"Excuse me?!" Claire shouted.
She ran her hands through her hair, gripping at her scalp in frustration.
Toby looked over at her, phone in hand, feeling nervous, "Well...yeah."
"Did your Nana even notice?!"
Toby paused. He put his phone down on the table and offered Claire a cookie, which she declined. She was too exasperated to enjoy a cookie right now.
"Claire, my Nana is legally blind...and deaf..." He trailed off, "I noticed because the camera detected motion. She asks me to watch the camera to make sure Mr. MeowMeow PI gets home okay, because of all the missing cats. But I saw...that."
His finger indicated to a dark shape that had hurdled the garden fence, a green glow deep within the grooves in its skin. It paced around the garden a few times before curling up and sleeping. Toby fast-fowarded the footage, light streaming into the yard. As dawn hit, they saw a human form rise from the grass and look around disheveled. They skirted round the furniture and vanished behind an old couch.
Claire scowled at the footage, scrunching up her face like crumpled paper.
"Plus," Toby added, leading her out the backdoor, "come check this out."
She followed him to a hole in the fence. On first glance it seemed fairly unremarkable, as if caused by general wear and tear. Then she noticed emerald coloured web-like patterns swirling across the splintering wood. The hole itself looked as if it had been ripped wider like a paper envelope torn open wide by an excitable child. Claire lightly ran her fingers across the fence panel. A flash of something shot through her memories, something akin to déja vu perhaps? A vague familiarity to seeing a troll-like beast run from her. This was weird.
"So...you wanted to show me...a hole?" She folded her arms feigning annoyance with Toby.
Domzalski poked the hole and spoke, "Yeah. This was the hole Jim used to use to sneak to mine at night after Nana had gone to bed. Back when we were just kids. Look at all the green markings, it matches with the colour of that creature and the glow from Jim's eyes. I think the creature I saw was Jim."
"I don't think that's such a crazy assumption." Claire responded, pulling a pen from behind her ear and clicking it furiously as she thought.
Toby stared at the message he'd texted Jim last night. I guess now they had even more reason to talk to him. The text had been left on read, prompting Toby to cast his phone to the ground in sadness. He was feeling downtrodden. Claire seemingly picked up on this and lightly patted his shoulder.
"Maybe we should go find those trolls Jim spoke to? They might know something? Or maybe we could check out the bookstore he was hanging around? In the meantime we should go over to his place and see if he's home. If we get no answers, then go check out these other things?" Toby asked.
Claire nodded and paused momentarily, "I'm definitely down for that, but I also really wanna check out where that asteroid landed too...I was talking to Aja about it earlier and she agreed to meet me tonight to help me look for it!"
"Claire!" Toby protested.
"Sorry! Ah, she's so cool and Cantaloupia sounds so fascinating. Aja actually had warrior training! Did you know that they have an advanced AI system that can carry out basic maintenance tasks? Krel said it was like a home security system. BUT it also can run diagnostic checks on biological matter - I bet that AI could tell us all sorts of things about what's happening to Jim." Claire babbled.
Toby grew frustrated again, "CLAIRE!"
"Right, yes, speak to Jim! Then go check out cool AI things if we don't get an answer?"
"Sure." Toby rolled his eyes.
"Alright then Mulder, let's get going!" She beamed, putting her pen back behind her ear and following Toby to the front of the house.
They crossed the road, confused as to why Mr. Strickler's car seemed to be on the road outside. Jim's bedroom light was switched on, so he was probably in, right?
Toby lightly knocked the door and the duo heard some clamouring from inside, a green crackle of light coming soon after. Strickler answered the door, looking shocked to see two of his students standing there.
"Oh, Tobias, Claire...how surprising it is to see you here!" Walt laughed uncomfortably.
"Mr. Strickler?! Why are you here?!" Claire questioned.
Before the disgruntled history teacher could answer the girl's question, Barbara Lake appeared from behind him. Her eyes were red raw as if she'd been crying. Strickler looked down on the two kids as Barbara stepped past him. There was a brief but menacing glint in his eyes.
"S-sorry kids...I assume you came to see Jim? He's uhh...he's not home." She stammered, her eyes brimming.
Toby's brow furrowed, "Not home? He left his light on! He never leaves the house without turning his light off."
Barbara poked her head out and looked up to see Jim's light was switched on. Claire and Toby watched with some curiosity as the mother shook her head.
"He was uhh...in a hurry?" She shuddered.
Walter stepped in front of the crying woman once more, his tone stern and borderline threatening, "I believe you two should leave."
"Walt-"
"It's alright Barbara, they wouldn't understand what's going on..." Strickler looked at Dr. Lake as he spoke.
This seemingly prompted the doctor to change her tune entirely, walking towards the front door to look at the teenagers.
"Actually kids, I'm sorry but you should leave...I know you're worried about Jim but he'll text you I'm sure...he's...he's fine." Her voice hinted she was uncertain, but she stood strong.
Before either if them could protest, both Toby and Claire had had the door slammed in their face. They wanted to retaliate, there was something fishy going on, but both agreed that sticking to their plan B was probably the best option. If the adults wouldn't help, they'd find the answers themselves.
"So, we uhh...gonna go find Aja and Krel? They said they'd meet me tonight." Claire asked.
"Sure...but don't tell them about Jimbo. Seriously." Toby responded with a serious look in his eyes.
Claire just nodded and pulled out her phone to text the new kids when she saw she had five missed calls and two texts off Mary. Her phone began to ring again and with a sigh, Claire reluctantly answered.
"Hey Mare, what's up?"
"Omfg Claire Bear like why did it take you so long to answer?!"
"Sorry, I was a bit preoccupied...what's going on?"
"Uhh what's going on?? Like omg Claire did your brain fall out or some shit?! Huuuuge party at Steve's tonight! Everyone is here, you said you'd come girl! So where are you?"
"Oh fudgeknuckle- that's tonight? I'm not sure if it's a good idea I come...I've been really invested in this class project."
"Laaaaame. If you're worried that Steve wouldn't let you drag Tony along with you then like just bring him! Get yourself a break omg!"
Toby tapped Claire's shoulder and mouthed, "What's up?"
She placed her hand over the microphone and whispered back, "That stupid party at Steve's is tonight. I agreed to go ages ago but kinda forgot...I don't really wanna go anyway. But apparently everyone's there."
"You kidding Nuñez? This is great! We should go." Toby replied.
"Why?"
"If everyone is there...maybe that's where Jim went? I'm not certain since there was definitely something shady going on with Strickler and Dr. L, but maybe it's worth just checking? Then we can check out the bookstore and find Aja and Krel."
Claire hesitated, "Fine...but this very much goes against our plans. We won't find those trolls at the party."
"Claire?!"
Claire put her phone back to her ear, feigning a happy voice, "Hey Mary, sorry just texting my mom real quick. But yeah, I'm coming and I'm bringing Toby."
"Omgggg great! Darce and I are here, plus I heard that Steve told Logan who told Seamus who told Shannon who told Darce who told me that that stupid 90s reject Jim is gonna be here. Apparently Steve invited him so it looks like he's got like compassion or some shit just so he's a shoe-in for Spring Fling King."
"Jim's there?"
"Well I haven't seen him yet, but like he said he'd come so yah. We can totes set you two up. Oh and also those two new kids are here too. Steve is proper going for the blonde one."
"I hope he does show up. Wait? The Tarrons are there?!"
"Yes. Uh Claire Bear are you like going deaf or something? I literally just said that. But ffs girl, get your ass here ASAP, you're missing out on all the fun!"
"Fine, we're on our way."
She hung up the call and mimed gagging Mary jokingly at Toby. Domzalski laughed a little. Both began to head to Steve's place slowly.
Sometime later they reached their destination. Steve's house looked packed. The bass from the music was so intense it could be felt from outside the property. Claire and Toby exchanged a slightly overwhelmed look and walked up to the front door, ringing the doorbell. Both hoped this would yield slightly more success than their attempt at getting information from Jim's mom.
The door was answered by a clearly tipsy Steve, who threw his arms up when he saw them.
"Claireeeee! You made it! And so did Dumb-zalski...um I mean Toby you came too, that's just great."
"Hey Steve." Claire fake smiled as she passed him in the hallway and walked into the thumping bass of the party.
"Thanks." Toby groaned sarcastically as he followed Claire.
The rooms were absolutely packed. People from Arcadia Oaks High and Arcadia Oaks Academy were in attendance. Students were dancing, drinking, playing party games, chatting. Looking over the crowds, there was no clear sign of Jim. But that wasn't enough to deter the newly formed dynamic duo of detectives. Toby suggested they split up to cover more ground between them, then reconvene in about an hour when they'd found something out. Claire nodded awkwardly, nervously staring down at the crowd. She watched Toby disappear into the sea of people. They almost seemed to completely swallow him up.
Okay Claire, you've got this. She reassured herself and stepped into a small group, trying to search for Mary. She knew Mary would have more details. Focus on the objective. Find Mary, speak to her, get out. Simple!
However, Claire struggled to keep her focus on the task at hand. The room around her was too full, too loud and it began to hurt her head. The strobing lights and bass were getting to be too much. She had to escape. But everywhere she turned there were just hordes of partying teenagers. They blocked every possible route out. She began to grip at her scalp and made a beeline for the far corner of the room.
She found a spot behind a chair with fewer people where she cowered, doubled over. Her fingers tugged at her dark hair as she rocked backwards and forwards to try and soothe herself a bit. This was hell.
She flinched when moments later, she felt a hand touch her shoulder. Her deep brown irises drifted upwards to meet with a soft grey-blue stare on concern.
"Claire?" A gentle European accent asked.
Claire snivelled and backed away further into the corner, visibly shaking. Aja responded by removing her hand from the girl's shoulder and sitting down off to one side. Just close enough to be heard though. The music was a little quieter in this corner.
"I'm glad you're here. The blonde oaf invited Krel and me to this lively celebration, but I don't really know anyone here. So I'm glad I found you here." Aja spoke in a calm voice.
"I was gonna text you to meet me and Toby...so we could go and look at stuff..." Claire mumbled into her jacket, "But you'd clearly rather be here where it's loud and peopley."
Aja tilted her head, "No? I asked the Steve if you were coming and he said you would be here with that girl Mary."
The platinum blonde offered up a kind smile. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a small fuzzy thing, handing it over to Claire. Nuñez took it nervously, inspecting it closer to find it was a tiny pom-pom keychain. She began to play with it between her fingers, the soft fibres helping to dispell a bit of her panic, grounding her to the here and now.
"I've never really felt something fluffy before, but it was very relaxing to spin in my hand," Tarron confessed, "I got really excited when I found this furry ball on a chain at the food library on the street corner. I was surprised to see that they offer more than just consumables!"
"You've never seen a pom-pom before?" Claire asked back with a slight smile.
"Pom-pom? That is the name?"
"Yeah." Claire giggled a bit.
"Pom-pom...pompompompompompompom! Ooh, I love this pom-pom word! It is most lively to say! Pom-pom!" Aja's grin extended across her cheeks.
Claire handed the keychain back to Aja remarking, "I like soft textures too. Sometimes when it gets too loud or overwhelming, it feels like my brain is gonna implode...I just have to escape...like the ground is gonna swallow me whole. But then I find something like my favourite blanket...it's a good fabric and a good colour. It makes me feel safe and I feel a little less lost."
"Oh, your head is going to implode?! I'm sure I can help stop that happening. I did not think human brains could be like that." Aja answered.
Claire giggled more. She'd only met Aja the day or so before but she just felt so...comfortable...with her. It was rare she felt this way about anyone. Only other person she'd ever felt so safe around was...Jim. This made the teen girl freeze up. She'd known Jim years (even if they'd barely spoken to one another and even if now she felt as if she hardly knew him). She'd had time to develop those feelings. It couldn't be right to suddenly feel the same about Aja, right? Yet here she was, staring with intense admiration at this girl she'd just met. There was just some almost otherworldly quality about her and Claire was fascinated by it. In fact, she'd been so absorbed by her thoughts that she hadn't noticed Aja slide closer and start staring at her forehead.
"Ah! Jeez!" Nuñez jumped out of her skin, "What're you doing?"
"Oh, sorry. I was trying to see if I could see any traces of explosives so I can remove them and stop your brain imploding." Aja told her, completely serious.
"Aja, it's just a metaphor! My brain isn't actually gonna implode or explode."
Aja blinked and moved away. She mouthed sorry, her face flushing lurid crimson in embarrassment. She mouthed a quick apology and jumped to her feet, melting into the vast jungle of people dancing. Claire noticed Aja had dropped what looked like a strange blend of a protractor and a knuckle duster. She picked it up delicately, trying to run after the blonde haired girl.
"Aja, wait! You dropped something!" She tried to shout.
Her voice simply vanished into the continuous swirling beat of the music. She lost her footing in her attempt to navigate the mass of people, tripping forward. Panic set in. She briefly made eye contact with a tall, skinny guy with dyed hair who was chatting in a group to one side of her. In one rapid smooth move, the stranger had suddenly been there to catch her in the crook of his elbow and spin her round so she was standing upright again. After she'd had a moment to steady herself, Claire looked at the guy. It was the waiter from Benoit's and the clerk from the bookstore. The same guy that she and Toby had hoped to speak with.
"You alright there love?" He asked in a deep British accent.
"Y-yeah, thanks." She stammered.
Claire stared at the guy for a solid few minutes. Her stress levels began to skyrocket. The boy looked a tad baffled. He gave her a cup of water, pulling her to the side so she could sit down and have a breather. To her surprise, Toby was already there, looking wound up. Claire guessed he'd either had a run-in with Steve and/or Mary, so she didn't blame him. Darci was next to him and the two were talking quietly.
"Claire! Are you okay?" Darci threw her arms round her best friend.
"Not overly, but I'll handle it," She replied, "You alright Toby?"
"Yeah. I tried talking to Mary about what she knew and she got mad. Started ranting. She saw you with Aja."
"Why would that make her mad?"
Darci looked at Claire sharply, "Because Mary thinks she likes Aja. She's got it in her head that you knew that and were just trynna get in there first to make her jealous because of the stuff with Jim."
"Well that sounds like nonsense," The guy chimed in, "I'm pretty sure your friend here didn't know judging by the look on her face."
All of them turned to face him. Toby gave Claire a knowing glance, but she dismissed him for now.
"Aren't you from Arcadia Oaks Academy?" Darci inquired.
"Yeah, but I'm not big into all that school rivalry crap," He shrugged, "Name's Douxie."
"Darci," She greeted him in turn, "and these are two people from my class; my best friend Claire and this is Toby. Do you know Steve?"
"Nope. I know the girl DJ'ing so she dragged me along as her plus one. I didn't expect to run into other people from my school here." Douxie chuckled.
Douxie brushed his hair from his face and once more made eye contact with Claire. Something seemed to click. For a split second both of them had this strange feeling, a sense. Claire didn't know what it meant but she was now even more intrigued by him, as if he had larger ties to all this stuff with Jim. Before she could press him further, he excused himself to go and speak with the DJ, sliding Claire a card with his number on.
"People like us should stick together, give me a call when you have the time." He whispered to her as he left.
Claire blinked and put it in her pocket, nodding at Toby. They both said their goodbyes to Darci, deciding now was as good a time as any to leave. Especially before Claire's parents caught wind of the fact she was at the party.
The duo walked into cool night air, finally free from the loud, stuffy, packed room. They started to walk to their houses, Claire showing Toby the number and telling him what Douxie had said. An agreement was made to talk about it more tomorrow however since neither of them had the energy to cope with anything else right now. Toby seemed to catch Claire deep in thought.
"What's got you so pent up Scully?" He asked her, trying to lift her mood.
Claire shook her head, maintaining the silence again, until she finally piped up, "I'm just...thinking about someone."
"You wanna talk about it? You know, I'm pretty good to chat with about these sorts of things." The boy grinned.
"I'm...I feel so torn up. I've liked Jim for ages but never had the courage to say anything to him about it. He's so kind and gentle, funny too. But now it's like I barely know him. He's so distant and secretive. It sucks. But then...I met Aja. I know I've just met her but she's so beautiful and we spoke earlier...she's weird but it's so sweet and I just...I dunno." She sighed.
Toby stopped her, sitting down on a nearby bench. She joined him awkwardly.
"You know Nuñez, I know what you mean about Jim. I'll admit, I've had a thing for Jim since we were about 12. How could you not like him? He's so cute. I was kinda jealous he always liked you and not me. But now? It's like I barely know him, like you said. I spent ages in denial of my feelings though. I mean, I'd get bullied for being a guy who liked a guy. But I know I love him. It's nothing that I should be ashamed of. I'll never stop loving him. I just hope one day he sees me the same way, when all this bullshit blows over." Toby was looking down at his knees.
"I had no idea you felt that way. But if it makes you feel any better...I'm not gonna judge you for it. I mean, fucking hell, here I am clearly crushing on a girl I just met!" Claire smiled at him, placing her hand on his shoulder, "I'm so scared of what my parents would say, what all my friends would say if they knew that I'm bisexual. I can't tell anyone gahhh. I mean, Mary is questioning her sexuality but she'd end up telling literally everyone if I mentioned it to her!"
"You just told me. Also yeah, Mary would definitely tell everyone."
"Oh fudgeknuckle!" Claire pulled her collar up to her face.
"Hey, chill Claire, it's okay. I'm pansexual myself. I won't judge you either."
"You really mean that?" Claire's eyes began to water.
"Of course you dolt! Us queer folk gotta have each other's backs, especially closeted folk." Toby opened his arms up to give her a hug.
"Yeah," She threw her arms around him, weeping with joy, "I'm glad I'm not alone anymore."
Their embrace finished, both smiling knowing they had a friend who they could finally be open in front of. They now just needed to solve the mystery of what was happening with Jim.
"So, you like Aja, huh?" Toby teased her lighthearted as they started walking again.
"Toby!" She laughed, "But yeah, I think I do."
They both chatted most of the way home before they headed their separate ways. Tomorrow the hunt for Jim continued.
But as they walked away, both tried to ignore the impending sense of doom that they had. Thinking about stuff with Jim made them feel unnerved. Something was definitely wrong.
Toby had waved Claire off and started walking to his house until he heard rustling in the bushes.
"Psst, master Toby!"
Blinky was in the hedge to the side of his house and beckoned him over.
"Weird troll dude? What are you doing here?" Toby questioned.
"Blinkous Galadrigal! Also, I don't have much time to explain, I just need you to come with me, quickly." Blinky said with urgency.
"Geez, okay!"
Meanwhile, Claire lay back in her bed thinking back to her crush. She settled in to sleep, trying to ignore the strange feeling she'd got from Douxie earlier on. Her eyelids closed. But she couldn't sleep. Instead she pulled her phone out and rang the number he'd written on the card. The dial tone chimed a few times and then the call went through.
"Hello?"
"Hey, is this Douxie? It's Claire from the party."
"Ah, Claire, I was wondering when I'd hear from you. What can I do for you?"
"I need some answers. Why did you give me your number? Why did I get that weird vibe off you? What do you know about Jim?"
"Okay, okay. Look, I can't answer everything right now. Come by the bookstore tomorrow and I'll give you the answers you need."
"You better! Jim's nowhere to be found and any info we can get to help find him is important."
"Jim's missing? Oh fuzzbuckets, this can't be good."