It was overall a standard day at Cedar Vale High School. Students complained about going to classes. Teachers lecturing on and on about things that students will most likely forget in a year or so. The cafeteria staff faced criticism from ungrateful students who don't appreciate how much time they put into their work to feed them (It's alright, Janet. Thank you for your services).

Though there was one thing that happened that could be considered "odd". When the principal made his daily morning announcement, all that could be heard was, "Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr rrrrrrrr rrrrrrr" before a woman screamed and then the sound cut off.

That was soon forgotten by most of the students and staff members as they were too preoccupied about their day to worry about what might have happened.

But one girl did not forget. No, she was somewhat curious about what had happened. So when school was over, she told her friends to meet up in the courtyard so she could discuss it.

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Vespira sat on one of the benches as she waited for her friends to arrive. She was starting to wonder if she should waste her time investigating what happened during the morning announcements. Surely she had better things to do, like play video games or sleep. But she had already asked them to meet up with her and it would be rude if she just left. Maybe she could convince them to go out and get cake with her instead. That would be a lot more fun.

Hopefully she would not have to wait too long as she got impatient very easily. Not the angry kind of impatient though, just the bored, whiny kind.

To help pass the time, she pulled out a cherry lollipop from her backpack and began to eat it. It made the wait a lot more bearable.

Grace was watching a League of Legends video on her phone when the bell rang, signaling the end of her school day. She walked out into the courtyard, eyes still glued to her phone, mumbling apologies as she bumped into some girls at the doors. The guy speaking through her headphones explained the intricacies of Illaoi, a fighter hero Grace was trying to learn. She automatically directed her footsteps toward the bench where she and her friends usually met up.

"Hey guys", she grunted as she neared the area. Her video ended, and she looked up. "Oh. Hi, Vespy!" She smiled at her friend, who was looking at her with wide green eyes, her lips tinted bright red by the lollipop in her mouth. She glanced around, but she and Vespy seemed to be alone for now.

She plopped her bag down and sat up on the back of the bench, with her feet resting on the seat.
"What's up?"

Vespira waved excitedly at the sight of her good friend, Grace. She noticed that Grace was now taller than her and frowned. "Was she always taller than me?" she wondered to herself, trying to hide her disappointment. It wasn't Grace's fault that she was taller than her but still. Now she was definitely the shortest person in their group which wasn't fair since she was the oldest.

"Oh, let's wait for Anna to get here before we start," she said with the lollipop still in her mouth so it sounded more like gibberish but Grace could probably figure it out. She remembered to take out the lollipop this time when she added, "She probably has band stuff or something."

"But I need to ask you first, have you notice anything weird going on today at school?"

"Like... creepy, could possibly be a monster weird?" she mentally added to herself.

Now Vespira did not believe in the existence of monsters or aliens or ghosts. But she did believe in the possibility of their existence which is a totally different thing. At least that's how she likes to justify it. It would be rude to all of those things if she simply did not consider the possibility of their existence. And when they present themselves, they deserve the rights to be acknowledged. But since she has never seen a monster or an alien or a ghost, she does not believe in them. Simply she believes in the possibility of them. Does that make sense? Probably not.

The rich sound of a violin could be heard echoing out of the peer tutoring room. It was a joke in the Cedar Vale school system that one could always tell how busy the peer tutoring room was based on how often they heard the violin. Today it had been playing for two hours nonstop.

The door to the tutoring room creaked open, entirely unheard by the tall girl who was the sole occupant of the room. For a moment the teacher watched the girl prancing around, observing how the desks had been pushed back to the edges of the room to give space for the girl to practice.

"Anna." The teacher spoke quietly. The girl didn't seem to hear. "ANNA!"

Anna spun around in alarm, almost dropping her bow. "Oh! Oh I'm sorry, Mrs. Anderson, I didn't see you there!"

"Obviously." the woman muttered. "Your shift has been over for 30 minutes, Anna! Go ahead and go home. You're one of the last ones here!"

"Oh, okay! Thank you, Mrs. Anderson!" Anna said, skipping over to the table and putting her violin away. She would maybe go to the farmer's market and get some apples. Yes, apples would be nice.
Wait.
She mentally cursed to herself. She was supposed to meet Vespy and Grace at 3:30. It was now 4:00. They'd be angry, that's for sure.

She all but sprinted out of the school, barely noticing the strangely large, furry-looking shadow in the window of the principal's office. As the realization of what she'd seen caught up with her she wanted to go back and check, but then she'd be even later.

Panting slightly, she ran up to the benches where Vespy and Grace were already waiting. "Sorry guys! I had tutoring stuff!" she said. "I forgot I had it today!" She sat down heavily on the bench, setting her violin case down next to her and letting her long legs sprawl out. At the mention of weird things she sat upright. "I saw something, weird. You said you had to talk about something weird and just now I saw something weird and I thought you'd want to know--" she forced herself to stop and laughed nervously. "Sorry."

Grace nodded, smiling, at Anna when she arrived. Good grief, was this girl ever going to stop growing? Before Grace could answer Vespy's question about weirdness at school, Anna butted in with an overly enthusiastic outburst. Grace grinned at her. "I think you said the word 'weird' about fifty times. That's pretty impressive! I'm afraid I can't beat that, Vespy, so you'll just have to make do with Anna's answer."

She started to pat Vespy on the head in rhythm to the tune playing in her head. She looked around, having nothing to contribute to the conversation just yet. She didn't find it to be a very nice view -- mostly a bunch of high schoolers loitering around after classes. She had to admit they had every reason to loiter: it was a nice day out, with a few hours left before the sun would start to set. A few white clouds winked down at the town from the chilly blue October sky. The cedars the town was named for would stay green all winter long, but the oaks that covered the high school's campus were starting to turn all sorts of lively colors. The beat in her head made her feel like she could take on anything face-on. Including (and especially) any bizarre happenings her friends were about to bring up.

Vespira smiled at her gentle giant of a friend who had just arrived. "It's alright, Anna," she said but then quickly refocused the conversation back to her main concern. "So what was the weird thing you saw? It might be related to the weird thing I heard earlier this morning."

She stuck her tongue out as Grace began to pat her head though she wasn't really annoyed that her friend was using her head as bongos. She stuck the lollipop back into her mouth and waited to hear what Anna had to say. As soon as she finished catching her breath, of course.

Before Anna had even said anything, Vespira was already imagining all of the things that could explain the weird morning announcement. Maybe there was a bear attack in the principal's office. Or maybe Mr. Ziller, their principal, was somehow bitten by a wild dog and had contracted rabies. Or maybe it was aliens!

Ha! Vespira was amused by the idea of aliens invading their tiny school. Surely, aliens from a far off galaxy would have better things to do than to take over Cedar Vale High School.

Anyhow, something weird was definitely going on and they were going to get to the bottom of it.

Anna took a deep breath. "There was a furry thing in the principal's office and I saw it while I was running here but I didn't want to double back and look but now I wish I did because he's probably gone now and we might never know!!!" She sucked in more air, gasping and wheezing a bit. "And did you hear the sound on the intercom? It was like a, like a, like a BEAR or something--maybe a bear ATE our principal!!! Maybe we don't HAVE a principal and they're going to close the school and oh my god we're all going to die!!" The more she talked to herself about it, the more she seemed to believe it, but she was startled out of her rising hysteria by her phone *ding*ing merrily as she received a text. She opened it and groaned.

"Muddy dog on a white carpet, I can't believe it! I forgot Kennedy and Lindsey..." She rapidly texted them, telling them to walk to the ice cream parlor and go have a treat, and she'd be along to drive them home eventually.
Instantly Kennedy replied with angst, "but I can't! The popular girls and their boyfriends went there and if they see me with Lindsey I'll be an, an OUTCAST!"
Anna facepalmed. "Then go to the library or cafe or something and tell me where you are but just STAY THERE!"

Then she got back to the important business of freaking out about their impending doom.

Grace leaned over to pat Anna on the head reassuringly. "Don't freak out Anna. I'm sure it's nothing! Or at least, if it's something, I'm sure it's interesting and not terribly life-threatening. Would it be that bad not to have school anymore?"

Muddy dog-- She righted herself before she toppled over on top of Vespy, which had come frighteningly close to happening. This'd be the last time she ever leaned over to comfort anyone... Luckily, from her position on the back of the bench, her friends mostly sort of had their back to her, so they probably hadn't noticed. Worse, Grace noticed she'd started to pick up Anna's goofy expressions. At least she wasn't using them out loud yet. If (or when) that happened, she wouldn't be able to poke fun at Anna anymore for her outlandish curse phrases.

Having interrupted her rhythmic patting of Vespy's head, she switched to twisting her ponytail into a bun. "I wasn't really paying attention while I walked out here. Important League business on my phone," she grinned. "Did you see something too, Vespy?" Something dawned on her, and she tugged back on the bun so she could more easily look Vespy in the face. "Is that why you called us out here so urgently? S'not like we weren't eventually all gonna end up out here anyway..."

Vespira listened carefully to what Anna had to say and boy, did she have a lot to say. "Don't forget to breath every once in a while," Vespy joked with a wide grin. But more importantly, Anna's word had helped heighten Vespy's curiosity. She was so excited she didn't even notice that Grace had stopped using her head as drums and had switched to playing with her ponytail. She quickly stood up, which might have resulted in the loss of some of her hair. "Ouch..." she grumbled softly but it was only for a moment before she continued on with being excited.

"Yeah! The intercom! I was going to talk about that! And there was even the sound of a woman screaming at the end! Oh man, something is definitely going on here!" With the new information presented, it seemed like something did happen to the principal. Something hairy...

"That's right, Grace. I think that we should go investigate!"

She placed her hand on each of her friend's shoulder and asked with wide eyes, "What do you guys say?"