Sorry for the delay my friends, Had too many IRL stuff happening and couldn't update. here's 5 chapters this time.
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Alan had been drinking a lot, and mindful of the rule that none of them were allowed to leave their seat during halftime, he got up to go to the bathroom as the clock was winding down to the two minute warning before the end of the first half.
He stood up. "Christine, by your leave, I'm off to 'powder my nose.'" He said that in a snooty, joking tone.
Christine stood up too. "Fine, but I'm coming with you."
"Oh, come on. There's a men's room just on the other side of the bleachers. Ryan and his whole gang - we can see them! They're right there on the field or on the bench. Don't be absurd."
"That may be, but I'm coming with you."
"What, are you going to come in the bathroom with me? Are you going to hold my thing while I pee?"
Christine blushed furiously at that. "What are you saying?" she asked in an insulted way.
"Oops. Sorry, I didn't mean that. I know you're just trying to be helpful... Fine, if you want to come, come."
As they walked off, she pointed out, "It's not like I'm missing a good game. What else have I got to do?"
"That's a good point."
They wandered out of hearing range for the others in the group. Although Glory was sitting a couple of rows back she was close enough to hear when she paid attention, especially since there were empty seats all around.
All the others were feeling the same as Alan, that Christine was being way too uptight about the situation, even though nobody made any snarky comments about it. After all, it was obvious that she meant well.
But then Simone noticed something. She didn't care about the game and had been watching the cheerleaders more than the field. "Hey," she said to the others. "Look at that. Isn't that Heather walking quickly to the locker room?"
"It is," Sean replied. He was a long-time secret admirer of Heather's backside, and could recognize it from a mile away.
Suzanne said, "I can see Amy and Katherine with the other cheerleaders, but where's Ryan? He's number 49. I don't see a number 49 on the bench."
"He was just there a minute ago," Susan pointed out. "Since I don't know football, I've been keeping more of an eye on the sidelines. He's down there somewhere. I think."
Simone said. "Shoot. I don't like this one bit. Think about it. Alan's gone. Christine's gone. Heather's leaving. Ryan's gone. Something's happening! I'm gonna go check it out. Sean, come with me. Mrs. Pestridge and Mrs. Plummer, you might want to sneak down to the field and ask Amy and Katherine if they know what happened. Probably they know what Heather's doing. We may just be overreacting..."
"But better safe than sorry!" Susan said firmly. "I'm on it! Let's go!"
Sean asked, "Could Heather be in cahoots with Ryan? Or... somebody?"
"I dunno," Simone replied. "Who knows. Anything's possible with her. Move it!"
Glory had been overhearing all that. As Sean got up to go with Simone, he said to her as he hurried past her, "Ms. Rhymer, can you keep an eye on all our stuff?"
"Sure thing." She wished that she could do more, but she realized that someone had to stay behind and look after all their many possessions, including purses and a cooler.
Simone and Sean walked briskly up the bleachers where there were stairs going back down to the ground. Due to fences all around the field area built for ticketed events, it was just about the only way in and out.
Simone suggested, "Sean, since you're a guy, why don't you check out the men's room. I obviously can't go in there. Check every single stall. Meanwhile, I'll start scouting the surrounding area."
"Okay. If I find anything, I'll shout or whistle."
"Right. Me too."
From the top of the bleachers they had a good view of much of the area behind the bleachers, including a nearby parking lot. Both of them stopped momentarily to look, but neither saw anything out of the ordinary. They split up and took different stairs out of the bleachers.
However, they had a bad feeling. There were too many coincidences piling up. They kept on going, faster than before.
Meanwhile, Susan and Suzanne had made their way down to the bottom of the bleachers. There was about a six foot wall between the closest seats to the ground and the ground itself. Both of them leaned forward.
Susan projected her voice towards her two daughters, loud enough for them to hear but not loud enough to draw the attention of lots of other people. "Angel! Amy! What's going on? What happened to Heather?!"
Katherine and Amy were looking worried, anticipating the question. "I don't know," Katherine replied as she looked up at her two mothers. "She just took off. She didn't say a word to anyone. We were all just waiting between routines so we didn't even notice she was headed to the lockers until she was almost there."
Amy added, "But Ryan's gone! The other guys are all around, I think, but he's gone!"
Susan and Suzanne looked at each other.
Susan said, "Let's get the hell out of here!"
They started running back up the bleacher stairs. There were a couple of stairs from the bleachers down to the field, but if they went that way there were fences preventing them from going around the bleachers to the other side.
Katherine yelled up at them while they were running away, "What should we do?"
"Stay there!" Susan yelled back. "Stay safe!"
Susan was in full 'mama grizzly bear' mode. She didn't care that most of the people near her in the stands were staring at her and Suzanne and wondering what their hurry was. What bothered her was that her heels were slowing her down. They were low heels, not the usual high heels she wore at home, but they were a pain in the ass now, just the same. She muttered to Suzanne, "Ditch the heels."
"Right." Both of them quickly stepped out of their heels and left them in the bleacher aisle where they'd fallen.
Now they were able to move faster up the stairs, taking them two steps at a time, but their tight dresses were slowing them down.
Glory was still sitting there, watching the two mothers hurrying up the bleachers as fast as their formal outfits could let them. She thought, The shit is going down! This is it! Screw watching the stuff; Alan needs me! She turned to an older couple nearby. "Excuse me, but can you watch all these things for a few minutes?"
"Sure, thing," the elderly woman replied. "Is there some kind of prob..." Her voice trailed off because she found that she was talking to air.
Glory was already bounding up the stairs as well.
As Susan and Suzanne reached the top of the bleachers, allowing them to look out over a great distance, they heard a piercing scream coming from somewhere ahead of them, down on the ground level.
Susan's face was grimly determined, yet full of motherly worry. "Oh no! My baby!"