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Day Two

When her alarm went off, Kiki immediately jumped out of bed and twirled around. Once she had done her twirl, she turned off her alarm. It was a brand-new day, she was ready for her second day of high school and was determined to get farther ahead in her investigation of the theft of Barrage's wooden duck!

Once she had gotten dressed, gone down for breakfast and brushed her teeth afterwards, she was off to school.

Upon arriving, Kiki began listening in, hoping to hear someone say something. There had to be a clue somewhere and people were not always discrete.

As she walked up the steps, she began to hear a whisper of: "Is it hidden?"

Freezing, Kiki turned her head slightly to the right. Was what hidden? What was being talked about?

"Yeah, in that old hallway the Fifteenth Graders used to call their turf."

With a location in her head, Kiki entered the school. Upon entering, she asked an older student, a girl, where that specific hallway was. Upon getting an answer, Kiki thanked her and walked on her way to the hallway where the once dreaded Fifteenth Graders had resided.

Four years had not done the hallway any good. It looked even more decrepit than it had in Lee Ping's time and Barrage had not even thought about renovating it. Maybe Kiki could have made that suggestion. Did Barrage have a suggestion box? He should have had a suggestion box.

Approaching a row of lockers, looking as if they had seen their better days during the Battle of Kadesh, Kiki peeked inside the first one, hoping that wooden duck of Barrage's would be in there. Upon finding nothing but a moldy old sandwich, Kiki backed away in horror. How long had that been in there? Since before Lee Ping's time?

Moving on to the next locker, Kiki pouted as she found only an old sock in it. What kind of a person left a sock in a locker? Probably the same kind that left a sandwich in one.

Hoping that third time was indeed the charm, Kiki opened the next locker… Which was empty.

Closing it, she looked to the ceiling for a moment while letting out a little sigh. After that, she gave it a few good kicks. Once that was done, Kiki investigated the next locker and found… Well, it was not exactly a wooden duck… It was wooden… It just was not a duck. It bore a passing resemblance to the Tazeulwurm that was supposed to be the school's mascot. Was this the thing that she had heard about being hidden? Why was it hidden? Had this been stolen from a woodshop student?

No, that could not have been it. There had not been enough time for a woodshop student to have made this. Where did it come from? Had it been here since last year?

Why was it here?

Shaking her head, Kiki continued her search through the various lockers. What did she find? A lot of nothing with the occasional forgotten item, thankfully none of them were food items. Upon reaching the last locker however, Kiki discovered a piece of paper with writing on it.

The Council failed. The Reptiles failed. I will not fail.

What kind of nonsense was this? There must have been some sort of answer, right? But what was it talking about and was this the hidden thing those other students had talked about?

There had to have been a—