The Secrets of Yardale

Secrets Begin

It was nighttime at Yardale, and Gregory stood in his dorm room making a cup of tea to drink before bed. This was a part his routine- spend a few hours on his skincare and hair, put on comfortable clothing, make a cup of tea, and go to sleep at a reasonable time. His routine had slowly become more and more difficult to follow, though. Tonight, his routine seemed to follow the model of: cry whilst brushing hair, plot Mark Cotswolds's demise, put on comfortable clothes, do some skincare, stop in the middle of skincare to make a nice cup of tea, continue skincare, and hopefully go to bed before 2 am. This change in routine had been caused by Gregory being stressed about many things- classwork, Mark Cotswolds, Mole, his parents, Mole, his tea currently overflowing, Mole, Mole- 

God, why was Gregory constantly thinking about Mole? The boy was just a smelly prick- it's not like he's- 

Oops. Gregory's tea had gotten everywhere. He really needed to focus. 

After cleaning up the mess, Gregory decided he wasn't mentally capable of making a cup of tea tonight. His mind was too clouded with other things, like the cloud of cigarette smoke always following Mole- 

Gregory needed to stop this. He sighed and sat on the couch in his shared room. As he sat down, his roommate Gary walked in and sat down with Gregory. 

"Is everything alright with you, Gregory? You seem stressed." Gary asked. 

"I'm perfectly fine, thank you-" Gregory replied. "Simply thinking about- homework." 

"Oh man, they really give out the hardest homework here, don't they?" said Gary, 

"Well of course they do. It is Yardale." Gregory stated. 

Gary laughed. "I guess that is true. Headmistress Victoria did give me and a few other students a really weird project though- we're not supposed to talk about it." Gary seemed to make a face of realization after remembering he wasn't supposed to talk about it, and quickly tried covering up the fact that he said anything in the first place. "Actually- ignore that I mentioned anything at all. Nothing weird is going on." 

Gregory raised an eyebrow. "Now I'm curious. You can tell me what's going on-" 

"No." Gary immediately said, the smile he seemed to constantly have fading, "I can't tell you." 

"Alright then." Gregory said. "Perhaps you should be more careful with your secrets next time, though." 

Gary nodded, smiling again to seem less suspicious. "I will." 

The conversation was interrupted by a knock on the door. Gregory got up to get it, but Gary quickly stood up to stop Gregory. "I've got it-" he said. Gregory was quite confused, but decided not to question it. 

Gary opened the door and didn't seem too surprised to see his sister standing in front of him. "Hi Jennifer." 

"Hello Gary. Do you have the parts?" she asked. 

"Uhm, now isn't a good time-" Gary replied, signaling towards the fact that Gregory was still awake. 

"Oh hush." Jennifer said. "It'll be fine-" she began to whisper, "he won't find out." 

Gary sighed. "You're right- nobody will." He left the door for a second and came back with a large box. 

Jennifer took the box out of Gary's hands and smiled in thanks. Gary could only smile back and close the door as his sister left. 

"What was that about?" Gregory asked after a moment of uncomfortable silence. 

"Nothing. Don't worry about it." Gary said, forcing his smile. He quickly ran back to his own bedroom and locked the door. 

For a moment, Gregory had stopped thinking about his neighbor. All he could ponder over was what the fuck his roommate had gotten into. 

———————————- 

Mole had decided to spend the night digging around with his new friend Dogpoo. The two weren't supposed to be out at this hour, as the school had very strict rules about curfew, but Dogpoo had insisted that he was good friends with the headmistress and that they wouldn't get into trouble. 

"Mole, look at this big worm I found!" Dogpoo exclaimed. 

"Dogpoo. That is a snake. Not even close to a worm." Mole said flatly. 

"Oh." Dogpoo sighed. "That explains why it bit me." He threw the snake far away from him. 

"Be careful. It might've been venomous." Mole warned. 

Dogpoo laughed. "I'll be fine. That kind of snake isn't venomous." 

Mole laughed with Dogpoo. "How do you know that it isn't venomous but not that it's a fucking snake? It's like you're only pretending to be stupid or something."

Dogpoo stopped for a second as if he had been caught, then said, "Why would I pretend to be stupid? That just seems stupid in itself. If I was smart, I would make it obvious. Like that Gregory guy you always talk about-" 

Mole scoffed. "I do not talk about him that much- do I?" 

"You kinda do." Dogpoo replied. "But it's okay. I understand having a crush-"

"I do not have a crush on Gregory-" Mole said defensively. "Why does everyone think that? I hate him!" 

"Alright, alright-" Dogpoo replied. "I understand hating people too. Although I don't get why you can't just ignore him-"

"It's impossible!" Mole interrupted again, "He's just so attra- ANNOYING!" 

Dogpoo just stared at Mole suspiciously for a moment. "Whatever." 

Then, Dogpoo's shovel seemed to hit something metal in the ground. "Hell yeah- I found it-" he mumbled to himself. 

"What's that?" Mole questioned. 

"Uh- nothing." Dogpoo quickly continued trying to dig up the metal object. Once he finally got it out, he did his best to conceal it. "I have to go, actually- I'm getting kinda tired. Bye-" Dogpoo ran off with what seemed to Mole to be some sort of metal box. 

Mole shrugged, not really caring about whatever Dogpoo had dug up. What did catch his attention, though, was the fact that he noticed Dogpoo had run into some girl and started speaking to her. He tried listening in on their conversation, and heard: 

"You found it?" 

"Yeah- everything seems to be going to plan." 

"Good- I'm kinda worried about this though. Is Headmistress Victoria sure that this is safe?" 

"I'm sure it is, Rebecca." 

The two nodded to each other and walked away, leaving Mole's field of vision.