Chapter 28 – Back to school

Walking down Eden Drive, Ava and Eddy were accompanied by two of the secret service men who posted themselves on both sides of the front door of the school. Ava noticed the bulges in the armpit area of their jackets and the transparent curly wires going from their earpieces into their collars.

The familiar but somehow smaller corridors smelled of lunchboxes, milk and a hint of pee, as they had always done, but Ava felt weirdly out of place.

They were welcomed by Miss Flanagan, the head mistress.

'Hi Teach!' Eddy said, before receiving a strategic elbow in the ribs.
Ava rubbed her numb elbow and greeted the headmistress in a way more appropriate for apparent adults. Then she wordlessly handed over the envelope.

Miss Flanagan hoisted her reading glasses from her cleavage and thoroughly inspected the paperwork.

'That seems to be in order. All spelling and grammar correct… Sorry, that's an occupational hazard for a teacher. Where do I sign?'

'Your initials on all pages to confirm you read them and full signature at the bottom of the last page please.'

When adding her own signature and seeing the frown on Miss Flanagan's face, Ava reflected she might need to reconsider her own signature design and maybe do a bit more practice in handwriting skills. Probably get rid of the heart shaped V. She already had a design in mind that even included a reference to the grail. Too late for these documents…
'You can pick up the requested educational materials from the School Librarian. Just tell him I told you so.'

When they got up after finishing their tea and biscuits, Eddy remembered something.

' I would like to ask a favour Miss. 'Can I have a quiet word with Dillon from second grade please?'

'Of course Sir. No problem. He is currently in the playground. I'll show you.'

In the playground, the boy Dillon was easily spotted as the one pulling the hair of Evandra while simultaneously ripping the plastic spade from the hands of Johnny, who had not yet finished digging a defensive trench in the sandbox.

Eddy grabbed both of Dillons wrists, squeezing slightly to release the ponytail and the spade, before lifting Dillon off the ground so that they were face to face.

'Do you know what happens to playground bullies?' Eddy asked in a menacing voice.

'No' Dillon said in a quavering voice.

'Well, they probably become a much hated overpaid mid-level manager with no in-depth knowledge somewhere and die young from stress related ailments or get poisoned by their third wife, but what I was trying to say is: 'I will be watching you closely, Dillon!'.'

Eddy put Dillon back on the ground and turned around to leave. One of the boy's shoes had started dripping. This got a round of applause from Eddy's classmates.

They found the resident librarian slouched in his gaming chair with his VR-headset on his head. Ava noticed that there were still some cobwebs left from a few days ago, so she presumed the librarian hadn't left the premises since then. Several open pizza boxes and empty energy drink cans seemed to corroborate that hypothesis.

Ava gently tapped the boy on the shoulder, leading to a frantic removal and dropping of the headset and the attempt of closing of some of the more unsuitable windows on his computer screen. This would have gone better if he hadn't slipped over a dropped slice of cold pizza.
Eddy pulled the librarian from the floor and said 'We are here for the audit.' with a wide grin. 'We would like to have a copy of all the material you have.'

Red-faced, the librarian started copying a large folder onto a memory stick.

'I meant the educational stuff for the students. Although I assume the other stuff to be educational as well, so don't bother to remove that from the stick please.'

Still grinning, Eddy pocketed the stick and winked. 'We may come back to you for further questions later on, but please feel free to take a shower once in a while.'

As they left, the librarian immediately started to deep clean his surroundings and hard drives, vowing not to be around anymore if Eddy ever would come back for more questions.

Passing along her old classroom, Ava picked her tote bag with PE clothing from the hook. She had quite liked those shoes, but only Cinderella would be able to fit into them as an adult. She frowned as she realised that marriage based on shoe size would be the perfect way to promote under-age marriage. Anyone with feet that were too big for those glass slippers was just considered too old, as they had passed the golden size standard somewhere on the way.

When they left the building, the stoic secret servicemen were surrounded by a crowd of pupils who desperately tried to get them to react, like tourists do with Buckingham Palace Guards.