Getting the squad together

Mona looks up to her alarm clock and is shocked when she sees it’s 3 AM already. She has been laying in bed for hours, without sleeping a minute. A thousand thoughts keep running through her head but she is not able to make any sense of them. Is there really something nefarious going on here, or is it just her vivid imagination playing up? Her trying to find an epic adventure in what is just ordinary school life. No there must be some kind of connection here. She has a hand full of puzzle pieces but can’t see yet what the final image is yet. The graffiti, laundry, the clubroom, Rose, the former student, and the science teacher that is trying to avoid answering her questions. And then the total clearing of the clubroom, too many questions to answer. Or at least too many for her alone. What if she could convince the other members to form a little club so they can investigate the clues together and get to the bottom of what is going on.

“Ti, would you like to join the investigation club?” Mona asked when she saw Ti in the hallway just before classes began.

“I don’t think our school has a club like that.” Ti responded.

“Not yet, I am starting one” said Mona with an enthusiastic voice.

 “Would you like to join?” 

“According to the school rules, a club can only be formed with the approval of a teacher, did you already contact one?”

“Well I don’t think our science teacher is willing to take up the job so I guess we are lost.” Mona joked, never intending to go through the effort of formally founding a school club

“But do you want to join?”

 “I am sorry, but I don’t want to join an illegal club like that.”

“Okay, but what if I called it a squad instead of a club, would you like to join then?”

 “It explicitly says club here, so I guess a squad won’t be an issue.”

 “Great!” Mona said, still baffled by her friend's weird logic. Two more members to go.

“Nia, would you like to join the investigation club?” is what Mona asked Nia later that day when they saw each other during lunch break.

“A club? Do I look like a nerd?” said Nia annoyed.

“Don’t you want to figure out what stuff Rose might be doing in the abandoned clubroom?”, said Mona in an attempt to convince her. 

Nia took a deep sight and said “Well, that may be worth it. I might consider joining if you do me a favor since I am busy.”

“Okay, let’s do it” responded Mona and Nia gave Mona a list of groceries she had to buy at the local store.

“But don’t tell anyone!” Mona assured them she would tell none else about the errands.

Running errands

After her classes were done, Mona and Ti walked back together to the dorms to play some games. When they arrive at the dorm room, Mona tries to find the dorm keys in her bag. But then she suddenly feels Nia’s grocery list. She totally forgot!

“I am sorry Ti, but I just remembered there is something important I should do. Let’s meet another time.”

After that Mona went to the nearby shopping district to buy Nia some groceries. Sugar, flour, apples, eggs, milk, and some sausage.

“I am sure that birthdaycake was bought at the baker’s” Mona thought to herself with a big grin.

On the way back, Mona tripped over her own feet and an apple rolled out of her overstuffed bag into the bush on the side of the road. As she went to grab it up again, there was a little black kitten sitting there. It was looking a bit dirty and underfed. The cat walked up to Mona and started nuzzling her head against Mona’s leg.

 “Look at you little guy, you look hungry.” Mona grabbed the sausage she bought out of her bag and broke off a piece and gave it to the cat. After petting the cat for a minute, Mona waved the cat goodbye and went on her way back to the academy. After walking about half a block, she noticed the cat was following her.

“Please don’t follow me mister cat, the rest of the sausage is for Nia. I need her to join this little club.. eh squad of mine.” Mona continued on her path, but the cat kept following her all the way back to the school.

“I’ll guess your my little pet now” Mona picked up the cat and brought her back to her dorm room.

The dorms

 “Knock-knock, knock-knock” before Mona has had the time to answer the door, Nia stormed in.

 “Where is my stuff?” Mona was so distracted by the cat she forgot to bring Nia the groceries she bought for her.

“Stuff? You have to be more specific Nia.”

“Please stop teasing me! Groceries I mean”

“Ah… you mean your baking supplies, here you go” Mona handed Nia the bag with supplies.

Only then Nia noticed the black cat sitting on Mona’s bed.

“That is mister cat and he likes to excuse himself for eating half your sausage.”

“What! Not only did you forget to bring me my groceries but you also gave the sausage I paid for to a dirty stray like that?” 

“And some of the milk” Mona added while awkwardly rubbing her head.

Nia sighed and cooled down again.

“One thing, you should not tell Ti about the cat”

“Why not, she is our friend right?”

 “I wouldn’t call her a friend. She is so uptight about the rules all the time. I heard she snitched on some girl who kept an electric griddle in her room and the dormitory staff came to keep it away.”

“Well, she cares about the rules a lot. Maybe I should keep her away from here for a little while”.

The literature club

“Welcome back Serena. What have you been up to?” The always enthusiastic Maika greeted Serena at the literature’s club doorpost. Suddenly Serena just stopped dead in the middle of the doorpost. Not really knowing what or how she should respond she started panicking. Yuki already entered the club room and welcomed her in. Yuki’s calming presence helped her relax. Serena walked to a chair on the opposite side of the table from where Yuki was sitting.

“Please come sit next to me” said Yuki and Serena went to sit down next to her new friend.

“Did you bring a new book to read?” Yuki asked Serena. Serena agreed and took the book out of her bag. Yuki picked up the book and turned it around to read the summary.

“I told her yesterday? I haven’t read it but I heard it is a good one”.

“Good afternoon everyone! I hope you all had a joyful week, I certainly did. Since we are done with Castle in the Dirt, I’d like you all to suggest the next book we could read together. Monika could you start?”

 As Monika started to tell the others about the book she had brought, Serena started getting nervous again. Her feet started shaking and her hands got sweaty. When it was Serena’s turn to tell the others about her book, she panicked and quickly stuffed the book away in her bag. She shook her head and pointed to Yuki to indicate she didn’t want to suggest a book. Yuki looked at her and put her hand on Serena’s hand. She started telling the others about her suggestion.

 For the rest of the meeting, Serena just sat quietly, avoiding any form of contact with the other members since she was ashamed of what happened earlier. After the meeting, Yuki came to Serena to talk to her about what happened. Serena didn’t want as she felt she disappointed her and made it out of the club room as quickly as possible without saying goodbye.

The dorms

Back in her dorm room, she ignored Mona and the cat completely and jumped into her bed as quickly as possible to hide underneath the blankets. After a few minutes, Mona went up to Serena and asked her if she wanted to pet a cute kitten. Serena carefully lifted the blanket and saw the cat. She reached her hand and briefly swiped it over its back.

 You don’t have to be so careful, he likes it when you rub his belly.”

“He is Mr cat our new club mascot. You can’t tell Ti though.” 

Serena looked a bit confused so Mona added.

“I forgot to tell you, I am founding the investigation squad to figure out all this weird stuff happening around here. Do you want to join?”

Serena hesitantly nodded in agreement, she didn’t feel like getting back to the literature club anymore after what happened today. And so Mona got all of her friends to join the Investigation Squad.