We left the classroom and began checking to see which lockers were left unlocked. Just like back home, some people didn't bother with locks. Alas, they also didn't have anything besides messy papers stuffed inside the lockers.

"Too bad we can't get into the teacher's lounge," Isla lamented.

Arai rolled his eyes. "Why didn't you just say you wanted the door open?"

He swung his chainsaw around.

"Stop, that will create too much noise if they are listening," I warned him.

He frowned but lowered his weapon.

I turned to examine the door and the rather large keyhole. Narrowing my eyes, I reached up to my hair and pulled out my hairpin. Surely lockpicking wasn't that hard, right?

I wiggled the pin around inside the hole and was rewarded with a click. With a huge smile, I opened the door and eagerly went in as I put my hairpin back in my hair.

A coat rack in one corner held several coats. Bingo.

Isla and I easily picked out two for ourselves, although the guys were having a lot more difficulties. Only a couple of the coats would even fit – and none would button up. None of the gears on these coats turned, but at least they had gears and buttons. We wouldn't look so strange now.

"It'll have to do," Isla finally said. "At least now we have coats with some gears and buttons. There aren't too many, so we won't look like anyone important."

"I wonder what the Principal's coat would look like," Arai murmured thoughtfully.

"Drop that thought," I told him. "We still haven't figured out how to hide those chainsaws of yours."

"Could we find something in the leatherworking room?" Corvus asked from behind us.

"Huh?" I turned around to see him examining a map of the school pinned to the wall.

Since when did guys proactively read maps and look for directions? Was this phenomenon only found on or around Mars?

Isla went over and peered at the map. "Good catch! I didn't see this. Oh, the room is even along our path!"

"Let's go," I said, heading towards the door, with my new coat covering my cloak. It pressed the axe into my back uncomfortably, but it was better than standing out like we had been.

It was terrible to have to conform to society's expectations just to walk down a street. The teenagers here clearly didn't test their boundaries enough.

I let Isla lead, trusting her sense of direction more than my own.

We came to a doorway, and I groaned when I saw the sign on it. 'Closed for renovations.' It wasn't locked, so we opened the door, but the room was completely gutted. I was almost surprised to see that the wall joists were wood.

"Well, we can keep checking lockers, I suppose..." I trailed off, still gazing at the empty room.

I tensed up as I heard a door close. Someone else was in this place. Distant voices floated down the hallway.

"That room is clear. Let's keep searching. They have to be in here somewhere."

"Victor better not have exaggerated. I was having quite a lovely discussion with Evelyn."

"If we don't find anything, I will be most upset at having to leave the Tea Gala. Almost everyone is there! And it's almost teatime!"

Isla nudged my arm and jerked her chin toward the hallway. I nodded and quickly followed her lead. The four of us moved as fast as we could without making noise, putting more distance between us and what sounded like more tea-loving fashion critics with a grudge against weapons.

After several twists and turns, Isla stopped and looked out a window.

"This is about as close as we can get without leaving this building," she said.

Despite looking as hard as I could, I didn't see a single person on the narrow street. Which was strange.

"I really don't want to just go out there with the chainsaws uncovered." I glanced at the chainsaws pointedly.

"Our cloaks only reach from our shoulders to our waist – they aren't long enough to cover them. We could try-" Isla cut off, tilting her head and listening intently.

Voices were coming from the hallway ahead of us. We were trapped.

For the love of bubbles. How could such disorganized, gear-loving, brass-fixated, tea-obsessed people make life so complicated for teenagers who were just trying to sneak around undetected?

Isla slid the window open and jumped out to the cobblestones below. Arai passed her the chainsaw before squeezing through and reclaiming it.

"You first," Corvus told me.

"Thanks." I quickly jumped out, my past cheerleading practices keeping me from even stumbling.

Arai took Corvus' chainsaw while he tried to squeeze through the window that suddenly looked like it had shrunk. Corvus basically somersaulted onto the ground before staggering to his feet. He took the chainsaw, and we were ready to flee once more.

As one, we all began jogging down the street, alert for anything that might appear.