The Miracle Clinic

xChapter 29 - Cracking Down On The Pencil Black Market (2)

At Starlight City Park, several young kids are running around having the time of their life in the playground, with several people sliding down slides, climbing the monkey bars, and swinging on the swing. However, the main concern for the parents watching the kids isn't if they're having fun or not but what a group of high schoolers is doing in the corner of the playground.

In the corner of the playground, Tim-Tom The Third Thug is sitting at the top of a geo dome climber with a very long stick as Tom The Second Thug, Tim The First Thug, Alex, Marcus, Elizabeth, & Ronnie sit below him on the woodchips.

"So quick question, why'd we go here?" Marcus asks.

"Oh because I'm better at explaining with pictures," Tim-Tom The Third Thug says.

"It's true, you should see some of his paintings," Tom The Second Thug admits.

Tim-Tom clears his throat before he draws several circles in the ground with the stick and then states, "All right this is just a guess but since there are so many people who are dealing with the overpriced pencils, it's clear that there are numerous different sellers. Which means this isn't just one person doing this but a whole organized effort."

"Like a black market?" Alex asks.

"Exactly," Tim-Tom replies before he begins to draw a big circle and begins to connect the tiny circles to the big one, "now that means that they need someone to organize the whole market and do so in a very efficient and easy way so all the sellers know what's going on."

"I should've done this instead of fighting for money," Alex thinks out loud, causing Elizabeth to elbow him.

"So what you're saying is if we find the ring leader, we'll bring an end to the black market?" Marcus asks.

"Exactly," Tim-Tom says.

"So we know how they operate but how is that going to help us?" Ronnie asks.

"I'm getting to that!" Tim-Tom snarls.

"Yeah, give my man some time!" Tim The First Thug defensively retorts.

Tim-Tom clears his throat he says, "Nowadays there are many ways to tell people information like by sending emails or making a group chat, but these kids are high schoolers and amateurs, so all we need to do is find just one of the sellers and we'll..."

Tim-Tom points his stick at a tiny circle and then follows the line connecting it to the big circle, he smiles as he finishes saying, "Be able to trace this back to its roots!"

As Tim-Tom finishes he looks to see every one, even his fellow Three Ts members, impressed at his explanation.

"Woah you guys really are experts of crime," Ronnie says.

"Why thank you," Tim-Tom begins to respond snarkily as he rubs his nose, "this is why everybody calls me The Golden Goose of Starlight City."

Everyone else there cringes at the name.

"Just... stop giving yourself these cringy titles," Tom The Second Thug begs.

As Tim-Tom sighs, Elizabeth recalls something, "Hey we just need one seller's phone right?"

"Uh, yeah," Tim-Tom responds.

"Well, I may have an idea of someone who we can talk to" Elizabeth responds.

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The next day, a young freshman by the name of Cameron Dots is walking to class in Starlight High. Cameron is a short kid with short dark brown hair, glasses, a white shirt under a blue flannel one, black pants, and red shoes. As the freshman is walking to class he notices his fellow classmate, Elizabeth Morre, also walking towards him.