#hey theres legoland references in here!

[duckduckhjonk]

After careful debate between me and myself. I'm posting chapter 2. Here ya go!

Chapter 2 of The Mystery of The Cyclone!

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Word count; 2,342

Note; felt a lot more comfortable with the characters this chapter! Hopefully you enjoy :3

The weeks came, and they went. Soon all six of the kids were released and sent home. Not long after they were sent back to school. For some, this also meant back to working a shitty job at Taco Bell.

But the day was new for Noel, and his first day back to school since the accident. Typically he would walk, given his proximity to the school, but today he got a ride from his mother. She had the time off and figured he'd wear himself out if he walked too long. The boy was still recovering after all.

It was early, far too early for classes to begin. Typically on these types of days, Noel would visit the choir room. Usually Father Marcus would let the choir kids stay there until classes began as to avoid trouble. Today, Noel was unsure if the new director would. He didn't even know anything about this new director! That just had to be remedied.

Noel walked as fast as his bandaged legs could carry him. He knew a straight shot path to the choir room from the entrance gates. As he arrived at the choir room, the door was slightly cracked open. Slowly, he opened the door. On the other side of the room, an old lady stood hunched over a music stand. On the bleachers sat Ricky. Noel sighed in relief when he saw a familiar face.

"Ricky, it's good to see you again," Noel began, "how's it going?"

'it's been alright,' Ricky signed, 'although my parents have been stressing over every little thing since I got home.'

"Oh, so has my mom," Noel said sympathetically. After a brief pause he spoke again, "what's the new director like?"

'I'm not sure, I know she doesn't know sign language though,' Ricky replied, 'she was kind of snarky when I first got in here, though.'

"I see," Noel said, his voice trailing off. As he opened his mouth to speak again, the new director was now looking at them.

"Ah, I didn't see you come in," she said, "you're in the choir, yes?"

"I am," Noel said in a dramatic tone, "you must be the new choir director, it is so nice to finally meet you."

"Ah, I've been here a little while now, I wouldn't say new," She said, now a touch flustered.

"Well you're new to us! After all, we just got out of the hospital," Noel replied in a now sly voice.

"Oh, yes, yes, I nearly forgot about that," the director exclaimed, "well, I'm Sister Becca, it is so nice to meet you."

"Noel Gruber, at your service," Noel stood up and bowed dramatically, "and this is Ricky, if you didn't already know."

"I tried asking him earlier about his name but he just wouldn't respond," Sister Becca complained.

'I did, just not with my voice,' Ricky explained to Noel, 'not my fault she can't read sign language.'

Their conversation was cut short by the door creaking open once more. On the other side was a girl who stiffly entered and moved to join them. A headless doll clutched in her arms.

"Penny!" Noel exclaimed.

"Hello, Noel, hello, Ricky," Penny said cheerfully, "hello, new director lady."

"Ah, hello," Sister Becca replied, clearly put off by Penny.

The reunion was sweet, but short lived as the bell had rung. The three students all swiftly exited and parted ways.

~

School was about as normal as ever. Lots of faux 'oh we missed you's and 'how are you feeling's. It got on Noel's nerves. It was a slow day and it didn't seem to get any faster. Although at lunch he finally got some peace and quiet. That peace and quiet was rather short lived for soon Noel would find himself being practically dragged by Constance. She was blabbing on about an 'emergency choir meeting' or something.

"What's all this about?" Noel asked as he sat at the round table with the other members of the choir.

"Well," Ocean began, "I did some research and I found out just how many safety features rollercoasters are required to have. There's such a small chance all of them would fail leading to the cart derailing without any of the employees noticing. It doesn't add up!"

"So what are you suggesting?" Mischa asked.

"That someone tampered with the rollercoaster, thus making this a murder attempt," Ocean announced.

Noel wasn't quite sure how to feel about this. On one hand, how dare someone try something like that! But on the other hand it would certainly thicken the plot. Perhaps leading to a tragic twist where just before our brave heroes find out the culprit they tragically die. That would make for a beautiful story.

It seemed he was the only one taking this in a positive light. Looking around the table, the other kids looked horrified. He couldn't help but roll his eyes at them. Some of them on the verge of tears for christ sake!

"So what do we do about this? There is no way I take an attempt on my life lying down," Mischa nearly screamed.

'Simple,' Ricky signed, 'we figure out the culprit and bring them to justice.'

"It's not that simple, Ricky," Constance chimed in, "there were hundreds if not thousands of people at the fall fair! Anyone could have done it!"

"Maybe let's try listing off possible suspects first," Ocean said, "does anyone here know of anyone who wants them dead?"

The choir all stopped to think. Noel couldn't recall anyone despising him besides his own father, and his father left town years ago! There was always the sporty bully kid but he was mean to everyone, why would he target Noel?

The choirs' thinking led them to a whole bunch of nowhere. Lunch ending put an end to their think time. The choir kids all split off and went on their ways until the end of the day.

Like every class that morning, the afternoon ones dragged on just as long. Noel was exhausted by the time biology rolled around and could barely keep himself interested. He'd rather think, no, fantasize about what mysteries and tragedies could unfold. He was the victim of a murder attempt after all.

His thoughts were all too soon interrupted by the biology teacher slamming his hand onto Noel's desk. He flinched and let out a tiny yelp as the teacher did so.

"What's goin through your little mind that's soooo important?" The teacher asked.

Noel, thinking on his toes, stood up dramatically. This was his time to shine. "When a lioness has children, she stops making love to the lion. The lion gets jealous—sometimes so jealous he eats the children. You'd think this would upset the lioness. Far from it. They make love again like the children never existed. I find that idea terrifying."

The teacher didn't know how to react. As Noel sat back down, the teacher, rather pathetically, walked back up and continued his lesson. His eyes turned towards the front of the room to see Penny, whom he shared the class with, nearly dying of laughter, trying to contain it.

They made a pact to not stop talking about the incident. To put it in a better light. If not then they'd only be driven apart. So what better than to have a little fun with it. Penny seemed to agree.

Noel was ever so thankful it was the last class of the day. The bell rang and the teacher dismissed the class alongside it. Noel trotted slyly towards the front of the room to meet with Penny.

"How did you manage that timing so well?" Penny asked between laughs.

"Oh, please, my timing is always perfect," Noel said as he waved his hand, "now let's get to the choir room, I want to hear if anyone's gotten any idea of who's responsible for all this."

"I have a theory, but I'm going to wait until we're in the choir room to tell," Penny said.

"Oh, good, that makes one of us," Noel sighed.

The choir room wasn't far, the two arrived quickly. While they weren't the first in the room, they were considerably early. Noel made a huge entrance into the room with Penny trailing not too far behind.

Within the room, there was at least three others. Noel recognised Ocean and Ricky as two of them, but failed to recognise the other girl. This girl had long brown hair and wore a boy's uniform. She had dark makeup around her eyes and had a very worried expression. Ocean was attempting to calm the girl down.

"Just deep breaths," Ocean said, "it'll all be okay!" Her tone sounded faker than the fantasies in his own head.

"It's not ok," the girl replied, "Hank said he'd meet me here, something bad could have happened!"

Noel found a seat in the stands next to Ricky, watching the scene go down. Penny loomed above the two, also fascinated by Ocean and the other girl's squabbles.

"Maybe he got stuck behind some slower walking students," Ocean suggested now sounding anxious, "we don't need to storm through the entire school looking for him."

"Oh, don't play dumb with me, Ocean," the girl replied, "you know Hank is a target for bullying. There's a more than likely chance he's sitting in a locker that isn't his own."

As the two bickered, Constance had snuck in and joined the bystanders. She seemed all to used to these exchanges. Noel figured it best to maybe ask her for some context.

"What's the deal with them?" He asked in a whisper.

"Oh, Astrid and Ocean are cousins," Constance started, "Astrid's best friend, Hank, is kind of a, uhm, loser to say nicely. He gets bullied a lot without her around.",

"I see..."

A few moments passed before the door was thrown open. On the other side stood a disgruntled looking man. It was Mischa. For some reason, he held another, more pathetic looking boy, under his arm. Mischa placed him down and immediately Astrid embraced the boy.

"Oh there you are!" She exclaimed, "you had me worried sick! What happened?"

"He got shut into locker" Mischa explained, "I was nearby and heard his baby weeping and released him from metal prison."

"I'm alright now," Hank said, patting Astrid on the back.

"Right!" Ocean said with a clap of her hands, ruining the rather sweet moment, "while we still have time before practice begins, we've got a murder case to look into. Does anyone have any theories about possible suspects?"

Penny raised her hand, "I believe I have an idea."

"Alright," Ocean said albeit a little hesitantly, "what's your theory?"

"This might take some context," Penny forewarned, "But do you remember that school assembly where my brother and I told a story about how drugs are bad and going all the way to Orlando, Florida to bite the cheek off of a rapper known formerly as Johnny Moon is also bad?"

Mischa slammed his fist into the step of the stands he sat in, "That was you??" He asked loudly.

"Yes," Penny answered, beginning to feel nervous.

"You are my hero, yoo!" Mischa continued, now extremely giddy, "That JK-47 guy gave bad rep to rap scene! You beating the shit out of him absolutely ruined him and saved rap for ever!"

Penny looked unsure of how to respond. Luckily she didn't have to, as Ocean interrupted their moment.

"So you're implying that this guy might be back to try and kill you?" She said impatiently.

"Oh, yes, that's where I was going," Penny confirmed.

Ocean wrote the name down in a notebook with a fancy looking pen. She looked up and around at everyone. The rest of the choir just shrugged or shook their heads awkwardly. Even Noel struggled to think of a culprit.

Their theorising was cut short by the director tapping on her stand, gaining all of their attention.

"Alright, welcome back," Sister Becca began, "it's so nice to have everyone back in choir. For those of you who don't know, I'm Sister Becca, your choir director.

If he were to be honest, Noel mostly tuned what she was saying out. He didn't really care about her or her dog at all. There wasn't much practicing to be done that day, it was mainly Sister Becca rambling about her life.

Noel's mind was in a different place. Not quite the usual place, but one where he was a stunningly beautiful detective of a similar French name who struggled to make ends meet and sold her body to pay rent. She had just been given a big case about the murder of six people and was tasked with finding the killer based off such little evidence.

"Oh, I promise I will catch this killer no matter what," Monique said passionately.

"Good. I'm counting on it," the brash Frenchman said before storming out of the shoddy office.

Monique sighed, she looked over the files and could barely find anywhere to begin. Six separate murders with all different killing techniques yet somehow all linked. She'd need more evidence. Given the recency, Monique would simply have to investigate the crime scenes.

The first was a saddening one. A girl without a head. The only thing anyone knew about this girl was her recently attacking a famous musician. She noted down she'd have to interview him if given the chance.

"Noel? Are you there?" The daydream faded as he saw Mischa waving his hand in front of Noel's face. "It is time to go home, you've been staring off into space for long time now."

"Oh, forgive me," Noel said dramatically, "I had gone off to my own world again, much more interesting than listening to someone go off about her dog for an hour."

'Agreed,' Ricky added from next to Noel.

The three boys exited the choir room together, but dispersed not long after. Noel had to get to work, but perhaps he could get back to her detective work while he walked.