Chapter 10 - Into The Kitchen

"How is this here?!" Ronnie asks.

He along with Elizabeth Moore are in the kitchen of Starlight High and the thing that has them so shocked is a tray filled with stacks of cash. Ronnie sets the book Alex gave him down next to it as he looks at the bills.

"Is this real?" Elizabeth asks as she goes to touch the money. However, the two begin to hear whistling causing them to quickly hide under a table.

The source of the whistling is the sole kitchen employee of Starlight High, Gabriel Griffon. Gabriel's a recent young hire at the school who is quite popular among faculty & the student body alike. He has short black hair, white skin, a slim yet muscular physique, and a smile that could make anyone's heart skip a beat. He's wearing a black t-shirt underneath an apron, white gloves, brown pants, & black shoes.

"Hm? That's odd," Gabriel says to himself as he goes to turn off the lights, "I could have sworn I already did that."

As Gabriel walks past the table, Elizabeth & Ronnie cover their mouths. Gabriel manages to turn off the lights and then heads toward the back of the kitchen where he continues to mop up the floor. Ronnie & Elizabeth sigh as they get out of their hiding spot.

"If we get spotted by him we'll get kicked out," Elizabeth whispers.

"Yeah and besides," Ronnie begins to whisper as he glances at the money, "if I knew school lunches served this I would have never packed my own lunch!"

"I think that dude might be using that money for something, but for what?"

As Ronnie & Elizabeth begin to look around the kitchen, they notice that there seems to be a trail of blueberries on the ground.

"Didn't Hamster mention how the muffins had blueberries?" Elizabeth whispers.

"Hey yeah, you're right! Maybe they can lead us to the muffins," Ronnie replies.

The two follow the blueberry trail until they get to another wooden door that seems to have people chatting on the other side. Ronnie looks at Elizabeth and the two nod at each other before they slightly begin to open the door to see that it leads to the teacher's lounge where Ray Ramirez, the teacher aide, is eating some muffins.

"Damn those kids weren't lying, this shit is so good!" Ray says while stuffing his mouth with another muffin.

Next to him is the chemistry teacher Sam Penningberg, a posh young teacher who seems to be around Ray's age. Sam has short gelled brown hair, green eyes, glasses, white skin, and a slim body. He is wearing a white button-up shirt, brown pants, and black dress shoes. Sam is pouring himself some coffee while Ray continues to eat.

"You know, you probably shouldn't have bought all of those muffins off of him," Sam states as he sits down next to Ray.

"And why? So I could save some for those toddlers? All those kids have ever done for me is give me headaches."

"I won't deny it, but still something about that guy just seems off."

"Whatever you say, man," Ray says as he continues to stuff his mouth with muffins.

Elizabeth & Ronnie close the door quietly as they turn to each other.

"So I guess we found our culprit," Ronnie states.

"Yeah we did, but... there's just something that doesn't sit right with me about that Griffon guy," Elizabeth begins to reply, "why would he sell the muffins to some teachers? He practically caused a riot in the cafeteria and for what?"

As Ronnie & Elizabeth continue to ponder, Ronnie looks around and sees that Gabriel's still whistling away even in the darkness.

"Well, if you ask me, if he's working in the dark and has the cafeteria so loud people can't hear what's going on in here," Ronnie begins to say, "Then he's gotta be hiding something."

"But what?"

"Well, only one way to find out," Ronnie laments.

Elizabeth & Ronnie begin to slowly make their way towards the whistling, the whistling is coming from a corner in the kitchen. While the whistling is fine at first, there's just something about it that sounds off. 

Something that you wouldn't pick on usually, but once you did you couldn't get it out of your head that it was wrong.

A nervous sweat began to form on the two teen's heads as they made their way closer and closer to the source of the whistling.

Now just a few feet away, Ronnie spots a light switch. After a bit of hesitation, he turns it on.

The light turns on, illuminating the source of the whistling to be…a radio? The whistling was recorded on a tape that was put into the radio on loop. Looking at the ground however, the two spotted that the floor tiles in the back of the kitchen were removed and there were clear signs of the dirt being tossed aside as if someone were using a shovel to dig something up.

But there was no shovel.

"What the hell?!" Ronnie asks.

"Why would Griffon do this?" Elizabeth asks.

"Oh it's simple really," Griffon responds with a smile on his face, "The same reason a fisherman puts a work on a hook. To get a catch."

Elizabeth & Ronnie quickly turn around to see Griffon behind them who is holding a shovel in his hand.

"G-Griffon?" Elizabeth stammers.

"Yes, that's my name," Griffon sighs.

"What are you even doing back here?" Ronnie questions.

"I'm doing some important work," Griffon replies sweetly, "And I don't need any distractions. So how about you kiddos just run along now and keep this on the down low, okay?"

"But-," Elizabeth tries to say.

"Listen, I'm trying to be nice about this," Griffon insists sweetly as he grips his shovel, "But you're testing my patience, and I don't want any accidents to occur. Would you?"

As their hearts begin to beat louder, Griffon gets tired of waiting for a response so he raises his shovel.

"Hah fuck it," Griffon groans as his sweet demeanor falls, "I'm running out of time."

As Griffon goes to swing the shovel down, Ronnie out of pure survival instinct grabs one of the broken tiles and tosses it into Griffon's face.

As Griffon stumbles backward, Ronnie & Elizabeth don't waste a second as they begin bolting into the darkness. However, due to it being so dark, the two stumble into other parts of the kitchen as they do so.

Griffon begins to feel his face as he can feel his nose beginning to bleed. He turns around and angrily shouts, "YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE DONE THAT!"

Griffon tosses the shovel at the two but it misses. 

"Faster!" Ronnie yells at Elizabeth as the two make their way to the door they came from.

However, just as it is in view, the two stop dead in their tracks.

"How did you-," Elizabeth begins to say, "How did you get there!"

The person she's talking to is none other than Gabriel Griffon, who somehow managed to beat them to the doorway.

Griffon locks the door behind him as he ignores their question by saying, "I didn't want to get my hands dirty, but you really leave me with no choice."

As Griffon gets closer to them, Ronnie gets in a fighting stance.

"We just need to get through him," Ronnie says with a slight shiver in his tone.

"He's just one guy," Elizabeth says out loud, "We can handle this, after all…"

Elizabeth twists some of her wooden ruler scraps from earlier into a makeshift hair tie which she uses to put her hair into a ponytail.

"...He's going to have to deal with this school's best taekwondo & basket weaving club member," Elizabeth says as she tries to calm her nerves.

Hearing this, Griffon can't help but laugh, "So what if you've got experience being in a club?"

As Griffon laughs to himself, he picks up two items from the nearby counter, however, Elizabeth & Ronnie have no idea what they are since the darkness is hiding them.

"Have you ever been in a fight where your life is on the line?" Griffon questions, "A fight where your opponent knows this place like the back of their hand?"

See You Next Chapter!~