A Timely Matter

Chapter 2

If there was one thing the boss couldn't take away from me, it was the van which I kept all my knowledge in. Losing that would be like losing the Great Library, it would cost millions of generations their lives.

Unsurprisingly, there was no one in sight as I reached the back door of my vehicle. The small girl had headed toward an ice cream shop last I saw, and her guardian had followed her over there, but I was headed in the opposite direction and could no longer view the pair. There was something strange around my van though, a small yellow box which was tightly wound around the front wheel on the driver's side. After further examination and research, I found this device was called a 'clamp' which was used to stop you from driving away. That would be no problem for me, I'd simple slow down time a little bit and figure out how on earth to detach such a device.

The problem here, after many hours (Or should I say seconds) of attempting to remove this device, was that it was only unlockable by a key, and none of my lock-picking methods were working. I sighed and drooped my shoulders, switching time back to its normal state and walking over to the school's front office. There was no one inside, of course, since this day was Saturday which counted as a pupil free day every week. I picked at the lock on the school's door and headed inside, it was only then that my brain started ticking, perhaps because I was back inside the center of learning. I spoke aloud to capture my own thoughts, as much as I hate to admit it, I worked much better when I spoke to myself.

"Why would a student be attending a school on a Saturday? If it truly counted as a pupil free day, why would they show? And why would their guardian be at the school with them? Why did the girl scream at me if she knew why I was sleeping inside the building? How did she know what I was doing, anyway, there was no one else inside except the teacher as I worked." As much as I cared for who this young girl was, and as much as I really wanted to unlock her secrets, it had to wait until I had all the information surrounding the school first. There was a list here, I had to first discover the key to unlocking the weigh on my tyre, secondly find out what this school was all about, and if it had private classes on Saturdays, and lastly to uncover the secrets of the tiny girl and her companion.

I searched the office with my eyes first, for any small cabinets and key holders, while doing so I silently admired the layout and structure of the room. Despite it being an office within a school, it was surprisingly tidy, with little paper scattered about on the marble covered draws and benches, and there were what appeared to be Pink Lace kitchen cabinets hanging from the walls above a desk every-so-often. There were even small vases of assorted pink flowers and roses, perhaps the principle enjoyed viewing the colour pink, or perhaps they had a friend who liked it just as much. In any case, the prettiness of the building was not the main point, I crept toward a small cabinet underneath a desk, hoping it contained the prize I was searching for, but there was nothing inside. Just a small slip of paper, folded very neatly into a square, and if it was the least bit important, the paper was also a light pink colour. I unfolded the paper, and just as I did I ran back out the room, out the building and toward my van. The girl was standing at the corner of the building, her companion now laying on the floor beside her, and she did not look the least bit happy. Perhaps the girl was in fact the principle? But why was her companion lying unconscious beside her? What kind of creature was this? She looked human but perhaps she was in fact another species.

My van awaited my arrival patiently, unlike the girl, who instead thought I was waiting for her as she ran in my direction. I pulled open the back doors of my van, stepped inside with as much speed as I could muster, and shut and locked the doors behind me. I believed I was safe, for the time being anyway.