(Drew)

I put my phone down. The call was over. The person on the other end told me to meet them at the coffee shop deeper in town. His voice was a little shady and I instantly felt bad vibes, but I knew it was up to me to investigate what was on offer. This was either an illegal project I could bust up undercover or perhaps...could there be a connection to the reason we started the investigation club. There was someone in the bushes on that day, back then, which means that they probably know one or two of our faces. 

"Cautious, Drew, stay cautious," I told myself, looking in the mirror. I threw my jacket on and then put my hood up, heading back out onto the streets. 

The sun was just coming up, so I checked the watch on my wrist, reading the green numbers highlighted inside the glass showing me that it was coming close to 5am. 

I turned a corner and walked at a much faster pace down the street, the coffee shop coming into view. It wasn't open for another hour, but my mind was telling me that he would be there anyway and as I got even closer still, I could see the man waiting outside, sat in a chair.

"Early bird gets the worm, huh?" I asked him as I slipped into the chair opposite.

"In this case, Coffee," he made a quick ten-second call and within moments we had fresh coffee at our table, a waiter appearing from the shop, even though it was closed. 

I immediately gulped down the whole mug and left it empty on the table, looking at the guy before me, who was calmly stirring his coffee and adding more sugar.

"So, what did you give me your card for? Why me? What were you doing at that time watching me? Do you need me for something you are planni-" I started throwing questions like crazy and the man raised his hand, signalling me to stop, so I did just that.

"Too many questions," he said quite simply, sipping his coffee and looking at me for a brief moment. "I will answer your first question and that is all. I gave you my card because you answered me bluntly. You're quick on your feet and not scared of anything. That guy called you a psychopath, which proves my point. I want your help with something and as a teenager, you are just the right age to help me out."

"Then my next question is...what is the job?" I rested my hands on the edge of the table, gripping it firmly. I was ready just in case any hostility came before me. Flipping the table at him would buy me time.

"The job?" he laughed and finished his coffee quickly. "This ain't no job kid, it's a war." 

"War?" I asked another question without realising it.

"Do I need to repeat myself?" he shook his head. "In the "underground" areas, a lot of disputes are happening. The reason you can help me is that you can go into areas that my group can't and you won't be questioned..."

This seemed too dodgy. I needed to focus on May...the big guy said they had gotten her. As if the man could read my thoughts, he slapped $500 on the table and looked at me with a hard stare, right into my eyes.

"I'm gonna have to turn you down," I got up from my chair, refusing to break away from his stare. 

"Excuse me?" he cackled now and I knew something was up in that moment. He seemed too vague and that was giving me even more bad vibes. "I'm offering you good money here and you will learn a lot of things to protect those you care about...I heard the name May?"

I sat straight back down so fast that the chair and table shook. I looked at him dead in the eyes and my full attention was on him. 

"What can you teach me?" I was completely sold on this idea, the thoughts and feelings of wanting to protect May with my life blinding me. 

"Just give me the right answer and you will learn everything you need to know," he replied calmly, putting his legs up onto the table and leaning back in his chair. 

"I'm sold," I took the money from the table and calmed down a little. 

"Good," he grinned with delight and immediately got up onto his feet. "Now...you have plenty of time without school and all of that to worry about so I'm sure you can follow me. Let's go."

He turned away from me and started walking down the street. I studied the back of him cautiously and sighed deeply, thoughts of May drowning out my worries of the dodgy things I might be doing. I slowly rose to my feet and followed behind him. I knew I was making a mistake but May was the one person I wanted to protect. I was going to make that possible.

Even if my life depended on it.

(May)

I threw gum into my mouth and chewed on it vigorously, leaning back against the wall of Clemont's house, waiting for him to get outside. We hopefully had the system cracked and everything was going to be revealed. I hoped that Clemont was able to do it.

Clemont slowly left his house and I could immediately see how tired he was. He had his laptop tucked under his arm, which was shaking and looked dead. His eyes were glazed over and he looked lost. 

"Woah, you look like a zombie...no two zombies," I laughed at him and took the laptop before he dropped it. 

"We need to get to school so I can show you the data," Clemont's expression was serious as ever and the fact he ignored my comment meant that he was too focused on the answers he had found.

"I wonder if Drew will show up again," I decided not to press on the data further, for now. I had to wait for that. "He said he would be here every day still...no matter what."

"I doubt it," Clemont said bluntly, opening up his gate and letting me leave first. He followed and we headed to the bus station, as per most days. "He said he will be here no matter what but I know as well as he does that he won't want to risk being caught unless we have some clear-cut answers. Besides..."

"What is it?" I stopped and he stopped and we looked at each other. 

"The way your face looks I bet he probably knows you got attacked, huh?" Clemont examined me closely and I gulped in reply. "What happened?"

"It's nothing, don't worry," I pulled my hood up and pulled at the side so the cuts on my lip and cheek were hidden from Clemont, so he would stop staring at them.

"If you say so," he shrugged and we continued walking to the bus station. 

Everyone else was there and of course, there was no Drew in sight. I sighed to myself quietly, standing in the far corner while the others talked. I didn't want to listen in right now as too many thoughts were swirling in my head to focus on anything else. 

The bus came and slowly parked up, waiting for the crowd to get in before heading straight to the school, each passing moment making me feel more and more anxious. We were about to find out all about the school's secrets. 

The bus stopped. We had arrived at school. Everyone looked excited as we piled out and that's when everything happened at once. The bus left the station and we took one step forward, walking into Miette and all of Alain's friends. She smirked evilly at me and I looked her in the eyes without any worry. 

"I see you goons are looking excited...what for?" she inquired, walking around us slowly, heels clicking against the paving. She looked at me, laptop tucked under my arm and smiled. "Why don't you give me that laptop you skank."

"Call her another name and there will be pain," Kenny took a step forward, but Alain's friends were big and we couldn't do anything there.

"I swear all people keep doing is fighting," Gary sighed and walked up to Miette, looking up at her. "You're really stupid, y'know that?"

"Excuse me?" she seemed shocked.

"Yeah, stupid," Gary nodded like an idiot. "People that don't know what they are doing...people that say annoying things like you. Everything you say is annoying, you have a weird smile and you're creeping us all out. I'm sure you'd fit in more with the trash cans just round the corner. Also, I heard the janitor is friendly so you would get along with that stinky old man."

Miette lunged for Gary and he took a simple step back, her hand swiping through the air. He looked so pleased with himself as Alain's angry friends looked at him with murderous intent all over their faces. One of them jumped in and pushed Gary, sending him into the rest of us. 

Everyone started to tumble and Iris fell into my leg, causing me to twist and fall, laptop in hand. I could feel the laptop slipping out of my hands and I held onto it with all of my might, before hitting the ground. The laptop fell gently on to the ground without damage. That's what I thought happened, but when I came to it was almost too late

"May, the laptop!" Clemont practically screamed at me and I realised it was on the road, a car speeding down the lane towards it. 

I crawled for the laptop and dragged it out of the road, only to me met with Miette, who yanked it from my grasp and smirked down at me. 

"Thanks for my gift, you're so kind," she giggled innocently and shrugged at me. "We'll take good care of this, we promise." 

And with that, they walked away. 

"Is it just me that feels like too much is happening?" Cilan asked and everyone seemed to murmur in agreement.

"Yeah..." Ash said quietly, slowly getting up and heading into the school. I noticed Serena was watching him intensely.

"What's up with Ashy-boy?" Gary looked at us all. "Guess we are all as clueless as ever?"

"Mhm..." I heard Serena murmur quietly. She had the answers.

"Well I really wanna kick someone's ass," Misty said angrily and Dawn agreed, which seemed way too out of character. 

"You guys are pretty stupid," Iris laughed and got up. 

"I agree with Iris," I spat my gum into the bin and threw more into my mouth. "We need to focus on getting the laptop back, not hurting anyone. I'm sure we can just go and tell Sycamore, right?"

Everyone stood in silence and nobody answered me. I looked at each person's face. They all seemed confused yet there was a solution ready and waiting in front of us all. Well...a possible solution at least, as I was unsure about Sycamore and what he actually was to the school.

"Sure, let's do that," Clemont yawned into his hand and with that, we all headed to Sycamore, who we thought may handle the situation for us. I wasn't sure about that...he had given us the reason for trying to find the answers but it seemed unlikely that he would help us with this. 

Gary decided to follow Ash, with Misty following them just to make sure they were both safe if any trouble passed by, which could be at any time in this school, as far as we knew anyway. The rest of us headed to Sycamore's classroom, which was also mine. 

Dawn opened up the door and everything froze as we all walked into the classroom slowly. All of the desks were put to either side of the room, creating a big space in the middle, with Sycamore's desk at the front, untouched. 

"Oh no..." Serena was shocked and she took a step back slowly, looking across at the front of the desk. "We didn't even.."

"Well it's such a pleasure to see you kids here," Sycamore was sat at his desk, with Miette by his side, Alain's friends and some security scatted around the classroom. The laptop was there and open, right in front of them both. Sycamore turned the laptop and showed off the hundreds of data files that Clemont had accessed. "Like rats to the cheese on a mousetrap, you children thought you had everything but then BANG!"

We all just stared quietly, not really knowing what would happen next. We had been caught breaking the law and it seemed like everything that happened was all part of the plan to catch us out. 

"You all got caught in my trap and now you must be severely punished," he smirked. Sycamore was actually enjoying this. What was this school? "I'm thinking you should all spend the next month away from school thinking about what you have done...oh and Clemont."

"Yes, sir?"

"We are going to confiscate your laptop," Sycamore smiled and then swept his hand to the door. "You are dismissed. Trespassing on school grounds will get you expelled, so do not turn up for the next month."

I stared at Miette with fire in my eyes. I knew I was going to kick the living crap out of her someday. Someday soon...

"You piece of-" Kenny was the one to take a step forward, but the security blocked the way and made us realise that we couldn't say or do anything in this situation. We had lost.

We all trundled out of the classroom in silence. I could feel the huge amount of disappointment between us all. However, we were also very confused as to why this was happening. We had no answers to anything and more and more things were happening, piling up our questions. 

We were slowly escorted out of the gates and we stood just outside, in a circle, to try and figure out what to do.

"I could probably sneak in..." Kenny scratched his chin in thought.

"No...that's stupid," Cilan spoke up and his tone was angry. He was angry. He was confused. Cilan usually had all of the answers and yet he could not think of a single thing, which was frustrating him.

"Yeah," Kenny laughed nervously at Cilan.

We all stared at Cilan while he looked at the floor, deep in thought. 

Minutes passed as he thought.

And thought.

And thought.

It seemed like forever had passed until he slowly lifted his head, slapping himself harshly in the face. He looked around at us all and then he smiled. I looked up at him, expecting a light bulb to appear on the top of his head or something.

"Ash...Gary...Misty," was all he said to make us realise that they were still in the school.

"I'll message Misty now!" Dawn fumbled into her pocket and brought up her phone, almost dropping it in the process. Kenny swung an arm out and caught it with ease, handing it back to her, to which she smiled. "Thanks."

"What should we tell them?" Serena asked us all and we fell silent again, but Cilan rolled up his sleeves. He was way too prepared once again.

"That we are all suspended, they need to hide from anyone and stay out of sight but also do one thing for us while they are in there, before they leave," we all knew what he was thinking so he stopped pausing and just spat it out. "They must get the laptop back."

"Operation: Get Out of Hell, commence!" Dawn said excitedly.

"Is that really what we are calling this?" Iris sighed while Dawn nodded enthusiastically. 

"We will wait here for them," I decided for us and everyone agreed.

"School is like hell if you think about it though," Dawn was trying to explain herself, talking really fast. "We get homework ALL the time and it is ALWAYS due WAY to early. Let's not forget bullies, bad teachers, shouting, behaviour and everything el-"

"Just be quiet Dawn," Iris was laughing at her and everyone else joined in, while Dawn went completely red in the face.

"I...I'm just saying," she murmured quietly, turning away.

She had sent the text message now. Everything was set in place for the other three to finish what we started and retrieve the data. But even so...we had to stay away from the school for a whole month. What were we going to do? 

One thing was for sure, however. With or without the laptop, we were going to find answers and solve mysteries. Just like detectives would do.

The Investigation Club was going nowhere. 

We hadn't even got started yet. No one was about to waste our chance. Everything that was here now, we were ready to face it all. As a group. As a club. We were going to complete our goals.

No one was going to stop us.

---------------------------------------------

So um...

Here you go XD (Sorry again)

Now I work on more stuff for the future, bye.

Hope you enjoyed!