Phrenology: E-Lunar (3) Route A (MANUSCRIPT)

Chapter 2: Turn 1 (Discuss)

    "Ya see, they call me... Charlie Monolow." Charlie folded his hands as he addressed Mr. Miguel one Wednesday afternoon.

     "Oh, do they?" Mr. Miguel shrugged. "No kidding, sounds familiar." 

     "But I want to be a world-famous chef one day! A cook who- Who is the best cook of his time. I also desire to keep my boyfriends by my side while accomplishing this dream." 

     "You have big dreams I see. Bigger than your height." The Hispanic professor giggled and put a finger to his mouth. 

     "Yes. I'm short. But, like, it's not weird. It's proportional!" 

     "Uhuh. Anyway. Well, then, you better not let your fears become bigger than your dreams."

     "I see." Charlie yawned. "I feel like you told Tanaka this at one point, but I could be wrong, though." 

     "Maybe I did." Mr. Miguel crossed his arms. "You kids, I swear. You're a goof, you are, Charlie. But if you need any real help to get into cooking colleges, then let me know." 

     Tanaka, his head down, read a mysterious text from Marian, standing near Mr. Miguel. 

     "Hey... Tanaka." The message read. 

     "Marian, where are you?" He fingered his phone's keyboard as his heart raced.

     "That's not important. But what is, is that I tell you I'm closer to finding out who killed Nora. That Cravius Moon guy left me a crumb trail, ya see." 

     "I... see. And what about Marissa?" 

     "That's just it. I have her going on a special mission." 

     "Special mission?" 

     "She's... somewhere secretive. I promise she's not in any real danger." 

     "I'd hope not," Tanaka gritted his teeth together, typing, "and can I at least have some idea of what she's doing? I don't like secrets." 

     "Well, she's at someone's house right now. That person knows that she's there, but they don't know that she's telling me all of what they're saying at that house. These people are being 'tapped', basically." 

     "And why's it important that you know the conversation that Marissa and this stranger are having then?" 

     "Well, because, it's a surprise. We're trying to surprise this person." 

     "Well, it's also apparent that you're surprising me." 

     "Sorry, but if you knew what was going on in this operation, you'd probably accidentally make it a 'non-surprise' for this stranger. You understand, don't you?" 

      "Somewhat. You know, my old man used to tell me that nothing gave a girl more of a thrill than when she kept secrets from men." 

      "I'm sorry, Tannie." 

       Her fingers trembling over the keyboard of her phone, Marian frowned, a blue lamp beside her, and then texted Marissa, "Tanaka still doesn't know anything. It's good, but it's a struggle to keep his curious mind off of it. He seemed really prying this time around." 

      Marian, many miles away from the cooking club, slumped back in a chair. She wasn't at Eddington Academy – which as we all know, lies in Little Japan – she was at her home, in Ajax. Juggling intricate text messages between her two friends, she was on a crusade to find the person responsible for Nora's death. 

     The person who pushed Nora Vanderbilt off of a building, whoever they were, would pay greatly. 

     It doesn't even matter, Marian bit her bottom. what Nora was doing on a roof in the first place. I'm not victim-blaming. 

     Within the passing seconds, the red-headed beauty got a response from Marissa that read, "Well, all I did was manage to read something online about this famous car manufacturing company having some elicit activities. Specifically, underneath the building of their headquarters. The company, Hinge Corporate, apparently has some sort of splinter group which has very... different objectives."     

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