The Cookienapper

Chapter 4

Chapter 4
Hans didn't expect it to happen, but by 1:18 pm two of his classmates started to feel sick and vomited. The teacher brought them to the clinic and asked for the nurse's help. They were reported to have diarrhea.
"What the heck happened?!" Hans muttered under his breath.
"This just adds more suspects to our list, which means more problems," Cloud said, sounding frustrated and annoyed.
These hasn't happened to Hans before. Every mystery was as easy as pie, but this case was hard to crack. What caught Hans' attention the most was ten minutes after, of their classmates vomited one after another in a matter of seconds. "More suspects, YES!" Hans said sarcastically. By 2:00, only six students were left in the classroom unharmed. It caused Mr. Neo to cancel his 2:00 pm class for Integrated Science. It was useless to teach the subject with just a few students left. The students either stayed in the clinic or was fetched by their worried parents.
"Cloud, different suspects keep on piling up! It's impossible to find who the culprit is!" Hans complained.
"Don't worry, man. The sudden change of events just gives us more time to investigate, this is our chance!" Cloud patted him on the back.
"Okay."
"But first, let's take a break, I feel like the tension is about to crush my body with its iron fist". Cloud stretched.
"Iron fist. Really? Couldn't you have said something cooler?" Hans laughed.
"Well, my choice of words is quite unique, you see." Cloud placed a hand to his chest. Hans felt good hearing that. Finally, there was something he was better than Cloud at! It seemed like becoming friends with Cloud upgraded Hans' skills and downgraded Cloud's. The thought took Hans' stress away in an instant. That was how happy he became when he discovered a perfect creature actually had so many hidden flaws. Flaws, Hans thought. He felt the corners of his lips tug up.
While Hans was talking to himself in his mind, Cloud was already walking towards Czarino to invite him for a short snack at the canteen.
"We're going to have a feast! Because I'm as hungry as a person can get!" Cloud led them out the door to the canteen, with Czarino following behind.
Finding no reason to argue, Hans followed them. The 3 boys ate their snacks peacefully until Cloud heard the canteen ladies gossip about the Newton class. This caught Cloud's attention immediately.
"Haha, I remember that time when....Hey, where ya going Cloud?" Czarino stopped mid-sentence to look at Cloud who was staring at the canteen staff huddled in one group.
"Hans I think I heard the canteen ladies talking about our class."
Cloud stood up from his chair. "Wait, where are you going?" Hans asked.
"Those gossip girls over there. You know... a penny for their thoughts." Cloud smiled. Now Hans really knew he was better at language. Cloud ran to where the canteen ladies were having their daily dose of gossip.

After a series of gestures and furrowing of eyebrows, Hans saw Cloud rush out of the canteen. Czarino immediately got up and ran to Cloud's side. Hans, not wanting to be left out, sprinted towards his two companions.
"What's wrong?" Hans asked, out of breath already.
"Seems like the three people who remained in the classroom ended up in the clinic. Vomiting again." Cloud clenched his fist, as he continued to briskly walk back to the Newton classroom. "More suspects again, now I don't have an appetite." He said as he threw his bag of chips in a nearby trashcan.
"I see... May I ask?" Czarino said. "How did you get the canteen ladies to tell you? I mean, they are quite picky when it comes to the people they share secrets with."
"Let's just say my parents had a past with them. It involved business. Anyways, it wasn't that hard to get, it was just gossip, it wasn't really a secret."
When they reached the classroom, it was empty.
"Clinic." Hans said as Czarino and Cloud nodded.
"Damn it! Damn it!" Hans said as he rushed back to the classroom. The juice he held in his hands was squeezed to death, squirting out its sticky content. "This is impossible to solve!" Hans shouted as he approached the trash can inside the room to throw his wrinkly juice box in. He was about to slam it in until he saw a pile of plastics in the trashcan for paper waste. First, it was the case and now it's mixed trash?! How stupid can people get?!
"What are you doing?" Czarino asked as he went into the room.
"I'm making things right." Hans said as he shoved his hands inside the trashcan and took out the plastics. He continued to do so until he hit something soft.
"What? What's wrong?" Czarino asked as he saw Hans look into the trash can.
"Something feels weird in there." He took his hands out. The texture of whatever thing he touched had clung to his fingers. Hans sniffed it.
"That's gross, man." Cloud, who hadn't been noticed by the two, frowned.
"Wait, be quiet. I'm thinking." Hans said as his eyes darted to Cloud. "I think this is a cookie."
Hans took the trash can and flipped it, all the garbage going out like a waterfall.
"I knew it. There's a cookie in there." Hans said as he picked up something from under the piles of paper and plastic.
"It doesn't look rotten to me so maybe it used to be a good cookie.....until it was thrown in there, of course." Czarino looked at the trash mixed with weird liquids from plastic bottles. He went out to spit.
"Czarino's right. It could have been a good cookie before. In fact, it still looks good without the dust and liquids on it, of course." Hans said as he inspected the cookie.
"What do you mean by good?" Cloud asked.
"You know... Not rotten." Hans waves the cookie to emphasize his words.
"So, guys, did you find any other clues?" Czarino said as he wiped his mouth with sink water.
"We found out that-"Hans stopped speaking when he felt something punch him in the stomach. It wasn't a someone, for sure. He knelt to the floor, something in his stomach urged him to. It hurt to hold it in, he knew what was coming. And he couldn't hold it in anymore, so it came. A waterfall of vomit spewed out of his mouth. It didn't stop until three seconds.

"I think I need to go out as well." Czarino said as he took a step out of the room then ran to the sink.
Cloud stoodup from his chair to help. "Dude, you wanna go to the clinic?" Cloud lent his hand to Hans. He looked like a mess. Hans really needed to go the clinic.
Hans grunted as he swatted Cloud's hand away. "I want to stay to find more clues. I don't care if I vomit even more or smell like poop, I'm solving this case no matter what!" Hans got up, having a hard time because of the vomit on the floor.
"Fine." Cloud said as he took his seat again. Silence fell over them which was just momentarily interrupted by Czarino dragging a chair out of its place to sit on it. Seconds passed by, then minutes, followed by hours. When two hours had finally passed, Cloud seemed impatient and had to break the silence, "Ah! I have an idea!"
"Why would everyone vomit? Hand me that cookie will ya?" Hans handed over the cookie. Czarino ran out because of the cookie with vomit looks so disgusting.
"What's his problem?" Hans asked.
"I don't know." Cloud said as he looked at the cookie. He moved the cookie closer to his face.
"What is it?" Hans said as he searched his locker for an extra shirt.
"I think this cookie is actually rotten." Cloud said as he smirked at Hans. "And this cookie had the exact same texture as the ones our classmates ate. I know this because our classmates kept trading cookies with me because they thought my cookie was bigger. You know how they are."
"Meaning?" Hans gulped.
"Meaning the student who was assigned to do the rotting misplaced them!" Cloud bit his lip.
"What?!"
"Yes, it's possible." Cloud rubbed his chin. "What else could explain this?" He pointed at the empty classroom. "Maybe the one who also ate the rotten cookie was the one assigned to do the rotting!"
"No, you're wrong. It couldn't have been the one assigned to rot the cookie." Hans glared at Cloud.
"What why?" Cloud raised an eyebrow.
Hans shoved a finger at Cloud. "Because the one that stole the cookie was YOU."