As I got closer, they seemed like giants compared to my size as they were practically yelling at Angel to give them some gem she had stolen from them. I didn't know if I wanted to believe these two bullies as I tapped one of the girls on the shoulder and said,

"Hey, what are you doing to that poor girl over there!?"

"And who might you be??! If you're so inclined to wonder, we were just interrogating this girl over here. She stole one of my friends' rings. Isn't that right Canri!?" One of the girls responded. The other girl, presumably named Canri, nodded her head in agreement as I looked at them with a hint of anger.

I weighed my options. Either I could fight them and be beaten up into a pulp, or accuse them of just plainly bullying someone which would result in me being beaten up into a pulp. Or...

"Oh well, that makes sense. She stole that from her, I mean just look at her! I'm George by the way, what's your name?" I asked in a quickened pace, extending my hand.

"Uhm.. Marissa. And this is my friend Canri." Marissa said. She was taken aback by my sudden change of view while Angel looked like she got stabbed in the heart by what I just said. I felt horrible but if I wanted to protect her and myself, then this plan I was working with on the spot had to work.

"What fancy ass names, no offense. But say, I heard you were looking for some gems. I think I found them in this classroom if you're interested. I mean of course it does seem like Ang... AHEM! This girl stole your gems. But because I don't see any gems over here, it seems like maybe she doesn't have it anymore and threw it in the classroom?" I stated questionably, pointing at the now empty bag that they dumped out on the floor.

"OH SWEET! Can you give them to us??" Canri stated, completely ignoring Angel which was what I wanted in the first place.

"Yeah pleeeease!!" Canri also stated. Her eyes seemed to be full of rage so I knew if I messed up here, which I already did since I told them about fake gems in the classroom, then I would be screwed.

"Pfft sure, go into the classroom and I'll be right with you!" I said. Trying to play along with this little game that I've created.

As they walked towards the classroom, I turned my attention to Angel. I kneeled and said,

"Hey Angel, are you okay? I saw you getting hurt there and I sorta had to interve—" Before I could finish my sentence though, Angel hugged me and whispered in my ears,

"Thank you... you're a life savior. Those girls.. I don't know what they want from me! I tried running away but they chased me down and... and..." Angel started to tear up. I wiped her tears and said in an alerted voice,

"Hey don't worry, you're safe now. Oh and by the way. Do you by chance happen to have pepper spray?"

"Yeah—sniffle—why do you ask?" Angel said. I was surprised that she first of all had pepper spray and didn't bother to use it against those girls. And I was also surprised by the fact that her sniffles were also quiet.

"Give it to me real quick," I said, still on my toes about those girls still waiting for me in the classroom.

As Angel handed me the pepper spray, I asked her,

"Is this your homeroom?"

"Uh... yeah." She whispered back.

"Alright uhm, go with Steve. He's over there at the corner waiting for us to come back. I need you to go with him and tell him to go back to his homeroom and bring you along with him. Do you understand?" I might've not made much sense there, but I was in a rush to get the hell inside the classroom. Angel nodded softly as she picked up her stuff and placed it in her backpack. I walked over to the classroom and closed the door behind me. I looked around and saw that it was only us in the homeroom.

Great.

"So.. where's the gems?" Marissa asked.

I double-checked the surrounding area in the room, saw that again no one was there, and leaned down on the ground. I took a deep breath, pulled out the pepper spray, and let it rip.

"Oh! I got your gems right... HERE!" I yelled.

I have to admit, violently pepper-spraying people who deserved it, especially these girls, was sooo much better than I'd ever expected. I pepper-sprayed all two of the girls, making sure I covered my eyes and nose while doing so with my free left arm.

The girls screamed in agony, panicked, and I heard footsteps coming towards the classroom from the opposite side of the closed door, I just had an instinct that it was a teacher. I peeked out from one of my eyes as I kept spraying the two girls and saw one of the girls falling with their hands open. I swiftly threw the pepper spray can into the girl's hand. I sidestepped towards the side of the doorway and opened the door just a crack so it looked like I just walked in.

As the teacher walked in herself. I was surprised to see Mrs. Foyager, yet before I could process why she was here, or even why she was so important in the first place. She was screaming at the top of her lungs,

"OH MY GOODNESS GRACIOUS, WHAT IN THE ANCIENT UNDERWORLDLY GOD HAPPENED HERE!?!"

I then said, in a calm but ratcheted voice,

"Why, I have no idea what happened! I just walked in and there they were lying down crying! But, I see a pepper spray can on one of their hands. Maybe it has something to do with that?" I barely held in a cough while saying that.

When I pointed out the pepper spray can on the girl's hand, it made Mrs. Foyager believe that they had in fact, pepper sprayed themselves. Which in retrospect, sounded EXTREMELY stupid. Then I said,

"Y'know, if it was me, I'd believe they pepper sprayed themselves as a prank. Pretty immature." It still didn't sound any better.

But surprisingly enough, she believed it!

"Alright, sweetie. I want you to get out of this foul room. I'm going to deal with these two." She said. I was glad she said that since I couldn't deal with the fact that my throat was burning up. As I walked out of the classroom and to the corner where Angel and Steve were no longer there, I coughed up a storm.

I looked out of the corner of my eye as Mrs. Foyager took the two of them by force to the nurses' office where they would be treated and then to the principal's office where they would be punished rightfully so. Jack then finally, and when I mean finally, I mean FINALLY got out of the bathroom breathing a huge sigh of relief.

He looked towards me, then at the two girls, then back at me, and began asking a question, but I cut him off.

"Don't ask. It's a long ass story. Let's go back to our homeroom, we have about two minutes left before we're late." Jack didn't question it and we ran through the third-floor hallway, down the staircase, and right to the second floor where we finally got to our homeroom.

That's when I saw Steve and a bruised-up Angel standing right next to the end of the staircase. Jack looked thunderstruck and walked over to Angel.

Jack and Steve made sure Angel was okay, which she mostly was apart from two bruises on her chest and one on her neck. Those bastards did a number on her. Before I could focus on that though, I knew that we needed to get inside our homeroom. So we entered the classroom and went over to the back of the room where Angel could be more easily hidden since technically speaking, she wasn't supposed to be there.

Angel whispered to me as we sat down,

"Thank you."

"Seriously it's no big deal. Even though I just met you a couple of minutes ago I still trust you enough that you didn't steal that gem. And based on the fact that the gem wasn't anywhere on you or in your bag, I'd say I'm right in that assumption." I said with a wink. She nodded back gratefully and focused on her Scruplot while Jack and Steve were in a heated debate about whether or not it was okay to piss for three minutes straight.

As time passed, more and more people came into the homeroom. However, there was no sign of the teacher—robotic or not—at all. So, being bored and all, I tapped Jack's shoulder and asked him,

"What's Emily's homeroom?"

"You want to save her already? Come on! Give her a few more minutes and she'll be just fine."

"No, I don't want to save her from Veronica. Though that would be a good thing but still. I gotta talk to her about something." I stated.

"Alright, sure. The teacher isn't here anyway and I would bet Emily needs someone to calm herself down before she suffers cardiac arrest. Go to the second floor of the B building and take a right then a left. The homeroom should be there labeled 'channel C'." He stated. I nodded and went off to the B building.

Now, you would think that since every student needed to go to a classroom, that meant that the school would automatically have teachers patrolling the area just in case anyone wanted to, well... not go to their homeroom and instead do something else.

However, when I got to the first floor of the A building I saw only one teacher scarcely guarding the entrance, so I went through the back entrance where I saw a camera. Shit.

Now I think I know why they don't bother to deploy teachers, they have cameras here that could easily spot people trying to leave the building! I needed to think of something quick and as I saw a barely open window right outside the camera's view, I knew what I needed to do. I opened the window carefully and overstepped through the window to the other side where I planted my feet on fake grass. How did I know it was fake? Because no grass that's been mowed down doesn't have a good smell. And there was no smell coming from this fake grass.

But that's beside the point! I closed the window gently once again and crouched under the wall until I got away from the view of the camera. I sprinted through the region where the two buildings met and saw that there was another camera on the other side of the doorway. Crap.

What am I supposed to do now?! There wasn't any lucky window I could open and I knew that the main entrance to the B building was probably being guarded by a teacher.

But then I saw it. Something that could get me to Emily before she probably beats the ever-living hell out of Veronica. A downspout.

If you don't know what a downspout is, oh well. Because I was climbing that downspout and I was climbing it as quickly as anyone has ever done! My adrenaline was pumping exceedingly high as soon as I got to the second floor and I didn't realize that the second floor also didn't have any windows open. I had to tip-toe on the ledge of the second floor, trying not to break my leg on the first day by falling, and as I reached one of the classrooms I ducked down and crouched. A robotic teacher was right there! But I also saw that the door labeled 'channel C' was right beyond this classroom. If only I could get someone to open the window.

But I knew I wouldn't be that lucky. So I had to make up my own luck. I picked up a rock that was on the ledge of the building beside me and threw it on the window. Causing it to bounce off and cause a loud THUNK sound. The robotic teacher opened the window and checked outside the window straight ahead without looking left or right. The robotic teacher then went to close the window but just before it could do that, I wedged my hand through the window and jumped in just in time as the teacher sat down and instructed the class through the new robotic program that I couldn't bear to hear about.

I crawled, literally inch by inch through the classroom making sure that I was near the back of the class. I was crawling through gum wrappers and dusty shoes and just as I was about to get to the front door, someone raised their hand to go to the bathroom.

I knew this was my chance!

As they opened the door I then used my finger to jam it open and once the robotic teacher wasn't looking, I stepped out of the classroom quickly and closed the door behind me.

Looking back, I don't know how or why none of the students in that classroom didn't scream that a student was crawling through the floor, but I didn't care. I continued through the hallway until I got to Emily's door where I heard a big CRASH followed by footsteps coming to the doorway.

CRAP!

I had to think fast so I leapt into the hallway and scrambled to the lockers as the door opened and slammed shut.

"Keep it together Emily! It's just a year! What's nothing more than a year of school with that BASTARD!?" She then smashed the locker right beside me while I screamed and leaped from the punch.

"George!? What are you doing here?"

"I wanted to get you out of there but I see that you've already done that for yourself, thank god!" I said, getting up and fixing my pants.

"Hmph. Yeah. Veronica's giving me a hard time in there." She said.

"Then why don't we go on a little adventure somewhere?" I asked her.

"Pfft, and where might that possibly be?" She asked me.

"I don't know... maybe to that basement in the D Building we were talking about earlier?" I asked her.

"Wha... B-But you know we can't go there right?!" She asked me.

"Wait a minute! Is little 'Troublemaker' afraid of causing trouble now!? Wow, what did Veronica do to you back there?" I asked her. Her face got all puffy as she grabbed my hand and we went to one of the windows.

"Alright then. Since you just challenged me to cause trouble here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna get off the first floor through one of the windows. I know how to open them since I threw a chair out of my classroom. We're gonna grab that chair and carry it with us to the D building. Smash the back window, get to the basement door as quickly as possible, and then... we'll be home free!" She exclaimed. We walked down to the first floor where I asked,

"But isn't the basement going to be locked or something? Won't we need a key?"

"Yeah, you're right. You'll grab the key for me then. And then we'll be scott-free!" She stated, opening the window and getting out first. I didn't like this plan but if it meant that Emily was finally going to be joyful at least once throughout this entire day, then so be it!

We ran through the fields between the side of the building and the front of the building where we saw the chair just lying there on the ground, all scratched up.

"Did you fight a tiger or something?" She ignored my remark and grabbed the chair. She ran through the field to the back of the D building which was half a mile away from the B Building. As she ran like she was in a marathon, she got to the back of the D building while I was still strolling my way towards the building and I heard glass smashing inside. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all... eh, screw it. I was already neck-deep into this, let's just do this.

I went to the back of the building, carefully maneuvered through the broken window, and heard footsteps rushing downstairs. I presumed this was Emily. I looked around for one thing and one thing only though. Keys.

I looked through the room where we smashed the window in. There was only a small desk with a couple of papers here and there so I went outside of the room and saw that there was a bulletin board. On that bulletin board was an absurd amount of keys.

"Oh, what the fuck." I stated. Grabbing as many keys as I could and stashing them in my pockets, I ran downstairs and closed the door behind me just in time as a robotic teacher was scanning the area for a disturbance. The disturbance? Me and Emily making the stupidest decision of our lives up to this point.

"Here, I got some keys. I'll try one then you can..."

The door was already smashed inward. Emily had somehow gotten through a mixture of iron and another substance that was like titanium. She had somehow smashed through something stronger than titanium. Just... wow.

"Is there anything in there?" I asked her from the doorway. I have to admit, I got a little impatient so I ran in and looked into the basement. And...

There was nothing. Well, no riches or anything of the sort. Instead, all I saw was Emily crouched over something in the far distance of an extremely white-colored basement. So, I walked over to her and looked over her shoulder. That's when I saw it in her hands. A... a....

"A GUN!?" I screamed out. I backed away from Emily as she pointed the gun at me.

"Don't be such a wimp." She said

"W-W-WHAT DO YOU MEAN A WIMP!?! YOU'RE AIMING A GUN AT ME!" I screamed again.

"For one, shut up! You're gonna get us caught. Second of all, this is a water gun." She said, demonstrating it by pressing the trigger and spraying me with water on my face.

"And third of all, I got this from a box over here. Come, take a look." She said. I walked over to her where I saw a small box containing a book, a CD, and a note that read,

𝒲𝒽𝑜𝑒𝓋𝑒𝓇 𝓇𝑒𝒶𝒹𝓈 𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓈 𝓃𝑜𝓉𝑒, 𝒸𝑜𝓃𝑔𝓇𝒶𝓉𝓊𝓁𝒶𝓉𝒾𝑜𝓃𝓈! 𝒴𝑜𝓊'𝓋𝑒 𝒻𝑜𝓊𝓃𝒹 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓈𝑒𝒸𝓇𝑒𝓉 𝒷𝒶𝓈𝑒𝓂𝑒𝓃𝓉 𝑜𝒻 𝑅𝓊𝒷𝓎 𝑅𝑒𝒹𝓌𝑜𝑜𝒹. 𝒩𝑜𝓌 𝓅𝓁𝑒𝒶𝓈𝑒, 𝑔𝑒𝓉 𝑜𝓊𝓉 𝑜𝒻 𝒽𝑒𝓇𝑒.

"Nice, we got nothing," I stated.

"What do you mean nothing!? We found a basement hidden by an infamous Redwood! Plus we got this sick-looking water gun, a random book about birds, and a CD that looks like something from the 2020s! That's ancient dude!"

"Yeah but here's the thing though. I'm not angry because we didn't find any treasure or any magical tool to turn us into a teacher for a day. I'm angry because we found a basement of a Redwood." I said, grabbing the small box with one hand while with the other hand, I helped Emily up.

"I guess that would make any person understandably angry. But still! If we could do this, just imagine what else we could do!" She exclaimed, spurting out water from the water gun as she yelped in excitement. I smiled weakly as we heard the basement door suddenly open.

CREEAK!

I immediately grabbed Emily and pushed her to the far side of the basement. Just a reminder that the basement was COMPLETELY EMPTY! Meaning that all it would take was for this person or people to just look to their left and we would be caught. As we held our breaths in horror of being caught, I heard a familiar voice followed by another girl's voice.

"So you said that this place was impenetrable huh? Why in the fuck then is the door WIDE OPEN!?!" We heard the girl scream out.

"I-I'm sorry! I thought that after we moved all of that gold junk, that stupid chalk, and when we made security improvements, it would be impossible for someone to enter through!"

"And yet..." The girl snarled back as she snapped her fingers. Three more footsteps ran down the stairs and I looked in astonishment. It was the two girls that had bullied Angel beforehand!

"And you know what the best part about this is!? I still haven't found my ruby yet. And I'm getting just a tad bit impatient over you doing absolutely NOTHING to help me get it!" She yelled out.

"I'm going to try I swear! I think I already have a lead on a girl that probably has it if you just give me more time—"

"More time!? Like as if I didn't give you and your family enough time to prepare my BASEMENT, VERONICA!" She screamed out. In the distance, we saw the two girls look through the basement. I saw that one of the girls started to eye in our direction so without hesitation I aimed the water gun that Emily was holding upwards and pressed the trigger. This flickered the lights and shut them off directly above where we were, making us invisible to the naked eye.

"Hmph." One of the girls said, looking around the room. Emily and I held our breaths until the girls finally left the room.

"It looks like the intruders didn't take anything important apart from your box Ruby," One of the girls stated. Emily stifled a gasp.

"Of course, they took my box. They probably thought that stupid legend about that idiotic landlord was true and just took the next best thing. Ugh, Jesus Christ Veronica, I told you to do ONE JOB, and you failed me faster than lightning." Ruby stated in disappointment.

"Well, I tried my best. And I will find your ruby, Ruby. I promise." She stated.

"Fine. Fix this mess first thing tomorrow morning and make sure that no one can get in here again. YOU GOT IT!?!" She yelled out. The two girls and Veronica said yes simultaneously and as they all left, the lights then went out in the basement. Making it pitch black. Emily and I sighed in relief and walked over to the basement stairs where there was a light dim coming from the top of the staircase.

"W-What was that?" She asked me.

"Something more is going on with this school Emily. I'm just not sure what, but something's up. We better be more careful next time." I looked down at the small box where the book and CD were. Just what were they going to try to hide in here!? At a school of all places?

"Let's just get out of here. I don't want to even look at Veronica after this." She said, getting out of the basement door was easy enough as we passed through the hallway to the broken window. We carefully got out of the window and I realized something that I should've known beforehand. The water gun Emily was holding looked specifically like a real gun. So I told her,

"Hide that thing, idiot."

"Huh? Oh, my bad!" She looked embarrassed and hid the gun in her back pocket.

"No, you..! Ugh, just put it in the box." She obliged and put the gun in the box while I sealed it up tight and held it under my right armpit. We went through the window still open on the B building and as we got back to Emily's homeroom, I stated to her,

"Hey. Don't lose your temper to that loser. You don't know what she could do to you out of spite." She nodded and fist-bumped me. While she entered back into her homeroom I then got out of the B building the same way I came in, through that open window, and walked over to the A building where I realized I shut the window closed.

"Gosh darn it." I knew though that my homeroom was right next to a window that faced a plethora of trees, so I got to the side of the building that looked like where my homeroom was, climbed up on the downspout once again, and nearly tripped over the ledge as I knocked on the window, holding onto the building and ledge for dear life, I saw Angel look at me in pure stupefaction and rush over to me.

She opened the window where I fell in and quickly got up. Steve and Jack also looked at me as if I was crazy—which truth be told I technically was—while I placed the box down at my table and sat down on my chair.

"Dude... what happened to you!?" Steve asked me. Angel sat down next to me.

"Uh.. I was going out for some fresh air and got locked outside." I know lying is bad. But I didn't want them to get panicked about what the Redwoods were doing here. I had to keep that as a secret for now.

"That doesn't explain the box though," Jack stated, pointing at the box on the desk.

"Ah, well I found the box in the woods and I thought it looked cool so I brought it in with me. It has a water gun, a CD, and a book." I stated, showing them all three items inside the box. I had hidden the note that we found inside of the box in my pocket.

"Alright then. Just don't get stuck outside like that again dumbass." Jack said. I chuckled a bit while Steve gasped, I turned to him.

Steve saw someone that made him instantly enthusiastic and he looked towards me, and I mean directly at my eyes, and whispered in my ears,

"Yo George! You see the girl over there?"

"Yeah, what about her Steve?" I replied. The girl had on a simple brown shirt with the logo of a popular TV show on it, black pants, and Converse sneakers. Her caramel hair waved across her head.

"That's the girl I like!" Steve whispered. Oh boy, here we go again.