So in this chapter I will start to have more details of the small Easter eggs between the franchises as the mystery begins to develop further, but also even have a few twists and turns involved as well. There will be more characters introduced soon as well not just from this franchise as there will be a certain connection towards certain family members as well as some enemies of the main heroes from this particular series. So yeah, most of the progress going into the series is slowly coming together. I have a draft of the story compiled onto a certain document to remember each detail from the story so I can retrace my steps to bring up the new parts of the book.
After the assembly at the auditorium, the group encounter strange new disturbances as not only our masks slowly come off unintentionally, but also encounter a few bad influences on our group as well. I'll give you a hint. It's a crew of four girls who's leader starts with the letter R. Anyway, sooner or later, we get some new tips about not only our teachers but from the Thea Sisters themselves.
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We were still advancing to the stage as we still had no idea why the Headmaster called for the four of us, but what we did know was that it might put a target on our back soon.
As I was making my way towards the stage leading the group I tripped over something by accident causing Phil and Don behind me to fall onto the floor.
"Ouch! Hey who did that?" Phil groaned as he got up onto his feet.
Don rolled over on his back and saw a mouse who was chuckling from the crowd next to us. She had fair tan light brown fur with long red hair and lime green eyes. She was with three other mice who shared the same smile as the first one. She had a sinful smirk on her face as a few other mice giggled next to her in delight.
Sophie got upset as she looked at the four ladies who on purpose tripped the three of us. She was about to talk some sense into the girl that tripped the three of us, but then Pamela got up from her seat and uttered, "Violence makes us worse on the inside. Don't take your anger out on people who have hurt you or your friends."
Sophie then took a few deep breaths and started to help me and the guys back on our feet. Sophie and Pamela gave a distrustful look to the girl with red hair as she smirked viciously.
We maintained our focus trying to show no emotion at all as we walked up onto the stage in a single filed line as the Headmaster announced us.
"Everyone, these four young mice here might have just got here, but I want to be sure that these four had nothing to do with the crime at my dorm room or my office." Mousus replied with a serious tone. He then turned to the four of us.
"If there was any evidence that you might have done this, there would have been, but there has not been a single trace of it anywhere.
"Now I know I've met you four earlier yesterday in my office but not everyone here has met you yet. I would like you to give out your introductions and tell us, what brings you here to our school." He asked us.
We were a little nervous at that point because of what we so far went through in the first day in the book world. These guys have no idea that the books Thea wrote supposedly about the girls were actually done by another person who came from our world and even wrote her brother's books as well.
At this point, it was no secret that we were going to introduce ourselves to the school as new students but how? It wasn't even the beginning of a new year for these guys. Is it?
Don chuckled a cough up from his throat as he began, "Um, I don't quite understand. You said that our talents is what makes us unique, correct?"
Sophie and Phil were curious to where Don was going with this as the headmaster spoke up.
"Indeed, yes, in fact since you four young mice have shown quite an interest with history and your own motto, To Seek and to Solve, you might be the perfect group to help our school a lot better." Mousus continued.
We were still confused by what the headmaster was talking about. This wasn't exactly what happened in the original books, because usually the Thea Sisters themselves have been the main stars of the show, and it almost felt like tensions were starting to rise up.
"Wait how did you know our own motto?" Phil asked the headmaster.
"Your friend Sophie did, such a talented young woman with knowing facts, although seems a lot of potential in the Social Humanities Fields for a major." Mousus explained.
Meanwhile in the crowd, amongst the Thea Sisters, Violet was shocked that Sophie was mentioned as a possible candidate for a Social Humanities Field applicant. Even though Music and Art was her major, parts of it involved learning the past of both genres. She was starting to clench her fist a tiny bit as she felt a bit of bubbling anger rumble within her mind.
Nicky and Paulina noticed their artistic sister's envious face as they nudged her shoulder.
"Hey Vi, you doing alright?" Paulina asked her.
"Alright? Yeah I'm alright, why wouldn't I be?" Violet whispered back at them, trying to hide the jealousy.
"I believe you are feeling anger inside of you, a mixture of emotions actually." Paulina addressed in her voice as the ceremony continued.
"What? What are you talking about?" Violet asked as she heard the announcements about to be concluded.
"I believe with the special aids from our History, English, and Investigative Journalism professors, you four will reach to new heights in no time!" Mousus exclaimed as he concluded talking to the four of us.
As he turned to the whole school he then gave out one last message before the ceremony finished. "I wish you all luck on the papers for the special trip to Norway as I look forward to being one of the judges to read your work and knowledge of creativity. You four are free to go." He replied to us as we smiled a bit knowing the stress was over for now.
As we were getting off the stage, Ruby called out from the crowd and asked, "What about the incident back at your dorm room? Couldn't they be the ones who threatened you last night?"
Everyone gasped at this, but the headmaster looked at the four of us carefully with his wise eyes as he went to report his answer back at the foxed haired rodent. "Just because these four are new students to our prestigious academy, I don't believe that they were responsible for what happened last night. There is not enough evidence to deduce any connection with their arrival."
"But if you make any sudden move to these four or show them a sign of complete disrespect, I'll have to give you a severe form of punishment." He responded with a serious tone and look.
"Does anyone remember rules 6 and 8?" He announced.
Nicky from the crowd raised her hand as he pointed to her.
"Yes sir, they are any rodent from any religion that come here, we respect their traditions, and that if they are students here as well as the rest of us are, the beliefs and culture of our religion must be respected at all times." She squeaked with pride and bravery.
"Excellent response Nicky, now as for the rest of you, I wish you all good luck as the field trip to Norway leaves in four days, so be sure to keep up your reports and that special writing assignment. This assembly is now concluded, everyone is dismissed." Mousus proudly responded.
The rest of the school applauded to not only the announcement but to Nicky's announcing the schools important two rules as Pamela blew a cheerful whistle with her fingers and Ruby gave a disgustful face of humiliation. Her teammates seemed to be impressed with Nicky's speech but Ruby spat back as she slapped their hands to stop clapping and squeaked with rage. "What are you cheering for?"
"Sorry Ruby." They muttered resentfully.
"Don't get too cheesy with those new rodents, I know they are up to no good. More competition for our sake, although they could be an interesting tactic to get these no good Thea Sister girls off our backs for sure! Just give them time, this might be interesting to watch." Ruby said glaring at her crew as she chuckled a wicked chuckle from her sinister smile at the four of us.
The five Thea Sister friends from the audience were really astounded by what they heard from the Headmaster as the teachers looked at themselves with complete agreement.
"Way to go girl, you are our rockstar!" Pamela squeaked happily patting her Aussie friend on the back.
"Thanks, it was no big deal, even though those four mice are unfamiliar, they seem unique in some way." Nicky complimented.
"You want to talk to them more and ask them about their activities?" Paulina asked her.
"In my opinion, maybe we should give them some space for right now, I'm not sure if they are going to do the writing competition with the rest of the mice here in the school." Violet replied with a thinking cap on.
While the four of us were making our way off the stage, someone approached us and asked us to come see them in their office.
It was Professor Rattcliff, the English teacher. The same professor that Sophie was currently learning from at the moment.
"Oh um professor, you wanted to talk to us?" Sophie exclaimed.
"Of course, please right this way to my classroom, I'll explain everything in exact detail very soon." She spoke with her serious look on her face as she let us follower her.
As we walked out of the auditorium, the five friends noticed us and thought about following us for a bit more questioning
We followed her down the hall as Phil felt a buzzing in his jacket. It was the EMF reader we had earlier in our rooms, but we believed it was either malfunctioning or going off for real like a bloodhound catching a suspicious scent in the air.
The good news was it had a silent mode just like a normal iphone, so the teacher never heard it. But Phil had a bad feeling about this, since in the past, luck wasn't always on the detectives' side. Sooner or later, disaster could strike us and our cover.
While the four of us were talking to Professor Rattcliff, the Thea Sisters were curious about what the English teacher wanted to say to us.
Violet wanted to talk to Sophie and the rest of us about the writing competition that was announced today so they can understand why we wanted to give it a try.
Pamela was sensing the fire in Violet's brain and heart and as a peace maker she wanted to resolve this with nonviolence.
"Violet, are you sure squeaking your way with the new girl about the papers is a good idea?" Pamela asked her Chinese friend.
Nicky and Colette noticed their friend too as she was being a little tempered at the moment, but took a deep breath.
"Hey Pam might have a point Vi, you look redder than a precious ruby on a silk dress or blouse." Colette pointed out supporting her Tanzanian roommate.
"Look, I know this sounds cheddar balls but an opportunity that means so much to you, taken away, can hurt a lot. She might be new to this school along with her gang, but I really want to go to Norway with the rest of you because of our amazing times together as a team." Violet confessed having her friends surprised looks on their faces.
"What of course we care about you Violet, your writing skills are phenomenal when it comes to the arts, painting, violinist, there is nothing you can't do!" Nicky added to the conversation.
Violet seemed to be smiling a bit from what Nicky said to her and she was starting to feel a bit better, but something nagged at her. The new boy with the green sweater, was he really an artist? Was he that good? "Anyway, I'm going to see if I can talk to Don about his skills. Still I am curious if he is good as his friends say." Violet declared with a new sense of pride on her snout.
"That's the spirit! I knew you wouldn't let your jealousy get the better of you!" Pamela cheered delightfully.
Paulina on the other hand was smiling at them for having Violet's back but then heard the commotion within the teacher's office. Her scientific brain got very curious as she wanted to know what exactly the teacher wanted to tell us in her office.
"Hey Pauly, what are you doing?" Nicky asked noticing her fellow Greenmice comrade kneeling down on the ground while rummaging through her backpack.
"I'm going to try and listen to hear what those four students are up to." She spoke as she was still searching in her backpack.
"Are you sure that's a good idea? You do realize that we could be in trouble here." Colette muttered nervously scratching the back of her head.
"I am still trying to get insights on their interesting activity, which can be very special towards our future investigations." Their Peruvian friend squeaked in a suspicious tone.
After a few more seconds, she had a special cup with her which when applied to a thin surface, you can hear commotion from the other side to eavesdrop on the conversation.
Paulina pressed her ear on the smaller side of the cup to listen in on the conversation between us and Professor Rattcliff.
We were discussing the details about how we can contribute to the writing competition as we learned more about the rules. One thing is, it can't be based off of something that is real, but it can be up to imagination. What else we need to do is that it does not have anything harmful and disgusting in any form such as grotesque or rated-R material like you see in horror movies.
It wasn't much of a big surprise because still we had to keep our own thoughts a secret, but a special thinking idea was going off in both Sophie's and Don's brains.
We could do either poetry or fictional stories as long as we stick to the guidelines. Everything seemed to be going ok until Phil decided to ask Mrs. Rattcliff something off track. "Sorry if this may seem not on topic, but have you seen other strange things happen here recently besides what happened to Professor Mosus' office and main door?"
"Hmmm well, not that I'm aware of, but I did notice the janitor, Mr. Whale, cleaning the halls this morning which is odd because he usually cleans the halls every evening. What is this all about exactly?" The teacher then got more curious about our questions.
"Umm well we didn't expect this to happen as we're new here." Don spoke up.
"Yeah, and it seems a little unorthodox to have a strange investigation appear after our arrival and an announcement about a writing competition." Phil further added.
Rattcliff sat there for a moment there as she was thinking carefully at what we said to her, er squeaked. She then spoke up again and questioned whether we were up to something or just trying to help the academy.
"It's no worries, I'm sure that everyone here will for sure get a grand fiasco when it comes to academics." I replied voicing my opinion on the topic.
Paulina backed away from the door and was very curious about what we were talking about. The way how we used our words and what we wanted to know from the professor seemed conspicuous. However, the teacher thought that since we wanted to look our best and figured we expected the other faculty members wanted to see excellence, seemed understandable. She then dismissed us with a nod and told us that Professor Stilton wanted us in her office in a few hours.
"What did you find out girl?" Nicky asked Paulina who stepped a few paces from the door.
"I learned that those four new students were going to enter the contest even though they were new, but nothing else squeaked out of the ordinary." Paulina said with an upset look.
"Hey that's alright, we don't always get the investigation concluded from one source. Remember, we've got to find more evidence to convince us that these four didn't ransack the Headmaster's office and dorm door." Violet replied as she patted Paulina's shoulder.
"What do you intend we should do?" Pamela asked them, which they all thought carefully.
While the five of them thought carefully, Colette still had her powder case in her pocket as she pulled it out and placed some over her face.
Then a light bulb went off in Paulina's head. "I think I have an idea." She squeaked as she snapped her fingers.
"What? You want to have a bit of makeover on your face?" the French mousette spoke as she put her power case back in her pocket.
"What? No no that's not what I mean. What I mean is that we're going to need to get a little closer to that group in this room to learn more about what is going on, since I felt like ever since Thea returned to the school a few weeks ago, something ain't right." Paulina corrected her French associate.
"So what are you suggesting then?" Nicky asked Paulina.
"I suggest we follow their moves, because lately, they've been looking at us strangely, especially their lone girl member." Paulina then replied.
The others were confused at this and were skeptical about the idea because that idea with new students was off. Even though they were acting strangely before they're on unfamiliar grounds as new students.
"Why are you interested in following them? Aren't they new students?" Pamela spoke confusingly.
"Well I know it seems irrational, but maybe they know something about this mystery than we realize." Paulina squeaked trying to prove her point.
"I think it's just a coincidence that they're here and that they just want to make new friends." Violet spoke.
As they were talking amongst themselves, we the Mad Hatters walked out of Professor Rattcliff's office as we felt different after talking to her. It wasn't too bad and even though the rules were clear we didn't have to go for our own mysteries to write the stories. But something else was worrying on our minds. The meters on our devices were going off again as they felt strange substances near a particular section of the school. We then walked a little faster just to get to a quieter space. This made the Thea Sisters even more curious.
"Still think it's a coincidence? Paulina asked as the other four girls looked at us walking down the hall quickly with our own devices at hand.
"I don't know Pauly, but I'm up with following them and interacting with them." Colette said.
Nicky, Pamela, and Violet looked at Colette as if she was a different person.
"Wait what? Why? Did you put too much makeup on yourself?" Violet asked while groaning.
"No Violet, I know when you get grouchy on me for me being too sassy. Ne sois pas si caniche, chérie." Colette spoke back.
"Hey hey, ladies, maybe Paulina is right, we should just give those four some room to breath but we should talk to them, just to see what's up." Pamela muttered as she felt a growl from her stomach.
"We should talk to them, and see more of their strengths. But we'll need a discreet approach." Nicky pointed out as she started to get the idea.
"We'll talk to them when they're alone after their next classes. Then we'll get some answers soon enough." Violet agreed on this.
"Um girls, now that we've got this under control, can we go get some breakfast please?! I'm hungry for a banana smoothie and some pancakes." Pamela mumbled as she felt her stomach aching.
The girls groaned but giggled at this as they decided to set their plan into motion after they were all fed. Besides, their announcement silenced almost their hunger!
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Ok phew, there you guys have it. Another chapter completed, I know I might be complicating you guys with this and even I am complicating myself as well. That's the thing with writing. Every writer gets this, either writer's block whether you're stuck on ideas or when you are distracted by other materials and you really need a break from all your hardwork. Soon I'll be getting to more work on this, first I have to finish what's left of my school work. I'm reaching the ninth inning for my final school semester and soon finals will be hitting my way real shortly. Hope I'm prepared for this. In the mean time, feel free to comment to this and feel free if there were parts of the story you liked or didn't like. I'm up for reading all your comments and hearing whatever you wish to tell me. I'm an open book and would love to hear your thoughts about all of this.
Having more ideas spliced into a story can't work unless they fulfill their needs for this. And I have plans in mind set for not only the Thea Sisters but also the Ruby Crew. What else is in store, more references to the books and adventures me and my crew have been on so keep an eye open for those. Anyway, I'm off to bed soon, and once again, I hope you enjoyed the reading I have provided you thus far.