Episode 5: A Grade Agreement
It was a sunny day and Matt was wearing a pair of pants along with a sweater. He pranced towards the front gate, "I'm here, school! Haha, why is it so sunny today?"
Jen punched his head from behind, "Idiot! Take that sweater off. You're going to die from the heat."
Matt crossed his arms in hesitation, "What for? It’s my awesome new blue sweater I got just yesterday. And besides, I feel perfectly fi- (Oh, crap! That's a bit too obvious!) AHHH!!!" He took off his sweater and he threw it at Jen angrily as he started jumping around.
Jen threw the sweater onto the floor, "Ew I'm not touching your sweaty germs. It's so gross touching other people's sweat. Shouldn't you know that after knowing me for eight years? Except my own." She walked away and said softly, "My sweat is always healthy.~"
Matt looked away, "Geez..."
~~~
As Matt was walking, he saw two students playing with a lighter. From Matt’s corner of his eye, he could see the two of them trying to light a cigarette near the restrooms. Matt thought in his mind, “Man, those guys… Don’t they know it’s bad to smoke as a high school student?” Matt ignored them and went on walking towards the large gym. On the way, Santi and Shirley found him.
Shirley waved, “Hey Matt! There you are! Hehe.” She stood in front of him and stared as he was wearing a fat blue sweater.
Matt pointed at her, “Don’t look at me. I’m not the one wearing a sleeveless shirt and some very short shorts.”
Shirley stomped her right foot, “But! It’s a sunny day so I make more sense. But anyway, anything new with your powers?”
Matt shook his head in sadness and Santi added, “I didn’t learn anything new either. I’m still trying to research this through the internet but there are no sources on it.”
The three of them walked together with the crowd. There were some people pushing others back. Shirley got hit on the arm as she held onto it, “Argh… ow, that hurt. They should really watch where they’re goin-…” All the sudden, there was a commotion going on about a fire.
Matt was surprised to listen to this. Santi took a look around and he pointed at a building, “There! Let’s go!” The three of them went back to where Matt saw the two students with cigarettes. They were in the science building, circling the boy’s restroom. There were many people.
Their school principal shooed them all away, “Alright, alright, students. There’s nothing to see here. Go back to your classes.”
Matt, Shirley, and Santi walked along with the crowd. Matt whispered, “What are we going to do?”
Shirley shook her head, “I don’t think it’s a good idea to start barging into some incident that is not ours.”
Santi responded, “But it’s strange. What’s causing this? Matt, did you do anything wrong again?”
Matt jumped, “No way! Just because it has to do with fire doesn’t mean it is me. But that’s stuck in my mind too. What is going on?”
Shirley decided to leave on her own. “Fine, I’ll leave by myself. If you two really want to be nosy, I suggest you might as well abuse that time ability. I don’t know.” She gave a hairflip and left.
Matt placed one hand like a cup stand and the other wrapped like a cup and he smiled, “I got it! Santi, you can stop time and we can go check out what’s going on!”
“That’s not going to work. I can’t stop time. I can only slow down time. But I can still have an alternate plan to this. We should hide somewhere so no one can kick us out, perhaps behind the bushes. Once that is done, we can make a clearing. You go distract the principal while I slow down time.”
Matt stared at him in disappointment, “Hey hey… Where’s my share in seeing what happened in the restroom?”
Santi laughed, “I never said you’d get your share but it’s the only way, haha!”
Matt clenched his fists, “Wow, you’re horrible.”
~~~
Still, Matt knew it was the only way they could get through the principal so Matt followed Santi’s orders. Santi hid behind a bush and Matt skipped to the principal.
The principal stopped him, “Whoa, whoa, kiddo! I asked all the students to go back to their business. I’m sorry about the excitement but this is some serious business.”
Matt gave a fake frown, “Ohhhh I see… That sucks. Well…” Matt continued to talk and Santi began to slow down the time in order for him to technically speed up in others’ eyes. He paused the speed so that it would stay slow until he decided it was time to finish. First, he ran into the restroom and noticed that everything was dusted away. It seemed as if the fire extinguisher had already done its job.
In Matt’s speed, he said to the principal, “I’ll be going now.” He had already seen a flash go through the restroom, which was Santi in his own speed. The principal walked away, thinking Matt was about to leave. Matt was innocently on the floor, shuffling through his backpack. Once the principal was out of sight, Matt ran into the restroom and Santi saw him. He fixed time and everything was back to normal.
Santi explained, “All the fire is gone. What else is there to look at?”
Matt pointed at a half-burnt paper on the floor, “How about that?” Matt picked it up and read, “Hm… ‘Give me the…’ The rest is burnt away. There’s another line below and it says ‘…be waiting here. Come as fast as…’.”
Santi scratched his head, “Even I’m not sure what this is supposed to be.”
A girl entered the restroom, “Excuse me? What are you two students doing here?”
Matt whispered, “Wait, when did you fix the speed of time?! Hurry, hurry, reverse time and let’s get out of here!” Santi agreed and he started to reverse time in the restroom only.
Matt and Santi ran outside the restroom. Santi pretended he barely started to take a peek into the restroom. The girl spotted him and yelled, “You! What are you doing?”
Matt noticed the girl was holding a certain paper. Matt acted innocent, “Hey you, what is that?”
The girl answered, “A document filing on this report. You’re supposed to be in class! And me too… but still. You have to respect me! It’s Natalie.”
Matt and Santi walked away. As Natalie barged into the restroom, Santi ordered, “I’m going to slow down the time. She won’t notice me.” Matt tried his best to follow Santi.
As Santi slowed down time again, he and Matt entered the restroom and hid behind a wall of the stalls. Natalie was in one of the stalls. Santi fixed the time and Natalie turned around, “Huh? The door just made a quick noise but I didn’t see anything… Anyways-…”
She turned to the toilet then she stood up. Santi gasped and thought in his mind, “I know what she’s doing!” Santi slowed the time, went out of the restroom with Matt, and the time fixed.
Matt got angry, “Stop doing that! We have to see what she was doing!”
Santi shook him, “I think I’ve got it already!”
Natalie came out of the restroom with a good sheet of writing. Matt pointed at her notebook, “Look, she’s done writing. Let’s keep seeing what’s up.”
Santi took Matt’s hand, “Where is the burnt paper that you had earlier?”
Matt looked around, “I didn’t bring it with me when you reversed time.”
Santi barged into the restroom and he saw a paper on the floor. It was not burnt this time. Matt scratched his head, “H-Huh? What happened to the paper?”
Santi picked it up, “It’s just a regular piece of homework paper.”
Matt took a step back, “What?! I don’t get it…!”
Santi explained, “Natalie must have replaced it to get rid of the evidence. The question is ‘why’ would she do such a thing. What was going on?”
Matt spoke, “Oh! There were these two random guys smoking cigarettes. That’s all I know.”
Santi snapped his fingers, “I’ve got it! I have to universally reverse time in order for this to work…”
Matt shook his head, “No, let’s not do that.”
“It’s the only way.” Santi whispered to Matt the whole process and Matt gave a sigh. He had no other choice but to agree.
~~~
Santi reversed time to when Matt was noticing the two guys who were about to start their cigarettes. Matt hid behind the bushes and he eavesdropped on them. One said, “When is Natalie coming? This note says to give her the money and she will raise our grades. But where is she?”
As Natalie arrived, she whispered to them, “Do you have the money?”
“Yeah, now can you raise our grades up?”
“Sure thing.” She said with a smile.
The other student watched her expression, “Are you sure…?”
“YES, I’m sure!! Nice seeing you.” She walked away.
“She’s a liar. Let’s go take the money back, yeah?” One student said.
Natalie heard them as she grabbed the student’s collar, “What makes you think I will lie to you?” The boy dropped his cigar which landed next to the trash can as it started to spread.
The other student was surprised, “Look what you did! We still got our evidence with this paper. It shows your trade agreement with the money.”
Santi arrived to where Matt was as they began to listen at the same time. Natalie pushed the other student to the floor, “Give me that paper!” The students hesitated to hand over the paper as Natalie ran outside and began to lock the door.
She ran off and Santi slowed down time. He took Natalie’s keys and went to the restroom. Matt placed a large rock in front of her leg as she very slowly started to fall. Matt followed Santi into the restroom. Santi stopped as the fire was already too large. Santi ran outside and closed the door so it seemed like no one opened the locked door after Natalie. He fixed the time and ran off to get a fire extinguisher. Matt was in the restroom as he walked in towards the two students, “Come on, let’s go!” He helped a student up and the other ran with him with the paper for evidence. Matt was next to the door but he became weary. They all ran out together and fell to the floor. Both the students were coughing from the smoke. Matt’s recklessness caused him to experience the fire. By the time he was at the door, his powers became excessive and his body could not handle much of the heat. Santi came back with a fire extinguisher…
~~~
The incident ended nicely for Matt and Santi. It involved a lot of thinking and problem solving for the two of them but all went well. Joey and Shirley were standing outside the building, wondering what’s going on.
The principal was thanking Matt for saving the two students. However, the two students were also in trouble for smoking. As for the girl, she was suspended for over a month. She was supposed to go to jail for harassing the students and leading them to a fire, but the paper agreement showed evidence that the three of them were in on the same deal. This caused the girl to get slight punishment.
Jen patted Matt on the back, “Wow, you saved two people! Hah, but I could have done that.~”
Matt rolled his eyes, “Good for you. My new blue sweater is now all burnt and gross. So much for the appeal…”
Natalie was guarded by some administrators as she looked at Matt and Santi, “You two… I guess I shouldn’t get mad. It was my fault for doing such a thing to those students. I should thank you for saving them instead. I’ll be good once I come back. I promise.” She walked away.
Santi sighed, “Well, that was troubling just to figure out what was going on. All the students wanted were a grade change and she secretly only wanted the money. She wasn’t planning to change the students’ grades after all.”
Matt questioned him, “How would you know she only wanted the money? Maybe she really was going to change their grades but she probably got angry out of annoyance.”
Santi nodded, “That could be a possibility. Believe it or not, this could be interpreted in many ways…”
Beside them was Joey. He took out a notebook with a frown, “How the hell am I supposed to write about this if I know nothing about it?”
Shirley slapped him, “Stupid! Don’t write anything about it. It’s going to cause some mishap to the school if they see it on the Lion’s Trail.”
Joey responded, “I can’t write for the newspaper yet. It’s just a journal that is reported to Journalism. I can write stuff for the newspaper next year.”
Shirley placed her hands on her hips, “Well, I. Don’t. Care.” She turned her head to Matt, Santi, and Jen. She winked at Matt and Santi for the heads up.
Matt and Santi gave her a thumbs up. Jen looked at Shirley, then back at Matt and Santi simultaneously, “Huh? What’s going on?”
~~~
---- Next chapter preview:Matt: On the next chapter, I find a strangely familiar artwork on the school's bulletin board. It looks a bit TOO familiar! It looks like Jen's kinda drawing.
Jen: What?! Move! Lemme see!
Matt: Yeah, see that picture! You drew that, didn't you? And it also says 'Jessica'. Who is this? Some random girl?
Jen: I-I guess. Hehe...
Matt: I'll take a closer investigation on this! Next chapter... Artwork on the Bulletin Board!
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