Finals: The Dolbin School Book 4
I am serializing my next book here first before it is available anywhere else. Previous chapter links available at the bottom of the post.
Chapter 23 Final Night
“Go long!”
Mark took off running at full speed. Jake threw the Dolbin ball in a high tight spiral. The white oblong ball soared into the sky, and came back down to earth in a clean arch. Mark caught the ball over his shoulder and at full sprint.
“Yes!” Mark put his hands up and spiked the ball on the ground. Jake clapped from several hundred feet away. Mark picked the ball up and sprinted back to Jake and handed the ball back to Jake.
“Nice catch,” said Jake.
“One more year and we can play Dolbin Ball,” said Bruce clapping his hands and smiling. He and Red walked down the hill towards the boys.
“I heard in fifth grade Banner at least teaches the basics of the game,” Jake replied. He handed the ball to Bruce.
Bruce nodded his head to Mark, “Go long!” Mark took a deep breath and bolted. His arms and legs blurred as he ran.
Bruce threw the ball like a bullet—straight and fast. Mark glanced behind and leaned to his right to keep from getting hit by the ball. He put his hands out over his left shoulder and caught the ball over his left shoulder. He raised the ball in the air with pride. His face lit up. He slowed his running, turned left, and jogged back to Jake and Bruce. Henry and Cal were standing with them.
“Nice catch! That ball almost knocked you to the ground,” Cal yelled to Mark, who was now a hundred and fifty feet away. Mark ran back.
Henry jumped up and down, getting his legs warmed up and ready. “Let’s do this. Both of us.” Henry waved two fingers in front of his chest, “Me and you. Bruce can throw it.”
“I am totally cool with beating you. Are you okay with that?” Mark replied.
Bruce shrugged his shoulder and smile, “Okay, fine by me. Where do you want me to throw it?”
Henry pointed to the other end of the Quad, “Just throw it as far as you can, and we will see who can get it first.”
Bruce grinned from ear to ear, “That sounds like a lot of fun to me.” He stood up tall and held the ball with both hands, close to his chest. “Hike!”
Mark and Henry sprinted towards the far end of The Quad. Their feet and hands blurred as they ran. Bruce took a few steps backwards. He held threw the ball as hard as he could. The ball traveled in a perfect spiral and arch as it speeded towards the two sprinting runners. Henry and Mark’s face lit up with the sheer joy of racing each other. Looking over their shoulders they saw the ball.
As they kept their eyes on the ball, they looked ahead to make sure they wouldn’t hit the building or anyone in front of them. Henry and Mark elbowed each other as they flew across the Quad. Students and boulders blurred by them as they looked for the ball.
Both boys jumped. Four hands reached for the ball. But no hands managed hold the ball. Both boys fell to the ground. Mark skidded with his face on the ground. Henry tumbled end over end. He landed square on his back.
Finally, after skidding for several feet Mark stood up, his glasses askew. A red scratch stretched down the right-side of Mark’s face. He wiped the dirt from his hair.
“Well…at least I didn’t break my leg this time.”
Henry laid on his back and moaned. Mark walked over to check on Henry. Mark put his hand out, “How are you feeling? Do we need to make a trip to the medical building?”
Henry rolled back over and pushed himself up off the ground. He cracked his neck and deep a couple of deep knee bends to check out his body. “Nope. I’m good.”
“Hey! Is this your ball?” shouted a tall kid, who looked to be in high school.
“Yeah! Thanks!” replied Mark. The high schooler threw it back.
“If we were on the Dolbin field I would have caught that,” explained Henry.
“If saying it makes you feel better about yourself, then go ahead and say it,” Mark replied and he turned around began walking back to Bruce.
Henry stayed still.
Mark took a few steps and realizing that Henry was not with him, he turned around.
“What’s wrong?”
A smile came across Henry’s face. “We should do this on the Dolbin field.” He emphasized the word—should.
Mark waved his hands around, “How are we going to do that? We can’t get in there. People will see us.”
“You’re thinking small. First, we don’t do it in daylight. And second where is your sense of fun and adventure? The school is over. What are they going to do?”
Jake stood with his mouth open, trying to find the words. I’m going to suggest it to the guys. Henry disappeared as he sprinted to the other end of the Quad.
Mark shook his head and sprinted to the boys to make sure he didn’t miss anymore of the conversation.
“I am totally cool with this,” smiled Cal. “I’ve always wanted to break-in to something like this.”
“Wait a minute. Wouldn’t they have protected it against your skill?” wondered Jake.
“We’ll never know until we try,” Cal replied. His smile bright.
A few hours later after dinner, the boys gathered around in a circle in Jake and Mark’s room.
Henry had his tablet on the floor. A hologram map of Dolbin floated above the floor.
He pointed to different corners of buildings. “There are cameras here, here, and here.” They lit up in yellow as he touched them in the hologram. “So I figure we’ll need to go out the back of Craven hall and crawl against the girls’ dorm.” He dragged his finger through the hologram. A red line appeared where his finger traveled.
“What about the girls looking out their windows? How are we going to be kept from being seen by them?” Jake asked.
“That’s part of the reason why we have black clothes in the bags,” replied Henry.
“I get the idea behind the black clothes.” Jake retorted. “But if they hear one of us…”
“Then don’t make a noise.”
“Thanks Henry, for that obvious piece of information.”
Red interrupted, “Seriously, can you two leave it alone. Jake if you don’t want to go with us. Then don’t go.”
Jake rolled his eyes, “Yes, I’m going!”
Henry got back to his hologram. “We’ll need to enter on the right side of the stadium, closest to us.” The area lit up in yellow. “We got it?”
Bruce smiled, “Let’s get into trouble!”
Henry put his hand up, “Wait one more thing.” He pulled out a black box out his bag and put it next to his tablet. He opened it up. Inside were several small objects, they looked like tiny hot dogs. “Put these in your ears.” He instructed the boys. They each took one and put it in their ears.
“It’s like we’re spies,” smiled Jake.
“They’ll help us communicate quietly, without having to speak very loudly. Watch.”
Henry put his finger to his and whispered, “Three blind mice, three blind mice.”
“Why are you giving us a nursery rhyme?” Red asked.
Henry rolled his eyes, “It was the first thing that popped into my head. The point is tha you could hear me whisper, but you’ll notice that it doesn’t all of a sudden get louder when I am speaking at a normal tone of voice.” He began to raise his voice, “Nor does it give feedback as I get louder!”
“NO! But you’re still loud!” Cal covered his ears and threw a pencil at Henry.
Henry dodged the pencil. “Sorry. But we do we know what to do?”
Bruce clapped. “Yes! Let’s go get into trouble!” His grin lit up his face.
They left and walked into the common room. Kevin was watching TV.
“Where are you all going?” he asked.
“Out. Does it matter where we are going?” Henry replied.
Kevin looked the group over. For a moment, the only sound in the room was the sound from the television.
“Curfew is eleven tonight,” and with that Kevin turned back to watching television.
The boys walked quickly to the elevator and stepped in. “I thought for a moment he wasn’t going to let us go,” said Jake.
“I didn’t know that curfew was later tonight. That’s cool,” Mark said, grinning.
The elevator stopped on the ground floor. “Ground floor,” stated the female electronic voice. “Have a good evening gentlemen.” The elevator doors opened and they walked out it. They took a right and headed behind Craven hall. They opened up their back packs and pulled their dark clothes and pulled hoodies and pants over their clothes.
Henry put his finger to his ear and whispered. “Can everyone hear me? Just put your thumb up.”
The boys put their fingers to their ears, nodded their heads and gave the thumbs up sign.
Henry crouched and walked underneath the windows of the lower floor of Craven Hall. The boys followed.
They reached the end of Craven Hall. Henry look around. He placed his tablet on the ground. On his tablet showed a map of Craven Hall. It showed Henry and the boys crouching behind him. He could see several red dots running around on The Quad. But he saw no other red dots that were near the corner of the building. So he took off running, still in a crouched position.
“Remember, most of us don’t run as fast as you do.” Jake whispered.
“I’m not sprinting,” Henry whispered back.
The darkness covered them well. The lights from the street lamps near the Quad did not reach to the area behind the buildings. As Henry reach the back of Holdren Hall, a girls’ dorm, he got down on his stomach and began to crawl. Because of the slope of the hill, the windows were closer to the ground.
The back of the dorm was a hundred feet long.
“Who’s idea was this?” Red whispered.
“Henry’s. It was Henry’s,” replied Mark.
“When we get inside the Dolbin Stadium, you will thank me,” Henry spoke quietly as he crawled on the ground.
They crawled slowly for only five minutes. But it seemed like hours to the boys. They reached the end of Holdren Hall. Henry put his tablet in from of him and checked for people, red dots on his tablet. There were no red dots near the outside of the dorm.
“There is no one near us. Scoot yourself past this last window and then head for the group of trees over there to the right,” Henry motioned with his hand where he wanted everyone to go. Henry scooted a few more feet, stood up and he headed for the trees. The boys followed one by one standing up and running off as they reached the end of the dorm.
Henry waited among the trees for the other boys. Red was the last the join them. He messaged his elbows and forearms as stood with the boys.
“Okay, I’m sore now,” complained Red.
“You’ll be alright,” said Bruce and he patted him on the back.
“Quiet!” Henry hushed them. He held up his tablet. A hologram of the stadium appeared above the tablet. The boys circled around and inspected the holographic map.
Whispering, Henry gave out the instructions, “This is the entrance that Cal is going to get us into, it’s more than just a lock.”
“I know. It has a hand scanner, and then a place for a person put their key,” Cal replied.
Henry looked once last time at the hologram in front of him. He saw no red dots moving near them. “It’s clear. Let’s go!”
They took off, crouching as they moved. Henry got to the door first, with Cal right behind him. The remaining boys caught up and pressed themselves up against the wall. The wall stood between them and the main campus off in the distance.
Cal took his black gloves off. He rubbed his hands together, faster and faster he rubbed them. Sparks began to fly from his hands. He snapped his fingers several times. More sparks appeared from his finger tips and fell to the ground. After a few moments he stopped snapping and he stepped forward to the hand scanner and placed his hand on it. The scanner made a noise as it turned on.
Jake looked behind him into the darkness. He saw no one coming.
The scanner sent a blue line up and down Cal’s hand and then buzzed. The scanner turned red, then yellow, and finally green. Cal snapped his fingers several more times and then he placed his index finger into the keyhole. The door slid open.
The boys walked in. A few lights were lit around the stadium. The stadium gave a warm-yellow glow all around the field.
“Yes!” Bruce began jumping up and down and he ran around in circles on the field. He even did a summersault. Bruce ran back to his bag. He unzipped it, reached in and pulled out Dolbin ball. “Henry go deep!” Bruce could hold back his smile.
Henry sprinted in straight line at his full speed. “Go Henry!” shouted Jake.
Bruce held onto the ball and wait for just the perfect moment, and he let the ball fly. It launched, a rocket heading out the atmosphere.
“Woooo!” shout the boys. Henry’s hair blew behind him. The lights zipped past. The ball hit the top of its arch and then it began to come down--spiraling, perfectly thrown. Henry followed it over his left shoulder. He put his arms out and he grasped the ball like an egg, and gently pulled the ball into his chest. “Yes!” he shouted.
The boys, on the other end of the field, put their hands into the air and cheered. Bruce jumped up and down on the balls of his feet. “Woo! Woo! Woo!” he shouted. Jumping up and down like a pogo stick.
Henry bolted back to the other end of the field, where the boys continued to celebrate. He handed the ball to Jake. “You give it a try.”
Jake looked at his friends around his. “Everyone goes deep. Hike!” The boys took off. All in different directions. Jake waited for Mark and Henry to out run the others. And he threw towards Mark. Mark and Henry tracked the ball as they sprinted. Henry realized the ball was headed towards Mark, he scooted over and put his hand in Mark’s vision. Mark smiled, he put his hands above his head and he let the ball drop into his hands. “Got it!” he shouted.
“Yes!” Jake pumped his fist and smiled.
The boys started jogging back to Jake. “I do wish we could turn the field on,” said Bruce. He knelt down and felt the covering of the field. The field felt like rubber, but it had some give underneath his fingertips. “Do you think you can do it?”
“Don’t even look at me. There is no way I am short circuiting this field,” said Cal.
“It would be something to see,” said Henry.
“But we would need more lights. And we certainly can’t turn on all the lights for obvious reasons,” Jake motioned at the lights at the top of the stadium.
“We also don’t have proper Dolbin uniforms. I don’t know about your but I don’t want to be running into Bruce or any wall without any added protection. I don’t want a concussion from this evening,” said Henry.
“That is why we don’t allow Dolbin on the field without faculty.” The voice was deep and authoritative and cast a spell over the evening.
Jake saw that everyone else looked scared and they stared past Jake. Jake felt his stomach drop to his knees. He slowly turned around and saw Principal Glover standing with his full six-foot-eight-inch frame, dress in a dress shirt and tie.
“I can see that you gentlemen have been enjoying the end of Finals. But it is now time to collect your things and come with me.” He motioned with his left for the boys to walk in front of him. They complied without saying a word.
Jake felt like he was going to vomit all over the Dolbin field. But something told him that would not help his situation.
Thank you following along
It is still in the formatting stage at the moment. I have serialized the other three books here on Steemit in the past year. Here are the first chapters from where I serialized each book.
Dolbin School for the Extraordinary
You can click here to see them on Amazon.And Now this book is available for preorder on Amazon.
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Hope you follow along! Click here for Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5, Chapter 6, Chapter 7, Chapter 8, Chapter 9, Chapter 10, Chapter 11, Chapter 12, Chapter 13, Chapter 14, Chapter 15, Chapter 16, Chapter 17, Chapter 18, Chapter 19, Chapter 20, Chapter 21, Chapter 22