’t stay anywhere where they’ll find me—I hate it at that house anyway with Candy, especially since grandma isn’t around anymore.

When Drew got to her house, she was relieved to see that Candy wasn’t there. The phone was ringing when she entered; a glance at the caller ID told her that the call was from the school.

Let it go to voice mail, she thought.

Drew looked around her room and then the house, planning on what to take. I guess I’ll have to run away, then. No way am I gonna do that Program. I’ll go to my hideout and try to figure out what to do. This is so fuckin’ unfair!

She grabbed a large backpack which she found in the garage and began stuffing it with some clothing and the grocery items she needed; she had assembled a little camping setup in her “hideout” already, since she had stayed there overnight on many occasions, escaping Candy’s wrath. She had about $40 saved from her allowance and then thought, If I’m running away, I need more money and I know where Father keeps some.

She raided that stash and found a little over a hundred in fives and tens.

Ignoring the ringing phone again, Drew left the house for her hideout.

When she entered the woods, she looked around and, seeing no one nearby, she went down the trail which passed near her hide-out. She slipped off the trail and carefully made her way the two hundred feet to the bushes guarding her hide-out. She crawled through them, pushing her backpack ahead of her as she did, and looked around. Nothing had been disturbed.

Good. Nobody should be able to find me here. Now I can plan what to do. Oh! Shit! My phone! They can find me with that!

She hurriedly checked it and was relieved to see that it was still off; she had shut it off when she went into the school that morning. Seems like ages ago, she thought.

Back at the school, Connor looked for Drew at their Health class but she wasn’t there. She didn’t appear at lunch either. He looked over at the table that was used by the prior week’s Program kids—yeah, naked kids. Looks like they’ve adopted it as the Program table, he thought. Then he had a premonition. Let me sit at the next table.

After five minutes, Connor noticed Principal Walters heading toward his part of the room and stopping at the Program table. Curious, he decided to eavesdrop a little; Walters wasn’t being exactly quiet when he spoke.

“Hello, students. No one’s in trouble but I have a question. This is a long shot,” Walters asked them, “but does anyone here know Drew Harper or know who her friends are?”

Connor had noticed that one of the naked kids there was Evan Werser; he had heard Evan’s name announced in home room that morning but he hadn’t seen him in the second period math class they shared. Evan caught Connor’s eye and looked a question at him and Connor realized that Evan was asking if he should mention that he and Drew had sat together at lunch last week. Connor nodded back to him that it was okay.

As Evan began speaking, “Mr Walters, I think Connor—he’s at the next table there—is a friend of hers.”

As Walters turned around, Connor got up and spoke, “Drew and I have been getting to know each other, sir. Do you know where she is? We’re in the same first and third period classes and then get together at lunch. She was in my first period class, got sent to the office, but then she wasn’t in my third period class.”

“I would ask you the same question, where is she, Mr...”

“Martin. Connor Martin.”

“Ah, Mr Martin. She was called for the Program in the first period to partner with Mr Werser here since the other freshman girl was absent today. She ran out of the school when I told her. Very quickly, I might add.”

“I’m sure. She told me that she’s a soccer fullback. She said that she’s been clocked sprinting at up to 18 kilometers per hour and runs about eight to ten kilometers in every game she plays,” Connor told him.

The kids at the table were saying, “Wow”... “Jeez, that’s crazy”... “That’s real good”...

Walters looked at him hard. “Ah. I did hear that she was supposed to see the counselor today to switch her P.E. section to be with the soccer team.”

“She did tell me that, yes. She was sick during the two tryout days and got another chance to try out last week; the coach is having her train with the team and she’ll probably get a spot on it.”

“Mr Martin, could you please join me in the office to speak privately? It won’t take long and I’ll make sure you get back before lunch is over.”

“Okay.”

Connor packed up the rest of his bagged lunch and followed Walters out.

In the office, Walters told Connor, “We’ve tried calling her home; goes to voice mail. I sent one of the counselors to her home but there’s apparently no one there. What can you tell me—you don’t need to break anything of confidence that she’s shared, but I want to ensure that she’s safe.”

That got Connor angry. “Safe? You call being stripped naked in school being safe? Drew told me what had happened to her when she was younger—she came this close to being raped and she still has nightmares about it. She must have panicked when you told her she had to strip. What she saw in that assembly that you ran last week actually did make her panic, then the attack on her here at school happened, and the Biology demo we saw almost made her sick. I saw how badly she was affected by those things. I don’t know her well, but from what she told me of her family life, I’ll bet that she’ll try to run away, rather than chance being forced to do the Program.”

“We can’t allow that, son. Do you know where she might be?”

“I just get to see her at school. We talk at lunch. Drew’s had a rough life and it’s toughened her; she can be very stubborn and she’s fiercely competitive. If she’s decided that she won’t be in the Program, and that she could be forcibly stripped, like she saw happen to that girl, she very well might decide to run away. Drew has no feelings for her father, and her grandmother, who basically raised her, had a stroke and is almost unresponsive. Drew’s got no one here; nothing’s keeping her here. Could you assure her that she’d not be forced to be in the Program? That might get her back.”

“We couldn’t do that. It would set a precedent and others would expect the same treatment,” Walters replied. “Would you ... ah, do you think ... would Drew ... accept being in the Program if you were to be her partner and ‘protect’ her?” He made a finger-quote sign.

“We aren’t in all the same classes, okay? And what about toilets and locker rooms? I’m sure she’d never agree—and for that matter, I’ve been considering my own situation and come to decide that I’d never take part in the Program myself. I won’t allow anyone to strip me either. Where I grew up, I had to defend myself physically and if someone were to try to forcibly strip me, I could do them some real damage.”

“Are you making a threat, Mr Martin? You could get arrested, you know.”

“No, it’s not a threat. Just a statement of fact. In the one week of the Program here, I saw enough to make me object to the whole idea of the forced nudity. Like Drew, I will not participate either.”

“It’s a graduation requirement...”

“And there’s the GED for those who drop out. That’s not a convincing reason. I have much more serious issues to worry about and a stupid nudity program isn’t gonna be one of them. Do you know anything about life in the foster care system, Mr Walters? It’s not pleasant. Listen, I told you what I know of Drew. I’m sure she’s a runaway now or will be very soon, even though it’s been less than a day. As I said, she’s stubborn and determined. Can I go back to lunch now?”

“Yes. We’re done here. Thanks for your very frank comments, Mr Martin.”

As Connor left, he was thinking. I maybe do know where she might possibly be. In our talking together, she commented about how she loved the solitude and peacefulness when she got away from her home and went on her runs on the park’s trails. She also implied that she stays away from her home overnight a fair amount. Maybe she’s holed up somewhere nearby, maybe where she goes when she stays away from home, and I can find her if I check possible places that are reasonably close by.

Early that evening, Connor borrowed one of the group home’s bikes and pedaled over to where he thought Drew’s house was located. When he got to her street, he saw a police cruiser parked outside her house—it fit her description of it. After the cop left, he went to the door and knocked. An angry man opened it.

“What is it ... oh, thought it was the cops again. What do you want, young man?”

“You Drew Harper’s dad?”

“I am. You know where that kid is now? She skipped school today and stuff’s missing from the house now.”

“I only saw her in the first two classes we had today. I came by to see if you heard anything.”

“No. But this wouldn’t be the first time she’s not come home. She’s gone plenty of times, gone for several days at a time and then returns. Yeah, does that lots of times. But this is the first time she’s skipped out from school. Drew and my gal don’t ... ah ... get along, see, and Drew disappears mostly after they fight. If you see her, tell her to get her ass back home and get back to that damn school. Wish I didn’t hafta take care of her ... ah ... Hate it when the cops come. Always after she does something stupid...”

Connor could see that the man cared little for his daughter and realized how accurately Drew had portrayed their relationship.

She told me that she runs a few miles every morning. Maybe she’ll do an early-morning run tomorrow? He thought. I’ll get out to the park and watch for her.

He didn’t see her Tuesday or Wednesday morning so he wracked his brain to recall the times he had seen her before high school began. It wasn’t this spring, maybe it was last fall, after he had been living at the group home here for a few months, and had started watching the girls’ soccer games. He had noticed a tall girl who seemed to dominate the play then. He realized that must have been Drew back then; her hair seemed to be much lighter and shorter now. He realized, also, that he had seen a tall girl coming into the park area during other times in the last year or so and going into the woods at the far end. He couldn’t recall seeing her reappear, though.

Maybe she found a place to hide somewhere in there? he wondered. Something to check. I need a plan.

Back in school on Wednesday, a police detective had Walters call a number of students who had interacted with Drew to the office to be interviewed, and Connor was one of the first called. He told the officer the same things he had told Walters, that he thought that she was a runaway, getting away from having to participate in the Program because of her abuse experience. The officer asked Walters if the school could relent on its participation policy, given her history of the assault, but he demurred, saying that he had to follow policy. Connor was now determined to try to find her.

Drew was trying to figure out what to do now. She had limited money, and if she stayed here too long, her supplies would run out and she’d have to use the money she needed to travel with.

It’s Wednesday now, she calculated, and I have enough food and stuff for a week. By that time, people probably won’t be actively looking for me and I can leave town. I need to head south ‘cause it’s getting really cold at night now and the fire isn’t gonna work for much longer. Damn, I really would like a shower...

By Friday afternoon, Connor had come up with a plan. He knew of the battery-operated trail cameras that hunters and wildlife fans liked to use but since he didn’t have a good idea where Drew might be, he would have to set up a number of cameras. But if he caught her image, he’d still have only a general idea of her actual location. That wasn’t such a good plan.

The forest covers about fifty acres, he reasoned. The trails that wind through it are maybe two miles, total, if even that. And the undergrowth is thick in places; I’ve seen thorny plants in there too—I think they’re either hawthorn or acacia. My old house had some acacia in the back yard.

Then he recalled that a little stream flowed out of those woods.

Maybe she set up near flowing water? I wonder if there’s a way to rent an infrared camera. Then I could walk around and look for hot spots.

Indeed, Connor found that he could rent one from a home improvement store overnight for less than sixty dollars. Fortunately he could afford it; he had some money he had salvaged from the fire...

At 11 pm Saturday night, he set out with the little camera device and headed for the stream near where it exited the woods. Backtracking it and using a little flashlight he had covered with some red cellophane to preserve his night vision, he followed the trail which generally paralleled the stream. He had gone only a quarter mile along the trail as he moved the camera side to side before he began to pick up a heat source in the dense bushes near the stream. It appeared to be large enough to be a person! He moved off the trail into the bushes and soon encountered some thorny ones.

Okay, I know pretty much where this is now. I hear water gurgling in the bushes ahead and there are two strong heat signals. Must be a campfire there too. I’ll come back when it’s daylight so I don’t scare her.

Drew was startled by what appeared to be the sounds of something moving in the woods outside her bushes. Crackling sounds and sounds of swinging branches. She didn’t think that there were any large wild animals out here.

Maybe it’s a dog, I’ve seen dogs in the woods here, she thought.

Then the sounds went away and she relaxed.

The next day, Connor returned the camera and got his deposit back. He stopped at a fast-food place and bought a few hamburgers, several packages of fries, and a few bottles of fruit juice. Then he went into the woods. He crept up to the bushes where he had been last night and indeed, they were thorny.

“Drew? You in there? It’s Connor. I’ve been trying to find you for several days.”

He heard a little shriek, then, “Connor? Really? Are you alone?”

“Yeah, I’m alone for sure. I had figured you must be camped out somewhere in here but didn’t let on to anyone else. How the hell did you get in there, anyway?”

She giggled. Her voice got closer. “It’s my fort. Camouflaged the entrance.”

Then part of a bush swung away and her head popped out.

“Jeez. That’s clever. You blocked your tunnel in with part of a bush, but kept its roots so it wouldn’t wither,” Connor praised her.

“Come into my abode,” Drew invited.

They both crawled back inside the ring of bushes.

“Awesome setup here,” Connor said, looking around. “I brought you some food. Thought you might need it.”

He handed the bag to her.

“Wow, thanks! Been coming here for two years now. It’s my real home. Not that other place.”

“I spoke to your father on Monday. You were right; I could tell how he feels about you.”

“Damn. What did he say?”