“Oh Hell. Hell, Hell, Hell”. I mutter as I return to the lawn. A truly harrowing sight awaits me. Blade is standing up and appears to be arguing with a teacher. I run towards them.  “Sir We’ll call the police”. The teacher Mr.Markson says, raising his voice. “Look Man, I'm just sitting here not bothering anyone.” Blade replies “And don’t call me sir, Unlike you i’m from this century not the previous one.”  

I laugh at the blatant disrespect from Blade. Mr.Markson  takes notice and turns to me. “Young lady, do you know this child”. He says it in such a way I feel that I'd be punished no matter what I answer. I look at Blade.  I know what will happen if I deny knowing him. Police, legal issues. But Mr.Markson clearly doesn’t care about the truth, he wants me to save my own skin and make it look like Blade is just some bad kid who’s out to disturb people. “He’s my friend,” I reply. 

Blade's face breaks into a thankful grin and Mr.Markson looks like he’s going to explode. His face is turning a scarlet red. “You let a stranger onto school property”? He asks again. 

“He’s not a stranger, he's my friend. He had a mixup with his train stop and got lost. He knows I go to school here so he came to me for help. I was just trying to be nice.” I add the last part out of pure devilish innocence. 

Mr.Markson recomposes himself. “Very well. See to it that he’s gone by fourth period though”. And walks away. 

Blade sticking out his tongue calls out “HEY SINCE SHE’S SO NICE MAYBE SHE CAN HELP YOU GET THAT STICK OUT OF YOUR” 

“OI” I yell before he can end that sentence and finish digging his own grave. 

Blade is still smiling. “Thanks Rocks.” he says. 

“No problem”. I say sitting down. 

“Anyways what did the fossil say”. Blade asks, sitting by me. 

“Well her story checks out. There is one thing we learned though. Turns out Mrs.Clinton saw a girl run on her way to the bathroom. She thinks it may have been  Rachel or not. But I'm not so sure. Rachel was also muttering about having to work twice as hard for someone else's stupidity apparently.” 

“That's interesting. Blade says putting his hands behind his head and leaning back against the fence. “So we think that Mrs.Clinton is innocent”? 

I open my laptop. “For now”. I say. “But we should probably do some research. Photo’s interviews anything about Rachel and her case”. 

“Uh oh” Blade says. I look up to see another teacher pointing at him. “I should run, I'll see you later, Don’t die”. 

He says before jumping the fence and running off. I laugh to myself. When I look down I realise that boy had edited my essay. He changed a bunch of stuff. It’s actually pretty good. I read a note he left me 

Don’t kill me, you have the vocabulary of an Oxford dictionary but the grammar of a toddler. 

See you later Oxford 

Your best friend,partner in crime, and Sleuthing buddy. 

That night i’m reading some book for school. I honestly can’t tell you what it’s about. I just picked up a ton of sexism, and illogical reasoning.  When the doorbell rings. I go to answer. There i find Maddie at the door. She’s wearing a black top hidden by an orange jacket and jeans.  “Hi”. She says awkwardly. 

“Hi”. I say. 

“Can I come in?”. She asks

“Sure” I respond. 

I walk into the living room and sit on the couch. I considered going up to my room but then she’d see the wall of Rachel stuff and that can’t end well. 

“What's up?” I ask casually, feeling I already know. 

“We need to call off the bet” Maddie answers. 

Look, I'm a pretty understanding person. Under different circumstances I would  probably hear her out before answering. But I already know why she wants to call off the bet. So there’s not much she could say to make me compliant. “No, why are you worried I'm right”? I ask innocently. 

“No it’s not that” She says “I just want out, is all”. 

I’m going to have my fun with this girl 

“Yeah, no thanks, I'm quite enjoying investigating, I feel like Nancy drew”. I say smiling. 

Maddie looks furious. She's obviously not used to being refused something. 

“Look whatever you win, I'll pay you”. Maddie  tries to reason 

Even if I took the money I wouldn't stop investigating. Just make her think I did, maybe the snakecharmers would put their guard down and I could get something out of them. But Maddie knows me well enough to know I wouldn't come out of this without all the benefits. “You can buy me out of the bet for $80” I suggest. 

Maddie breaks “Fine”. She opens her wallet and pulls out a huge wad of cash. Mostly hundreds and fifties. Seriously, who walks around with that kind of cash, much less a high school student. Finally she finds a ten and a twenty dollar bill. She hands me those on top of a fifty dollar note. 

“There, Now are we good”. She asks standing to go 

I smirk slyly “Perfect”. 

A few minutes later The doorbell rings again. This outright scares me. It’s 6:30 in winter so it’s dark out. The wind is screaming like lost souls and tree branches bangigng and shaking. I cautiously open the door. A tall figure stands in the doorway. My eyes go wide and react by slamming the door. And running to find the first weapon. A broom? The man Knocks again. I go to open the door prepared for a fight. The person steps into the hall. “Oh it’s just you”. I say to Blade. 

“Yeah”. Blade says, taking off his hoodie. Revealing an old, black  band T-shirt “Who’d you think” 

“I don't know I thought  you were a murderer or somthing”. I say placing the broom away. 

“Nah, not me. I have an ironclad alibi. I wasn’t born yet”. Blade jokes. Walking into my kitchen, “What's cooking something smells great”. He reaches into the fridge, pulls out two fizzy drinks and sets them on the table. Usually when people walk around making themselves at home acting like they own the place it pisses me off. But it wears differently on Blade. Instead of being arrogant he just seems comfortable. Sure of himself. It’s relaxing to be honest. 

“I’m making pasta”. I say taking a fizzy drink. 

“Yum”. He says. 

“So what exactly are you doing here”? I ask, checking the sauce. 

“Well you said to research and you know Keanu’s a cop. So he got me the case file for Rachel Young. This stuff is legit. Police confirmed evidence, Photo’s,  printed interviews, and luminol tests. Tiny details of that stuff.  He also sent a search for the death certificate of Rachel's twin. I have the file but he said since the certificates are not a local thing it could take weeks to hear back”. 

I hadn’t realised I was beaming until Blade was done talking. “That's great”. I say. Scooping some pasta and sauce into two bowls. I grab two forks and sit down across Blade. I tell him all about Maddie and the insane amount of cash she had. 

“Well that’s certainly interesting”. Blade says. 

“Yeah and you know the weird thing is, Maddie  hates cash. She always says she prefers cards. So why did she have so much on her”. 

“Huh it is weird”. Blad agrees. 

We both come to the realisation at the same time. I know because his eyes lit up.  “She was going to” He starts 

“Redwood to meet up with the Snake charmers, who are dealing drugs which can only be paid for in cash”. I interrupt. “It seems like it”. 

“We should go surprise them”. Blade suggests sneakily.