Page 84 of Always a Bridesmaid
Violet retreated, keeping Trouble close to her side.
“Now I need you to backtrack the way we came and prop open the doors,” Ford said, his voice low and placid. Did he truly feel that nonchalant, or did he simply have years of practice pretending to be while in tense situations? “Then give us a wide berth so Pyro and I can get our boy—or girl—pointed in the right direction and nudge it on out the door.”
The squawky grunts grew in intensity, leading Violet to believe the porcupine was either on board with or opposed to the plan.
“Oh, and in case there is another one, watch for it,” Ford called after her as she ran down the hallway, as if she had any idea what that meant.
Like give a shout if she saw the porcupine’s significant other? Try to catch it? Assure it they were going to get them out of here in one piece?
Let Trouble handle it?
Since the puppy in question began sniffing every single locker before finding a pencil to gnaw on, she scooped him up and ran. “Buddy, I hope you’re more qualified for this than I am. I needed an escape from life, and suddenly I’m breaking animals out of high school.”
Once Violet had propped open the doors and ensured the kickstand thingies could hold them, she rushed across the lobby.
Ford and Pyro had managed to get their porcupine turned around and halfway down the hall, Pyro barking and growling at it to stay the course while Ford wielded the broom like a hockey stick.
Holding Trouble firmly, Violet darted into the other hallway lined with lockers. Hopefully she and her fierce hound would be enough of a deterrent for the porcupine to head outside instead of in their direction.
“We’ve got to look scary, ’kay?”
Trouble licked her chin, causing an undercurrent of adoration that made her mostly okay with his total lack of obedience.
In the distance, Nitro and Tank barked out a cacophonous racket. One that was growing louder and louder…
They rounded the corner of the hallway at a full sprint, Will hot on their heels.
Trouble jumped out of her arms and rushed toward his siblings, leaving Violet to race after the end of his leash.
Last second, she completed a home-plate slide and snagged it, her knees and palms burning as she hit the floor.
Wait, is that a mouse?
The rodent apparently decided her prone form was less threatening than her pursuers and skittered over the top of her.
“Ew, ew, ew.” Violet swatted at her head, failing to repress a shudder.
Nitro and Tank charged right on after the mouse, using Violet’s back and butt as a launchpad.
Will yanked on the leashes, forcing the puppies to stop in their tracks, and squatted to check on her. “Sorry,” he said through labored breaths. “I didn’t see you in time. You okay?”
Her hip bones throbbed, her hands and knees stung, and a mouse had crawled over the top of her. And yet, as she rolled onto her side, a laugh came out instead of the assurance she’d most likely survive.
The dogs were still barking up a storm at the mouse, who’d paused in the hallway, a foot or so from the lobby, as if it weren’t going to bother to flee if the puppies didn’t give chase.
Then it must’ve caught sight of the porcupine, Pyro, and Ford and his broom, because it skidded across the tile and rushed out the open door.
“Pull back, pull back,” Ford yelled as he and Pyro rounded the corner. The push broom had quills sticking out from its bristles, so the makeshift puck had put up quite a fight. Sure enough, its grunted complaints echoed through the lobby. “Dude, it’s for your own good.”
Will clutched the two leashes in his fist and reeled Tank and Nitro away from the mouth of the lobby. They fought their restraints, desperate to go help Pyro as he barked and urged the porcupine toward the door.
Violet reinforced her own grip on Trouble’s leash, but he’d turned his attention to her shoelaces and was ever-so-helpfully biting at the ends and untying them for her.
Once the porcupine spotted freedom, the prickly beast followed its smaller mouse cousin outside, and Ford quickly kicked up the stands and yanked the doors closed behind them.
Violet returned her head to the cool tile floor, wondering if it’d be odd to take a quick nap.
Then again, when in Alabama… Odd seemed to have a new meaning here, as in there might be a variety of woodland creatures roaming the hallways of the school.Speaking of…
