Sara has a plan.

“Wait!” Sara said, “the teacher’s lounge!”

“What? What about it?” Cassie asked.

“Their lounge, where they take their breaks at. A lot of teachers leave their jackets and stuff in their offices but some leave them in the lounge, I’ve seen them.”

“In the late spring?” Christina spoke up.

“Well either we get lucky and find a few jackets in there or we’ll be going from office to office until we each find something to wear. Going office to office would take longer, more chance of being caught.”

“Unless we find nothing in the lounge, then we’re still going office to office,” Cassie said.

“Do you have any better ideas?”

Christina thought for a moment before shaking her head. Cassie was quiet for a long moment before uttering a quick “no.”

Sara creeped up to the wooden door and eased it open, poking her head into the hall and looking both ways before she waved with her arm, signaling everyone to follow her. She disappeared out the door, and Cassie grabbed it and darted out behind her.

Christina clamped her hands over her chest and crotch, caught the door with her shoulder before it closed. Taking a deep breath, she popped into the hallway and started half-jogging alongside her friend and classmate.

The hallways were empty and noiseless, save for the light noise of the three teen’s bare feet treading on the grey tile. Evenly spaced fluorescent lights kept the corridors brightly lit. If anyone came across them, there was nowhere to hide.

Together they turned a corner into another empty hall, and after a few steps all three stopped dead in their tracks. Twenty yards ahead on the left was a classroom, light shining out the open doorway. A soft sound of occasional chatter reached their ears.

Christina felt her face grow hot with embarrassment. They were far too close to being caught nude like this. She glanced at Sara and saw a red settling into her face as well. Cassie’s face was the darkest red, the skin tone creeping down her neck and into the top of her chest, though her face showed an expression more of anger than fear or humiliation.

“Who is that?” Cassie asked.

“I don’t know, the chess club maybe?”

They stood in the hallway a moment before Sara broke for the corridor they had just come from. Christina quickly followed, with Cassie bringing up the rear. Out of the line of sight of the doorway, Sara was clearly thinking hard with a panicked look on her face.

“If the door was closed we wouldn’t have an issue but the lounge is just down the hall. There’s another way there but that’s three more hallways with some backtracking. There’s bound to be another club in session down at least one of them.”

“So what the hell do we do?” Cassie demanded.

Christina spoke up, “chess takes a lot of concentration, right?”

“What’s your point?”

“Maybe everyone will be too focused on their game to notice if we sneak past. Maybe better if we cross the doorway one by one.”

“No way. If someone catches something out of the corner of their eye they’ll be looking when the rest of us cross. We should take the far way around.”

“I think we should,” Sara said. “We heard them talking, they’re not that fixated on things.”

The trio crossed the hall they had just abandoned, heading further away from the lounge instead of towards it. They were halfway to the next hall when they started hearing voices, at least two girls talking.

Cassie pivoted on her heel and started heading back, “they’re getting closer, let’s go!”

The three girls quickly jogged back to the hallway they had passed moments ago and rounded the corner. They stood silent for a moment before realizing the voices were coming closer still.

“Okay, side of the hall furthest away from the door,” Cassie said, stepping that direction. “Walk side by side, walk quick but not running.”

“What?” Christina asked, “we’re going to cross the doorway?”

“We’ll only be in view for less than a second, if we run it’ll draw more attention. Someone might notice something from the corner of the eye but we’ll be past and they won’t be able to tell that we’re naked out here.”

“Are you nuts?”

“Either this or we’re about to make some new friends we don’t want to make!”

Sara stepped next to Cassie, clearly on board with the plan. Christina felt herself start to tremble in fear but moved in aside Sara. Cassie would be the one nearest the door. Since this was her terrible idea Christina could live with that.

As they neared the door they slowed from a jog to a brisk walk. Christina kept her hands firmly in place, but noticed Cassie start moving her arms again. She might have thought a normal looking walk would draw less attention than a modesty-covering stride, Christina couldn’t tell. She knew she wasn’t moving her hands, and being furthest away from the door she would barely be in view anyway.

The approaching voices behind them didn’t seem to be getting louder or quieter. Christina felt this likely meant they were keeping the same pace as the oncoming teens.

Without a hitch in their stride the three girls walked past the doorway. Christina held her breath in apprehension, not slowing down but fighting the urge to start sprinting. Her ears strained for any sounds coming from the room that might indicate their detection, but nothing came. No laughs, no shouts, no chairs suddenly scooting back as someone stood up.

In full view for less than a second.

“Restroom!” Sara hissed, pointing at a door up ahead. The ladies finally broke pace and sprinted as quietly as they could manage. Sara barged into the restroom first, followed by Cassie and Christina. Christina spun around and shoved the door closed, easing the pressure at the last second to avoid creating a loud slamming noise. She then pressed her hear against the door and listened carefully.

The two girls sounded like they may have turned into the hallway, still chatting, still getting slightly louder. Cassie dropped to the ground to listen to the crack between the door and the tile ground. Christina couldn’t stomach the idea of laying on the floor of a public restroom, it seemed like a breeding ground for germs. But she knew better than to bring it up.

“Pretty sure they’re gone,” Cassie said.

“They didn’t pass us.”

“No, I think they went into that classroom.”

Everyone was silent for another minute, listening for any sign that the coast wasn’t clear. After hearing no noise Cassie stood up.

“Teacher’s lounge is just a few doors down,” Sara said.

Cassie motioned Christina to step back from the door, and eased it open slightly so she could peek out through a crack. After a short moment she opened the door wider and slid her head out, looking both ways.

“Let’s go,” she said.

The other girls followed her out, back into the hallway. They set back into their hand-covered semi-jog for a few moments before they reached the door to the teacher’s lounge. Sara reached the door first, opened it, and everyone dashed inside.