Phoenix Drop 2: An Inky Situation

Chapter 3: Cleaning Up The Troubles

I was awoken by my mother grabbing my leg and dragging me onto the floor. It took me about three more minutes for me to get up cause I was still so tired. After getting up and fixing my bed and self, I went downstairs and ate breakfast. Afterward, I made my way to school. And, as I did, I was reminded of the task I didn't want to do but had to. Ugh! Why am I the one that's being blamed for this!? I asked myself in my mind. As I continued to be angry in my thoughts, Katelyn walked up behind me and poked my shoulder. "Hey, Aph, what's with the look?" She asked. "Nothing" I said. "Aphmau, I know you. When you say "It's nothing", that means something irritating happened. So tell me, what's wrong?" She said. "Curse your good observance!" I muttered. "Fine, I'll tell you. I have to go to the Principal's office because Vice-Principal Lawrence thinks that I was the one who was spray painting the school wall outside by the entrance even though it was Aiden and his stupid group, again!".

"Oh, well that sucks. Sorry, Aph" She says. "It's fine. As irritating as it is, stuff like this happens, and you just gotta deal with it, I guess" I say. "True" She agrees. As we continued to walk, we made it to the school. We parted ways as I walked towards the office. "Hello, what may I help you with?" Asked the secretary lady behind her desk. I handed them the pink slip that explained why I'm here. "Oh, you're here to see the Principal? Right this way" She says, guiding me to his room. She walked me to his room, and returned to her stand. "Principal Asgore D." It read on the glass window. I opened the door, to see Principal Asgore and Vice-Principal Lawrence talking. They both looked at me as I closed the door. "Oh, good morning, Miss Aphmau! What may I help you with?" Principal Asgore asks, beaming his signature smile with his arms behind his back. "Well, Mister Dreemurr, this is the one that was spray painting the school property yesterday afternoon! I saw her in the act with my own eyes!" Vice Principal Lawrence states. 

Principal Asgore placed a hand on his shoulder, gesturing him to be quiet. "I want to hear her side of the story" He calmly says. Thankfully, Principal Asgore has grown a tolerance to Vice-Principal Lawrence's charade of banter, so he learned to immediately ignore anything he says, and ask the victims directly what really happened; innocent 'till proven guilty would be his rule. "Miss Aphmau, tell me what happened yesterday afternoon" He says. I then explained to him what happened about me leaving the Library, to seeing Aiden and his group run away, to Vice-Principal Lawrence giving me the pink slip. "I see. So Lawrence, you just assumed that she was responsible for this?" He turns to ask him. "Of course! You never know when a student could be planning! One of these days, you might stumble upon a student smoking for all we kno-". "Lawrence, you always think that someone is doing something, even when they're not. These quick assumptions have to end soon because everyone in this building, including I, are getting tired of having innocent students report to my office almost every minute of the day because of you" He says with a sigh. 

Vice Principal Lawrence stood silent for a moment. He then scoffed as he stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind him. "I am sorry, Miss Aphmau, for wasting your time. But, in order to keep Lawrence from ranting any longer, I am forced to still give you a punishment" He sadly says, while apologizing. "It's fine, Principal Asgore" I say. "All you have to do is go down into the storage room and tidy it up a bit, something I'd presume Lawrence would much appreciate, anyway. Still, it's nothing at all difficult," He says. "I'll have one of your friends guide you to the room. And also, to make sure that they aren't gonna be off the hook, I'll report Aiden and his little posse to my office later today to discuss this.. for the third time this quarter.." He mutters. "Alright, thank you Principal Asgore" I say while walking towards the door. "No problem!" He says. "May Daniel Hydes please report to the office please, thank you!" I heard the speakers say. 

I waited at one of the office chairs for a few minutes. After a brief wait, I saw Daniel walk into the office, looking a bit unsteadily. "A-am I in trouble?" He asks, nervously. "No, not at all, Mr. Hydes. I asked you here to ask you if you could kindly guide Miss Aphmau to the storage room" Principal Asgore says to Daniel. "Oh, sure!" He says. "Oh, before I forget, Miss Aphmau, if anyone asks, here's a special pass signed by me letting them know that you won't be considered late to any of your classes or assumed to be trespassing into restricted areas since you'll be cleaning up the room" He says, handing me an orange pass with his signature. "Thank you again, Principal Asgore" I say again. "Once more, no problem! Just doing my job as Principal of Phoenix Drop High!" He says with a smile while walking back into his room. So then, Daniel guided me through a corridor that I don't think I've ever traveled through before. After walking for a bit more, and going down a small set of stairs into the boiler room, we found the storage room. 

"Well, Aphmau, here it is!" He says with cheer in his voice. Every time he would do that, I couldn't help but think that he sounded like a happy child. It was so cute! "Well, I gotta go, see you later Aph!" He says waving goodbye while running back. "Bye, Daniel!" I say back. I then turned my attention back to the door. It was a wooden door that looked like it's been here for a while. With patches of its oak a darker shade then it's others. "Phoenix Drop High's Storage Room" It read on a little sign that was plastered on the glass window. I opened the door to see a pretty decently sized room. It had two shelves on the right side filled with old books and boxes and a rusted metal table with a pinboard above it in the far back of the room. Wow. How long has this place been here for? I asked myself. I walked into the room and closed the door behind me. I then opened a dusty box to find a little feather duster. Je-Jeez! Better question, how long's it been since anyone has been in here for? I asked again after coughing from the sprung dust. 

I grabbed it and then thought about what to clean first. I decided to start off by cleaning the desk. I was able to get a better look at the pinboard when I walked over to it. All it had was extra pin's that were still attached to it. There was a lot of dust on the desk, and it was worse when I opened the drawers because there were spider webs and more dust. It was awful. After maneuvering and brushing away the few spiders and clearing away the dust and cobwebs, I managed to clean it up. And after cleaning the pinboard, it was now onto the shelves. As I started to dust away at the bottom levels of the shelf, I had to grab two nearby hardcover books so I could use it as a stool since I was too short to dust the higher levels. "Finally! All done!" I said triumphantly. The room still looked pretty bland, but at least it was cleaner than how it looked when I walked in. As I stepped down from the books, my foot stepped on something and my body almost fell back. 

Thankfully, I hung onto the shelf just before I fell onto the concrete floor. "Phew! He-heh. T-that was close! If I didn't have such cat-like reflexes, I would've fallen right ont-" But that thought of quick thinking then left as I tripped from another book and knocked into the steel shelf. Everything started to tumble down, nothing hit me, but man did it sound loud when they made contact with the ground. When I opened my eyes, I saw that everything laid in front of me. Books, boxes, papers, and.. a tiny briefcase? What stood out the most was a small briefcase-like item. It was black and had gray lines as an outline. I touched it, and it felt smooth and a bit bumpy. Leather casing. I then saw small words that were carved into it on the front. "Smith Corona" It read in cursive letters. When I carried it, it felt like something was weighing it down. I tried to open it, but it wouldn't budge. It didn't have a lock or combination on it, so why would it not open? 

As I tried to observe it more, I then saw a tiny spider crawl onto it. I cried out a bit as I dropped it from instant fear. When it hit the floor, the spider fled, but I then also heard a small click. I looked back down on the thing and saw that it was now open. I guess it was left unopened for so long, that it actually stayed shut due to old age, or something. I picked it back up again, walked over to the desk, and opened it. When it was fully open, out came a small classic looking typewriter. It looked.. beautiful. Even though the outside had dust, this part looked.. almost untouched and shiny. It also came with an empty case for what would possibly be a book. I guess it's a bonus for once you wrap up your story. I put my attention back onto the ancient typewriter in front of me. I pressed a random letter, and its letter was pushed up and slammed onto the paper that came with it. Once the button fell back into position, it left its letter plastered on the paper. Just like a normal typewriter. I then realized something. 

Maybe I can use this to make my summary look more unique and stand out more! I thought with cheer. So then with everything cleaned, I closed the briefcase, carried it with my right hand, and ran out of the room. I couldn't wait to show the others!