The changing of Winter | ✔

|10| - Date?

(A/N: Keep in mind that this type of virus is slowly turning Winter into a zombie, along with everyone at ZBS-Academy. So they are bound to do things, and act like how a zombie would. Please keep that in mind.)

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Nancy Drew had sidekicks. I found that out on a quick trip to the school library. I re-read the first few novels and took careful notes on how to do detective work. Sidekicks seemed to be the most important part of the job. Very few detectives solved mysteries by themselves.

Determined to get some help, I went to find my friends.

Jesse was sitting with Joy in the big, empty lunchroom, scoffing down what was left of the home ec pie. I could smell the rotten strawberries as I entered the room. They smelled so good that I nearly forgot why I was there in the first place. "The Bs are up to no good." I blurted.

"That's not surprising," Joy replied. She was sucking avocado mush out from her fingernails. "Tell us something we don't already know."

"I think they stole the zombitus cure," I pulled up a chair and sat down.

"Well, that's something," she admitted. "Do you have proof, Sherlock?"

Sherlock ... I was pretty certain that was the name of another detective. I'll have to go back to the library later to refresh my memory.

If Joy was involved with the Bs, I shouldn't really say anything, but since I didn't know for sure, I barreled on. "I saw them coming out of the research center. They were talking about the cure and doing something on Visitors' Day." I opened my notebook to get the facts straight. "They're having a meeting Friday night."

Joy choked on a bit of avocado. "Really?" She asked. "A meeting?"

I couldn't stand sitting at the table watching them eat. "Can I have some of that?" I asked Jesse before telling them my plan.

He passed the nearly empty pie dish. I took the last fingerful of the spoiled fruity dessert and stuffed it in my mouth. "Yum," I wiped my face with the back of my hand.

"Never thought rotten fruit would taste so good, did you?" Joy asked.

"Never," I admitted. "About Friday ..."

"I'm in," Jesse said. "We can snoop around and see what they're up to."

Joy sighed. "I guess if you're both going, I'll go too. Not like I have anything better to do that night."

I felt encouraged. Whatever I heard at the research center was wrong. I could cross Joy's name out of my notebook. She wasn't going to be plotting with the Bs in the castle tower. She'd be spying on them instead.

The pie was gone, so I picked up the dish and licked the plate clean. Grinning, I said, "We're going to sneak around, so we should all wear black." There was a bit of strawberry mush on my nose.

Jesse reached forward to wipe it off wih a napkin. I flinched but didn't back away.

"Clean," he reported when he was done. Then he turned to Joy. "Got anything thieving black I can borrow?"

"No," she told him.

She didn't seem to be joking, but honestly I couldn't tell. Without saying goodbye, Joy got up and left the cafeteria.

When she was gone, Jesse reached into his backpack. "I got you a present."

I raised my eyebrows. "For me?"

"You don't know for sure if the Bs are thieves, but now you know that I'm one." He pulled another strawberry pie out of his bag. "Mr. Franko doesn't have zombitus, and yet he still always forgets to lock the home ec room when he leaves."