Dad looked at his shrunken wrist watch and realized that the Wranglerettes must have finished rehearsing!

  Sure enough; the moment he saw the two pair of black cowboy boots and the familiar voices from earlier that morning, he knew it was Brooke Rivera and Jumana Al Amira returning to their dorm room.  So, Dad froze right where he stood.  Holding his breath so as not to give away his position!

  "Man! I can't wait for Cinco de Mayo to get here. That'll give us at least six weeks of rest before we have to start rehearsing for July 4th."

  As Brooke said this, she took off her black boots and matching fringed vest.  Dumping them on the stretch of carpeted floor, next to her bed, in plain view of my dad's position.

  "I'm gonna go grab a shower before heading to the library to meet Oscar. How about you?"

  "Salat-al-asr, girlfriend!  Mid-afternoon prayer to Mecca."

  "Oh, right.  Five times a day; I forgot."

   She wasn't the only one!  Dad looked at the Muslim prayer rug where he had hidden the stolen test booklet.  When Jumana grabbed that and unrolled it...!  Dad didn't even finish that thought.  He merely started to act, thinking to drag the booklet out and relocate it against the wall beneath the headboard.  But, it was already too late.  Princess Jumana had already doffed her own boots and vest before getting down on her knees to retrieve the rug from under her bed.

  The best Dad could do that point was run towards the left upper leg of the bed and hide behind it.  A moment later, came the puzzled exclamation he'd been expecting.

  "What the frig...?"

  This was followed by a startled gasp (also not unexpected).  A few minutes after that, Brooke returned to the room from the showers down the hall.

  "Oye, chica!  You done already?"

  "I didn't even get started.  Look what I found in my prayer rug!"

  A moment later, came another startled gasp.

  "Proctor's exam book?!  How'd you come by it?"

  "I don't know; though, I have a pretty good idea.  All I am certain of is that we have to get this back to his office without him knowing about it.  Pronto!"

 "No sweat!  I have to pass the campus security office on the way to the library, anyway.  I'll drop it off there and claim I found it on the ground outside Snodgrass Hall."

 "You think they'll buy that?"

  "Why not?  I've earned my straight A's, legitimately; and he knows it.  I'm sure he'll give me the benefit of the doubt."

  A moment later, Brooke was out of the room. Leaving Jumana alone to conduct her mid-afternoon prayer...which she did.  But, not without a little nervous tension in her voice.  Tension that was certainly not relieved by the sudden frantic pounding on the dorm room door the second she was done!

  "Jumana!  Jumana, open up!  It's me; Oscar!"

  The princess ran to the door and opened it up to behold Brooke's wild-eyed boyfriend, Oscar Jimenez.

  "Oscar!  Que paso?  What's wrong?"

  "The campus cops just arrested Brooke...for stealing Proctor's master exam book!"

  "What?!"

   Oscar went on to explain how he'd been waiting for Brooke at the campus library.  When she hadn't shown up after five minutes (and the girl prided herself on being punctual), he started heading for the girls' dorm to see what was keeping her.  And it was in passing the security station, en route, that he saw her.  

  "She was being loaded into the back of a townie police car...in handcuffs!"

  "What???"

  "Esta verdad!  And when I ran up to find out what was going on, Proctor, himself, told me what had happened.  Or, rather, what was supposed to have happened. As 'witnessed' by Tad Bigelow and his buddies!"

  "Wait!  As in Charlene's boyfriend, Tad?"

  "Yeah!  What are we gonna do?"

  "Let me grab my purse and we'll go see if we can bail her out."

   tbc