Pondovadia: World I Love, Tears I Drop

Chapter Eleven: There is a Fortune Waiting to be Had

October 6, 302X

10:30 AM

Bell was sitting at her school desk and typing away at her laptop. She was finishing up a unit exercise on multiplying percentages and looking for bootleg Blyned Jagwar vinyl at the same time. Hey look, one from their early days in the California punk scene! This should be a good one.

"Seventy dollars though?! Klarisse would kill me and throw me in the sewage if I bought that!" Bell thought to herself.

"Hey Bell?" the rooster teacher asked her as he was cleaning his desk. Bell took her right orange earbud out and placed it next to her laptop.

"Can you do me a favor and send today's assignment and next week's unit to Joan? I'll give you five extra points on your final grade"

Oh yeah, Joan was still suspended. All because Maya made herself the victim again. Somebody should beat her ass for that.

"Sure, Mr. Poulain"

She nodded and pulled up Joan's school email-- jojorossi, was it? Yeah, that sounds about right. Bell pulled up the links for the unit and forwarded them to her. Bell heard her laptop made a small ding to confirm everything was sent. She put her right earbud back inside.

"Thanks," Mr. Poulain said as he finished up with his desk. He moved a family photo nearby his laptop and readjusted it so the simple black frame wasn't as crooked.

——

2:45 PM

Bell and her friends were walking down the streets of the Coglen District. They were bundled up for the fall weather in thick sweaters and loose pants. The wind was cold yet weak. Several animals were talking to each other across the street.

Toshi was drinking a cup of black and blue boba tea while Ponce was munching on some plantain chips.

"And the son of a bitch said he wanted feet pics for it!" Bell laughed. "Anyways, I just sent him the middle finger and the dumbass blocked me"

Toshi stopped in his tracks. "Did you guys hear that?"

"Hear what?" Ponce asked.

There was a loud rustling in the alleyway near the new Venezuelan restaurant that opened last week.

"Oh, that! Let's go check it out" Bell pointed at the alley.

Ponce and Toshi looked at each other then shrugged. What the hell, it's not like anything else is going on today.

The three kids snuck their way into the alley way. It was cold, damp, and looked abandoned. There were a couple black trash bags filled with something shoved into a corner. A little bit of graffiti was spray painted on the walls, but it was just cheap scribbles in white spray paint and not a work of art at all. Surprisingly for an alleyway, there was no scent at all.

"Stop!"

A dangerous contralto yelled before them.

The trio turned around. They saw an ominous black figure stand before them. They were standing on the edge between alleyway and penthouse roofs.

The kids watched as the animal before them did a flip and roughly landed on their feet. Feathers spread from their arms as they brushed dirt off themself.

The animal walked closer to them. The shadows came off their body and the mysterious animal was finally revealed to them.

It was a short and slender white bird around their age. Her light brown hair was short and styled upwards into a choppy fauxhawk. She was wearing a sleeveless dark green spandex suit with shiny grey belts around her thighs and a mask covering her eyes.