Disclaimer: This is a work of fan fiction using characters from Monster High, Ever After High, Disney Descendants, DC Super Hero Girls, and Project MC2 worlds which are trademarked by Mattel, Guru Studio, Disney, Dreamworks Animation's AwesomenessTV and MGA respectively. All characters are created and owned by Mattel, Disney and MGA and I do not claim any ownership over them or their story and it is not purported or believed to be part of the original story canon. This story is for entertainment only.
Episode 28:
Bad Directions
-Twyla-
Twyla was exhausted when Ching finally returned to release her.
Ching escorted her to the infirmary and mumbled, "Remember my words but do not repeat them aloud, understood?"
Twyla nodded absentmindedly, "Yes LT Ching."
Ching nodded and opened the infirmary door, "Montoya you have a visitor."
Montoya called out from the back, "Come in, I'm just finishing up."
Ching and Twyla walked to the back where Montoya sat polishing a chrome robot arm with a cloth.
Montoya glanced up from her work and narrowed her eyes at Twyla's condition, "What did you do, Shih?"
Ching pushed Twyla towards a bed and spoke to Montoya in Chinese. Twyla sat down and watched their discussion.
Montoya shoved away from the table and stood up suddenly. Her face alarmed, she spoke rapidly, her hands moving all over the place as she switched to speaking Spanish. Ching continued to reply in Chinese as she cowered at an increasingly angry Montoya.
Ching gestured towards Twyla and shook her head while speaking in an almost pleading tone with Montoya.
Montoya grabbed a cup and flung the contents at Ching.
Ching wiped her face, "Porque Maria-"
Montoya slapped Ching and pointed towards the door, "I don't want to hear any more of your lies, one was enough and now you want four more. Leave."
Ching held her face and walked towards the door, "I do only what is necessary Maria."
Montoya threw the cup at Ching, "Get out of my infirmary."
Ching turned on her heel and left.
Montoya stomped up to the cup and picked it up sighing heavily, "I wish you hadn't found those things in the dream Sombrita. Things would go much better for you that way."
She turned around and placed the cup on the bedside table, "What did she do to you? Ugh that Shih. It makes me so angry I could spit. She is such a bully, look at you, thin as a rake. I am keeping you overnight. That is final."
-Frankie-
Later that evening, Frankie accompanied by Farrah carried the notes from class towards the infirmary.
Farrah whispered, "I hope Twyla isn't mad at me."
"I'm sure she's forgotten all about it."
"Yes but, I didn't believe her when she said Blondie was in the room and then she got hurt. If I had seen it-"
"Don't blame yourself," Frankie opened the infirmary door, "Come on."
They entered the infirmary and spotted the only bed with a closed partition and walked towards it.
Farrah stopped just outside it and knocked gently upon the wooden frame, "Twyla, are you up and decent?"
"Farrah," Twyla rasped from the other side.
"And Frankie!"
"Ah, yeah, I'm good, come in."
Frankie sighed in relief as she stepped inside, "Oh my ghoul, we were super worried. Crecha told me not to bother but I told her that she had been extra mean lately and that you were still our friend."
Twyla rubbed her forehead and sighed, "Well…huhhhh thanks. I'm fine. Glad you decided to visit."
Frankie smiled and pulled a notebook out of her bag, "This is from Abbey. She would have delivered it herself but well," She leaned forward and whispered, "Her and Lagoona fought earlier and both are too stubborn to go to the infirmary."
Farrah wrung her hands, "Any news on how long you'll be in here?"
"LT Montoya said she wanted to keep me overnight after she fought with LT Ching," Twyla took the notes and skimmed through it, "Wait, did I miss two days of class?"
Frankie nodded, "Yeah. We were super worried and between you and me, Cleo had a mini-meltdown when they found you that morning. She was pissed. You should have seen it."
Twyla raised an eyebrow, "What was Cleo pissed about? Did I get blood on her shoes or something?"
Farrah shook her head, "It was like something out of a nightmare. I'm sorry I didn't believe you when you said Blondie had been there."
Frankie added, "Yeah. Blondie confessed to fighting you in the shadows. That's what Cleo was mad about, you got hurt on her turf. You know Cleo is a queen, it doesn't matter how disloyal you are. If your part of her class, you are part of her domain and she takes care of all the people in her domain."
Twyla hummed thoughtfully, "So, I'm part of her domain. That sort of explains how she can cast light spells around someone's shadow."
Frankie giggled, "Cleo can cast light spells anywhere. In the shadow, on the surface of the water, in the middle of the sky. She's had like, five thousand years to perfect her skill."
Twyla perked up, "Water…hey does Big Blue 1947 in the library mean anything to you?"
Farrah tilted her head, "Did you find a big blue thing in the water?"
Twyla shook her head, "No, I was told to leave it in someone else's dream but I'm not in the mood to try that again."
Frankie furrowed her brow, "Big Blue? Doesn't sound familiar, but I'm sure Ghoulia knows what that means, why?"
Twyla hugged the notebook, "I was tortured and starved in a box for two days because you guys stole a second hand or something. I was really hoping you would know more about that."
Frankie blinked as she stepped backward, "Hands… We gotta bolt, good to see you, Twyla."
Farrah turned and followed, "Take care, Twyla."
Once outside the infirmary, they both made their way to the library. Farrah panted, "Why did you run?"
Frankie turned with eyes wide, "Everything relates to time." She stood in front of the grandfather clock and pointed to its face, "Robecca said when she opened this there was an extra second hand in it, and when Billy pulled it out it shocked him. That's how he got hurt when they were in the library that day."
Farrah gasped, "A clock face!" She turned in circles with her hands raised, "All the tiles have a picture of a clock with five hands. Where else are there clocks? Oh but there was a curse? Then what's under the tiles?"
"Slow down," Frankie put a hand on her shoulder, "We've got a clue from Twyla, remember? Big Blue 1947."
She turned towards the shelves and her jaw dropped, "What is this?"
Farrah shook her head, "Everything in here is based on the size and color of the book. So Big Blue would be in the big blue books section."
Frankie furrowed her brow as Farrah flew up to the aforementioned shelf, "Why is the library organized this way?"
"Koda Jo can't read."
Frankie and Farrah turned to see LT Walker with a trolley full of books. Frankie's lip twitched, "The Captain of a school can't read?"
Walker shrugged as she placed a book on a shelf, "I've been giving her lessons for a while now. I told her to keep practicing, her writing has improved significantly but her reading is terrible. She really doesn't understand alphabetical order. So to encourage her to keep practicing, I make the library pretty." She glanced around, "Looks like a rainbow in here, doesn't it."
Farrah lowered herself to the floor and wrung her hands, "How long have you been in here?"
Walker shrugged as she reached for the shelf Farrah had just explored, "Not long. It seems to me that you girls are looking for this." She placed a big blue book on the table and headed towards the door, "Hope you find what you're looking for, have fun studying."
Farrah's knees buckled and she collapsed on the floor, "Oh my goodness."
Frankie clutched her chest, "Yeah. Almost scared me back to life." She grabbed the book and put it in her bag, "Let's find Ghoulia. I know Cleo didn't want us searching for things anymore but I think we might have just gotten a big break."
Farrah nodded as she stood, "Do you think LT Walker heard everything we said?"
Frankie opened the door, "I'm confident she did, but I don't think we have to worry about her hurting us."
"Hnn. I wonder."
Frankie glanced around the hallway as she opened the door to classroom two, "About what?"
Farrah slung her bag onto a desk, "About the tiles, I mean, we've searched practically the entire school and they all seem to be outside of the teacher's classrooms and offices. I don't think a key to freedom would be there, especially since one of the clues mentions there being four treasures."
Robecca, seated at a table, raised her head, "That was bothering me as well. I think we projected our own wishes onto the tiles without considering its actual function."
Cleo arched a brow as she looked up from her homework, "We are here to study and nothing more. We can speculate next year."
Crecha grunted, "Preach."
Frankie opened the big blue book and smiled at the old parchment there, "Ghoulia if you could do the honors."
Lagoona's eyes widened, "I thought you were going to visit Twyla?"
"We did and she said she was tortured in a box for two days because we stole the second hand."
Robecca furrowed her brow but didn't speak.
Ghoulia groaned and pushed over the translation.
Farrah leaned over and read it, "Hickory dickory dock, one of my hands has stopped. The second is one, the pieces are four. Hickory dickory dock." She frowned, "It sounds like a fairy tale wrote this."
Cleo stuck her nose in the air, "All right, I'll allow you to discuss."
Frankie grinned, "Okay, so if I'm reading these like I'm supposed to, everything is clock-related. The secondhand is a piece, the golden face which may or may not have the brand name George Margetts on it is a piece, the minute is the third piece and the fourth, well that's still a puzzle but it may or may not be related to the tiles."
Cleo nodded, "We know that the face needs to be drained of its blood so we can gain our freedom but we still have no way of knowing where it is. If it is in the treasury as the note says it will be impossible to find."
Frankie shook her head, "If the second hand and minute hand have been removed it will be a funny looking watch."
"True," Cleo pursed her lips, "But that does not explain how it all relates to the tiles. Why were they such a big deal?"
Frankie rose from her seat and went to the door.
"Where are you going?" Cleo sighed in exasperation.
Frankie pointed down the hall, "There is a tile just outside the infirmary and LT Bonny's class. I'm going to examine it."
Crecha scowled, "I'll go with you, just in case it does something funny."
Frankie made her way to a tile and squatted down beside it, "All this fuss for a simple stone carving." She reached down and ran her hand over it. A surge of red electricity bit her hand. She pulled back and winced as a capital I formed on the back of her hand.
Crecha frowned, "It marked you."
Frankie stood up as the pulse of foreign static forced her hand to bend unnaturally, "Yeah, that's not all its doing."
"It's hurting you?"
"Yeah."
"Let's go back to Farrah to heal, I get the feeling that this shouldn't be seen by a teacher."
Frankie cracked a pained smile, "Yeah, I was getting the same type of feeling."
