Chapter 9

Tria entered the cafe looking as casual as possible. No one had to know unless she was sure that she would never set foot on this floor again. She sat beside Pal, as usual. Well, she didn’t sit right beside him, because then she would have no table space. So, she sat one seat away from him.

“Have you started on your good copy yet?” Tria asked Pal who still did not seem to know that Tria was there until he heard her voice.

“Oh, heavens, no!” Pal said. “I’m still on the climax.”

“What’s the climax?” Tria asked. Pal just stared at her for a bit until she quickly added, “I don’t mean no spoiler alerts, but I’m totally fine with hearing it.”

Even as Pal stared at her, he looked as though he was just bursting to tell her. But, he knew all about spoilers. So, as you must know, he was delighted to say, “Well, then! I will be more than happy to tell you!”

Pal started his story. “Well, you see, my big group o’ friends and I are nature rescuers. There’s also this team that is trying to break dis old boat that is carryin' a shipment of glue. They all took their big bows and arrows and stuff.  They’ve already made this big crack and all the oil is going to spill with one more arrow.”

Pal then looked down to his notes and read off a paper full of scribbly writing. “My team and I all burst in with a big scary entrance before they can manage another shot. Everyone runs away except the boss. He has a big cool bow that looks kinda like the ones in th’ hunger games but way, way more heavy duty. He quickly aims a shot right out at dat core of the boat.” Tria looked wide eyed. “Intense right?” Pal said smugly, brushing back the little hair he had left.

“Good thing ma numba one sidekick comes into play! He throws a stone shot on the arrowhead and knocks it off course. By now oil is slowly sliding out of the boat.” Pal took a quick break to breathe. That gave Tria some time to think.

Wow, this explaining could be better. But, eh. What can you expect?

Pal quickly started talking again. “Everyone went on to fight him, but he just threw them back to where they were. So, then everyone on my team except me ran away. Now we was even. He aimed one more shot, but I had no one to throw a rock at the arrow, no one to fight him. I launched at him, just in time for his shoot. But, it was already flying through the air with no intention to stop.”

Pal had so much to read, that he flipped over his paper to read more. “Luckily I’d set that arrow shooting a teensy bit off course. It hit the glue bag above the crack in the ship, and wet glue slowly slurped and gurgled down the boat, stopping right where the crack was.” Tria smiled. She was afraid he might make a sad ending. “Wadda you know?” Pal asked Tria, though she had no time to answer. “Neither glue nor oil got into the ocean, and we’d scared that evil team away for good.”

“Great!” Tria exclaimed. “It’s real great.” She quickly got up and left. Home time.

Tria burst through the door, thinking of good excuses to be able to go to the All3way without her parents knowing. “What’s new?” Tria’s dad said casually. “Last Volleyball practice!” Tria mumbled quickly and more worriedly than she intended it to come out. Her mind was so full of excuses that may only have a 20% to 70% chance of working on her parents.

“Is something up?” Tria’s dad asked.

“The sky?” Tria said, making it still very obvious she was in trouble. Uh, that sounded pretty dumb. “I mean math test!” Whoo, glad I remembered that!

Tria still looked very suspicious in her dad’s eyes, but at least it would hold up the questions for now. The rest of the day went by really quickly. So, there is not much to tell about that night.

The next morning, Tria walked over to Chloe’s house. Chloe’s parents were not there that time. That was a good thing for Tria because they would always crowd over her, telling her what good friends she a Chloe where, or telling boring stories about Chloe’s early childhood. (In those times, both Tria’s and Chloe’s face turned bright, bright pink) “Terrible agony” as Chloe described it.

“What we doin’ now? Taking more notes?” Tria asked Chloe while hanging up her coat.

“No,” Chloe said dramatically. “We’re solving the crime!”

This was originally going to be my favicon, but it was too small. You can take a look at it, though!

Chicken: Chicken just sometimes wants to check in...

Chapter 8

“I-I guess…” Chloe said. Tria had a very unsettled look on her face. “Oh, but that's why I have you!” If that was the best comforting Chloe could do, it was really not much.

“I won’t be much in terms of help!” Tria said. Chloe looked worried, but not nearly as much as Tria.

They didn’t talk about that for the rest of school. They tried other topics like super bad songs on the radio, or funny times when someone in the school did something hilarious. They were not at all good at gossip, and their conversation turned more into a serious talk about politics. Many people would agree that they had never heard Chloe or Tria talk about something that was not serious. That was wrong and more or less a hyperbole, but there are a lot of jokers in brickwood.

Tria’s brain was exhausted when school was finally over. Too much talk about which horse looks more like Elvis Presley I suppose. It’s hard to think about horses in that way, try it yourself!

At least Tria had finished A Wish Of Glass. No one could say Tria was a slow reader, but definitely not a fast one.

Pal had a reserved seat for Tria, but the table was mostly covered with papers. He was bending over his spread out work space, quickly jotting notes.

“What are you doing?” Tria asked as she sat down and brushed some papers over to Pal. “Writing a story that maybe I can publish!” Pal said. He said this in a usual excited tone, but the voice was clouded with business.

“What’s it about?” Tria asked. “My adventures of course! But longer and more detailed,” Pal replied. Tria rummaged in her backpack for a book, but she remembered that she had finished it and returned it to the school library.

“Sounds great!” she said happily, taking out her notes on the robbery and her phone. This time she was not looking up information about the crime, she was looking up the term and policies of doing what she was doing. The first link told her it was illegal. Well, obviously. But, where is the part where it tells you how you can not go to jail?

She skimmed a Brickwood Guide Of Law website, but it only talked briefly about what Tria was looking for:

If any crime is attempted to be solved, Tria read in her head. Then it is illegal. The only way for  someone to get out of a situation like this, is if they had solved the crime correctly. Even with this note, all are highly advised never to attempt at solving crime. It gets in the way of police, and the consequences can  be going to jail. If police are contacted before the person finishes solving the crime, their penalty is still lead to jail.

So, Tria thought. No one can know either? That’s something I need to tell Chloe.

(By the way, readers, this Brickwood that I am talking about is not even the tiniest bit linked to real Brickwood in the real world, and I am completely and totally making up things for the purpose of this story)

Just as Tria was about to look on a different site, Pal peeked over her shoulder. She immediately moved away-not even he could know-and put a somewhat convincing surprised look on her face, so that if Pal ever suspected what she was looking up, it would appear her to be jumping away with fear as opposed to her leaping away so that he would not be able to see what she was doing.

It seemed to have worked good enough, because Pal seemed to have convinced himself that there was nothing out of the ordinary happening. Whew, I was afraid he’d ask again.

“Gotta go!” Tria said, before she could ever take what she had just thought back. When she got home, she had only a little time to spare before supper. For some reason, everyone looked full of thought. “What’s up?” Tria asked.

“Oh, we went to see a movie,” Tria’s dad said. “It was confusing but, really quite good!” Her mom added. “Good thing after the weekend you're volleyball practice will be during school, and we can do more things together.”

“About the weekend....” Tria said, suddenly remembering it was Thursday. “Can me and Chloe have a meeting?” “A meeting? What do you mean?” Her mom said. “Oh,” Tria said quickly. “A play date, I mean.” Her mom agreed easily, as though the language changed it all.

The next day was easy. Fridays are usually easy. (For the exception of the kids that throw parties on Fridays, they are always chatting about that) The morning flew by, and at lunch, everyone seemed especially hungry. Most of the school had rushed into the cafeteria before  Tria did, because she was working on the very last paragraph of her essay.

Chloe invited her to sit at a crowded table with Cam, Garry, and Lily also among the squashed group. They were talking about their fears, hates, and pet peeves.

“Showers!” Lily said.

“Public bathrooms,” Chloe said, with a displeased look on her face.

“Mouldy bread,” Cam said.

“Dusty stuff,” Gerry said.

“OOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHH!!!!!” Lily said. “TUNA OH YEAH, MY GREATEST FEAR!” Chloe agreed with her, and Tria slowly lowered her tuna sandwich from view.

“Ms.Vicious!” Cam laughed. Everyone else did too. Ms.Vicious is the school’s once-a-year extra math instructor. Thank goodness she only comes for one day. Her name is quite coincidental because she is actually in a way vicious. Everyone knows that she’s mean, has a horrible stench to her breath and is quite rude. She prowls the hallways, literally looking for trouble. Kids making trouble Or should I say her name is Ms.Vicious A.K.A. Prowler A.K.A. Miss Mean. Among the teachers, her name is Miss VV, or Miss Very Viscous.

Just before school was over, Tria tipped Chloe off about the no one can know that we’re trying to solve this crime thing. A when Tria was casually strolling down the corner to the alley where All3way was standing, sturdy but dusty, she remembered her claim that volleyball practice starts next week during school. Well, it did, but it came to her mind that this might be the last after school visit to the All3way. This coffee shop that she had visited every day for a week. The place that she had befriended an elderly man and listened to his stories.

Was it worth making another excuse? Her mind almost laughed with this one word: yes.

Chapter 7

It is difficult to say things sometimes, so it is best to just do them. That is what Tria thought Chloe was thinking. She had written all her notes in a disorganized way, and Tria had no idea what she meant. Chloe was so taken over by solving crimes. Whenever Tria opened her mouth to ask a question, Chloe just raised a finger and continued scribbling.

“There!” Chloe said, running her fingers along the circle formed notes on the page. “This doesn’t make sense!” Tria exclaimed before Chloe could stop her. But, it seemed that Chloe was not going to stop her anyways because she had stopped writing. “I always thought that you were neat! But  I don’t blame you. Everyone had a hidden identity that they don’t show the public.”

Thanks for being so understanding,” Chloe said. “But this is neat!” Tria scanned over the work with her eyes. All the letters were neat, and the words were in perfect distance from each other, but anything it said did not make sense.

“Yes, it makes perfect sense!” Chloe said. “You just-”

“No, it doesn’t!” Tria said. “You wrote: then robtber gwortks aqlone! Plus, you wrote: he huas-”

“Wait but-”

“And the words don’t go in order either, they’re written not in straight lines!”

“Seriously Tria, just wait for me to tell you.”

“Okay, Sorry.”

Chloe took a deep breath before she said, “Trust me. I wrote this in code.”

“What code?” Tria asked.

“SHUSHSHSHSHSHSH!” Chloe said I’m going to tell you!”

“Got it, sorry,” Tria said quickly.

“STOP INTERRUPTING ME ARGH!” Chloe said. Tria just nodded her head this time, not bursting out. “Anyway,” Chloe continued. “I’ve written it in a code that goes like this; every third letter,-not including spaces- you add an extra random letter. The third-letter-sequence starts over when you start a new sentence. All the lines are not written in straight lines. They’re written in upwards curves.”

“H-h oh,” Tria said quickly. “But, why did you write it in a secret code if it takes us so long to write, and decipher?” “It’s so that no one else knows…” Chloe said slowly.

“Why can’t anyone know?” Tria asked. “Because I don’t think we’re supposed to this. Some people can get arrested for messing with police stuff.” That was a rule in Brickwood. You can’t do the police’s job unless you’re the police.

Tria was stunned that Chloe of all people was doing something kind of illegal. “This sounds very dangerous,” Tria said. Chloe tried to laugh. Maybe she thought it was a good moment, but it came out more as a sound that a monkey would make. “They changed that rule two years ago,” Chloe said. “But not by much. People still don’t dare do it. You only don’t go to jail if you get it right.”

“So, if we're doing this, we have to get it right?” Tria asked.

This is a joke that I made up...