Chapter 4: The First Day (Part 2)
The latter half of the school day passed relatively swiftly for Lee and Luan since the prank aftermath. No matter the class, they could feel the stares of their colleagues that matched their coated visages. But that hardly mattered to them as their thoughts lingered over their looming punishment and the respective other that they felt was responsible for everything.
'I can't believe this,' Luan fumed. 'My first day of high school, and I've got year-long detention. Even worse, it's for a prank that I never did. I mean, all the evidence was in Lee's bag, right? I'm just in this mess because the principal can't take a joke.'
'How could I be so naïve?' Lee seethed. 'That girl must have known this whole thing was going to backfire and used me as the scapegoat. At least she got caught too, but I'm not taking this lying down.'
'No matter what,' they simultaneously self-declared, 'I've got to prove that I didn't do it fast!'
The three o'clock bell had rung, prompting the students to flood the halls on their journeys to either home, after-school clubs, or just to loiter. Within this hustle-and-bustle were two distinct groups that had eyes all over them whilst heading to the same destination.
Lee and Cam were slowly navigating through the crowd, most of whom were giving the former unsavory looks.
"Could you slow your roll, dude?" Cam asked, struggling to keep up. "Not all of us have legs that go for miles."
"Sorry, buddy," Lee confessed. "I just want to get out of sight before someone tries to kill me."
What the two didn't expect was Holger suddenly appearing in front of them. "How did Lee Ping and Luan Loud make gym go ka-floofer-shoppe?!" he accosted excitedly. "How? How?!"
"It wasn't me, Holger," Lee insisted. "If anything, it was probably Luan."
"Right…" Holger agreed slyly, implying that Lee was messing with him.
"But your bag was right there and full of all that stuff, carbon," Cam alleged. "It's like you've got a dark side."
To prove his point, Lee randomly pulled something out that clearly didn't belong to him. "Does this look like mine."
"Well, you've hung out with the Louds long enough to do it, but I didn't think you'd actually swipe a bra," Cam muttered. "Mad respect though, bro."
"What?" Lee gaped before realizing that he was indeed holding a bra and promptly threw it in the air while screaming aloud. The bra in question found itself in the hands of a curious Holger.
"As if the prank wasn't a sick enough joke for you, you've gone so low to stealing underwear too?" came a familiar, condescending voice.
Lee gulped and turned around to see the quartet of girls who would normally be a welcome sight. He could see the disappointment in most of their eyes, while the brace-faced comedienne scowled daggers at him.
"Well?" Lori demanded of him.
"You think I knew that was in there?!" the partial redhead exasperated. "Besides, why are you angry at me when Little Miss Prank-Star is right in front of you?"
"For someone that's not a butcher, you sure talk a load of bologna," Luan quipped. "I couldn't possibly have done it. If anything, I got caught up in your cruel joke!"
"Please! I've witnessed enough of your pranks to recognize your work," Lee barked back. "You must have swapped my bag just to make me your fall guy."
"This is getting pretty heated," Cam breathed while the two started slinging insults.
"But Holger doesn't feel a rise in temperature," Holger wondered.
"Do you have a fever, Cam?" Leni asked, just as confused.
"That's not what he meant, you two," Lori corrected.
"C'mon, dudes," Luna pleaded to the two accused. "Chill out!"
"You've had it in for me since the day we met!" Lee raged.
"Well, aren't we just Lee-Ping to conclusions!" Luan aggressively joked.
"I'm so sick of that dang pun!" Lee growled.
"Enough!" Luna shouted, jumping in between the two. "Great Balls of Fire! I don't know if either of you pulled the prank, but you two fighting about it isn't going to help."
"I don't think it matters to them, chica," Cam pointed out, addressing the mass of gunge-covered students that suddenly gathered around them.
Four tough customers approached the alleged pranksters who sucked in their breath, expecting undeserved retribution.
"That was a killer song you made for that break, dudes," complimented the dude in a top hat and wife-beater shirt before he and his posse walked away.
"OK, I saw that going differently," Lori stated, shocked at how peaceful that encounter was.
"Yeah, I thought he was gonna do to you what Jimi Matrix did to guitars," Luna theorized.
The next group to approach was a quartet of gloomy-looking teens that eerily reminded the Louds of a sister.
"Hey, Ping and Freshman Loud," the dude whose hair covered his right eye called out. "My dad's totally going to sue you for ruining our ensemble." He and his clique left before Lee and Luan could respond.
"Now, that's more like it," Cam thought aloud. "All that was missing was 160 percent more punching."
"Loud/Ping against the man!" shouted Zed from across the hall before he and his fellow skaters rolled off.
"Who's 'the man' he was talking about?" Leni queried.
"Holger doesn't understand either."
"Hold that thought," Lori mused, her baffled expression slowly turning a smirk. "I think we've been handed a golden opportunity, ladies and degenerates."
"Oh, yeah," Cam caught on, "I get you're selling, la capitán. Wait, did you say degenerates?"
"OK, now you're scaring me, Lori," Luan shuddered. "I can't possibly find a silver lining in all this."
"That prank has made you and Lee the most popular kids in school," Lori explained with her smile turning sinister. "And since we're close with you, that popularity has also spread to us."
As evidence of this, several students passed by the septet either paying compliments or seemingly checking them out. Each member of the freshly prevalent crew had varying levels of accepting their new roles from all the attention.
"OK, I'll admit that popularity has its perks," Luan confessed, "but I'd rather have earned it for something that I actually did." She pointed at Lee to emphasize her point.
Before Lee could retort, a microphone abruptly appeared between him and his "partner-in-crime". The invasive audio device was found to be attached to a certain smartly dressed school news reporter who made her presence known.
"Lee! Luan! Tina Kwee with A. Nigma High News," she announced as the young cameraman arrived with an archaic camcorder, "Looking to secure an exclusive on today's scoop."
"Uh… Buh… Wha..." Lee tried to form his words, but nothing came to him. Being next to a long-time crush was likely the cause.
"'Today's scoop'?" Luan asked. "I wasn't aware that this school had an ice cream parlor. Get it?" In response, another microphone manifested itself in front of her.
"Ooh, just missed that sound-bite," came its owner who was right behind Tina. "Chaz Moneranian. Here to report this story the right way."
"Butt out, Chaz!" Tina grumbled while pushing him away. "I've got this!"
"No, you don't," Chaz retaliated, shoving her aside and turning to the alleged pranksters. "Loud and Ping, spill it. Student minds want to know!"
The two school reporters' fight for the focus took a physical turn as they created a dust cloud around them from their microphone bludgeoning.
"So that's what it looks like from the outside," Luan mused, recalling the frequent scuffles with her siblings.
While everyone else was focused on the fight, Leni and Holger had their eyes on the camera. Not for the prospect of being part of the news, but their focus was on the camera itself.
"How come you use 1955 BCE Color Lo-Band camcorder with 250 lines EIA resolution?" Holger asked the beleaguered cameraman.
"Wow," Leni expressed, "That's totes older than Mom and Dad." She would never realize that she was the cause of her parents having unexpected sneezes at that exact moment.
"We lost our high-end one in the gym," the young news assistant revealed. "It's sucks 'cuz I caught the whole thing on it."
His words burned in Lee & Luan's ears, prompting them to get into the guy's face.
"The whole thing?" Lee interrogated. "The gym?"
"You're not pulling our legs, are you?" Luan questioned.
A simple nod was all they needed to leg it through the halls in hopes of getting hold of the lost camera, bewildering the other students they passed along the way.
The unlikely duo shortly arrived at the gym's entrance, the same spot where their school lives were tarnished. Instead of rudely shoving the door open like before, Lee opted to make it slightly ajar so he and Luan could survey the area. The large room was still in its disgusting state; what they didn't count on was the small platoon of white hazmat-suit wearing janitors steadily clearing the area with massive vacuum hoses.
'Well, this complicates things,' Lee and Luan thought all at once. And that wouldn't be the end of it.
"Leaping! Loud girl!" came a sharp voice from behind them.
Lee groaned while Luan let out a small chuckle at the mispronunciation of his name. "It's Lee Ping, Brandy," he corrected the person that called him out: the Glamazon who chewed out Holger like bubblegum earlier that morning.
"That thing you two did today? Insanely awesome," the now identified Glamazon commended. "It totally bumped your rep to the Ceiling Maximus. I just need to confirm that the two of you aren't a thing."
"What?!" Luan gasped. "Of course, we're not a couple! He's like a dorky older brother to me to match with my actual dorky younger brother."
"OK, that was uncalled for," Lee groaned.
"That settles it," Brandy decided. "Lee, you and I are totally going around now. FYI."
"What?" Lee asked cluelessly.
In response, Brandy grabbed his shirt and pressed his back against the wall. "Hello? We're dating now! Duh," she explained. "And I want you to treat me right, especially when the public eye is on us." And she left the two, but not without a warning for Luan: "And don't even try to reveal this until I'm good and ready, or I will end you."
"What just happened?" Lee queried perplexedly.
"I think that you've just got a girlfriend," Luan surmised aloud. 'Luna's not gonna be happy,' she thought for the sake of her closest sister.
Their pondering was abruptly cut off as two large, firm hands grabbed them by the shoulder (Luan got the organic one; Lee the metallic one). "Party's over!" barked their owner Principal General Barrage as he yanked the pair up and whisked them away to their sentencing.
The technicolor-follicle sibling quintet couldn't believe their eyes as the previous scene played out on their viewing screen.
"Did Aunt Brandy just declare Dad to be her boyfriend?" Lian voiced the same thought as her siblings.
"Ew, that is totes gross!" Taylor shrieked.
"I wonder why Dad never told us about this," Joel wondered.
"Well, you'd have to look at it from his perspective," Nate inferred. "Would you tell your children that you were previously involved with your best friend's wife?"
"Tagging along on this trip has got to be the best thing ever!" Luke cheered.
"Huh," asked his siblings.
"Just think of what other juicy stuff we'll find out about our folks!" the teal-mixed hair teen explained. "Especially the stuff they never wanted to share."
Lian, Taylor, and Joel looked at each other; their faces slowly morphing from confused to realization to mischievous smirks.
"Yeah, I don't think so," Nate opposed. "We don't have much of a reason to stick around now that Agent Chrono-Flower's superiors have the recording of the Prank."
"Oh, right," Luke faltered, feeling a bit deflated.
"Come on, guys," Taylor perked up. "Maybe something will come up that'll keep us here long enough to learn more."
"Yeah," Joel affirmed. "Don't give up hope!"
"If that happens, then I'll give up on playing Triple-A for a year," Nate wagered.
"You better not take that back, bro," Lian shot back. "I'll be sure to hold you to it."
Lee and Luan landed into the dark detention room with a loud thud after being thrown in by the military-driven cyborg. "Welcome to the first day of the rest of your lives, maggots!" Barrage announced before shutting the door.
The two convicts took a moment to soak in their new environment. With the only source of light being a small window by the ceiling, the detention room was rather run-down with only the desk/chair combos being in decent condition. Of course, they weren't alone in the room as there was a sleeping supervising teacher… and the furious-looking Biffy Goldstein who seemed ready to unleash a beatdown on them.
"Not the face!" Luan pleaded. "My orthodontist will kill me, and that's the tooth!"
That didn't matter as both she and Lee were hoisted up in the air by each of the big boy's immense hands. Thinking that this was the end, the duo shut their eyes.
"That…" Biffy said as his demeanor softened, "was the craziest thing I've ever seen." He immediately released his grip, freeing the falsely accused teens.
"But it wasn't me," Lee and Luan simultaneously without registering the other's denial.
"Of course, you didn't," Biffy agreed, surprising them both.
"Wait, you're talking about me and not her/him, right?" came the combined response.
"Sheesh. Talk in stereo much?" the hefty teen snarked. "I'm talking about both of you; neither of you could've done it."
"How did you figure that out?" Luan asked.
"A number of reasons, really," Biffy deduced. "Just from looking at you two, only one has the devious mind, skills, or physical know-how to plot such epic, archaic, righteous chaos; she also happens to be the type who'd openly accept recognition of her work. And from what I've seen, you denied all involvement."
"Well, not to toot my own horn," Luan boasted before sounding a novelty horn, "but you should see my work on April Fool's Day. Don't really see how Lee's in the clear."
"The prank isn't the guy's style, plus the evidence in the bag just screams that the true mastermind wanted all attention on the fall-guy."
"Obviously, I wouldn't be stupid enough to leave that stuff out in the open if I thought I'd get in trouble for it," Lee commented.
"Plus, you're just not that hardcore," Biffy concluded, leading to Luan letting out a brief laugh and Lee scowling in response. "Now, if you'd excuse me; I've got some business to attend to," Biffy stated as he sat down and started knitting.
"What are we gonna do now?" Luan asked. "We need that camera!"
"Maybe one of your sisters could grab it?" Lee suggested.
"No, they're probably halfway home by now," the prankster Loud corrected. "Apparently, I'm going home with you."
"Well, at least we aren't at each other's throats anymore, otherwise the trip would've been awkward," Lee sighed. "Wait, maybe…" The Korean-descent teen whipped out his cell phone to call his last resort.
Cam and Holger were playing a round of Triple-A at the former's abode. It was a tight battle, but the House came out on top.
"Oh no!" Holger cajoled despite his loss. "You cafluffled my shiffle-shaffen!"
"Dude, I have no idea what you just said," Cam admitted. "But if that means I whooped your butt, then I'll take it."
All the while, neither of them was aware that Cam's phone was vibrating.
"Wanna play again?" Cam asked.
"Oh, most yes-finitely!"
"Dang it, Camillio!" Lee cursed as the call went to voicemail.
"Well, that's a bust," Luan moaned.
"Don't sweat it," Biffy reassured the two. "You could just wait until detention ends and get the tape afterward. Once everyone sees it, you're off the hook."
"Fat chance," Luan fretted. "By the time we get out, it'll be long gone."
"There's like some psycho cleaner freaks in there that'll make it look like the Prank never happened," Lee added.
"Well, escape is always an option." This proposal from Biffy caused his detention-mates to make double-takes.
"I thought the idea was not to get into even more trouble!" Luan cried out.
"How would we even get out without him noticing anyway?" Lee asked, pointing at the slumbering teacher.
"Allow me to demonstrate why you have nothing to worry about on that front," Biffy cryptically reassured while grabbing one of the empty desk chairs and walked towards the front desk.
With little warning, the hefty delinquent slammed the seating set on the desk, shattering the former, and filled the room with a sharp noise. The fright that initially sprouted in Lee and Luan soon diminished as the teacher remained asleep despite all reason.
"See?" Biffy addressed the obvious. "You could just walk right out that door."
"But what if Drill Sergeant Nuts-&-Bolts catches us?" This question was clearly from Luan.
"Well, if we knew where he was," Biffy proposed, "the two of you could avoid him and return here before he found out."
"Pfft! Easier said than done," Lee doubted. "How can we possibly do that."
"The same way technology can be both our best friend and his worst enemy," Biffy asserted. He then proceeded to rummage through the drawer of the teacher's desk and pulled out a confiscated phone. "Good, this thing still has some juice. One of you could plant this baby on him, and I can track him through its GPS. Think fast." No sooner did he finish that sentence was when he tossed the phone towards them; Luan ended up catching it. "OK, now hold out your phones."
Lee and Luan held out the three smartphones for Biffy to sync them up with his own.
"Not that I'm ungrateful for this, Biffy," Lee wondered, "But why are you helping us?"
"Could be my sense of justice," Biffy divulged with an ominous grin, "Or maybe this seems more entertaining than beating the two of you to a pulp. Unless you'd prefer that."
"We're good on the helping!" Luan sputtered.
"Ditto!" Lee blurted out.
As the phones gave out a simultaneous beep indicating their synchronization, Biffy laid out the game plan. "We've got forty-three minutes. Brace-Face will take the tracking phone to Barrage's office for him to collect it; Cardinal-Head will head to the gym and get the camera. Do all this and head back before time's up and/or Barrage returns."
Lee and Luan were just about to step out when Biffy had more to say. "Oh, man! This like a real-life spy movie. Wait a minute… doesn't that make me…?"
"The computer nerd?" Lee finished with a smug grin. "It sure looks that way."
"You walked right into that one," Luan giggled as she and Lee left, not hearing Biffy's grunt of disapproval.
The two-pronged plan was now in effect as the detention duo split up once they reached the first floor. Luan made a beeline for the new principal's office (the "new" was referring to the principal, not the office).
'Of course, this place is deserted,' she thought while blitzing through the halls. 'Who'd want to stay here on the first day?'
It didn't take long for Luan to reach her destination; she could hear Barrage ranting about something inside. Not wanting to waste time, she placed the confiscated phone right by the door (she was grateful that it didn't have a window built-in).
"The phone's in position," Luan contacted the man-in-the-chair through her earpiece while hiding from view behind a nearby copy machine. "Work your magic."
The lost phone started ringing, alerting the office occupant. Barrage opened the door to find the offending source. "Boo-yah! Confiscated!" the Principal-General announced to himself, pocketing the phone and walking away to make his rounds.
"You know, this could've gone south if he bothered to just put it in his desk," Luan pointed out.
"Well, life is full of small miracles," Biffy concurred. "Now head back here; let's have Lee do his thing."
Making sure that Barrage had a wide enough berth from her, Luan swiftly made her way back to the detention room.
'That was rather easy; maybe this will go on without a hitch. Provided that Lee gets the camera. Other than that, what could go wrong?'
"Oh, come on!" Lee hissed as the gym doors refused to open. "Can this get any worse?"
"Lee?" entered a raspy voice that instilled both ease and fear in his heart. Lee turned to see the purple-clad Loud girl.
"Oh, Luna! Hey," Lee answered awkwardly. "I thought you already left. What are you doing here?"
"I asked your mom if I could bum a ride once you and Luan were let out," Luna replied. "What are you doing here? I thought you were dancing to the Jailhouse Rock."
"I can't explain it all right now," he responded hurriedly, "but just know something is in there that I need to get."
"And it's worth sneaking out of detention?" Luna inquired skeptically.
"If I can get it, then Luan and I can prove we didn't do the prank," Lee asserted.
Before their conversation could continue, they soon heard footsteps nearby, prompting Lee to leap behind a nearby row of lockers. The source was revealed to Lee's mother who had just spotted Luna.
"Luna?" Mrs. Ping asked. "Is there something wrong?"
"Uh, nothing, Mrs. P," Luna stammered. "I think I'll head to the car now." She walked up to Mrs. Ping so that she wouldn't have to come to her and spot Lee.
As Lee watched the two walking out of sight, his earpiece came to life with Biffy's voice. "Finished talking with your girlfriend?"
"She's not my girlfriend," Lee countered, thankful that Biffy (or Luan for that matter) couldn't see his flushed face.
"Back to the matter at hand," Biffy redirected, "Try the entrance behind the stage, just around the corner."
The partial redhead quickly found the other entryway, only to find that it too wasn't opening. "Are you messing with me now?" Lee barked.
"Kick the lower-left corner, then bump your shoulder into it," Biffy instructed.
Lee did just that, and it worked. The partial redhead now found himself in the same room as those "psycho cleaner freaks" who were preoccupied with making the gym spotless; the gunk that coated the vast space was steadily decreasing thanks to their industrial-strength vacuums. Not wanting to be spotted, he got down and crawled through the filth.
'This had better be worth it,' Lee grumbled to himself.
Under the impression that things were running smoothly, Biffy decided to take a quick soda break while watching the operation in real-time on his laptop. The setup was surprisingly in-depth with the floor plans of the school, a digital layout for the time matched by the second, and the three color-coded GPS indicators (green for Lee; yellow for Luan; and red for Barrage).
'So far, so good,' he mused as he saw Luan's dot had just entered the basement. 'Now we've just gotta wait for Lee, and –'
That thought couldn't be finished as Biffy did a spit-take. The reason? Barrage's tracker was headed right for Lee.
"Dude! Barrage is coming your way!" the big guy alerted. "He's practically right on top of you!"
"That's not good!" Lee panicked. "Where should I go?"
No response.
"Hello?"
Still no answer.
"Dammit! Did you want this to happen, you jerk?!" Seeing himself without options, Lee braced himself for the inevitable worst.
Biffy eyed the Barrage tracker like a hawk as it was nearing the gym, barely registering that Luan just returned. What he didn't expect was that it stopped short of the side entrance before moving on.
"Oh, false alarm," Biffy reported. "And hey, if you talk smack to me again, I really will feed you to Barrage. Capisce?
"Wonder what the General was doing over there?" Luan asked, causing Biffy to jolt up in surprise (definitely not fear). "Huh. So, this is what it's like for Lucy."
"Grafitti in my school?!" Barrage bellowed at two African-American teens caught in the act of spraypainting. "Not on your lives, boys!"
"Hey," the hefty one dressed in brown retorted. "You can't call us that."
"I said 'boys' in regards to your age and immaturity, not your ethnicity, son," Barrage clarified. "But please, do test my patience; see where that gets you."
"We'll be on our way, sir," the small one in a purple hoody answered for both of them (due to his friend's fear-induced, paralyzed state) before walking away.
'Speaking of delinquents, thought the cyborg principal, maybe I should check on the inmates… Nah, what tomfoolery could they possibly get into down there?'
"Alright; sorry, buddy," Lee relented. 'Can't afford losing allies at this point.'
It was at that moment that he could finally spot his prize: the missing camcorder.
'Now, I just need to crawl over –' That thought was cut short as a hazmat cleaner approached, forcing Lee to duck into the filth. 'OK, I could've lived without doing that.'
Upon lifting his head back up from the muck, Lee found himself temporarily blinded by the gunge covering his face, taking precious time wipe his face clean. That was to his undoing as he found once he finished.
"It's gone!" Lee freaked out loud.
"Seriously?!" Luan shouted in his ear. "You had one job, Lee!"
Desperate for an explanation, he looked around frantically, eventually spotting a shadowy figure running out the main entrance. "Who is that guy? No!"
The sound of robotic-style chatter made the detention escapee realize that he had done goofed as the hazmat cleaners were now fully aware of his presence.
'I just had to use my outdoor voice,' Lee self-berated as he made a run for it… only to slip and fall on the floor again. Fortunately, this proved to be a blessing in disguise as he found a digital camera next to him. "Whoa," he Keanu-ed.
"Did you get it?" Biffy asked as the partial redhead stopped to pick up his new find.
"No, it's the wrong one!" Lee responded while pocketing the camera. He then burst through the main entrance to give chase to the mystery person. "Hey, stop!" he shouted. This naturally did nothing, so Lee engaged in hot pursuit, shortly followed by the hazmat cleaners.
The hunt took Lee across the school and even past the skater clique. To get a speed advantage, Lee swiftly swiped one of the skaters' boards without them even realizing it. Though with a little hiccup, Lee got the hang of his new ride and seemed to catch up to his target as they entered the pool room.
When he opened the door, he couldn't see anyone among the empty pool and bleachers. "Just great," Lee moaned. "He's gone."
"There's nothing we can do about it now," Biffy advised. "Just get back here."
The sound of the hazmat cleaners approaching proved to be a great motivation for Lee to get out of dodge. In an act of pure desperation, Lee rode into the pool and used it as a make-shift half-pipe ramp to get to the other side of the room in record time. He didn't quite stick the landing as he briefly sprawled out near the exit. Seeing the cleaners on his tail, Lee quickly collected himself and rode on out of there.
Despite being an amateur, Lee maneuvered halls on the board well, even making a jump over a small staircase. If only that last stunt didn't cause him to drop the precious camera, prompting him to double back to catch it.
"All this for a simple camera," Lee murmured. "This is what my life has come to."
This bit of reflection would have to wait as the hazmat cleaners emerged in front of him.
"Take a left, now!" Biffy ordered in Lee's earpiece. Clearly, Lee took the next left; but the momentum caused him to lose balance and launch forward onto the floor. With the cleaners fast approaching, Lee had no choice but to ditch his ride and outrun them on foot.
Back with Biffy and Luan, their eyes were glued to the laptop screen, seeing that there were less than two minutes left and they were in full panic mode as Lee's marker just stopped moving.
"Lee?" Luan called out. "Barrage is practically on top of you!"
"Hey," Biffy interjected. "Leave the backseat operations to me."
"Uh, Lee? Are you there?" came Biffy's voice through Lee's earpiece. Not that he was in the best position to talk as he was currently laying down on a row of lockers, just out of view from Barrage and a platoon of hazmat cleaners passing by. From his vantage point, he could see the principal/general splitting up the group to patrol the halls from each side (one group passing Lee's position) before making his way to the stairwell, no doubt to the detention room.
"I'm dead," Lee groaned. "There's no way I can beat Barrage there."
"There is one option left," Biffy instructed. "Look up."
Lee did so and saw a vent grate. "You're not messing with me, right? A vent?"
"Pretend that you're Lucy and just get up in there," Luan's voice piped up.
With things out of his hand, Lee climbed into the crawlspace, hoping that the hissing sound he heard was all in his head.
"Is that another one of your sisters?" Biffy asked. "Just how many of you are there?"
"A little focus here?" Lee interrupted while traversing the vents, his phone acting as a guiding light. "I'm literally in the dark here."
"Oh, yeah. Take the next left and you'll be right on top of us in a few more yards of vents," Biffy directed.
"Get a move on, cardinal-head!" Luan demanded. "Barrage is getting closer by the second."
The remaining detetionaires could hear the rhythmic thuds of Barrage's mechanical footsteps nearing the door until they finally stopped.
With Lee nowhere in sight, Biffy and Luan rushed to the door, the former grabbing the doorknob to keep Barrage from opening it.
"Open this door, stat!" came the militaristic demand from the other side.
"Wow, this door is being bad," Biffy feigned beratement at the inanimate object.
"I'd say we'd be in a pickle, but this door would have to be 'a jar'!" Luan quipped.
'Hurry up,' they collectively thought with their eyes pointing up at the room's vent.
At last, Lee reached the detention room's grate, but he only exchanged one issue with another: getting the grate open. Try as he might, he was making little headway as though the grate was welded shut.
"Stand back, soldiers!" he could hear Barrage's voice. "I'm taking her down." There was a sudden shudder that even Lee felt. 'I sure hope those two can hold him off.'
A little struggling paid off as Lee managed to wrench the grate free. Unfortunately for him, he was too slow to fend off a surprise foe: the dragon-like Tatzelwurm.
'Crap! Crap! Crap! Crap!' These words were racing through Lee's mind as the dreaded beast scurried right at his face, ready to bite it off.
'Not like this!' Lee desperately reached for his lit phone and shone it in the Tatzelwurm's face. This was enough to scare the monster away.
"Phew! That worked!" Lee sighed in relief… before realizing that he was now on top of the loosened vent.
"Oh dear," was all that left his mouth before he fell. Fortunately, he grabbed the edge of the vent opening to slow his plummet; the same couldn't be said for the camera as it shattered on impact.
The shock caused Lee to lose his grip, and down he went… right into the waiting arms of Biffy.
"If only I could risk taking a picture right now," Luan giggled at the sight.
Ignoring the teasing, Biffy swiftly kicked the camera's remains under the teacher's desk and deposited Lee into one of the seats before joining him and the Loud comedienne. Just in time for Barrage to bust the door open (which was previously barricaded by the sleeping teacher, chair and all).
With his one visible eye, the cybernetic principal surveyed the room to see if all was in order before he bellowed a loud "Diiii… smissed!".
"Mr. Ping. Ms. Loud," Barraged addressed. "We'll see you tomorrow." With a dry laugh at their expense, he marched out, leaving the trio to sort themselves out.
Lee rushed to the pieces of the camera and dug out the key component: its SD card. "Imagine what could be on this thing."
"It better be something that can get us out of this jam," Luan hoped. "Though I doubt it's grape flavored."
"Well, it could be that," Biffy thought aloud. "Or it could be pics from a chick slumber party. Either way, we win."
"Trust me; TV and movies really exaggerate what goes on in those parties," Luan shot down.
"Eh. You two could fill me in tomorrow," he told him before heading back to his bookbag.
"Hold up," Lee breathed. "You're going to be here?"
"Of course," Biffy answered while taking out something from his bag. "Gotta finish my sweater." Said beginnings of the sweater was in full display for the two to see.
The technicolor teens from the future found their little discussion about the detention-escapade interrupted by the presence of another. The figure was a blonde woman in her mid-twenties, dressed in a black dress-pants suit, a lavender shirt, and mirrored sunglasses for flare while carrying a briefcase.
"I see you've been entertained by our case-file," she observed. "I just hope you haven't tampered with it."
"Of course not, Ma'am!" the five sounded off all at once.
"It's alright, guys," the lady laughed playfully. "The higher-ups already have what they wanted on video, so looking at the extra stuff shouldn't matter."
"Guess we should start packing up to go back to the future, Agent Chrono-Flower?" Taylor asked, feeling a little disappointed that they had to leave for home.
"About that," the now identified special agent countered, opening her briefcase and taking out five manila folders. "Each of you, take the file that matches your first name."
Rightly confused, the five teens walked up and grabbed their respective folders. Sure enough, their forenames were there, but their surnames were replaced with different ones.
"What is all this?" Joel asked.
"These are your new identities," Chrono-Flower answered. "You're going to need them now that we're reassigned to be here for a while longer."
"Is this for real?!" Luke wondered, his eyes twinkling in excitement.
"Yep," Chrono-Flower confirmed. "Our stay in this time period has been extended due to the nature of the whole operation."
"Dang it!" Nate blurted out.
"What's with him?" the agent asked.
"He's just upset that he lost a bet," Lian replied smugly. "But, please, go on."
"We need more eyes on the goings-on in A. Nigma High at a personal level," Chrono-Flower continued. "That means you five are going to school."
The teens looked at their superior in shock and dread.
"You know, going back to our time doesn't sound so bad," Luke jested.
"You joke, but this is crucial to our updated operation," Agent Chrono-Flower explained. "There are going to be some shady deeds being done at that school, and we'll need that evidence. That and your parents would have my neck if you weren't getting a proper education."
"So, when do we start?" Nate questioned, having recovered from his outburst.
"Sometime next week," she answered. "But before that, we need to establish some ground rules." The agent then took out a thick pamphlet from her briefcase, eliciting groans from her young charges.
The ride home for the pairs of Pings and Louds was silent. When her eyes weren't on the road, Mrs. Ping would steal disappointed glances at her son in the seat next to her. 'Where did I go wrong with him?' she wondered.
Unknown to his mother, Lee was in the middle of texting session with the two girls in the back seat:
Lee: … So, that's what happened.
Luna: You really think whatever's on the camera's memory card will help clear your names?
Luan: Hopefully, it will be a "picture perfect" alibi. XD Get it?
Lee: (~_~) Anyway, I'm kind of surprised you didn't go home earlier, Luna.
Luna: I just figured you'd want some good company on the trip home.
Luan: Was that for both of us or just one in particular? ;)
Luna: I don't know what you're talking about. Can't a girl be there for her sister/roommate and best bro/bandmate? Speaking of the last one, do you think this will be cleared before the Battle of the Bands?
Lee: Hopefully, we can. I'd just like to ask if you could keep this from the rest of your clan.
Luna: Are you sure?
Luan: How do think they'd take family members breaking rules to prove they didn't break rules?
Luna: Good point.
Lee: I'll check the card for anything after homework.
The SUV came to a full stop in the Pings' parking lot, tearing the teens from their phones.
"Time to get out, you three," Mrs. Ping informed while stepping out the vehicle.
"See you girls tomorrow," Lee sighed as they all got out to go their separate ways. By tonight, he thought, 'I'm going to get some answers.'
This chapter was a struggle, but it came to be with a lot of help from mon-ra.
Sorry to be a buzzkill, but I need to take a break from writing for a while to focus on my last semester to get my Associate's. Pray for me, wish me luck, or whatever.