“The first mystery is simply that there is a mystery, a mystery that can never be explained or understood, only encountered from time to time. Nothing is obvious. Everything conceals something else.” -Lawrence Kushner                        

Monique left the gym as soon as she heard the bell rang. She was eager to reunite with Vallin and exchange details about their clubs together. Monique also may or may not be hoping her new acquaintance made up his mind about joining her investigation.

She didn’t want to do the investigation by herself, just in case something went wrong, and she needed somebody she trusts to be there with her. Monique may have just met Vallin and doesn’t know everything about him but she trusted him. 

Vallin doesn’t give off any red flags, Monique thought as she walked up the stairs, careful not to bump into any students going down the stairs. He also didn’t give off any bad vibes nor did he seem like a toxic person.

Monique paused on the stairs, her hand gripping the stair’s rail as her expression went dark. She was well aware of how it feels to be in a friendship with toxic people, well if you can even call it a “friendship”. 

Due to her past experiences, Monique learned to tell whether or not a person is toxic or fake. It was an ability she knew would come in handy in Pandora Hill Academia and so far she hadn’t encountered anyone fake or toxic unless she counted that angry Kamari girl from the gym incident.

She let out a sigh, releasing her grip on the rail and continued walking up the stairs. But, Vallin was nothing like Monique’s old “friends” from her former middle school. Despite the small amount of time they have spent together, Monique could tell that- no, she knew Vallin was going to be a great friend. 

Monique made it to the top of the stairs and saw that the hallway appeared to be empty. 

“Where is everybody?” Monique asked herself, walking further into the hallway and looking around for the dark skinned boy with black locs covering his face. 

There were no other students to be seen including the student she was looking for.

“Please don’t tell me he left already.” She muttered to herself, frowning at the thought after finding the cooking club room and seeing it empty.“Maybe I should've told him I would meet him up here.”

Monique turned with a sigh, preparing herself to go back down the stairs and track her frien-, her acquaintance she corrected herself, down.

“Huh?” 

When the pink haired girl turned around, she found the boy she was looking for, however he was laying down on a bench. Monique’s purple reddish eyes blinked in surprise at the boy on the bench. She walked up to him, crossing her arms and shaking her head with a smile. 

Vallin was sleeping on his side facing Monique, his head resting on one arm with his other arm under his face. The locs that cover his eyes were spread out over his face, revealing one of his closed eyes. His facial expression was peaceful and his breathing was soft and quiet. 

Monique was tempted to let Vallin sleep some more, seeing how comfortable he was on the bench but she knew she couldn’t leave him like that.

“Vallin, you need to wake up, you can’t just sleep on the bench.” Monique reached out and gently shook the sleeping boy. Vallin's visible eye fluttered open, revealing a black iris that squinted at her.

“Do I have to get up?” Vallin mumbled before letting out a yawn, his black eye closing again as he stretched out his long limbs.

“Yes, you have to get up.”Monique watched him with an amused smile. She raised an eyebrow. “I swear everytime I come to find you, you're sleeping. You do realize you have a room with a bed right?”

“I’m aware.” Vallin slowly sat up and yawned again.

“I wasn’t planning on falling asleep, you know? I guess I dozed off while I was waiting for you.”

“Again.”

“Again.” Vallin agreed looking up at Monique with a smile. His locs were back in place, properly hiding his unique eyes. 

Monique laughed at the boy in front of her, shaking her head again at him before holding out her hand to him.

“Come on, let's get out of here.” 

One day, the pink haired girl swore in her head, when they were closer, she was going to ask Vallin about his hair and eyes. Until then, she’ll keep her questions to herself.

Vallin accepted Monique’s hand  with a smile and she pulled him up from the bench without any difficulty. Wow, Monique thought, he’s lighter than she expected or she was stronger than she thought. 

She let go of his hand and they walked down the hallway together in a comfortable silence.It wasn’t until they walked out of the main building when Vallin broke the silence.

“I’ve been thinking about what you said during lunch…and I want to join your investigation.” Vallin mumbled the last sentence, turning to face her with his head lowered.

Monique froze, her purple reddish eyes widened, her mouth open, and her hand resting on her chest. Did she hear Vallin correctly?

“I’m sorry, can you repeat that last part?”

“Monique,I want to join your investigation.” He repeated, this time adding her name and he raised his head to look(?) at her. She assumed Vallin was looking at her, it really was hard to tell when his eyes were covered by his hair.

Monique couldn’t believe it. She thought it would take a day or maybe even a week for Vallin to get back with her about the whole investigation thing. Not that Monique was hating on his quick response, she was happy to hear that he wanted to join her, it just took her off guard since she wasn’t expecting him to make up his mind so quickly. Looks like all that wishing Monique did had some benefits after all.

“Monique?” 

Vallin’s voice interrupted her thoughts, making Monique realize she still had not responded back to Vallin.

“Oh! My bad Val, I just wasn’t expecting you to make a decision so soon.” Monique explained, she could feel her cheeks burning in embarrassment, and gave Vallin a bright smile. “But I’m happy you're going to help me with the investigation!” 

“Val?” Vallin tilted his head to the side.

“Ha…I didn’t mean to say that.” Monique laughed, her purple reddish eyes darting away from Vallin as she scratched the back of her head. 

Inwardly, Monique scolded herself for her slip of the tongue. She didn’t mean to give Vallin a nickname, let alone call him by a nickname before they have become close enough to give each other nicknames. Ugh, Monique thought, so much for taking their friendship slowly. 

“It’s okay, I don’t mind. That’s what the kids back home used to call me,” Vallin laughed, snapping the pink haired girl out of her thoughts.“and I have no problems with you calling me Val, too.”

“Okay, well you're welcome to call me by a nickname as well!”

“I’ll let you know if I come up with one.”

“Great! Now let's go investigate!” 

Monique raised a fist in the air with an excited smile. Vallin crossed his arms, and tilted his head at her again with a small smile visible on his face.

“Don’t we have to plan before going straight into investigating mode?” Vallin asked, Monique could imagine him raising an eyebrow as he asked her the question. 

“Of course we are going to plan.” Monique waved Vallin off,walking away from him and towards the dormitory. “I’m just trying to get us energized for all the work we’ll have to do.”

“Uh huh.” Vallin responded, easily catching up with her.

Monique didn’t look back at him but she was sure the taller boy was smirking. She rolled her eyes at him but she still wore a smile on her face. They approached the dormitory when Vallin asked Monique another question.

“Wait, don't we need somewhere we can work on the investigation?”

Monique opened the door for Vallin and answered after he stepped inside the dormitory.

“I guess you're right. We need a workspace. Hm,” Monique said, closing the door after walking in after him. She thought about it for a second before coming up with an idea.“I do have a whole room to myself since Rose is missing, and I’m the one who wanted to conduct the investigation, so we can work in my room.”

Vallin was silent for a moment before nodding his head in agreement.

“Okay sounds good to me.”

They walked past some students lingering around in the common room. In the corner of her eye, Monique noticed Vallin glancing at the common room with a frown but decided not to comment on it. Entering the girls’ hallway, Monique was surprised to find it empty. Though she could hear voices coming through the open and closed doors that they passed by as Monique led Vallin to her room.

“This one coming up is mine.” Monique said, slowing down as she got closer to her door. She stopped at her door and turned to face Vallin with a smile. 

“Welcome to my humble abode.” Monique dramatically bowed as she opened up the door to her room, making Vallin laugh as he stepped inside.

Monique had unpacked all of her belongings the night she first arrived at Pandora Hill Academia. At the time she was under the impression that she had a roommate and that she was the first one to arrive. So, she picked the bed on the left side of the room and put her belongings up, making sure not to trespass on her roommate's side of the room. Now it doesn’t matter, Monique thought, following Vallin inside and closing her door.

“Make yourself at home.” Monique said.

While Vallin looked around the room, Monique slid her shoes off, placing them beside the door and put on her pastel green frog slippers that were also beside the door. She let out a satisfied sigh and looked over at Vallin, who was over on her side of the room.

Monique watched as Vallin stopped in front of her bed and turned his head back and forth from her bed and desk.

“I…wasn’t expecting your room to look this…cute?” Vallin said, sounding confused. Monique couldn’t read his expression so she couldn’t tell if he liked or didn’t like her room.

While the right side of the room’s bed had dark purple sheets, Monique’s bed had pastel yellow sheets. She had brought her favorite stuffed animals and plushies from home, her two frogs, two bears and one bunny, and had placed them on her bed.

Monique’s desk held her open pastel pink laptop, a cartoon frog themed mouse pad, a cupcake pattern mouse, and some homework papers. Her desk was decorated with a pastel green frog patterned pencil holder, various pastel colored pencils inside the pencil holder, and a closed frog themed pencil pouch laying beside the homework papers.

“Do you not like my room?” Monique asked as she walked over to her desk and took a seat.

“No, I just wasn’t expecting to see so many cute things but,”Vallin threw her smile. “It's cool to see how your room reflects your style and personality.”

Monique laughed, and returned his smile.

“Thanks Val, now go grab that chair over there,” She pointed to the chair on the other side of the room. “And bring it over here. We have some planning to do.”

Vallin did as Monique said and joined her at her desk. Monique made room for him and pulled up Zoogle Docs on her laptop.

“Okay, where should we begin?” Monique asked Vallin whose elbow rested on her desk, leaning his face against his hand. She assumed his eyes were looking at her computer screen.

“Hm…maybe start with your roommate? She is the reason why we are doing this investigation plus she is currently missing.” Vallin suggests and Monique nods her pink head in agreement.

“Alright!” Monique cracks her knuckles before typing.

“Victim is Rose…I don’t know her last name so I’m gonna put three question marks instead. Status, missing student and roommate.”

“Now write down the five Ws. You already wrote down the who,”

“So all that's left are the why, where, when, what,”

“And, don’t forget the how.”

Monique typed down everything Vallin told her, and filled in the areas with the information she learned from the student council president. 

“You know what? I just realized we have no idea what Rose looks like.”

“That’s true, it would be a good idea to know what our victim looks like, I guess we’ll have to find a picture of her.”

“We can try Zoogling her.” Monique suggested but Vallin shook his head.

“It would be impossible for us to identify her by Zoogling her without her last name, it doesn’t help that we have no idea what she looks like.”

“Oh.”

They both went silent, trying to figure out a way they could obtain a picture of Rose. After a few minutes of thinking, Vallin broke the silence with a question.

“Do you think the school’s library has a yearbook from last year?”