The First Assignment Apparatus

Seba slept in his bed, snug on the very confines of his own pillow. It was after yesterday's adventure, where he and the Thea Sisters rescued Professor Sparkle from the underground viking traps. With the adventure concluded, he was able to rest. Sure, there was the assignment they were given. But that can wait. Vince Guymouse won't be able to wake everyone up with his terrible singing.

The alarm went off in his clock. Seba merely groaned as he lazily slapped the button of the alarm. Looking at the time, it read '7:15'. He smiled sleepily. Just a few more minutes would do.

The Thea Sisters were standing outside of Seba's room. They had repeatedly knocked on the door as they waited for their male friend to get up.

"What's taking him so long? It's been half-an hour!" Nicky exclaimed, starting to feel annoyed. They needed to meet up at 8 to begin their assignment. However, Seba wasn't there and it's already 8:30. They assumed that he had finished breakfast and went to the library. However, he wasn't there. Bad enough that Midge says that she didn't see him.

"His door's locked. He could be out of the campus for all we know." Paulina said.

Violet shook her head. "That's not possible. I can hear him snoring."

Pamela growled. "That's it!" She began to slam on the door. "Seba, open this door! Don't make me do this or so help me, I'll-"

"Dear Gouda, what is the commotion about?"

The mouselets turned to see Professor de Mousus.

"Professor, do you have an extra key to Seba's dorm room?" asked Colette.

"Whatever do you need it for, young mouselings?" the headmaster asked.

"We were supposed to meet up at the library to write our first assignment, but we think that Seba had overslept." she answered. "We need to wake him up."

The professor rubbed his snout in thought. "That is becoming quite a habit. Alright. I think I have a spare key with me." He took out his set of keys to find the right key. The Thea Sisters wondered how many keys he had with him. Finally, he took out the key and handed it to Colette. "Use it wisely." With that, he walked off.

Slowly, Colette placed the key in the lock and gently turned it.

CLICK

The door was unlocked as she slowly opened the door. There he was, sleeping peacefully in dreamland. Pamela had an idea.

She ran to Seba's bed and jumped on him. "Wake up, Seba!" she yelled.

BAM!

The human was wide awake, overwhelmed by a crushing weight. Flailing around the bed, he tried to get up to no avail.

"We've been waiting long enough for you to get up! Do you realize that we had to skip breakfast just to wait for you to get up?!" she exclaimed, understandably irate.

Seba turned his head up to see Pamela glaring at him. "Of course you'd be mad for missing breakfast." he muttered.

"You're right I am!" she retorted.

"Pam, I think you should get off him. You're crushing him." Paulina suggested, feeling worried.

"He deserves it!" Pamela replied. "I was looking forward to pancakes!"

"True, but we should let him get changed. We don't want to waste anymore time now, do we?" Violet, the ever rational mouse, reminded.

Pamela grumbled, but complied as she got up. "You better hurry up, Seba."

Seba, now free, stumbled off the bed and went to get the clothing out from his wardrobe.

"You should really do something about the decor in your room. It could use some sprucing up." Colette commented, looking around the room.

Seba shook his head. "No point, really. It's bound to get messy when I sleep." With that, he went into the shower.

The girls decided to take this time to look around their human friend's room. Sure, it was really plain but the belongings there were actually quite interesting. There was a pile of drawings on his desk where they were rather accurate and detailed. Drawings of several mice in everyday life, fantasy and sci-fi life and in imaginative scenarios. Stuff like winning the lottery or solving a noir film crime.

There was a photograph or what looked like a young Seba with two other older humans. He looked really different in the picture. Maybe it's because they were used to him wearing gothic punk clothing. Here, he was dressed up as any average adolescent. Still, who were these two people beside him? One looked very fit and built, having short black hair while the other was quite slender with also black hair, but longer.

Seba had gotten out of the bathroom, changed into his usual outfit.

"Yo, I'm ready." Seba said.

"Say, Seba." Nicky said.

"Hmm?"

"I was wondering if we could ask you a quick question."

"Shoot."

"Who are those two people in that picture?" She asked as she pointed towards the photo.

Seba looked over. "Those are my parents. What got your attention?"

"Oh, just curious. We've never seen any other humans besides you." Paulina answered.

The boy shrugged. "That's fair. If you ask me how they're like, they're pretty much one of the coolest people ever."

"Do you stay in touch with them?" Violet asked.

He shrugged. They were confused. What did the shrug mean? He looked at the clock. "Whoa, we better get to our assignment. Up, up and away!" With that, he marched out of the room.

Nicky followed out. "We could've done it if someone hadn't overslept!"

"That's not my fault!" Seba exclaimed as the others left as well.

"Oh, and whose fault was it?"

"It was the alarm clock's fault." he answered.

"It was the alarm clocks fault, was it?" Nicky repeated dryly.

"Of course! If it was louder, I wouldn't have overslept!" he reasoned.

The Thea Sisters gave him a deadpanned look.

"That's the worst excuse I've ever heard." Violet remarked dryly.

Seba sighed as he locked his bedroom door. "By the way, how did you girls get into my room?"

"Professor de Mousus gave us a spare key." Colette answered.

"Whyyyy?" he dragged on, his tone showing exasperation. The mouselets rolling their eyes.

The library was almost empty, but they still needed to follow the rules. One of the most important rules was to keep your voice down.

Or be quiet.

Of course, nobody can do the latter since whispering was the only way to communicate.

Seba and the Thea Sisters were gathered in one table, their notebooks and laptops sprawled all over as they worked on their assignments. They decided to begin their assignments by writing a small, brief profile of themselves. Considering that the mouselings were roommates, they knew each other slightly better. However, they were curious to know their human friend more. The reason why they decided to suggest writing small profiles.

When Seba was done, they decided to read it over.

Name: Sebastian

Nickname: "The All-Knowing" Seba

Nationality: American

Ambition: Comic book artist

Interests: Drawing, training, writing and sleeping

Strengths: Martial artist and keen intellect

Weaknesses: Lazy

Secret: -Blank-

The girls looked at him, slightly surprised. Obviously, they had questions about him.

"You do martial arts?" Nicky asked.

"Yeah. I'm already considered a master at boxing, so now I'm training in kickboxing," he answered. "Still, I'm quite eager to learn more martial arts styles."

Reading back at his profile, they noticed that the secrets section is blank.

"I noticed that the secrets section in your profile is blank." Violet stated.

"Yeah. I mean, who would be dumb enough to actually put down a secret of theirs?" he replied.

Paulina shook her head. "Maybe we should have written it as 'fun fact'."

Nicky gave an uncertain look. "Considering that my fact isn't fun at all, 'fact' should just do enough."

With that, 'secret' was crossed out and switched to 'fact'. Seba shrugged and written it down.

"Done." he said. The girls went to see what he wrote.

Fact: Smokes

The looks of shock on their faces were an indication that Seba knew it was a bad idea to write that down.

"YOU SMOKE?!" they exclaimed, causing him to jump out of his seat.

"SHHH!" the librarian scolded.

"You smoke?!" the Thea Sisters hissed.

He looked at them. "Yeah. I am of the legal age, aren't I?"

Paulina shook her head. "It's bad for the environment." As she and Nicky were members of Green Mice, they was willing to protect the earth.

Nicky nodded in agreement. "And your health."

"Look, I'll be fine." he tried to assure them.

Pamela gave a frown. "That won't stop us from being worried and concern for you."

Seba raised an eyebrow. "You don't have to, you know?"

"As your friends, we have a right to be worried." Violet said.

"Imagine how bad you'll look when you smoke too much." Colette shuddered.

The human sighed. There was no winning this, wasn't there? "Look. If it'll make you all relieved, I'll throw my cigarettes away after we finish the assignment. Alright?"

The Thea Sisters didn't look convinced, but decided to drop the subject. Right now, they had an assignment to do.

Afterwards, they had finished writing their assignment down. However the next day...

"Seba?" a voice called out.

"Hmm?" he turned around to see Thea Stilton. "Thea? You're back from your trip already?"

She nodded. "Listen, I need to talk to you about that habit of yours."

He raised his eyebrow. "Habit?"

"You shouldn't really smoke, you know? It's quite dangerous and hazardous to your health."

Seba's eyes widened as he groaned. He shouldn't have written that down. It might as well been kept a secret.

Operation: Cigarette Dispense

The Thea Sisters were gathered in the triple bed dorm as they discussed about what to do with Seba's smoking habit. Talking wasn't obviously going to work. They couldn't force him to quit since it'll sound rather antagonistic. Pamela wanted to keep the peace, but she still wanted the human to quit. In the end, they decided to have the next best thing.

Infiltrate.

"Let's review the plan again." Nicky said. "While Colette takes Seba out for lunch after class, we'll sneak into the room with the spare key and find those cigarettes."

They nodded. Professor de Mousus allowed them to keep the key in order to help the human overcome his habit of oversleeping.

"I'll use my charms to stall him long enough." Colette remarked.

"Won't he be angry with us when he finds out that his cigarettes are missing?" Paulina asked.

Violet shook her head and gave a determined look. "It's for his own good."

"If you say so." Paulina replied, finally fully agreeing to the plan.

With that, they went off to their morning classes.

Seba wiped the drool off his notebook. He shouldn't have stayed up from working on that comic book draft. A serial killer dressed up as an Easter bunny was quite difficult to draw and write due to the sheer absurdity of it all. Just as he was about to leave...

"Seba!"

He turned to see Colette walking up to him.

"I was wondering if you would like to have lunch in town with me?" she offered, eyelashes being batted.

He raised an eyebrow. "What about the others?"

She shook her head. "Paulina and Nicky have something to do with the Green Mice, Violet's staying in touch with her parents and Pamela's busy fixing that little contraption of yours."

Seba tilted his head. "My video game?"

She nodded. "Yes! But honestly, you should go out more. Staying inside your room while being cooped up with video games is becoming unhealthy. You'll grow creases under those eyes!"

He rolled his eyes in response. "Of course you'll say that. Still, I find it strange that you haven't said anything about my pasty skin."

She smiled. "It's an exception. I think that it suits together with your choice of clothing."

"Whatever you say. Fine, it's a date then. Let's go, shall we?" he said as he began to walk off.

"A date? Sure." she muttered, feeling the heat run to her cheeks. She turned around to see the rest of the Thea Sisters hiding behind the potted plants. Giving a thumbs up, she ran off to follow Seba.

This was their cue to begin the operation.

The Thea Sisters were right in front of Seba's dorm room, Pamela unlocking the door with the spare key. Finally, they opened the door...

...only to find the room a big mess. There were clothes all over the room, bedsheets being ruffled up and books lying everywhere. Pieces of paper were scattered as they seem to be uncolored comic pages.

"Jumping kangaroos! Is he seriously this lazy?" Nicky muttered.

"This place is a mess." Violet remarked.

Pamela shook her head. "Mess is an understatement. This room is a dump!"

"We better find those cigarettes fast." Paulina said. The others nodded in agreement as they began their search.

Meanwhile, Colette and Seba were in this pretty decent restaurant. They actually served good food and the service was friendly. The human wished that they sold other kinds of food like meat or vegetables. He was starting to get sick of cheese.

"So, is this your first time on a date?" Colette asked.

Seba nodded. "Yep. It's kind of hard to have a date when you're too focused on your comic."

"You really like drawing comics, don't you?" She could feel the passion coming from him.

"Also writing. I like showing a story visually as well."

"Why not have The Rodent's Gazette publish your work?" she suggested.

He gave a sheepish smile. "Truth be told, I haven't read any of their works."

It felt like deja vu for him as Colette's jaw dropped. "You haven't heard of them?! And you're taking journalism class!"

He gave a nervous chuckle. "That was Nicky's reaction when I told her the same thing."

She shook out of her stupor. "We seriously need to get you something to read from them."

Back to the Thea Sisters, they are currently still searching for the cigarettes. With their biggest challenge right in front of them (figuratively a mountain of clothes, bedsheets, blankets and books), their scavenge had been proven most difficult.

While Nicky would try and rummage through the pieces of cloth, she couldn't help but look at what the comic pages were about. Reading it, her face slowly transitioned into disgust. What the heck was Seba drawing? A mouse in a bunny suit acting as a serial killer? What a plot!

Seba and Colette were walking by the pier, looking out at the beautiful sea with the sun shining brightly.

"The sea really is something, isn't it?" Colette asked.

Seba nodded. "Clean and crystal clear. Too bad we're not allowed to go swimming around here."

She rolled her eyes. "There are many boats and ships here. Do you expect anything more? Besides, I hear there's a beach around Whale Island."

He looked at her. "Beached whales?"

She shook her head. "I said a beach on Whale Island."

"Whales on beaches?" he replied.

"I said..." she realized that he was messing with her as she gave a slap on his arm.

He chuckled. "Sorry. Couldn't resist."

She rolled her eyes. As they looked on, there was one question on her mind.

"Why do you smoke?"

He looked at her with an unreadable expression before sighing.

"You're not going to let this go, are you?" he questioned.

She shook her head firmly.

Pamela had managed to find her way through one of the desk cabinets. Opening it, she found a miniature fridge. Each dorm was given their own mini-fridge, but they needed to get their own snacks. A grumble in her stomach interrupted her thoughts.

'Maybe he has some snacks in there...' she thought before deciding to open the fridge. There were bags of chips, candy and soda stored. She smiled like an excited little mouseling.

Seba and Colette were back in campus, sitting in the school gardens.

"Well, I smoke because I need to make inspiration on trying to make a good comic."

The French mouse tilted her head. "That's it?"

He looked at her. "Yeah. What? We're you expecting a dramatic story?"

She nodded rapidly. "There has to be more about that."

"That's pretty much it. When you're trying to think of something, you try to do something to keep your brain up. Smoking tries to help me think."

"Aren't there any other alternatives rather than smoking?"

Seba rubbed his chin. "Actually...I think I do."

"You do?" She was pleasantly surprised.

"Yeah. I guess there's a better way than destroying my body. Thanks for helping me think this over." he said.

She smiled. "It's no problem at all. What are friends for?"

Seba got up. "I better go now. I'm gonna take a nap!"

Her smile instantly disappeared. "Wait, what?"

"Napping will help me gain inspiration!" he exclaimed as he went back to his room. "Thanks for lunch! Tell the others to thank them for helping get rid of the cigarettes for me."

She gave a light glare. This wasn't how to end a date! Suddenly, she blushed. Why was she thinking that this was a date? She shook her head to focus on more important matters.

Wait, did he tell her to tell the others to give thanks? For getting rid of the cigarettes for him?!

She blanched. He knew. Panicking, Colette took out her phone and tried to call the others.

The girls still couldn't find anything. Suddenly, Paulina's phone beeped. She took it out and saw Colette's name before answering.

"Hello?" Paulina began.

"Polly, Seba's on his way back!" Colette said.

"What?!" she exclaimed, causing the others around her to look at her. "I thought that you were stalling him!"

"He wanted to take a nap! Get out of there ASAP!"

Nicky found the cigarettes in the bathroom and took it. "I found it!"

"Let's get out of here!" Pamela exclaimed.

With that, they sped out of the room and quickly locked the door.

Minutes later, Seba unlocked it and entered. He took a smell of fresh air and smiled.

"Nothing but a nice nap. But first, gotta throw those sticks away."

He went into the bathroom to look for them. "Huh, where did I put those cigarettes? Maybe I already finished it. Pfft. That's not possible. I had a couple more."

He went back out. "Ah well. If they really threw it away, then it saves me the trouble. I'm too tired to even think about it. I'll thank them at dinner."

With that, he fell down on the bed and went off into dreamland.

At dinner, Seba had been served spaghetti with extra cheese and meat. As the only human, he was given a special diet of meat and vegetables. Looking for a table, he found a table with the Thea Sisters. He took his seat right next to Violet. There was an awkward silence as they stared at the nonchalant Seba, who was busy eating.

There was an elephant in the room. Figuratively.

"Okay, we need to know. How did you know that we snuck into your room?" Pamela asked, breaking the ice.

"Today's Tuesday. Green Mice always have their meetings on weekends." Seba answered.

The mouselets looked at Colette, who gave a sheepish smile.