This choice: The Trail at the Tickleversity • Go Back...Chapter #2The Trail at the Tickleversity by: Agrika   Summer raised her eyebrow in a comically exaggerated manner.
"Tickleversity? Seriously?"
"What? You don't like it?" Mouse asked.
"One, the name is cheesy. Two, I'm still not interested in that place."
Two years ago, everyone, especially Mouse, was trying to get Summer to apply to the New Checkland University, which became famous after it started offering tickling classes to students for extra credit, which they claimed were good to tighten the bonds between students, and release stress.
"Come on, Sum. It's right up your alley. Tickling and mystery. Plus, they're offering us a huge amount of money."
Now Summer was actually surprised. Mouse had been pitching them new cases every day, while the rest of them were trying to lead actual adult lives. But so far, making money had not been part of those cases.
"Money? Why didn't you start with that?" Chris exclaimed.
"I would have, but Summer didn't even let me start. But yes. I got an e-mail." Mouse noticed her sister's look, then corrected herself. "Well, we. The Summer Salt Detective Agency. Which you clearly all care about very much, since you haven't checked the e-mail account in a year. Luckily, I have. Now, back to the presentation."
Right after Summer and her friends finished high school, they spent the summer trying to actually make something of the whole detective gig. It turns out that making the papers a few times when you're a high schooler won't actually land you a carrier. So over time they all moved on, except for Mouse, who was still very eager, after two years, even though the only "cases" they had led to nowhere, and Summer only did them for Mouse. Maybe it was worth keeping her spirit up.
Mouse returned to her PowerPoint presentation, which was complete with very over-the-top effects and neon backgrounds.
"It turns out they have an actual mystery, and asked for us specifically to solve it. It involves," she pressed a key to reveal the next slide, which only had two words, but somehow managed to use every color of the rainbow to write them, "a serial tickler."
"You're shitting us," Chris exclaimed, with her usual straight-to-the-pointness.
"I'm not. Get this: several students, all girls, reported the same thing; middle of the night, they find themselves strapped to some sort of device, completely naked, in a strange room. There's a hooded figure who tickles them senseless, with all kinds of tools. Next thing they know, they're in their beds again, their roommates haven't heard anything. All described the same room, and the same tickler. There is no connection between them."
"Rumors spread easily in a campus," Jamie pointed out. "They could've heard the story from someone, and then have an intense dream about it."
"Or they could be making it up," Summer added.
"Yeah, your right," Mouse sighed. The presentation was over. She closed the laptop. "Oh, there's one more thing," she said, with a poorly concealed grin on her face. "The room they described is an actual room, used for some neurological research. It's not open to students, only four or five people have a key for it, and the entire research wing is locked down for the night."
***
The rest of the day was spent with intense planning, talking over each other, running to places, an impromptu argument about Summer's taste in books, an almost lethal amount of candy, and a pair of dollar signs that seemed to replace Summer's eyes. By 8PM, the plan was ready.
"Jamie will drive us there tomorrow morning. I talked to the dean in the phone, he will arrange some paperwork that will late me register to the university. Classes have already started, so I will draw attention, especially if whoever's behind this knows who I am. Especially since while I'll be playing a student, Jamie will interview the victims. That should give us a lot more information, and also draw the attention away a little."
"It's a tickle university," Chris interjected. "If you go there as a student, nothing will draw the attention away from you."
"That's fair," Summer admitted. "Good thing it's not me I want to draw the attention away from. I told the dean that me and a friend would start investigating as soon as possible. As Jamie said, rumors spread easily. But I haven't told anybody about you. Mouse."
Mouse pulled up a photo of a young woman, seemingly in her late twenties or early thirties.
"This is Linda Lime," she said. "Researcher at the neurology department of New Checkland University. Recently promoted. Now, she is looking for an assistant."
"That's where you come in," Summer continued. "As her new assistant, you'll have the best chance to find out everything about the neurology department. Whoever's our serial tickler has some ties with them, if they know about that room. Your job will be to figure out how."
"What do I do?" Mouse asked, frustrated to be left for last.
"You're the coordinator. You stay here, take notes of everything everyone's doing, and keep us updated about each other. For this whole case, your name is Mouse. If you get a text or a call from one of us calling you Susan, that means that person is in trouble, and you'll have to notify the other two."
"That's not fair," she exclaimed. "Why don't you get to do all this detective work, and I have to stay here."
"Because you're sixteen. You can't really go undercover in a university. Also, you have school tomorrow."
"Besides," Jamie added, in a lot more patient tone than Summer, "this is real detective work. It's also very important. You'll be like a mastermind behind the whole operation."
It took a long convincing, but finally Mouse agreed to the whole plan. Summer did not sleep much that night. For the past two years, she thought of her whole high school detective shtick as a childish game that she'd grown out of, but not that she had a chance to do it again, she was really excited. Also, there was money in this! Maybe she could be a girl detective after all. Or rather, a young woman detective now.
The next morning they said goodbye to Mouse, and took off to New Checkland, to solve the case of the mysterious serial tickler.
In the next chapter, the investigation will begin. Whose story are we going to follow first?  indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
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