Days in Australia: Boomerang:
Seba and Nicky stood outside the farm as they looked at the beautiful sky in the open fields. Nicky had a boomerang in her paw as the morning sun shone upon them.
"You wanted to see how the boomerang works, right?" Nicky asked as she fiddled around with the curved stick.
"Yeah. I hear that they return to the thrower after they reach their distance." Seba said.
"Well, I'll show you." With that, Nicky extended her arm and flung the boomerang into the air. It flew in quite a distance before they could see that the boomerang was returning. The Aussie mouseling managed to catch the flying stick. "See? It's quite easy."
"Can I try it?" Seba asked.
Nicky smiled and nodded as she gave him the boomerang. After taking aim and throwing it, the boomerang had went to the sky. However, the distance was so far that it was as if it had disappeared.
They waited...
And waited...
And waited...
Nothing happened.
"I might've threw that too far." Seba remarked.
"You said it." Nicky agreed.
"Well, we better return." he said.
Before anybody knew it, the boomerang had returned to it's owner. Unfortunately, it was not caught in time.
WHAM!
The boomerang slammed into his head and he landed unconscious.
Nicky flinched from witnessing the impact. She was going to need an ice pack for him when they get back.
Study Time With Seba:
Everyone had settled in Nicky's room, having finish writing their Australian assignment and sending it to Thea Stilton herself. It was quite a lengthy report considering that their adventure was definitely a long one since they did travel quite a distance.
Nicky even got her a sweater that her grandmother, Naya, had knitted as a thank you gift for teaching them what they used to investigate the sheep incident.
With that, everything was back to normal and life at Mouseford went on as usual.
However...
"Alright, you five have to begin your studies now." said Seba as he placed the textbooks on the table. After finishing their assignments, they had to focus on their exams. However, they did not expect the human to immediately begin the group study. With them falling behind, they needed to get on track. And Seba decided to tutor them.
What they didn't expect is that Seba was a strict tutor.
Sure, he did pass the entrance exams. But was he really a genius? His profile said that he had keen intellect, but how keen was it to make him into a serious instructor?
"We'll have to revise the chapters one to four. Each chapter is quite long, but use references that you find useful." he told them. The mouselets blanched as they looked at the thick textbooks. One chapter was probably fifty pages long. How many chapters were in these books?!
"Good luck," Seba said as he laid on the beanbag chair and read a metal magazine. "If you need any questions, just ask me here."
The Thea Sisters looked bemused. Wasn't he studying with them?
"Aren't you going to study with us?" Nicky was the first to ask.
"I've already studied," was his nonchalant reply. "I always revise a chapter every night."
"I thought that you always drew your comics." said Paulina.
"I said that I study at night," Seba clarified. "Who on earth would actually have the gall to study at midnight?"
"And I suppose you can't do better?" Violet shot back, glaring at him. As a bookworm, she was quite offended at that.
"Wanna bet on it?" he challenged, looking lazy as usual.
"Deal!" Pamela exclaimed before anyone else could answer.
"Okay then. Winner has to get the highest score." Seba said.
The Thea Sisters huddled together to discuss this. The whispers were hushed and sounded slightly heated. In a few seconds, they turned to Seba and nodded.
"The loser has to do what the winner says." said Colette.
"Alright." the human answered. "Are you all going in on the bet against me?"
They nodded with determination.
"Okay. So it's me against the Thea Sisters, am I right?" he asked.
"Yeah, and we're gonna make you eat your own words." Pamela exclaimed with a confident smirk.
"Good to know. Now get back to studying." he said before going back to his magazine.
The mouselings looked really confident. They were going to make him do things without question.
Nicky was going to make him join Green Mice as a full-time member. With him already finished from smoking, having him join to help save the environment was a challenge for her. He did do stuff like recycling and going to animal shelters, but he was too cooped up with his comics to do so. This could be the chance to get him in.
Pamela wanted him to pay for an all you can eat buffet in the restaurant down the street. Those dishes look so amazingly delicious. At least she could save money with him paying for it. More snacks to come!
Violet didn't want anything from him. No, she wanted him to do something for her. Read the Da Vinci Code. She knew that he hated Dan Brown's books, but that's what he gets for making fun of bookworms who actually enjoy studying late at night.
Colette had been looking for someone to help her with her shopping. There were a lot of clothes she needed to buy and wear. They looked fabumouse!
There wasn't anything that Paulina wanted from Seba, though him accompanying her to a computer convention would be nice. Maybe she can get him to do that.
They all had the looks of confidence. They were totally going to win this.
All the students had gotten back their exam papers. There were whoops of joy and there were mutters of disappointment. Seba and the Thea Sisters had gathered in the cafeteria for lunch as they discussed their exam papers and what they got on the scores.
Nicky had scored sixty-seven percent.
Colette with a score of seventy-one percent.
Pamela had seventy-nine percent on the paper.
Paulina had a whooping eighty-six percent.
Violet passed with ninety-five percent.
"You really are smart, Violet." Paulina remarked.
"It's no big deal." the Chinese mouseling replied. "All I had to do was study."
"I studied and I'm not as smart as you." Nicky muttered.
"Don't worry, Nic," Pamela cheered her up. "We'll have to study even harder."
"What about you, Seba? How much did you get?" Colette asked.
"Here." the human handed them the paper. They all took a look and what they saw made their jaws drop.
"WHAT?!"
On the front of the paper was a huge red hundred percent written in the score section.
"H-how did you manage to pass?!" Violet asked, trying to break out of her shock.
"Why do you think I'm called the "All-Knowing" Seba?" Seba replied. "I might be a martial artist, but I'm no dumb muscle."
He looked at the time on his phone and grinned.
"Oh yeah. How about we have hot pot dinner to celebrate on passing the exams?" He looked at them, grinning wider at the frozen shocks on their faces. "You five are paying."
Pamela broke out of her stupor when she heard that, whimpering at the fact that she's going to lose her snack money.
Comic Publishing:
With the exams over, everyone was doing their own thing. However, nobody knew what Seba was doing since he was holed up in his room. So the Thea Sisters decided to pay him a visit. Using the key they were given by Professor de Mousus, they unlocked it and opened it. What they were greeted with had startled them.
There were papers scattered all over the room. Blankets were ruffled beyond belief and clothes were all over the floor.
Seba was on the floor, face first and a piece of folded paper in his hand.
Slowly, they approached the human and took the piece of paper to read it.
"Dear Mr. Silverstone," Paulina began. "We regret to inform you that your submission has not reached our surplus requirements. Please try again in the near future. From The Daily Rat."
"I've tried other publications, but they end up rejecting it." said the human. "What do I do now?"
"What comic is it?" Nicky asked. Hopefully it was not the bunny serial killer.
Seba handed them the comic strip. She was wrong. It was the bunny killer comic. When the others looked over to read it, they blanched at how bad this was.
"So what do you think?" he asked.
"My advice? Make a new story." Violet said. His eyes widened. "This is all senseless gore that doesn't even make a new story."
"But bunny suit killers are all the rage now." Seba defended, though he sounded confused.
"That might be, but where can you even find a publisher that would accept a horror comic like this?" asked Colette.
"Beats me." he shrugged. "I'll just try and keep on submitting my works to other publishers."
"Have you tried The Rodent's Gazette?" Paulina asked.
He shook his head. "They're like the number one publishers. I highly doubt that they would actually accept it."
"Thea works there. Maybe she'll put in a good word." Nicky assured her.
"I hope you're right." he muttered.
His comic, Bunny Massacre, was successfully published by The Rodent's Gazette. However, it was a critical failure as it only ran for six strips. Despite this, it had gained a cult following for it's nonsensical violence.
Seba would publish his next comic, Black Wings. It was a dark fantasy romance about a young teenager who suddenly passes from an unknown sickness. He would become reincarnated into a dark feathered hero of justice. This became a huge success and is currently ongoing. Critics praised The Rodent's Gazette for taking the huge risk to publish something unexpected and the comic's mature themes and realistic interactions, making it a huge favorite for both gothic and mainstream viewers alike.