Lizzie's bottomless brain

“I’ve got a plan,” My friend Lizzie said. “That’s never a good sign,” I replied. She rolled her eyes. We were five minutes away from the second bell. Yesterday morning, Lizzie came up to me frantically screaming about how she had to break into the Library of Congress. Believe it or not, this isn’t the craziest thing that Lizzie has ever done or wanted to do. I kept asking her why, and she kept saying she couldn’t tell me. She never does. I just always go with it. “First, we have to go at night, because that’s when no one will be there.” I looked down at my notebook and resumed my doodling, but still listening. “Then, we need to try to play some sort of alarm, that’s really loud. So security thinks someone is breaking in.” I looked up. “That’s insane,” I said. “Where are we going to play a recording so loud? Our phone's volume doesn’t go up higher than ten!” Lizzie sighed. “We’re still going to need to work on that one.” I looked back down at my paper. I had successfully doodled four demonic faces. I’m a terrible artist. “Following this alarm sound, security will probably run into and around the building to see what’s going on.” She paused to take a breath. “Then, assuming they have water bottles, we’ll swap out their water bottles with ones that have sleeping powder in them,” I interrupted her. “Sleeping powder?” She nodded. “Yes, it’s a thing. I researched it. Anyways, we switch out their water bottles, and then the guards will hopefully fall asleep from drinking it. Following that, we’ll get into the building and locate the map. My da-” She paused. For a split second, I saw nothing on her face except horror. Then, she calmly continued. “I mean I’ve been there so I know where it is. It won’t take us too long to find it. Then, we’ll break open the case around the painting with a laser knife, and-” “LASER KNIFE? WHERE IN HELL DID YOU GET A LASER KNIFE?” I shouldn’t have been surprised. Lizzie has strange things. “That’s not important. Anyways where was I? Oh, yes. So we’ll break the case by cutting it with a laser knife-” “Why can’t we just smash the glass?” I asked. “The guards will hear that, dummy!” Oh yeah, I thought. It had never occurred to me that we would have to be very quiet. “Anyways, so after that we’ll steal the map, and replace it with a fake replica. I’ve got one. Then, we’ll leave.” I processed this for a few seconds. “Okay, but what about the glass? It’ll be all over the floor. It’ll be obvious someone broke in.” Lizzie stared at me. “We’ll bring a broom and a bag,” she decided. “But people will still see that the case in front of the map is broken,” I challenged. “But they’ll have no proof it was us,” Lizzie said, smiling. And that was how I found myself climbing out of my window, at approximately three twenty-seven AM. Lizzie was standing below the window, gleaming at me. I hopped out and fell to the ground. I had done this many times before. I was used to it. Lizzie was wearing all black. I was wearing all black too, but I didn’t have any black shoes, so I was wearing my dark blue Vans. Lizzie made sure to point this out several times in a frustrated tone. We walked out to the front of my house, where there was a car. “Lizzie, who is that?” It never occurred to me how we would be getting there. I’m not sure why it didn’t, but it definitely should’ve. “Don’t worry about it. That’s Sven. He’s trustworthy.” I didn’t ask why she knew this weird man, or who he was. I already knew she wouldn’t tell me. As we approached the car, the weird man nodded toward us. I was starting to feel very nervous. Lizzie opened the door and went inside. Hesitantly, I went in after her. We drove for about an hour and arrived there at around four thirty AM. Nobody said a word the whole way there. Lizzie leads the way toward the front door. As she predicted, security was standing at the front. Two men, in blue outfits with walkie-talkies attached to their belts. Thankfully, they had water bottles sitting right next to them. We did behind two trees, and then Lizzie stuck her hand in her bag and pulled out a megaphone. I opened up my phone to the youtube video that was going to play our alarm sound and waited for the go. She moved the megaphone closer to the speakers on my phone and nodded to me, and I pressed play. The alarm sound blared through the megaphone. It was so loud, I wanted to cover my ears. But I only had one empty hand, so I could only cover one ear. The two men ran in the direction of the trees we were standing in, so we bolted. We ran to a different group of trees. Once the men were out of sight, we ran over to the front of the building and swapped their water bottles with the sleeping powder. We then ran back behind the trees and stuck their regular water bottles in our bags. We waited until the men came back, out of breath. We watched them sip their water and wipe their foreheads. One of the men sat down on the ground. The other leaned against the wall. They were clearly getting tired. It took about half an hour for them to finally fall asleep. Lizzie lead the way and headed toward their pockets. She very carefully picked the keys out of one of the man’s pockets and stepped towards the door, but not before she glanced at me with a smile. She carefully unlocked the door and the two of us crept in, stepping over the bodies on the floor. As we crept in, we made sure not to close the door because it would make noise. We walked in and Lizzie pulled a map of the Library of Congress out of her pocket. I didn’t ask why she had that. She wouldn’t have told me. She pointed to a spot on the piece of paper. “There it is,” She said. Then she started walking, and I just mindlessly followed her. It only took a few minutes to find the map on the wall. As Lizzie predicted, it was covered with a glass case. Lizzie handed me her bag so she could take the laser knife out. I gazed at it, shocked that Lizzie really had a laser knife lying around in her bag. “Are you sure you know what you’re doing?” I asked her. She just grinned. She carefully started cutting around the edges of the glass. I collected the glass as it fell off and put it in Lizzie’s bag. Once she finished, we just stood there. Staring at it. “We did it,” She whispered. “Yes,” I agreed. “I’m a little concerned about how surprised you are.” “Not surprised,” She said. “Just excited.” She lifted her hand and pulled the map off the wall. It was stuck to the wall, which we weren’t prepared for, but luckily we could use the laser knife to cut the strong adhesive off from behind the map without accidentally cutting the map itself. As Lizzie cut the adhesive, I held the map. As Lizzie finished, she put the knife back in her bag and I handed her the map. I took out the fake copy that for some unknown reason Lizzie had, and I carefully place it on the wall right where the real map had been. It stuck because there was still adhesive on the wall. Lizzie carried the map really carefully and I carried her bag as we walked back towards the door careful not to make a sound when all of the sudden the light turned on. I jumped, dropping the bag onto the floor. I glanced at Lizzie, who looked absolutely petrified, but was still holding the map. A man in a police uniform was standing there, a woman in the same uniform next to him. This was it. We’re dead. “I’m Officer Gordan, this is Officer Pelt. Do you mind explaining to us what you think you’re doing?” I gulped. Unable to say anything. Lizzie managed to get a few words out. “We’re- We’re- I’m the child of the janitor here, and he asked us to uh- dust the stuff in here.” The male officer looked unconvinced, but the female officer spoke. “I see. Who is your father?” Lizzie gulped. “Uh- Al- Alen Phelps.” She nodded to me and asked, “He's your father too?” I shook my head. Officer Pelt wrote something down on a notepad. “And why would dusting the items in this room involve you taking out the Waldemuller Map at five in the morning?” Lizzie didn’t say anything. Neither did I. “Now listen young ladies, there very well could be an Alen Phelps who works here as a janitor, and you very well could be his kid and her friend doing this job at his orders. I want you two to know that I could go and find out if Alen Phelps really works here, or you could make my job easier and tell us what’s going on. It’s your choice. I’d advise you to come clean right now.” “The punishment won’t be as severe, but it’s up to you,” Officer Gordan added. I didn’t dare glance at Lizzie. I knew they would notice. “What’s your name, young lady?” Officer Pelt asked Lizzie. “Liza,” She said. She wasn’t lying. Liza was her birth name. “Liza what?” Officer Pelt barked. “L- L- Liza J- e- uh-” She looked down. “Liza Jenkins,” She said to the floor. The officer nodded. “And you?” Officer Gordan nodded to me. “A- Alice Applestein,” I said quickly. Both officers wrote something down on their notepads. “Liza Jenkins,” Officer Pelt said. “Young lady you are going to have to be very honest with us right now, or else there will be consequences and not the types of consequences you get for not doing your homework.” Lizzie slowly nodded. “You hear me?” Officer Pelt said. “Y- yes,” Lizzie choked out. “Do you know anyone by the name of Nathan Jenkins?” Officer Pelt asked. I didn’t know where this was going. I’d never heard that name in my life. Who was Nathan Jenkins? Does Lizzie know him? “Y- yes,” Lizzie said. Officer Gordan wrote something on his notepad. “How do you know this man?” Officer Pelt asked. “He’s my- my father,” Lizzie replied. Officer Gordan wrote something down on his notepad. “Do you know of any criminal activity this man could have done, initiated, or made someone else do for him by threatening them?” Lizzie looked like she wanted to vomit three times over. I had no idea what was going on. “Y- yes,” Lizzie said. She started crying. “Liza Jenkins, are you here because your father sent you?” “Y- y- yes,” Lizzie said. Barely able to talk because she was so upset. “Liza, what did your father tell you to do exactly?” Lizzie wasn’t able to meet Officer Pelt’s eyes. “He t- t- told me to s- s- s- steal the- the Waldsemuller Map from here,” She said. “And did he give you the reason why?” “He wanted to add it to his collection,” She said. Officer Gordan nodded. Collection? I wondered. “We’ve been trying to get him for ages,” Officer Gordan said. “You’re not in trouble little lady, but we do need you for information. What did your father exactly say to you when he asked you to come and steal this map?” Lizzie looked a little relieved, but she was still extremely pale. “That if I didn’t, he would send me to Calvin and Gerred.” Officer Pelt flipped a page in her notepad. “Who are Calvin and Gerred?” Officer Gordan asked. “Two men he works with,” Lizzie replied. “And why would he send you to them?” He asked. “To beat me,” Lizzie said softly. I couldn’t believe it. Lizzie had this whole secret life going on, and she couldn’t tell anyone because her dad would beat her! I touched my face and realized it was wet. “As for you Alice Applestein, we’re going to need to question you.”