Sometimes things happen and there's nothing you can do about it. You feel powerless. You feel alone. You feel lost. But sometimes...all you need is that one person to find you again.
It had been nine days since we'd arrived in Minnesota. I had told the others about my potential lead, but we'd had to wait since school had been out over the weekend. Hank had called the school on Monday, despite my tries to get him to let me do it. We could come in on Friday. It would give them time to tell the officers that helped at the school and let them know that we were coming in. Still, it was going to be chaotic from what I could tell.
Apparently, that week the school had a game and every time they have a game on Friday, they have a dress-up week. From what I'd heard, the school colors were blue and gold. Their mascot was called Wilford Wolf. What made him stand out was that he was a blue wolf with gold markings and gold eyes. He also had white wings. It was interesting, to say the least. Friday was the blue and gold day, so most of the students were going all out, wearing whatever they could that was allowed of the colors. It seemed like a fun tradition.
It was almost time for the three lunch periods the school had. It was currently half an hour before Lunch A as they labeled it. Hank had gotten something to eat before we'd arrived. As we went into the building, we were greeted by the principle and the cops that helped around the school.
"Hello, Lieutenant Anderson. Nice to meet you. My name's Jeff Plume." The man greeted, holding out his hand.
"Nice to meet you, Sir. This is Collin and this is Connor. They're my partners on this case. Connor is one of my usual partners and Collin has been partnered up with us specifically for this case." Collin nodded to him and I gave him a wave with a small smile. He nodded.
"Good to meet you. This is Officer Will Stevenson and this is Officer Julia Morgenson." They both gave us smiles and I returned the gesture. "Please, follow me." Jeff invited. We followed him as he headed down toward the other end of the building. "As of right now, A Lunch has just begun. Today, there are more students than normal in the cafeteria because of a certain...custom a few of our graduating seniors have come to love on days like these."
"Custom?" Hank asked.
"Yes, you'll see soon enough. Anyway, you all are welcome to come back as much as needed for the rest of the year as long as you notify either myself or our local department so we'll be ready for any further visits. Today, we've arranged for you to be set up in the cafeteria. I hope you don't mind. Oh, and feel free to grab something from any of the lunch ladies if you need. Though it'd be best if you waited for the students to go first. It would be less of a hassle." I was relieved that he was so nice to us. I'd already seen him spot our LEDs. It confused me when he didn't react to them. Did he even know what they were?
Once we'd made it to the cafeteria, I was stunned by how large it was. It was almost as big as the department back home! Aside from the fact that it didn't have any lower levels. What also stunned me was how many students were dressed up in insane styles with blue and gold. It was impressive and actually enjoyable to see how they were all so into their school spirit.
"Quite the setup," Hank commented.
"I'll leave you to it. Tell Will or Julia to come and get me if you need anything." Jeff said and left. We nodded.
Then, as soon as he left, music started playing. I was surprised by this. I heard cheering and the three of us were very confused. Then, we saw that in the cleared space in the middle of the cafeteria four girls had gathered. Two of them had blue and gold on, the other two didn't.
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I was stunned at how the one girl was able to get wings to put on that looked like that. Still, I didn't question it. Then, the girl with the blue wolf ear headphones spoke up.
"Hey, everybody, let me hear you howl!" There was more cheering and some of the boys at one table actually had fun and howled as best they could. She laughed. "That's the spirit! Now, let's have some fun, right?"
"YEAH!!" With that, they started to sing.
(Far-left = the girl with purple hair. Far-right = the girl with the wings. Mid-left = the girl in the pink dress. Mid-right = the black girl with the bows in her hair. Watch the video before continuing on, please and thank you.)
As they sang, my attention was drawn to the girls with the butterfly headphones. I saw how they were turning the sides of the headphones to add effects onto their voices depending on what they needed. That's pretty advanced if it that fast and accurate on headphones.
Once the song was over, they did three more before they stopped. They split up and the two girls I had been watching went over to a boy with a service dog. Then, as I got a closer look, I was shocked yet again. That's a service dog!?
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Hank and Collin were looking at them too. I knew we all had the same idea. These kids weren't normal teenagers. I turned to them.
"Do you think they have anything to do with what happened?" I asked.
"Maybe their descendants of people in a group that Shane was with," Collin added.
"Well, only one way to find out. Let's go talk to one of the officers." We went over and asked about the three of them.
"Oh, those three? Well, the boy is Aryan Nickle and the two girls are his younger twin sisters. The girl with the purple hair is Zadria and the girl with the blue hair is Jazlyn." Will explained.
"The boy wasn't born with them? Aren't they all seniors?" Hank asked.
"Yes, they are. Aryan was held back a year because of some disabilities he has. It's why he has his dog to keep him calm during the day. She's really sweet, actually. It was a bit of an issue at first since she's so big, but it all worked out in the long run. The dog's name is Tundra. We assume she's a cross between the other dog they had, which was a mix between a Great Dane and a German Shepard, and a Great Pyrenees. It's why she's so big yet so easy to train! Very interesting mix if you ask me." Julia said, smiling at the dog. I smiled a bit too. Maybe they weren't so strange. There wasn't really much that was abnormal about them now that they'd explained it all.
Then, I noticed that the dog had spotted us. Her ears went back and Aryan noticed this. He turned and his eyes widened slightly. He turned back to his sisters and I saw them glance over at us very quickly. I frowned. Okay...maybe not so innocent...
