Playing Detective

The First Victim

notes: this was an old thing i did and its so bad i want nothing more than to dig myself into a hole for having this exist at all. enjoy!

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It's already halfway into the year, and students Jade, Euclase and Rutile still haven't joined or decided on a club. One's a normal, ordinary student--always listening to the teachers and staff. The other is a mystery. And the last one is a full blown delinquent.

Every time Antarc walks past the makeshift go-home clubroom, they could feel their sanity going away with every single time they remind the three to join a damn club. Euclase seems level headed enough compared to the other two idiots, so why hasn't they joined a club yet?

This time, Antarc clenches their fist and very calmly knocks on the door of their little hangout space. The door shakes violently every time it meets their fist. From where Antarc is, they could make out Rutile playing some cheap card game they probably bought from the nearest convenience store, Jade shuffling the cards in their hand and Euclase overseeing the match between them, surprising Antarc with how they chose not to join despite how many cards they seem to have. There's a lot. That Euc had always been so weird, Antarc thought.

Realizing the club members probably hadn't heard them the first time, Antarc knocks again, but nobody turned around. Are they deaf? Antarc knocks again.

"NO? YOU'RE THE DEAF ONE, STUPID! I ALREADY TOLD YOU TO COME IN!" Rutile finally turns around, and that's when it registered inside of Antarc's head that their inner monologue might have been too loud sometimes.

When Antarc stepped inside, the situation inside the room almost gave them a cardiac arrest. Both the ceiling fan and the little standy spinny one on the ground was on, and on the highest setting, and the gosh darn ceiling lights were on as well! All of them, in fact, when it's literally midday outside. The student council president bit their lip as they felt their hands begin to tremble, struggling to keep their composure.

They shakily turn off the lights and reduce the fan setting, and before Rutile could shoot them a glare for doing that, they shot one back in anticipation, and the brunet immediately zips their mouth and turns their attention back to their cards. Only to turn it back again towards Antarc. "Wait a minute. What are you here for? What do you want?"

Jade chimes in before putting down a card towards the increasing pile on the table, "We already told you we're not going to join any clubs, anytime soon."

Antarc rubs their temple. "And that's the problem. We've decided that you guys WILL be joining a club. Or you're getting expelled—"

Jade raises their hand to object, "Bu—"

"UPUPUP!!! NO EXCUSES. NO. EXCUSES. YOU'VE WEASELED YOUR WAY OUT OF THIS ONE FOR SO LONG."

Rutile slams down their deck of cards on the table, stupidly showing the ones they have to their opponent. Euclase stays smiling as usual. "Dude?? We're in MIDDLE SCHOOL. We're literally 13, why are you taking this so seriously?"

"BECAUSE THAT'S MY CHARACTER! I'M THE SERIOUS ONE! AND YOU GUYS ARE THE STUPIDASS DELINQUENTS—"

"Okay, enough with the fourth wall breaks. I don't think this fic could take anymore of that... and yelling. So keep the caps down folks." Euclase finally speaks up, and both of them piped down. Antarc takes a deep breath and points their finger menacingly at the trio. "That's fine by me. But! You three are joining a club. Now that's final. I'm not playing around."

Antarc huffs, crosses their arms and turns to leave, but Jade stops them. "Wait."

They stop, "What?"

"We're joining a club. Right here, right nowOW!!!"