Archive of Our Own ^beta

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Case Report: Strange Ink cartilages given from a special creature known as the Norwegian Kraken. A special but dangerous creature in Norway that has the potential to drown and destroy cities with not only tsunamis, but also massive ink storms. It is rumored to be afraid of light due to it being found several miles beneath the ocean floor, and rarely comes out in dark stormy times in the middle of the ocean.

Rumor has it, that there are more than one of these kinds of krakens, found in several places, but have been killed off due to the protection of the world. This Kraken is the last one in existence. In our last adventure of the Dark Dimension hunting, we found out that this ink monster was very weak and was being used by a madman to bring his own creations to life and consume the world for what they did to his own home and family. However the power got to his head and we managed to beat him after tracking him down to Scotland when we found his workshop of designing and ink factory. We thought we had defeated the darkness, but not before knowing a tiny little creature that looked like a spider made of ink slipped into our clothes after Don used his ability to create the ink for the right purpose.

We got back to our own base in London after we did our separate tasks to dismantle the ink rifts. (Portals made of ink that trap us in a deadly prison, of endless swirling and torture). We thought we defeated the ink kraken and the madman, Balthazar Black, but little did we know, the power surge of magic, is only growing stronger by the inch of a small droplet.

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The four of us were then salvaging what was left of the town of Rockall in Scotland as we put an end to Balthazar Black's mad scheme to make his ultimate desire to create fictional a reality. I did of course like the idea of having it, but my friend Don reminded me that we needed to have creativity limited based on the rules of reality. We cannot have anyone else have this kind of power because not only is it an evil force, but it corrupts even the purest of souls, turning people against their own will. Don did manage to somehow get a strange new ability with his brush. Create objects from his drawings and bring them to life, but only non-living objects like tools or vehicles.

Phil and Sophia found all the notes to Black's dark rituals and blue prints to his factory as we not only gave the evidence to the local authorities, we kept the last thing that was close at hand to the dark dimension, the kraken's ink supply. This stuff needed to come with us for safe keeping, as we found the typewriter that Black used to make his incomplete monsters materialize. 

"How sad that a normal typewriter, an old machine of marvel can do such harm to the people of Rockall, and in fact such a lovely town." Sophia said picking up the cursed tanks filled with the toxic ink.

"Absolutely," Phil mentioned as he picked up the plans for the ink mixer. "I mean seriously, someone needs to update the society that they're disasters are getting worse since we are dealing with black magic and the leviathan symbol is here too." Phil handed out the blueprint to Sophia that had the complex manuscripts of the mixer connected to the kraken's body in a large tank as the suction pipes were designed to drain it of its ink supply by force.

Sophia shrivels at the thought and brushed it off knowing that the conflict was over.

Don and I were cleaning up the remains of the street, tearing up any remains of paper that had that ink stained in, as I saw Don hold out his brush which now appeared as a special design on his arm like a tattoo. "You alright Don?" I asked him as he felt a bit depressed for some reason.

"I don't know Cody, it just feels as if, I now have these new abilities like you, and I was wondering if that would make me a monster at all?" Don said as he looked at his tattoo and the pile of ink behind us. 

"Hey it's alright, listen, I know those creations were scary, but they were being misused for the wrong purpose. What Black did was unforgiveable as he was corrupted by envy and magic when he found that typewriter. You used your new abilities for good, and help stopped a monster with your own creations to help others." I said putting a hand on his shoulder smiling.

"Yeah, I suppose so, but what if this happens again? What if this new ability turns against me?" He asks still feeling worried about what happened.

"Listen remember what we talked about using the magical abilities? We only use them when it's necessary, not for our own selfishness." I assured him. "We need to handle our power with caution and not to draw any unwanted attention. Also, we have your back, just as you guys have my back." I said smiling at him.

Don smiled a bit knowing that his faith in his work was being restored. He then fist bumped me and gave me a shoulder hug as we finished our clean up.

Phil and Sophia just got out of the printing factory with the plans and had the whole place on lockdown for later.

"So the kraken is still gone, correct?" Don asked the other members.

"Yep, all is taken care of, you have our word." Phil said nodding tipping his hat towards his teammate.

We looked around as we noticed we did as much as we could to clean up the place so the residents or whoever were recovering from the mess would be alright to rebuild their home.

"So I believe we're done?" Sophia asked us. 

I was about to say something when a few police cars showed up at the entrance to town along with a news anchor and a helicopter above us had a lighted camera on live.

"I think we're almost there, I just need to inform the officers about what kind of happened here last night and this morning" I declared as I gave the local police members who showed up in the middle of the streets with the camera men and news lady asking me about what happened.

While talking to the local authorities, without anyone noticing, a strange black puddle of ink started scrunching and crawling to our retrieved evidence in our trunk in our car as Sophia got another one of our suitcases placed in the trunk, and slammed the door shut. 

"I told the authorities that the black ooze and other color stains that affected the area were really just the failed safety precautions from the ink factory that exploded and left a mess on the streets."

"I know it wasn't easy telling them that lie, but you did what you have to do. We can't let the exposure of all of this madness affect everyone around us." Phil said.

Sophia wasn't feeling well about this because telling the truth is the right thing to do, yet they had to keep everything as it is, just ordinary and simple instead of complex and bizarre.

"I know we are the Mad Hatters and all but, we do in time need to at least tell someone of who we are and what we do right?" Sophia spoke to the other three members.

"Perhaps, yes, our parents would listen, especially you Cody," Don mentioned to me as he nudged my arm.

"Perhaps, if they are still around." I replied while taking out my wallet with my family picture. It had me, my older sister, and my parents.

"You are making them proud though, even though they have no idea what we're doing for college, this experience is beyond wild." Phil said smirking.

"This inky feeling in my gut just tells me that right now, we're out of place somehow. Lying to the authorities about our cases, using cover stories to fabricate the disaster of an apocalyptic tyrant who nearly tore the town and perhaps the country apart. So, if they found out what we've been doing, I don't know if they would approve." I said.

"This would be tough indeed. Come on, we should get going, perhaps we can chill and relax on some memories we made back at our base" Phil said as he decided to turn the car on.

That seemed to lighten my mood as we got into the car with me in the passengers seat on the left, Phil our leader in the driver's seat, and Sophia and Don sitting pleasantly in the back.

"Man, if only we would have a case that would involve a bit of help from new people that we can trust." I thought. 

Phil turned the key to the car as we started moving out of town back home. 

As we were heading out, Don smelled something icky as he turned down the window of his passenger's seat. Sophia was confused why he opened it despite the cold air, he responded with, "Just need some fresh air." That ink is just too disgusting to handle I bet." He finished as he smelled the fresh coast of water. 

I smiled at this as we continued our journey back home. However, we did not know that the inky smell in the back of our car was only the beginning  of a bigger mission than we thought.

Chapter Text

As we returned to our base which was located near our college dorm, we then got to our secret H.Q. entrance which was hidden at an abandoned classroom, known as the department of Subnuclear Sciences and History. We rolled towards the back of the building as we spotted our own hidden security checkpoint; a speaker hidden within a statue of Nemesis, the Greek Goddess of Justice and Retribution. It required a special passcode that can only be spoken by any one of us.   

"Password." The statue spoke in a robotic tone as it's stone scroll showed us a question mark.

"Detectives forever, and always family." I spoke. 

"Password accepted." The statue said as the scroll lit green with a checkmark as the car was being lowed underground with a secret elevator. We dropped down about 10 floors under the first floor of the building as we rolled into the mechanic garage. 

Phil stopped the car as we got out, with a sigh of relief. 

"Wow, that case we went through is completely out of our reach, I was not expecting this at all." Sophia said taking a stretch with her back.

"I agree with you. The further we go in our investigations, the more demanding the situation gets, and how much more responsibility we must endure. At least we get to spend some quiet time and rest for now." Don said getting out on his side with a smile on his face as he headed for the human sized elevator on the other side of the room.  

"Don, where do you think you're going?" Phil asked seriously as he stopped Don. Don groaned as he felt like he was being a little boy being told by his parent.

"What is it, Phil? I thought we're done with our job for today." He groaned as he turned around to face Phil as he got out of the car. He raised his eyebrows and held the keys to the trunk of the car being unlocked. 

"We are not quite done yet. We might have finished our tasks with Rockall, but we still need to deal with the paperwork for our assignments and put the container and artifacts in a safe place in our base." He replied refreshing Don's memory. "Oh of course, right the ink containers and other evidence we collected." Don said annoyed.

"Hey Don try not to get grouchy because of a phrase like that, alright?" Phil spoke.

Don got a bit carried away as he got annoyed a bit more. "Do you mind?" He asked, causing Phil to raise his temper at him. 

"Yes I do mind, we have important work ahead of ourselves and we need to be sure this is properly secured." Phil argued

The fight was starting to get a little out of control as I stepped in to ease the tension. "Hey hey, guys, calm down, listen. How about I go get the supplies from the trunk and you guys just take a bit of rest for the afternoon, ok? Don has had a rough time figuring out his new powers and we need to give him some rest after all of this. For right now, let me handle the tanks and evidence in the back." I spoke. Phil then took a breath and then sighed with a bit of disgust.

"Fine, alright Don, go ahead and take a breather, as for you Code, be sure you know what you're doing with this material." Phil spoke as he turned to me with a bit of anger in his voice.

"No problem, I'll be sure that task is finished and nothing goes nuts. What could go wrong anyway?" I said as I headed to the trunk of the car and got the tanks. Sophia helped me with them as she took a few to the analysis room that had all of our tools needed to examine what we found from each case. I took both the briefcase holding my notes and the typewriter we collected as I followed Sophia to the human sized elevator on the headlights side of the room. 

We joined Don as Phil turned the car off and turned the platform button on to change the direction of the car. As we started the elevator, the strange ink blob from in our trunk started to crawl out as none of us were paying attention. The doors to the elevator were starting to close as the ink blob was nearing us. Unfortunately, it made it through the thick cracks as it got inside the elevator waiting for us to move. Soon the elevator shifted upwards towards the next 10 floors as we got to the main lobby of our base. 

Phil got out as he was more of a physical man and decided to head up to his office using the stairs since it was more healthier for him. But as he stepped out, he felt something icky on his shoe making him to lift his foot harder off the floor than usual.

"Woah, since when was this elevator floor been clean?" Phil asked.

"Um, I believe it was clean a few days ago? We needed to handle all of our lunch from the Chinese restaurant which was so good. Sophia spoke. 

Phil groaned again. "Seriously, we need to clean this up after analysis. Now if you'll excuse me, I'll be heading up to my office where it's nice and cozy so I can look for any updates for new cases to work on." He said as he left the room with a small inky substance coming off of his shoe.

 The elevator then closed the doors as we continued going up, leading into the training room, where we practice our thinking skills with puzzles, deduction boards, and even physical combat with martial arts, ju-jitzu, and even kung fu. Don then proceeded into the dojo as he decided to clear his mind with fighting without his powers.

"Hey Don, are you sure you want to train? I thought you needed to take a break from all of this." I wisely spoke to Don.

"I'm fine Cody, I just need to take a breather and practice a bit to clear my mind, you know it's not just art and building I do for break time." He said as he took a deep breath and let it out.

"I would listen to Cody's advice. You have been drained a bit ever since Rockall's ink disaster." Sophia mentioned to Don.

"Guys, relax, I'll be fine. Like I said, just got to chill my mind with training for about an hour and I'll be painting or building." He spoke back as he got ready for hand to hand combat with a training dummy. 

The two of us remaining in the elevator took a deep breath as we continued our ascend in the elevator until we got to the lab a few floors higher. The lab was filled with many microscopes, test tubes, machine items, and countless books of interesting research that relate to the materials. Sophia brought the tanks of ink to the analysis table as I placed the typewriter on a separate table. 

The ink blob was still underneath my shoe as I didn't realize it was following us.

Both Sophia and I worked on the examining of both objects and found a strange residue of an ancient dark force at work. Crazy how this ink was infecting people, turning their corpses into ink monsters and bringing things to life with the same ink. Even corrupting normal drawings. All because of fame and attention. 

After a couple of hours of work, the two of us got tired as we decided we put both objects into a containment unit for safe keeping. 

We went down to the collection chamber, a room dedicated to each case we ever solved that held an object of significance that helped us crack the mysteries which puzzled our curiosities.

Each hall had a different theme based on the type of phenomenon we faced, like science related, music related, element related, and even places that are kind of familiar. We then created a wing called the Dark Dimensions because this was where the wicked artifacts like the typewriter and ink cartilages can be stored. 

While we were putting the items on a shelf, the same ink blob from my shoe slowly climbed up the dark edge of the shelf as it touched the typewriter with a strange purpleish pink glow as it bolted back down. 

"What the?" Sophia stuttered.

"Excuse me?" I asked Sophia.

"Nothing, I uh thought I was seeing things." She replied back as she took a breath.

I shrugged as I turned the lock on the shelf with a special key. Electromagnetic field generator, a container like unit that prevents the artifacts from being hazardous. Their abilities are nullified within the container until the fields are deactivated.

The ink slowly came back to my shoe as we were about to leave. As I tried to walk, that strange sticky mess happened like Phil did. 

"Aww man, are you serious? In here too?" I asked frantically.

"Cody just relax it's just a small sticky spot." Sophia assured me.

"I know, I just don't want Phil to notice this." I spoke to Sophia strengthening my point.

"Look, let's get some rest for tonight, we'll deal with the mess tomorrow. It's about 7:00 right now, let's just chill." She replied back as she started to leave the chamber. I took a deep breath as I followed her back to the elevator to our rooms. 

The gooey ink blob under my shoe was still underneath as it started to glow like the typewriter.

Once we were done with the artifacts, we went to our college rooms in our base as we read certain books before bedtime. I actually was looking forward to an old favorite of mine. I didn't know why I was thinking of it, but I somehow needed to get some childhood memories in my head flowing to have the nostalgia feeling back. So I got up from my reading desk as I headed over to my bed and opened one of my secret compartments on the side that had my old childhood book series. Most of them were really cool but some were oldies I didn't want to read again because I felt like I was too old for them.

I then looked through my books until I came upon a very unique series. "The Thea Stilton Thea Sister books, based off the spinoff series by Geronimo Stilton himself, who's actual mother (author of the books) wrote to inspire kids of all young ages, to make friends and solve mysteries. Boy did I adore this series but did I regret not reading all of them. I then pulled out one of them, known as the Secret of the old Scottish Castle, the first one I ever read ever since I got it at a book fair when I was a kid. 

I smiled at the book and decided to give it a read just for funsies as Don notice me reading it. 

"Hey whatcha reading there?" He asked me.

"Oh I uh, was just checking out an old book I haven't read in a while known as the Thea Sisters." I perked up showing him the cover. Don was surprised that he was seeing me reading an old book written many years ago.

"Why did you chose this one to read?" He asked me.

"Umm because it's fun and I thought why not?" I spoke.

"Hmmm, perhaps, but what is the real reason why you got this book out?" The artist asked again.

"The thing is, this is about a group of young adults like us, but as mice who solve crazy adventures around the world and report it to their teacher, who works at a newspaper company with her older brother. These girls have a sisterly bond and know how to make things possible everywhere. Make new friends, save the day, and most importantly, working together as a team family." I explained.

Don was surprised by what I told him, even though all the characters in the series were anthro mice. Despite the mice idea, it was a really cool story to look at.

"I think it's best if I told you the rest about it tomorrow morning when we have breakfast, just so we can feel more energized and prepared. Also, I just don't know how to explain it to you of course first, just need other opinions first from other people to get a better picture." I answered. 

Don thought for a moment, but then nodded at my answer as he headed over to his room. 

"Have a good night." He told me as he closed the door. 

"See you tomorrow." I spoke back to him, as I put the book and some of the other books from the same series on the table as I felt intrigued to keep reading them so I can look at a reminder of who we really are as the Mad Hatters.

I then changed into pajamas as I got into bed with the light still on. I looked over the Thea Stilton Sisters books as I felt as if we needed to work together, us the Mad Hatters instead of the negative influence we felt from earlier. "Perhaps you'll remind us of what makes us a team." I said to the books. 

It was weird, but totally worth it as a book can be any person's friend. I then turned off the light as I closed my eyes, waiting for the next case to take me and my team of friends on a more brighter adventure the next morning.

Unknowingly, as I slept in bed, the same black oozy ink from my shoe slowly crawled up to my desk as it went into the books, feeding off of its influence and creativity as the purple glow inside the ink transferred to the books themselves. No one knows what will happen next, but soon, it will all be a turn of a page. Literally.

Chapter Text

As morning sunshine broke, I woke up from sleep, feeling as if I had forgotten what happened yesterday as I rubbed my eyes. I got up from the bed as I stretched my body, especially my back. I then went over to my dresser to get my clothes on for today as I noticed something odd with the stack of Thea Sister books on my reading table, a few of the pages had been stained with ink.

As I pulled my shirt over my body, I looked at the books and saw that some of the drawings and writing within them are ruined. "Must have been the water I drank from last night. Darn, lesson to know for next time, never drink any liquid while reading." I thought. I then shrugged it off as I headed downstairs to see the rest of my crew and eat breakfast.

While leaving my room, a bit of ink spewed out of the books as the newspaper from this morning was on the kitchen counter.

Don was busy grilling some morning sausages as Sophia and Phil had French toast with eggs. I yawned as I walked into the cooking room.

"MMmmmm, smells yummy. Morning guys." I said still sleepy from my last night's nap.

"Morning Code, how'd you fare from last night?" Phil said looking up from his plate as he ate a piece of toast.

"Eh not too bad I guess, just that.. I think we might be out of touch to be honest." I spoke showing concern to the other members.

"Concern, what do you mean?" Don, said curiously as he flipped the sausages.

"Well the thing is, I seem to find a series I haven't read in years but I don't know if it would help us now since it is just a kids series." I said looking down as I grabbed a plate of eggs and bacon.

"What series is it?" Sophia asked as she wiped her face with a napkin.

"Well, I don't know if it's appropriate to read at this age since we're adults now." I spoke, as the morning broadcast for our school turned on from the tv. On it was a reporter around our age as they gave out the morning announcements for the campus.

"Good morning students! Today's report show that we will be having a bit of a break next week but also a writing competition at the end of the month, so be sure to brush up on your writing critiques and sharpen your pencils, because a special scholarship is up for grabs!" 

Sophia's eyes widened as she heard the message from the screen. 

"Wow, that's incredible. I didn't think that was going to be happening any time soon." She spoke as she bused her plate.

"This could be interesting if we could do something like this." I said thinking about the announcement. The messages kept on playing until we got the world news.

"So far the incident at Rockall Scotland has shocked the world of art and history as the Black Family Ink factory has somehow been destroyed. Local authorities have found several eye witnesses connecting the infamous artist Balthazar Black, to several crimes of theft, fraud, kidnapping, and possible death. The whereabouts of some people are still unknown, but there is hope for the city of Rockall, as old dreams drift away, new ones are formed."

Phil turned off the tv as he got up from the table. "Well, we might not have saved everyone there, we did save the world from a crazy apocalyptic force driven by an obsessed entrepreneur." He said feeling pleased with himself. He then put his dishes in the sink as he went to his room to get things ready for classes.

Don and Sophie were still in the kitchen with me as we ate silently about how we managed to pull something out of this world as a dark dimension being fully vanquished. I then took a deep breath as I decided to tell my friends about the book series I've been reading and perhaps why it means a lot to me. "I'll be right back guys, I want to show you guys something. Meet me in the common area and bring Phil in, he might want to see this." I spoke to my teammates.

"What is it going to be?" Don asked me.

"You'll see soon enough. It might be meaningful." I assured him as I bused my plates and went back to my room to get the book series from my room.

I managed to find the books still in the pile on my table as I looked at them looking back at all the memories.

These books might not be age appropriate for me or my friends anymore, but they did provide historical context of related worldly knowledge like the countries and their cultures. My personal favorites were the ones about Egypt and finding the tomb of treasures, and other books that involve a certain villain behind a mysterious priceless object that belonged to the country. The one I had just finished was about Japan and how a special theater doll, known as the Princess was stolen by a wealthy collector for his own collection of Japanese artifacts. Boy were these books something. I then picked them up as I felt a weird sting from one of the pages.

"Ouch." I felt in my thoughts as I sucked on my finger to prevent any bleeding from leaking out. Once the blood cut wasn't pouring any more liquid, I then took the books downstairs to show my friends. As I moved downstairs, I didn't know that the books pages were slowly changing color from white to gray.

As I made it to the bottom, I found all three of my teammates sitting, with Phil in an armchair, and Don and Sophie on the couch. I then set the books down on the table as I sat in a chair of my own. 

"So these books, what are they exactly?" Phil asked looking up at me with somewhat of an interest.

"These are or were one of my favorite series when I was a kid, and one of the reasons why I wanted to start an investigative journalism course for one of my career choices." I said.

Don was curious about the series I showed them, Phil was a little confused, but Sophie's eyes were wide open. "You have read this series before?! I loved them!" She spoke excitedly.

"Thea Stilton series, wait a minute, isn't this related to Geronimo Stilton?" Phil asked as he recognized the book title's name. 

"That's right, his series were first to come out and I read them mostly everyday. But I didn't have much time for them as much since my cases began at an early age of 13. I was really encouraged to find my own adventures and travel around the world, but I didn't have the courage or the power to go anywhere without my parents" I explained.

"How long did you have these?" Don asked while picking up one of the books.

"Ever since I was 11. My parents back then gave me one of them from a book fair in elementary school. It was the first book that got me into the female version side of Geronimo Stilton, his sister Thea." I continued my story as I answered Don's question.

As I explained more about the details about the books with Don and Sophie, Phil noticed a strange gray ooze coming out of the book pile, the same type of inky ooze we encountered from the dark dimension. It somehow was causing a small spill onto the table. Phil thought it was his eyes rolling but he quickly wiped it up. I then finished the explanation to the two as Phil was trying to pay attention to me.

"So this kids series is trying to help you get you back to your childhood memories?" Phil asked me. 

"Well, it helps me keep reminding me of how well we could do if we cooperated a bit better." I said as I opened the book to show them the five girls mentioned in every book. 

But as soon as I opened it, more ink spewed out. "Aww, man again?" I asked as I tried cleaning up the spill with a towel.

Sophie was getting confused as to why there was so much ink in the books as I thought it might have been the water I spilled from last night. 

"As I was saying, the books taught me a bit about the world which got me the idea to go exploring outside of the U.S. and a bit out of the U.K. too. And they gave me an idea as well, which is to find some new close friends and talk about my adventures and my cases too." I said smiling giving myself some confidence in the process.

Don then spoke up. "But why haven't you told us about these books in the first place? Why did you stop reading them?" 

This made me feel a bit down as I felt nostalgia depression affect my mind. I didn't want to tell them as I felt a bit angry, sad, and scared about the truth that still haunts me. Then I started to cry as warm small strands of tears came from my eyes. Most of them touched the table around the books, as I was feeling extremely sad.

Phil then for the first time got a bit worried as he patted my shoulder and gave me a tissue box to wipe away the soreness from my face. I got all of the tears off of me, except one which I missed which fell off my cheek and onto a certain part of the top book of the book pile. It landed on the author's face, a gray mouse with light blue eyes and a nice smile on her face. She wore a black coat with a fur line around her neck as she looked stunning at her audience. Then something unnatural started to happen. 

A strange breeze from outside opened up as wind started to fill the room with coldness. The books on the shelves next to the fireplace started to fall out and fly within the wind as the tear from the book caused the illustration of the mouse to change expression from happiness to a heartbroken sadness as her eyebrows somewhat started to squint. Then the book pile started to open up as the ink from the pages started to flash as we got up.

"Uh guys? What's happening?! Don yelled as he covered his eyes from the glowing books.

"I don't know, but whatever it is, it's not good!" Sophie shouted within the winds.

"You're telling me! Code what did you do?!" Phil yelled at me angrily, as the glow got brighter from the books as we felt a swish of air. Black and palish yellow streams came from the pages as we heard laughter of girls, but then cries of anguish as if they needed help. We then felt the strange surge of magic starting to pull us in as we felt our bodies begin to change matter.

"Woooooaaaaahhhh! Phil screamed as he was the first to be pulled into the book whirlpool of magic. 

"Phil!" We all shouted shocked that this was really happening. 

Then a few other things started to pour into the whirlpool surrounding the books. Like our case files of our old mysteries, our backpacks that had our schedules for school, as Don was being lifted into the air as the matter of his body changed into mist as he became the second one to enter. 

"Guys! Help UUUUUSSSSSS!" Don panicked as he disappeared within the whirlpool too.

"Oh man, this is really bad!" I said as I had no idea what to do or how this was all happening.

"Cody, help! I think it's got me!" Sophie shrieked as she too was feeling her body being floated above the whirlpool as she was slowly getting sucked in. First her legs then her torso. I then grabbed an umbrella from the cane stand as I tried to fish her out of there. 

"Hang on Sophie I got you!" I shouted as I allowed her to hold onto the handle part. She had a firm grip as I pulled her out slowly. However, the magical whirlpool wasn't giving up as it's pull was stronger than mine as the umbrella itself slipped out of my hands. 

Sophie was then dragged into the glow as she too vanished in thin air.

"NOOOOO!" I shrieked as then I knew it was soon my turn to join them, I needed to do something to help us out, so as a last act of desperation, I found what was really important, a sample copy of one of the Thea Sister books and a picture of all four of us from a lamp stand as I felt myself being pulled into the vortex. 

"Oh my gooood!" I yelled as I was spinning like crazy into the books. Then the howling winds started to cool down as the items around the room slowly came down to the floor. The whirlpool of magic slowly shrank back into the books themselves as the book shut tight allowing a new title to appear on the cover.

We all caught up with each other as we formed solid again in one piece each but we had a hard time tracking each other as somehow we felt a fuzzing in our bodies and our eyes closed due to the rapid spinning. All four of us felt a weird poke from our clothes and our skin as we got a bit warmer than usual as we felt our ears perk up to either the loud sounds or something in the winding chamber. We also felt our mouths blow out as if our faces were being pulled or pushed. We then kept spinning until we felt solid ground hard. We then blacked out for a bit, still dizzy from the swirling vortex.

Chapter Text

My head hurts a lot as if I was going in circles in an endless spincycle, only the thing was, we were in a crazy vortex like chamber. I woke up from the spinning as I heard what sounded like seagulls cawing from above us. There was also the crashing of waves against some rocks as I looked around to see if I could find my friends. Somehow we were sucked into a swirling vortex from a pile of books. I wanted to be sure that everything is normal as I looked around. 

We did land on a beach and a very normal one at that. Except we didn't know where we were exactly. I then started to get up from the ground as I noticed something off with my hands. There were only four fingers, not five! And they were covered in fur! 

"What the foo dao?!" I spoke as I felt like this was a weird phrase to speak out loud. I then reacted as much so I ran over to the water as I took a look at myself in the water's reflection. My face has been stretched out like a rodent's nose has as I had light beige fur on me with the same hair color and blue eyes. I was still wearing the same clothes, except I was somehow barefooted, with strange looking paws for feet. And the craziest part, I.... Have... a tail. A rodent's tail! It was waving behind me near the bottom of my back as I was panicking on the inside. What is going on here?! 

"This has to be a dream, it has to be one!" I thought, but then I heard a yelp from nearby as I saw Phil's clothing from a rodent about my size as he was getting up on his barepaws as he scratched the back of his hand with his furry fingers.

"Phil, is that you?" I asked him as I walked among the beach towards the standing rodent.

He was about the same age as me but a few years older as his skin was a bit darker than mine. He wore a red shirt under a gray long jacket with tough brown pants as he was also wearing his signature top hat with the red band. 

"Cody? What happened? Where are we?" He asked me as he turned around. When he saw me, he got spooked because I was turned into what looked like, an anthromorphic mouse. 

"If you're wondering about what happened to us, we got sucked into a book world somehow, and we've been turned into anthro mice." I explained to Phil about the predicament.

"You also forgot that we have tails, and that we look like illustrations." Phil spoke making sure I got all the details.

"I have no idea, but somehow I think it has something to do with the books I placed down in our common room area." I said.

"Hmmm, maybe, but ach! Sorry, this itching is driving me crazy!" Phil stammered as he was scratching his body due to his fur.

"I know, that is crazy, but right now we need to find the others. Have you seen Sophie or Don anywhere?" I asked Phil. 

"I don't see them anywhere. But maybe for right now, maybe we should figure out where we... are." He said as he noticed something off. Up above the beach area.

I turned in his direction to see what he was looking at. "Woah, are those our motorbikes?" I asked as we walked up to the boardwalk. Indeed, it was our motorbikes. Both of them were color coded. Phil has the maroon red and silver with magnifying glasses on his bike, and mine had the bright yellow, bright blue, and a bit of black, along with puzzle pieces and a raven on it.

I then checked our pockets to see if we had the keys still, and strangely, we did. 

"Ok how exactly did our bikes get here?" I asked curiously.

"I don't know, but something tells us we need to find the others if we want to get out of here. There has to be an exit to this place somewhere. But seriously, Code? That's what's getting you tripping? Our bikes?" Phil said stunningly.

"Um yeah besides that we're mice? And that it's very weird?" I asked adding onto his questions.

"Well way beyond weird, and the thing is, it's unbelievable, which is mostly our thing." Phil stated as we got to the bikes themselves.

"Unbelievable is somehow our own calling card and our kind of mystery solving. So basically whatever happens we'll solve it like we always do." I concluded as I looked at our bikes.

"Let's check inside our compartments in our bikes, there might be something in here that can help us."  I said speaking wisely, or in this case, squeaking since I was a mouse now. But you get the idea.

"First things first, as the leader of our group, we need to find the others, even though we might not know what they look like in mouse form, we need to find them somewhere here in this town." Phil spoke. However, I begged to differ about where we are exactly and there was a specific reason why we are anthro mice right now. Were our bikes the only things from our reality that entered this world? Was there anything else that entered here? Then I had an idea.

I put the keys into my motorbike as I got on. Phil started his engine as we thought about where to go next. 

"Where exactly are we going? Phil asked me as we started to drive on the path.

"We're going to see if we can find someone or somemouse that can help us. Here check out that sign post. It says, Mouseford Academy 4 miles away. Mouseford Academy? Wait, this seems familiar." I spoke as I thought for a second.

"Well worth a shot, basically it's the closest thing here on where we are located, well wherever this place is that we're on." Phil spoke.

I then nodded as we moved the bikes in the direction of the sign post.

We rode the bikes on the road until we came upon a huge university. A big and outstanding piece of architecture, stood in front of us as we approached the long path.

It almost looked like a castle with the towers on each side of the campus and a nice athletic fields on the other side of the whole infrastructure. Another anthro mouse statue was standing proud while holding a scroll. 

We both parked our bikes on the middle of the path as we walked up to the statue to get a closer look. 

"William Squeakspeare, The greatest English Writer in all of the world, including Hamlet, Midsummer's Night Dream, and Romeo and Juliet." 

"This sounds like our William Shakespeare, this is almost accurate as our reality, but the name is different." Phil explained feeling a bit disappointed.

I tried to assure him that this is supposed to be normal because if we're in the book world, this reality is supposed to have their own beliefs. Everything in this world might be weird to us, but it's normal for everyone else. And that means, all the anthro mice here.

"You think Don and Sophie might be in here?" Phil asked me.

"I don't know, and something tells me that school is going to start soon because it seems like it's 9:00." I said thinking about my schedule from my own classes at home. 

Just then, we heard bells tolling as we heard the University and a lots of voices coming from inside the campus walls. Indeed I was right, classes are beginning today, but for now we need to find out if our friends are inside the campus grounds or not.

"How exactly are we going to get into the school? We're not even students here." Phil spoke as he scratched his head.

"Hmmm, maybe we can ask someone for assistance perhaps, just tell them if they have found anyone that was wearing a light green sweater, and pants or a lavender jacket with a pink shirt underneath." I specifically told Phil, as we were somewhat starting to get into an argument again.

 While we were discussing our conversation about locating our friends and getting out of here, a mouse came from the front entrance to the university entrance. He had a green suit and wore glasses over his snout with light blond mustache and hair. He had dark fur and was a standing proud rodent, who looked like he was in his mid 60's.

"Excuse me gentlemice.... are you two late for class?" He asked in a staring tone.

We both gulped as we knew we had to be honest to him, since he did look like a professor at the school.

"Um, class, I'm not sure that we do now or where to go..." I suggested but the mouse interrupted me.

"And why do you two have motorcycles here in front of the school? There's a garage for a reason young men." He spoke in a serious voice again.

"We're very sorry sir, we didn't really mean to..." Phil pleaded in as well as the professor held out his paw at us to stop talking."

"I've heard enough and I think I see what's going on here." He squeaked squinting his eyes at us.

"Oh boy we are sure in trouble for sure." I thought nervously in my head as I closed my eyes. 

The mouse then spoke with some reason a change of heart, "You must be our remaining new students! How wonderful to see the both of you!" He smiled at us as we got confused.

"Wait did you say new students?" Phil asked him.

"Of course, yes, we've been looking forward to having you as two of our new students due to a special request transfer at the academy saying that you and two others' records are unlike any we've ever seen! You are quite the astonishing group of mice, like the Thea Sisters are! Five of our best students here at Mouseford University. They would be honored to meet you in the pressence." The professor said as he spread his arms out.

Then something off happened, "he said, the Thea Sisters, as in the five rodents from the books, the main focus of the series. That means, we ARE in the Thea Stilton books!" I thought crazy. I broke out of my thinking for a sec as I continued listening to Phil and the mouse in front of us. 

"Woah woah woah, hold up slow down please." Phil spoke trying to get to get the picture. "Who are you and what makes you think we're new transfer students chosen to come here. Also who are the Thea Sisters and how did you come across our records?" He asked, but the old professor held up his paw again.

"Many questions for such a curious mind. I admire your inquiring thinking skills. I'm Professor Octavius de Mousus, the Headmaster of this fine establishment. We heard from a few people who took our special entrance exams that you were fine fellows that are what this school need. Learn and Teach your new methods, anyone around the world is welcome at our University but only the brightest minds can attend our programs." He spoke 

"Oh uh, that's very interesting to know about, thank you. Do we have to take the entrance exams too and are these other students you mentioned wearing a lime color sweater and a lavender jacket?" I asked in a curious mind.

"Indeed we have, I believe you met them before?" He asked us.

"Oh yeah we actually came across them earlier today and we actually lost track of time of when to get there." I squeaked what sort of was a lie, but as honest as possible.

"Very interesting. Listen why don't you park your bikes in our campus garage so we can interview you two in my office. I'm sure the faculty would love to hear about your records as well." He said.

He then walked around us as he gestured to us to follow him. 

"Code, I don't know if this is a good idea." He whispered quietly to me, as the professor continued to walk forward into the great archway of the building.

"Let's just follow him and play it cool." I whispered to him back.

"How? He asked me.

"Very simple," I spoke back to him, "we get squeaking like mice, since they're mice, and we're mice now, let's just follow his lead and maybe we can find our friends again." I whispered.

"Gentlemen? Are you coming to park your motorbikes?" Professor Mousus shouted back at us as we scampered over to our bikes and slowly shifted them to lighter mode to move them easily. We then followed the professor to the garage and parked our bikes at the motorcycle station, where we saw three other motorcycles. Two looked familiar with the lime green and dark green designs, and a purple with pink and orange zigzags with science elements. The third one was bright yellow with cheese hole designs. 

"Wow that is a cool bike there. Wonder who that belongs to?" I asked out loud as the professor said.

"Oh that one belongs to one of our best teachers here on the campus, Thea Stilton." He squeaked with a smile on his face. 

"Woah, this is HER bike? For real? That's crazy!" I thought as we opened our compartments on our bikes and found our back packs inside with who knows what's inside. We put them on as we continued to follow the professor back to the main campus and into his office.

It took us a few hours to figure out that our transcripts were nearly identical to the ones we had at our OUR college campus, but the good news was, none of our reports claims about our special abilities and what we really do. We also found out that the entrance exams were really simpler than we thought as we knew the basic material.

"I see here we have quite potential talent from you two along with the other newcomers. We look forward to having you as our new students." Professor de Mousus delightedly cheered. He then gave us a set of room keys for our own dorm room.

"Here you two go, it's your dorm room keys, and these are your textbooks for your classes, a map of the campus and a bit of history about our prestigious school." he said as he gave me the books which were really heavy. 

"Ooof! This weighs heavier than two large wheels of cheddar cheese!" I squeaked, slowly starting to get the hang of this reality. 
Phil was confused to why I said that out loud but he continued to play along as he took the map from the top of the pile. 

"One more thing sir, where will we meet our other classmates?" Phil asked.   

"Excellent question my boy, you'll find the classrooms in the south east wing of the campus. You'll both be taking Investigative/Adventure Journaling taught by Professor Stilton. I'll let her know to be expecting you two in a couple of hours." He squeaked while sitting at his desk.

"Good luck with your classes today!" He spoke while waving to us. 
We waved back at him with a smile as we closed the door behind us.

I was somehow starting to think that perhaps Sophie and Don are here on the campus too.

"I think we do need to get to that classroom. It could be our only chance to see our pals again." I spoke to Phil. 

"I don't know, maybe we should put our stuff down in our dorm rooms before we check the campus out. Besides we need to carry as little as possible to know what's going on here and we don't want to attract unwanted attention to us." I explained.

Phil nodded his rodent's head as I was mostly the brains of our team, knowing that whatever gear we have brought could cause a disruption throughout the campus since it was more than us that got sucked into the book world.

We then looked at the map to find our dorm room and as the headmaster said, the classrooms were on the lower east section of the map moral compass wise. And above them were the dormitories' where the students live and rest. We then headed there immediately to get situated before classes start and to be sure we aren't doing anything weird, we just act like normal students at college, just wave and say hi to anyone who comes near us. 

We reached the garden area as it was quite lovely with fresh green grass, a stone well in the middle, and an anthro rat who wore what looked like janitor's or long blue jeans with straps going over the shoulders. A name tag on his shirt said, Boomer Whale, Janitor and Gardener.

I somewhat smiled at this knowing it's cool to see other characters that are somewhat iconic to the book series, but I then kept to the main objective as we reached the dorm rooms.

The two of us found our dorm room after we climbed a few sets of stairs and down a few hallways, on the third floor. Phil had the key to our room but before he put it in, he was starting to have mixed feelings about what was going on still.

"You alright Phil?" I asked him. 

"I don't know, it's just that this is somehow happening kind of fast and we are in a weird world where we had lost two of our friends, we've been turned into mice to match the people of this reality, and we are going to a new college that we barely know about?" He asked me.

I looked down as I somehow knew that the rest of my secret will have to come out sooner or later, but it's best if we just chill for today until after sunset when classes were over.

He still trembled trying to get used to his new set of fingers but managed to get the key into the lock. He turned it as we went inside the room.

When we got in, we saw that our room was almost like a hotel room but with a few more added features. A bathroom was right next to the dorm door with a shower, toilet and sink built individually, as well as a hair dryer on the rack.

There were two identical beds spaced out from each other as well as a writing desk by the big sized window over looking the campus, and another next to a tv monitor with a remote and fridge underneath. A closet with two sides of coat hangers and bins for clothes were there as well. 

Somehow this seemed very welcoming but very odd as well, since we are not only roommates but this feels like we were starting college again, but in a book world.

We then chose beds as we started to rummage through our backpacks for any clues that might have ended up here by accident.

Inside of Phil's bag were his books of incantations for spells and case reports of some of his own mysteries like defeating a mad man with octopus legs from a Sanitarium, and visiting several places that served as cematorial prisons. He also had his notes for writing materials down for his adventures as well as a few articles that showed him in the papers saving a city from a strange monster. A detective's badge of the Mad Hatters was in his front pocket strangely as we kept looking.

From my backpack there was the special lens that allowed me to see things that aren't there and an amulet that allows me to read people's memories. My bag contained books of my mysteries where I went to an abandoned amusement park and stopped the ghost of a clown and a mischievous god in the form of a wooden puppet. There was my badge in there as well, that showed I was a detective just like Phil. 

"How did all of this get here?" I asked Phil. 

"I'm not sure but it's just like our bikes and the keys to them when we got sucked into the vortex." Phil explained, as he placed his items under his bed. Only his notebooks, textbooks and pencils were left in his bag.

I placed all of my stuff under my bed as much as possible, but somehow I found a few Thea Stilton books still inside my backpack. 

"What were these doing in here?" I thought as I thought for a minute or two before putting in my textbooks and notes inside.

I then had all of my belongings ready to go for today as I nodded at Phil that I was finished as he jumped over his bed to talk to me.

"Somehow we need to find our friends and find a way to get out of here as soon as possible because this is just not normal." Phil spoke.

"Ok, so here's what  I propose, during today after class, we try to locate the remaining members of our team, ask them about what happened to them, and then come up with a plan to get out of here. Does that sound good? I asked the leader of the hatters.

"Hmmm based on your ideas of the plan of attack, I'd say they are bound to succeed our expectations." He said smiling. "Alright so how long do we have until our first class begins?"

I looked at both of our schedules which we left out as we noticed that we both had Investigating/Adventure Journalism today as well as another period of History and archeology after lunch. Then it was free time before dinner.

"It says we got class in Investigating Journalism in... Oh man, 10 minutes!?" I squeaked as I bolted off the bed, as Phil's eyes opened wide. 

"We should scamper like rodents from a cat then, shall we?" He asked me.

"Yeah, better start squeaking like mice for real now!" I spoke as we both clobbered to get our backpacks in check before running out the door and locking it to make way for our new class.

Chapter Text

Both of us new students at Mouseford University ran as fast as we could downstairs to be sure we got to the right classroom but Phil was still thinking about all of what is happening up to this point. 

"Hey Code wait up. I just thought of something. Should we even be doing this? We don't even belong in this world and neither do our friends." He squeaked as he put his paws on his knees as we entered the garden.

"Hmmm perhaps, but so far even if we find our friends later in here we could try to have a bit of fun perhaps. Since it's so far not so bad as of right now. I spoke as I saw the scenery, nothing crazy going on just a normal university with mouse like students. 

He still scratched his hair under his hat, still wasn't sure if he was up to the idea, but crazy as it sounded, he knew I was right. Even though we had so called classes later in the book time, right now we need to limit our conversations and our gear as possible to not cause any panic in the book world.

Since we are in a book series, we basically for now just do as some of the other characters tell us to do before making our own decisions.

We followed the map to our classroom as we approached the door and looked inside. There were a lot of anthro mice around our age as we tried to identify which two were our friends. We then saw the teacher come towards the door as it opened, unintentionally banging into my own nose, er snout.

"Ouch! Oh, that hurts!" I spoke taking a step back for a second.

Phil giggled as I stood on my feet trying to maintain conscious.

"Oh my dear I'm so sorry, are you ok? squeaked a feminine voice as I looked up to see who it was.

It was another Anthro mice but female this time, but with gray fur and eyelashes. She wore a navy jacket with a fur neckline on top with a pink shirt underneath. She also wore a light blue jeans for pants without any shoes like everyone else.

Then I gasped. OH. MY. FLIPPING. GOD. It's Thea Stilton! She's the special correspondent to the Rodent's Gazette from New Mouse City in the original series!

I then took a deep breath to contain my excitement as I spoke to her in a calm voice.

"Yeah, I'm ok, just trying to see who else was in the class, we're not late now are we? I asked her.

"Oh not at all, you're our new students now are you? We'll have a nice chat after class I'm sure of it, first let me introduce you two to the class for now and get you going on our lecture." Thea said as she took me and Phil into her classroom filled with maps of the world and U.S.A and even whiteboards explaining the best way to get a story out of certain events. Phil and I looked at the class as the students looked at us with either smiles or curious looks.

"Class, please welcome two more of our new students! We'll have introductions later on after we will get through our lesson today about Norway." Thea said in a polite tone as both Phil and I waved to the class with a bit of a nervous expression on our faces. Professor Stilton showed us to two seats in the middle as we walked over to our spots waiting to hear our supposed lecture.

Phil and I got to our seats as we followed in to Thea's lessons. I then looked around to see if I could spot anyone that could resemble Don and Sophie. However, I did spot a familiar group of faces and boy was it a crazy sight. I saw five mousettes that had familiar hair designs, long black braided hair, one red auburn hair with a Stetson cowboy hat, one with brown curly hair, one with gorgeous blonde hair, and one with long black straight hair. They all turned each other's faces to each other whispering as I got a clear image of what they looked like. Indeed they were. Never had I thought I'd see the day we would see, the five and only, Thea Sisters.

I was so surprised and shocked that both Phil and me were in Thea Stilton's class with the five Thea Sisters. In my mind it's mixed with somewhat excitement, or this can't be real, I mean these five, are somewhat amazing in their own way. However, I still had some doubts based on a few personal reasons. Most of it is really sad and tragic but all of this can be thoroughly explained to my teammates. 

Seriously did I have a lot of questions, but before I could answer or figure them out, I was still caught up in the lecture with Thea Stilton as the instructor. Teaching us about how to use reporting instincts at the right moment. Somehow this class was going to be a lot easier than I thought, because me and my friends have explored on our own mysteries before meeting each other in college. Using my researcher skills, I put my skills to the test as I answered many questions as I can.

"First Question: What year was the time Norway was founded, and which particular warrior do we know of today lived back then during the Bronze Age?" Professor Stilton asked.

Most of the students were still thinking about it carefully knowing that this could be a future assignment they could be working on. I was feeling a bit worried that if Phil and I fail the classes, we could be kicked out of the school, but somehow a lightbulb came off in my head.

I remembered I somehow studied a lot of information with Sophie in our own library when looking up the history of the kraken during our most recent case so I decided to do the question. I raised my hand, er paw, in response to the question.

Thea was impressed how as one of the new students I was willing to answer the question, she picked me.

"Norway first began near the end of the Ice Age in 9000 BC, but this was way before the farming and crops started. Before that happened, it was completely a tundra desert." I spoke.

Professor Stilton was satisfied by how I answered it as well as much as the class. The five girls that I saw earlier had their eyes fixated on me.

Phil also participated in the questions the professor gave us as somehow the students were becoming either amazed or jealous at our performance. 

"That's right, in fact the Vikings first settled there not only in Normandy, but also in Dublin and tried to raid various parts of Western Europe." Phil said as he stood up coming to my aid with facts. I smiled at him for helping me out as Thea applauded to us both, soon the class clapped and even the five Thea Sisters applauded to us too. The five girls noticed us as I saw all five of their faces. Man, has it been a long time since I've seen their faces from the books and now right in front of me in person! Well in mice, ach, you get the idea. I winked at them telling them that it was no problem, as few of the girls like Paulina, Nicky, and even Collette blushed a bit. 

Soon we all sat back down in our seats as we heard from our instructor again.

"Exceptional job! Why don't we let someone else than you two mice answer this question about interviewing the locals in a foreign country." Professor Stilton asked.

Phil and I were silent as one of the five mouslettes I recognized raised their paw. It was the one with the pink jacket and blonde hair, who almost had the same color skin as me and Phil.

"I believe the answer is to give them respect with style." She squeaked delightedly as she put on some lipstick. 

Phil asked me if this girl always thinks with fashion.

I whispered back to him, "I believe so, this is one of the five members of the Thea Sisters, the main protagonists of the book series, I've heard so much about since I was a kid." I whispered to him.

"Psst, can you boys pay attention please?" We then heard a girl's voice whisperer to us as we noticed a mouse wearing a Stetson cowboy hat and green jacket turn their head to us.

"This must be Nicky, the Australian adventurer." I thought in my head as I cleared my throat in response to her small but mere pesting at us. 

"Sorry, my friend and I were just talking." I whispered to her.

We all then turned our attention back to Thea as she was about to give her compliment to Collette for her choice of answer.

"Um, close, you are correct Collette, the answer is to be respectful and ask simple questions about what can you tell us about the incident or what the current events are." Thea explained.

She then decided to have a small research project for us in different groups as me and Phil were starting to get the hang of interacting with the characters of this world. We all worked in sets of 3 as we took a look at the pamphlets given to us. Apparently, there's going to be a special news report going to happen in a few days and it somehow seemed very big due to a recent discovery in Norway, Thea thought it would be the perfect opportunity to have the students especially the Thea Sisters investigate.

I checked over to the far side to see the group of friends discussing their portion of the assignment as we were to select a certain part of Norway's history either current events or past event and relate it to our current research paper. We were learning how to relate old facts with facts today to see which ones are true and which ones are fabricated.

So far only three of them were present in the group, the girl known as Collette with her pink clothes, the cowgirl with the Stetson hat, and the one with the dark fur, bushy hair and red sweater. The other two were with another person who I didn't recognize, but still were nice to them. 

Phil was curious about the girls I was looking at and I told him that soon I might want to have a chat with them soon because some how they could be the key to getting out of here. Thea was at her desk writing a few things in her journal as she looked around the classroom at the students, even me and Phil as she got up from her desk.

"Alright then, class in front of you are pamphlets to certain parts of Norway where each of you must select an idea for a current event for Professor Sparkle's trip in a couple of days. Really glad to see some interaction between you all. After all, knowledge is powerful for everyone!" She spoke with glee. 

She then stared at her students with mostly a proud smirk but then slowly a bit of a hint of sadness when she saw the Thea Sisters for some reason. We didn't know why she frowned for a bit at that moment, but she wiped it away with a smile as she went around the room examining all of us.

Phil and I were working with another student who had gone to get some reference books from the book shelf, an atlas of the area, and a series of newspaper clippings noting about Norway.

When the student was gone searching, I then turned to Phil and started talking to him.

"Listen Phil, um, we need to talk."

Phil with his mouse snout asked me, "What is it?"

I then began to clear my throat and started.

"Man I can't believe we're actually standing in the very classroom of Thea Stilton and the Thea Sisters, but I feel like something's not right here." I spoke to him.

"What do you mean something's not right? I mean we are here in this strange world of mice, and we are still missing our two friends who are somewhere in this school and we are somehow being told that we could be going on a trip to Norway." Phil whispered to me.

"Yeah, that's not good on our part, but what also seems weird is that I thought I saw a frown on Thea's face when she looked at the Thea Sisters." I spoke back. 

"What makes you so sure about that? I am one of those people who has not read the series or even knows what this whole thing is somewhat about." Phil squeaked back at me. 

I sighed as I looked at my backpack and saw some of the Thea Sister books in there, there were somehow about 5-7 of them, a mixture of both the originals and some of the more recent ones.

"Listen, after class once we find our teammates, like I said, I'll tell you about the characters and what we know." I said to him after turning my head and zipping my backpack.

"Uh Code, you do realize we're being watched right?" He asked me as he nodded his head to the people behind me as I noticed the girls we saw earlier were staring at us. 

"Oh nuts, we need to keep a really quieter profile here." I said to Phil in a whisper as I saw the five girls regroup with each other talking to each other in whispers. The girl with the long hair and orange outfit walked to her desk and pulled out her tablet for some kind of research.

Thea then walked around the room one more time before heading to the white board with a map of both the world and Norway, as she saw both the two of us looking away from the Thea Sisters. She had a curious look in her eyes as she then decided to conclude the class with our finished proposals.

Each of us had our own ideas which were very simple, but for us two, we somehow found archeology discoveries connected to the news clippings of an old historical discovery from underneath the school itself. This was something worth checking out. 

"Well that's it for class today, can I have the new students stay after class for a few minutes? I would like to have a word with them." Professor Stilton spoke to the class, especially me and Phil. We were kind of curious about what she would want with us, but we decided to play it cool as if we didn't know anything. I felt like we have this in the bag, but honestly, I was kind of nervous based on certain reactions, scared we might be in trouble for suspicious behavior, or the fact that we weren't doing much of the work. For the first time, I felt my own new tail stand up from behind my back as my new fur flinched. We'll have to find out soon enough if we're in the green zone for more investigating or red zone and we're in trouble.

Everyone left the classroom except the two of us because we did know that something was off in the book world, we just didn't know exactly what. However, as the two of us begin to talk to Professor Stilton about how we knew what to do, unbeknownst to us is that we were being stalked by two other mice from the classroom doorway, two we didn't see in class, who looked kind of familiar somewhat. 

Chapter Text

The journalism classroom was nearly empty as I was both kind of nervous, excited, and curious about talking to Thea Stilton, or should I say Professor Stilton.

"Professor Stilton," Phil asked.

"Please, when we're not in class, call me Thea," Mrs. Stilton smiled.

"Oh of course, anyway we're just confused to why you called us in?" I asked.

"Well for starters, I'm very pleased and disappointed in your actions for your first class today. Even though you answered the questions I gave you, you haven't quite paid any attention to the instructions in class time" Thea squeaked with a disconcerting look on her face while crossing her arms.

We both winced at this and had shocked faces at each other.

"What why? We did what you told us to do in class didn't we?" I asked her to try to defend the two of us.

"Yes, you did manage to answer the questions, but you failed to come together with your teammate about what project you would write about during your trip to Norway." She spoke still with a cranky look.

Phil and I looked down as we had a feeling this was going to end poorly.

The older mouse then took a deep breath as she sighed realizing it was only our first day at the academy.

"I'm sorry, what am I saying, this is your first day and even though your performance wasn't quite cheddariffic, you still have what it takes to take my class." Thea replied to us both.

We both sighed in relief as Phil groaned in his head that it will take some time getting used to these cheesy jokes. As for me, somehow in my gut, our quiet conversation might have alerted Thea's attention.

"Are we free to go?" I asked with a slight smile on my mousy face.

"Well not quite yet. There's something I need to tell you both first and you might want to hear this." Thea spoke.

My smile faded with a concerned look as Thea sat down at her desk.

"I just wanted to talk to you about your own stories. You two and two others seem interesting." She spoke.

This somehow got us off guard somehow.

"Two others? You mean the other two students?" Phil squeaked with confusion.

"That's correct, in fact they are standing outside the classroom wanting to speak to you. Earlier during our session, I had a call from the other teachers, Professor Sparkle, and Professor Marblemouse that these two wanted to see if you two showed up. For some reason, they have an interest in both of you due to your unique position as our newest students." Thea explained.

She then gestured to the two young students by the door. The two mice looked very familiar.

Both had different shades of gray for fur but one of them wore a light green sweater with dark brown hair and cargo pants. He had light blue eyes and an artistic brush in his pockets.

The other mouse was a mousette with a darker shade of gray than the first mouse as she wore a lavender long coat with a pink shirt underneath and an amberish orange colored set of pants.

She wore purple glasses and had long dark purplish velvet hair coming from the back of her head.

I recognized these two mice. It was Don and Sophie in their mouse forms! It was a sight for sour eyes as the both of us smiled at them with happiness. Even though it was weird, Phil and I decided to have a small catch-up time with them before heading out for our afternoon lunchbreak.

"Hey guys, we've been looking for you." the mouse with the green sweater squeaked.

"Is it really you though?" Phil asked still not convinced it was them.

The mousette came over and took her glasses and gave Phil a; "excuse me, it's us?" vibe.

Phil then recognized Don's voice from the male mouse as he was astonished that all four of us were back. The four of us fist bumped each other's paws and hugged knowing that we all got back together again.

Thea was somehow not surprised by this as she knew we would know each other in a way.

"It's been a short while since we last met. You guys alright?" Sophie asked us.

"Yeah, we're fine. Man, I can't believe we're here together at this school." Phil explained as he scratched his head under his top hat.

"So how did you guys get here?" I asked the both of them.

"It's complicated, but we'll explain later when we have the chance." Don spoke.

We kept on talking as Thea was still watching us from her desk. I had a strange hunch that Thea wanted to keep talking to us so I turned around and then had my eyes on hers.

"Did you want anything else from us?" I asked our new teacher.

Thea then squeaked with her calm voice, "Yes, I believe there is. I want to talk to you four about something personal if that's alright with you four. It's perhaps about my prized students, the Thea Sisters."

The four of us were a bit shaken by this as we somehow got curious by Mrs. Stilton's words. 

"I'm sure you have seen them before in my class just today. I am really proud of their efforts in solving mysteries around the world, and they make me so proud every time I write about their stories." 

"Yeah, I actually noticed you have, I am kind of curious by the way. Not just about their stories, but how much you keep up with them, like after class or after their adventures, do you give them a call, or did they ever send you things after they were done?" I spoke up with my inquiries mind.

Thea then looked a bit sad for some reason as she stated, "The stories I write for my audience is mainly about their adventures, not mine and even though I have my name on the titles, I feel like, they're the actual heroes and adventurers of the series I talk about, and besides, I'm not required to be in the books anymore. And truth be told, I miss talking to my favorite students." 

I was taken a back for a second there. Why would she say that crying out loud? Of course, she deserves to be shown or present with her students in the books. She is their leader and mentor of course! 

"Oh my gosh, Thea we are so sorry you feel that way. You miss them a lot, don’t you?" Don asked as he saw a photo on her desk that showed her and the five Thea sisters happy together.

"Yeah, they were and still are my brightest students." Thea spoke as she took the photo from Don's paws. "This was done on the day of our first investigation together, underneath the school, we found a hidden chamber with a dragon statue and a treasure trove of Viking artifacts inside an old genuine ship. It's also where we found Professor Sparkle tied up trying to figure out what was beneath us." She continued with a sad tone as she missed the old days.

"What? I don't understand, you and your students are the reason why I wanted to be an explorer of mysteries." Sophie spoke up as she got in front of Thea's desk. 

Thea was surprised when she saw Sophie speak up. "Really? You're a fan? That's not surprising since I hear you actually aced a writing and history sessions with Professor Rattcliff and Professor Sparkle." Thea said hearing some inspiration from Sophie.

"Why thank you, I have been reading a lot of literature and writing for a while and wanted to write my own stories using a bit of horror and mystery involved." Sophie squeaked, getting a bit excited.

"In fact, I think I have one of them here in my backpack if you want to read it." she exclaimed as she took off her backpack and took out an envelope with an insignia of a skull and the shape of a motel entryway.

Phil and I gasped at this. This is one of Sophie's long-time adventures which got her into our group. She was accidentally going to give her identity of being a detective away!

Thea was intrigued by this but noticed how it was more of a folder than a book. Sophie was about to give it to Thea, but Phil took her hand and shook his head at her, telling her it's a bad idea, since the adventures we've done are real and crazier than the Sister's had solved.

She still wasn't sure of the idea of listening to Phil, but she still remembered our promise never to tell anyone about what we really do unless it's our closest allies.

She then took a deep breath as she pulled her hand away while Thea looked a bit heartbroken.

"Are you alright?" Thea asked the mousette. 

"Sorry it's just that this book might not be ready yet at all to be looked at." Sophie said as she zipped up her bag and chuckled a bit. 

Thea was a bit apprehensive by this, but she let it slide. 

"Very well then, well let me know when something comes up, and be sure to stay curious!" She said.

"Wait one more thing," I added as the three of my teammates looked at me.

"I have read your brother's adventures, and they are one of the reasons why I want to be a writer or an investigative reporter too." I said trying to keep our secret contained.

Thea smiled a sweet smile like a rodent for fresh gourmet cheese. "Well, that is a delicious taste like eating swiss and Burrata together." She squeaked.

The four of us chuckled knowing somehow that was either a good joke or not quite since it is of a cheesy mouse world, but we acknowledged it. 

"Yeah, we still got things planned and I'm not sure how we would address it to the public." Phil squeaked with a bit of a positive attitude.

"Listen if there's anything that we can do to help you out, just let us know." I spoke with a smile, giving a warm heart to Thea herself who smiled back.

"Thank you so much. I hope to see you again in tomorrow's class." She spoke.

"Hope to see you soon as well." I spoke as I waved to her. The four of us left the classroom as Thea waved to us feeling a bit better, as she pulled out a book from her desk drawer and started writing in it.

As we walked out of the classrooms building and into the garden, Phil raised a concerned and angry look at Sophie's face. "What the hell were you thinking? You nearly gave away that we are really human detectives from an out of book world that solve dangerous and paranormal mysteries." 

"What? These mice here don't know anything about what we do, and they have no idea that these events even happened. We'll just put these off as horror novels with different character names besides us." Sophie assured Phil.

Don was a bit on the idea with Sophie, thinking that this would clear things up if we pretended that our cases were just horror mystery novels, but this got me thinking about what Phil mentioned. There was one thing that was on our minds that was important that made us very pleased.

The four of us were finally back together as we chatted down the hallway towards the cafeteria for a bit of lunch. Along the way, we learned that Don and Sophie managed to get into the book world in a different part of the island, a small clearing in the woods near a road with their motorbikes already there waiting for them. After getting to the school to find us and getting in as classes, the two of them got into two different classes, Sophie was in both Sparkle's and Rattcliff's classes, while Don was in Professor Datamouses' math classes and the gym for Physical Fitness. Both had managed to enjoy their classes but somehow it didn't feel right to them because it was not of the students they were with, but it seemed out of place for them as well and they knew something was off with where they landed here in the book world.

So, we all knew how we got into this world, but what was the point of it, and how do we get out is the new objective for us. 

We then reached the cafeteria after a couple of minutes of walking as we grabbed a table after getting our food from the cook, Midge Whale, another member of the Whale family who works here at the academy.

Sophie was taking a bite from her salad and a bit of a few white beans while Don chowed down on some stew. Phil had his mouth filled with a burrito while I had an enchilada.

After a bit of eating, we then started talking.

"Ok so now that we're back together, what should we do?" Don asked us.

"Hmmm I don't know, to be honest so far, some of the mice here are pretty nice to me ever since I came here, feels like a dream come true." Sophie said as she was admiring the school around us with the students eating at the tables and hearing about the upcoming field trip to Norway.

"You had a dream of being in the world of mice and traveling around the world?" I asked Sophie while raising an eyebrow.

"Actually, traveling around the world is my dream but seeing my favorite group of mystery solvers in front of me, is a childhood dream for real." Sophie exclaimed as she was making some sense to us, a bit.

"Really? I guess you have books of the Thea Sisters by Thea Stilton in your backpack?" Phil asked Sophie, realizing that he knew because I had some of the books in mine as well.

"You are quite the detective; how did you know I had some with me?" Sophie asked while acting guilty as she took her backpack and spewed a few of the books on the table.

"Because I have them too in my backpack." I squeaked in confession as I zipped open my backpack to reveal the books. I placed them on the table as all of us were surprised by how much Sophia and I had read them. However only certain books were here on the counter, not all the mysteries were present as we had about 5 from the original art designs to the ones after Legend of the Fire Flowers and even after the one about love letters, ice skating, and located in Russia.

"That is certainly a lot of books you guys have." Don spoke as he whistled quite a small tune.

"Yeah, these five girls are somewhat of role models to us." I spoke. 

"Really? How so? I mean, they're just five college students who travel around the world and visit different countries for their assignments." Phil said stating his opinion.

While Phil and I were squeaking like rodents during lunch, Don looked over our shoulders and saw the five girls from the book covers on our table ordering their food and finding a table to eat at. He then turned his head away from them just before they made eye contact with us.

"Well, we do the same thing they do, don't we? Think about it, we go to school and go around the world to solve mysteries, we fight bad guys to protect the environment. And we get to record our notes in our own case files to help us remember the details of our missions." Sophie explained as she opened one of the books showing us illustrations of the Thea Sisters doing crazy adventures in a country while helping their friends.

"Yeah, but I thought these stories that the girls did, and Thea wrote from them are for kids. And besides, our cases were scarier and dangerous than these guys ever faced. That's why we don't tell anyone what we really do." Phil pointed out. 

"Even though I don't want to say yes, he's right unfortunately, we have done crazier adventures and mystery solving around the U.S. and even a few outside the country to protect the world from all forms of evil." I spoke to the others, which Sophia frowned at, and Phil smiled a bit knowing I understood the consequences.

"But still, we are somewhat of a good mystery solving team, somewhat to the girls in Thea's stories here." Don said, looking at a few of the books again.

"Somewhat? What do you mean somewhat?" a feminine voice that sounded familiar.

We turned around and saw a familiar rodent with brown fur and dark curly hair. It was one of the Thea Sisters, Pamela, who overheard us from another table. 

Sophie was lit up like a Christmas tree, Don and Phil were both starring at her as the other members of her crew joined her from behind. As for me, I was aww inspired by this. Both my eyes and mouth were speechless as we saw the girls meet up with us at lunch during this time.

The other four were the girl with the blond hair and pink clothes known as Colette, which we already knew from class, also Nicky with the Stetson hat and the green jacket, handkerchief around her neck and the Australian accent. Then one of them had the long black straight hair with the purple outfit and green eyes. And lastly the girl with the darker gray fur, braided hair, and the long orange dress were all curious while looking at us.

"We heard that you considered us your role models, are you learning to become or already investigative reporters too?" Nicky said remembering the two of us, me and Phil, from Thea's class.

"I.. uh.. I believe so yes, we are. We were just chatting about how much we love your adventures ever since we got here." I spoke trying to make sure they wouldn't know completely everything about us.

The girls were a bit impressed by our mentioning being or becoming investigative reporters too and it seemed a bit far-fetched without some introductions.

"Nice to meet you five, my name is Cody," I introduced myself with a smile, as I introduced the other members of my group to the Thea sisters as each member of the five did a different intro nod. 

Nice to meet you too young friend. I'm Pamela, and these are Nicky; (Nicky with the hat took hold of her hat with a nod of approval) Colette, (the pink clothed one winked her eyes a bit while curling her fingers) Paulina, (the long orange dressed one waved her hand at us for a bit but was a bit shy as well) and Violet. (The long straight black hair waved her hand and said hi in response as she smiled at us.)

"You're the new students that we heard about in Thea's class, such a pleasure to meet you." the mousette known as Paulina squeaked in delight as if she was bright yellow as American Cheddar and American Swiss combined.

"We hope you don't mind sharing the space here, do you? All of the seats here are taken, and I really need to manicure my fingers for today." Colette piped up showing us her fingers that were a bright tan clean. Her friends giggled and rolled their eyes behind her as I thought about it for a second. 

"Actually, why not? I think we can let you sit here, there's more room than we originally thought. I spoke as I moved a bit of space out of the way for the girls to sit down. "You guys are ok with this right?" I asked the three other mice. 

"Absolutely!" Sophie squeaked excitedly.

"Uh you sure about this Code?." Phil asked tapping his fingers.

"What's wrong with making new friends? I think it's a good idea." I responded to him.

"I'm ok with this." Don replied with a thumbs up.

The Thea sisters smiled at us for the hospitality as they sat down between us at the table.

We smiled back at them as we shook their hands knowing somehow in our guts we may have made a grand introduction to the girls themselves, or an unknown mistake has just been made that will soon haunt us later on in the book world.

How will we start our conversation with them and what will we do now knowing that they are at our table?

Chapter Text

The nine of us, counting the Thea sisters were all sitting at our table getting intrigued by our own conversation as we asked them about their adventures. I was really nervous about how to approach this because even though I grew out of the books a long while ago, somehow they were giving me Deja vu moments due to a lot of things. First of all, these girls were the exact form I remember them in the first time I ever read their adventures.

And by their words when explaining their hobbies, they have impressed us, but still something felt like there was a little something on their minds too. Sophie and I still had our books on the Thea Sisters main adventures on the table as they were still asking us about our hobbies and what we do. 

"So you're the engineer and cook of the group then?" Phil asked Pamela. 

"Yep, and I'm also the muscle of the team as well. Helping out with the arguments carefully and I do have a bit of a temper sometimes." Pamela the Tanzanian mouse squeaked to Phil delightedly as she ate a big bite of a pizza slice.

Sophie was really surprised by how big of a bite Pamela ate from it, but wasn't too surprised because she remembered in the books how much she loves eating.

"Huh sounds like we're similar minds but on two different sides of the bread slice." Don said smiling as he chuckled with Pamela.

She chuckled at this a bit as she talked to the rest of the girls.

"I am a bit curious, you two boys somehow aced most of the work in Thea's class today even though this was your first time here." Violet said looking at us.

"Well what can we say? We have a bit of our own experience with history and facts about amazing places." Phil said proudly crossing his arms.

"That's right, we're experts in our field with math, science, and other subjects." Don said spinning his brush in his paw. 

"You're an artist I take it?" Violet asked Don.

"Yep, made a lot of artwork for my friends as they share me theirs as well." Cody's a good one too and loves puzzles. And I mean it, he really loves escape rooms." Don joked at me while he took another spoonful of his stew.

Some of the mice girls chuckled a bit as it felt like we were getting along just fine for now.

The four of us 'non secretive mice' were a little nervous to explain to them about our stories that we might want to just go with the basics. 

"We have read many of your adventures from time to time and have admired your moves ever since high school. I just loved learning about the world and traveling, which is why I wanted to be like you." Sophie said with a smile while showing some of the older books like the Secret City, The Mountain of Fire, even Trouble in the Big Apple. 

Colette saw the illustrations in one of the books Sophie gave out and she just couldn't help admiring herself in the illustrations. OOOOH! I look so cute in these! I look amazing with those outfits! Well, except that time I fell into the swamp in Australia. No thanks to you Nicky." Colette smiled with glee but gave a bit of a sneer at Nicky who looked confused about it since it was a while ago.

The other three chuckled at this as we continued to talk.

"So where are you guys from exactly?" Paulina joined in the conversation.

"Ummm.. you mean country wise?" I asked a little nervous and curiously.

"Exactly, like where did you grow up?" Violet asked.

This made me feel really comfortable because this was an easy question that was normal and not related to what we actually do.

"Oh that! Thank you. Phew. Well, Phil and I are from America. We both met online and have collaborated on some adventures and some book reports." I said to the girls.

"I'm from the Philippines where I do some landscape drawing and art, while Sophie here is somehow my neighbor, from Singapore." Don squeaked as Sophie shrugged her shoulders about it. 

The Thea sisters were intrigued to hear about this since none of them have ever quite been to Singapore or the Philippines before.

"You know, Singapore has a bit of history I'm familiar with, maybe we can take a visit to see your family there." Violet thought which brightened her closest friends up a lot. 

"That's a grand idea. We should definitely check in with Professor Sparkle and Marblemouse about this soon!" Nicky spoke as she got done eating her lunch. 

"Are you sure you don't want to talk about Professor Stilton about this?" Sophie asked the girls nervously as she scratched the back of her head.

"Professor Stilton?" Pamela asked us confused.

"Yeah, Thea Stilton, Correspondent of the Rodent's Gazette of New Mouse Island? The person you named your group after?" I asked them.

"Oh yes, I can't believe we've forgotten about her. Ummm, this might be harder to explain somehow." Colette spoke feeling a bit guilty about not seeing their teacher again. However she stopped with a thinking face on her mind. "Wait, person?" She asked me.

Oh crap! I made a mistake! I used the term 'person' instead of 'mouse' to cover our tracks. None of the mice in this world knows what a human is or looks like.

"Sorry I meant to say Mouse, the MOUSE that you named yourselves after." I chuckled a bit trying to correct myself.

Colette was a bit suspicious of my behavior but she shrugged it off. 

"Yes we have been in her class recently, but we actually felt like it wasn't the same as before. We loved this place and our friendship so much that we've been going about on our own adventures without any school work." Nicky replied. 

"Most of the times, it's to visit our friends, our families, and even vacations." Colette spoke as she admired those times.

Paulina, Pamela, and Violet rolled their eyes as they knew that Colette loved to travel, just for the shopping, relaxation, and even the clothes they wear.

"Very interesting. Even though we're newbies, I am curious if you guys are going on the trip to Norway?" I asked them.

The girls then stopped to think about it for a second, then came up with a decision.

"Well we have been thinking about a new vacation, and perhaps since it's near the winter, I hear there's some cool places to check out in Norway. That's a place we haven't been to yet." Paulina spoke noting my idea. 

"Yeah, I think a trip to Norway and somewhere near Finland might work out fine for us." Pamela smiled.

"Oh I love the idea a lot! I'll be able to bring my favorite sweater and gloves with me on the trip!" Colette squeaked with excitement as I saw Violet and Nicky roll their eyes.

"But wait, don't we have an assignment due soon for class?" Nicky asked. 

Violet was about to say something when we heard the school bell ring, signaling us that it was nearly time to get to our next class for the day.

"Op well, I guess we'll have to discuss this later, for right now, we've got classes to attend to. We have music class with Professor Aria, and Literature with Professor Ratcliff." Paulina exclaimed.

"Well, let's go girls. We haven't got all day, let's make like mice and blow this cheese stick stand." Colette squeaked as she got up with her tray as Pamela tried to finish up her food. 

The five girls were about to leave when Violet and Paulina turned around to us four and said. "It was nice squeaking with you. Hope we talk again." They then left as this placed a bit of a bit of warmth in my heart, knowing even though we didn't talk much, I still miss the original Thea Sisters as they were. Hearing  their voices was unnatural because usually we see their words on the pages.

It's amazing seeing your old childhood heroic characters right in front of you. However it still felt like I was in a dream along with my friends.

"Hey Cody, Code..." I heard a voice saying in my ear as I fazed out of my mind.

 "Uh er what? Oh guys, sorry I was just thinking. I spoke while looking at Don and Phil.

"Thinking of them? Don't tell me you've got a crush on all of them or just at least one of them." Phil joked a bit sarcastically.

"Wait, excuse me?" I asked putting my utensils on the table while looking at him. I was starting to get a little upset with him as Don noticed the two of us having a little argument again.

"You said that we needed to stay on topic to be aware of the environment without causing suspicion." Phil perked up with his leadership again.

"Yeah of course that's what I'm doing but I was gaining the trust of possible allies." I spoke getting up from the table.

"Yes but you used the wrong term." Phil spoke putting his paws on his side of the table.

"Look I'm trying my best here to get used to the school and our surroundings but anyone makes mistakes. It happens." I replied.

"Yes but the wrong step can get us into big trouble." Phil spoke annoyingly.

Don then stepped in between us with a bit of force and squeaked. "Hey guys back it off for once alright? This is not how we deal with conversations as a team." 

While Don tried to conserve the small argument, Sophie noticed a strange blackish glow coming from a few set of mouse prints on the ground which somehow lead to somewhere. However there were too many mice in the building it was hard to distinguish which one it could be.

Phil and I were then looking at Don as we noticed not only anger but a slight hint of fear realizing he was trying to help us realize we needed to work together.

"Oh man he's right, sorry about that." Phil spoke cooling down.

"Yeah me too, hey maybe we can discuss more about what we've learned so far today in our dorm room when we have time." I spoke.

"Maybe, but don't we have other classes to deal with first?" Sophie asked us. 

"Classes, huh I don't know, when Phil and I went to see the Headmaster, he told us that the class we'll be taking today will be Thea's class only. Strange." I said as I took my schedule out of my backpack. I pulled out the paper that had a schedule for this semester at Mouseford Academy. 

"Alright it says I have music class with Professor Aria at 2 to 4 today as it is somewhat the last class for me today. What about you guys?" I spoke as the others looked at their schedules from their bags.

Phil got his out and noticed that he has schedule had a class at the same time as me but with Professor Sparkle, the history expert. "Thea did mention we were going to have a trip in a couple of days so we better make the most of it happen." He spoke as we looked at them carefully.

"But wait, we don't have our passports. And I don't know if we should be doing that trip anytime soon, because I think something is off here." Sophie said as the three of us turned to see Sophie pointing at the floor. Ink like footprints in the shape of a mouse standing were leading into the crowd of students and teachers who were leaving for the next class.

"Wait, footprints?" Did someone get their feet dirty as they walked in?" I asked in confusion. When I approached the trail on the ground, I tried to examine it by touching it. But when I was about to get a tiny sample, it instantly vanished! Not only did that print disappear, but so did the trail. Something was very weird. "Holy crap. What is happening here?" I said, as a few mice noticed me squinting down at the ground. "Op sorry, just uh.. admiring the floors in this place." I spoke as I got up scratching the back of my head.

The mice shrugged as they went back to their classrooms. I took a sigh of relief as I knew somehow I was going to get soon a bit of trouble if no one would be me or my friends.

"Hey I get it, we saw them too. We believe you. But there is something going on in this book world that's just not right." Sophie spoke as she walked up to me. 

"Yeah, and I know we had our issues cut out like what happened earlier back in our room. Maybe we should sort this out once we've got through our next courses. They don't seem to be that bad it looks like." Phil said as we looked at our schedules again. 

"It looks like we have another class involving science soon, so I guess we'll have to finish the conversation a bit later today." Sophie stated as Don noticed the same class on his list. 

"Hmmm, you're right. Well, hope you guys note your findings and let us know what you have found so far. We'll need it." Don spoke as he and Sophie went off again. I didn't want to lose them again, but at least we know where we'll be.

Phil and I waved good bye to our teammates for now as we know we'll see them again.

"So now what should we do?" Phil asked me.

"Me? Well, maybe we should get to know more about the history of this place and see what we can know. We still have a bit of history class to take soon." I squeaked in .

Phil nodded as we then started our walk towards our classes. 

Phil then said one more thing. "Say Code, about the girls before, those five mice. I'm sorry if I said that you might be into them. I don't really know much about them but can you also explain to me how they work together?" He asked me.

That's right I totally forgot about that, since it was of course our so called first day here at Mouseford Academy.

"Soon, yes real soon. I'll do my best to explain it all tonight." I finished as Phil smiled. 

Meanwhile on a separate part of the campus, the Thea Sisters themselves were really intrigued by the four new rodents they just met. They were squeaking about how those two boys in Thea's class and how their two friends were amazing but had their doubts about them being real solvers because of what they have done. Almost as if they were jealous of the girls.

"Those guys were really ratastic in my opinion." Nicky spoke as she walked with her fellow sister friends.

"Indeed, that girl Sophie was interesting and I've yet to see what that fellow Don has drawn or painted in art class yet." Violet spoke agreeing with her friend as something was on her mind about the other two rodents they met. 

"What about those other two rodents? What were their names again?" Pamela asked her friends.

"Cody and Phil?" Paulina assisted her.

"Ah yes, thank you. I am feeling a bit odd about the guy with the top hat. Who does that guy think he is? Thinking that they are better than us, or even as good as us at mystery solving." Pamela spoke as they went into their next classroom with Professor Rattcliffe. 

"It was a bit of cheesy chatter we had with them, but I do have suspicions about that rodent with the gray jacket." Colette spoke with her thinking caps on in her mouse brain.

"Why him?" Nicky asked her stylish rose color coated friend.

  "A detective? A magician? Phil looks a bit out of place for fashion if you ask me. But that Cody? Mmmm somehow, he looks cute." Colette squeaked in a daze as she remembered seeing his jacket. 

"Yeah he is very cool looking like a sweet cheese casserole, but you just met him, we all met him, and his friends. Besides something smelly is going on here." Paulina said. 

"What do you mean Pauly?" Nicky asked looking at her. 

"Well, the way how they were behaving, even said person one time when referencing our old teacher, Thea. Can't believe she's actually back after so many years." She continued.

"Yeah, wonder why she came back? It's been about a few weeks since she just came back to teach here at Mouseford Academy, and today was the day we get new students? That's unbelieveable!" Nicky squeaked. 

"Ladies?" an older female voice spoke up. 

The five girls looked at their teacher who had gray hair but light brown fur. She wore a light lavender dress with glasses over her snout and purple shoes.

"Op sorry Professor, we were just discussing with each other about our next paper." Pamela chuckled.

The professor nodded as she went back to teaching the class.

"We should squeak to those four again, maybe it could be our new scoop for the school!" Violet thought carefully whispering to her sister friends. The other four nodded in agreement as they too want to know all there is about the Mad Hatters who they believe could be an interesting news story. Little did they know that the journey they'll take, will be one that will be unforgettable for the both of them and their perhaps new friends.

They then got to work in Rattcliffe's class as they started writing in their notebooks about note taking, when a strange rodent from the entry way was watching them within the shadows, as they stepped away with ink like pawprints on the floor.

Chapter Text

Both of our days were somewhat going interesting, with our own individual classes. The Thea Sisters were writing notes in Professor Rattcliffe's literature class while Don and Sophie were taking Professor Ian Van Kraken's Marine Biology class, due to learning all there is about the sea life underwater, how we need to maintain the water's conditions in order for us to use it again, and to allow all sea life be at peace when swimming in their home. As for me and Phil, we did another class after music class with Professor Aria, known as history, one of my favorite subjects along side math which got us really excited somehow because we were the mad hatters of course. Not to brag or anything. 

Professor Sparkle, the History teacher was a funny mouse and an interesting character because he appeared in some of the adventures the Thea Sisters were on. In fact, he was the mysterious culprit from the very first book known as the Dragon's Code. It was a little funny at first but then we got to seriousness in the classroom. Phil and I we introduced ourselves and told the class a bit about ourselves not as detectives but our possible idea to do Mouseford Academy to hone our own research skills. 

Luckily, our tricks were paying off, but still, something in my gut felt like even though we were doing a good job hiding our true forms that we were really humans, the people, er, mice in this world might not understand what we were up to. We did however learn some interesting things about the academy from our own textbooks by how Viking warriors established themselves at this location and that the village itself near the academy is part of the old settlement. Most of the treasures found in the caverns beneath the school from the first book were donated to the public for observation.

When our classes were finished finally, the four of us managed to get back together and head over to the garden to clear our minds. Don and Phil sat at a bench, while Sophie and I were resting our heads amongst a tree. We were so exhausted from learning about the classes that we just needed to find a way to get out of here still. 

"Wow, those science classes, were somewhat of a ball." Sophie said as she rested her head on the tree. 

"I hear you. Even though Professor Van Kraken is an interesting mouse, I can't believe that Violet as you told me had a crush on him at one point in the third book!" Don spoke realizing it when he learned from Sophie's perspective.

"So now what do we do?" Phil asked.

"What do you mean what do we do? You're our leader." I squeaked to Phil.

"I know but you guys seem more into this place of a world than I am." Phil squeaked as he looked down at the ground.

"Well, all I know is that we should keep tabs on the girl's activities' just to see if they are going to Norway. Because we could find a way out of here by following in their footsteps, er, pawsteps." I squeaked in as I tried to get on my feet paws.

"Wait you want us to spy on them?" Don asked me with a concerned look.

"What? Of  course not, we're just trying to follow them as in like learning more about them." I spoke trying to maintain a clear idea of our own objective. But still, we needed to find answers to figure out what was going on here.

The only clues we got were the field trip to Norway, and helping the Thea Sisters with whatever what mission they have to partake in. But what else is fishy is the fact that we all saw ink like footprints in the dining hall.

"Should we head to your dorm room to discuss our items that we brought with?" I feel like we're forgetting that important step." Sophie said.

Phil liked the idea as we had a feeling that we still might be drawing attention to some of the other students. "Yeah we should discuss about how we could get into that field trip. I don't think we have enough money to get there." Phil spoke as we got up from our spots and headed to our dorm room. 

Meanwhile, in the halls of the academy, the Thea Sisters were walking down the area as they were somewhat ecstatic to see their old mentor back at the school after a couple of years had passed. And what else, they met a new group of students that have been fans of them for some quite time now. Although it was nice to meet a new group of students who just joined them, they have more questions to ask them.

"So girls, I'm guessing we are going to Norway for our winter vacation?" Nicky asked her fellow sister members. 

"Eh, I don't know, it's really cold up there and I'm too fond of my fur to try this one, let alone go to Antarctica!" Colette spoke gulping at the thought.

"AWW, come on Coco, you handled much worse than that! Remember our long stroll in the deserts of Egypt?" Paulina squeaked reminding them of that journey they went on with Professor Sparkle to find the treasure of the sun.

"Paulina is right actually, you have faced worse. We even went to Alaska and even though you got sick, you fought through like an Inuit warrior!" Violet spoke giving her friend some confidence in her thinking.

"We can even find some warm clothes for you while we're there, while we explore the sites and check out the museum for our next report to our professors. And hopefully we'll find us a few food joints for us to chow at." Pamela spoke thinking at all the food options to choose from.

"But why can't I bring my own clothes with me?" Colette whined and started to pout. 

"Isn't it obvious? You carry too many bags around for anyone to handle!" Violet spoke rolling her eyes around.

"Always being like that huh? Fine! But how long do we have until the event happens?" Colette asked her friends.

"Well, we have a few days to do so until we head out to the land of the midnight sun, so about two to three days at least." Paulina said checking her schedule as they made it to their dorm rooms. 

It was starting to get darker as night time was starting to come over the academy. 

The girls piled into one of their rooms as they either stood on their floor, or relaxed on the chairs and beds.

"Man it will be so cool to check out Norway, especially since we'll check out the amazing landmarks!" Nicky declared as she just swayed on one of the chairs.

Pamela smiled at this knowing that a lot of good stuff will await them there, especially the food. Boy was she a foods mouse for sure.

Paulina was at her reading desk with her laptop as she looked through some sites about a few possible locations in Norway. She saw a lot of cool things in the cold region that would be fascinating to look at, especially some of the tech companies, while Violet joined her into searching for historical museums related to the legends and beliefs of Norway. They both noticed that the prices on some of these events looked heavy as they realized all five of them will have to be careful with their allowance when they travel. "Looks like our currency will be involving Krones, so we'll have to save up our money on traveling to certain parts of the country based on our field trip." Violet said

 As Paulina kept scrolling through the sites on her laptop, noticed an email pop up from her screen showing it was from her little sister Maria. (In case you don't know, us readers first met her in few of the books, "The Secret City," and the "Blue Scarab Hunt." But those were the only times we found her in.) 

"Hey girls! My little sister has just sent me an email!" Paulina squeaked in delight as she pulled open her sister's message.

"Really? That's amazing! We haven't heard from her since that time in, in.... Egypt." Nicky said realizing how long it's been since that moment. 

"Hey let's just read what she has to say and we can continue figuring out our belongings." Colette spoke as she warmed her hands with some gloves in her bag. The five of them looked at Paulina's email from her sister as they read it.

"Dear Paulina,

Hey Big  Sis! How have things been going at the Academy? I really miss talking to you after I learned about your big adventure in Egypt with your friends. I did manage to read more on your adventures though and they have seemed to get more impressive after another. I have heard rumors from your school that not only did you receive the opportunity that you get to go to Norway next, but also how there's going to be a special event held in that country as new artifacts have been recently surfaced! This is cheddariffic! I hope you make the front page news as reporters real soon!

Love, 

Maria"

The mousettes were taken a bit back as they noticed Maria, their honorary member being happy and sad about missing the girls Even Paulina was surprised at the message. She really missed her little sister a lot, as she had a small sign of tears in her eyes. 

"We should send her some pictures of our trip to Norway as we explore." Pamela suggested to Paulina.

"You just read my mind! You're as smart as three mice eating gouda for breakfast!" Paulina smiled as they continued to get ready for their trip for the next couple of days.

Colette then started to think about those new students again as she was getting her clothes in one of her bags. 

"You ever think those new students can join us on our trip to Norway?" She asked her friends.

"I don't know, they just got here today, and come to think of it. I am somehow smelling something stinkier than cheese in a dumpster here." Nicky said as she straightened her Stetson from Australia.

The other girls didn't like that at all as they groaned, rolled their eyes, and/or wisped any bad odor from their noses from their snouts.

"What makes you say that?" Colette looked at her friend with a raised eyebrow on her mouse face.

"Wait, don't tell me you're taking an interest in the boys in their gang." Pam squeaked jokingly.

"Well, maybe a bit. But wait, are you into them too?" Colette asked Pam. 

Pam stuttered, "What? NO! Of course not! I swear on my mother's tail!" She pouted as she crossed her arms.

Paulina and Violet chuckled at their three friends conversing over the new gang, when a strange stutter with a black and goldish glow came from Paulina's laptop.

"Woah, what is going on here?" Paulina piped up as she noticed the strange glow from her screen, but then it vanished away.

Violet looked over to see her Peruvian friend have a small stutter from her computer. 

"Hey are you ok?" the Chinese rodent asked.

The stuttering stopped as the braided mouse looked closely at her screen to see nothing had happened.

"Huh I thought, maybe, eh just a small malfunction perhaps. Probably overheated perhaps." She spoke as she shrugged it off.

As the girls continued chatting, a small glitch was affecting the software on Paulina's laptop unknown that something else was written in the email as well.

Back in our rooms, the four of us were still discussing about our time so far in the academy, and in the Thea Sister's lives, as I looked down at the photo of our team together and the book of my puzzle knowledge. "Why did I bring this here with us?" I asked myself, as I found my other notebook about my own thoughts about the Thea Sister series that Thea Stilton wrote. Well, actually Elisabetta Dami wrote. I never wrote the actual name down quite yet because I still address the author for the Thea Sister's adventures as Thea Stilton since she was the mouse or author I knew from a kid. 

This is what I wrote in my book for now.

"I can't believe it's been so long since I've read the Thea Sister books when I was a kid. I'm really intrigued to figure out what else I haven't learned about their travels. Although, my friend Sophie hasn't been fond of them at first, she did like the older style much more effective, and there wasn't a lot of history we haven't learned about each country or section the books talk about. I fear that my childhood is going down the drain sadly. I just hope this experience so far doesn't take another step further."

When I was done writing my entry in my journal, I looked up at my colleagues who were going through their bags to see what else we had brought with us to this reality.

"So in our bags, we have Don's art supplies, our magic detector; otherwise known as the magic wand, and my laptop." Sophie said as she pulled out her computer from her bag.

"This is your laptop right? What if there's a chance we get to take a look at our reality's websites and information that might help us?" I asked her as she placed the laptop on her desk.

"I can try, I mean this laptop can actually help track our progress in this world and keep track of any notes or clues we can gather." Sophie spoke. 

We all gathered near her desk as she started up her device. She then logged on with her special password as we looked into the matter. When we pulled up any news reports we noticed that most of the info had related to the current events in the book world.

"Hmmm not that much I'm afraid. I think the computer unfortunately has been altered by the magic of the vortex we just entered. I don't know if we can connect to the real world or not." Sophie squeaked in a sad tone.

I stood there thinking for a second trying to come up with an idea. Then something snapped in Don's head. The hard drive of all of our mysteries. We have stored flash drives from our main library with every case we solved and we still had them with us. 

"Don't we still have the flash drives of our cases? Maybe we can relate them to this one when we try to get out perhaps." Don spoke up.

I actually liked the idea since this was something really important for us to crack, maybe we can use our cases in this to our advantage by deducing how exactly to escape from this place. 

However, another thought came into my head. Somehow we just got here and it was great seeing the Thea Sisters in person, even Thea Stilton. In fact I wanted to interact with more of the characters in this reality, especially the girl team and their mentor, if they ever reconcile in a way or so. I wasn't sure if I wanted to leave quite yet even though we have that big trip with them to Norway. I still had mixed feelings about this, so I decided to keep them to myself for now until it was time to tell my teammates.

Phil found our flash drives in one of his back pack zippers as he plugged in a few. Some of our first cases involved Sophie's mentions of being a secret member of assassins known as the Watchers, who are known as anti-heroes, Don's first mystery of exploring a haunted toy factory and nearly being chased by a crazy gigantic toy, and mine was about first exploring an abandoned house and escaped three times before heading over to a haunted amusement park which was shut down due to many deaths and disappearances after a clown fell off a tight rope.

"Hey guys, do think it's kind of weird looking at our old cases while in a kid's book series?" Phil asked us.

"You do realize we solved these cases when we were kids right?" Sophie shot back at Phil.

"Oh yeah, right ." Phil said as he took off his hat in respect to knowing that his teammate was indeed right once again.

"We then surfaced as much as we can, but then realized it was getting really late. So we decided to discuss more of this the next morning before breakfast. Phil and I said our good nights to Don and Sophie, as we walked out the door, only to bump into a few familiar rodents.

"Op sorry, didn't see you there!" Violet spoke chuckling as I got back up with Phil holding back some embarrassment.

"Oh boy, will this night ever end for one day?" Phil asked himself in his thoughts.

Chapter Text

In front of us were Pamela, Violet, and Colette who bumped into us two when they were leaving their friend's room. They were going to head off to bed too when they came across us.

"Oh hello again." I spoke chuckling as I noticed the three Thea Sisters in front of me.

"Do we keep running into you or what? This can't be a coincidence." Colette spoke chuckling.

"What are you two doing up this late? Shouldn't you be in your dorm room?" Pamela asked us both.

"Oh yeah in fact we were just heading over there now, you heading back to your rooms?" Phil asked the mice. 

"Indeed. In fact we just got word from Paulina's little sister that she will be hearing the news on our next adventure when we get the inside scoop of our next great adventure in Norway." Violet squeaked.

"Really? That's amazing!" I spoke excitedly gladly hearing that at least some parts of my childhood were coming back.

"Shhhh might want to keep it down, it's getting close to bed time." Violet shushed me as she held her hands with keeping the volume to a silence.

I then nodded as I understood her words. "Sorry sorry. Guess I might have been drinking too much cream cheese for dinner I suppose." I whispered in a quieter mouse tone.

Colette started to chuckle at this thinking my words were very funny. Phil on the other hand was just winced that I made that up and seriously it was a bad one. To us humans but not to the mice here in the book world.

Violet and Pamela just smiled and rolled their eyes knowing that there is a bit of connection going on between me and Colette. But a bit of jealousy was starting to form on the fashonista and the car expert/pizza lover Pamela.

"Um, do I detect a sudden shift of jealousy here?" Phil asked the girls.

Violet noticed Phil's question as she coughed a bit for some attention for her friends. 

The two other rodents snapped out of their small trance as they turned at their Asian friend. 

"Oh sorry, that seemed a bit awkward for some of us." Colette squeaked.

"Yeah, sorry. Hope we can just forget about that part soon enough." Pamela spoke clearing her throat. 

We smiled at each other as we continued to discuss. We extended our list of details that each of the girls want to go on special adventures related to journalism like be an actual mechanic or be a violinist. I was still impressed because this was what I thought the author really wanted, to go around the world to solve mysteries related to history and not just make friends, but to tell Thea about how they did. 

"So is it true you and your friends go on mystery solving too?" Colette inquired the both of us.

I still didn't like the idea of being asked of what we really do because they wouldn't understand. Then we heard some cackling thunder from outside the building as it began to rain.

"Oh boy, I guess sleeping in tonight will be a lot harder than I thought." Phil spoke as he realized we were getting some heavy rain tonight.

"Yep, sure looks like it unfortunately." I said out loud causing a few mouse ears to perk up and have their dorm room doors open up.

"Did someone say something?" Another voice spoke up as we saw Paulina and Nicky come out of their room. 

"Yeah we heard lightning cracking in the sky and I think it might be the storms rolling in for tonight." Phil spoke up.

"How late is it? I feel like it's time to go to bed but I feel like I want to explore more of the campus." I replied as I yawned. 

Phil turned in my direction as we wanted to check it out for ourselves, but then we felt a firm grip by one of the rodents from behind us.

"Look mate, I don't want to be mushed mozzarella here, but my sister friends here are right. We're not supposed to be out of our rooms after 9:00 in the evening." Nicky replied instantly. 

"Yeah besides, Violet tends to go to sleep in an instant after hours." Paulina squeaked with a tiny giggle. 

Violet scoffed at this as she started to lose her focus with her eyes lids starting to fall.

"I guess we'll discuss a bit more about the trip when we're in classes or lunch time." I replied then.

"Sounds sweet." Paulina said as the girls waved to us for a good night.

Phil and I waved back to them as we went back to our dorm room. Finally we can chill and relax for today as we know for some reason, our sleep was going to be a lot quicker than we expected.

Both of us found our separate clothing in the dresser as we both took turns changing in the bathroom into our pajamas. Once we were out I then looked at my writing journal and at the books that the Thea Sisters had their adventures in. I looked at them sadly as I started to slowly remember why I gave up on these particular books years ago. I sat there looking at them as I tried to brush it off for the night knowing this won't make me any better. I did have lots of questions to ask the Thea Sisters and their mentor of course, but for now I had to sleep. I was getting tired. I had to get some rest before I see the mice again the next morning. They were the keys to getting home.

Meanwhile the girls were all getting cozy in their  beds as most of them were asleep. Colette and Paulina were the only ones who were still awake while Pamela and Nicky were trying to sleep. Violet on the other hand was out like that since she is the sleepiest out of the group like Pamela mentioned before. 

Paulina was looking at her photo album of all the places she and her friends visited. China, Madagascar, Mexico, Los Angeles, even Germany. She was amazed by how all they had accomplished in the past couple of years, but lately she notices a few pictures of Thea, their own mentor and founder of the team in the back part of the book. She realized that even though her teacher came back to school to teach, it's been forever since they last met. Paulina wanted to give this book as a gift as a welcome back gift to Thea to show her everything the five of them had done around the world.

"Can't wait to show her and my sister this when they have a chance. They will love it to bits for sure!" Paulina squeaked in her thoughts as she hid it under her bed. She then got into bed as she stared at the ceiling thinking about meeting Thea again soon after what happened today in the book world. It's been so long since she and her friends have met her from discussing their adventures.

Don and Sophie in their room were still awake as they were looking at Sophie's laptop, trying to make some sense in this world to find out more about any strange particles. Don looked at his special magic mist which reveals special 'hotspots' where anything strange or phenomenon related to paranormal or magic has happened. Sophie was looking into her own research papers and folders that had the information from some of our actual agencies that we worked from, especially her own favorite organization, the Mystery Trackers. She was still having flashbacks from both her haunted hotel adventures and the time when she was working for the agency investigating Raincliff in the snow twice. Creepy times those were as she found more files involving our own world.

She soon got a hold of herself as she continued to read her files and saw her collection of the Thea sister books. Parts of her were smiling of course but she compared two designs with each other as she had thought about this carefully remembering what her friend has recalled.

Sophie became skeptical about being a character interacting with her once favorite franchise because she had a bit of mixed feelings too. Still she had to focus on how to adjust the system on her laptop to view as much info as she can about the mousified world they landed in. She soon started to get a little sleepy as she nearly fell onto her bed, but Don woke her up with a bit of juice.

"BLAH! What the? Don? Did you just squirt me with cheese juice?!" Sophie shrieked.

"Op sorry, just wanted to be sure you're still awake." He spoke as he found a towel from their restroom and dried her off. 

She took it by force as she kept scrubbing her face off with cheese. "Ugh, even though I have a lot of chill moments with you and the boys, I can't stand this!" She squeaked angerly with green flashing in her eyes.

"Uh Sophie? Your eyes... they're, they're glowing." Don spoke as he saw her eye glasses shed light through the lenses. 

"Shhhhh, I think I hear something." She spoke as she heard someone walking down the hallway of the academy. She then saw with her green eyes that a mysterious rodent with ink like pawprints was walking towards the cellar and to the headmaster's office. The last thing she saw was a glimpse of a chamber of a dragon statue and strange designs on the wall. 

"Wait, Sophie, are your powers working again?" Don asked as he realized she still had her powers working in this world.

Sophie looked in the mirror as she noticed the glow from her eyes vanished after she gasped.

"That's truly intriguing." She spoke as she sat got up from her bed.

"I saw something in the hallways. It's hard to explain but I think the mouse with the ink like footprints that Cody saw earlier might be snooping around here tonight." Sophie exclaimed.

"That doesn't make any sense, why would anyone be snooping around here in a kids book leaving ink like footprints?" Don asked.

"Wait why did you ask that? You know this is like the mystery element in the books is it not?" Sophie recalled to Don.

"Yeah but this is different somehow. Not only did your powers happen in this world, but also the mystery elements in this book world are unlike any other audience has ever seen." Don further explained.

"Somehow my visions from my days as a Watcher are happening here, but why?" She thought to herself. 

"Well, what should we do now? Should we wake the guys and figure out the next point of action, or just sleep on it?" Don spoke.

"We should get some sleep for now. Besides, we're in a school, we need to obey the rules sometimes in order to get more inside information about this place." Sophie spoke as she went into the bathroom to get changed into her pajamas. 

Don felt like agreeing with the terms as he decided to get read for bed. When Sophie got out, she said goodnight to Don as they both turned out the lights and got into their bed covers. The four members in their own rooms had tough sleeping with their new conditions since they had tails.

We then finally started to get some rest that night as we hoped that perhaps spending some time in the book world of Thea Stilton wouldn't be so bad after all. After a few hours had passed things were going smoothly for us as we were actually asleep during the time which allowed us to think about our differences for now and just put them aside for the next day to come.

As for the five Thea Sisters, they were sleeping as normal but something started to happen. A strange set of footsteps came from the hallway and then later a bit of a crash. Someone was watching the Thea Sisters from outside the room. Nicky woke up to it as she thought something was off about how there was nobody supposed to be up at this hour. 

"What the blue cheese was that?" She asked silently, as she quietly got out of bed.

Paulina was startled by this too as she slowly woke up abruptly after hearing what had happened outside their dorm room. "Wha, what happened?" She asked while yawning. 

"I have no idea, but it sounded real close." Nicky squeaked starting to feel a little nervous. Usually she's not nervous in situations like this but for some reason she sees a black liquid start to pour out from the doorway. Paulina carefully approached the doorway to the hall very cautiously trying to avoid getting messy on her own paws. She then opened the door by a creak as she saw a small puddle of that black liquid under her door as well as another puddle under Colette's and Pamela's door. Both puddles were connected with a trail of footprints leading towards the hallways and further down the campus. They couldn't see where the trail of footprints led to because it was too dark. 

"What the Parmesan bread is going on here?" Nicky asked scratching her head. Paulina then noticed a flash of light outside their dorm window as she noticed some of the rain had calmed down. But in the midst of the campus, a rodent wearing a small black cloak was running towards the fields and into the south tower. "And who the heck is that?" Paulina questioned her adventurous friend from the door as she saw the rodent still in the rain. Before the mysterious rodent got out of the young mouse's sight, she quickly got to her desk and got her camera ready. But just as she was about to get her picture of the hooded figure, a bang came from the door behind them.

 "Are you two alright?" A voice called them. The two mice got spooked and had goosebumps in their fur as the camera snap flashed with a click getting at least something on the photo reel.

It was Pamela and Colette who were at Nicky's and Paulina's door. Colette had a beauty cream with cucumber slices over her eyes as she lifted one of them off to see. Pamela had her hair in a mess as she yawned a bit while looking at the scene in front of them within Nicky and Paulina's room. Nicky saw them as a third mouse sleepy mouse with bags under their eyes and heavy eyelids. 

"Aww man I nearly had them!" Paulina groaned in disappointment as she saw the figure disappear from the tower. 

"Had who, and what are you talking about?" Colette spoke as she groaned.

"Why are you girls up? It's 1:30 in the morning." Violet spoke groaning as she whipped her eyes above her nose.

"There was some kind of weird liquid puddle in front of our room doors and paw prints were going down the hall." Nicky squeaked up.

"I thought I saw some mouse outside in the rain, through the window. They were at the track and field as well as the tower near the library." Paulina spoke as she was getting a bit suspicious about the activity going on here.

"This doesn't make any sense, why would anyone be up so late at night and snoop around our campus?" Pamela spoke up but tried to keep it quiet as possible.

"I don't know, but this sounds cheddarific!" Paulina spoke with delight.

"Wait what? Pauly, what are you squeaking about?" Colette asked her friend. 

"We haven't done any mystery solving in months and this could actually be a bonus credit for being great reporters to the school!" Paulina explained. 

"But what about our trip to Norway in a couple of days? I really want to check out the snowy terrain and know what new discoveries are made there." Nicky stated out to her friends.

"And when are we going back to sleep? I'm getting super tired here." Violet groaned. 

"Uh Violet, you're always tired when you're lazy." Colette perked up. 

"Since when?!" She spoke bringing up the tiger in her voice sounding a bit more angry.

"Woah hold on ladies, we should listen to Vi, she's right. It's getting late. We need to work on those essay reports Professor Rattcliff gave us." Pamela said when she stepped in between the fashonista and the musician. 

"Yeah, (yawns) I suppose your choice of option is correct." Paulina said as she yawned again realizing it was super late and the fact that they were still up. They then decided to head off to sleep again and figure out what just happened in the darkness outside their dorm windows. The girls hugged each other as Colette, Violet, and Pamela returned to their dorm rooms while Nicky and Paulina got back into their beds. Nicky was fast asleep in an instant while Paulina looked over her shoulder and still saw her photo album of all their adventures on her desk with her laptop. She was still hoping there would be time to show Thea and her little sister Maria the album she had put together. She then start to close her eyes as she kept that memory close in her head, hoping to remember it.

Whilst elsewhere in the academy, the mysterious figure still ran through the halls as it had left the ink like pawprints on the ground. Some of the prints started to boil with bubbles as they started to leave certain puddles like the ones in front of the Thea Sister dorm rooms. 

But amongst the ink trail was a strange set of runes forming amongst the wall of one of the academy garden. They then started to glow before vanishing into the foundation. More and more runes appeared around the campus in various locations, but no mouse knew what was happening because they were all asleep. Except for one. And that mouse is the cloaked one walking amongst the halls. As the symbols all disappeared, the mysterious mouse ended at the headmaster's door as it drew out a strange claw like paw as it wrote something in a blur. The mouse under the hood grew angry with a snarl as it calmed down once they were finished tampering with the door. They then walked away from the hall as the thunderous night rolled on for the students and staff members of Mouseford Academy. 

Chapter Text

The next morning, the Thea Sisters had already woken up from their slumber as they got out of their beds and started to get dressed for today's classes. As they got into their clothes, they still got curious as of the events that occurred from last night and the day before. Not only has it been a few weeks since Thea Stilton got back into teaching for the school again, but also four new students appear out of no where. And even stranger things happened over night was the idea that their room doors got messy with ink.

Pamela stretched her arms out towards the ceiling to flex her back from her sleep last night. 
Colette was busy putting make-up on her face trying to make her look good for the new rodents at their academy.

"Can you believe that those four young mice are at our school?" Colette asked Pamela.

"I know! This is very amazing and odd too." Pamela spoke.

"Odd, how so?" Colette asked again but with a confused look on her face.

"Well remember how we squeaked to those four new mice that we met in Adventure Journalism Class with Thea?" she questioned.

"Yeah didn't one of them say people? Any idea what the flipping famargio were they talking about?" Colette continued starting to get some of her thinking caps on.

"I don't know, but what about what happened last night with the messy doors?" the Tanzanian mouse replied again feeling kind of both confused and worried at the same time.

"Oh that's right, I totally forgot about that! Is the mess still out there though or was that a dream?" She wondered. 

The two girls got their belongings together as they turned the knob on their dorm room to head to the cafeteria for breakfast. When they opened it, something peculiar happened. The ink trail and puddles that were on the door were gone! 

Both mouselettes were at first surprised, but shook their heads to be sure they weren't imagining things. 

"Huh, maybe what happened last night was just a dream." Pamela spoke to her fashonista friend.

"Maybe, are you sure you haven't ate too many pizzas last night?" Colette spoke.

"What? No of course not! I only ate pizza yesterday for lunch, you saw me!" Pamela piped up. 

"Oh really? Then what are you planning to eat for breakfast then?" Colette asked again.

"Um either scrambled eggs with French toast or perhaps a fruit bowl?" What are you doing?" The Tanzanian mouse questioned again towards Colette who then started to brush her hair.

"I'm just getting ready for today, I really want to check in with one of the new boys that arrived at our school." she purred glamorously. 

"Hmmm. Don't get your hopes quite up yet. I want to check in with our professors to see if those new students have what it really takes to pass the lectures today. Pamela replied as she put her headband on in her hair.

The girls got their backpacks ready as they got to greet their sister friends outside their dorm room.

Paulina and Nicky were set to go with their school supplies for today's classes while Violet was somehow still sleepish from last night.

"Come on Vi, we're going to be late for classes."  Paulina spoke. 

"And breakfast, since of course it's Pamela's favorite time of the day of course." Nicky joked as she nudged Pamela's arm.

The other sister friends giggled at this while Pamela rolled her eyes at Nicky's bad joke.

"(Groans) Fine, my mind is just as a train wreck from last night. Just hope we have more time to focus on studies before the announcement towards our trip to Norway." The Chinese rodent replied as she was wearing a special dress with a tiger imprinted on the back. She then got back into her room to get her backpack set for class. She then got with her friends as she had her art supplies along with her notebook about any upcoming events. 

"Alright, I'm set. But I also want to talk to Phil, that new kid about a few things during lunch time." Violet spoke. 

"Oh, what about? You going to talk to him about taking an art class in fashion?" Colette questioned with her ears up. 

"Uh not quite Coco, although that would be fabumouse don't get me wrong, but let's just say, I'm going to do a little artistic investigating by using some of my artistic values with that new boy, Don." Violet squeaked with a rodent's smile on her face.

"Well looks like someone has a crush on a new boy too." Paulina teased as she and Nicky giggled at the thought.

"What the mozzarella are you girls talking about? Like you guys said we just met them yesterday!" Violet spoke showing a slight red on her white fur cheeks.

"Yeah right, whatever you say, princess." Pamela joked on it again.

Violet got a little more red but a fiery red with anger, but she then kept her cool and took a deep breath. 

"Well what are you going to do? Just take the courses in Professor Sparkle's and Rattcliff's classes today?" she asked as she had her books and information underneath her brushes and sketchbook in her backpack.

"Well, after school I might actually hit the beach and practice some surfing. Then I might think about that artifacts paper we need to work on." The Aussie said. 

"You sure about that?" It's only Friday and the paper is due this Monday. I would keep tabs on that Nick." Paulina muttered as she reminded her friends their schedule about what to do next.

"Whatever you say mate." Nicky spoke with her accent towards Paulina her go green gal.

The Thea Sisters then headed out of the dorm halls as they heard the intercom go off above them. "All Students and faculty, please report to the Auditorium for an important announcement. I repeat, all students and faculty please report to the Auditorium. Thank you." The voice that boomed the halls of the school from the speakers was the Headmaster's, but it sounded unnerving. 

"What do you think could that be?" Violet questioned her friends as they heard the intercom message. 

"I don't know, but sounds like we have something to perhaps work on before class." Paulina squeaked getting out her small notebook and camera.

"But wait shouldn't we worry about breakfast first? My stomach is growling!" Pamela whined.

"PAM!" the other four mouselets shouted back at her for the small idea.

"What? I'm always hungry for breakfast." She squeaked with a bit more defense but to no avail. Eventually she gave in as she walked with her friends towards the auditorium where the rest of the school was meeting. Little did they know a strange symbol glowed on their doors as they left for the announcement.

Meanwhile, in another section of the dorm rooms, Don and Phil had their backpacks ready to go while Sophie was still looking out the window in her dorm room in disbelief knowing that somehow most of this was still happening to them. As for me, I was wide awake but looking at one of my books of the Thea Sister's adventures, "The Legend of the Fire Flowers" which held the last rendition of the Thea Sister's original appearances. I was still impressed that the girls did manage to manifest an evacuation plan due to an erupting volcano, but was ashamed at how their hula event was canceled and never brought up again after so many years. I was still thinking about what could have happened if the books turned out to be different. 

My mind kept concentrating on the book that was somehow in my possession as somehow we were sucked into their world. Why would the books be in our back packs, along with our gadgets?

As I was putting the book down for a break, I heard the door to my room open up. Phil walked in to check in with me.

"Come on Code we need to get to classes if we want to figure out the rest of this mystery."  Phil perked up. "Something weird is going on here, and I'm not joking."

I turned in his direction. "Wait what? What are you talking about? What do you mean weird?"

I sat up from my bed as I pulled on a light gray jacket over my furry face. I tried using my own three fingers as I still had a bit of difficulty trying to use them. 

The other members of my team walked in as Don held onto the Magic Tracker, a special remote that can detect certain magical or paranormal activity, like and EMP device. It was going mad as it beeped loudly with a few red dots. 

"Something mysterious happened last night as the readings are showing certain hotspots in the school. It's hard to triangulate the source of these spots but they are seem to be done by someone or something made of anti-matter or magic of some kind." Sophie squeaked up as she had her laptop open. On it showed a few readings of strange energy flowing through the academy, as if they were starting to bloom like seeds in a garden. The lines showed a small pulse at first but as I closely examined it, the lines then became very big and skyrocketed when a few seconds passed. 

"Uh are you sure this is accurate? Maybe your device here is wrong." I spoke thinking that's just a coincidence since we were in the book world and that everything here is weird.

Don looked at me worried thinking I was not in my head game as he tried to explain what could have happened if we were still in our house dormitory back in the real world.

"What's this got to do with our talk back in the real world?" I asked him.

"Well remember how the power signatures from Rockall Scotland were? The readings show here this is about a quarter of it. And my bet is there might be more to be found here." He explained.

"Don't you think this is some kind of coincidence Don? Or is your device broken or something?" Sophie responded to Don as she joined in with my conversation.

Phil was impressed by what Don was saying because he was becoming a bit more mature and was starting to be the team member that Phil wanted to see from us.

"Don this is what I'm squeaking about!" He smiled feeling proud at Don for his perseverance. 

"Wait, wait, what are you trying to say? I thought you wanted to find a way out and go back home." Sophie got conspicuous as she looked at Phil encouraging Don.

"I know I know, but maybe this is the reason why we're here in the first place. We should talk to the girls again to see how to fix our gadgets so we can find a way out." Phil concluded.

"Wait so you do want to find a way out but you plan on using the girls' trust to help with our gadgets? I don't think that's a good idea Phil." I responded while scratching the back of my head nervously.

"Yes, I mean this world is kind of weird and all but I don't want to be a mouse forever. Isn't this what you want?" Phil questioned my sanity.

"Yes this world might not be real, but still its inhabitants don't need to know that this ain't the real world." I explained softly trying to maintain my cool side.

"And how is that our problem? We are real, they are not! Our job is to get through today and figure out how to get home!" Phil barked back which made me shocked but really mad.

I was going to yap at him but then the announcement came up from the speakers in the halls. It was the same one the girls had heard from their rooms when they were discussing about the Mad Hatter's entry into the campus. 

"What could the headmaster want with all the students? I hope this ain't about us. They don't know we're really master detectives from a different reality." Don spoke as he felt goosebumps on his arms.

"We'll have to figure this argument out later, let's just head over to the auditorium to see what the jump is going on." Sophie replied hoping to ease the tension between Phil and me. 

"Guys look Sophie and Don are right, we can't exactly lie the whole time to the characters, but we can't always let them poke into our own dark lives." I explained.

"And Phil please, try to maintain you inner water like me, you need to remember it's not always about conflicted pasts that bother us. We can overcome them." I spoke in voice of wisdom.

Phil took a deep breath and nodded. He donned his top hat and coat while I got my backpack ready for today as well as a few things ready. I had my note book inside for research about this world and my own thoughts about what's going on lately. We then locked our rooms and headed towards the auditorium to hear the announcement.

Once we got there, the whole place was filled with anthro mice sitting in multiple chairs around the theater. It was massive as I remembered this is where they do their productions and plays as well as the talent show contests sometimes in the books. The teachers and faculty were in the very front center row of the school while the Headmaster was at the podium on the stage. 

The four of us were in awwe at this as we had never been inside the auditorium of Mouseford Academy or even had a tour of the place. But we knew something was up. First we had to do the same procedure of going through the day to keep our true identities a secret. And hopefully this won't be a big waste of time.

The four of us found four empty seats in the back where no one was mostly sitting, as I saw the headmaster, Mousus, begin to speak from the microphone on stage.

"May I have your attention please?" He old voice boomed throughout the chamber.

Every mouse in the auditorium stopped chatting as they saw the headmaster on the stage. The headmaster was seemingly proud but somehow a worried look was on his face. 

"It's been quite an eventful few months since this year has started, and I'm very pleased to say that we have our trip to Norway happening in a few days for only a few students." He replied.

The audience began to cheer and celebrate this news, but the Headmaster held up his hand with a frown.

"However, I'm afraid something has recently come up. There's been an attack on my door and my office. And I believe that there is some mischief at work here. I would like to postpone the time for the flights to Norway or anywhere else for the time being until we can figure out who our mysterious culprit is for breaking into my office and clawing my door." He said with a little more serious tone.

The students and faculty were confused about what he was talking about until a screen behind him showed pictures of his office in shambles. The portraits on the wall were smashed, the shelves were toppled over, the desk drawers were ripped out, it was unbelieveable. Every mouse was shocked and surprised to see this. Even the four of us were shocked at this. This didn't happen in the original series. How was this possible?

"If any student or teacher who wishes to present themselves to this matter, I will need them to come to my office immediately and ask them about if anything they have learned about this incident." The headmaster spoke in a serious tone. 

"I am hoping anyone would come see me and talk about this because it would be devastating if anyone would do something drastic to both the school and me." Professor Mousus responded again. Then he cleared his throat and decided to change the topic to another matter.

"Anyway to let you all know, we have something else in mind for the time being while you continue your studying. We have a special opportunity for any student who can still have a chance to getting in for Norway for next week. The writing competition for this year will consist of writing a small short story completely made up and will be judged by our faculty members with myself included. Professor Plotfur, Professor Rattcliff and Professor Stilton will look into this matter as the other judges. You have three days to work on your special papers, and they must follow the following guidelines." The headmaster continued as he presented new slides of the rules of the paper on the screen. 

My mind was getting distracted by this as I thought for sure this was supposed to be the main series as something was a little off here, like the Headmaster's office and dorm room. His office and door had been raided? And that writing competition, that seems familiar. Like what our college in our actual home was providing. What is going on here? So many questions kept hitting my had as it got me curious about the events that have been struck down on us. 

Don turned his head as he saw my eyes in disbelief.

"Hey you feeling ok?" He asked shaking my shoulder. 

"I.. uh, I don't know. I think we need to talk about this very soon." I replied as I told the others about what we need to do. 

This journey back might be a little longer than I thought. The spark of curiosity just hit me. Always be curious, is one of our mottos and we have to be sure this is just a mere coincidence.

This is getting weirder than I thought. First getting into this world by becoming mice, then we attend a college and meet some of the characters, and now we encounter a small script change in the book? I asked in my thoughts continuing the small conversation.

"Oh one more thing, there is a special announcement I would like to add as well. We have a new small group of students with us as they make use Mouseford Academy Dragons proud! May I have them come up to the stage please?" Mousus asked in the audience.

What the headmaster said kind of spooked us as the audience members looked around to see if there was any mice that were new to the academy. 

This shook all four of us to our bone. We were shocked that the Headmaster asked for us four specifically, to either present ourselves as new students or as vandalizers to his office.

Even though I didn't want to expose us in that moment, I slowly stood up from my seat.

Sophia was confused by what I was doing but she thought that maybe going along with it might help. So she followed my lead and so did Don, and Phil.

"Hope you know what you're doing Code." Sophia whispered to me as I took a deep breath, waiting to face the music.

Chapter Text

We were still advancing to the stage as we still had no idea why the Headmaster called for the four of us, but what we did know was that it might put a target on our back soon.
As I was making my way towards the stage leading the group I tripped over something by accident causing Phil and Don behind me to fall onto the floor.
"Ouch! Hey who did that?" Phil groaned as he got up onto his feet.
Don rolled over on his back and saw a mouse who was chuckling from the crowd next to us. She had fair tan light brown fur with long red hair and lime green eyes. She was with three other mice who shared the same smile as the first one. She had a sinful smirk on her face as a few other mice giggled next to her in delight.
Sophie got upset as she looked at the four ladies who on purpose tripped the three of us. She was about to talk some sense into the girl that tripped the three of us, but then Pamela got up from her seat and uttered, "Violence makes us worse on the inside. Don't take your anger out on people who have hurt you or your friends."
Sophie then took a few deep breaths and started to help me and the guys back on our feet. Sophie and Pamela gave a distrustful look to the girl with red hair as she smirked viciously.
We maintained our focus trying to show no emotion at all as we walked up onto the stage in a single filed line as the Headmaster announced us.
"Everyone, these four young mice here might have just got here, but I want to be sure that these four had nothing to do with the crime at my dorm room or my office." Mousus replied with a serious tone. He then turned to the four of us.
"If there was any evidence that you might have done this, there would have been, but there has not been a single trace of it anywhere.
"Now I know I've met you four earlier yesterday in my office but not everyone here has met you yet. I would like you to give out your introductions and tell us, what brings you here to our school." He asked us.
We were a little nervous at that point because of what we so far went through in the first day in the book world. These guys have no idea that the books Thea wrote supposedly about the girls were actually done by another person who came from our world and even wrote her brother's books as well.
At this point, it was no secret that we were going to introduce ourselves to the school as new students but how? It wasn't even the beginning of a new year for these guys. Is it?
Don chuckled a cough up from his throat as he began, "Um, I don't quite understand. You said that our talents is what makes us unique, correct?"
Sophie and Phil were curious to where Don was going with this as the headmaster spoke up.
"Indeed, yes, in fact since you four young mice have shown quite an interest with history and your own motto, To Seek and to Solve, you might be the perfect group to help our school a lot better." Mousus continued.
We were still confused by what the headmaster was talking about. This wasn't exactly what happened in the original books, because usually the Thea Sisters themselves have been the main stars of the show, and it almost felt like tensions were starting to rise up.
"Wait how did you know our own motto?" Phil asked the headmaster.
"Your friend Sophie did, such a talented young woman with knowing facts, although seems a lot of potential in the Social Humanities Fields for a major." Mousus explained.
Meanwhile in the crowd, amongst the Thea Sisters, Violet was shocked that Sophie was mentioned as a possible candidate for a Social Humanities Field applicant. Even though Music and Art was her major, parts of it involved learning the past of both genres. She was starting to clench her fist a tiny bit as she felt a bit of bubbling anger rumble within her mind.
Nicky and Paulina noticed their artistic sister's envious face as they nudged her shoulder.
"Hey Vi, you doing alright?" Paulina asked her.
"Alright? Yeah I'm alright, why wouldn't I be?" Violet whispered back at them, trying to hide the jealousy.
"I believe you are feeling anger inside of you, a mixture of emotions actually." Paulina addressed in her voice as the ceremony continued.
"What? What are you talking about?" Violet asked as she heard the announcements about to be concluded.
"I believe with the special aids from our History, English, and Investigative Journalism professors, you four will reach to new heights in no time!" Mousus exclaimed as he concluded talking to the four of us.
As he turned to the whole school he then gave out one last message before the ceremony finished. "I wish you all luck on the papers for the special trip to Norway as I look forward to being one of the judges to read your work and knowledge of creativity. You four are free to go." He replied to us as we smiled a bit knowing the stress was over for now.
As we were getting off the stage, Ruby called out from the crowd and asked, "What about the incident back at your dorm room? Couldn't they be the ones who threatened you last night?"
Everyone gasped at this, but the headmaster looked at the four of us carefully with his wise eyes as he went to report his answer back at the foxed haired rodent. "Just because these four are new students to our prestigious academy, I don't believe that they were responsible for what happened last night. There is not enough evidence to deduce any connection with their arrival."
"But if you make any sudden move to these four or show them a sign of complete disrespect, I'll have to give you a severe form of punishment." He responded with a serious tone and look.
"Does anyone remember rules 6 and 8?" He announced.
Nicky from the crowd raised her hand as he pointed to her.
"Yes sir, they are any rodent from any religion that come here, we respect their traditions, and that if they are students here as well as the rest of us are, the beliefs and culture of our religion must be respected at all times." She squeaked with pride and bravery.
"Excellent response Nicky, now as for the rest of you, I wish you all good luck as the field trip to Norway leaves in four days, so be sure to keep up your reports and that special writing assignment. This assembly is now concluded, everyone is dismissed." Mousus proudly responded.
The rest of the school applauded to not only the announcement but to Nicky's announcing the schools important two rules as Pamela blew a cheerful whistle with her fingers and Ruby gave a disgustful face of humiliation. Her teammates seemed to be impressed with Nicky's speech but Ruby spat back as she slapped their hands to stop clapping and squeaked with rage. "What are you cheering for?"
"Sorry Ruby." They muttered resentfully.
"Don't get too cheesy with those new rodents, I know they are up to no good. More competition for our sake, although they could be an interesting tactic to get these no good Thea Sister girls off our backs for sure! Just give them time, this might be interesting to watch." Ruby said glaring at her crew as she chuckled a wicked chuckle from her sinister smile at the four of us.
The five Thea Sister friends from the audience were really astounded by what they heard from the Headmaster as the teachers looked at themselves with complete agreement.
"Way to go girl, you are our rockstar!" Pamela squeaked happily patting her Aussie friend on the back.
"Thanks, it was no big deal, even though those four mice are unfamiliar, they seem unique in some way." Nicky complimented.
"You want to talk to them more and ask them about their activities?" Paulina asked her.
"In my opinion, maybe we should give them some space for right now, I'm not sure if they are going to do the writing competition with the rest of the mice here in the school." Violet replied with a thinking cap on.
While the four of us were making our way off the stage, someone approached us and asked us to come see them in their office.
It was Professor Rattcliff, the English teacher. The same professor that Sophie was currently learning from at the moment.
"Oh um professor, you wanted to talk to us?" Sophie exclaimed.
"Of course, please right this way to my classroom, I'll explain everything in exact detail very soon." She spoke with her serious look on her face as she let us follower her.
As we walked out of the auditorium, the five friends noticed us and thought about following us for a bit more questioning
We followed her down the hall as Phil felt a buzzing in his jacket. It was the EMF reader we had earlier in our rooms, but we believed it was either malfunctioning or going off for real like a bloodhound catching a suspicious scent in the air.
The good news was it had a silent mode just like a normal iphone, so the teacher never heard it. But Phil had a bad feeling about this, since in the past, luck wasn't always on the detectives' side. Sooner or later, disaster could strike us and our cover.
While the four of us were talking to Professor Rattcliff, the Thea Sisters were curious about what the English teacher wanted to say to us.
Violet wanted to talk to Sophie and the rest of us about the writing competition that was announced today so they can understand why we wanted to give it a try.
Pamela was sensing the fire in Violet's brain and heart and as a peace maker she wanted to resolve this with nonviolence.
"Violet, are you sure squeaking your way with the new girl about the papers is a good idea?" Pamela asked her Chinese friend.
Nicky and Colette noticed their friend too as she was being a little tempered at the moment, but took a deep breath.
"Hey Pam might have a point Vi, you look redder than a precious ruby on a silk dress or blouse." Colette pointed out supporting her Tanzanian roommate.
"Look, I know this sounds cheddar balls but an opportunity that means so much to you, taken away, can hurt a lot. She might be new to this school along with her gang, but I really want to go to Norway with the rest of you because of our amazing times together as a team." Violet confessed having her friends surprised looks on their faces.
"What of course we care about you Violet, your writing skills are phenomenal when it comes to the arts, painting, violinist, there is nothing you can't do!" Nicky added to the conversation.
Violet seemed to be smiling a bit from what Nicky said to her and she was starting to feel a bit better, but something nagged at her. The new boy with the green sweater, was he really an artist? Was he that good? "Anyway, I'm going to see if I can talk to Don about his skills. Still I am curious if he is good as his friends say." Violet declared with a new sense of pride on her snout.
"That's the spirit! I knew you wouldn't let your jealousy get the better of you!" Pamela cheered delightfully.
Paulina on the other hand was smiling at them for having Violet's back but then heard the commotion within the teacher's office. Her scientific brain got very curious as she wanted to know what exactly the teacher wanted to tell us in her office.
"Hey Pauly, what are you doing?" Nicky asked noticing her fellow Greenmice comrade kneeling down on the ground while rummaging through her backpack.
"I'm going to try and listen to hear what those four students are up to." She spoke as she was still searching in her backpack.
"Are you sure that's a good idea? You do realize that we could be in trouble here." Colette muttered nervously scratching the back of her head.
"I am still trying to get insights on their interesting activity, which can be very special towards our future investigations." Their Peruvian friend squeaked in a suspicious tone.
After a few more seconds, she had a special cup with her which when applied to a thin surface, you can hear commotion from the other side to eavesdrop on the conversation.
Paulina pressed her ear on the smaller side of the cup to listen in on the conversation between us and Professor Rattcliff.
We were discussing the details about how we can contribute to the writing competition as we learned more about the rules. One thing is, it can't be based off of something that is real, but it can be up to imagination. What else we need to do is that it does not have anything harmful and disgusting in any form such as grotesque or rated-R material like you see in horror movies.
It wasn't much of a big surprise because still we had to keep our own thoughts a secret, but a special thinking idea was going off in both Sophie's and Don's brains.
We could do either poetry or fictional stories as long as we stick to the guidelines. Everything seemed to be going ok until Phil decided to ask Mrs. Rattcliff something off track. "Sorry if this may seem not on topic, but have you seen other strange things happen here recently besides what happened to Professor Mosus' office and main door?"
"Hmmm well, not that I'm aware of, but I did notice the janitor, Mr. Whale, cleaning the halls this morning which is odd because he usually cleans the halls every evening. What is this all about exactly?" The teacher then got more curious about our questions.
"Umm well we didn't expect this to happen as we're new here." Don spoke up.
"Yeah, and it seems a little unorthodox to have a strange investigation appear after our arrival and an announcement about a writing competition." Phil further added.
Rattcliff sat there for a moment there as she was thinking carefully at what we said to her, er squeaked. She then spoke up again and questioned whether we were up to something or just trying to help the academy.
"It's no worries, I'm sure that everyone here will for sure get a grand fiasco when it comes to academics." I replied voicing my opinion on the topic.
Paulina backed away from the door and was very curious about what we were talking about. The way how we used our words and what we wanted to know from the professor seemed conspicuous. However, the teacher thought that since we wanted to look our best and figured we expected the other faculty members wanted to see excellence, seemed understandable. She then dismissed us with a nod and told us that Professor Stilton wanted us in her office in a few hours.
"What did you find out girl?" Nicky asked Paulina who stepped a few paces from the door.
"I learned that those four new students were going to enter the contest even though they were new, but nothing else squeaked out of the ordinary." Paulina said with an upset look.
"Hey that's alright, we don't always get the investigation concluded from one source. Remember, we've got to find more evidence to convince us that these four didn't ransack the Headmaster's office and dorm door." Violet replied as she patted Paulina's shoulder.
"What do you intend we should do?" Pamela asked them, which they all thought carefully.
While the five of them thought carefully, Colette still had her powder case in her pocket as she pulled it out and placed some over her face.
Then a light bulb went off in Paulina's head. "I think I have an idea." She squeaked as she snapped her fingers.
"What? You want to have a bit of makeover on your face?" the French mousette spoke as she put her power case back in her pocket.
"What? No no that's not what I mean. What I mean is that we're going to need to get a little closer to that group in this room to learn more about what is going on, since I felt like ever since Thea returned to the school a few weeks ago, something ain't right." Paulina corrected her French associate.
"So what are you suggesting then?" Nicky asked Paulina.
"I suggest we follow their moves, because lately, they've been looking at us strangely, especially their lone girl member." Paulina then replied.
The others were confused at this and were skeptical about the idea because that idea with new students was off. Even though they were acting strangely before they're on unfamiliar grounds as new students.
"Why are you interested in following them? Aren't they new students?" Pamela spoke confusingly.
"Well I know it seems irrational, but maybe they know something about this mystery than we realize." Paulina squeaked trying to prove her point.
"I think it's just a coincidence that they're here and that they just want to make new friends." Violet spoke.
As they were talking amongst themselves, we the Mad Hatters walked out of Professor Rattcliff's office as we felt different after talking to her. It wasn't too bad and even though the rules were clear we didn't have to go for our own mysteries to write the stories. But something else was worrying on our minds. The meters on our devices were going off again as they felt strange substances near a particular section of the school. We then walked a little faster just to get to a quieter space. This made the Thea Sisters even more curious.
"Still think it's a coincidence? Paulina asked as the other four girls looked at us walking down the hall quickly with our own devices at hand.
"I don't know Pauly, but I'm up with following them and interacting with them." Colette said.
Nicky, Pamela, and Violet looked at Colette as if she was a different person.
"Wait what? Why? Did you put too much makeup on yourself?" Violet asked while groaning.
"No Violet, I know when you get grouchy on me for me being too sassy. Ne sois pas si caniche, chérie." Colette spoke back.
"Hey hey, ladies, maybe Paulina is right, we should just give those four some room to breath but we should talk to them, just to see what's up." Pamela muttered as she felt a growl from her stomach.
"We should talk to them, and see more of their strengths. But we'll need a discreet approach." Nicky pointed out as she started to get the idea.
"We'll talk to them when they're alone after their next classes. Then we'll get some answers soon enough." Violet agreed on this.
"Um girls, now that we've got this under control, can we go get some breakfast please?! I'm hungry for a banana smoothie and some pancakes." Pamela mumbled as she felt her stomach aching.
The girls groaned but giggled at this as they decided to set their plan into motion after they were all fed. Besides, their announcement silenced almost their hunger!

Chapter Text

As the five sister friends finished their breakfast they were then to put the next steps of their small plan into action. They decided in order to figure out what the four students were up to, they were going to do some digging by getting closer to them. All they learned so far was that their old teacher, Thea Stilton was asking them about something very important. The question was what? Luckily, they managed to retrieve information about their schedules for class by following their whereabouts throughout the day. At first they were just normal transfer students who wanted to get attention but then they knew something else. The four of them were talking in secret. But what were they discussing? Were they trying to get all the attention from the school?

They still didn't have any clues as they were following their every move for right there during most of the morning. All they knew was that these students were having a certain assignment with their former yet now returned teacher, Professor Stilton.

The girls secretly followed us to Mrs. Stilton's classroom as the four of us were talking to Thea.

"So I take it that assembly went smoothly for you four?" Thea asked us.

"Eh I don't know, to be honest I usually don't do well with big crowds, especially an entire academy." Don replied rubbing his arm.

"Who was that girl that tripped us over? I would love to give her a piece of my mind." Sophie said as she started cracking her knuckles.

"Uh Soph, I don't think you should go that length. But yes, that student who pestered us. Ruby was it? Do you know her?" Phil replied as he held her down while looking at Mrs. Stilton.

Thea sighed sadly at us and responded. "Unfortunately, yes, Ruby Flashfur. She is one of the more infamous students at the school which some say and I have catalogued her events in some of my stories about the Thea Sisters both here at the college and before and after their great adventures in the world."

"She was with a few other girls I guess? I saw them in the auditorium whom were giggling next to Ruby." Don squeaked remembering the three other girls that sat next to Ruby during the ceremony.

"I believe those are Ruby's friends, Connie, Zoe, and Alicia, who call themselves the Ruby Crew. They've always been jealous of my faithful students for months and want to be declared the valedictorians for the end of the semester." Thea explained.

"Have they always been jealous of the Thea Sisters ever since they started?" Phil questioned Thea.

"Maybe, but you don't have to worry about them. For right now, I believe there is an assignment that the four of you can work on independently." Thea spoke as she looked through her drawers at her desk. She then found four identical papers that had a simple task listed on each one. There was also a sticky note attached to them with a certain color.

She gave us the papers and spoke instructions about a simple task which was to write out our own character profiles for her to look at. That way we can easily present ourselves to the school in a more comfortable manner.

"The library seems like a good place to do research and write our own profiles, what do you think Cody?" Sophia asked me.

I was looking over the material given to us as I noticed that our sections covered the library, science labs, and older parts of the campus which I thought were intriguing.

"You know what? I think I can handle these parts. After all I am a fan of special parts of the academy." I cheerfully remarked while rubbing my hands together.

Thea was smiling at me because she knew deep down I had somewhat of a sense of adventure and learning. Although there was a small twitch in her eyebrow like something was up. But she shook it off as she saw Don and Phil look at their tasks. Their tasks were to interview a few athletes from the track and field behind the campus walls and even try to make some new friends while they were at it.

Phil asked if there was anything else they need to worry about, but Ms. Stilton shook her head as long as we stuck to the rules, which were to stick close to the campus and not enter the woods or the kitchen because they're off limits. He then whispered into Don's ear about a plan that he had in mind as he winked at both Soph and I.

"Hope you four complete your assignments as I look forward to knowing you more." Thea smiled as we thanked her for the kind words.

As we were leaving the classroom, the Thea Sisters were secretly eavesdropping us but from a farther distance with an audio bug planted on the door. Paulina was then collecting notes about what we learned from Thea inside the classroom on her laptop.

Pamela was trying to get a better listening from Paulina's screen as she tried to listen in. "What are they saying? I want to get a good ear in." She replied through the computer's speaker as it showed a camera on the other end where Colette and Violet were watching them. They were in Violet's room where Nicky was also with them as she paced around the room thinking about the current situation.

"So these four students are just going to do certain tasks that involve interviewing around the school, but you sure that's it? They're up to something, I just know it!" Nicky kept ranting on in her head.

"Are you ok there Nicky? You sound like an on and off switch." Violet looked back at her tomboy Australian friend.

"I'm fine really, it's just that these four are keeping something from us but what? I really want to know more about them that's all." Nicky muttered with her teeth as she continued pacing around the room.

Colette and Violet remembered hearing that Don and Phil were going to explore the outer parts of the campus while Sophie and I were heading to the Library for more information about the Island we were currently on.

"So you think that these mice are going to just work on school work and explore the campus?" Paulina asked the two who overheard the news from the Hatters.

"I believe so, but I don't know, it's hard to tell." Colette replied fidgeting with her mouse fingers.

"We believe that they are just trying to fit in and I'm at least going to give them a chance. Some things aren't always what they appear to be." Violet exclaimed to her friends believing they new students could be trusted.

Nicky wanted to believe that they still had suspicions about the newcomers but Pamela still wanted to calm her down from jumping to any conclusions. Also it's just seemed like an odd coincidence that the four students had arrived and are practically new to the whole system. She then took a deep breath and decided to keep calm and heed Pamela's words.

"I'll have to side with Pamela on this, I think we're actually jealous of their team and even though they are new, most of them are guys and there's that one girl on the team." The Australian member of the group spoke up.

"Wait why did you phrase it like that?" Paulina asked.

"About what? The jealous part, or the group is made up of mostly guys and a girl?" Nicky responded.

"I mean all of it Nicky. And to be fair, I don't think it's a good idea to keep focused on them despite what happened on the Headmaster's door. Any mouse could have done that." Paulina deducted carefully.

"So what should we do now? You want us to continue following them?" Colette asked their friends from Violet's laptop.

"For right now, I don't think so, they might think we're onto them, but later today let's just focus on the Headmaster's office. I want to do a little investigating before our trip in a few days. We haven't done any mystery solving in months." Paulina said.

The rest of the girls nodded their heads in agreement as they remembered their main priority was to watch out for Ruby Flashfur and her group along with understanding what happened to the Headmaster's office.

So the girls left their spots and decided to work on their own class work and looked for any suspicious behavior from the Mad Hatters or the Ruby Crew.

As the four of us walked out of Thea's classroom we decided to come up with a plan to start an investigation on the Headmaster's door.

"Ok so here's the plan. While we do our assignments during the day, later at night we would go to the headmaster's office before bed time. But it would be risky perhaps due to the possible increased security." Phil suggested.

"But shouldn't we also work on the special writing assignment as well for the Norway trip?" I asked tugging his shirt.

"I don't think that's going to be necessary, we'll always find another way to get to that place if it's going to be necessary. Besides, I want to explore this place more." Sophie uttered from her mouth.

"Wait what? Why? Shouldn't we be still finding a way to get back home?"

During the afternoon, Phil and Don were outside in the back area of the school near the track and field where a lot of students were either running around the track, playing football, or even launching spears to see the farthest distance gone. Don and Phil were looking around the area to see if there was anyone they could interview for their own assignment and even take pictures with their phones to show what they have found.

"So Phil where should we start photographing and interviewing?" Don asked while looking around. Phil looked at a few people, there were cheerleaders practicing for a new routine, while behind him was a big jock mouse was practicing throwing a football with another guy. He had trimmed black hair, turquoise jeans and a navy blue jacket with orange stripes over a white shirt.

"I'd say we take our shots with the big guy here, he seems like a nice fellow to talk to. Besides I've always had a small thing for sports." Phil spoke as he cracked his knuckles and got his notebook and pen ready.

He walked over to the big mouse hoping to get his name and talk to him about his own role on the football team and if he ever plans on doing anything special later on in life.

"Hey there big guy, can I ask you a couple of questions?" Phil inquired the jocked mouse.

"What, huh? Oh hey there, you must be one of the new students right? That's an interesting outfit you have on there, kind of weird but unique if you ask me" the male mouse spoke looking down at Phil noting his choice of clothing.

"Thanks, I guess. What's off with my outfit? It's custom made!" Phil spoke out harshly as he felt insulted by the negative critic of his fashion sense.

"Sorry dude, but I find it out dated for a student who likes athletes to be out here with this look. Especially the top hat." The guy responded shrugging his shoulders causing a bit of groaning to happen in Phil's mind.

Don came in and nudged Phil's arm a bit. "Sorry about that, he usually has his own ideas of fashion and doesn't take lightly who hates the way he looks." He responded trying to back his bud up.

"That's alright champ, I'm sometimes sensitive when it comes to non-sport related topics. Name's Craig by the way." Craig spoke out as he shook Don's hand.

"Nice to meet you too. I would like to ask you about how long are you going to be here at school for your terms and what you intend to do with your own career whether it's athletic or perhaps a change of major." Don inquired with a mouse grin finally getting a place started in their assignment.

Phil was still nodding looking at Don with a (Hmm) sign trying to get rid of any disappointing emotions from his own face as he kept itching from a thought that he and Don were being watched somehow.

From the other side of the track and field from the boy's position, Nicky was practicing her jogging in her gym shorts and T-shirt as she saw the boys from a distance while coming in. She saw how Phil and Don were talking to Craig as if they were actual reporters which gave her more questions. "Are they trying to be with the good kids in the school? Is this just a ruse to gain their trust?" Nicky shook her head as she kept on running on the track as Pamela was looking at her sister friend from the bleachers near where the boys are at. She had her binoculars on as she decided to get a bit of a closer look on the boys.

Pamela was a different kind of mouse from Nicky. Both of them are basically the brawn and muscle of the Thea Sisters who do athletic tricks, heck they even climbed the roof of the Orient Express to protect a gown from a master thief. But also, Pamela wanted to see the best in people who does care for her own friends. She then decided to go down to the field and have a chat with the boys again. Especially Phil because she knew deep down something was wrong with the poor boy's soul.

Once Phil and Don were finished with the small interview with Craig, they decided to head back towards the Academy to look into the Headmaster's office. However, Craig wanted to tell them something before they went back inside. "Hey fellas, thanks for your time and I was wondering if you guys want to hang and play simple catch with the football?" Craig hollered at them.

"Oh that's ok sorry, we've got some things to attend to. Gotta catch up with our buds soon. Enjoy your small football game!" Phil replied to Craig as he started to form a bit of a smile on his snout.

Don noticed this as he was starting to feel intrigued by how even if something that isn't real you become familiar and feel a sense of wonder in your heart. Even though he was still hesitant he might let Phil have a bit of fun.

"So how did that feel?" Don questioned his top hatted leader.

"Feel like what? I was just complimenting Craig's gaming time with his buds and listening to his story was alright. Turns out he wanted to be a sportscaster and a sponsor to his favorite team in America." Phil asked.

"Being normal for once, and being part of a school that's full of imagination." Don interpreted his words more thoroughly.

"Well, I don't know, even though this is a book world, I still believe that it serves as a greater purpose." Phil remarked. "But it still doesn't matter because we still have to work on that investigation at the Headmaster's office." Phil replied.

"You still want to get into that aren't you? Hmmm, look I don't want to get us into any more trouble, but do you still think that will be a wise decision?" Don questioned Phil's thinking caps.

"I still don't know but there's something about this that doesn't add up. I've never seen a heck of a mess on a headmaster's door before, especially one that has a message almost sounding like a death warrant." Phil assured Don with an odd idea.

"What did you have in mind?" The young artist continued to question him.

"That's a great question to squeak about." Nicky's voice perked up behind the two boys.

"What the? Geez! You scared the cheese out of us!" Phil exclaimed as he was startled by the girl's entrance. Pamela was also with her who decided to join them from the bleachers decided to go for a more peaceful approach, while Nicky still on the rough side wanted to get some answers the tough way.

"Sorry about that, we just wanted to talk to you and ask you if you needed any help around the campus." Pamela exclaimed easing the tension from Phil as the boys calmed down.

Phil realized something in his head that somehow if they want to continue blending in, they need to continue following the girls around in case something happens. But still wasn't sure if forming an alliance would make things better or worse.

Don was still thinking about what a great idea it could be to have extra allies, because from their own experience, they had help from someone who dealt with finding a lost relative before dealing with a deadly disaster like the Dark Dimensions.*

"You know what? I think we could work together on something if you don't mind." Phil remarked after thinking for a few minutes.

Pamela smiled at this as she realized as if Phil was slowly having a change of heart. Nicky was sort of ok about this as she knew that extra help can be useful. And she was alright with having new friends as long as they don't get too carried away with pride and arrogance.

"Look I'll be glad to have you two join us but please try to be careful around Ruby and her gals." Nicky replied as she tightened her grip.

Don got a bit freaked out when he saw Nicky clench her fist and stepped back.

"Don't worry I'm not going to actually hurt you. I just do that to show a bit of my tough side." Nicky chuckled as Pamela rolled her eyes. "Listen let me get changed into my casual wear and we'll come with you."

The boys nodded at this as Pamela went with Nicky to the changing rooms. While the girls got changed into their casual wear, Pamela kept thinking about how she could possibly change Phil's heart if there was a chance.

"You sure you want to do this girl? He seemed a bit stubborn to be honest like a thick cheddar block." Nicky replied back to Pamela as they got their backpacks on their shoulders and flexed their muscles.

"I know that he can be a bit grouchy, I noticed him yesterday before we left that he and Cody I think were fighting about something. Maybe just trying to fit in with this place. I know I can do it with everymouse I meet. Including him like what I did with Violet in our group." Pamela uttered behind her shoulder as they saw the boys discussing something.

"Whatcha boys squeaking about?" Pamela asked the two.

"Eh nothing much just thinking about checking in with the rest of our friends." Don murmured from his mouth.

"What? Come on now we can catch up with them once we're done looking into the headmaster's office." Nicky assured him as she started to put their plan in action.

"Alright if you say so." Phil finished his sentence as the four of them started to head back to the main building of the campus.

"I'm sure this will hopefully give us a good opportunity to build our relationships wouldn't you say?" Pamela asked Phil as she walked next to him as he tried to brush her off. But then he slowly decided to give in and just walk with her simultaneously towards the campus. Don and Nicky noticed the reaction from Phil as they both had their own thoughts on the situation.

"Wonder how Cody and Sophie are doing on their end?" Don asked Phil looking up to him.

"I'm sure they're fine. Maybe they got caught up with some of the other girls at the library." Phil replied back to his buddy as they got back inside the main campus doors.

Chapter Text

While Nicky and Pamela were leading Don and Phil over to the Headmaster's Office, Sophie and I were in the Library looking through some books for our assignments as we learned a lot more about the science lectures. Sophie was reading a book about certain physics in the marine waters and how they are different due to the micro organisms that live in the wet environment. I was going through the historical books that Mousus gave us when we first came in as well as the history of Whale Island.

Paulina and Violet were in the same room as the two of us as they were looking through some books about psychology and music while Colette just entered the library near the reception desk with an exhausted face.

"I still want to know more about those two and their friends." Colette responded to Paulina and Violet when she found them.

"I still think they're ok in my opinion, maybe you should talk to Cody while Vi, you talk to Sophie." Paulina suggested to Violet.

"Why me? Isn't science more your thing Polly?" Violet quickly rebutted.

"Yes, but you seemed a bit jealous of her with writing for the special arts and literature." Paulina assured her Asian friend.

"Hmm perhaps, but still I'm not that jealous of her. I should be seeing Don and viewing his critique with his choice of media." Violet added to her reasoning.

"Hey girls, sorry I'm late. Just had to scamper off to my locker to get my lipstick on." Colette replied as she panted.

"Lipstick? Why would you need lipst.. wait are you trying to flirt with Cody?" Paulina asked her fashionista friend.

"Uh no... why would I..." Colette tried to claim it false but Violet and Paulina rolled their eyes with an of course look on their snouts.

"It's not what it looks like." Colette deeply explained as her friends then started forming smiles.

"You sound somewhat like me Coco." Violet commented on Colette's thinking. "Going for the newbies like I am with Don."

"Can't we just at least talk to them? I really like to get their intel on what papers they're working on. Maybe we can help them with some assignments? I still need to work on Statistics and it's not my forte." Colette replied in defense.

"Maybe, but I still want to hear more from Sophie about her knowledge of History, and how well she knows about this place. And Coco, we don't know entirely if Cody's actually good at statistics. We should ask him about it before they help us." Paulina added in.

"Indeed." Violet added in. "It would be wise to first help them out with their lectures and their assignments and spending time with them."

"But still, don't you think that ever since someone new came here it's coincidental that someone sabotaged the Headmaster's door like a crazy raccoon?" Colette added in.

"But even if they did possibly did that, how can we be sure if it was them? Maybe someone else did it." Paulina assured Colette for jumping too quickly.

"Wouldn't it still be alright to just ask them a few other things as well? I know we talked a bit from yesterday and last night but I still think we ought to know more about them and what they want to achieve." Colette added in.

"Ok, I suppose you're right. It wouldn't hurt to squeak to them about what they wish to know." Violet said as she still wanted an art session with Don.

"I may have a bright idea like sprinkled cheese on bread, but I think it will take a bit of time to put it all together." Colette spoke up as she rubbed her paws together.

"What's on your mind?" Paulina asked as she noticed that look on Colette's face. "Wait you're not really going to..." the Peruvian mouse stuttered as she realized what Colette was smiling about.

"No not quite exactly, I'm not going to flirt with him, much." she chuckled while she rubbed her arm. "I'm just going to get to know him more and ask questions. You two can join in if you want but also maybe we should talk to the new girl as well."

Paulina had another thought in mind about Sophie as she picked out a certain book from the shelf. It was about Viking heritage and their origin story occurred back in Norway. "Sophie wants to know more about the history about the ancestors. And Cody wishes to get along with the students here as well." She responded as I walked towards a school computer and looked for a certain book known as the Da Vinci Code.

"Oh my whiskers. He's looking for the Da Vinci Code? That's my favorite book!" Paulina was shook when she saw me taking a glance at the screen.

"Hey Soph, you know where I can find this book in the library? You're the book expert." I replied when I noticed so many sections in the library. The library itself had many shelves to look through it might take a few hours to do so.

"Aren't we going to do our own assignments though?" Sophie questioned my thinking.

I took a deep sigh at this and knew even though I wanted to do the assignments not only did I wish to get fascinated by this book world, I had to get my puzzle tinkering mind in check to get sleuthing done. I still wasn't sure about the ink foot prints and the strange incident on the Headmaster's door, but it's something I still wanted to look into. "Yeah don't worry, we can still do them soon as long as we maintain a brief profile of our actual mystery solving." I replied back hoping that we can still learn more about the place.

"Mystery solving? Are they really going to solve the case of the Headmaster's office?" Violet questioned her friends.

"I don't know but I still want to know about how reliable they can be when looking through the campus walls." Colette spoke. She then got from behind the bookshelf as she walked over to the two of us, while Paulina and Violet followed her.

"Hey you two! Remember us?" Colette replied as she walked towards the both of us.

"Oh hello Colette, I see you and the smart girls are here in the library." Sophie looked up from her book.

"Smart girls, huh?" Violet chuckled as she looked at Sophie in the eyes in an odd way."

"Uh why are you looking at me like that?" Sophie asked her.

"Nothing that important." Violet responded back as she went on to help me with the books. Paulina came over to Sophie as she looked a bit concerned about her new friend.

"You sure you're ok?" Paulina assured her.

Sophie was not entirely sure because of what she saw from last night, the visions in her mind, the ink footprints she saw on the ground with her friends, it was still freaking her out but she still had to keep it together.

"Maybe just hoping that today goes smoothly for us after the assembly." Sophie finished.

"What's on your mind?" Colette asked her. "This is about what Ruby did to you and your friends wasn't it?"

"Maybe yeah, she's still giving me a reason to kick her tail." Sophie said as she slowly clenched her fist.

"I don't think that's a good idea to lash out your anger at someone who doesn't deserve that much treatment." Paulina squeaked at Sophie.

"Well I don't like my friends getting picked on either, it hurts me more to see the ones I care about being trampled by thugs than what happens to me." She replied as she still had a bit of a dark emotion within she didn't want to express.

"I sense something is wrong with your aura there." Violet uttered as she slowly came over to Sophie. However she brushed her off as she looked away.

"Look I shouldn't be talking about this, I need to focus on my studies." My friend replied as I assured her it would be alright.

"What do you have to do? We can help if you want." Paulina squeaked as she looked at the two of us.

"You seem to be very attached to us I guess." I surmised from the scientific rodent.

"Well what can we say? We are always open to helping you guys out." Violet replied.

"Yeah, I suppose some help can do quite a lot." I replied. "Say, do you know any of the oldest parts of the building are? This is one of our tasks for our own special assignment from Professor Stilton."

This got Violet intrigued about the idea as she was inspired by the history and knowledge of the arts as well, so knowing the architecture could help as well.

"Absolutely! We'll totally help you!" she squeaked cheerfully.

"Really? That's fantastic! We would love to check out those parts with you." I smiled feeling a bit confident with dealing with our side tasks easily.

Colette thought that this would be a perfect opportunity to make a move on me but Paulina held her back still wanting to know more about what happened at the Headmaster's office.

"Not yet Coco, we shouldn't go too much on them because they're new." Paulina whispered to Colette in her ear.

Colette wanted to break free from her Peruvian friend but she knew she was right. So she decided to go along and allowed Violet to lead us the way.

Before we left the library, we got a few books for our own tasks, a little about Mouseford's Architecture, and the Vikings. Fortunately, Sophie had her library card from her ID card checked by the Head Librarian.

We then headed towards the Gardens and the West sector of the Academy as we took a deep breath of the fresh air. It smelled great as if walking into a Sacred Grove filled with blooming spring flowers.

Sophie was smiling a bit as she felt reunited with a strong sense of happiness. It was rare because neither the guys or I had seen this amount of joy from Sophia. Of course she always had a thing with being free in nature.

"This is such a lovely scene here." Sophie said as we walked through the courtyard.

"I know right this is where we have some of our best festivities besides the gym and the track and field course." Paulina mentioned as we continued our short walk towards the science labs. As we walked towards them, we came upon the well in the center of the garden.

"Oh how much I love coming to this part of the garden, you can hear the echoes from the very surface of the waters below here." Paulina replied.

"How deep is this well exactly?" I asked as I peered into the water chamber. "Is this like about 10 to 12 feet deep?"

As I continued to look deep within the well, I noticed a small blink of an eye that shined through the water. At first I thought it was the sunlight, but then I realized the sun wasn't touching the well since it wasn't past noon quite yet. It was underneath the water. But as I was about to get a closer look, I felt a brick loose from the thing as I started to loose my balance. It caused the brick to fall into the water which made quite a splash.

"Woah careful there, if you fall in you won't be able to climb back up!" Colette warned me as she came close to me. She grabbed my back as she pulled me away from there.

"Oh sorry about that, I was just curious about the waters down there what the reflection looked like. I thought I saw something in there." I spoke as I felt odd being held by the mousette.

"Ummmm, this is uh awkward..." Sophie said as she noticed Colette still holding onto me.

I realized it was kind of embarrassing at first, but Colette did save my tail before I fell into the well. So I guess it wasn't so bad, knowing that you would be in a bigger pickle trying to find your way out of the book world is one problem while falling into a well is harder. I was all in for having some allies but I wasn't sure if a relationship build up is what we need right now.

Colette cleared her throat as she let go of my back as I stepped away from the well opening.

"Wow when was the last time a girl saved me?" I replied asking while chuckling embarrissingly.

"Since you did went with me to Europe when we did that investigativ..." Sophie continued but was cut off when the other two Thea Sisters were watching us. "Report about the wildfires in France. We were working on a weather situation that happened outside of the U.S. because we wanted to know more about natural disasters." she finished.

Paulina thought that was intriguing, but for Violet, she somehow knew there was something odd in the voice again that Sophie was hiding. She just couldn't figure out what it was yet.

"Right I'm sure that's it." Violet mentioned speaking out loud sarcastically. Sophie was confused by what Violet meant but she shrugged it off, knowing it wasn't that important.

"Anyway I take it you still want to show us the Science labs?" I asked while clearing my throat.

"Oh yes of course, they're this way. Come on!" Colette replied giggling nervously as she showed us the appropriate direction. Paulina and Violet rolled their eyes at their gossip girl as Sophie said nothing. We exited the garden as we reached a certain part of the campus that looked pretty old. We saw an ancient stone wall with a carving of what looked like a series of ships going towards shore and Mice like Vikings working hard on building a new civilization on land.

"Woah what are these carvings? Are these new or ancient?" Sophie asked curiously as she walked over to the wall.

"Oh these? These depict part of the ancient story of the first settlers who came to Whale Island to establish a humble and beautiful establishment." Colette uttered when she saw us looking at the walls.

"I wonder if there was any other information we could find out about their foundation and how Whale Island came to be the place where students around the world could learn and study?" I asked as I saw some of the Viking mice explorers in the stone looking at towards what appeared to be the construction of the village that was on the lower side of the island as well as the main castle where they had their feasts or held their own military forces for defensive purposes.

"Didn't we get those books from the library about the information though?" Sophie assured me.

"Oh right sorry, I totally forgot that part!" I stuttered realizing that my own mindset was working in odd ways.

"Hmmm, you know something is off about you." a voice appeared as we turned around to see Ruby along with her friends behind us. "Oh gosh no, terrible timing of you Ruby." Paulina groaned in disappointment as she saw Ruby come up to us as we were looking at the wall.

"What are you doing here?" She asked them.

"Eh just wanted to give these two here an apology for once since I did cause that little stumble in the assembly room." Ruby exclaimed as she rubbed the back of her head with a regretful look on her face.

"Really? Is that what you are here for?" Colette asked the bratty mouse.

Ruby was starting to feel annoyed at this point when she heard Colette say that question out loud. She wanted to use a more manipulative tactic on her and us as she wanted to get a better idea of who we are and what we are doing. However, she took a deep breath and kept her cool in front of us.

"Alright you got us on that one. I admit that we're just trying to make a good look for you and your friends to like us." Alicia said softly from behind Ruby's back.

"Hey would you please put a cheesebrick into it?!" Ruby turned around with an aggressive tone on her mouse face." Alicia backed away as the other two members of their group buddied up with her.

"Might want to dial it back there, you don't want there to be a frenzy between you and your friends." I advised Ruby cautiously, knowing that the girl had quite a temper.

"Oh I know how ruthless I can be with my tone and there isn't a single mouse anywhere in the world that can beat that." Ruby spoke back to me.

"How do you figure?" Sophie questioned the red-haired mouse.

"Well, let's just say I have many influential methods of getting people to do whatever I want." Ruby spoke.

"Like your so called friends you mean?" Sophie challenged Ruby.

"Excuse me?!" Ruby exclaimed with smoke coming out of her big mouse ears.

Before things got a bit more ugly, Violet stepped in and pushed the two girls apart. "Hey you two knock it off, ok? This is getting really intense here! You are acting like little mice rambling on a simple bit of Pule cheese."

Both Ruby and Sophie looked at Violet as Sophie was confused about what Pule cheese was. "Pule Cheese?"

"It's the most purest cheese on the planet. Every Mouse here and even in New Mouse City knows that." Paulina replied.

"Of course you would know that, you are one of the smartest students here at this school." Ruby remarked sarcastically.

"Um, what's that supposed to mean?" Paulina was starting to get a little fumed by this.

Seeing the girls fight over a little talking was getting a little worrisome, so I felt like this was enough fighting since we were stalling time. I was going to stop the conflict but someone's voice entered the hall. "Excuse me ladies, that's enough."

We all turned in the direction of the voice as we saw Professor Sparkle, the same teacher that Phil had the other day come up to them.

He was getting his files ready when he noticed us arguing with each other.

"Oh um, Professor Sparkle! What a surprise to see you." Ruby exclaimed as she saw him coming in from the hallway.

"May I remind you that it's inappropriate to talk like this especially to our new students here?" Professor Sparkle reminded the Ruby crew. "We don't want that happening again for the third time now do we?"

"The third time? Who's counting?" Zoe asked confused.

"I think he's talking about the time you tripped me and my buddies on our way to the front stage." I reminded the girls.

"And what about the time when you tried to call us out for being new here for perhaps trying to sabotage the Headmaster's office." Sophie added in.

"Remember Ruby, all students here no matter old or new, we are all treated as equals. Please don't forget this, otherwise you will be getting detention. The four of you." Professor Sparkle warned Ruby and her minions.

Ruby hesitated a bit behind the anger on her snouty face as she huffed and decided to walk away. She made a glare back at us as she pointed her fingers at us and the remaining Thea Sisters with us.

The rest of us had that stern look at her as we shook it off. Once they left, Professor Sparkle turned to us and began to speak.

"I believe you five are good to go. Once again, hope those four didn't get you into any problems. We hate to see that happen to you again." He replied.

"Oh no worries, we had it covered." Colette replied letting the professor know.

"We're the Thea Sisters of course and whatever Ruby has to throw at us, we'll deflect back." Paulina spoke up as well.

"Glad to hear the assertiveness Well have fun showing our students the rest of the campus. I'll be in my office if you need me." The professor finished as he walked off.

We all waved to him as he left the area. We then found the science labs again which I had to admit, were not that much different from our regular college campus in the real world. The first lab had graduated cylinders, microscopes, marine tanks for ocean science. Another one had a more earth science feel to it, seeing the different types of rocks and minerals, as well as the three states of matter. Even a physics science themed lab was there as well. I was deeply impressed by each one as so was Sophie as we looked around exploring each one.

We were looking around when we saw another student at one of the work tables doing some homework. He had bronze colored fur, dark brown hair, and glasses on his face. His attire was an orange checkered shirt with a brown vest with a matching set of pants.

"Who is that?" Sophie asked pointing towards the young man.

"Ah that's Shen, one of the smartest guys on the campus. Such a sweet mouse to be around." Paulina mentioned as she brought it up towards him.

Shen looked up from his table as he waved to us. "Nice to meet you girls. Showing the new students around the campus are we?" Shen asked as he adjusted his glasses.

"Indeed, we are helping them out with one of their journalism assignments and then they should be free to go for the day." Colette responded.

"Great to hear. Listen I wanted to ask Pamela if she is up with helping me with fix a circuit board on my new project." Shen replied as he showed us his work.

Violet scratched the back of her head and told him unfortunately, she was busy with Phil who was on his way with Don to the Headmaster's Office to look for clues for what could have possibly happened.

Shen looked a bit disappointed as he got back to work. "Well I wish I could join you, but I'm too busy with either the Writing Scholarship or the new investigation for Mouseford Academy. But hey maybe once I'm done, I can show you one of my projects!" He delightfully sparked with a smile on his face.

"Really? What kind of projects?" I asked curiously thinking about what was on Shen's mind.

"Oh well, I can't tell because um...." He said shyly not knowing which device he wanted to present to us first or whether he wanted to show us yet.

"You a little shy?" Sophie asked him.

"Oh don't worry about him, he's kind of new to you and your friends because you just met him. It will take some time to know him just a bit more." Colette said coming up to my right side.

"Well, I think that settles it for our conversation I believe. We have managed to complete our assignments and got information about both the science labs and the areas around the campus. It was nice meeting you Shen." I replied waving him a warm good bye as we started to leave.

But before I stepped a paw out the door, a little something caught my eye. A small black substance from a vent grate near the ceiling was slowly making it's way through the air ducts. Was I really seeing things or was that real? I shook my head as I noticed it again, realizing it was gone. Maybe it was nothing. I looked back at Sophie as she felt a beep from her backpack. Her laptop no doubt had a new update.

"What was that?" Paulina asked us as Sophie shook it off.

"Oh nothing, just a software update for my laptop. I'm not an expert with computers but I do love history which is why I need my laptop to look up other news stories." Sophie mentioned.

"You know I would love to take a look at your laptop at one point if you're up for it. I'm just down with exploring technology." Paulina spoke up encouraged by the beeping.

"Maybe if I have the time. If it's important, I guess I can share it." Sophie replied, making sure that the documents we had saved on there were locked with special security nodes.

"Anyway, don't be afraid to show us what you have, I bet it's more grander than you think!" Sophie commented back at Shen as we all turned our attention towards the other student.

Shen had a bit of a bigger smile on his face as he heard Sophie's words, which sounded like words of encouragement. "Thank you so much. Hope everything here at Mouseford treats you well!" He replied as we left the room.

I had to admit, Shen is not that bad from what I've read about him. If I remembered correctly, some of his appearances came from the Mouseford Academy Books which were a spinoff from the main series for the five girls because it talked a bit about their academic life. I decided to think about maybe talking to others than just the Thea Sisters could help us, or it could backfire eventually.

While Sophie and I were walking down with the three remaining Thea Sisters, the three mice girls walked slower than us because they still felt like there was something from us that we weren't telling them. Apparently, they were right. Hopefully once my friends and I reach near the end of the book and find an exit, we could tell them but I wasn't sure how that would impact them as living beings in a world made by a children's author. We were heading back into the halls towards the office when Violet tapped me on the shoulder.

"So off to the Headmaster's office correct?" Violet asked Sophie and I.

"That would be accurate, yes. I think it's time we put our intellect to good use and maybe we might learn something from there." I answered Violet's question confidently.

"If you say so, is this still about what possibly happened last night?" Violet asked again.

"You mean the door and possibly what happened within his office?" Sophie questioned Violet's mindset.

"Well, not just that. Listen, why don't we continue this when we meet up with our friends?" Colette butted in as she pushed Violet away as she took my hand and pulled me while we were running towards the hall.

"Oh boy, is she really trying to get into Cody's head?" Paulina asked with a worried look.

"Well, sometimes Cody is a hard one to crack. I might explain that to you when we have a chance." Sophie spoke up when thinking about what happened years ago.

"Come on, let's just be sure those two and the others leave a few clues for us once we get to the office." Violet said while rolling her eyes.

If there's one thing that both of us groups can agree on, I think it's way too early for romance, since it's been a few days and we are still hiding a few secrets of our own. Both of those will have to wait and maybe be on hold permanently, as of right now, we have an investigation to solve at the Headmaster's office.