Sour's on the case!

Chapters

A horrible crime
Hot Trace in a Cold Place
Noirration
The Watson has been doubled!
Sweet Cop, Sour Cop
After rulling out the impossible...
Case closed

A horrible crime

Crystal Prep Academy – probably the most elite high school in the entire district. Here, the students learn the values of perfection and academic excellence, enduring their strict education with dignity and discipline.

But not on this day.

“THIS CAN’T BE HAPPENING!!!” a girl cried, collapsing on the floor. Alongside her several other students were lying in the crystalline hallway, sobbing in despair. Some slammed their heads against the lockers and walls, while other ran heedlessly in circles. Many were screaming in panic, their horrified screeches echoing throughout the entire school.

“It’s terrible!”

“The horror! The horror!”

“How could anyone do this?!”

“We are all doomed!”

“WHY? WHHHYYYY?!”

“Of all the worst things that could happen, this is the! Worst! POSSIBLE! THING!”

Sugarcoat raised an eyebrow. “You’re not even going to this school.”

Screams and sobs filled the hallways of Crystal Prep Academy. In the middle of all the hysteria Dean Cadence was standing in the corridor, trying desperately to calm the students. “Please, everybody, there is no need to panic!” she called out to the teenagers running by, her voice barely audible over the noise they were making. “It’s not the end of the world!

Suddenly a girl threw herself against the dean’s chest, almost making her tumble. “But Dean Cadence!” she stammered, looking terrified up into Cadence’s eyes “They… they…” She clenched the green fabric of the dean’s blazer, her hands shaking miserably. “They stole our puuuuudiiiing!” she cried right into her face.

Cadence winced, stumbling slightly on the spot. Once she had caught her balance again she put a hand on top of the student’s head, and with the other softly embraced her wrist. “Now, calm down” she said to her with a comforting smile, gently stroking her hair as the girl looked up at her with wet eyes. “The pudding may have been stolen, but it’s not like there will be no dessert for lunch today. We still have porridge leftovers from yesterday!”

The lips of the girl quivered before she broke out into tears. Letting go off the blazer she sunk to the ground, rolling into a ball on the shining floor. Cadence threw a worried, slightly awkward glance at the crying student in front of her feet. Her eyes quickly looked up however as a man walked past her. He was dressed in the uniform of a delivery man, wearing a characteristic cap and slightly baggy overall – though it wasn’t very baggy on him, for the corpulent build of the middle-aged man filled out his uniform quite well. “Wait!” the dean called out, carefully stepping over the sulking girl to go after him. Just before he turned around a corner the man stopped, grunting in annoyance as he turned with a grim face around to her.

“Ah already told’cha, lady” he mumbled with a heavy accent. “There ain’t no more puddin’, and Ah can’t just pull puddin’ outta mah pockets.”

Standing in front of him Cadence looked the delivery man in the eyes. “But we have a contract with your company!” she reminded him. “And the students really look forward to getting their pudding on Tuesday.”

With another grunt the man rubbed his temple. “Look, Ah’m just suppos’d to bring the puddin’ here with mah truck, and then carry it to the cold store” he explained. He lifted his cap slightly, his big bald spot shining in the bright hallway for a second before he put it down again. “Anythin’ that happens after tis ain’t mah business.”

“Can’t you drive back to your storage and bring us another load?” Cadence asked, almost begging. “We’d even be willing to pay the full price for both charges!”

The delivery man shook his head. “Sorry lady, but ain’t got no time for that. Gotta bring a load o’ tacos over to ‘nother school. Ain’t got no time keep chattin’ with ya either, to b’honest.” He turned around, tipping his hat slightly again. “Good luck, lady!” he told her before vanishing around the corner.

The dean glared after him as he left, a deep frown on her face. It quickly dissolved into a look of concern as she glanced around here. A large number of students was still lying on the floor, while others kept slamming their heads against their lockers or knelt on the ground and cried, the walls resonating their sobs and screams. With a deep sigh Cadence rubbed the bridge of her nose. Sometimes, she felt her job as a dean wasn’t so far from her babysitting days…

Among the commotion four girls were calmly standing at their lockers, watching with reserve everyone around them going crazy. The sound of approaching rock music made them turn their head, seeing a green-haired girl coming in their direction. She was smiling widely and shaking her head to the beat from her headphones, seeming completely oblivious to the chaos around. It wasn’t until she reached the other four girls that she became aware of what was going on, causing her to look at her surroundings in confusion.

“Um, sup guys” Lemon greeted her friends, putting her headphones around her neck while oddly staring at a boy on the floor who was sucking on his thumb. “Why is everyone freaking out like this?”

“Principal Cinch just announced the pudding for today’s lunch was stolen” Sugarcoat replied quick and dry while leaning against her locker.

Lemon gave her friend a blank stare for a moment. It wasn’t before she blinked once that the weight of the words started to drip into her conscience, making her eyes go wide in shock. “WHAT?” it broke out of her, pulling on her long messy hair. “But it’s pudding Tuesday!” she yelled, with a look on her face as if she had just learned they only had five minutes to live. “Without pudding, it’s just… Tuesday!!”

“Yeah!” Indigo shouted, a bitter ring in her voice as she threw her arms up in anger. “Why couldn’t they take the Tuesday and leave the pudding?”

In Sunny’s imagination, the image of the whole school drifting in a vortex outside of time and space, but full of pudding popped up. “You two are so cute sometimes” she said sarcastically. While her tone was snarky, her voice couldn’t hide the fact she was also sad about the lack of pudding for lunch.

Desperate and at the brink of tears Lemon was about to collapse on the floor like most other students. “But who could be so cruuuueeel?!” she cried, burying her face in her hands.

Gritting her teeth Indigo punched her palm. “I swear if I’m gonna find the dorks who did this, they’re gonna beg their parents to transfer to another school” she snarled. “After they get out of hospital, that is!”

Her arms crossed Sunny nodded. “Stealing the pudding in the middle in the middle of exam period is a new low even for Crystal Prep standards” she mumbled, a very dark look in her eyes.

Still bearing her usual look of hostile apathy Sugarcoat stared at her furious and gloomy friends, before her grump expression suddenly turned into a sulky one. “I want pudding” she pouted, staring at the shining floor.

Silently the four girls brooded for a moment. The grim eyes of Sunny then turned towards the fifth girl of their group. Hands behind her back she was gazing rather indifferently at her friends. “Aren’t you angry too, Sour?” Sunny asked, finding her nonchalant attitude a little dubious.

The girl with the long ponytail shrugged. “Not really” she told her, sounding neither happy nor upset. “I mean it’s just pudding.”

Everybody gasped – not just her friends. Every student in the entire hallway had suddenly stopped sulking for a moment, turning their eyes to Sour. She looked left and right, feeling very uneasy all of a sudden as she saw everybody was staring at her with furrowed eyebrows. Ducking her head she put on a sheepish smile.

“Dude, have you gone nuts?!” Lemon screeched into her face, grabbing Sour at her vest.

“Yeah!” Indigo shouted, joining Lemon. “Pudding Tuesday is the only good thing this friggin’ prison of a school is throwing at us!”

Scowling towards Sour Sunny struck a theatrical pose. “It’s the salvation from all the atrocities this Crystal Prep forces us to endure day by day” she declared grandly. “The flame that keeps our soul from freezing in this cold, desolate place!”

“Especially since Cinch went crazy and doubled the curriculum of almost every subject” Sugarcoat added, earning a nod from the others.

Held in the grip of Lemon and Indigo Sour looked at each of her friends individually, before flashing a smile at all of them. “But of course pudding Tuesday is great – if they actually serve decent flavors, that is.” She brushed off Lemon and Indigo, the two tomboys taking a step back from the frowning girl. “It’s been forever since they last served my favorite flavor” she muttered while evening the wrinkles on her uniform. “And they really haven’t outdone themselves with the choice of pudding this month so far. Or did you all forget last week’s flavor was woodruff, and the week before even dared to give us broccoli pudding?!” She stuck out her tongue, imitating a barf. “Call me crazy, but until they serve a pudding again that is actually edible, I won’t find Pudding Tuesday the salvation of all this school’s atrocities anymore.”

While Sour was talking Sunny had pulled out her smartphone from her pocket. “According to the school homepage, this week’s flavor would have been cherry with cream” she informed her.

Sour stared at her friend with the mobile phone, wide-eyed. “I’M GONNA TEAR THOSE DIRTY LITTLE PUDDING BANDITS APART!!!” she suddenly exclaimed, clenching her fist with a look of deep, pure rage in her eyes.

The sudden outburst made the other Shadowbolts wince, Sunny nearly dropping her phone. Sugarcoat was the first to regain her composure. “You’d have to know who did it first” she reminded.

Sour crunched her teeth. “Oh, I’m gonna find out who did it alright!” she told them, holding up her hands. “I will hunt them down... grab them at their necks… and then make sure they will never ever dare again to lay hands on my dessert again!” she yelled, clapping her hands together like she was smashing a fly. Still folding her hands she suddenly cuddled them against her cheek. “And then we can all sit down and have pudding♥” she cooed, all anger in her face dissolving in a cheerful smile.

Sunny tilted her head slightly. “And how are you going to find them?” she asked skeptically.

Holding up her nose Sour put a finger on her forehead. “That’s easy” she chirped “I’ll use my superior intelligence and detective skills to find traces which allow me to deduce the culprits before lunch.”

Sunny, Sugarcoat, Indigo and Lemon raised an eye-brow.

“…What?” Sour huffed. “Don’t look at me like I said something stupid!”

Shaking her head Sunny let out a sigh. “Well, because of the rather sudden cancelation of our music class we theoretically have some free time at hand” she admitted, adding more quietly: “Although I’m sure there are a lot better ways to spend it than playing Sherlock Holmes…”

Lemon slammed her fist against a locker. “Urgh, why did it have to be music?” she moaned. “Free time is nice, but why can't our math or history teacher ever leave because suddenly because of child-birth?”

Sugarcoat gave her an odd stare. “Our history teacher is a man.”

“Yeah, so?”

Suddenly Indigo stepped into the middle of the group. “Alright, let’s try and see if we can find those pudding-stealing rats” she declared, pumping her fist into the air with a devious grin spread over her face. “I’m also itching to give those suckers a piece of my mind!”

Sour smiled brightly at her. “Thank you for the offer” she chirped, before abruptly turning grumpy. “But I don’t need your help.”

Surprised the others stared at Sour.

“Um, what?” Sunny asked.

“You really think we let you do this alone?” Lemon frowned.

“Hey, I also want to have some fun!” Indigo yelled, stomping her foot on the floor.

“Also, your chances of actually catching the thieves will be a lot higher with us” Sugarcoat added.

Unfazed Sour shook her head. “Sorry, but I think it’s better if we don’t walk around as a large group searching the school” she told them. She looked down the hallway in both directions, at the other students who had resumed their sobbing and screaming, before she leaned closer to her friends. “I’m pretty sure the culprits are a group of students” she whispered, holding a hand at the side of her mouth. “Anyone here could have done it, so we can’t trust nobody!” She pouted, looking at her friends with big sad eyes. “The thieves are probably acting like they are all sad and broken…and once school is over they’ll go to their hide-out and shove all the pudding into their dirty little mouths!” she hissed.

The others exchanged some glances, pondering for a moment. “Makes kind of sense” Lemon eventually admitted, rubbing her head.

“And it would be a little suspicious if we all snooped through school” Indigo mumbled despite her apparent disappointment.

Sour nodded. “Exactly! And until we have found the rotten jerks who have taken the pudding, we can’t let anyone get suspicious.” She pulled her head back, smiling sweetly. “But if you insist to tag along, I guess it would be fine for one of you to come with me, you know, as my assistant to help me be brilliant” she suggested.

Sunny rolled her eyes. “What an honour” she mumbled, putting on a frown alongside the others.

Ignoring their looks Sour put on a smug smirk, confidently stemming her hands against her hips. “Don’t you worry about one thing, my friends!” she declared. “Detective Sour is on the case!”

“That was a very clumsy title drop.”

“Shut it, Sugar.”

Hot Trace in a Cold Place

While crowded during lunchtime the cafeteria was a rather desolated place around the hours before noon, especially while class was in session. Only a handful of employees were standing at the counter, handing out sandwiches and drinks to the few students that rolled in for a late breakfast. Several doors behind the counter were leading to the kitchen of Crystal Prep Academy. Despite the size of the room the many sinks, ovens and countertops left only narrow corridors to move through. In the back of the kitchen stood a heavy steel door with a small rectangular window in it. The glass was fogged from the inside, a few tiny ice crystal lingering on the edges. A woman in the cafeteria uniform was heading towards that door, followed by a pair of students. One of them was holding a notepad and a pencil in her hands.

“Here it is” the lunch lady said as she arrived in front of the heavy door, turning to the girls. “This is the cold store of Crystal Prep Academy. Everything that needs to be cooled until serving is stored in here.”

Sunny looked a little incredulous at the tall, scrawny woman with the small narrow glasses. “Don’t you want us to give some sort of explanation why we want to search the cold store?” she asked.

The woman shrugged. “Not my problem” she replied. “Just be done before we start preparing lunch.”

Meanwhile Sour was looking around the kitchen, busily scribbling in her notepad. After a while she turned towards the woman, a huge smile plastered on her face. “Thank you so much for your cooperation!” she chirped, cheerful and chipper. ”But before we enter the scene of the crime, would you be so kind and tell us everything that happened during the time the pudding was delivered?”

The lunch lady scratched her chin. “Well, let’s see” she murmured, humming as she pondered. The corners of Sour’s mouth slowly dropped, the detective impatiently tapping on the floor as she waited for a response.

“Hurry up, we don’t have all day!” she eventually snapped at the woman.

The lunch lady scoffed, but then began to speak: “Well, I guess it was around an hour ago when the truck parked behind the school” she told them. “The back door to the cold store was jammed, so the poor fella had to carry the pudding through the entire school and bring it in here through the kitchen.”

Sour took some notes. “Did he carry all of it with his bare hands?” she asked.

Through her glasses the woman looked at her with wide eyes. “Gosh, no! That’s over a thousand puddings there, girl – not even the strongest man in the world could carry that!”

“Then how DID he carry the pudding?” Sour inquired further.

“With one of those wheel-things you can put stuff on and roll them around” she replied. “He actually had to come here first empty-handed to get one. Didn’t brighten his mood.”

“You mean this one?” Sunny asked, pointing behind the woman. Turning around she saw a small trolley standing right next to the steel door.

“That’s it, yeah” she confirmed. “Of course, not all the pudding fit on it at once, so he had to take a few rides.”

“Do you remember how much pudding he carried on each ride?” Sour asked. “Just to get a rough idea of how much pudding we are searching here.”

The woman scratched her chin. “I think he carried around four to six pallets every time he rolled in. Then he placed them in the store, and left again to get the next charge.” Her hand moved from her chin up to her hairnet as she began to thoughtfully rub her head. “He came and went six times, so I guess it were between twenty and thirty pallets of pudding in total.”

“And did he close the door to the kitchen whenever he left?” Sunny asked. Suddenly Sour’s face hovered in front of hers, the scornful look on it frightening Sunny slightly.

“Hey, I’m the one asking the questions here!” the self-proclaimed detective scolded her assistant. “Did he close the door whenever he left?” she then proceeded in a much friendlier tone at the lunch lady, causing Sunny to roll her eyes.

“Didn’t watch him the entire time, but I think he left it open” she replied. “He was already ticked the back door didn’t open and he had to go every time through the whole school, so he probably wanted to save the time of parking the pudding and unlocking the door every time. Was pretty much in a rush the whole while because he had been already late for his next delivery. Said he almost didn’t notice all the other pudding was gone when he put down the last load.”

While Sour made some more notes Sunny made a ponderous face. “Wait, if the pudding has been stolen before he arrived with the last batch - doesn’t this mean that one is still in there?” she deduced.

The woman shrugged. “I guess. Haven’t checked the cold store yet myself to be honest.”

Sour threw a gloomy glance at her assistant, before turning back to the woman. “Thank you very much! May we take a look inside the cold store now?” she asked her friendlily.

The lunch lady nodded. Turning around she pulled a key out of her pocket, and after unlocking the door she pushed it open. Cool air streamed into the kitchen, grazing the girls. Shivering slightly in their rather light school uniforms Sour and Sunny walked past the woman into the cold room half the size of the kitchen. Shelves loaded with all sorts of food were leaning against the walls, while crates stood around on the ground. Rubbing her shoulders Sour took a few steps forward, looking around for the pudding. Her foot then bumped against something, and as she lowered her gaze she saw a single pallet of pudding.

Sour’s brows furrowed. “Are you kidding me?!” she yelled. “Why did he take an extra ride for a single pallet?”

Rather prominently Sunny cleared her throat. “If I were to speculate” she said with a slightly snobbish ring in her voice “I’d say he was probably so much in a hurry he didn’t really pay attention how many pallets he loaded onto the trolley and how many were left in the truck. So at the penultimate ride, he didn’t notice only one was still inside, and though this is just an assumption, I think he was probably pretty angry when he returned and found out he had to take another ride through the whole school just for that one pallet despite being already late.”

Sour glared at Sunny, before forcing a smile on her face. “Thank you, Watson.”

“You’re very welcome, Sherlock” Sunny replied politely, but smug.

Behind them the lunch lady was standing in the door, leaning against the steel frame with her arms crossed. “When he saw the rest of pudding was gone he came to me” she told them, Sour resuming her notes as she spoke. “I reported it to the principal, and she made the announcement that caused all of you lot to go crazy.”

“Was there anybody in the kitchen or the cold room while he was gone?” Sour asked. At each word she blew out white trail of breath into the air.

The woman shook her head. “Most of the staff doesn’t arrive before noon. Only a handful are here in the morning.”

Tapped her chin with her pencil Sour pondered for a moment. “But if you were all behind the counter it’s impossible someone could have gotten past you into the kitchen and take all the pudding, right?”

Again the woman shook her head. “Only half the counter was occupied. Tis possible someone could have snuck in and out while no one was looking.”

Sour turned up her mouth. “So basically, anybody could have slipped past you into the kitchen and took the pudding from the open cold store while the deliverer was getting the last pallet?”

The woman shrugged. “I guess.”

A sugar-sweet smile formed on Sour’s face. “Crystal Prep Academy: The school with the highest standards and best reputation in everything - except for dessert security” she grumped.

Sunny rubbed her chin with a finger, moving her feet slightly to warm her legs. “You wouldn’t happen to-”

A rather angry cough interrupted her.

“Oh, beg my pardon” she apologized to Sour, who was looking with a deep frown at her. “Of course, as the number one detective at this school it is your sole privilege and right to question the witness, for I am just your unworthy assistant.” She made an exaggerated bow in front of her, waving her arms towards the lunch lady.

Oblivious to Sunny’s sarcasm Sour happily turned to the woman. Just as she opened her mouth however she froze, looking a little lost. “Um, n-not that I don’t know what to ask, but just out of a detective’s curiosity – what was your question?” she asked, casting a sheepish smile towards Sunny.

A smirk formed on Sunny’s lips. “I just wanted to know if she could remember some details about the students who were in the cafeteria during the time of the crime” she explained. “While she and the other employees didn’t notice anything unusual, maybe one of the students saw who sneaked behind the counter into the kitchen.”

“Oh yes!” Sour quickly said. “That’s what I wanted to ask too!”

Sunny snickered. “But of course, sweetheart.”

The woman rubbed her temple. “Well, there were only a handful of students in the morning” she stated. “I don’t any names, but I guess I could try to remember what they looked like.”

“Perfect!” Sour chirped, putting her pen on her notepad.

“I can’t guarantee there weren’t others” the woman said slowly “But I’m sure there was a girl with long purple hair and orange skin, a guy with blue hair and pink skin, a boy with blue skin and white hair, and two students with turquoise skin and dark grey hair, one girl and one boy. The boy wore sunglasses, I think.”

Sour wrote everything down, smiling contently. “Thanks! It will be no problem to find every student who fits your descriptions.”

Sunny giggled. “Imagine how much harder this would be if there were only, like three or four skin and hair colours” she joked.

“Is that all?” the woman asked, pointing with her thumb behind her. “Cause if I don’t get back to work, it won’t be just pudding that’s missing this lunch.

“One last question” Sour said. Putting pen and notepad down she folded her hands in her lap, slightly tilting her body while sweetly smiling at the cafeteria woman. “Do you have any need for that pudding?” she asked, fluttering her eye-lashes at her.

“Tis for the teachers” the woman replied, ignoring the crestfallen look Sour’s face took on as she turned around. “Alright, if there is anything else you need I’m in the kitchen.”

Sunny looked at all food around them. “Is it okay for you to leave us alone in here?” she asked.

The lunch lady shrugged. “If something’s missing, I know who to tell on Cinch.” And with that she walked through the door, leaving the two students alone.

Once she was gone Sunny let out a sigh. “Seriously, I don’t know if this woman is very cooperative or just plain incompetent” she mumbled. “What do you say, Sour? Sour?”

Turning to her fellow Shadowbolt Sunny saw her staring at the pallet of pudding on the ground, her eyes sparkling like stars. The pallet was square-shaped and made out of cardboard, containing 8x8 pots of pudding. The picture of a cherry bathing in wiped cream was printed on top of each pot. As the little red fruits were winking at her Sour could feel her mouth watering, forcing her to gulp so she wouldn’t start drooling. Suddenly a hand appeared in front of her face, snapping frantically.

“Earth to Detective Sweet!” Sunny said sternly. “Detective Sweet, please respond.”

Sour shook her head, blinking. “Um, what?”

With a frown, Sunny crossed her arms. “I thought you wanted to find the pudding thieves, not join them!”

The puzzled look on Sour’s face turned into one of superiority. “Don’t worry, Sunny” she assured her. “I already know who did it!”

Startled Sunny winced. “Really? Who?”

Stemming her hands against her hips Sour smiled. “Suri Polomare.”

Sunny lifted an eye-brow. “Suri? Why her?”

“CAUSE I HATE THAT BRAT!!” Sour suddenly shouted, clenching her fist.

Again Sunny winced, before skeptically glancing at Sour. “Okay, I really don’t want to talk down your detective instinct, but have you actually a single piece of evidence that proves she has done it?”

“Not yet” Sour admitted. “But that’s why we are here! Look out for anything we can use to frame that little brat… I-I mean prove that girl’s guilt, who will of course be deemed innocent unless the opposite is proven!” she quickly corrected herself as she noticed Sunny’s disapproving glare.

Sunny patted Sour on the head. “Good girl.”

“Can I have some pudding?” As she saw Sunny scowl Sour quickly dropped her happy smile. “Fine! Then let’s get this over with and take in that brat so we can have our pudding” she muttered, glancing down on the sweet dessert.

Shaking her head Sunny began to search the cold store alongside Sour. Occasionally the assistant had to glare towards the detective as she was eying the pudding more often than she should. Both girls bent down behind crates and staples of pallets, and looked up at the shelves on the walls. There were lots of cans and boxes containing frozen or perishable food, from pickles to meat and several vegetables. However, there were no signs that someone might have snuck in. It also didn’t seem like anything had been moved: Due to the low temperature a thin layer of frost was lying on the tiles of the floor. The two girls lifted and pushed a few crates, finding that below them the tiles were unfrozen and probably hadn’t been moved in a while. As they looked through the room the chilly air was biting on Sunny, especially her bare leg, but her vest also did little to shield her from the cold. While she wrapped her arms around her shivering body and jittered with her teeth Sunny felt the frustration building up inside her. After she knelt behind a box containing frozen livers and found nothing but a frozen spider anger was suddenly boiling up inside her.

“This doesn’t make any sense!” it burst out of her, standing up straight and furiously kicking the crate. “How can anybody leave with so much pudding? I mean the lunch ladies may have not noticed a handful of students sneaking in, but a group of students carrying over twenty pallets of puddings out of the kitchen couldn’t have gone unnoticed!” A snicker caused her to turn her eyes towards Sour, who was leaning against a shelf full of jars with a rather amused look on her face. “What are you laughing at?” Sunny snapped at her.

With a chuckle Sour pushed herself off the shelf. “Oh Sunny!” she said, talking to her like to a little girl. “The answer to that is so obvious!

Sunny looked curiously at her. “Is it?” she asked, crossing her arms. “Then do tell me how they managed to sneak out unnoticed with all the pudding, oh great detective.”

Proudly Sour held up her nose. “They ate it!”

Sunny raised an eye-brow. “Ate it?”

“Yes!” Sour nodded.

“The pudding?”

“Right!”

“All of it?”

“Yup!”

“You want to tell me they ate several hundred pots of pudding and then walked out through the door?”

“Exactly!”

Sunny massaged her forehead. “Okay, let’s say this is true” she said, slow and calm. “Wouldn’t that mean even if we found the culprits, the pudding is lost anyway?”

Sour’s smile faded, a look of horror crossing her face. “Er… p-perhaps they only ate a part of the pudding to reduce the load, and then escaped with the rest?” she suggested, trying to sound optimistic.

Sunny looked around the room. “And what did they do with the empty pallets and pots?” she kept asking.

A finger on her chin Sour turned her gaze to the ceiling, her second hand on her hip. “Maybe they burnt them?” she proposed.

The palm of Sunny hit her face. “Alright, that’s it” she declared. She turned on the spot, quickly heading for the door.

“Hey, where are you going?” Sour shouted.

“I’m going to the library to learn” Sunny snorted, stomping with every step. “Or to the school yard to hang around. Or maybe I’ll climb up the facade and jump from the roof – anything is better than spending my free time watching you play Sherlooooooooooooo-!”

Sunny’s voice suddenly turned into a screech as she lost her footing on the half-frozen floor. Wailing her arms through the air she tried to regain her balance, but every time her feet touched the ground they immediately slipped again. As she kicked her legs through the air like this she steadily slid backwards. Panicked Sour jumped forward, but as she reached out her arm Sunny was already falling. With a loud “Ouch!” the violet-haired girl hardly landed on her butt. Sitting on the ground Sunny scowled, still sliding over the cold tiles on her butt. Eventually her back hit the steel door at the end of the room, making her stop.

“Are you alright?” Sour asked concerned, immediately dashing to her and nearly slipping herself.

“I’m fine” Sunny mumbled. She pressed her hands against the door behind her, pulling herself up along it. “At least I didn’t land on my-” Suddenly her foot slipped off again, causing her to hit the steel door with the back of her head. Her face turned into a pained grimace, the expression remaining as she said with cringed teeth: “…head.”

While she did feel sorry for her friend Sour couldn’t help but grin, causing Sunny to glare at her. Both girls then stared in surprise when the steel door suddenly opened behind Sunny. Leaning against it she fell backwards again, smacking her head against the ground. Sour looked down on Sunny as she lay straight in the open door, a vein twitching on her blue forehead.

“WHAT DID I DO TO YOU, UNIVERSE!?” Sunny screamed, raising her arms into the air. She then froze. “Wait, didn’t the cafeteria lady say the delivery man had to take a detour because the door was jammed?”

“HAH!” Sour declared, seeming very sure of herself. “That means the deliverer lied! He drove the pudding through the school so everybody saw him with it, and then carried it out through the backdoor again so he could declare it as a theft and keep the pudding for himself! AND I BET SURI WAS HIS ACCOMPLICE!!”

Slowly Sunny sat up. “Or maybe the door is only blocked from the outside” she suggested.

“Pfft!” Sour blew a raspberry. “Yeah, sure. A door that is only broken from one side.”

Grabbing the doorframe Sunny pulled herself back up on her feet, careful not to slip again. “Well, how about we just try it?” she proposed, taking a step to the side from the open door.

Smirking smugly at her friend Sour walked past her out of the room, holding her head high as she closed the door behind her. Alone in the cold store Sunny leaned against a shelf, inspecting her fingernails. She kept looking at her polished nails as the door-handle was pushed down, once at first, then twice, then repeatedly in a rapid succession, accompanied by the sound of a shoulder pressing against the door. After listening to Sour hammering her fists against the steel for a moment Sunny casually flipped down the door-handle, and softly pushed the door open. From her nails she looked up at Sour as she walked back into the room, who was rubbing her shoulder with a rather grumpy look on her face. “What kind of door is so stupid only to be jammed from one side?!” she mumbled.

“It’s probably some sort of security mechanism” Sunny theorized, blowing over her fingers. “A special kind of lock so that even if the door is broken or blocked it can still be opened from the inside to make sure nobody locked in here will freeze to death.”

Inhaling deeply Sour turned towards Sunny, giving her a bright smile. “Thank you for that elaborate explanation” she said to her. Setting her gaze on her notepad she muttered more reserved “Even though I didn’t ask for it.”

As Sour skipped through her notes Sunny scowled at her. “Excuse me” she addressed the detective, and while she spoke the annoyed ring in her voice became steadily more apparent. “I know you are the one asking the questions, but right now I have one for you: Do you even want me to help you? Cause it really just sounds like you want to have me around so you have someone to boast to.”

Surprised Sour looked at Sunny, before showing her a very wide smile. “But of course I want your help! Just leave all the thinking and detective stuff to me.”

“And what am I supposed to do then?!” Sunny yelled at her. Sour looked a little helplessly around the room, before her gaze fell on the notepad in her hands.

“You can carry my notepad!” Quickly she shoved it into Sunny’s hands, who took it with a rather puzzled look on her face. “Okay, back to the case” Sour declared, turning her back to Sunny. As she stroke her chin she didn’t see how her assistant was tightly clenching the notepad in her fingers, her blue face taking on a deep red hue as she frowned in fury. “If the door could actually be opened from the inside, that means the thieves who stole the pudding could have just escaped through it and didn’t need to go back through the cafeteria. That way, they could have easily escaped unnoticed by anyone. Which means they brought the pudding behind the school, and this is where our investigation continues!”

Suddenly Sour heard the door to the kitchen being slammed shut. Turning around she saw she was alone in the cold room, her notepad lying on the frozen floor.

Grumbling she pulled out her smartphone from her pocket. “But first, I need a new Watson.”

Noirration

One glance at the shining façade of Crystal Prep Academy and even a fool could tell this wasn’t an ordinary high school. Its sparkling front shined so bright just staring at the sun’s reflection too long could burn away your eyes. In this elite high school, reputation and perfection were the only things that mattered. However, like every place that casts such a brilliant light, it casts a very dark and deep shadow, and the polished glass windows only try to cover the darkness and despair hidden behind its noble walls. If you want to find the truth, you have to see past the shining and beautiful front and take a look at the school’s ugly backside…

“That’s a very complicated way to say we are standing behind the school” Sugarcoat cut into Sour’s monologue.

The wanna-be detective scoffed at her new assistant. “It’s called ‘Noire narration’ – and I was just trying to create a proper atmosphere!” she told her.

Bearing an indifferent look Sugarcoat shook her head. “You’ve read too many of those detective novels” she stated dryly. “Also, how can you hide anything behind polished glass windows?”

“It’s a metaphor for…” Sour grunted “You know what? Screw it! Let’s just get this over with.”

Sugarcoat shrugged. “Fine by me.”

The two Shadowbolts were standing behind the school building. Putting the lack of a large entrance and the absence of windows on a large part of the lower levels aside the school’s backside largely resembled its front, though of course there were fewer decorative elements. The main difference was a large steel door on the window-less part, located a few feet over the ground. Compared to the old-fashioned architecture of the rest of the school it seemed somewhat out of place. Sour and Sugarcoat were standing in front of it.

“Alright!” Sour declared, turning towards the asphalted area behind the school. It connected the street next to Crystal Prep to its parking lot, a wide open space half the length of the school building. Beyond it one could see the bushes and trees of the large wooded area behind the school. “This is where the deliverer probably parked his truck earlier” Sour stated.

Sugarcoat looked at the wide, open space. “Most likely.”

“He tried to open the door, but it was jammed” Sour went on, looking through the notes in her pad. “So, he had to take the long route through the school.”

“Makes sense.”

“While he was on his final ride, the thieves snuck into the store through the kitchen, took the pudding, and then escaped with it through the back door, which could still be opened from the inside despite being blocked.”

“Sounds plausible.”

With the eraser on the end of her pencil Sour rubbed her cheek. “The question is: Where did they go? And where did they hide the pudding?”

Again Sugarcoat shrugged. “Beats me.”

There were so many questions hanging in the air, buzzing around like a swarm of bugs. Gross bugs, of course, not cute ones. Most bugs are gross, like flies and cockroaches, but even when faced with the most hideous abominations one should never forget about the cute bugs that exist in the world. Like that ladybug that once landed on my finger, with its cute red wings and the tiny black dots-

“You’re getting off the point.”

“That’s because I can’t hear myself think!” Sour shouted. Annoyed she turned towards the steel door. “Do you have to do this now?” she asked the janitor. He was kneeling on the small ramp leading from the door to the asphalted area, creating some very unnerving noises as he used his various tools on the door.

“Just doin’ my job” he replied, picking a screwdriver from his toolbox. The screws squeaked miserably as he turned them, Sour shielding her ears with her hands. Unfazed Sugarcoat looked at the toolbox, which blocked the door as the janitor fumbled around the closing mechanism.

“If the deliverer had done something like that he wouldn’t have needed to walk around school all the time” she remarked.

“Great observation!” Sour praised her, taking a hand off her ear to give her a thumbs-up. “Tell him the next time you meet him.”

Ignoring the sarcasm Sugarcoat turned towards the janitor. “Can you tell us why exactly the door doesn’t open from the outside?” she asked.

“Hey, I am asking the questions here!”

“Too late.”

After loosening all the screw of the lock the janitor leaned back, wiping his forehead with the sleeve of his uniform. “Well, from the look of it the lock seems to be broken” he told the two girls. “I guess the constant cold inside caused one of the gears cracked, and when the fella tried to open it with his key earlier it snapped. Luckily we installed that security lock a year ago – when pushed from the inside the door opens no matter what’s wrong with the lock.” With a ponderous face he looked up at the sky. “Maybe I should have told the lunch ladies and delivers about that…”

Meanwhile Sour scribbled into her notepad. “So even if the door wasn’t jammed, one would need a key to open it from the outside?” she asked.

The janitor nodded, while Sugarcoat glanced incredulously at the detective.

“Did you think they’d leave the place where they store the dessert open for any student to go in?” she asked with her fast and dry voice, making Sour blush slightly.

Clearly the mockery of my assistant resulted from her jealousy to my genius. But despite the ill meaning of her words, as a professional I am standing above her snarky remarks.

“Stop hitting me with your notepad!”

We left the janitor with his work and began looking for clues. Now, searching the plain, empty loading zone of a high school sounds like it’s a breeze, but that doesn’t mean one can take it lightly. Even the faintest of winds can turn into a wild gust blowing into your face, and when you’re not prepared, you shouldn’t be surprised when your hair gets messed up. Then you have to borrow your friend’s comb to fix it, but the comb breaks because your hair is too stiff, and all that’s left are the shattered remnants of a friendship and broken pieces of plastic carried away by the wind.

Hm. That didn’t really sound noire – need to practice on that.

“You found anything yet, Sugar?” Sour asked while searching the area around the door.

Standing behind her Sugarcoat let her eyes wander over the plain, empty field of grey asphalt behind the school. “I don’t see anything that could be considered a clue” she replied. “In fact, I don’t even see anything that could considered not to be a clue, either. Because here is absolutely nothing.”

Turning around Sour smiled sweetly at her. “Well, maybe you need to look at it from a different perspective?” she suggested.

Sugarcoat looked flatly at Sour. “You want me to crawl on the ground, right?”

“If you don’t mind♥”

“What if I do?”

The face of the detective took on a grim expression. “You better don’t want to find out…”

Under the stern look of her self-proclaimed superior Sugarcoat knelt down, sighing. As she put her hands on the seemingly empty asphalt she felt the small traces of dirt typical for a place frequently used by cars poke into her palms. The usually reserved girl turned up her mouth, slightly disgusted as she crawled over the asphalt in search for clues.

“See anything now?” Sour asked, causing her assistant to grunt.

“Sour, there is nothing here!” she insisted as she crawled further away from the door, looking around in annoyance. “Crawling around here will do nothing but make me dirty!” Sugarcoat then widened her eyes as she felt some oily substance on her hand. She raised her hand to her face, seeing a slick, viscous liquid running over her fingers. “Quod erat demonstrandum” she mumbled, rubbing the greasy stuff off on her vest.

“Keep looking!” Sour told her. She kicked a stone lying next to the door, and inspected at its underside. “Nobody can steal so much pudding and leave no clues!”

The girl with the three pigtails got back up on her feet, brushing some dirt off her leggings. “That’s the smartest thing you said all day” Sugarcoat remarked, earning herself another glare from Sour. “Still, it seems whatever clues they left behind, we can’t find them.” Facing the forest behind the school Sugarcoat gazed once more over the empty field of asphalt, then began turning around. Before she had completely turned however she stopped. On the edge of the asphalt, on the border to the sidewalk she spotted a black spot. She squinted her eyes, trying to identify it. From the distance, it seemed like it was part of a transparent object. “What’s that?” she asked, walking towards the object.

Sour, who was intensely staring at a butterfly sitting on the janitor’s back turned to her assistant. “You found something?” she asked eagerly, quickly dashing after her. Together the two girls arrived at the possible clue. As they approached they could already see it was a one-liter plastic bottle, lying on the brink of the sidewalk. Sugarcoat bent down and picked it up, Sour curiously peeking over her shoulder. As Sugarcoat got back up the bottle suddenly slipped through her fingers, falling back on the asphalt and bouncing around. A little embarrassed Sugarcoat rubbed her hand off on her uniform again while picking the bottle up again with her other one.

“A bottle of lemonade” Sugarcoat noted, turning it in her hand to look at the brand on the black wrapping. “Blackberry-cranberry.”

“Is there still something inside?” Sour asked. Sugarcoat stared oddly at her. “What? I’m thirsty!”

Rolling her eyes Sugarcoat held the bottle up to the sun. “Seems empty” she stated. “One of the thieves could have dropped it while they carried the pudding outside.”

“Finally!” Sour exclaimed, clenching her fist. “Our first lead to track those bandits down!”

“Or maybe some random person passing by just dropped it” Sugarcoat continued to speculate.

Sour frowned at her assistant. “In any case, we should take the fingerprints and see if we can take a DNA-sample from the leftover liquid inside” she stated.

Sugarcoat raised an eye-brow. “Sour, we are high school students” she reminded her. “Neither do we have the means to take fingerprints or DNA-samples, nor could we actually do something with them – unless you want to take samples from every single student in Crystal Prep to compare them to.”

Frowning again Sour slumped her shoulders. “Alright, forget that.” She stared towards the forest in front of them. “But if we assume one of the thieves really dropped this bottle here, that means they probably took the pudding into the forest” she concluded, confidently putting her hands on her hips. “All we have to do to find it is search the woods!”

Sugarcoat turned to the forest with its tall trees and numerous bushes, spanning over an area far many times larger than the schoolyard behind Crystal Prep Academy. “That would take forever.”

“I KNOW!!!” Sour shouted, throwing her arms into the air. “If we only had a clue so we could at least narrow the number of suspects! I mean so far, everybody could have done it!”

“But we didn’t find any clues except for this bottle” Sugarcoat reminded her, throwing it in the air and catching it again. “And it’s not gonna help us find the thieves.”

Annoyed Sour moaned, but then thoughtfully looked up at the sky. Slowly she turned her head around, her gaze shifting to the backside of Crystal Prep Academy. Like on the front side the walls were overgrown by vines, framing some of the windows of the upper floors. One of the windows on the second floor Sour recognized belonged to a corridor. Looking at it the corners of her mouth rose to a smirk. “Maybe we just have to look at the situation from a different perspective?” she suggested.

“You mean look at the scene of crime from above?” Sugarcoat asked flatly.

Sour cast a side-glance at her assistant. “You know, Sugar, I just realized something.”

“What?”

“Taking along the girl who only points out what’s in plain sight doesn’t help when looking for HIDDEN clues.”

“So I’m fired?”

“YES!!!”

“Good. Cause I wanted to quit anyway.” Turning around Sugarcoat walked away, around the tall school building and out of sight.

And so, I was alone once more, left behind in the dark shadow of Crystal Prep Academy. The life of a detective was one full of hard decisions and sacrifices, but that came with the job. After all, no matter how clean your hands are, when you are reading a book the pages are bound to get dirty. This story was far from over, and I was prepared to read it to the end at any cost. The next page was just waiting to be turned – and I was ready to smudge it with my fingers, no matter how dirty they were.

Better. Still not perfect, but I’m improving.

The Watson has been doubled!

Indigo tapped her foot on the sparkling floor of the empty hallway. “What’s taking her so long?” she moaned, tightly clenching a bottle of orange juice in her hand as she stared down the staircase. “She was supposed to be here ten minutes ago!”

Opposite to the stairs Lemon was sitting on the sill of the window, kicking her legs through the air. “Chill, Gogo” she told her impatient friend, causally bopping her head to the melody from her headphones. “The longer she takes the longer we can relax.” She leaned out of the window by a notch, just so much her hair was hanging slightly in the air. “Just sit down and kick back a little!”

Indigo grunted. “I don’t wanna kick back, I wanna kick some pudding thieves right into their…” She then paused as she heard footsteps coming up the stairs. The two girls watched as first a cherry-red ponytail came into sight, followed by a female face looking down at something, which turned out to be a notepad as the rest of her body appeared. As she took the last stairs the girl looked up, smiling widely at Lemon and Indigo.

“Good, you’re here already!” Sour said happily, smiling even brighter when she saw the bottle in Indigo’s hand. “And you brought the juice!”

Sternly Indigo glared at Sour Sweet. “What took you so long?” she asked. Putting a hand into her pocket she pulled out her phone, showing Sour an SMS. “You wanted to meet us here ten minutes ago!”

“I’m a busy detective”Sour replied, still smiling. “I had other things to do, other places to be – you know how it goes.”

“You got lost?” Indigo asked, crossing her arms.

Sour’s smile dropped. “This school is friggin’ huge, okay?”

Lemon jumped off the windowsill, pulling her headphones off her ears and hanging them over her neck. “Alright, let’s go fetch some pudding!” she declared. “What should we do first?”

Sour held out her hand. “First, I need something to drink. Being brilliant dries the throat.”

With a sigh Indigo tossed the bottle over to her. “By the way, why did you want both of us to come along?” she asked. “I thought you wanted to avoid searching in a group.”

Eagerly Sour snatched the bottle midair. “Well, the more the merrier, right?” she chirped while opening it. As she raised it to her lips she mumbled to herself: “Also, none of you two is smart enough to be my Watson on her own.”

Holding the bottle to her mouth she let the orange juice flow into her throat, greedily swallowing it. The both sour and sweet taste tingled her tongue, each gulp sending a wave of refreshment through her body. While she was drinking like a dried out dromedary Sour walked over to the window. Gasping in satisfaction she took the bottle off her lips, putting it on the windowsill with a smile. As Lemon and Indigo stepped beside her she leaned her head out of the window and looked downwards. Below her was the loading zone of Crystal Prep Academy. The door to the cold store was located right beneath the window to her right. Letting her gaze wander to the distance she saw the huge area of forest behind the school, spanning almost to the horizon.

“Okay, let me fill you two in on where we currently stand” she said to the two assistants at her sides. “So far, it seems the thieves snuck into the cold store while nobody was looking, took the pudding inside it and then escaped through the back door. They probably went into the forest to hide their loot. Sugarcoat and I tried to find clues about their identity and the whereabouts of the pudding, but all we found was an empty plastic bottle.”

Indigo raised an eyebrow. “Sugarcoat? I thought Sunny was helping you?”

Beside her Sour heard Lemon giggle. “Did you manage to annoy both Miss Fancy and Sugarbabe away?” the green-haired girl asked in a mocking tone.

Throwing a glare to each side Sour snorted, before setting her sights on the trees again. “Anyway, I thought maybe looking at the place from above might reveal something to us we couldn’t see from down there.”

With a sceptic look on her face Indigo gazed over the vast area of forest behind Crystal Prep Academy. “You really think by staring at it from up here you can find something you couldn’t down there?” she asked, sounding doubtful.

Sour winked at her. “With the help of a pair of smart and competent assistants, sure!”

“Hey, you think this is snot?” Lemon asked, poking a yellow stain on the windowsill. The two other Shadowbolts glared at her, before turning towards each other again.

“Flattery isn’t gonna make me stand here and stare into nothing, Sweet” Indigo told Sour, determinately folding her arms in front of her chest.

“Then how about I formulate it as a challenge who of us will be the first to find a hint to the pudding?” Sour suggested, smirking slyly.

A wide grim formed on Indigo’s face. “Now that’s more like it – CHALLENGE ACCEPTED! I’m gonna show you who’s the smartest and most competent of ‘em all!” she declared, pumping her fist into the air. As she raised her arm her elbow brushed the bottle on the windowsill, knocking it over. The three girls leaned their heads out of the window, watching it land on the asphalt and bounce around before rolling over the loading zone. As it was still open it left a trail of orange juice on the way, being completely empty by the time it hit the pavement.

Sour looked with sharp eyes at Indigo, who smiled sheepishly back at her. “Oops.”

Rubbing the bridge of her nose Sour mumbled something under her breath. “Never mind” she said after a while, raising her gaze and looking over the forest. The canopy wasn’t really thick, the trees standing relatively far apart with a lot of bushes being mixed into them. “Let’s just see if we can find something suspicious in the forest” she stated, trying to sound optimistic. “Maybe we’re lucky and they didn’t bring the pudding too far in. We might spot it looking out behind a bush, or find some other clue that could point us to their identity.”

Fake snoring caused her to drop her smile again. “Boooooorrriiiiiiiiing” Lemon moaned into her ear, slumping her arms.

While Sour looked at her in annoyance Indigo smirked deviously towards Lemon. “Then how about we spice up the challenge?” she proposed. “First to find something gets the pudding of the losers!”

Immediately Lemon perked up. “Deal!” she exclaimed, also grinning

Sour turned her head left and right, gawking at her assistants. “Hey, this is serious detective work, not a game!” she yelled.

A cocky grin on her face Indigo put an arm over her shoulder. “So you don’t want a chance to win more pudding?” Leaning closer to Sour’s ear she whispered: “Delicious cherry pudding with cream on top?”

Sour glared at Indigo, before saying with intensity in her voice: “Your pudding’s mine.”

Eagerly all three girls raised their heads out of the window, staring at the forest. They let their eyes wander over it, carefully taking in every single bush and tree several times. Occasionally one of them would grow excited for a second when they believed to see something, until they found it was just a squirrel or bird. As time passed their bodies slowly began to slump, while their determination diminished bit by bit.

After a subjective eternity (roughly ten minutes) Sour dropped her head on the windowsill, letting her arms hang outside. Lazily the master detective was gazing once more over the forest, her brain feeling like it was about to melt from boredom.

“Pudding!” Lemon suddenly shouted.

Immediately Sour straightened herself. “Where?!” she asked, hectically looking over the trees.

Lemon pointed into the sky. “There!”

Sour followed her finger, and frowned. “That’s a cloud.”

Confident, Lemon stemmed her hands into her hips. “Yeah, and it looks like pudding!”

After running a palm over her face Sour sweetly smiled at Lemon. “You really have a very vivid imagination Lemon! Now could you focus on looking for REAL pudding again?!” she scowled.

Looking at the cloud Indigo tilted her head. “Besides, that cloud doesn’t look anything like pudding” she said.

“Course it does!” Lemon insisted. She pointed at the top of the cloud. “There, the whirly part on top is the cream, and the fluffy ball beneath is the bouncy stuff!”

“We’re not looking for jelly” Indigo reminded her. “And even if, that cloud doesn’t look bouncy at all!”

Sour blinked. “Um, girls?”

“Well what kind cloud does look bouncy for ya?” Lemon asked, sounding somewhat offended.

Leaning out of the window Indigo searched the sky. “There!” she declared, pointing at a roughly ring-shaped cloud. “This is a bouncy cloud.”

Lemon squinted her eyes. “The one that looks like a doughnut?”

“It’s a trampoline!” Indigo yelled at her. Gabbing Lemon’s green mane she pulled her over to her side of the window, past a startled Sour. “See? If you look at it from this angle, the cloud behind it looks is stretched inside the ring, just like a trampoline.”

Lemon looked at the cloud with one eye closed. “Looks more like some of the filling of the doughnut was squirted out” she eventually remarked.

Carefully Sour cleared her throat. “Um, girls, I hate to interrupt this reeaaally interesting conversation, but-”

“You see nothing but sweets in the clouds, sugar-brain!” Indigo shouted, staring at Lemon with furrowed eye-brows.

“Doughnuts aren’t sweets!” Lemon snapped at her. “They’re pastry!”

Indigo crossed her arms. “Your head’s still full of sugar.”

“And your head is a football filled with hot air!”

“At least I didn’t blow out my brain with junk music!”

“Hey, don’t you dare call my music junk, or-”

“Junk music, junk music, junk music!”

“You wanna start a fight?”

Crossing her arms on the windowsill Sour placed her head on them, moaning loudly over the bickering of her assistants. Defeated she looked down the walls of Crystal Prep Academy. Around the windows the bricks were completely overgrown by vines, like a green frame. With the ongoing fighting of her Watsons in her ears Sour rolled her head to the side. She let her gaze wander over the thick network of vines and leaves as they went to the next window, and then further to the edge of the school, where they made a turn downwards to their roots in the earth. With a sigh she was about to lift her head, but then abruptly stopped. Halfway between her and the next window, she noticed something very small seemed to be stuck in the vines. Surprised she leaned out of the window again, squinting her eyes as she curiously stared at the object.

Next to her Indigo and Lemon were still arguing, having gone from saying “You wanna start a fight” over and over to throwing more and more absurd insults at each other.

“Wanna-be punk!”

“Soccer-sucker!”

“Hallway zombie!”

“Pep-rally dork!”

“Fuzzy head!”

“Blue hedgehog!”

Her fist clenched Indigo rolled up her already rolled-up sleeves. “Alright, that’s it! You better get ready to investigate Sour, cause the pudding theft is not gonna be the only crime at Crystal Prep today!”

For a moment she and Lemon glared furiously into each other’s eyes. Suddenly the look on Lemon’s face turned into one of surprise as she stared behind Indigo. “Hey, where is Sour?” she asked.

Indigo turned around, seeing Sour was gone. Confused she and Lemon looked around the empty hallway. Seeing they were the only students Lemon scratched her head while Indigo stemmed her hands against her hips. “Now that’s great” she muttered. “Because of your cloud nonsense, Miss genius decided she’s better off without us.”

Lemon shrugged. “Fine by me.” She grabbed the headphones around her neck, about to put them back on her ears. Suddenly she stopped. “Hey, you hear that?”

Indigo gave her a questioning look, until a noise caught her attention. It sounded like rustling leaves, and was coming from outside. Looking out of the window Indigo first stared at the forest behind the school, but quickly realized the noise was closer. Turning her gaze to the side she looked at the walls of Crystal Prep Academy. The sight she was met with made her widen her eyes so much in shock they almost popped out of her skull.

On the vines below the window Sour was climbing along the façade of Crystal Prep Academy. Grabbing them with her fingers while pressing her feet into the thick network of leaves she moved along the walls of the school, towards the window of the next classroom. Indigo and Lemon watched their friend cling on to the fickle plants. After staring dumfounded at her for a while Indigo shook her head, scowling furiously at Sour.

“What the heck are you doing?” she yelled at her.

“And can we join you?” Lemon asked, receiving an elbow to the side from her Co-Watson.

Sour either didn’t hear or listen to them as she kept climbing towards the mysterious object. Once it was in arms-length she reached out her hand for it. Despite its small size it was stuck rather tightly in the vines. Sour grit her teeth, groaning as she forcefully pulled at it. With a loud snap the vines around it broke apart. Sour’s arm jolted back, nearly causing her to lose her balance. Horrified Indigo and Lemon watched her lean back, looking like she was just about to fall from the second all the way down on the asphalt. Luckily her other hand and feet clung tightly to the vines, and she quickly grabbed them with her other hand again. She sighed in relief, alongside Indigo and Lemon, before slowly making her way back to the window. When she was in reach Indigo immediately grabbed her arms, she and Lemon helping her get back inside.

“That was totally dumb and reckless!” Indigo scolded Sour once she was standing next to them in the hallway again. “You could have broken your neck, or worse!”

Sour showed Indigo one of her biggest smiles. “Sorry for making you worry, mom” she “apologized”, before raising her hand holding the small object. “But I saw this stuck in the vines, and figured it might be a clue.”

Indigo lifted an eyebrow, looking at the object Sour held to her face. “A button?” she asked, staring a little incredulously at the small blue dot between Sour’s thumb and index finger. “You risked your head for a button?!”

Sour held up her nose. “You did dares with higher risks for less.”

“And what does it mean?” Lemon asked, rubbing the back of her head.

“I’m not sure” Sour said, stroking her chin as she walked up and down the hallway. Raising her gaze she stared at the ceiling. “Maybe after hiding the pudding in the forest the thieves were late for class” she speculated. “They didn’t want their absence to raise any suspicions, so they climbed up the vines to get to class in time.”

“And one of them got stuck with a button in the vines and it was ripped off!” Indigo finished the train of thought, smirking as she pointed with her index finger at Sour.

Sour threw and caught the button, confidently looking at her assistants. “Exactly!”

Turning back to the window Indigo looked at the forest. “But if they were really late for class, they could have taken the pudding pretty deep into the forest” she said a little frustrated. “Or maybe even beyond it.”

Sour nodded. “Possible. Still, we are one step closer to catch those pudding thieves!” She took her phone out of her skirt and checked the time. “Class will be over soon. Perfect!” Putting the phone back into her pocket she pulled out her notepad, and began to search through it. Once she found what she looked for she took out her pencil, made some more notes on the page and then ripped it out. “This is a list of possible suspects and witnesses” she said as she handed the piece of paper to Indigo. “Meet up with the others and show it to them. Once the bell rings and the students leave their classrooms I want all four of you to find everyone who fits the descriptions of the lunch lady or misses a button on their uniform and bring them to Twilight’s old laboratory.”

Indigo took the page from her hand, exchanging a questioning look with Lemon. “Twilight’s old lab?” she repeated.

“You wanna do some crazy experiments on them?” Lemon asked.

“Of course not!” Sour calmed them down. “I’ll just need the space.”

“For what?” Indigo asked.

“As an interrogation room!” Sour replied, a dark gleam in her eyes. Turning around she said a lot more softly over her shoulder: “And by the way, since I was the first to find a clue you two owe me your pudding♥”

Indigo and Lemon watched Sour as she happily skipped down the hallway, humming a cheerful tune to herself. Once she was out of sight they exchanged a glance, before smirking at each other.

“First at the chemistry lab!” Indigo declared, putting her foot on the windowsill.

“Ready whenever you are!” Lemon replied, already grabbing the vines with a hand.

Sweet Cop, Sour Cop

The laboratory of Twilight Sparkle had always been a dark, gloomy room with sparse light – which was no surprise, considering it had no windows and used to be a storeroom for cleaning utensils. All of the high-tech equipment the former star student of Crystal Prep had used for her studies had been removed when she had left for Canterlot High, leaving only a chair, a couple of desks and a single table lamp as furniture. Currently the lamp was standing on a desk that in the center of the room. Two chairs were standing on its long sides, opposing each other.

On one of the chairs a very frightened looking boy was sitting. His pink skin looked even paler than usual as he looked nervously around the room. With the lamp being the only source of light most of the room was cast in darkness. Outside its sheen he could only vaguely see the shades of the other desks standing at the walls – and, occasionally, the silhouette of another person with him in the room, slowly walking in circles around him. From the shape of the shade he guessed it was a girl around his age, probably another student. He couldn’t see her eyes, but was sure she was not taking them off him for a single second.

“Um, who are you?” he eventually dared to ask, his voice shaking. “And w-why has this crazy girl grabbed me when I left class and brought me here?” He had of course tried to ask the girl herself, but she didn’t hear him over the music she heard. He had barely heard himself over her music.

On the other side of the table the silhouette stopped. Through his glasses the boy watched as she approached the desk. When she entered the light of the lamp he saw it was indeed a girl, looking at him with a soft, if a little too big smile on her face. “Relax! Everything is fine” she assured him. Putting her hands on the desk she leaned towards him, her eyes half-closed a little as she met his gaze. “I’m just a curious girl who needs a bit of help finding a bunch of meanies” Raising a hand she took a strand of her hair, playfully twirling it between her fingers while looking at him with big pleading eyes. “Will you help me?”

The boy relaxed slightly. “Um, okay” he said.

Smiling even brighter the girl clapped into her hands. “Good. Oh, and by the way - I’M ASKING THE QUESTIONS HERE!” she suddenly shouted, slamming her hands on the desk. Startled the boy winced in his chair, pressing himself against the backrest as the girl leaned in so close he could feel her breath on his lips. “What did you do this morning at seven o’clock?!” Sour asked him loudly.

Sweating all over again the boy gulped. “Um, I was sleeping?”

Sour gave him an odd look. “How come you were still in bed? Didn’t you have to get up for school?”

“Um, I-I live close by school” he quickly replied. “I can sleep every day up to seven.”

Her face softening again Sour gave the boy some more space. “Oh, you get to sleep longer every day! Isn’t that nice for you?” Her eyes narrowed as she looked sternly at him. “I have to get up every morning before six to catch my bus! Think about this next time you lie cozily in your bed in the morning!”

With Sour’s face right in front of his own the boy looked left and right, before staring back into her eyes. “Um, okay?”

Pulling her head back Sour smiled at him in appreciation. “That’s really kind of you! Boys usually try so hard to be tough and manly, it’s nice to see one who actually concerns for the worries of a girl.” She sat down on the second chair, interlacing her fingers on the table as she gently looked across the table at the boy. “So, you were in the cafeteria this morning?”

The boy stared at her in surprise. “Um, how do you-”

“JUST ANSWER MY QUESTION!” Again the boy winced as Sour was at his face again, leaning so far over the desk she was standing on her toes. “And quit it with the ‘um’ – you’re a man, aren’t cha? Toughen up a little!”

“Um… I-I mean of course!” he stuttered. She was so close he could only see her eyes, the look in them giving him goosebumps. “And y-yes, I was there! I-I got a tomato-bacon-cheese sandwich and-”

“I don’t care about your breakfast!” Climbing on the table Sour knelt in front of the boy, glaring intently from above into his eyes. “Did you see anything suspicious? A group of students acting strange or someone standing behind the counter who shouldn’t be there?”

“N-no!” he told her.

A wide smile on her face Sour patted the boy on his well-groomed, if from the stress a little messy blue hair. “Good! Thank you for your cooperation.” Grabbing the chair he turned him towards the door, and gave it a powerful thrust. “Indy! Kick this guy out and bring in the next!”

Rapidly approaching the closed door the boy screamed, tightly clenching the armrests. Just before he collided with it the door suddenly swung open, a blue-haired girl appearing inside it. The moment he would have crashed into her she stopped the chair with her foot, the sudden stop causing him to fly out of his seat. Casually she caught him with one arm and pushed him out into the corridor. With her second arm she simultaneously tossed another boy into the chair, having blue skin and white hair with blue strands. Unable to say or do something the boy could only stare blankly as she turned the chair around and kicked it back into to the room, where it stopped just in front of the desk at the exact place it had been before. Next to the dizzy student Sour was sitting on the edge of the desk, happily kicking her legs through the air.

“So, having a good day so far?” she asked, smiling at him. “Aside from the whole pudding thing, I mean.”

The boy carefully looked at Sour. “Yes” he eventually replied.

“That’s nice. Heard your physical education class is cancelled because the sports field needs to be renovated?”

“Yes.”

“Well sports is one of my favorites, but it’s always great to get early out of school. Already got plans for the afternoon?”

“Yes.”

“Sweet! Hey, you wouldn’t happen to know anything about who stole the pudding this morning from the cafeteria, would you?”

The boy pondered for a moment. “No.”

Sour frowned. “You’re useless – get out!”

In the same manner as his predecessor she kicked the puzzled student out of the room. Casually looking at her fingernails she waited for Indigo to pull him out of the chair and put the next student into it. When the chair rolled back to its former position a very slender and tall girl was sitting in it. Her skin was pure white, while long pink hair wailed down her shoulders. Instead of looking scared or startled her purple eyes were glaring at Sour, a deep frown turning up her otherwise pretty face. “I demand to speak a teacher!” she immediately told her.

Sour returned the angry glare with a reassuring smile. “Don’t worry, I just want to talk a little with you.” She looked from the face of the girl down to her vest. “That’s a really nice outfit there, you know.”

The girl arched an eyebrow. “That’s the standard school uniform.”

“Yes, but you wear it so nicely!” Sour sweet-talked. She pulled her legs up the desk, sitting sideways on it. “But I guess anything would look nice on you.”

The frown of the girl turned into a smug grin. “Well thank you! I really take care of my figure.”

Still smiling Sour spread out her legs behind her, raising her feet to the air as she lay down on the desk. “Though I couldn’t help but notice, there seems to be a button missing” she remarked, pointing at a small hole at the bottom of her vest.

“Oh… y-yeah” the girl murmured, seeming nervous all of a sudden. “I’ve gotta get a new one.”

Sour put her elbows on the table, resting her head on her hands with her eyes set on the girl in front of her. “I bet there is an interesting story related to that missing button. Care to share it with me?

The girl forced a smile on her face. “It’s really nothing exciting, just a small accident. I-it got stuck in a door and it popped off.”

“Really?” Dropping her smile Sour furrowed her eyebrows. “If you don’t tell me the truth right away your face is gonna be a small accident!”

Little beads of sweat rolled down the girl’s face. “I-I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Cut the act!” Sitting up Sour grabbed the head of the desk lamp, holding it directly into the girl’s face. “We both know about the ugly secret you are hiding behind your pretty face. So, you’re gonna tell me yourself or do I have to squeeze the answers out of your wasp waist?”

Shielding her eyes from the light of the lamp the girl was shaking in her chair. She glanced at Sour, her face a dark shadow looming above her. “I CONFESS!” she suddenly screamed, throwing her hands into the air. “I CHEATED ON MY DIET!!”

Putting the lamp back Sour stared at her suspect in surprise. “Um, what?”

“There were so many tests and extra lessons lately, I spent almost every day doing nothing but study, in- AND outside of school” she whined. “I tried to withstand the temptation, but whenever it became too much I snuck to the freezer in the kitchen and grabbed a box of chocolate ice cream. And this morning, when I tried to put on my uniform, one of the buttons just popped off!” She grabbed Sour by her vest, violently shaking her. “DO YOU KNOW WHAT THIS MEANS?!”

Eyes spinning Sour dizzily shook her head. “Errr…”

“It means my size is not extra slim anymore, but only… slim! SLIM!!” she screamed into Sour’s face. “If anyone finds out my social status at this school is RUINED!!!”

Still clinging to Sour’s vest she slid out of her chair, crying hysterically as she dropped on her knees. After staring into the air for a moment with a stunned look on her face Sour gently removed the hands from her vest. Sour got off from the table and helped the girl on her feet, who had buried her face in her hands. Without looking at her Sour guided the sobbing student to the door, opened it for her, and then softly pushed her out of the room. Closing the door behind her Sour walked back to the desk and sat down on her chair, using the moment to think over her life.

Shortly afterwards the door opened again, with Sugarcoat standing in it. Looking as passive-aggressive as ever she pointed at the empty chair, and an orange girl with long purple hair entered. As she walked over to the chair she glared in Sugarcoat’s direction, even after she had left and closed the door again, until she sat down on the other side of Sour. Still looking very furious she opened her mouth, but before she had the chance to say something the detective raised a hand.

“Okay, let me make one thing clear” Sour said in a rather dour tone. “I’m not in a good mood, and so far all of you guys have given me nothing but a headache.” She then flashed a smile at her newest interrogation subject. “So, it’s in the interest of both of us if you just cooperate and calmly tell me what you know. Just remember that if you don’t, I have methods to make you talk! Of course, since we are both civilized girls going to an elite high school, we should be able to solve this peacefully by talking - considering you aren’t actually a rotten little criminal who only infiltrated this school to cause havoc. Not that I accuse you of anything, you’re considered innocent until proven guilty, but better remember I’ve got my eyes on you, so don’t try anything funny! We can do this the nice, easy way where no one gets hurt – or NOT!”

The girl looked incredulously at Sour. “You’re creepy.”

“Oh, I’m sorry if I scared you!” With one hand Sour grabbed into the darkness surrounding the desk, pulling a glass of lemonade seemingly out from nowhere. “Here, you want some lemonade?” With a big smile she placed the glass in front of the girl. After giving Sour a curious look the girl slowly reached for it. Suddenly Sour’s hand snapped forward, tossing the glass over. The lemonade spilled over the table on the girl’s skirt, drenching it. As the girl looked down on herself with wide eyes Sour made a shocked face. “Oops! Too bad, that was the last glass - now spill the beans!” she sternly told her.

Disgusted the girl tried to rub off some of the lemonade from her lap. “I don’t even know what you want from me, you lunatic!”

Standing up Sour put her hands on the desk. “I want you to tell me if you saw someone behaving suspicious this morning in the cafeteria!”

The girl glanced hardly at Sour. “The only suspicious people I saw today were you and your friends.”

Her remark was countered with a fake laugh by Sour. “Oh, looks like we have a little joker here!” She narrowed her eyes. “Do you know what I do with jokers?”

“You let them go so they can’t bug you any longer?”

“Exactly! So better go now before I’ll show you the way!”

With as a sigh the girl got up, she and Sour staring at each other while she walked out of the door. Just as she had left the door swung open again. Lemon and Indigo dragged a heavily struggling guy with purple skin and a grey bob-haircut into the former lab. As they forced him towards the chair he was wrapping his arms around his backpack, shielding it from them. With some effort the two girls eventually pushed him on the chair. Reluctantly he sat down, still hugging his backpack.

“Jeez, this guy was a mouthful” Indigo moaned, wiping her forehead. “Couldn’t he just hold still?”

“Well I don’t want to know how you’d struggle if we did that with you” Lemon said with a wink.

Indigo smirked. “Nah, you’d never catch me in the first place.”

Once Lemon and Indigo had left the boy turned to Sour sitting across him, looking not very happy.

“Hey, what’s the problem with you girls?!” he yelled at her. “I just minded my own business and suddenly, I’m getting dragged here like I’m some sort of criminal! I’m so gonna tell you on Cinch!”

Sour placed an elbow on the table, and rested her head on her hand. “You seem nervous.”

The boy winced. “What? I-I’m not nervous.”

“Really?” With her index finger Sour traced circles over the surface of the desk. “Isn’t there something on your heart you may like to share with me?”

He shook his head.

“No secrets of any kind? Nothing you want to confess to ease your conscience?”

“C-course not!”

“Good!” Raising her finger she pointed at the backpack in his arms. “Then you surely don’t mind me taking a teeny-tiny peek into your backpack.”

Gulping the boy smiled uncomfortably at her. “Weeeell, like I said, I’m totally not hiding anything in my backpack – especially nothing that could be used as evidence against me – but a backpack is a pretty personal item, so I’m sure you understand-”

“GIMME YOUR BACKPACK!” Sour’s chair turned over as she jumped to her feet, grabbing the backpack over the desk. Startled the boy didn’t react before she had pulled it halfway over the desk, but then began to resist.

“N-NO!” he shouted, desperately pulling his backpack.

“YES!” Sour yelled, trying to drag it towards her.

“NO!”

“YES!”

“NO!”

“YES!”

“NO!”

Outside Sour’s friends exchanged some glances as they heard the two teenagers scream inside.

“YYYYYEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSS!!!!!” With a mighty tug Sour wrested the backpack from his grip. Once she held it into her hands she immediately pulled up the zipper, taking a look inside . As her head hung above the open backpack however a powerful stench hit her nostrils. Immediately she pulled back, turning up her mouth in disgust.

“Eww! What’s this?” she asked, dropping the backpack on the desk. “Do you store your sports socks in there?!” Despite her urge to throw up Sour carefully grabbed into the backpack. After fumbling around for a bit her hand touched something that didn’t feel like a notebook. Slowly she pulled out a small plastic bottle from the backpack. It smelled so intensely she held it as far away from her as possible, tears in her eyes as she examined it. While bearing a lemonade brand the green liquid it contained looked unusually unnatural even for a synthetic drink. Though the bottle was closed some vapor was streaming out from under the top, spreading out into the air of the room. “What’s in this bottle?”

The boy pinched his nose. “Just something I mixed together in the chemistry lab” he said with a twang. “You know, for a stink bomb.” One hand on her nose Sour held the bottle with two fingers, causing it to shake slightly. “Careful there!” he warned her, pointing at a missing button on his uniform. “It melted one of my buttons when I accidentally spilled a drop earlier.”

Slowly Sour put the bottle on the table. As the smell still seeped out into the air she put both hands over her nose. “Gross!” she moaned, turning her head away. “Take your stink bomb and get out of here!”

Shrugging the boy grabbed the bottle and put it into his backpack. After closing the zipper he put it on his shoulders, then headed for the exit. Even after he left it took a moment before the smell had completely disappeared. Once Sour dared to breathe again she noticed she was still alone. “Where is the next one?” she called out towards the door. It opened by a notch, Sunny’s head poking into the room.

“Sour, are you sure about this one?” she asked a little concerned.

Sour nodded “Yes, I am. Please bring her in.”

“She doesn’t even fit the description of the lunch lady, and her uniform isn’t missing any bu-”

“GET HER IN HERE!!”

Sighing Sunny pulled her head back. A moment later the door opened, and a girl walked into the room. It was one of the younger students, being a head smaller than Sour. Her skin was pink and her eyes dark golden, a hairband sitting in her purple hair. Holding her head high she walked over to the chair, huffing snobbishly as she sat down. Legs and arms crossed she looked with a bored expression at Sour. Still standing Sour stared back at her, frowning deeply. “So, we finally meet again!” she snorted at the girl.

“What are you talking about?” Suri asked, staring at Sour as if she was dumb. “We constantly see each other in the hallway!”

“I try to forget those encounters.”

Suri rolled her eyes. “Oh please, don’t tell me you are still upset because of that little incident in the chemistry lab…”

“That’s not important right now.” Slamming her hands on the table Sour lowered her face towards Suri’s. “All that matters now is the pudding!”

Unfazed Suri looked up into Sour’s eyes. “Seriously? You think I stole the pudding? If I wanted to steal pudding, I’d wait until they served something really delicious such as chocolate instead of a cheap flavor like cream-cherry!”

The face of Sour moved forward by an inch. “I never mentioned it was cream-cherry-pudding. How do you know if you haven’t stolen it?”

Suri held up her smartphone. “It’s on the school homepage.”

“And why did you check it?” Sour continued to lean closer to her. “Because you wanted to know if it’s rentable to steal it!”

“But I just said it isn’t!”

“Of course you’d say that to divert the suspicion from you – but I’m not falling for your little psychological tricks!” Sour approached Suri even further, until their faces were barely away from each other. “Deep down, I know your soul is a black and rotten lump of mud and dirt that takes great delight in the sensation of stealing from others what they love the most and then watch them cry – I bet you have a collection of jars with the tears of everyone you hurt in your life, including your mother! ”

Pressing her back against the chair Suri, for the first time since she entered the room, looked nervous. “Isn’t it about time you said something nice and sweet?”

Sour squinted her eyes. “I have no nice words for the likes of you.”

Rubbing her forehead Suri took in a deep breath. “Look, I had an appointment at the doctor this morning, okay? I arrived at school only after the pudding was stolen.” From her pocket she pulled out a small piece of paper, showing it to Sour. “Here is the attestation. Can you let me go now?”

Harshly Sour snatched the paper from her. It had the date and time of the appointment on it, which matched the rough time when the pudding must have been stolen, alongside the signature of the doctor and the crest of his office. “It could be a fake” she muttered.

Suddenly the door swung open. “SOUR, LET HER GO!” all of her friends screamed into the room.

Sour stared dumfounded at them for a moment. “Hey, don’t eavesdrop on my interrogations!” she yelled. As they closed the door again she turned back to Suri. Grumbling she handed her back the note. “Alright, you can leave.” As Suri victoriously took the piece of paper from her Sour immediately leaned in to her again. “But I still hate you” she whispered with intent, causing Suri to shiver slightly. Quickly she stood up and rushed out of the room.

A moment later another girl with teal skin and gray hair entered the room, nervously sitting down. Sour put her foot on the desk, looking neutrally at her.

“You saw anything weird in the cafeteria this morning?”

“No.”

And Sour threw her out.

A boy entered the room, also having gray hair and teal skin. What separated him from everyone else so far were the sunglasses he was hearing, a pair of round black shades nested on his nose. Sitting across Sour he folded his arms, looking defiantly at her. “Yo, don’t know what’cha pulling off here, but ya ain’t gonna scare me, lollipop!” he told her, stern and resolute.

Sour smiled at the boy. “Lollipop? That’s a really cute nickname! Are you calling me a sucker?!” she suddenly shouted, showing him her teeth.

Much less resolute the boy backed away slightly. “Er, n-no…”

“You think you’re tough, don’t cha?” she asked while grabbing under the table. Pulling up her backpack she placed it on the desk, slowly opening the zipper. The boy watched nervously as she grabbed into her bag. “Well let’s see how tough you are after I show you this…”

Standing in front of the door Sugarcoat, Lemon, Sunny and Indigo pressed their ears against the door. They all jumped back when the door suddenly swung open and the boy came crying out of the room. They looked after him as he dashed down the hallway, before turning with raised eyebrows towards Sour as she appeared in the door, holding her backpack in her arms.

“What did you show him?” Sunny asked, she and the others giving her stern and curious looks.

“Oh, nothing!” Sour assured them while quickly closing the zipper of her backpack. “Just a little secret weapon of mine.”

“I guess your little interrogation had no results?” Sugarcoat asked.

Sour shook her head. “Not really, no” she replied as she shouldered her backpack. “Nobody in the cafeteria seemed to have seen anything, and the ones who missed a button had pretty convincing stories how they lost them.”

“So we won’t be getting any pudding today?” Lemon asked, looking rather sad.

“And we’re not gonna beat up any bad guys?” Indigo added, also seeming disappointed.

“I’m afraid so” Sour sighed, lowering her head. “It’s hard to admit, but this case seems too hard even for my giant brain to solve.” After a moment of staring frustrated at the floor she raised her head again, looking like she slowly was coming to a realization. “Unless…”

The others looked eagerly at Sour. “Unless what?” Sunny asked.

Sour scowled at the four girls. “Unless I had the answer right in front of my nose the entire time!” she exclaimed, glaring at each of her friends.

“Um, what’s the creepy look for?” Indigo asked, taking a step back.

Sour pointed with her finger right at Indigo. “You four stole the pudding!” she shouted, letting her finger wander over all of them. “And then you sabotaged my investigations so I wouldn’t find out!”

The four girls quietly stared at Sour, before moaning in unison.

“If anyone sabotaged your investigations, it was yourself” Sugarcoat deadpanned, lifting her glasses to rub the sides of her eyes.

“Sour, we were together all morning” Sunny reminded her. “How could any of us have stolen the pudding?”

Sour pondered for a moment. With an embarrassed smile she stroke the back of her head, looking apologetically at her friends. “Oh, right. Sorry.” A thought then crossed her mind, making her frown at Lemon. “Wait, you weren’t with us until before the second lesson. What did YOU do during the first lesson?”

Lemon blinked at her. “I slept through math.”

Her fingers on her chin Sour glanced at the green-haired punk with narrow eyes. “…your alibi sounds plausible.”

Groaning loudly Sunny massaged her temples. “Great” she grunted. “We’ve been bearing with Little Miss Holmes overblown ego for the whole day so far, and what did we get from it? Nothing!”

“What’s with the bad mood?” Indigo asked, looking a little surprised at Sunny.

With a sound sigh Sunny slumped her arms. “Sorry. I guess I’m just frustrated we couldn’t catch those pudding thieves and wasted our free lesson.” Rubbing the seat of her skirt she added: “Also, my butt is aching!”

A wide smile formed on Lemon’s face. “Miss Fancy fell on her butt? Man, I wish I could have seen that!”

“It wasn’t my fault!” Sunny yelled, blushing in a mixture of embarrassment and anger. “Seriously, just because it’s a cold store doesn’t mean the floor needs to be frozen!”

“At least you didn’t need to crawl on a dirty and oily street” Sugarcoat remarked, brushing her hands off on her uniform as her fingers still felt a little greasy.

Contently Indigo stuck out her chest. “Well I got to climb on the walls of the school AND won a race to the chemistry lab against Lemon. So I guess the day wasn’t a total bust to me!”

Pouting Lemon folded her arms. “At least I didn’t knock a bottle out of the window” she said, causing Indigo to glare at her.

Again Sunny let out a sigh. “Break’s almost over” she said with a crestfallen ring in her voice. “Let’s get to our next class. We’ve got a double period of biology before lunch.”

Lemon moaned. “I’m so not looking forward to it.”

Lemon, Indigo and Sunny got on their way. Sugarcoat was about to follow, when she noticed Sour wasn’t moving. “You coming Sour? Sour?”

Everybody turned to Sour, who was staring absent-minded into the air. Her mouth was slightly open, and by the look on her face it wouldn’t have been a surprise if she suddenly started drooling. “Sour?” Indigo said, waving a hand in front of her face. When there was no reaction she frowned in annoyance, and snapped her fingers right in front of Sour’s eyes. Ripped out of her trance Sour blinked frantically for a moment, before shaking her head.

“Everything alright?” Lemon asked. “You seemed a little spaced out.”

With a blank expression Sour looked back at her, then at each of her other friends. “I… think I just solved the case.”

After rulling out the impossible...

Inside her office Dean Cadence sat behind her desk, surrounded by towering piles of paperwork. In her hand she held the speaker of her telephone, sounding rather stressed as she talked into it.

“Yes, Principal Cinch, the students all have calmed down... No one had to be sent home... Yes, we cleaned that up... No, I don’t think they will tell their parents. Most of them are probably ashamed of their outbreak... What?... A disciplinary class?... Principal Cinch, I really don’t think a weekly lecture to all the students about the importance of discipline is necessary… How am I supposed to squeeze it into the timetable? It’s overbooked already!… Look, I think if we just-”

The door to the office suddenly swung open. Stopping mid-sentence Cadence watched in surprise as Sour stormed into her office.

“DEAN CADENCE!!” she shouted, but then stopped. Hands on her knees she bent forward, panting heavily for a few seconds. Behind her Sunny, Sugarcoat, Lemon and Indigo rushed into the room, stopping behind Sour to catch their breath.

“I’ll call you back in a minute” Cadence spoke into the speaker before hanging up. Arms crossed on her desk she looked at the quintet in front of her. “Girls, I wanted to talk with you. A number of students came by earlier, and said you had grabbed them on the hallway and practically kidnapped them-”

“That’s not important!” Sour cut her off. She jumped forward, slamming her hands on the desk and staring the dean directly into the eyes. “I know where the pudding is!”

Surprised Cadence raised her eyebrows. “Really? Where?” she asked.

Behind her Sour’s friends were still panting. “We’ve been trying to get that out of her on the way here” Sunny huffed angrily.

Lemon nodded. “Yeah, she was suddenly all like ‘I know who’s did-done-do it’ and then she rushed here.”

“Couldn’t you have taken a minute to tell us what happened?” Indigo asked annoyed, stretching herself.

Folding her arms Sour wrinkled her nose. “I don’t like to explain things twice” she simply replied.

The other girls formed a half-circle around Sour, looking sternly, but with interest at her. “Alright, Miss Holmes” Sunny said, a slightly smug ring in her voice. “Now that we’ve all gathered around the dean, please do enlighten us. Who are the thieves?”

“That’s right!” Indigo yelled, punching into her palm. “Tell us the names of those dorks so I can give them the clobbering they deserve!”

Cadence glared at the blue-haired girl. “No one will be clobbered at this school!” Cadence clarified, causing Indigo to duck herself slightly. The dean then turned her attention back to Sour. “Still, I must admit you made me rather curious. Who do you think stole the pudding?”

Sour glanced around her. Everyone was staring at her, expecting her to say the name of the culprits. She took in a deep breath, before saying in a perfectly straight voice: “Nobody.”

There was a long silence following Sour’s one-word reply. The Shadowbolts stared dumbfounded at her, blinking several times in confusion.

“Er… what?” Lemon eventually broke the silence, sounding just as puzzled as she looked.

“You think nobody stole the pudding?” Sugarcoat asked as if she hadn’t heard her right.

Sour nodded. “Yes. The pudding wasn’t stolen.”

The shoulders of Indigo slumped. “Aw man, then who am I supposed to beat up?” she moaned.

The dean also had raised her eyebrows slightly, but otherwise remained calm. “So what happened to the pudding if it wasn’t stolen?” she asked. “You said you knew where happened to it and where it is.”

Again Sour nodded. “The pudding is in the truck that brought it to the school this morning” she answered, causing her friends to wince in surprise.

“So the deliverer has taken it!” Sunny declared, but Sour shook her head.

“As I said, nobody stole the pudding” she repeated “Neither a student nor the driver of the truck. It got back inside by accident.”

Sugarcoat looked incredulously at her. “And how did that happen?”

“Did the pudding suddenly grow feet and walk back into the truck?” Indigo asked sarcastically.

The eyes of Lemon sparkled with childish glee. “Dude, that’d be so cool!”

“It didn’t walk out!” Sour snapped at her. Regaining her composure she explained more calmly: “We can assume the deliverer stacked the pallets of pudding to a single tower. After putting down the second last stack on top of the others, I think he accidentally bumped against the tower as he left for the last one. The floor in the cold store is frozen, and very slippery. Because he was in such a hurry he didn’t notice the pudding glided over it, towards and then out of the backdoor.”

Sour was met with the wide and bewildered gazes of her friends. “Wait, you think the pudding just… rolled out of the room?” Indigo asked, looking at Sour as if she was crazy.

“That sounds very unlikely” Sugarcoat bluntly told her. “Especially since the door to the outside was closed.”

“Yeah, even I know pudding can’t open doors” Lemon agreed.

Sour turned towards her first assistant of the day. “Sunny, you only needed to lean lightly against the door to make it open, right?”

Though looking skeptical of Sour’s assumption Sunny thoughtfully tipped on her chin. “That’s true” she admitted.

“And the pudding tower must have been pretty tall” Sour continued. “I’m pretty sure their combined weight was enough to make open the door after bumping against it. The pallets rolled out of the cold store and then down the ramp in front of it. Because the deliverer didn’t know the door was jammed from the outside he probably parked his truck in front of it when he arrived, and left it open to save time. So the pudding moved over the asphalt and then up the ramp of the truck right, back into it.”

The four girls exchanged some glances. They still didn’t seem completely convinced, but they appeared like they were starting to consider Sour’s theory. The dean only quietly looked at Sour, her face not betraying her thoughts.

“Okay” Sunny eventually said “Let’s imagine the pudding actually rolled out like that and landed back inside the truck. How come the deliver didn’t see it when he picked up the last pallet?”

“The lunch lady said he was in a hurry because he was late for his next delivery” Sour reminded her. “Considering his truck was full of food crates for other schools, if the pallets rolled to the back of it and additionally toppled over and were scattered all over, he could have easily overlooked them when he picked up the last one in haste.”

Slowly the traces of doubt were vanishing from the girls’ faces. Only Sugarcoat furrowed her brows. “Now hold on!” she harshly said to Sour. “I don’t know how high the ramp of that truck is, but it’s definitely higher than the one behind school. And while I could imagine the pudding to glide over the frozen floor out of the cold store, I doubt it could have kept its speed on hard asphalt. It is hardly likely the pallets would have had enough momentum to roll all the way up the ramp, and even more impossible for them to get further than a few inches inside the truck.”

Unfazed Sour turned to Sugarcoat. “You remember that oily stuff you crawled over, close to the door?” she asked.

Sugarcoat rubbed her hand off on her vest. “It’s still on my fingers and uniform” she murmured.

“What if it wasn’t just at that one spot, but if there was originally a trail leading from the door towards the truck?” Sour speculated, surprising everyone. “The pallets would have not lost much speed when gliding on it, and could have just gained enough momentum from the ramp to rush up inside the truck.”

Her thumb under the leather-strap of her goggles Indigo scratched her head. “And where did that oily stuff come from?”

“Did the truck have an oil leak or sumthin’?” Lemon asked.

“Possible, but I think it came from the chemistry lab above the cold store” Sour told them. “One of the chemicals could have been smacked off the window and fallen to the ground, where it left a trail for the pudding to slide on.”

Indigo looked at the subtle stain of oil on Sugarcoat’s vest. “So you think this is one of the chemicals from this school?”

“We have so many chemicals here” Sour said “I wouldn’t be surprised if some greasy, disgusting oil was among them.”

“But the chemicals are usually contained in glass bottles” Sugarcoat objected. “If one really had been dropped from that height, we would have found shards.”

“And I doubt any teacher would allow the students to place the chemicals on the windowsill, dearie” Sunny added.

“If it had been in a glass bottle, you would be right” Sour confirmed. “But what if one of the students filled that that oily chemical into an empty bottle of lemonade?”

That was when it clicked in Sugarcoat’s head. “You mean the one we found behind the school?”

Sour grinned. “That’s the one!”

Hands on her hips Sunny looked skeptically at her. “Now why would any student try to smuggle some oily, slippery liquid out of the chemistry lab inside a lemonade bottle?” she asked.

Indigo smirked slyly. “To spill it somewhere on the floor and then watch everyone fall on their butt!”

“Or in the cafeteria” Lemon said with a grin “Right at the end of the counter where everyone passes with a full try!”

“Or on the basketball field before a big game!” Indigo exclaimed.

“Or in a changing cabin!” Lemon yelled.

“Or in the teacher’s longue!” both girls shouted in unison, clapping into each other’s hand while Sunny rolled her eyes.

Clearing her throat Sour regained the attention of everybody. “As you can see Sunny, there is a demand – for childish pranksters, but still. He or she either mixed the chemical together or refilled it into the lemonade bottle and then put it on the windowsill, but accidentally knocked it out. Because it’s a plastic bottle it didn’t break, instead rolling from its landing spat on the ramp of the cold store over the whole loading zone until it reached the sidewalk. And since there was no top on it, it left a trail of oil on the way for the pudding to glide on later.”

Quietly her friends stared at Sour for a moment. “If that were true” Sugarcoat then said carefully “we would have found a trail leading from the door to the bottle. But there was only a small puddle on the asphalt. What happened to the rest?”

“It probably evaporated” Sour assumed. “Oil usually doesn’t have a high boiling point, and asphalt can get pretty warm. So when the sun heated it up the liquid slowly evaporated, and by the time we arrived only a puddle was left. It was probably right at the spot where the truck had parked earlier, since its shadow would have kept the asphalt from heating up there and therefore prolonged the time of its evaporation.”

“And why the driver didn’t notice all the oil?” Indigo asked. “Cause the way you explain it, it must have been there when he parked the truck already.”

Sour shrugged. “Either he didn’t notice it because he was in a hurry or he didn’t care.” Facing her comrades she stemmed her hands against her hips, looking determinately at them. “From all we’ve seen, I am convinced the pudding accidentally rolled out of the cold store, and then glided over the path of oil back into the truck to a position where the deliverer didn’t see it. So, right now, the pudding meant for our school is still in this truck, driving from school to school as he makes his deliveries, and he probably won’t notice before he finishes his tour sometime in the afternoon.”

Quietly the other four Shadowbolts stared at the detective, who seemed very convinced of herself. Eventually Sunny raised her voice: “When you say it like that… it could have actually happened this way. Maybe.”

“But it sounds very fabricated” Sugarcoat remarked dryly.

“How can you be so sure the pudding wasn’t stolen?” Indigo asked, arms crossed defiantly. “Seems more likely to me than what you said.”

With her index finger Sour tapped against her head. “Think about it: We are talking about over a thousand pots of pudding here. Even for a dozen thieves, it would have been enough to just grab a couple of pallets and get away. Carrying the entire stock would have been too much of a risk, especially since they couldn’t eat all of it anyway before it became bad.”

The others pondered for a moment. “Maybe they were greedy and just took it all without thinking?” Lemon suggested.

Sour shook her head. “I doubt it ” she said, before clenching her hand into a fist. “Of all the students at this school, there is only one who is actually crazy enough for cherry-cream-pudding to steal the entire school supply!”

“And you know you didn’t do it?” Sugarcoat guessed.

A big smile formed on Sour’s face. “Exactly♥”

Having listened without saying anything Dean Cadence sat up. “So, you are convinced the pudding is still inside the truck?” she asked.

Turning back to her Sour nodded. “I think so” she said, leaning over the desk. “Dean Cadence, if you have the number of the driver or of his company, could you call them please? Maybe there is still time to come back here before lunch.”

Cadence placed a hand on her chin. “I don’t know” she mumbled. “It all sounds plausible, and I’d be really happy if the students got their pudding.” Her hand moved up to her forehead and rubbed it. “But if the pudding turns out not to be in the truck, the school could get into trouble for pestering the deliverer with the convoluted theory of a high school student – no offense.”

“I’ll take the responsibility” Sour assured her. As the dean still seemed unsure she leaned even closer, staring at her with big pleading eyes. “Please!”

For a moment Cadence thoughtfully stared at Sour, before she let a sigh. “Alright” she said, causing the five students in front of her to perk up. She grabbed into one of the many staples of documents on her desk, and after searching through it she pulled out a sheet of paper with many different phone numbers on it. “The catering company has given us the numbers of the drivers in case there is an issue with the delivery” she explained while moving her finger down the list, until stopping at a certain number. She picked up the speaker of her phone and began to type it in. While she was holding it to her ear the five girls stared at her, especially Sour growing more nervous with each “peep” of the dial. Their hearts then made a skip as someone picked on the other end of the line.

“Yeah?” the grumpy, rough voice of a man said through the speaker.

Though he couldn’t see her Cadence smiled politely. “Hello, this is Dean Mi Amore Cadenzia from Crystal Prep Academy. I’m sorry to disturb you, but-”

“If tis still ‘bout yer pudding call my boss, lady, I’m mighty busy right now” the man interrupted her, sounding rather annoyed.

“I understand that” Cadence assured him, nervously twirling the phone cable around her finger. “And I don’t intent to keep you from your work for long. I just wanted to ask you of you could, um, take a look into your truck and see if the pudding was… inside it?”

There was a long pause on the other end of the line – so long Cadence began to fear he had hung up.

“YA THINK I’M DUMB OR SUMTHIN’?” it suddenly blared out of the speaker. Startled Cadence pulled her head back while the girls winced. “I spent half morning carrying the damn puddin’ all the way through your school! I’m WAY behind my schedule, my feet still ache, and I nearly twisted my side because the damn pallets were so heavy! And now ya got the nerve to call me and ask if the puddin’ is still in here?!”

With her pinkie Cadence bored in her ear, before carefully putting the speaker back on it. “Look, if you would just take a look around your truck-”

“Listen, lady” the man interrupted her again, sounding like he was just about to explode. “I’m stand’n right here in my truck, and like I told’cha this mornin’, there ain’t no puddin’ and I can’t just pull it from my-”

Suddenly he stopped. Once more it became silent on the other end of the line – not even the man’s breath could be heard. The dean, Sour and the other girls stared at the speaker of the telephone. When the man spoke it was so loud everyone in the office retreated slightly.

“HOW THE HECK DID THAT GET IN HERE?!”

As she returned the speaker to her ear a slightly sly smile grew on the dean’s face. “I take it you have found the pudding?” she asked.

“I-I-I swear, lady… I mean M-Miss Cadenza, I-I brought the stuff… the pudding into your school!” he told her. All the anger in his voice was gone, sounding so panicked the girls could basically hear the sweat rolling down his face. “I-I don’t know how it got back in here-”

“It’s okay” Cadence assured him. “We know it isn’t your fault.”

“Please, don’t tell my boss about this!” he begged her. “I already messed up a delivery this month! If he finds out about I screwed up again…”

The smile on the dean’s face became even bigger. “Well, we did pay for the pudding already, so I’m afraid I’ll have to talk with your superiors about how we could get our money back.” She leaned back in her chair, tilting it in a more comfortable position. “Of course, there would be no need for a refund if we actually got what we paid for…”

“On my way!” the man immediately promised her. “Won’t make it before 12, but once I’m there, I swear I’ll have the puddin’ back in your cold store before you can even blink!”

“Thank you very much.” The dean hadn’t even finished the sentence when the deliverer had already hung up. Leaning forward again she put the speaker back on the phone. “Maybe I enjoyed this a little bit more than I should have” she said, still grinning as she looked at the girls. “But it seems your pudding is on the way.”

Having been stiff and nervous before all five Shadowbolts broke out into a loud cheer, raising their fists into the air. Sour was about to shout “PUDDING” when suddenly Lemon jumped at her back, wrapping her arms around Sour’s neck while nearly knocking her over. “Great job, Sour!” Lemon screamed, hugging her so tightly it was embarrassing the detective.

At the same time Indigo put a hand on her shoulder, smirking right next to her face. “Yeah!” She winked. “Guess all the talk about being a genius really wasn’t all hot air.”

Smiling Sour freed herself from Lemon while brushing off Indigo’s hand. “Thanks girls – but I’m not a genius.”

Surprised her friends grew silent, staring at her with big eyes.

“Seriously?” Scowling Sunny stemmed her hands into her sides. “The whole day you boasted about how brilliant you were, but when we call you a genius you deny it?”

“You found the pudding” Sugarcoat said to Sour, who however shook her head.

“No, WE found the pudding” Sour corrected her, winking at her friends. “I wouldn’t have found out what had happened without you girls.”

The others looked at her in confusion. “Really?” Sunny asked.

“But we didn’t do anything!” Indigo argued.

“You did” Sour countered, counting with her fingers as she recited the traces: “Sunny slipped on the floor and fell out of the cold room through the door, so I figured the same could have happened to the pudding. Sugarcoat found the oil. During my interrogations there was a guy who had mixed together a stink bomb in the chemistry lab. When Indigo and Lemon mentioned they had a race to the chemistry lab I remembered the window of it was right above the cold store. So, combined with how the juice left a trail on the asphalt when Indigo dropped it from the windowsill, I figured this way the oil Sugarcoat had found could have been the remnants of a trail left by a bottle a prankster had prepared and that had fallen out from the window of the chemistry lab.”

Quietly her friends stared at Sour, their look on their faces equal to a dropped jaw. “But… you were the one who connected those dots” Sugarcoat managed to say after a while.

“None of us would have figured that out!” Lemon yelled.

With a warm smile Sour let her eyes wander over each of her friends. “Maybe” she said to them. “But without you girls, I wouldn’t have found those dots in the first place.”

The girls blushed, looking somewhat flustered, but also flattered. Folding her hands in front of her Cadence smirked. “Sounds like you learned a lesson in friendship” she happily noticed.

“That’s right!” Sour confirmed, cheerfully turning towards the dean. “You don’t need to be a genius to solve a crime. All you need are friends!”

Sunny, Sugarcoat, Lemon and Indigo smiled.

“Friends who are so clumsy to slip on the floor, drop juice bottles from the window, have no shame to crawl through the dirt if you ask them to and are dumb and reckless enough to risk their heads in a race on some unstable vines” Sour then proceeded in a less chipper tone, causing her friends to drop their smiles and frown at her.

“Hey, you were climbing on the vines first!” Indigo told her angrily, to which Lemon nodded in approval.

The dean looked horrified at them. “You girls did WHAT?”

“Nothing!” the three girls immediately replied, showing angelic smiles to the dean.

“There is one thing I don’t quite get though” Sunny chimed in, rubbing her chin with a finger. “How does the button you found fit into all of this?

Putting a hand into her pocket Sour pulled out said item, holding the blue piece of plastic up in the light streaming in through the windows. “It doesn’t” Sour simply said. “Looking at it closely it’s probably from an older design of our school uniforms. Could have been in there for ages.”

Sugarcoat adjusted her glasses. “So the only clue you found by yourself was a red herring” she stated.

She ducked as Sour threw the button towards her face

“I will inform the principal right away” Dean Cadence told the quintett, looking with great pride and relief at them. “I’m really in your debt, girls. Thanks to you, the students of Crystal Prep Academy can enjoy their Pudding Tuesday after all!”

Once more the girls jubilated, Sour seeming especially cheerful of their accomplishment. “PUDDING!” she screamed, raising both arms into the air. Just then she could feel two hands on each of her shoulders. Looking left and right she saw Sunny, Indigo, Sugarcoat and Lemon each having put a hand on her shoulder. As they smiled at her she grew calm, smiling back at them.

And so, the case of the stolen pudding that never was had been solved. It turned out to be just a series of ill turns of fate, a slap in the face to a couple of innocent and hard-working high school students by a higher entity with a twisted sense of humor. And while it was my mind that eventually tracked the mystery to its bottom, without the help of its pack this lone wolf would have never been able to hunt down its prey. As for me, I was left with little more than the appreciation and gratitude of my assistants and the dean – nothing that could help me pay my bills (if I had to), but in this corrupted cruel world, I guess the respect of those you really care about is worth way more than any fancy reward or money could be.

“Really? Because I actually intended to reward you all for your service to the school, but if you prefer to be a hard-boiled detective underappreciated by the cruel world she lives in…”

“What? Nonono! Forget that noire nonsense! Sour wants her reward, please!”

Case closed

Like in any other school lunch time was one of the busiest times at Crystal Prep Academy. Dozens of boys and girls were wandering through the cafeteria looking for a seat, while even more had already sat down and were eating. Despite being a time to gather, lunch was usually a rather quiet period in the strict high school. However, on this day, it seemed like a weight had been lifted from the hearts of the students: An uncommon number of them were smiling genuinely, some even laughing, and there was generally more conversation going on than it was normally the case.

And all the good mood seemed to be related to a small pot on everybody’s tray, containing a red gooey mass with a layer of white cream on top.

From her seat Sunny watched the students around her eating their pudding. Many of them hummed in delight as they gulped it down, causing Sunny to giggle. “Look how they are all enjoying their pudding” she said, before taking a spoonful of her own into her mouth.

Her spoon in her hand Sugarcoat looked over the table at the two already empty pots of pudding lying on Sunny’s tray. “They?” she repeated, arching an eyebrow. In front of her also two empty pots of pudding were resting, with her current one being half-empty.

Next to Sugarcoat Lemon was holding her pot close to her face, practically shoveling the pudding into her mouth. “Fey fould be glad we found it for fem” she said with a full mouth, spitting little bits of pudding across the table on Indigo’s tray. The sporty girl frowned, though it didn’t seem like Lemon’s table manners were the reason for it.

“Should we really not tell them we were the ones who found it?” she asked, rolling her spoon inside her (fourth) pot of pudding.

Sunny shook her head. “I doubt they would believe the truth” she said. “They’d still think it was stolen, and might start raising suspicions against each other. It’s better if they think it was a mistake from the company.”

“Besides” Sugarcoat added while lifting a spoonful of cream from her pot “We did it for the pudding, not for the glory.”

Putting her elbow on the table Indigo leaned her head against her fist. “Guess you’re right” she mumbled, also taking a spoon of pudding. As she took a look around, seeing all the students cheerfully eating their pudding her face brightened a little. “But seriously, look at them diggin’ in!” Indigo laughed. “Kind of hard to believe they were all having a breakdown just a few hours ago.”

Lemon gulped down the pudding in her mouth, wiping her arm over her lips. “Speakin’ of it, has any of you a clue why everyone freaked out this morning like that?” she asked in a more serious tone. “I mean I love pudding too, but it’s not so great to cry about.”

From the side Sugarcoat glanced oddly at her. “You were on the verge of tears, too.”

Sunny swallowed her latest load of pudding. “It probably wasn’t the pudding” she said, staring into her almost empty pot while rolling her spoon through it. “We are all under a lot of pressure lately, with Cinch’s reforms adding to the usual stress here. I guess the pudding being gone was just the last straw to make everyone collapse.”

“But we are under the same stress” Lemon argued. “Why didn’t any of us snap?”

Sunny and Sugarcoat looked up at the ceiling of the cafeteria, considering Lemon’s point.

“Well…” The three girls turned to Indigo. “For most of the students, I guess the pudding on Tuesday really is the only thing to look forward to at this school” she said, seeming a little flustered. “But the five of us have something to look forward to every day.”

Sunny looked curiously at her. “And that would be…?”

The yellow cheeks of the blue-haired girl turned red. “Us.”

Also blushing small smiles crept on the faces of Sunny and Lemon. Sugarcoat’s face remained neutral. “That was very sappy” she bluntly told her.

Blushing deeper Indigo frowned. “You’re a real mood-killer today, you know that?”

A slight smirk hushed over Sugarcoat’s face. “I didn’t say you were wrong.”

After scratching the last bit of pudding out of her pot Lemon dropped it to the other four empty ones lying in front in front of her. “Phew!” she sighed, patting her belly with both hands as she slid down her chair. “I’m stuffed!”

“Let’s give the rest back to the dean” Sunny suggested, glancing at the pallet of pudding on the side of the table. “It was nice of her to give us some of the teachers’ share as a reward, but a whole pallet is a little too much for five girls.”

“Agreed” Indigo said, nodding to her seat-neighbor. With a big grin she turned her head to her other seat-neigbor. “Or do you want some more, Miss master detective?”

Sitting slumped in her chair Sour groaned, looking like she was about fall off her seat any second. She held one hand on her considerably swollen belly, her other one weakly hanging to the side. Her lips were smudged red and white, while at least a dozen of empty pots of pudding were lying scattered on her tray. “I… never… want to see… pudding… again” she moaned.

“You will, on the next Pudding Tuesday” Sugarcoat reminded her, raising her spoon to her mouth. Watching her embrace it with her lips Sour’s stomach rumbled, her cheeks turning green as she felt the pudding crawling back up her throat…

Author's Note

Thank you for reading my story! And sorry for the long breaks between chapters - if I had to write a letter to Dean Cadence, I'd tell her I've learned not to write a crime story before knowing how the crime actually took place :twilightblush: