Chapter #14Friendly Chat by: oyvey1   X Middle School was a wild place to say the least. There were clubs for pretty much anything you could think of, and students of all walks of life and philosophies. For a school like that, an elite squad of students were needed to help keep law and order, hence the commission of the X Middle School Safety Patrol, with their top officers Cornelius Fillmore and Ingrid Third.
One could make the argument, that in order to catch delinquents, you needed to think like a delinquent. Fillmore and Ingrid were both very familiar with that lifestyle, being ex-delinquents themselves. Fillmore had a rap sheet a mile long, ranging from lying, cheating, theft, and a lot of other offenses. But he was able to turn his life around when another safety patroller gave him a chance to redeem himself and help catch another delinquent, and from that day on, Fillmore used his skills to make X a better school, and tried to pay back his friend's kindness by offering the same chance to others that he was once given. That safety patroller was gone now, transferred to another school. But Fillmore made sure his presence was still felt every day.
Ingrid, ironically enough, was one of those delinquents that Fillmore refused to give up on. When she first transferred to X Middle School, she'd been bouncing from school to school for various reasons, and likely would've been sent back to a reform school if Fillmore hadn't believed in her from the first day she arrived.
Brad Parnassus the former smartest kid in school before Ingrid's arrival, was determined to frame her for a crime she didn't commit to maintain his academic supremacy, and Fillmore refused to allow prejudice and faulty evidence get Ingrid kicked out, even when Ingrid herself had no interest in defending herself.
From that day on, Ingrid and Fillmore became close friends. Their bond was amazingly strong, and had been the difference maker in many cases. When Ingrid went undercover as a Red Robin, trying to uncover where a stash of stolen goods had disappeared to, Ingrid almost fell under the influence of Malika, a former safety patroller and the leader of the Red Robins...Ingrid suddenly had a posse, friends to just hang out with and be herself...but it wasn't real, and Fillmore helped her see that. Their bond grew stronger that day, and she found herself grasping even harder to him.
When Fillmore brought one of his former delinquent friends into an investigation, intent on giving him a chance to redeem himself as they searched for the school's missing term papers, Ingrid gave him clarity to see that his former friend had no interest in taking that chance, and Ingrid's friendship helped heal the hole in his heart from being so blatantly betrayed. Once again, their bond grew stronger, to the point where they were inseparable.
Now, as the two of them were holding another stakeout, keeping an eye out for a suspect who was possibly smuggling counterfeit mascot memorabilia and selling it, they were having another of their random chats. Sometimes it was a simple game of would you rather, others it was a serious heart to heart. This time, however, Ingrid was simply trying to find a way to get under Fillmore's skin, to no avail.
Fillmore was usually cool as a cucumber, with the only exception being when he was angry at something. But as far as getting him just uncomfortable, he was slick. He couldn't be caught off guard, he always had a way of shrugging things off, and somehow that bugged Ingrid to no end. She wanted to see him squirm for once, get flustered, and she wanted to be the one to do it when it happened. So she kept trying to find topics that would get him to react.
"You ever had one of those situations where you walk into a bathroom stall, and someone just decides to completely stuff it full of toilet paper and then takes a dump?"
"Too many times to count. That's why I tend to hold it in 'till I get home for the day."
Ingrid shuddered hearing that. That was the grossest scenario she could come up with and Fillmore wasn't even fazed by it. Not only that, she learned something about her partner she probably could've lived a long happy life not knowing. She was about to try again, but then Fillmore suddenly pointed towards the adjacent hallway. "That our guy?"
"We'll find out." Fillmore got up and pulled out his badge. "Freeze! X Middle School Safety Patrol!" When the suspect gasped and bolted down the hallway, the black officer grunted in frustration. "Hate it when they run, let's get 'im Ingrid!"
They took off after the suspect, and it didn't take long for him to be caught. This was one of their slower collars. As they walked back to Safety Patrol HQ, Ingrid pondered her next move. Surely, there had to be something that would get Fillmore to freak out, or at least be a little flustered. She just had to find it.  indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
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