The chaotic mass of students poured out of the faculty building’s double doors like a tidal wave, spilling onto the damp lawn outside.
The cool morning air hit the crowd, immediately turning the drenched, shivering students into a collective, chattering mess.
Faculty members ran back and forth with clipboards, shouting over the blaring alarms, while hundreds of people stood around in circles, pointing back at the building and whispering frantically about what had just triggered the sudden evacuation.
Keegan and Kira finally burst through the exit, running hard and panting for air as they reached the edge of the massive crowd.
They staggered to a halt near the concrete plaza.
Kira’s long braids were heavy and dripping wet against her shoulders, her uniform completely ruined by the downpour.
Keegan wasn’t in any better shape—the water from the sprinklers had turned the mud on his shirt into a watery, gray smear across his chest.
Both of them were gasping, trying to catch their breath.
As they pushed their way through the throng of shivering students and panicked teachers, they suddenly bumped right into Jace.
Keegan stopped dead in his tracks, blinking through the water dripping from his eyelashes.
He looked Jace up and down, his eyes widening in disbelief.
Jace wasn’t wet at all.
Not a single drop of water had touched his clothes; his shirt was pristine, his hair perfectly styled, and he looked like he was just enjoying a casual morning stroll.
Keegan let out a ragged, disbelieving breath.
“Dude…
how the hell are you completely dry when all of us are drenched like we were swimming in a pool?” Jace let out a low chuckle, crossing his arms as an amused smile played on his lips.
“Well…
it’s kind of a long funny story.”
Kira turned to Keegan, her chest still heaving from the sprint.
The adrenaline was finally leaving her body, and the terror of what had almost happened inside that classroom rushed back into her eyes.
She looked at him, her face filled with genuine guilt.
“Keegan…
I’m really sorry.
Truly, truly sorry.
I almost got us both suspended back there because of my stupid idea to save your seat.
If the Professor reports this—”
“Hey, hey, stop.
Don’t be sorry,” Keegan interrupted gently, holding up a hand to cut her off.
He glanced back at the faculty building, where the fire alarm was still shrieking, though no smoke was visible anywhere near the windows.
A strange realization began to dawn on him.
“For some reason…
I feel like there wasn’t really a fire.
It all sounds way too much like—”
“—like it has Ashton’s name written all over it,” Jace finished smoothly, stepping closer to them with a knowing, highly entertained look on his face.
Right on cue, a familiar figure sauntered out from around the corner of the building, completely bypassing the panicked evacuees.
Ashton joined the group, a massive, incredibly smug grin stretched across his face.
He looked entirely too satisfied with himself, his hands shoved into his pockets as he casually leaned into their circle, completely ignoring the fact that half the campus was currently screaming in panic.
“Personally,” Ashton said, his voice dripping with mock casualness as his hazel eyes locked onto Keegan’s wet form, “I think we should probably step away from the campus for a little while.
Ya know…
while the ‘Firefighters are busy sorting everything out’ inside.'”
Keegan slowly crossed his arms over his wet chest, narrowing his eyes as he stared at his best friend.
The pieces of the puzzle clicked together instantly—the perfectly timed alarm, the extreme sprinkler reaction, and the fact that his exam paper was now literal paper mache.
“There wasn’t really a fire, was there?” Keegan demanded, his voice dropping into a flat, accusing line.
Ashton didn’t deny it.
He just let out a quiet, wicked laugh, his eyes flashing with reckless amusement as he turned on his heel toward the parking lot.
“Let’s go team,” Ashton smirked.
He led the way through the a secret door inside the campus hockey arena, the distant wail of the fire alarms and the shouting crowds finally fading into a dull echo.
They stepped into the indoor hockey rink, where the air was crisp and smelled sharply of ice and rubber.
The massive arena was completely empty, the overhead lights turned down low, casting long shadows across the glassy surface of the rink.
Ashton walked over to the home team’s bench and threw himself down, stretching his arms out across the plexiglass backrest with a completely relaxed sigh.
Kira and Keegan stood in front of him, their wet clothes dripping puddles onto the wooden floor.
Keegan stepped up the closest, his mud-smeared chest heaving as he crossed his arms tightly.
Start spilling.
What the hell did you do?” Ashton’s grin widened, his hazel eyes gleaming with reckless amusement as he glanced over at Jace.
Flashback to a few minutes ago
⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯
Thirty minutes earlier, the situation had looked entirely different.
Right after Keegan had bolted out of the passenger side to run for his exam, Ashton swerved the car into the Student parking space and cut the engine.
Needing a quick smoke to clear his head after the chaotic, valley-road drive, he strolled around to the blind spot behind one of the campus building.
Two of his close friends from his department and also part of the Hockey Team Marcus and Reid, were already leaning against the brick wall, casually smoking done cigarettes.
“Yo, Ashton!” Marcus had called out.
“Dude, you looked absolutely insane out on the ice at last night’s game.
Like always, honestly.
You and Sterling completely crushed the it.”
“Yeah, man,” Reid agreed, nodding as he took a sip from a sports drink.
“You guys were unstoppable, of course I have to compliment myself as well.”
Ashton leaned back against the wall, striking a lighter to spark up a cigarette.
“Appreciate it, boys.
We just had to show them how it’s—” Before he could finish his sentence, A figure came rushing, it was Jace sprinting toward them, his face flushed and his chest heaving violently as he practically threw his weight against Ashton’s shoulder for support, panting like a marathon runner.
Ashton immediately dropped the cigarette, stamping it out beneath his shoe as his eyebrows shot up.
“What the hell?
Jace, why the hell are you running like that?” Jace took a massive gulp of air, pointing a finger at him.
“First of all…
I thought you promised Keegan you quit smoking.”
Ashton just gave him a flat, unamused look.
“Not what I asked Jace?”
“Well Kira is currently taking Keegan’s exam!” Jace blurted out, his voice tight with panic.
“Well, no—she’s actually just seated at his desk.
We were both originally inside Keegs’ classroom waiting for him so we’d wish him luck.
But when it was time to start writing, Keegs wasn’t there.
Kira knew that if the doors closed, the after 20 minutes rule would lock him out and he’d get a complete fail.
So she insisted on staying in his seat to wait for him so it would look like he was actually there for the exam.”
Jace wiped his forehead, his eyes wide.
“But I knew it wasn’t going to be easy.
If everything goes wrong and they get caught, they’re both in deep shit.
They could get suspended—or even worse—!
expelled!”
The relaxed, cocky expression instantly vanished from Ashton’s face.
His jaw set, his eyes turning dead serious as he looked over at Jace then at his friends.
“They’ll definitely get in trouble if we don’t do something,” Ashton ordered, his voice sharp and commanding.
“You two call Captain Chen.
Since he’s the head of that major fire department division in Johannesburg—he has massive connections with my dad, and he owes me a personal favor.
Tell him we need an a few firefighters dispatched to our campus, Now.”
Ashton then snapped his gaze back to Jace, grabbing him by the arm.
“You come with me.” The two of them bolted, slipping through the basement entrance of the main university facility building.
They sprinted down the concrete corridors until they reached the restricted section—the university’s master utility and mechanical control room.
If a fire alarm was triggered in this specific junction, it would automatically trip the emergency sensors for the entire campus.
Ashton looked up at the ceiling.
The main heat-induction sensor was fixed high up on the concrete joists, well out of normal reach.
“Get over here,” Ashton told Jace, pointing at the space directly beneath the sensor.
“I need to get on your shoulders.
You’re much taller than me.” Jace didn’t waste time asking questions.
He quickly unbuttoned and stripped off his white university shirt, tossing it safely onto a clean control panel so it wouldn’t get dirty.
Ashton hauled himself up, placing his sneakers squarely onto Jace’s broad shoulders and standing up completely until his head was nearly touching the ceiling panels.
“Dude, whatever plan this is, I seriously hope it saves Kira and Keegs,” Jace muttered, his neck straining under the sudden weight of the hockey player.
“Just shut it and don’t drop me,” Ashton replied through gritted teeth.
He reached into his pocket, pulled out his lighter, and sparked a fresh cigarette.
Instead of smoking it, he held the glowing, intense heat directly against the tiny glass liquid bulb inside the ceiling’s heat sensor.
A few agonizing minutes passed in the quiet room.
“Ash, will you hurry it up?” Jace complained, his legs starting to shake slightly.
“You know you’re heavy as hell, man.” Ashton was just about to strike the lighter again when a loud, mechanical hiss echoed through the pipes.
BEEP!
BEEP!
BEEP!
The master control panel on the wall violently erupted into life.
The high-pitched, deafening wail of the campus fire alarm shook the small room.
But because this specific room was a dry electrical utility zone, there wasn’t a single drop of water sprinkling down on them.
They were completely safe from the deluge.
Jace looked through the reinforced glass window of the utility door, watching the courtyard.
Through the adjacent faculty windows, he could see the department rooms descending into absolute chaos, with hundreds of students panicking and heading out into their rooms, completely drenched from head to toe.
Jace let out a loud, ecstatic laugh.
“Wow, man.
What a fucking great idea!” He carefully lowered Ashton back down to the floor.
Ashton didn’t celebrate just yet.
His phone buzzed violently in his
Pocket—it was Marcus calling from the quad.
“Dude, the fire truck just rolled through the gates,” Marcus reported over the line.
“Captain Chen’s guys are on the scene.”
“Good,” Ashton barked into the phone.
“Tell two or three of the firefighters to head directly to the Art History classroom hall.
Tell them to evacuate everyone immediately.
But before they leave the room, they need to make sure they light a trash can or a stack of papers inside the adjacent storage closet on fire, and then put it out immediately with their extinguishers.
It needs to look like there actually was a real, localized fire at least anywhere inside the buildings so the school doesn’t suspect a false alarm.”
Ashton adjusted his collar, a dangerous smile returning to his face.
“And tell them to make absolutely sure that every single Art History examination paper in that room or anywnere else in the lecturers offices is completely destroyed by the water.
Not a single page can be salvageable.”
He hung up the phone and turned to Jace, who was already putting his white uniform shirt back on.
“Jace, you’re a tech major,” Ashton said, gesturing toward the main security terminal across the hall.
“Immediately wipe the security camera footage for this everything here.
Make sure there is absolutely zero evidence that we were ever near this utility room today or what the firemen will be doing.”
Jace smirked, pulling out his phone and linking it to the University’s Security room.
“Consider it gone.”
End Of Flashback
⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯
Back in the present, the cool silence of the empty hockey arena stretched between them.
Kira stood completely frozen, her jaw slightly open as the full realization of what Ashton and Jace had pulled off settled in.
Keegan slowly lowered his hands from his chest, his eyes fixed entirely on his best friend.
The sheer audacity of the plan—using fire department connections, staging a literal fire, and wiping university server data just to save Kira and Keegan from trouble —was completely insane.
“You are a literal psychopath, You know that” Keegan whispered, though the corner of his mouth twitched with a faint, reluctant trace of relief.
Ashton didn’t even blink.
He just leaned back further on the team bench, his trademark, reckless smirk cutting through the shadows of the arena.
“I’m a visionary, blue-line,” Ashton corrected smoothly, flashing a wink.
“Now, let’s get out of here before the People become suspicious.”