8:00 AM at Honey Bee Junior High, home of the Black Bears
The school was a melting pot of city kids and kids bused in from Albright, a small town that if not for their mayor, Mortimer Thompson, would have been overlooked when school district boundaries were drawn. It was easy to forget Albright due to the meager population and generally private people it was home to. Despite their unassuming presence, however, kids from Albright weren't readily accepted at Honey Bee Junior High. Albright children weren't like city kids, and they often affected the rest of the school's population with their problems.
Like the one Principal Gloria was addressing at the moment.
The school's auditorium was packed with every grade and Principal Gloria stood on the stage looking very upset. Her usually prim and proper look was ruined by her cheeks that were red with rage, and her curly hair that stuck to her forehead with sweat. She was gripping the sides of the podium and glaring down at the students wedged into the too small, auditorium seats. Behind her, the vice principal, Mr. Jackson was comforting the school's trembling, librarian, Mrs. Mosley.
"Once again, whoever is responsible for the--absolutely, horrific state of the library, please come forward." Principal Gloria demanded, veins popping up along her temple. "Whoever you are, you should be ashamed! Only a truly, revolting, deranged person could do what was done in our once beautiful library!" She shrieked, slamming her hands against the podium. Vice Principal Jackson cringed and abandoned Mrs. Mosley to whisper worriedly in the principal's ear.
"I don't give a damn, about lawsuits! Whoever committed that atrocity in the library better come forward or I will be forced to punish EVERYONE!" At her statement, the auditorium erupted with outbursts of rage. The city kids' faces darkened with hatred as they jabbed accusatory fingers at any Albright kids they could identify, because ever since they came to the school, weird things occurred every year before Halloween, like a sick tradition. The city kids weren't saints but smearing nearly every book in the library with what appeared to be animal guts, was not their MO.
"Alright, settle down! Settle down!" Principal Gloria barked, but her commands were drowned out by the enraged city kids who were beginning to rally and chant for the Albright kids to "GTFO". Suddenly, a scream pierced the air and the noise died almost immediately, as Georgette Baker the school's secretary and the only staff member from Albright, lumbered onto the stage. Her appearance was even more disheveled than the principal's and her eyes darted rapidly from side to side. Her clothes which usually suffocated her plump frame, looked loose on her body and despite still being overweight, the woman's face looked gaunt.
"Are you alright, Ms. Baker?" the vice principal asked, hesitantly placing a hand on Ms. Baker's shoulder.
"It's the shadows." The woman said in a trembling voice.
"What?" the vice asked, leaning in and regretting it immediately, when Ms. Baker grabbed the lapels of his jacket and shook the man like a rag-doll. "THE SHADOWS!" She screamed, releasing him roughly and turning her gaze to the children, frozen in their seats.
"They laugh at me. They follow me. I - I thought that I was safe here, but they must have--They must have followed...The wicked shadows..." She sobbed, fat tears streaming down her face as she trembled on stage.
"Alright, Ms. Baker, maybe you should take the day off." Principal Gloria suggested, reaching to take the secretary's arm. "NO! THE SHADOWS ARE HERE! AND SOON THEY WILL BATHE OUR WORLD IN THEIR UNHOLY DARKNESS!" Ms. Baker screamed rushing towards Principal Gloria who retreated while yelping in terror. The P.E teacher, Ms. Beauregard and the school nurse, Mr. Fitzgerald latched onto the crazed secretary in an attempt to restrain her, while Vice Principal Jackson snagged the mic, "School's dismissed we'll see you all Monday. Don't forget to do your homework!" He blurted out before spinning around to help his fellow staff secure the wild woman behind him.
As the students filtered out of the auditorium, police officers raced in. The multiple students who tried to sneak a peak of their school secretary being tackled by police officers while screaming hysterically, were hastily removed until all of the students and a few staff members stood outside the now barricaded and police taped school. And while some city kids resumed their rallying for the removal of the Albright kids, and said small town kids argued their innocence; four kids slipped away.
Anais Greer, Justice Jones, Ximena Baker and Megan Kingston waited until they had gotten a safe distance away from the crowd before discussing the recent event.
"What the actual fuck!?" Anais exploded, more confused than angry."How the hell could Ms. Baker know about those freaky shadows?" She demanded, running her hands through her hair. From the corner of her eye, she saw an ambulance racing down the street towards the school. Laurel Hospital."Oh shit, that's probably for Ms. Baker. Guys, we need to talk to her."
"We've got to check out her house too." Justice pointed out, and rolled her eyes at Anais' blank look. "For clues?"She prompted, and Anais' mouth formed an 'oh!' before she nodded. "Also, I think we are due for another refresher lesson on covering up cases." She stressed, glowering at her compatriots. Yes, the incident in the school library, had been in fact their doing. Or rather, the doing was done by Anais and Ximena decimating a tooth fairy swarm then having to leave in a hurry after the cacophony attracted the school's security guard.
Anais scratched the back of her neck sheepishly before clearing her throat and looking to the sky as if it had the answers to her blatant disregard for cleaning up cases.
"So who's gonna go where?" She blurted out instead of addressing Justice's admonishment.
Mentions: Ms. Backer Interactions: Justice, Anais, Ximena Outfit: Here
Watching the crowd from a distance Megan knew they messed up even before Justice said anything. What did they miss though? She was sure they covered everything up but, apparently not. Looking back at the group she thought of what to do next. Should she go take a look at the house or talk to Ms. Backer. While on one hand she would be good at helping keep Ms. Backer calm she also didn't want to have to deal with the screaming banshee. Then again if she were to go to the house who knows what will pop out at them. Megan could not handle anything jumping out at them. She would scream really loud and fall to the floor.
Breaking from her thoughts she decided to just talk with Ms. Backer instead of going to the house. "I might be able to calm Ms. Backer down enough to talk so I'm there. Any way I thought we covered everything. What could be have missed?" Her voice and face showed confusion as she went over the possibilities but, came up with nothing.
Diversity was nothing new to Honey Bee Junior High. The hatred for Albright students wasn't either. Sitting in the auditorium, Ximena Baker listened to LA Devotee on her iPhone. It was one of her favorite songs and was much better than listening to Principal Gloria talk about the library. Speaking of the library, Ximena felt bad. It was one of her favorite places in this hell hole. Despite the fact that no one in the school could actually point out who was to blame for the library, many of the students blamed the Albright students. They were right mostly but Ximena wasn't going to inform them of that.
However, things became interesting when the school's secretary, Ms. Baker entered the auditorium. Popping out one of her earbuds, Ximena watched and paid close attention to the scene. "THE SHADOWS!" Ms. Baker had screamed out as she stared into the crowd.
The shadows? Ximena couldn't help but wonder what beast the secretary had encountered. Maybe, just maybe, it could be the Boogeyman but Ximena highly doubted that since he only went after children. Continuing her gaze on Ms. Baker, Ximena watched closely before Ms. Baker was escorted out. With that school was dismissed and Ximena knew that she would need to stay with her friends.
As Ximena followed Justice, Anais, and Megan away from the crowd of students, she made sure that no one was following them. Precautionary reasons of course. Ximena was smart and careful but today did not go as planned. She wished it had, sadly a security guard got in the way. Her thoughts were broken as she noticed the ambulance racing down the street. As Anais and Justice spoke about Ms. Baker and investigate her house, Ximena stayed silent. She already knew where she wanted to go and it wasn't to speak with Ms. Baker. However, Megan's question was valid.
"We missed a lot of the cleanup process." Ximena had spoken up. Some days Ximena wasn't as shy as others, today happened to be a blend. "A lot of the library was damaged by the swarm." She pointed out. "Anyway, I'll hit up the house and check if anything was left behind."
Megan and Anais chose to go to the hospital via the city bus and when they got on the driver squinted at them suspiciously, but accepted their fare regardless. Anais didn't think it was so odd to see two kids riding the bus without parents and chalked the driver up to just being a weirdo. Most bus drivers were anyway, school and city. There were only six other people on the bus and most of them sat in the front, which allowed the girls to sit in the back by themselves. Every once in awhile, Anais noticed the driver staring at them from the rearview mirror and at one point she glowered back, her lip jutting out like an angry dog. "What does he think we're gonna do? Steal a seat?" She grumbled, but soon their stop came and she let go of the anger. She hoped they didn't get the same driver when they left.
"Alright, Meg, here's the plan," She started, rubbing her hands together as she regarded the building before them. Laurel Hospital wasn't as big as most hospitals but it was still a lot larger than Albright's clinic. Then again, Albright's clinic was mostly for colds and the occasional thrown out back. It was only one level with three rooms too, while this hospital seemed to be four levels with who knows how many rooms. The two walked towards the sliding glass doors conferring quietly. "We're her daughters--No! Nieces? Actually, you know what? You should take the lead here, cause let's be honest, you're way better at talking than me." Anais admitted sheepishly as they approached the front desk where a stern looking nurse peered down at them. Hopefully the woman would give up Ms. Baker's room number, easily.
Ximena and Justice decided to check Ms. Baker's house out and took the city bus back to Albright. Ms. Baker's house was in the thick of town, near the strip mall and the town square that used to be a big deal 'back in the day' but was now just a place for wannabe edgy teenagers to hang out. A group of said teenagers were in various forms of lounging on the dried up fountain when the two girls scurried by. Only one or two teenagers acknowledged their presence before going back to lamenting their 'dark lives'. There wasn't much overlap between junior high kids and the high schoolers unless they were related. The high schoolers were bused even further for schooling to a city that didn't know much of Albright, so they didn't face the same adversity as their younger acquaintances.
When the girls arrived at Ms. Baker's house, they walked right in. Most of the older Albright residents rarely locked their doors, something that irked the Hero Club to no end. Not that a locked door would stop a monster, but it might slow them down a little. It was useless trying to persuade the adults to listen to reason as their counter argument was always the same, "What? Danger? In our little town?" Apparently 'little' was synonymous to harmless and zero crime rate.
Ms. Baker's house was one of those mixes between a trophy hunter's log cabin and a grandma's musty cottage. There were all types of cuckoo clocks hung on the walls next to mounted fish and deer heads. At the bottom of the entrance hall was a deer head it's glassy eyes boring into the two intruders. It looked like it would jump down and skewer them if it could, but thankfully, it stayed fixed to the wall, just staring. Right before the deer were two entrances, one on the right and one on the left. One was an archway leading to the kitchen and living room, while the other was a door leading to the basement. There were also a set of stairs leading up to Ms. Baker's bedroom.
