The Dynamic Duo & Their Worst Nightmare!

Mr. Kirrell was savoring his last moments of relative quiet. Despite his propensity for grouchiness, John was still an early riser. He always wakes up without the aid of a Snooze button to make his bi-daily run around his neighborhood, then returns to his house in the Uran district to get ready for the day. It was once again time for John to receive a freshman class for homeroom, as the new year of classes has started. He hadn't been too fond of the departing senior class he had charge of, but nothing could grate the nerves quite like the stench of false confidence and worldly ignorance. Sipping the black tea he had brought from home, (he would never drink the vile stuff they named coffee) he wondered if this freshman class would give him as much trouble as he feared. They're probably a bunch of perfectly untrained ruffians, foaming at the mouths from being distracted from the television, John huffed into his cup. He would just have to set them straight.

Sighing as he realized that not a single drop remained of his tea, Mr. Kirrell braced himself for mental exhaustion to come, picking himself up from the seat he had claimed the first year he had taught at Valevay, and leaving the teacher's lounge, cup in hand. Reaching his classroom, he set down his tea cup and searched his desk for a hair tie. Mumbling to himself until he found a black one loosely wrapped around his stapler, he pulled it off and tied his hair back into a ponytail. This was usually the last step before he was ready to become the most hated teacher in the school. Who cares if it is his homeroom class? They needed to learn fear, and that was Mr. Kirrell's specialty.

Skirting around the corner Dani bounded down the school hallway, ducking and weaving through students crowding the corridor. The freshman had only been attending Valevay four days, and already was in a sticky situation. “Danielle Thompson!!! Wait until I get my hands on you, and that nerdy little camera boy!” Boomed the voice of one of your typical upper classman jock as he rounded the corner chasing after her. The slippery journalist was already out of sight flying down the stairs two steps at a time, her blonde hair whipping back around the nape of her neck. Cursing loudly the boy crumpled up the article in his hand taking his anger out on a nearby locker.

Once Dani was positive she had lost her unhappy “reader” she put the brakes on, leaning breathlessly against the wall. “Goodness! Now why was he so upset?” She huffed, completely oblivious to anyone around her. The article that was previously crumpled up was the one that secured Dani’s position on the School’s Newspaper. One that uncovered the shady actions of a small group of sports scholars on the Varsity football team. By sheer luck Danielle and Gary –her partner in crime- had stumbled upon a few of them sneaking a peek at the answer sheets to the yearly entrance exams. And what a hard hitting article that turned out to be. The admirations actions’ following the release of her front page story was something she didn’t bother getting involved in - now she entirely focused on gathering information on her most recent scoop.

Sinking to the floor trying to catch her breath Dani pulled out her tattered notepad. It was full of what most would consider a jumbled mess- unable to piece the obscured scribbles together. Miraculously finding a blank corner Dani began to jot down the name plastered on the door across from her Mr. Kirrell… Biting on the end of her pen she stared at the name remembering what she had uncover on this teacher thus far. Rumor had it that student’s weren’t particularly fond of him at Valevay. Luckily fear wasn’t part of Dani’s vocabulary, and since there was still around a half hour before class begun she would take advantage of the moment. Swiftly getting to her feet Dani knocked sharply on the door waiting to enter the teacher's lair .

Nerve-wracking, daunting, horrid, troubling; those were only a few words that went through Gary's mind about his current situation. He was in the janitors closet -which really didn't have the most pleasant of scents - hiding from two upper class men. Apparently, they were upset about what was printed in the School's Newspaper. How shocking! I absolutely loved the group shot I'd taken of them! Chuckling quietly, he cautiously opened the closet door; cringing once he heard that annoyingly long squeak that the door made. He looked to his right; no one in sight. To his left; the two saps were turning the corner. Grinning to himself, he decided to book it, leaving the closet door wide open.

Deciding he was a good distance away from the dunderheads, he slowed his pace and cruised the hallways like any other normal student. Until he saw something very interesting that caught his eye. He was glad no one else was around to see this! That meant he would be the first to know. Crouching, he bought his camera up to his face zooming in on something that would go nicely in the gossip column. "So, Greg's cheating on Stephanie with Alice, huh?" He mumbled, getting a great and clear snapshot of their make-out session. "Can't wait to see her freak when we get this in the paper." He took a couple more shots of them before heading back to the main corridor stealthily. He had to find Dani! This was going to be awesome!

Although it took him a while, he finally spotted a familiar looking blonde. Gary smoothly made his way over to Dani, shining one of his signature grins at her. "Yo! Dani! You'll never believe what I got on camera."

Dani jumped back, hands up in one of the hilarious karate poses you only see in movies. Her heart was pounding violently in her chest - startled by Gary suddenly appearing at her side. She was so deep in her thought process that she hadn’t seen him coming; then again Gary was rather stealthy when he wanted to be which came in handy in their line of “work”.

“Geez Gary, I thought you were one of those blockheads from the football team!” Dani responded shooting the boy relieved look before taking the camera from him. Although she was technologically challenged when it came to using it properly, she had managed to learn (with the help of Gary) how to pull the pictures up for viewing purposes. Scrolling through them she continued speaking, tucking a loose strand of her platinum blonde hair back behind her ear. “I guess they weren’t too happy with our first front page printing. I don’t see why not I thought it was genius the way we- OH MY GOD…. is that Greg and Stephanie!?” Dani blurted out coming across the most recent pictures that Gary had captured. Looking up from the camera she gave him an astonished look.

“Great shot! You can see their faces perfectly in this one. Oh man, Alice is going to strangle him.” Once she was finished scrolling through every angle of the student’s make-out session Dani handed the camera back to him turning her attention toward to the door she had knocked on a few minutes prior. There had been no answer, but that wasn’t stopping this persistent journalist.

Dani let Gary in on a conversation she had overheard that morning before being chased down by her athletic assailant. Supposedly Valevay is haunted by a young girl that had died within the school a couple years ago- well at least that was the rumor. Seeing as they were outside Mr. Kirrell’s classroom, a teacher who had been teaching for Valevay many years now, this would be a good source to interview on the matter. Knocking much louder this time around Dani didn’t wait for an answer. Pushing the door open she strode right in her eyes landing on the English teacher whose long black hair was pulled back into a ponytail. “Good Morning Mr. Kirrell. Do you have a moment?” Dani asked an air of professionalism surrounding the young girl when she was in interviewing mode.

Gary snorted, leaning on the wall; his arms were folded. "Pfft! What kinda fighting stance is that?" Dani was certainly different from anyone he'd ever met. And by different, he meant that he'd never met anyone who could be so random at times. "If I was one of those jocks and saw you taking that cheesy Kung-fu stance, I wouldn't have taken you seriously." He laughed.

Normally, Gary didn't let anyone touch his camera. It was something special, because it was given to him by someone special; his best friend. The only one who was allowed to hold it was Dani herself, and only when he was positive that she wouldn't throw a fit about not handling it properly and smash it against the wall. As expected, her reaction to the photo was priceless. "Yep, it is! I can't believe I found em like that." He grinned. Graciously accepting his camera back, he put he head through the strap.

Ghost stories always intrigued Gary. He remembered the one about the girl who died while trying to solve a math problem. Apparently, you can still hear her writing with chalk on the board, trying to solve the problem. He was glad that the story had come from overseas. Gary wouldn't know what to do if some dead girl was still trying to solve a math problem in his classroom.

As Dani burst into their homeroom, Gary followed pursuit, holding his camera up to his face, ready to snap a picture. While focusing the camera, he could see Mr. Kirrell's expression very clearly. He looked slightly annoyed, but that wasn't going to deter the duo from getting the first scoop. He snapped a couple pictures on Mr. Kirrel, making sure to keep flash off. He didn't want to blind the man.