Off to the reviewers!
To moonjava: Thanks.
To Crys Skywalker: I'll consider it...and I was surprised at your review, because (forgive me for gender stereotyping) I thought you were a guy because of all your wrestling fics. And the review cut off your email address, by the way.
Somehow, I am considering moving this story to the Archie category and listing it as a Spider-man crossover. Should I or should I not?
Remember, read and review!
Chapter 5: Reggie Mantle Gets In a Jam
The dawning of the day of the first major chemistry test was greeted by students madly cramming, studying notes, going over textbooks. Except for Reggie Mantle. And he really wasn't worried—Reggie Mantle had a solution for everything.
"Ready for your big test, Mantle?" Archie whispered.
"Course I am," Reggie replied. He held up a small notebook. "With this." Reggie tied a string to the notebook and slipped it out the window next to his seat. "We're all on the honor system, right? Well, I don't have a notebook now, but as soon as the Mad Doctor leaves the room…"
"Well that's cheating!" Archie was outraged. "I should tell Dr. Octavius about this!"
"With all the accidents you've been having with his precious laboratory equipment, I doubt you'll be telling him anything. See ya on the honor roll, carrot-top."
"This school runs on the honor system and I will be leaving the room shortly with the hope you will not cheat," Dr. Octavius announced after passing out the tests. "Even though I disagree with this policy because some students are not to be trusted." The doctor gave Reggie a scathing glance. He knew Mantle, the black-haired boy, was untrustworthy; he had his means of knowing. His tentacle cameras had scanned him over, analyzed his body language, and told him that with 90 percent certainty. But neither the students nor Weatherbee could know about them.
So the doctor simply stalked down the stairs, and stood outside, directly under the window next to Reggie.
The tentacles said they saw something underneath the bushes. Dr. Octavius picked it up. It was a notebook, filled with all the necessary formulas, and it was tied to a string. Octavius deduced that Mantle was holding the other end.
As he was holding the notebook, Octavius felt a tug on the string.
"Now, Freckles, watch the master," Reggie said. "I'll just pull the string, retrieve my notes, and neither the Bee nor the Mad Doctor will be any wiser…oh shit. The damn string's tangled up in the bushes." Reggie tugged on the string some more.
Meanwhile, Octavius was raising himself up on his lower two tentacles like stilts, still holding the notebook with a human hand, determined to catch Mantle in the act.
"I think I just broke off a branch, 'cause this notebook is getting really hard to pull…"
And then Reggie saw a hand, attached to a green trench coat sleeve, attached to the notebook.
"Lost something, Mantle?"
"Reggie, I told you that wasn't a good idea. Now you're taking the test again…in solitary confinement on the top floor, and after school to boot."
"Well how was I to know the Mad Doctor was gonna pull a trick like that?" Reggie fumed to Archie.
"'Cause he notices things. He probably has eyes in the back of his head."
"My mom says that, but I haven't seen eyes in the back of her head."
And so Reggie sat alone in a room on the top floor, tying a string to his notebook and slowly lowering it down and out the window. Even the Mad Doctor wouldn't think I'd pull the same trick twice.
Octavius looked up at the notebook slowly making its way down the wall. Well the statistics were wrong. Lightning does strike twice in the same place.
When he thought Reggie was off his guard, he tore a blank page out of the notebook and wrote on it. Then he took a ball of yarn out of his pocket, bought especially for the purpose, tied one end to the note, tied the other to the original string, and waited for Reggie to pull.
And Reggie pulled.
And pulled.
And pulled.
And pulled and pulled some more.
"Now how is the Mad Doctor screwing with me?" Reggie muttered, his teeth gritted.
And on the end of the string was a note.
You've reached the end of your rope, Mantle. You're getting one week's worth of two hour detentions, refusal of your Winter Dance tickets, and I'm failing you as well. Have a nice day, O.O.
"This is war!" Reggie fumed.
