Standard Disclaimer: Glee is not mine.
Bingo!
As the guys entered the choir room, they all wondered why David had called this emergency meeting. Had somebody died? Did Wes want to rearrange the set list again? The Warblers would never call an emergency meeting without having a good cause. The boys sat in chairs and on couches murmuring quietly amongst themselves while they waited for the rest of the group to trickle through the doors.
Once the final Warbler had entered the room, Wes banged his gavel on the desk and called the meeting to order.
"Gentlemen, please give your undivided attention as Warbler David takes the floor."
"Thank you Councilman," David said solemnly, rising to address the group. "Gentlemen, I'm sure all of you know of my Grandmother, Ms. Edna. If you haven't met her personally, I would almost guarantee that you have enjoyed some of her famous peanut butter cookies."
David paused for a moment to take in the reactions to his statements thus far. Several of the guys were nodding their heads, and Thad even inquired about the woman's health.
"Oh, she's quite well, thank you. Anyway, I requested this emergency meeting because, tonight her monthly book club meeting conflicts with her Monday Night Bingo game, and she has asked me to go in her stead and try to find proof that a man named Lou Ficus is cheating."
"How does one even go about cheating at Bingo?" Trent wondered, crinkling his nose.
"That's what we're going to find out," was David's reply, "That is, if you guys are in."
Later…
Wes and David entered the Community Center wearing their best 'old man' disguises. Wes wore a mustard yellow and brown plaid sweater vest and a fake beard, while David sported a grey cardigan with pleated trousers and a fake mustache. Both boys had chosen to complete these ensembles with glasses and walking canes.
The pair had no trouble getting in thanks to the fake IDs that Flint had Photoshopped for them.
Flint had opted not to participate because he already had a criminal record. Thad and Trent had also opted out of tonight's mission citing homework and the fact that he 'just didn't want to' respectively as their reasons.
The two boys collected their Bingo card packets and sat down behind the man named Lou Ficus. David snapped a quick photo with his cellphone and texted it to Nick. As the Warbler's resident AV nerd, Nick was trying to get into the room where he could view all of the building's security footage. For a Community Center, the place had enough security personnel running around to make the boys suspect that the people running it were up to something shady, say protecting the Declaration of Independence from Nicholas Cage or maybe an old man creating an elaborate Bingo cheating ring or something.
"We have a visual," Wes said into the tiny microphone attached to the headset connected to his walkie-talkie.
"I do as well," Jeff contributed. He was dressed in black and had perched in the branches of an old tree that had grown close to the building. He was watching Ficus through binoculars. "It looks like some of his squares are already stamped."
"I've got Margaret's glasses," Blaine announced. He had been flirting with the Bingo caller for close to half an hour. Ms. Edna had told David that the woman could not see a thing without her glasses. The hope was that if Blaine could get his hands on them, he might be able to use his charm and convince her to let him call out the numbers tonight. "Wes, J, can either of you confirm which numbers Ficus has already marked?"
"He's marked his diagonal from left to right, but I can't read the numbers from here." Jeff responded several minutes later, during which Blaine took to the stage and began to draw out the first numbers.
"B-25."
"I've got that that one!" David whispered excitedly to Wes who was straining to see what was marked on Ficus' card. An old woman to his right motioned for David to 'shush.'
"I've got the security camera zoomed in on his card," Nick's voice echoed through their headsets. "He's got B-32, I-97, free space, G-4, and O-12 marked."
"O-12," Blaine announced to the room, turning the little piece over in his hand. He noticed that there was a tiny yellow mark on the back that was barely visible. 'Jackpot,' he thought to himself as he eyed the bowl of numbers to see if any more of the little marks stood out to him. Into his walkie-talkie headset he murmured a single word, "Pieces."
It wasn't much, but Wes jumped on it.
"Nick, check the cameras. See if you can find anybody tampering with the Bingo pieces."
"On it, Captain," Nick's voice sounded in his ear.
From outside there came a loud crack, followed by glass breaking and what sounded like a colorful stream of mangled curse words. Every single head whipped towards the window in the back of the room.
An announcement was made that a tree had fallen onto the building and that it had only caused minimal damage.
"Eh Jeff, you still alive out there?" Wes asked into his microphone.
"The jig is up, kiddos," an unfamiliar voice answered back.
"The Bingo Caller marked the chips. She's in on it too!" Nick shouted frantically through their headsets. "Blaine, she's on her way now, I think that you should probably run. Abort mission everyone!"
"Only the Captain gets to decide when we abort the mission," Wes answered testily as Margaret the Bingo Caller walked into the room flanked by several security guards. "Abort mission! Abort the mission!"
Chaos ensued as the security guards scrambled through the masses of Bingo players to get to Blaine and the rest of the Warblers.
"The window!" David shouted, removing his sweater in order to wrap it around his fist and punch out the rest of the glass that the tree limb hadn't broken.
"David, we're on the third floor!" Blaine reminded him as the two boys as well as Wes watched the security guards start to close in on them.
"Yeah, but Grandma Edna brought a ladder." David replied with a grin as he stepped over the window ledge and began to climb down. Blaine and Wes watched in awe and then followed, surprised to discover Ms. Edna and her book club waiting for them on the ground below.
"We considered coming in earlier when your friend fell out of the tree, but we didn't want to ruin your operation," Ms. Edna explained once the last boy's feet were on the ground.
"We still don't have any proof," David sighed bitterly, looking up at all of the Bingo participants that were now looking down at them from the window.
"Yes we do," Nick said breathlessly, running up to the group holding out a thumb drive. "It's all right here. Ficus had a deal to share the money with the caller as well as several of the security guards."
"The numbers that are called the most have little yellow dots on the back," Blaine added, "so that the caller is sure to always pick out the right ones."
"Ficus' packet was already stamped when he received it, he just wasn't counting on Margaret losing her glasses." Jeff added, looking a bit worse for wear as he moved out of the grasp of a guilty-looking security guard while gingerly cradling his left arm.
"It's true!" several of the players had looked through the Bingo chip bowl and discovered the yellow dots. Another had apprehended Ficus' card packet and was now displaying the fact that it had indeed been previously stamped.
"I knew he was a cheater!" Ms. Edna announced triumphantly.
"I would have gotten away with it too," Lou Ficus snarled, "if it wasn't for that crazy broad and you meddling kids!"
"How original," Wes sighed, rolling his eyes.
"Come on kids, our work here is done," Ms. Edna declared as she looked proudly at her grandson and his friends. "I have a fresh batch of peanut butter cookies cooling at the house."
END
A/n: Well, that was fun to write. I'm going to leave this marked as 'in progress', because I might come back and write another 'Warbler's Solve a Mystery' one-shot (possibly even a series, I don't know...) at some point in the future.
If you liked this story, please review. If you didn't like this story, please review. I hope everyone has a great week!