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Just Temporary

*****

Giada finishes lacing up her sneakers, hops up to her feet and walks out of her room. She zips up her jacket then takes off on her morning run. She glances down at her smart watch as she runs, keeping track of her laps and how her heart is keeping up. The day is kind of cold, cool enough that she barely works up a sweat from the low temperature in the air.

Once Giada has run her desired miles around the schools, she stops and stretches at the empty field, panting from the effort.

After evening out her breath, like every morning she has time, she does yoga. She clears her mind for her day ahead, not doing anything excessive since it's a cool down today.

Once she's finished her alone time, she stretches once more, then jogs to the library, already seeing the fire department's arson investigation team in the works.

"Good morning Captian." Giada chirps, her hands stuffed in her pockets as she stares at the tall firefighter. "I'm reporting in to start with the search." She says, referring to the digging they were supposed to do. Giada was to check everything with identifying the remnants of things that could scarcely be recovered.

"You haven't heard?" He asks, looking at his clipboard and Giada shakes her head in confusion. "I was told that, because of unsaid reasons, you aren't supposed to help. I'm sorry Giada, but you're not allowed near this investigation anymore."

"Why? Have I done something wrong?" She asks puzzled and he shakes his head.

"I wasn't given a reason, I wouldn't be able to tell you that. But as far as I'm concerned, you've been great and we've enjoyed working with your fast wit." He tells her and she nods.

"Well thank you anyways. I'm going to get to the bottom of this. See you around I guess." Giada turns around and makes her way to the office, needing to speak to either the principal or the vice principal.

Ever since the day before, when her and the other seniors got questioned, things have been a little odd.

*****

"...haven't done anything wrong! The fact that I'm being treated as a suspect in a case I have done nothing but helped with...Gosh this is so ridiculous." As T enters the offices to see the vice principal, the girl from the day before with the interrogation stuff storms out.

"Miss. Nubia this is only temporary I'm sure." T hears the vice principal say and she holds up her hand and goes past, storming off and leaving T absolutely stunned and confused as he then turns to look at the vice principal.

"Sir, can I have a word?" He says, stuffing his hands into his jacket pockets and the man nods and motions him in. T follows the vice principal into his office and closes the door behind him.

"What can I do for you Mr. Cash?" He asks once they've sat down.

"Adonis and I were heading off campus today since it's a weekend day, but security denied us from leaving campus. What's the deal with that?" T says, annoyed that him and his friend won't be able to go see the movie they wanted to head to.

"Well, since there's an ongoing investigation continuing at the moment, some precautions have to be taken. Temporary of course." The vice principal emphasises and T nods, still not hearing the reason in his point.

"Everyone else was allowed to leave. Just him and I were restricted." He says again, just in case the vice principal didn't hear him the first time. "Why are we the only ones obligated to follow these restrictions?"

"Mr. Cash, this will only remain temporary."

"I'm not hearing the reason man. Is what that chick said true? We're being looked at as suspects in this investigation?" T asks and the vice principal sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose.

"I just...I'm sorry I can't confirm nor deny that." He says and T shakes his head in disbelief.

"I guess we'll just have to get to the bottom of this properly." T leaves the office and heads back to his dorm. As he walks, he looks around in hopes of spotting the girl from the office today and from the day before, but in the many faces of the Thrive High School campus, she's disappeared into thin air or melded into all the other faces. Does he even know what she looks like in the first place?

*****
Detective Bell looks through the library student card database and types in the six names of the six Thrive Academy seniors.

What is the connection besides the school and the age group?

"Bell, look what I found." Her partner Rickson hands her an evidence bag with a scrap of paper and shines a blue light on it, revealing the six names.

"What book is this?" Athena immediately asks and he shakes his head.

"A...History textbook of some sort. Except this card isn't a school library card. I found out that it's a library card given to the students who wanted the librarian to find them a book that wasn't at the Academy's library. See this? It's six different cards all with the same six students. All the books are history books and these seniors aren't in the same history class so they wouldn't be required to check out the same book at the same time. The latest being, the night before the library fire."

"Good job Rickson, we'll head back tomorrow and see what we find. For now, we need to go see this librarian." Bell says, standing and grabbing her coat, firearm and car keys, waiting for Rickson to grab his own before rushing to follow their lead.

*****
Detective Bell raises her fist to the door to pound lightly when it drifts open from her fist and she takes a step back.

"Mr. Yasu?" She calls, drawing her firearm as she nods at her partner and they go into the house, scouting the place. "Mr. Yasu! Take the right." Bell tells Rickson and they move around the large, cottage style home, filled to the brim with books on top of books.

"Clear!" She yells out to her partner as she makes her way around to where he is so they can meet in the middle.

"I found something!" Athena makes her way to the other detective and lowers her gun in defeat as she sees what he's looking at.

"He's dead. Poisoned." Rickson says as they look down at the old librarian, sitting on an old flower sofa with a book on the floor next to him and a broken teacup on the ground, a dark liquid spilt around it...

"Maybe by the tea?" Athena suggests and Rickson nods.

"Yeah maybe. I'll put in a call." Athena watches her partner leave, then takes out her gloves and puts them on, going to run her fingers over the books on the shelves seeing if maybe she can find the books the six Thrive Academy seniors wanted. She walks around the house, her firearm back in its place and tells her partner to look for the books.

With so many books on so many shelves, they look until other squads and forensics arrive, no obvious sign of the books until...

"This case is dedicated to History. Maybe it's somewhere over here." Rickson says and then they look through the whole bookcase, finding six empty slots where six books would most likely be.

"They're not here." Athena concludes and they look at each other. "Whoever did this could have easily been the one to take them. Can we get a printing done on here?"

*****

"The prints came back. Seven sets, one of them obviously being those of the old librarian, the other six not on record. The prints seemed clear enough to be recent, plus the neighbours reported seeing teenagers coming and going for the past two months. The descriptions match the senior students perfectly and apparently this past week, the librarian has been involved in arguments, possibly with these kids that have been coming around." Rickson tells Bell and she stares at the prints and nods.

"We'll test for their prints tomorrow. And if they come back matched, then we bring them into the station for a full questioning, then we'll finally get to the bottom of why these six students are linked by these six books. There's something fishy going on here and it stinks." Bell says, closing the file as she thinks about the History books. What about these books could be so important that it would cause so much destruction?

*****

Giada gets ready for her day with a straight line on her mouth and she adjusts the collar of her dress. What could possibly make her and five random seniors-she doubts she's paid any thought to in her past life-have to do with the arson apparently committed at the library?

She'd never burn a place filled with so many memories, so much history and so many classics only found in a handful of places around the world.

The library at Thrive is one of the most legendary libraries in the whole world and the fact that it's gone, is insane, especially when she's a supposed suspect in the case. Absolute trash.

"Giada, can I borrow your small gold hoops?" Lindi asks Giada and she nods, stepping out of her mind induced trance.

"You can have them, I'm not a gold jewelry girl anyways. Well I'm picky, but take them." Giada turns to her desk and packs her bag.

"Thanks. Take something from me too. So, why were you called to the office that day?" Lindi asks her roomate, putting black eyeliner on in contrast to her caramel skin tone and I shrug.

"To help with the fire thing. At least that's what I was told." Giada says, switching out the books she doesn't have classes for today with ones she does.

"What does that mean?" Lindi asks, tying her shoulder length dreadlocks half up half down.

"Oh nothing. Look, I've gotta get to class, I'll catch you later or something. Have a good day!" Giada says, grabbing her schoolbag and her luxury purse which she carries around her personal items, before running out.

Giada goes on her phone to check if she's forgotten anything she might need to do today and she barely misses bumping into one of her I.T classroom friends.

"Sorry." They say in unison and they laugh.

"What you doing Gee?" Jessica asks her and she shrugs.

"Nothing really, just checking my schedule." Giada says, slipping her phone away once she's satisfied and paying attention to the friend who's fallen into step with her.

"What's the deal with being pulled out of class the other day?" Jessica asks and Giada almost rolls her eyes but paints a smile on her face and diverts her path from the elevator.

"Sorry, I've gotta go, see you around." Giada ditches the lift, then takes the stairs out of her dorm building and runs into her best friend Teyana halfway on her descent. "Running away from the nosey fundees?" Giada asks, referring to the slang used at Thrive Academy to call the students 'trust fund kids' and Teyana nods, annoyance clear across her face.

"News travels fast in this sch-oh my gosh did you know that we're the only people who got questioned by those detectives which is why were the topic of the week. What the hell is up with that anyways?" Teyana asks her friend and Giada holds her friend's shoulder, finally glad that someone asked what she had been thinking all along.

"I know right! I can't help with the investigation of the fire at the library because I'm a suspect, along with all the other seniors who were interrogated. Are you kidding me?" Giada asks, opening the exit door and we step out onto the side of the dorm building.

"Is that not the girl that was there?" Teyana asks, grasping Giada's arm as they gaze at the blonde walking with Shayla Reddington.

"Is it?" Giada says and Sarah Vanna catches them staring, rolls her eyes and continues forward.

First she was questioned along with a group of rando seniors, now two of those seniors are trying to get to know her. Too bad for them, she doesn't associate with just anybody.

"Aren't those the girls who were questioned along with you?" Shayla asks Sarah and she scoffs, texting her boyfriend while smiling at the conversation.

"Huh?" Sarah says, glancing over her shoulder at the girls who have started to walk in the opposite direction. "I wouldn't have even known if I'd seen their faces." Sarah tells her friend, turning back to her phone. It was them, but if she wants to carry on with her social life, she's gonna ignore that fact.

*****

Detectives Bell and Rickson pull up at the tall Thrive Academy gates, flashing their badges at the security.

"What business brings you here?" The guard who looks in charge asks Bell and she stares at him.

"There's an ongoing investigation happening at the school, that's what." Bell says and the man steps back and waves them through, shouting for his partner to open the gate. "Thank you."

"Why do you have to be so dry? Do you like sounding like the needle that pricked the arse?" Rickson asks his partner and she smirks.

"I said thank you didn't I?" Athena answers and Rickson shakes his head at her.

"So how we gonna do this? Call them in again and print 'em?" Rickson asks, finishing his cup of freshly brewed coffee. Athena nods as she drives into the visitor's parking lot and parks the vehicle, pulling the key out of the ignition.

"Let's go." The two detectives step out of their car and lock it up, making their way to the main offices.

*****