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The next few days were spent very differently by everyone in Teddy’s bedroom the night that Opuntia spilled her mind for the first time. Some took immediate action, like Cas, who buried himself in the library to pull out the dustiest books and peruse through them. Sampson, who didn’t understand how the key to recent crime could be solved with an ancient book, instead took to listing out every possible suspect out loud at random, then ruling them out one by one.
“Craig Dolowitz, I remember him telling me he’d be interested in doing a scandalous act with me, but of course, that was 2 years ago and before he started seeing that girl from Boston…”
But mostly everyone else was taking smaller, more subtle actions, like occasionally scoping the crime scene, along with everyone else in the school. Unfortunately for them, with nothing else to do on the weekend, Drownreef was assigned to stand guard there at all times. He stared out at all of them with his dull, yellow-tinged eyes and shooed them away if they got too close, much to the group’s dismay.
“Don’t worry about him, it wasn’t going to give us much information anyway,” Teddy shrugged it off after seeing the disappointed look on Opuntia’s face. She was coming up with ideas herself, but not along lines of a conclusion to the story, but merely a beginning.
One thing she thought should be figured out right away was how to share their findings all the time without rousing suspicion or gaining eavesdroppers. Yes, it was true the lunchroom was usually bursting with noise, but she could always tell that they were a subject of interest, usually because of her, but now more than ever because of Sampson’s supposed guiltiness. They needed a reason and place to be alone together often and should keep a schedule instead of sporadic timing since they all had school to deal with, and some had extra-curriculars. She brought this up to them all as they left the Sunday morning mass at the church house, a faint mist coating them as they stepped into the low-hanging September clouds. She tried to talk in a whisper so no one else would hear her, but that only resulted in Teddy, Wilfred and Engelbart being able to make out what she said. Cas quickly sped off to the library again and Sampson was too busy catching up with familiar faces, just so he could gather more suspects.
Wilfred seemed to deeply take in what she had said, and she could almost see the wires in his lightning-fast brain spark to life.
“Could we not just meet at the lighting rocks?” Teddy suggested, the four of them now walking back through the main entrance of the academy. “No one else really knows about that place but us,”
“But we can’t really just disappear into the forest, anyone consistently watching us like Redwood or my father would get suspicious right away,” Opuntia reminded him. They could always ask for a study room, but each one had to be approved by the faculty, which was an annoying process to say the least. Just as Opuntia was about to ask Wilfred for his current ideas, she noticed the board next to the lunchroom of all of the current clubs, academic societies and teams. There were various sheets of paper plastered up with a general description of the group, and the time and place of meeting, some of them probably having been up there since she and Teddy’s fathers were students at Arison. An idea came to her like a flash flood, and her trains of thought seemed to converge and collide, making her forget everything else.
“O.P?” Teddy repeated himself, shaking her shoulder with a puzzled look. “I said, what do you think we should do?”
She looked at her three friends with a brow furrowed in confidence. “I will tell you what we’re gonna do,” she answered, looking around to see if Drownreef was in earshot, “we are gonna start a club.”
In her eyes, a club was perfect for masking any activity they were doing and kept things consistent between them. They could meet once a week under the guise of discussing some particular topic that only they were interested in, and have an entire classroom to themselves without anyone questioning what they were doing. That way, they could set aside time to share theories and findings without getting carried away and forgetting about schoolwork, while still being in private. As much as the question killed her, she still wanted to focus on her academics or else she would find her current good grades very short lasted.
“Do you really think we could start a club? Is that even allowed?” Eng blurted out as they were halfway up the stairs to their rooms.
“It is allowed,” Wilfred answered for her. “The only problem is it has to be approved and managed by a teacher.” That was indeed a problem. She doubted any teacher would approve of a club with her or Sampson as a founding member since it had to mean trouble. That was, all but maybe one.
“But I might know a teacher who would be completely open to managing one, as long as it’s about one thing,” said Wilfred.
“…If you say Drownreef I will—” Teddy started but Wilfred shook his head.
“No don’t worry, he already runs ‘future in medicine.’ I was talking about Mr. Maguire, the history professor.”
None of them really knew Mr. Maguire that well, since they only had one mandatory history course in the second year, but it was true. Out of all the teachers at Arison, he seemed the most like a nice or at least a “decent” person.
“You think he’ll let us make a history student society?” Opuntia asked, trying to remember everything she knew about Mr. Maguire.
“Yeah, since he was trying to get me to do it since second year, but I was far too busy with everything else I was doing.” Opuntia still wondered how Wilfred managed to handle a full course load and be a part of 3 student organizations, even being captain of the competitive math leagues.
“Hm, then it just might work. I don’t really remember him being overbearing or anything so we should have the freedom of talking about whatever.” Concluded Teddy, just as they reached the door to his and Eng’s room.
Their idea did in fact work, since as soon as Wilfred discussed it with him, Mr. Maguire was in open arms at the idea of finally having enough people for a student historical society. The other members of the newly formed club were informed and were on board. Cas was a little disappointed that they weren’t talking about real history, and Sampson pointed out an interesting loophole.
“I mean technically, we’re totally in the clear, since we will be talking about something that happened in the past, also known as…history.” He smirked, causing Cas and Opuntia to roll their eyes at him.
It was difficult to work with Mr. Maguire to find a time and day of the week that they all would be available since they had to consider Teddy’s Tennis tryouts and then eventually practices, his meetings with the school newspaper: The Arison Gazette, and all of Cas and Wilfred’s various science-related clubs that barely anyone could keep track of. It was a nightmare to sort out a time between them, so Opuntia wondered how on Earth were they going to solve a school-wide mystery. At last, it was finalized: Tuesday, right after school, for 45 minutes. And Opuntia could barely wait.
Tuesday could not come fast enough. Opuntia was very eager to see what findings and possible theories she and her friends could come up with. It wasn’t in a way that made her excited, but in a sense of relief where she felt like things would finally get done. She felt more confident now that she and her not-always-competent friends had a chance at actually tackling this case, even with a million possible leads, yet still none at the same time. She was in charge of making the “advertisements” for the student’s historical society, as a requirement for every approved club. Obviously not wanting any unwanted members, she wrote in an extremely small, nearly illegible font, and half-covered the club information with various other forms stuck to the board.
At 3’o clock on the dot she entered Mr. Maguire’s now deserted classroom, full of ancient yellowing maps, cracked replicas of roman busts and framed quotes of famous leaders and the greats. Maguire himself was packing his belongings, greeting her almost warmly at the door.
“I didn’t know you were going to be leading the club…or are you just early?” Maguire said in a curious way, at least not accusatory. Opuntia was stuck between wanting to put her foot down and staying in his good books, but for once decided to just accept the roles thrust upon her.
“Oh, no, I just don’t have class so I’m waiting for Wilfred…but I do help with the club,” she said, not being able to help herself.
“Oh, well, I guess Wilfred will be here any minute. And what will you be discussing at your first meeting?” He asked, smiling with sweet interest. Opuntia had to think wildly on the spot, not considering that she could have been asked this.
“We are discussing the…Assassination of Julius Caesar.” She said, looking around at a map of the Roman Empire.
“This club must have good taste, starting with Antiquity,” he clapped his hands together in approval. “Definitely a prime example of the trends seen in history: betrayal, desire for power, war, heroism,” Mr. Maguire blabbed on to her, or more to himself really, as he picked up a piece of chalk and scribbled the topic on the board for her, all while she just hoped he would leave.
“Well, I’ll leave you, or Wilfred, to it then,” he said, before picking up the last of his things and finally departing, leaving Opuntia standing there, slightly scowling. Did she not also get an A+ in his history class? Why was she not capable of running a club here? She was also there when they talked to Mr. Maguire in the first place, so it bothered her how dismissive he was of her, despite his seemingly friendly nature. But then again, in a place like this, she supposed she should be used to it by now.
She did not have to wait long for another club member to arrive in Engelbart, who looked more red in the face than usual after doing whatever activity was involved in PE that day. She greeted him as he set his bag down at a desk in the front row, then just looked around at the room he had never seen before due to his new student status. She felt kind of awkward. She still didn’t really know Engelbart that well, and she felt guilty for feeling like she dragged him into the investigation.
“…Do you think the others will take much longer?” She asked him tentatively, checking her watch for the time.
“I don’t think so,” He replied. “We just ran the mile so I think they might still be…recovering.”
“Yeah, I bet,” Was all she responded.
She had this nagging guilt in the back of her mind when looking at him. She couldn’t even remember if he had agreed to join in the efforts to help her since he never really said anything! But, like always, she chose to mask her inner thoughts with something more casual.
“Well, I guess you can think of this as your first club at Arison, that’s kind of exciting, right? Well, maybe not exciting,” She backtracked, since nothing at Arison should be described as exciting, besides leaving maybe. “But interesting at least,”
“Actually,” he replied, with a slightly pained look on his face. “I already joined a club. I’m on the debate team.”
She could not hide her astonishment at these words. The person who she has at most, heard 30 words from over a week was on the debate team?
“Oh, really? That’s great!” She started, still with wide eyes and raised brows.
“I’m not really on the team, though,” he countered, looking away from her and instead at the board. She could feel a sense of embarrassment growing on his face as his cheeks turned even redder. “I just take minutes right now, but maybe in the future I’ll say something.” Things were starting to make more sense.
“Of course, I mean, that’s a good place to start,” Opuntia comforted him, while at the same time reminiscing about her time on the debate team. She attended it the previous two years, along with working on the Arison gazette with Teddy, but eventually she stopped bothering because there was no point. Even her best arguments were countered with a spew of “I feel like you’re being too emotional and not fit to argue this case,” or “Your argument is invalid because you lack the complex critical thinking of a man,”. Even her byline in the school newspaper was mysteriously scrapped and Teddy was the sole author, even though they had both done equal work. So, she was left with school, and school alone.
“I mean I hope it goes better for you than Sampson,” Opuntia added, coming out of her remembrance, “he got banned from the debate team.” She grinned at this, expecting Eng to laugh, but only found herself looking back at a scared face. He could’ve been one of the busts in the back of the room. She felt like a heavily spotlit performer trying to appeal to a dead crowd.
However, before the conversation could succumb to even more discomfort, the door once again flew open, and this time the rest of the boys strolled in, still out of breath from running the mile.
“Our first meeting is in session,” Sampson declared with his chest puffed out. They all pulled up desks close to where Eng was sitting and plopped down in them.
“Huh, the assassination of Julius Caesar?” Teddy asked, pointing at the blackboard.
“Yeah, yeah, it was a cover story for Mr. Maguire, don’t worry about it.” Explained Opuntia, starting to erase the words with her viridian sleeve. But Sampson seemed enthralled at the topic, standing up from his seat and pointing at Teddy with the other hand on his heart.
“How dare you betray me, Brutus?” He said with a falsified gasp. They all laughed before the two of them snatched up rulers from the teacher’s desk and began using them as prop swords, battling back and forth with the wooden sticks.
“C'mon guys, be serious,” Opuntia said exasperatedly, trying to get between them. Having this meeting was one of the only things she was looking forward to this week, and a chance at putting this “End of Arison” debacle to rest, she didn’t need it to be treated like a joke, just like how she feared would happen.
“Yeah, that’s not even what really happened. Caesar was mauled and stabbed by up to 60 people, did you even read the play?” Said Cas, his head propped up by hand lazily.
After Opuntia forcefully grabbed the rulers from their hands, both friends retreated back to their seats, leaving her the only one still standing. She didn’t like the feeling of all of them just watching her, as if waiting for her call. Yes, it was her decision to start trying to find answers, but she wasn’t used to the role of leadership. Most of the time she was trying to blend in with the crowd, looking up to them to see what to do next, so as not to lose their interest in the process.
“Uhh…well,” she started, not having rehearsed anything to say. What were they even supposed to talk about? They had spent so much time just working on a meeting place and cover story that she didn’t even think she had any leads or information. Wilfred saved her on this.
“Maybe we should all go around and say what we’ve been up to, or what we’ve found so far?” He suggested, shrugging.
“I haven’t really found much…” said Teddy in an apologetic tone. Opuntia agreed.
“Well, to begin with,” continued Wilfred, while reaching into his bag. He pulled out a library book titled “Native Birds of North America,” with a glossy image of several birds mid-flight on the cover. “The bird that was above the message I’ve identified to be the New England nighthawk,” he flipped to a bookmarked page revealing a large spread of a medium-sized dark brown bird, with glowing yellow eyes staring back at them. The rest of them all studied the page and tried to remember what they had seen in the atrium.
“That’s definitely it,” said Cas, “and it makes sense, that’s our school symbol.”
“Exactly,” Agreed Wilfred, shutting the book.
“…And it’s on my family’s coat of arms,” said Opuntia in a small voice. She wanted to learn more about this mystery to ease her mind, to tell herself that there was no possible way that they could be after her, but every time her mind discovered another connection, another “what if” only reeled her further into a state of despair.
Her friends looked at each other, not really knowing what to say.
“Well, that’s what I found,” Wilfred finally said, gesturing for anyone else to continue where he left off. It was Sampson’s turn, who looked far more relaxed than Opuntia did.
“Welp, I’ve probably gone over about half the student population and I can say there’s about 350 who definitely couldn’t have done it, 100 who probably didn’t do it and 100 who might’ve had a chance at doing it.”
“that’s a case closed then,” said Cas sarcastically, making Sampson scowl at him.
“How did you rule them out?” Asked Teddy.
“Well, to start, I can surely rule out everyone here, obviously, and everyone else that was in the study room with us that night.”
“How do you know they didn’t just do it after the study room finished?” Countered Opuntia.
“Well, I guess they could’ve, but at that point, Redwood had already yelled at us once so he was probably still keeping a watchful ear and eye at that point, there’s no way he could’ve missed something like that.” He explained, rocking back and forth in his chair.
“But that makes no sense,” Even Wilfred was beginning to question Sampson’s logic. “The only thing we know is that it was done before the next morning. Couldn’t it have been done at 5 in the morning when absolutely everyone was asleep?”
“…You make a good point there, Fins,” Sampson replied, defeated.
“We really don’t have anything, do we?” Engelbart sighed, shaking his head.
“I mean, how are we supposed to figure this thing out when all the evidence was scraped away in the blink of an eye?” Sampson defended. It was looking bleak. Half of Opuntia just wanted to end the meeting right there and give up, and stuff her worries down inside again, only to be revealed in her safe leather-bound pages. What was there even to do?
“Look, you all can whine, whine, whine and guess at random things but I actually have some useful information,” Cas said, making everyone turn to him with surprise.
“How? What did you find?” Opuntia asked, immediately gaining a glimmer of hope.
“Well, I remembered something from when I worked in the archives at the public library,” he began.
“How boring it was?” Sampson suggested.
Cas clenched his jaw but continued.
“It reminded me of old newspaper articles I used to read about New Versine High.” New Versine high was the public school that every other student in the area went to if they weren’t lucky enough or even in the running for a spot at Arison. Opuntia did often wonder about it because she was a sliver away from ending up there herself. Her sister Halle was even attending right now.
“Well, I read that they used to be extremely competitive with their sports and especially with Arison. During the lacrosse season, they would always pull pranks on the opposing team as part of a running tradition.”
“Would part of that tradition involve smearing blood or paint on the ground and killing a bird?” Teddy asked with his eyebrows raised.
“Could be,” Said Cas, “they did lots of things, like vandalism, but the tradition seemed to fade out in the last decade or two.”
“Casey…I think you hit jackpot!” Teddy responded with his eyes wide. Opuntia agreed that it was the best lead they were going to get right now, and it made perfect sense. It also guaranteed that the culprits were most likely a rowdy group of lacrosse boys who had no idea who she was. She sat in silence at this thought, feeling the dark cloud in her mind slowly start to dissipate.
“Unfortunately, there is no way to prove it was them,” Wilfred sighed, tapping his chin in thought. Cas shrugged.
“Well, it’s the best we’re going to get.”
Opuntia had to admit that the remaining uncertainty still left a bad taste on her tongue, but she just pushed it aside and tried to appreciate Cas’ efforts, despite all the times he didn’t seem very fond of helping her.
Everyone else seemed satisfied with Cas’ theory except for one person. Sampson leaned forward on his desk, and Opuntia saw a familiar look forming in his maple-coloured eyes: An idea that only he could even consider.
“Hey, I know a way we could test this theory,” he said, making Cas’ previously smug look fade at once.
“We’re gonna have to wait a while before New Versine plays us in lacrosse, if that’s what you mean,” Teddy interposed.
“Exactly,” Sampson continued, “So why don’t we, y’know, give them a taste of their own medicine?”
“What are you—” Opuntia started, but Sampson cut her off.
“Ok, fine, you goody-two-shoes are making me spit it out flat. We sneak into the public school and get them back for that awful prank! If they make a big deal out of it and get the school involved then they obviously have no idea what’s going on, but if there’s not a big fuss, then I think we might have reawakened the tradition.”
He said it so matter-of-factly as if everyone in the room would react to this plan the same way that they did for Cas, but they all just looked at him, dumbfounded. Teddy had his eyebrows raised nearly to his hairline. Wilfred pursed his lips, searching for something to say. Cas had a look of outright disgust, and Opuntia and Eng just blankly stared at him.
“…Wow, tough crowd,” Sampson said, half amused, half annoyed.
“I mean, I guess it could work, theoretically,” said Opuntia slowly. “But there’s just too many factors that we’d have to consider. Way too many things could go wrong.”
“Like, I don’t know, how would we even get there? How would we avoid getting caught sneaking off of school property? How would we avoid getting caught getting onto school property? Honestly, I get that you want to leave this place so bad, Laurier, but some of us want to avoid packing our bags before October starts.” Cas was snapping back at him even more waspish than usual. It was almost jarring to see him butting heads with someone this much. Opuntia wondered what could have set him off. Maybe just the idea of someone challenging him. Either way, the tension was stewing. She whistled under her breath and looked towards Sampson.
“Don’t have a cow dude,” he replied, raising his hands. “All I’m saying is that we actually need to put this theory to test. It’s almost like you don’t even want to find out who did it. Are we not here to do that?” He looked around at his friends for help.
“I never said—” Cas retorted, the coldness in his expression rising, but Teddy was quickly able to interrupt him.
“C’mon guys, let’s not fight here,” he said, putting both of his hands up in Sampson and Cas’ direction. “I think that both of you are right, ok? Cas, Sampson is right in that we can’t just accept this notion randomly, even if it makes a lot of sense. But also, Sampson,” he turned to face him, who was smirking over at Cas, “I really don’t want to get expelled, or even arrested now that I think about it.”
“Fine, fine,” Sampson agreed, “no revenge, but if there’s a way I can get us down to New Versine, you have to promise to come. We can at least check it out and scope around, that’s not against the law.”
“I really don’t know,” Opuntia shook her head. Of course she was desperate to find out if the theory had any real merit, but Cas and Teddy were right, she didn’t want to risk being expelled or suspended, since it would equate all of her years of hard work and torture here for nothing.
“Aren’t you the one who gave some passionate speech about how much it means to you, and now you’re not even willing to go the extra mile?” Sampson pointed out, making Opuntia go red. Yes, she did say that, but she didn’t think it was that ‘passionate,’ she really hoped the rest of her friends didn’t think she was being overdramatic.
“What do you think, Engelbart?” Teddy asked him, making look up in surprise as if he was shocked that anyone could even see him.
“Umm… I guess, doing something is better than doing nothing, but Sampson’s idea sounds a little too risky,” He said simply, before adding, “sorry,” after noticing Sampson’s frown.
“I agree,” Wilfred piped up.
“I tell you, if I can assure you a 100% chance of not getting caught by Redwood or any staff, and guarantee us a sure way into the city, will you all be on board?” Sampson pleaded, presenting his case one last time.
“I’d like to see you try,” Cas muttered under his breath.
“Statistically, if it’s let’s say over 90%, then I will be on board,” Wilfred concluded. The others looked at each other.
“Sure, why not,” abided Teddy with an indifferent smile.
“I mean, I guess, but I don’t see how you can—” Opuntia began,
“Oh, don’t you worry about that Arison,” said Sampson, delighted at the groups approval. “I guess that’s a topic for next week’s meeting”
Opuntia looked at her watch to find it had been nearly 40 minutes since the meeting began.
“You’re right,” she said, standing up from her chair. “We should make tracks, I’ve got a lot of Chemistry and French homework to get to.”
The others followed suit and began standing and stretching, grabbing their backpacks and heading to the door.
“I’ve got to admit, it does feel pretty cool, investigating and all,” Teddy said to Opuntia as he held the classroom door open for her. She grinned. Only Teddy could seem to find the fun side to everything, serving as a contrast to her catastrophizing self.
“If you put it that way, maybe,” she replied, turning off the lights before she left. “Maybe we should have a boss group name, too, like in those superhero comics.”
“Huh, well, the only one I can think of with 6 would be the sinister six from Spider-Man, and I don’t really think that would apply.” he thought aloud, followed by laughter from the group.
“Hey, Caesar Six has a nice ring to it, right?” Suggested Sampson, clearly remembering what was written on the board.
“That sounds like we’re the evil conspirators that kill Caesar,” Wilfred pointed out.
“Hmm, clearly the good guys, though.” Said Opuntia playfully. “The tyranny must have hit too close to home when reading it,”
“Caesar and Six don’t even start with the same letter,” Cas added, making everyone roll their eyes.
“Ok, ok, no need to be a buzzkill,” Teddy replied blithely.
They all departed to their rooms, leaving Opuntia alone with her thoughts again, finally having time to sort out her feelings and views on what occurred at the meeting. They were definitely farther along than when they started, but whether or not they were going in the right direction was still up in the air. The real culprit of it could still be at the end of that dark corridor, smiling with malice as the Caesar Six raced off obliviously to New Versine high. She wondered if Sampson was even serious about attempting to get them there, or if he just wanted to say something memorable like he usually did.
There was still the lingering sting of guilt that prickled when Cas seemed unwilling to actually test his hypothesis. Had he really just wanted to shut her up and get back to focusing on school? To question him would seemingly be to submit herself to an icy water plunge.
And then, the so abstruse Engelbart. She only wished she knew what he was thinking. She was so used to her friends’ feelings bubbling at the surface, only having to deal with her own jumbled mess, but he was…blank, unreadable. Like her father, as stone and stoic as the walls of the building, she couldn’t help but wonder what went on in his mind…she wondered if it was anything like hers. All of these things fought for dominance as she picked up her pen to write.190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzni4WGrc9i
6 little ants
one after the other
digging their tunnel down
down down
Barely deciding
which way to turn
they crash into each other
One is the glue
that keeps them close
One is the architect
that refines the tunnels to perfection
one is the critic
that regrets every move
one is the engine
with the steam to pull forward
the caboose is silent
often trailing behind
but one day might light the way
when it gets dark
and one is the compass
leading them all
though she has no idea
if it's right
6 little ants
will they strike gold?
or will they keep digging
and come out the other side?
-O.M.A
190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiy2B88nEmB
