Boarding School 101

Chapter 2 - a_force_of_nature

Chapter 2 is brought to you  by a_force_of_nature

Kota

"I'm telling you, it was right here!" I nodded dutifully as I watched the sobbing girl dismantle her closet, one item of clothing at a time. Each time she moved, another tear would roll down her cheek and splash onto her newly damp shirt. I wanted to comfort her, to help her in any way that I could, but that wasn't my job in this situation.

"Kelsi, calm down for a second." I knew that, if anything, this would rile her up even more, but I had to get the whole story from her somehow. "What's missing?" The tiny freshman took a deep, shaky breath and turned to face me, swiping away tears furiously.

"My bag," she spat, eyes narrowing at me as though I was the one who'd wronged her. I didn't yet know exactly why she was so upset, but I was reminded of a phrase that my mom loved to joke about. Hell hath no fury like a woman separated from her handbag. A joke it might be to her and my sister, but I was slightly worried for the real perpetrator when we found them. Kelsi looked about ready to kill.

"Okay, so your bag is gone." I noted it down on the report sheet in my hands, then used the clipboard it rested on to gesture towards the strewn contents of her wardrobe. "Where and when did you see it last? In the closet?"

"Yeah, in there." She threw a thumb over her shoulder, before wading through a pile of crumpled white school shirts to reach me. "I left it there before I went to dinner last night," she explained, "but I didn't go in again until this morning. I called down to the security office as soon as I realised it was gone. I don't know how long it's been missing."

"And what was in it? Do you know?" That was the crux of the situation. People, even kleptomaniacally-minded people didn't usually rummage through other people's rooms to steal school books. It just didn't make sense.

"I don't know!" she wailed, the high-pitched noise making me cringe slightly. "I won't know until I search through everything in here."

"Okay," I said calmly, noting down the details she'd given in the appropriate fields on the form. "Thanks, Kelsi. I have everything I need for now." My voice gave away nothing, but my fingers twitched and gripped the paper tightly as I wrote. This was the third report of missing property that we'd responded to in less than a month—particularly concerning since more than half the student body went home for summer vacation—but I couldn't tell Kelsi that. All she needed to know was that we were investigating the theft of her bag and that we'd do our best to find it.

"What happens now?" I was opening my mouth to answer her, to let her know that I'd head down and file the complaint form immediately, when I felt a familiar buzz in my back pocket.

"Sorry, Kelsi, but I need to go." I pulled the phone out of my pocket and glanced at it quickly. The Headmaster's private line was illuminated on the small screen. It had to be important for him to be calling himself, no matter how accessible he made himself to the students usually. "I'll let you know when I have any more information."

Hurrying out of her room, I pressed the phone to my ear and greeted my esteemed caller. "Sir, what can I do for you this morning?"

"We have a new student, Mr Lee, and I need a suitably qualified tour guide. Can you come down to my office?" The older man's voice was warm and enthused. Whoever the new student was, they must be something special to require the kind of tour I was able to offer. Usually, they just used the prefects to show around new students—a situation that didn't occur that often, anyway—but, for him to call me, he or she had to have serious potential. Either way, I was instantly intrigued.