When we arrived at the factory, Sarah was the first to notice the locked gate.
"It's locked..." she said.
Liam looked around for a moment before offering the obvious answer.
"We could try going around it."
Before anyone else could respond, George had already taken off toward the side of the fence.
Only the four of us noticed where he was going.
Muscle memory.
The rest of them either didn't pay attention or just assumed he got lucky and picked a random direction.
We followed him.
Sure enough, the hole was still there.
One by one, we crawled through. Elaine was clearly not happy about it.
"Seriously? We have to go through that?"
She complained the whole time, but she still followed us inside.
Once we were through, we made our way around the building until we reached the office. Leo stepped forward first, trying his best to act surprised.
"Woah... the window's destroyed."
George didn't even bother pretending.
"Let's go in!"
Sarah and Elaine stepped inside the office and started looking around.
"It's empty..."
"Maybe there's more inside," Sarah said. "Let's check the main room."
The second she said that, I noticed Leo stiffen a little.
"Or we could just work on the project in here," he said quickly.
"Yeah—yeah, we don't need to go any further," I added, probably a little too fast.
Elaine ignored both of us.
She walked over to the doorway and pushed it open.
"What is this!?"
"There's a bunch of games and toys!"
"And... books?"
Sarah turned to Liam immediately, her voice a lot more serious now.
"You knew about this place, didn't you?"
"This is all your stuff."
Liam shook his head quickly.
"N-no... I had no idea this was here..."
"That's way too much of a coincidence," Elaine said, crossing her arms. "There's no way you didn't know."
Melanie stepped in before things got worse.
"This project is due Friday, right?" she said. "We only have a few hours until curfew, so let's get as much done as we can."
That was enough to stop them from pressing Liam any further, but the suspicion didn't go away.
Not even a little.
After deciding the factory was good enough for working, we went back to Leo's house and grabbed all the materials we needed. We spent the next three hours working there, almost completely redesigning the town so it would be easier and faster to finish.
By the time we were done for the day, the project was nearly complete.
All that was left were some decorations and smaller details we could finish in class the next day.
Everyone was exhausted and went home right after.
Melanie and I were the ones who had to carry the project back.
That part sucked.
———————————————————————
The next day, we went to class like normal.
Core subjects.
Lunch.
More school.
The usual.
At lunch, we told Mel what had happened.
"...They might find out it's our base."
"Yeah," George said. "That's what we're worried about."
"What should we do?"
No one had an answer.
We kept talking about it until lunch ended, but nothing useful came out of it. We were all worried, but none of us had a real solution.
The rest of the day went by normally enough. We finished the project and were ready to present it on Friday.
As I was heading out to meet Melanie so we could walk home together, I saw Liam, Elaine, and Sarah waiting for me.
That wasn't good.
Liam spoke first.
"S-sorry, ■■■■■..."
Yeah.
That was really not good.
Before I could even respond, Elaine stepped forward. She already looked angry.
"Liam told us everything!"
"The factory is yours!"
"What?"
"I overheard you guys talking about it at lunch one time," Liam said, avoiding eye contact. "So I followed you after school... and saw you go in."
Damn snitch.
"What!? You're going to believe him!?" I snapped. "He's just trying to shift the blame onto us! He's the one who recommended the factory!"
I realized too late how loud I was getting.
"What?" Elaine shot back. "You expect us not to believe him?"
Sarah stepped in, trying to calm things down.
"Sorry... but we also have another witness."
"What!? Wh—"
I cut myself off.
Almost gave myself away there.
"Melanie," Sarah continued. "Your friend from lunch. We asked her about it, and she told us the truth."
"No! She was probably pressured by you guys!" I yelled. "She just said yes so you'd leave her alone! You've seen her—she's not good with new people."
We were starting to attract a crowd now.
That made everything worse.
I forced myself to calm down.
Think.
Elaine kept going.
"We didn't pressure her! All we had to do was tell her we were friends and that you invited us. Then she told us everything—how you found it, what you brought... all of it!"
Damn it.
I couldn't even really blame Mel for that.
She probably thought she was helping.
"...Alright," I exhaled. "The factory was ours."
"Ha! I knew it!"
"Okay... and why does it even matter?" I asked.
"Because you could've told us!" Elaine shot back. "If Liam hadn't said anything, we would've failed the project!"
I almost told them.
I really did.
Before Liam interrupted me.
"Well, good for him," I said instead. "We wanted to keep the factory a secret. Like... a secret base or something."
By that point, the people watching had started putting things together.
"Did they just say the factory?"
"The one off 24th? Or 25th?"
"Yeah, that one."
"A secret base...? They have access to it?"
"I mean... that's kinda cool."
"You wanna check it out after school tomorrow?"
"Yeah!"
Elaine was still trying to argue.
"A secret base? What is this, a movie?"
"Well, a certain someone just let that secret out," I shot back.
"That's your fault for not admitting it sooner," she snapped.
"You're not part of our group."
Her expression changed instantly.
Then she turned and stormed off.
I must have said it harsher than I meant to.
Sarah hesitated, unsure of what to do, before chasing after her. Liam followed a moment later.
Then it was just me and Melanie.
She had mostly just stood there through the whole thing, not really part of it, but definitely not outside it either.
After we got home, she started scolding me.
Especially for that last line.
"You shouldn't have said that."
"She probably just wanted to be part of your group."
"What? Then why didn't she just say that?"
"Because she was probably scared," Melanie said. "She didn't want to get rejected, so she used what she knew about the factory to try to join your group. But then you had to act like you didn't know anything."
"She started getting loud first!" I shot back. "She should've told me she knew it was ours from the start! And she even manipulated Mel into telling her! That's not how a friend acts!"
After that, Melanie gave up and went to her room.
I still didn't really get her point.
Why was she trying so hard to defend Elaine?
———————————————————————
The next day at lunch, I told the group what had happened.
"Wait, so people are going to the factory today?" Leo asked.
"Yeah. We might want to figure out what to do if others show up."
Mel didn't look very happy.
"Elaine was nice to me," she said quietly. "Why did you have to make her mad?"
"She lied to you, Mel," I said. "She used you to get information about us and the factory."
I tried to sound reassuring.
I don't think it worked.
After that, no one really said anything.
We had our presentations later that day. Ours went fine, even if the group was still a little divided from everything that had happened.
After school, the group—and Melanie—met up and biked to the factory.
"Doesn't look like anyone's here yet," George said.
But when we got inside, there were already a few other kids there.
Liam too.
Didn't seem like Elaine wanted anything to do with the factory anymore.
And there was a teacher.
The second he saw us, he started asking questions.
"Are you the group that's been using this place?"
"You know there are locks on the doors."
"Breaking and entering is illegal."
We could have handled other students.
But an adult was a problem.
A serious one.
We didn't really have a choice anymore, so we told the truth.
"So you've been using this factory as a playground for four months?" he asked.
"Yes..."
"And your parents don't know about it?"
"...No."
He sighed.
"Alright. Do you know their phone numbers? I'm going to call them."
We didn't.
So we had to follow him back to the school and call from there.
That whole wait was tense.
No one said a word.
Not me.
Not George.
Not Leo.
Not Mel.
Not even Liam.
About an hour later, as many of our parents as possible had arrived.
They walked through the factory, checking for anything dangerous.
But there really wasn't much.
"What about the office window?" one of them asked. "Did you break it to get inside?"
I answered immediately.
"No. It was already broken when we got here. There was glass everywhere, so Melanie used her jacket to clear it."
"...Okay."
Then the parents stepped away from us to talk.
George looked miserable.
"We're not gonna be allowed back, are we..."
"We don't know that," Leo said, trying to stay optimistic.
After a few minutes, the parents came back.
"You are not allowed to play here anymore," Mom said.
"What!? Why not!?" George yelled.
Dad stepped in before things got worse.
"She means for now. We need to figure out who owns this property. If no one does—or if it's really abandoned—then we'll talk about letting you come back."
We cheered anyway.
A week later, we were given permission to return.
There were rules and guidelines, of course, but I won't bore you with all of that.
In that time, news about the factory spread through the school—and then to the middle and high schools too.
The group that originally found the place became the unofficial leaders.
Lots of students came by to look at it, but only a few kept coming back.
George decided to name it "Factory 24."
It's technically on 24th Street, so it kind of works.
Even if it's a little too simple.
As a group, we voted on whether to allow Elaine, Sarah, and Liam back.
Only Elaine was banned.
Liam still comes by every now and then. He even figured out how to unlock most of the doors—except for the main gate—which helped improve how people saw him.
Elaine and Sarah don't know Elaine's banned yet.
We're planning to tell them if they try to come back.
———————————————————————
Now we're back to the present.
Base 24 isn't quiet anymore.
There's always someone there now.
People talking.
Arguing.
Playing.
Moving around.
It's never empty.
In my last life, I didn't have that.
I didn't have anyone.
...
This life is better.