Too Good To Be True

6. The Silent School

A/N: HI! I apologize dearly for the long wait for this update! I was experiencing some writer's block when it came to this story, but fear not, for now I have a bunch of ideas!
So please continue to read, and enjoy!
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Marianna pulled away from his embrace. She didn't understand it. Mari recounted the exact details of what had happened the day he disappeared.

There had been no TARDIS sound.
There had been no sound at all.
It all just disappeared.

"You have no idea how awesome this is." Mari stated.

"What?!" He asked.

"I thought I was insane! I mean I kind of am, but I thought I was like delusional you know? But here you are, flesh and blood! Two hearts and all!"

He didn't seem to have a reply. Mari smiled to herself, it was quite a rarity to see the Doctor speechless.

"So," Mari put her hands in her pockets, "Silence?"

"Alright." The Doctor agreed, "Let's get on that."

She smiled and followed the Doctor outside to be sure he wouldn't disappear after she walked out.

"Oh! Do you have your psychic paper?" Mari asked excitedly.

"Yes..." He replied pulling it out.

"Great!" She told him, taking the paper, and pocketing it.

"You know how to use it?" The Doctor asked.

"Uh, yeah." She replied in an obviously way.

They looked around. My school was painted various shades of grey and blue, though our school colors were black and yellow. Kids were out on the fields doing track routines. Mari took her whovian jacket off to cool down. Before them was the blacktop with basketball courts. Kids in PE clothes ran around the courts. Mari noticed her PE teacher making his way over to them.

Marianna's PE teacher, Mr. Anderson, was in his 50s, I believe, but he had an able body. He looked at Mari, disapprovingly. "Marianna?" He asked, "What are you doing?"

"Umm..." She barely had time to think, but it didn't matter. With the Doctor next to her, nothing else would ever matter. "Mr. Anderson meet Dr. Smith." Mari introduced, passing the psychic paper to the Doctor, behind their backs.

"Dr. Smith?" Mari's teacher asked.

"Oh yes," the Doctor agreed, flashing him the psychic paper, "I'm from the district office. I'm just doing a routine inspection of the school."
He handed the psychic paper back to Mari behind his back.
"Marianna, here, is my assistant, chosen at random by the school."

Marianna flashed him the psychic paper and an innocent smile.

"I'm afraid I'll have to pull Marianna out of your class. Is that alright?" The Doctor asked.

"Oh, yeah, sure, of course." Mr. Anderson agreed, turning to me, "Alright, Marianna, go get changed."

Mari didn't want to leave the Doctor. She was afraid he'd disappear again. She shot him a pointed look.

"Well that is the first place for me to inspect." He told Mr. Anderson, "We'll just be off then."

They rushed over to the locker rooms. The Doctor awkwardly turned away as Marianna changed.
"So where do we begin?" She asked the Doctor.

"I suppose we begin by investigating those in power. They're usually behind things." He told her.

Mari tied her jacket around her waist and put her PE clothes in her locker. "Here." She said, handing the Doctor a black marker.

"What's this for?" He inquired.

"Silence spotting. If you see one mark yourself. That way you'll know when you've seen one."

"Well that's clever."

"'Course it is, it was your idea." She told him simply, walking out of the locker rooms.

He followed her, luckily, because Mari had no clue what they were doing.
"Wait, so now what?" She asked.

The Doctor led the way to the main office, and began to take charge. "So, Mari, has anything major been happening around the school? Events, construction, dances?"

"We're having a dance." Mari offered, "It's next Friday."

The Doctor thought a moment, "Where's this dance going to be?"

"The cafeteria."

They headed straight to the cafeteria, flashing their badges to the lunch ladies. Some lights had already been set up for the dance. The Doctor casually soniced things, while Marianna examined some closed off parts of the cafeteria. There were room separators set up closing off certain parts of the cafeteria. Mari looked around to see if anyone was looking. Satisfied that no one was, she moved the room separator and walked behind it.

There was, sadly, apparently nothing of importance anywhere. It was dark and there were tables and chairs in stacks, taking up most of the room in the closet-like area.

Mari was about to leave when she noticed a door on the right of the closet. The door stuck out from the wall and the small corridor that was behind it had a slanted ceiling, going downwards. Stairs. Mari deduced. She walked over to the door. She tried the knob. Locked. There was a keypad beneath the doorknob. Marianna smiled to herself, pulling out her phone and putting her flashlight on.

"You should always use gloves with these." I mumbled to myself, quite pleased with myself for remembering this trick.

The light revealed obvious finger prints on four keys, showing which were frequently pushed.
The numbers were; 4,6,7,9

Now the hard part. Which order?

I got out a piece of paper from my backpack and began jotting down possible combinations. I got 28 combinations total. It could be any one of those 28 options. I had to narrow it down.What was the first number? The first would have the most greasy touch, I recalled, because most of the grease on your finger would come off on the first button you push. I felt the numbers carefully. It was either 7 or 4. That meant whichever was the first number the other was the second.

The options were now:
7469
7496
4769
4796

That narrowed it down a bit.

I would've just guessed, but I had no idea what would happen if I got the combination wrong. It could be booby trapped or something.

I bit my lower lip in concentration. I looked again at the fingerprints. 4 seemed to have the most. I unsurely decided that 4 was the first number.

4769 or 4796?

I took a deep breath and guessed. I typed in 4769. A red light lit up on the door and an alarm beeped. Crap. Was all I could think as the floor beneath my feet slid open dropping me into the darkness.