The group split up for the moment, agreeing to text each other if they found anything that could be useful. Damian knew that he had Economics class, but there was no way that he would be able to concentrate on the class. Out of sight of the teacher (he hoped), he started to make a mind map on his notepad.

Reconnaissance - suspects?

Need to see if there were any new staff

Maybe people who were masked as delivery drivers of something?

Could have been people going as parents

Damian chewed on the ends of his pencil. There was something missing, he could feel it. But the only thing he could do was try to focus on the problem in front of him

Lots of people walked about Eden College every day. They had thousands of students, dozens of teachers, and hundreds of staff members. Teachers, cleaners, cooks, administration, dorm staff… How was he going to be able to go through them all and narrow them down?

Damian nibbled on his pencil a bit more, then wrote down:

Someone who would have been able to get into contact with Anya

Cooks - don't get close enough

Cleaners? Freedom of movement, can blend into the background

Teacher?

He crossed that last one out. They didn't have any new teachers, and the staff that they were in contact with had been in tenure already for decades. It would be very unlikely if it was one of them. Unless they had been bribed, but the penalty for bribery was so strong that Damian doubted it.

Parents?

Damian peered at the word a little more. Was he getting closer? He wasn't sure. If there were any parents that were on the lookout, they would have had to have sent in a child roughly around the same time that she enrolled at six years old. Damian thought that this was highly unlikely too - why wait twelve years to abduct someone when it would have been easier to do it when the target was a child?

They would have had to send in a new student when they were six years old -

Damian froze.

A new student.

Eden College famously did not accept any new students beyond the age of six years old, but it did sometimes have transfer or exchange students. And there was only one he could think of that had come into contact recently. Had even started part way through the term.

Something about starting part way through the term was extremely suspicious, he knew.

Adrian Kuning. Damian wrote on his paper, circled the name, and tucked the notepad away.

Damian waited until the teacher's back was turned before he brought out his phone, but his thumb hesitated over the keypad.

What if he was wrong? He didn't want to make a fuss over nothing, or give his friends false information. He wanted to be sure he was right before he told them anything, or gave them any sort of lead. He knew how aggressive Becky could be if there was an outlet for her anger and frustration.

Damian carefully put the phone back in his bag, and did his best to concentrate on class while he waited for the bell, but his mind was a storm of thoughts and possibilities. Eventually, Damian realised that he couldn't even pretend to care about class anymore, and he raised his hand.

"Can I be excused?" he called. "I just remembered there was a meeting I have to go to, uh, Imperial Scholar business…"

Damian leapt from his seat the moment that they waved him away.

The halls outside were far too quiet, and Damian's shoes squeaked loudly on the floor as he hurried to the next cluster of school buildings, and it was a full five minutes before he arrived at the other part of the campus, sweating and panting. He threw the door open.

"Excuse me!" Damian exclaimed and the teacher visibly jumped back in surprise. "Is Becky Blackbell in here?"

"Yes, Mister Desmond, but it is very uncouth of you to interrupt my class-"

"I'm very sorry, we just - er - need her on urgent business, to help with the, er, Imperial Ball planning-"

Becky jumped in her seat. "Right!" and she turned to the teacher. "I said to Desmond I can help with some of the aspects, may I please be excused?"

She packed up her things as the teacher sighed exasperatedly. "Well on this one occasion, but next time-"

"I know! It won't happen again! Thank you, Professor!" Becky called and she was out the door to join Damian in the hallway.

"What is it?" Becky said as she swung her bag over her shoulder and rushed beside Damian. "I assume you found something, some sort of lead?"

Damian shrugged, but led her away from the cluster of classrooms. "I have a suspicion, but we need to get some evidence. While everyone's in class right now, we need to get into the school files."

Becky stopped in her tracks. "You want to do what?"

"Look," Damian whispered, cautious that being in the middle of the hallway gave them no protection from being overheard. "I don't have a lot of time to explain, we have half an hour before the bell goes for the next class and the hallways fill with students and teachers again, but I have a hunch that we need to get into the office. Are you with me, or not?"

Becky hesitated, worry clearly etched on her face. "But what if we get caught?"

Damian bit his lip. He was aware that his hastily-thought out plan was severely flawed, but they definitely could not afford to waste any more time.

"We'll figure it out," he said eventually to Becky. "But I have an idea, and I need your help to do it. Can I trust you?"

Becky glanced back at the empty hallway, and then sighed and shook her head, as if she couldn't believe what she was about to say. "You'd better not be wrong, Desmond. I'd risk getting a Bolt for Anya, but not for you!"

Damian's shoulder sagged with relief. "That's good enough," he chuckled, and started to head towards the school office, when Becky stopped him.

"Hold on a second," she said sternly and brought out her phone. "We'd better call in reinforcements."

Becky flipped her phone open and quickly typed up a text. Then, before Damian could question her or peek at what she had typed up, she put her phone back in her pocket with a satisfied smile. "Okay, I got us another Imperial Scholar who can get out of class and meet us."

"Er-" started Damian, but he stopped himself short. Maybe reinforcements would be needed after all.

When they arrived at the school office, Damian was somehow not surprised to see the statuesque figure of Bill Watkins. He gestured for them both to stay where they were, and he put his finger to his lips.

Then, Bill threw open the door to the office, while Damian and Becky ducked behind the corner. From there, Damian heard Bill's rumbling voice as clear as day.

"EXCUSE ME," Bill bellowed, "BUT I REQUIRE YOUR IMMEDIATE AND URGENT ASSISTANCE."

Damian slammed his hand over his mouth to keep from laughing. What was Bill doing? Did he think it was actually going to work?

Damian and Becky held in their mirth as they heard the office clerk startle, stumble back and fluster over their words. "Young man, it is most improper to barge in without knocking-"

"PLEASE COME WITH ME, MY FATHER ALWAYS SAYS NEVER TO DISCUSS PRIVATE MATTERS WHERE ONE MIGHT BE OVERHEARD."

"Excuse me?" Spluttered the clerk. "This is my private office-"

"-WHICH MAY BE BUGGED WITH LISTENING DEVICES. NOW, FOLLOW ME."

Damian couldn't believe it when he heard the clerk actually shuffling out of the office in a hurry after Bill. He turned to Becky with his mouth hung wide open.

Becky saw the obvious question in Damian's eyes and she giggled. "It's his impression of Alexander from Berlint in Love. Isn't he hilarious?"

Then in one swift movement, she pulled him out from behind the corner and together they slipped into the office. Damian could even hear Bill's voice retreating down the corridor, but he could not afford to get distracted by whatever story he had come up with.

Damian shook his head. Unbelievably, Bill's distraction worked, and now they needed to make the most of it. Around him, miles of cabinets contained stacks of papers and files, and to Damian's relief, the clerk certainly did seem to be efficient. Every cabinet was clearly labelled and in alphabetical order. That would make their job a lot easier.

"Blackbell, you have a look through the finance sheet, see if there is any suspicious or unusual activity. Maybe large donations. I'm going to go through the student files."

Damian expected Becky to argue back, maybe ask more questions or protest, but to his relief she just nodded and turned towards the 'F' cabinets. Perhaps because she knew that the clerk could come back at any time, and time was of the essence.

He strode to the cabinet that was clearly labelled 'Students', and he nearly whooped in delight when saw that the files were not only organised by hall, but by year group as well. It did not take him long at all to find the file for Adrian Kuning. He flipped it open immediately and scanned through the pages.

At the surface, everything seemed normal. There was a photo of Adrian attached to the file - probably the same photo that was on Adrian's school ID - but there was remarkably little contained in the manila file. Under the section for 'Mother/Father', both parts of the document had been left carefully blank.

Stranger still, there was a list of schools under "Academic History", but when Damian noted the dates of these, it was clear that Adrian had only been enrolled in his first school two years prior, and in that time, he had been enrolled in no less than twelve schools.

Is he some kind of delinquent? Who goes to twelve schools in two years?

Even worse, there was not even a record of Adrian's previous grades. Damian furrowed his brow: how the hell did Adrian get into Eden College with no parents, no grades, and an abysmal school record?

"Check this out," whispered Becky. "All students pay fees annually, isn't it weird that this kid only pays weekly?"

"Huh?" Damian snapped out of his thoughts, and snatched the document away from Becky. "Let me see that."

Becky was right. There was one person on the enrollment list that had a weekly payment plan - almost as if they were expecting to change schools at any minute.

The name on the list was exactly the same as the file in his hand.

Voices filtered through to them from the hallway: "- THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIMELY ASSISTANCE, IT WAS VERY INSIGHTFUL TO GET YOUR PERSPECTIVE."

Damian and Becky made worried eye contact, and in that split second they both realised the same thing: the only way out was through the main door, which lead to the exact corridor that Bill and the office clerk stood in.

Becky grabbed Damian's sleeve and dragged him to the other side of the door just as the clerk opened it from the other side. Damian didn't dare breathe knowing that the clerk was only on the other side of the wooden door. His gaze fixed on the clerk's shadow, framed by the light streaming in through the door.

"Like I said, er," stammered the clerk. "If you want advice on your bowel issues, I am really not the correct person to-"

"IT REALLY IS LIKE A CANNON, I DON'T KNOW HOW TO STOP IT."

Laughter bubbled in Damian's chest and his eyes bulged with the effort of keeping silent. He dared not make eye contact with Becky, or he feared he might actually burst.

"You should really see a doctor-"

Too late, Damian clapped his hand over his mouth to keep from laughing, but a strained wheeze escaped into the air.

The clerk babbled incredulously. "Was that… is there a student in-"

Tension hung in the air for a fraction of a second, before the clerk's shadow disappeared, along with all the light in the doorway, and Damian realised that Bill's figure filled the entire doorway.

"IT WAS WIND," boomed Bill once again. "I DID SAY I WAS HAVING DIGESTIVE PROBLEMS."

Damian's chest hurt with the effort of keeping his laugh in, but at the same, he didn't have a clue what to do next. Maybe they could jump out the window, or hide under the desk, or-

The air knocked from his lungs when, once again, Becky grabbed his wrist and led him around the door, to stand directly behind Bill. She must have seen the outrage on his face at being dragged around again, as she raised a finger to her lips, and glanced meaningfully towards Bill, before pointing to his legs.

Damian knew that Bill's size was impressive, but when he looked down, he noticed that Bill's legs were as thick as tree trunks.

What was Becky trying to say?

"I really must insist that you take up your issue elsewhere, I have very important business to-"

"YES I UNDERSTAND," said Bill somberly, and took a couple of steps forward.

To Damian's amazement, Becky shuffled forward, directly behind Bill's leg, and suddenly Damian understood.

She's using his massive body to hide us!

Once Damian caught up with Becky to stand behind Bill, Becky lightly tapped Bill's lower back.

"THANK YOU FOR YOUR HELP."

And this time, Bill turned from the office ever so slowly, while Damian and Becky carefully shuffled behind him, all the while keeping them blocked from the clerk's view.

"I WILL GO NOW."

As if Damian had enough antics for the day, he was suddenly taken by surprise as Bill started shuffling backwards, and Damian quickly jumped back before he could be flattened by his living-steamroller classmate.

They shuffled together as an awkward three - backwards? - until Becky tapped Bill once again, prompting him to turn the corner.

All three students stood frozen, not daring to move until they heard the click of the office door closing.

Damian sagged to the floor, and finally allowed all the air to rush back into his lungs.

"Oh my god," he gasped, his mirth giving way to pure shock after the adrenaline subsided. "Fuck that was so close."

After a few seconds, he raised his head to meet Becky's gaze, and the question he had been holding in burst out.

"How the hell did you guys do that?"

Becky grinned. "Season six, episode seven. Alexander and Rose!"

Damian shook his head with disbelief, before he leaned back and rested it against the cool stone wall. "You have got to be kidding me," he sighed, but a smile tugged at his lips. Berlint in Love? Seriously?

"Did it work?" said Bill, and Damian noticed that he had returned to a normal voice again.

The smile tugging at Damian's lips finally widened, and he breathed out: "It worked."

Bill wordlessly held out his fist to Becky, and she bumped against it with her own tiny fist. A boulder and a pebble.

Damian clutched the manila files tighter to his chest. "We got everything we needed."

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*Bonus: An Unwritten Scene*

Emile: Boss, you'll never guess what we heard Bill say outside of class!

Damian: I don't want to know

Emile: Is that why they call him "Bazooka Bill"?

Damian: omg shut up

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Oh my god guys I am so sorry XD

This chapter was so hard to write, I am so sorry for throwing Bill under the bus like that but to be fair, it was his idea, and he's a man, he can handle being a little embarassed. He is such a great character for comedy

Bill and Becky are totally having a "pound it" moment lol

There will be some more serious tones in this arc as we move forward, but I definitely had a case of the sillies for this one!

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SOME EXCITING UPDATES
I'm on Twitter now! (if that is good news, lol). Follow me if you want to: lassify_

I am by no means a twitter whiz but I am learning, and I am hoping to use that as a way to post updates as well and keep engaged :)

ALSO

The amazing LilaChaton has very kindly started the translation of this story into French on FFN, I am massively honoured and awed by her hard work and if you speak French, want to learn it, or practice your French reading skills, please go and support her!