The Assembly of a Turnabout

Author's Note: Reporters, get your notepads; anchors, get your hairspray! The Yatagarasu is back and they are about to rule the world with their AWESOMENESS!

... That sounds like something Kay would say, Kay should say that.

Anyway, it's good to be back. I hope you're all still reading this, after two months. But I have stayed true to my word and come back at the end of Summer. Well, this is the end to my summer vacation, and that's basically Summer to me, and I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO CAPITALIZE. Sorry. Don't really know what I'm saying.

NEXTALICE! HOW I HAVE MISSED YOU SO! Fabula and I have developed an obsession with Alice in Wonderland as well, so we can fangirl over that some time. And yes... mothers playing Mass Effect. I'm actually watching my sister play Mass Effect right now.

Fabula: I actually have an Alice in Wonderland tea pot3

RECAP: Kay forms Yatagarasu with Ian Cain (tech), Riah Blake (detective), Cody Hackins (actor), Eric Weisner (muscle), and Reese Emmitt (chess player). They choose to rob Blue Screens Inc. after Ian's genius mother is fired. Ron and Desiree DeLite suggest Cody interrogate Vice President Steven Evets. Ian's drunk mother reveals that whatever they should steal is in said VP's office.

Disclaimer: I still don't own the AA series. Two months isn't that long.

Chapter 9

We hadn't really thought everything through.

As in, the day after Ian and Riah's deliberate attempt to get four women drunk, Steven Evets replied to our email, saying he'd absolutely LOVE to meet Earl (Cody) if he was interested in a position.

And Cody really, really didn't want to wear a suit. This was okay considering the fact that we DIDN'T HAVE ONE.

So, yes. I was really beginning to get annoyed with Reese, since she was supposed to help with this stuff. But we would have to make do, since the interview was in two days. Eric and Ian were given the task of finding a suit for Cody to wear. Riah claimed to be working on one of her famous comics, which I finally got to see in the school paper. There was no question that it was professional quality, but my idea of professional might be screwed up since, when I told her, the British artist jerked the paper from my hands and called the work "a bloody disgrace to artistry everywhere".

So I wasn't quite sure what to think the day before the interview, when apparently nothing was done yet. I felt like a bride that didn't have her dress two days before the wedding. Except the one getting married was a 14-year-old boy that refused to wear a suit, much less a dress... but hey, I was just talking about how I felt.

I hadn't seen anyone almost that entire day, not even Ian, who I usually spent most of my time with. It was a little lonely, but exciting too, because I knew that they might be working on the infiltration. Not that I wasn't working on anything... I mean, I had been reading some of my dad's old records... and I'd seen the DeLites again... man, Andrew and Ariel were cute.

But anyway, I hadn't seen Ian that entire day, until right before the bell rang to signal the end of the day. He met me outside my Government class, which I was taking extra pleasure in now that I knew I was helping it and going against it at the same time. He was pacing nervously, even though we were being let out early and I didn't understand why he was there.

"Oh! Hi Kay!" He ran up to me (waiting for people and saying at least a dozen "Excuse me"'s first, of course) and we started walking towards the buses. "No luck on the suit... sorry. My dad... well, you know he wouldn't be one to wear suits. I... am not sure how Eric's doing. He's been at football practice a lot lately. Not a surprise... we've been keeping him away. Hey, is that Riah?"

Indeed it was. She was pacing in front of the principal's office, looking worried. Pacing and looking worried seemed to be the Yatagarasu's pasttime.

"Hey, Riah!" I greeted. "What's up?"

"Cody's gotten arrested for theft!" she exclaimed, ceasing her pacing for only a moment.

"But... but we haven't stolen anything yet!"

"Not Yatagarasu stealing!" she exclaimed. "Like, real stealing! They said he stole a book or something!" Wait, Cody stole a book? Why does that sound familiar?

"But... but it's only a book, isn't it?" Ian asked worriedly. "Like... they're not gonna charge him or anything?"

"She said arrested, Ian!" I yelled at him. "I'm pretty sure you have to file charges to be arrested!"

"Well, I may have exaggerated that a little..." I sighed, now even more irritated with our overall situation than I was an hour ago.

"Well then can someone PLEASE tell me what's real and what's not?"

"Don't get your tizzies in a twist," Riah said calmly. "I don't think he did it. Come on; let's go to the library. That's the crime scene." So we followed an agitated Riah to the library, where Reese seemed to be playing chess with herself. "Reese! How long have you been here?"

"All day," she responded, not even looking at us.

"All day?" I prodded. "What about classes?"

"Free track," she answered, moving the rook.

"What?! How did you- what?" I shook my head disbelievingly. "I thought it was just a myth."

"Silly Kay," Riah laughed. "I had a free track, too."

"What?!" Out of sheer irritation, I spun on Ian. "Did you get one, too?"

"Well... yeah. That's how I was able to wait for you. I was hacking into administrator's computers all day. I think I'm getting better..."

"As awesome as that is for us... what the crap!" Basically, if you got good enough grades on the special tests at the beginning of the year, you got a couple of days where you could skip classes called a free track. I didn't think they existed, though, considering the fact that I didn't get any.

"Reese, if you've been here all day, can you tell us if Cody's been here?" Reese looked at all of us worriedly, as if we were asking her if she saw a murder suspect instead of Cody.

"Well, he might've been here. I've been a little... busy." Her eyes drifted to the chess board.

"Well, where might he have been?" Riah prodded impatiently.

"Um... I think he said hi and went that way." Reese jerked her head to the right. Riah dashed over and examined the section she was pointing at.

"Interesting..." She walked back over to us. Reese, apparently not wanting to be a part of our investigation, hunkered down over the chess board. "Alright. The two books stolen were a recently-obtained, valuable copy of Great Expectations, and a signed copy of The Hunger Games. Hunger Games was in a display case near the desk, but the copy of Great Expectations was on display over here. You could still check it out, though, which is odd. Anyway... aha! Alright, who wants to play lawyer?"

"Me!" I exclaimed, resulting in a ton of shhh's from everyone, even Reese. Wait, where had I heard this before? Anyway, Riah pulled out that sketchpad that she always seemed to take out of nowhere. She scribbled a couple of things down, ripped the sheet out, and shoved it at me.

"Come on! We have to save Freshie!" The three of us began to rush out of the library, but stopped at a certain chess board.

"Hey Reese, wanna see me win my first case?" Reese looked up at us, surprised.

"Well, I kinda need to practice. Nationals are coming up." Her pretty teal eyes drifted to the board.

"You've been practicing all day. You deserve a break. And you're playing yourself, for goodness sake!"

"The best way to prepare your mind is to fi-" Whatever philosophical thing Reese Emmitt was about to say stopped in it's track. I was pretty sure I knew what it was going to be. 'The best way to prepare your mind is to fight it.' But dang it, why didn't she finish? I was getting genuinely irritated.

"Come on. As your boss, I command that you come with us."

"You're... not my boss."

"But I can tell you want to, so come!" I grabbed her wrist to make my statement all the more dramatic and dragged her to the principal's office.

"OBJECTION!" I yelled as we entered, pointing and everything. Mr. Edgeworth would've been proud.

"What the- Miss Faraday, what is the meaning of this?"

"Yeah Kay, what's the meaning of this?"

"Shut up Cody, I'm helping you." I turned to my principal, who I hoped wouldn't expel me. "Sir, I would like to present evidence proving Mr. Hackins' innocence." When he didn't say anything, I decided to continue anyway. "Exhibit A: upon examination of the defendant's fingers, you can clearly see they're covered in ink. There was no ink at either of the crime scenes, but there was some in the comic book section. Exhibit B: the two books stolen were a classic and a popular bestseller. Cody obviously has no interest in classics and has exclaimed multiple times that he refuses to read anything related to pop culture."

"I'm not part of this system!" Cody yelled to enforce my point.

"And Exhibit C: Miss Emmitt here had a free track today and spent all day in the library practicing for the national chess tournament she's qualified for. She remembers seeing the defendant, but in the comic book section, away from the crime scenes. This observation is confirmed by the multiple ink smears on the comic books." Wait... oh my gosh, this was the excuse I gave my mom about how I met everyone. It was really happening. Well, in that case, Mr. Mable was about to say...

"That's pretty impressive, Miss Faraday. You'd be a good lawyer. Unfortunately, it seems that you don't have all the evidence." What? So this is a Phoenix Wright trial now? "You see, Cody was also given a free track today-" Seriously?! "-and Mrs. Kallen recalls him taking two books out of the library, very similar to the ones stolen. He didn't respond, even after she called out to him."

"Freshie, you bloody idiot!" Riah yelled.

"That's not it, I'm telling you!" Cody pleaded. "Those were mine. I was lending them to a friend, but he's not here to testify!"

"Despite all that, you didn't find the books on Cody. You can't prove anything." A smug smile found it's way onto my face as I proved my point.

"That may be true, Miss Faraday, but you forget that this is a school administrator's office and not a courtroom. I am certain that Mr. Hackins stole them and that's good enough for the school board." Well dang it. He had a point there.

"Kay?" Cady said, worried. "What's with that look on your face?"

"Cody... I-"

"HOLD IT!" All of us spun around and, lo and behold, there was Eric, waving an original copy of Great Expectations.

"Why, Mr. Weisner-"

"You don't need to hold Cody anymore, Mr. Mable," Eric assured in his suave voice. "All us football players had a free track-"

"WHAT. THE HECK."

"Quite right, Raven, whatever that means. Anyway, I found Russel Dixon reading this in an obnoxious British accent to the other guys in the locker room."

"Wanker," an offended Riah muttered. Eric walked up to the desk and dropped it down.

"Anyway, is this enough to get Cody off the hook?"

"It does make his story more credible," I pointed out, wanting to still help my client. Mr. Mable sat for a moment, deep in thought.

"Alright, you're off the hook, Mr. Hackins."

"I told you!" he yelled, getting out of his chair. "But all you adults think you can push me around, just 'cause I'm a kid."

"I don't think that at all, Mr. Ha-"

"Save it, principal ma-" At this point, Riah did him the favor of slapping her hand over the freshman's mouth.

"Please forgive him, Mr. Mable. He does this to everyone. It's simply in his nature." The principal looked skeptical for a moment, but my puppy eyes put him over the edge.

"Alright, but only because I feel bad for falsely accusing you." Yeah. Right. Riah's accent and my puppy eyes contributed nothing. "Do not think that I will excuse this behavior in the future."

"I- yes, Mr. Mable."

"Thank you. You're all..." He seemed hesitant to say what he said next, but eventually gave in to his sense of humor. "Court dismissed."


"Well that was fun," Eric admitted as we instinctively walked towards his van. "Why don't we all-"

"Get ice cream?" I asked stoically.

"What? How'd you know?"

"I dunno. Just been feeling a bit psychic lately."

Author's Note: So I went to IMDb to look at the Spiderman movie to see if it said what he meant when he said "free track", but all that really stuck with me was a review that called Peter Parker a "sexy nerd incarnate". So Andrew Garfield was a studmuffin for all nerdy girls, not just me and Fabula...

Thanks for reading and please review!