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The Assembly

Everyone had heard of the big prank the first day of school at A. Nigma in 2012. As Kiki entered the gym, filled with chairs, she wondered whether this would be a repeat. Paint, frogs, weird music, would this be the beginning of something fantastic? Something incredible? Some amazing? She hoped so! A school with a cyborg principal and some lindworm-looking thing for a mascot was sure to have adventures for its students!

Sitting with her friends, Kiki's mind raced. There had to be something exciting that would happen today, but what? A disappearance? A new prank? A theft? She just had to know she was so excited!

When Principal General Wendell Barrage walked onto the stage, Kiki felt her heart leap like a horse during a steeplechase. His mustache might have been a tad bit grey since the days of Lee Ping, but he was still the same old cyborg.

"Listen up, maggots!" Barrage yelled and Kiki stifled an excited squeal. He was just like the videos she had seen online! "It has been a while, but we've finally got a vice principal we can trust, a lieutenant general who is not going to stab us in the back!" Everyone had heard about Vice Principal Veronica Victoria and later Barrage's co-principal Art Wurst. The secret was out and now Kiki began to wonder if this new vice principal would be the same with some big mind control plot or whatever it had been that Wurst had been up to? What had it been? She had no idea, she couldn't remember. Something about a pyramid beneath the school. "And here she is."

Perking up with interest, Kiki watched as a woman walked out onto the stage, black-haired and wearing a red blouse, skirt and high heels. Who was she? Whose side was she on? Kiki could only wonder if she could be trusted.

"Good day, everybody." The woman said. "I am Vice Principal Legendre and I look forward to getting to know you all, provided you are not rule-breakers. I understand it has been a while since this school was last graced with a vice principal and now with me here, there shall be even more order brought to the school, someone for our noble general to delegate to."

Kiki's eyes rolled. This was starting to become boring. When was the excitement going to happen? What was it going to be? A new prank? It had to be something big and flashy during the assembly, it just had to be!

Alas, as the assembly went on, Kiki found that no new prank happened and she found herself both bored and hungry. How long had Barrage's welcoming assembly gone before the prank had happened? Ten minutes? Twenty? Thirty? Would that she knew.

Sighing, Kiki slouched forward, resting her elbows upon her knees and her face in her hands. Pouting from a combination of boredom and hunger, she wondered where Lee Ping and his friends were now. College most likely but which college? If she were to ask Mrs. Ping that, doubtless she wouldn't get an answer. Were they having similar adventures in college was anyone's guess! If they were, Kiki hoped that they hadn't taken the adventure with them. There had to still be something fantastic at A. Nigma High! A tazelwurm as a mascot, a cyborg as a principal and robo-cleaners roaming the halls, there still had to be something fantastic here!

Suddenly, a feeling of dread began to form inside Kiki's stomach. Why? What reason did she have to be dreading anything?

Turning her head upward, Kiki looked at the gym's sprinklers. Were they about to go off? That was what had happened those years ago!

Her eyes darting, Kiki tried to see any sign of a repeat. Paint cans, anything that she would have heard of.

Nothing.

Sighing, Kiki prayed that something was going to happen, something that would have cut this assembly short! She wanted to eat! Who had an assembly at lunch? Lunch was time for the hungry to eat! Lee Ping and everyone else must have gotten time to eat.

When the assembly finally ended, Kiki was the first to exit the gym. All that and nothing exciting happened. This was such a letdown!

Looking at a nearby clock, Kiki let out a small squeal of joy. There was still time for lunch!

Running to the cafeteria, Kiki ran to the nearest table and got to work on her lunch. She had only gotten three bites in when throughout the school, or that would be how Kiki would tell it, the cry of "Who is responsible for this?" rang.

Hana, Oleg and Hone had barely even gotten to the table that Kiki was sitting at before she jumped up, threw her hands in the air and shouted: "Finally!"

Running from the cafeteria, Kiki made her way to… Nowhere in particular because she had no idea where the yell had come from. These things weren't like in the movies or television where someone heard a cry and immediately went to where the cry had come from. It was only when she had stopped to ask if anyone knew where that cry had come from that she was directed to the principal's office.

Arriving at Principal General Barrage's office, Kiki found… a perfectly normal looking office, no vandalism or anything… Then why exactly did Barrage look so angry.

"When I find who out whoever it was that stole Rear Admiral Duckington, I will murderize them!" Well, that was a good… Wait, Barrage kept his pet duck in the office?

Kiki could only stare. Why did a cyborg ex-military principal have a pet duck?

"Y-You keep your pet duck in the office alone?" Kiki asked.

"Not a pet duck!" Barrage answered. "Rear Admiral Duckington is a wooden duck that I keep on my desk!"

A wooden duck that he kept on his desk… That he had named… He had named an inanimate object… Not a stuffed animal or anything like that, a decoration… Was that a sign of a mental illness? Maybe, how was Kiki to know? She was only thirteen, but still, she felt the need to ask one question.

"Uh… Sir, does Rear Admiral Duckington talk to you?"

"If he does, it is a sure sign I'm not awake." Barrage answered.

Well, at least he wasn't insane. Still… A wooden duck being stolen… It was a bit of a stepdown from pranking the entire school on the first day, but Kiki supposed it was something… Or was it a stepdown?

If it was a theft of one of Barrage's belongings then that meant it had to have been more personal, than the culprit in question was striking at him directly rather than doing something that could get him fired on his first day.

But who could it have possibly been? It was only now that Kiki wished that she had not just started high school. Maybe she could do some investigating later and when she didn't have cheer practice… If she made the team.

Sighing, Kiki turned. Cheerleader tryouts whenever those would be, a theft to investigate, maybe focusing on one thing would be good… Not that she would.