Chapter 28 - The Pencil Economy Is Crumbling

"Bahaha! Some dude tried to get you to pay 5 bucks for a pencil?!" Alex laughs.

"It isn't that funny," Elizabeth sighs.

The two are standing inside of Amnestor's classroom attending a club meeting for The Miracle Clinic. With them are Ronnie and Marcus who are off to the side, Amnestor who is at his desk sipping coffee, and X who's in the corner of a room working on a test.

"So did you buy it?" Alex asks.

"Of course I didn't!" Elizabeth replies.

"Heh, that surprises me," Alex teases.

"What does that mean?" Elizabeth inquires.

Trying to ease the tension in the room, Ronnie says, "Well it is kinda funny that some dude thought he could sell you a pencil for 5 bucks, at least it's just like that guy and nobody else is doing it."

"I don't know," Marcus begins to say, "Earlier today I saw some dude try to sell a used post-it note for 50 cents."

As the group continues discussing, they hear the door to the classroom slide open as a student walks in.

"Hi, is this where The Miracle Cylinder is?" the student asks.

"It's Clinic but yep that's us," Ronnie says with a grin, "What's the problem?"

The student is a fellow freshman by the name of Carli Kim. She has medium-length black hair, a denim jacket over a striped shirt, pink pants, and red shoes. She's also carrying several flyers in her arm.

Carli sets the flyers down on a desk causing the other club members to take a look at them.

"Buy 1 Pencil Get 1 Double The Price?" Alex reads aloud from one of the flyers.

"Get your new protractor for the low low price of…," Marcus begins to read aloud before shockingly gasping, "200 dollars?!"

"Pizza Party outside Mister Jefferson's room, price of admission is 5 blueberry muffins?" Elizabeth reads confused.

"Where did you get all these?" Ronnie asks.

"People kept on handing them out to me when I was just walking down the hall, a bunch of my school supplies keep going missing so I have to pay for them constantly," Carli laments, "but their prices keep on going up every day!"

Hearing that somebody actually bought the pencils, Alex tries to hold back his laughter while Elizabeth & Marcus cover his mouth.

"Dude she's a foreign exchange student, she probably thought it was normal!" Elizabeth whispers to Alex.

"Please don't laugh man," Marcus whispers.

As Carli looks confused at what Alex, Marcus, & Elizabeth are doing, Ronnie places a hand on her shoulder before giving a thumbs up and saying, "Don't worry Carli, we'll create a miracle and track down the cause of all of this!"

Carli looks at Ronnie, smiles, and replies, "Thanks, I wasn't sure if you guys could help me but I heard a lot of good things about you all at the carnival!"

Carli leaves the classroom and as soon as she leaves, Alex groans, "Does anyone know how to figure out this whole thing?"

"Yeah guys I have no idea what the fuck I am doing," Ronnie admits.

"Y'know, we could all tell by like chapter 5 that that was the case," X Locke replies.

Everyone else in the room just glances at X confused, however, X clears his throat and adds, "Look, if you want to get knowledge on how to help Carli with the pencil thing, maybe see if others have a similar issue."

"That's actually good advice," Marcus admits.

"I know, probably the first time that's ever happened," Alex agrees.

"Hey!" X yells.

Ronnie ignores him and says, "If they're handing out flyers then there must be more than just one person doing this thing. If we figure out more about them then we should be able to find a way to stop them."

"So how do you suggest we get information? Our club room isn't too popular," Elizabeth adds.

"Well, how about we just go around and ask some folk?" Ronnie suggests.

The others agree and they quickly leave the classroom. As they do so, X pouts.

"Y'know they could've asked me if I knew anything," X murmurs.

"Well, do you?" Amnestor asks from his desk.

".....No," X admits before going back to his test.

______________________________________

The Miracle Clinic begins to go around the school collecting responses about the shady dealings going on with the pencils and other school supplies at Starlight High.

Ronnie goes to the culinary classroom and asks Hamster & Bennet the hamster about the situation. Hamster explains to Ronnie that he's been having to rely on using a bottle of ink and some of Bennet's fur to write down notes because all the stores in the area have sold out on pencils. As Hamster is describing the whole event to Ronnie, Bennet nods as a tear rolls down his face.

Alex goes to the gymnasium and is discussing the current situation regarding pencils with his best friend & gym bro, Christopher Wrinkle. The fellow freshman describes how since he's so muscular he often breaks the pencils that he uses, and he always has to buy new ones, so the recent upcharge on pencils is really affecting his wallet. As Christopher talks to Alex, Alex just wonders why he doesn't just use a pen.

Elizabeth goes down the hall and spots X on his phone, when she walks over, X puts his phone away and explains to her how he just got his pencils stolen and was trying to buy new ones online. He also mentions that they managed to steal his pencils faster than he can steal Ray's car keys. However, X's hubris seems to be his downfall as teaching assistant Ray Ramirez 'escorts' the not-so-innocent into the teacher's lounge.

Marcus goes to the cafeteria where the popular girl, Rebecca Jenksin, is sitting with several other people, he tries to get some information out of them but finds no entry point into their conversation so after waiting a while, he just gives up and walks away.

__________________

Ronnie, Elizabeth, Alex, & Marcus gather together in the front hallway of Starlight High.

"So what did you guys learn about all of this?" Ronnie asks.

As everyone thinks of all the information they got, they realize that they really don't know much else besides pencils are now expensive.

"Uh....we kinda just wasted our time," Marcus responds honestly.

Alex sighs as he says, "We're getting nowhere with this! We need to find someone who actually knows how to figure out stuff like this."

Elizabeth nods in agreement. As the group laments their lack of progress, they begin to hear a janitor's cart roll down the hall. Alex looks to see that there are three janitors cleaning up the hallway, but not just any three janitors but the three members of The Three Ts.

"What are you doing here?" Alex asks them.

"Uh, getting paid," Tim-Tom The Third Thug states while wearing a janitor's outfit, "we gotta take any job that we can get in this economy, even temp ones."

"It's true, stuff is pretty expensive nowadays in 2013," Tim The First Thug nods.

"What are you doing here?" Tom The Second Thug asks.

"Uh, I go to school here," Alex responds.

"Oh right."

An awkward silence falls under the group until Ronnie gets an idea and asks, "Hey Alex, these are the guys who tried to beat you up for money right?"

"Yep, they also ruined that cake for the carnival," Alex responds.

"Well, that means they probably are experts in crime! If we ask them, they'd probably be able to help find who's responsible for the pencils!" Ronnie explains.

Elizabeth, Marcus, & Alex listen to Ronnie's words and agree, if anyone will help them gain info on what's going on with the pencils, it'll be the three people here who know the most about crime.

"So uh, I didn't mean to eavesdrop but y'all loud as fuck. I take it you guys want our help?" Tim-Tom asks.

"Yes please, we need an expert like you guys to help us," Marcus responds desperately.

"Well since you guys asked so nicely," Tim-Tom The Third Thug begins to respond snarkily while rubbing his nose, "I guess it is only fair for Starlight's Brightest Boxer to come help you out."

"Nobody calls you that," Tom The Second Thug says nonchalantly.

"Yeah and it sounds corny as hell," Tim The First Thug adds.

"Oh come on guys, I just wanted to sound cool!" Tim-Tom The Third Thug roars in defense.

As The Three Ts begin to bicker amongst one another, Ronnie begins to consider that maybe asking for their help wasn't the best idea.

See You Next Chapter!~