OOOOOOHHHHHHH MAAAANNNNNN!
I cannot wait. I asked this on my facebook page and I'll ask it again; how many more days until Christmas? I know what I'll ask for: tickets.
First time here? Click this start button to make your way back to this post with a bit more experience with Cassie and her besties: START!
The Place Between: Part 10
The answer that Cassie sought did not come within the span of lunch. There were so many pesticides that contained sodium that the list seemed never ending. Class could not wait. Cassie and her friends had to disembark upon their quest, but Mike swore to Cassie that he would find the answer for her.
The answer seemed like a thousand miles away.
Mike had sent a text to his mom to pick him up an hour after school ended, allowing the bunch of them to have more time to search. He told his mom that he and Cassie had a science project to work on, which wasn't so far off from the truth.
Throughout her Poli Sci. class, beneath the desk, Cassie kept rotating the coin in her hands that Martin had given her. She hoped that it would stop time and take her to the Place Between, but she knew from her lessons with Edgar that magic had no power over time. It helped to keep them human, Edgar had said. Edgar's lessons rang throughout her head, while the words of her teacher regarding how lobbyists made their whispers influential in Congress were lost.
The anxious feeling in her stomach tortured her until at last the end of day bell rang at 2:15.
Cassie and Chelsea bolted to the library to claim their favorite corner where they could continue their investigation in privacy. This was far too serious a situation for their favorite couch. This gave freshmen a great sense of victory as they took over the cozy blue hued seats.
The pair of them awaited Mike's arrival nervously. Daring hardly to speak at all, except to say, "Where is he?"
They knew their time together would be short, so every minute lost felt like a small physical injury.
They knew their time together would be short, so every minute lost felt like a small physical injury.
The librarian Marlie greeted the students as they entered the library. In the afternoon time, it was common for the library to become full in no time. This was the one sanctuary the students could go to where there were no teachers and no drug dealers. It was the only place in town where they could hang out and be regular teens. Whether they were doing homework, gossiping, or playing cards, this library was home.
When finally Mike made it inside to their meeting spot, he plopped down on the grey carpeted floor and leaned heavily against the section on US history. "Sorry it took so long, guys," he apologized while digging through his pack. "I got stopped by Mr. Pryor," he pulled out his and Chelsea's commandeered notebooks, looking far worse for wear.
"Oh my God," Chelsea yelled. The noise level in the library was so escalated by the students settling into their favorite spots that her outside voice blended with the rest of the cacophony.
Sighing, Mike explained, "Apparently, those jerks were serious. They put their effing grubby fingers on every page to see if we were conspiring against them."
"Paranoid much?" Cassie said. This was further proving her worry against those two creeps.
Nodding, Mike furthered, "Yeah. Pryor said he legit had to manhandle these away from them. That's why they look so jacked up. And you are not going to believe this; he said he went to the principle to try to ban them from the school for harassing our class. The principle said she'd investigate it, but..." shrugging dramatically, Mike said what was in the back of Cassie and Chelsea's heads. "It sounds too good to be true."
"In other words," Chelsea began dramatically, "Won't be long until Mr. Pryor gets his pink slip."
Nodding, mike said simply, "Prob."
The dreaded pink slip was the sign that a teacher was the district's budget cut. Cassie and her friends had yet to have a year in their schooling career where one of their favorite teachers was not given the horrendous news. It was as terrible as any curse or sickle for the teacher and the students.
The dreaded pink slip was the sign that a teacher was the district's budget cut. Cassie and her friends had yet to have a year in their schooling career where one of their favorite teachers was not given the horrendous news. It was as terrible as any curse or sickle for the teacher and the students.
"This only adds to our reason to find that pesticide," Cassie prayed that her gut was correct in this, so to get the continued support from her friends. Though she couldn't tell them about the world she was trying to protect, it was a comfort to have a common enemy that they could share. "They could be some really effed up people trying to poison our trees. Can you imagine what would happen to our town if all of the apples and produce we make here became jacked up?" About midway through her Poli. Sci. class, Cassie had configured a brilliant was to get her two best friends on board. "Think about it, if there's poison on our apples, do you think tourists will be wanting to come here any more?"
"Mmmm," Mike started as he began to boot up his computer. "Make mine a poison pie."
"Geeze, Cass," Chelsea was having a slightly harder time accepting all this, but there was an edge of it that could make sense. "But what would they gain? Like what would be the point of taking out the only source of money for our town?"
"Remember how we learned about how Monsanto takes over small farms and then makes them their own, so that they could make more profit?" Cassie knew she would sound like a conspiracy theorist, but she recalled how passionately anti-Monsanto Chelsea became during that segment in their political science class. "Maybe they're going to try to do that with us."
"What're you three hooligans up to?" Marlie asked as she came up to the three teens in the corner of her library. It was customary for Marlie to make a couple of rounds throughout the library to ensure that her young wards were keeping their noses clean. This was a great luxury to which she now had access with a handy volunteer to watch the desk at the front of the library.
Cassie knew that Marlie was on their side, so she was the first to quickly answer, "There were a couple of creeps in class today from the district. They wanted to do a weird science experience slash internship for us, so we just wanted to check them out first to see if these guys are legit or not."
Marlie analyzed them a second, knowing full well that there was more to this story than what Cassie was sharing, but if that was the case, odds were that Cassie would tell her eventually. "Alright well..." Marlie began to give the teens advice, but a group of freshmen playing cards stole her attention away and with that, Marlie was off to put out a fire.
For the next half hour, the teens pursued an answer with much wanting for a lead, until Mike said, "This stuff seems pretty nasty." Pointing to his screen, the teens all read:
"SODIUM ARSENITE: DISCONTINUED IN THE U.S. FOUND TO BE EXTREMELY TOXIC. USED FOR MANY YEARS AS PESTICIDE AGAINST THE GYPSY MOTH. USED MOST COMMONLY IN FRUIT PRODUCING TREES IN NEW ENGLAND REGION."
"This has got to be it!" Mike exclaimed.
The half an hour that they had spent investigating this had been equivalent to pulling teeth for these three teens, so this find felt invigorating, thrilling, and terrifying.
"Apparently this stuff can seep through the ground and leave toxic poison in the dirt and rivers for years. It clings to everything." As Mike read off the symptoms of this dastardly sounding poison that matched the description willfully given to them by those fools, Angel and Eddie, Cassie devised the next step.
"Guys," she cut off Mike midway through his description of how the pesticide could not be washed off the peels of apples once applied. "We gotta keep this to ourselves for a couple more days."
"Why?!" Chelsea immediately replied. "Cassie, these creeps are gonna get people killed if we don't say something."
"No, we will," Cassie insisted. Her priority was to let the people in the Place Between know before anyone else. "We'll keep this to ourselves for a couple of days, but in the meantime, we'll look into this pesticide more, we'll find the contacts for the mayor, and the local news places. If we try to go to the principle, you know nothing will happen. We gotta go to the big wigs to bust these guys."
Mike and Chelsea nodded. It made sense.
"We're gonna want them to fall hard, so, you know, like in all of the crime shows we've seen, we've gotta get as much evidence as possible to bring these guys down," Cassie knew that this would placate her friends for now. They wouldn't run to the police without her go ahead. This would give her the chance to tell the world that she was quickly falling in love with about the dangers that now stood to destroy their home. All that needed to be done now, was to wait until her parents went to sleep, when she could safely slip away to the Place Between.
~*~*~
Ok folks, here's the situation: this is the first blog post that I have done 100% on a desktop (that I borrowed from my mom), and I wrote it in under 90 minutes. It is not often that I have the luxury of sitting at a full size computer. But I really would like to call a desktop my own someday and I absolutely do not need anything fancy. If you would like to have guaranteed blog posts from me every Thursday, the best way for you to help me fulfill this promise would be to donate toward this cause. You can pitch in, by purchasing a work of my own to call your own! Visit Amazon's Kindle or Barnes & Noble Nook to make The Feasts and Follies of the Animal Court, a book in your e-library today! OR if you have already purchased my first published work, please feel free to send a donation my way up at that PayPal button at the top of the screen. I promise that your contributions go toward supporting my writing and not towards senseless nonsense. That's what my day job is for. ;)
Take care and we'll see you next week!
Your humble author,
S. Faxon
Cassie knew that Marlie was on their side, so she was the first to quickly answer, "There were a couple of creeps in class today from the district. They wanted to do a weird science experience slash internship for us, so we just wanted to check them out first to see if these guys are legit or not."
Marlie analyzed them a second, knowing full well that there was more to this story than what Cassie was sharing, but if that was the case, odds were that Cassie would tell her eventually. "Alright well..." Marlie began to give the teens advice, but a group of freshmen playing cards stole her attention away and with that, Marlie was off to put out a fire.
For the next half hour, the teens pursued an answer with much wanting for a lead, until Mike said, "This stuff seems pretty nasty." Pointing to his screen, the teens all read:
"SODIUM ARSENITE: DISCONTINUED IN THE U.S. FOUND TO BE EXTREMELY TOXIC. USED FOR MANY YEARS AS PESTICIDE AGAINST THE GYPSY MOTH. USED MOST COMMONLY IN FRUIT PRODUCING TREES IN NEW ENGLAND REGION."
"This has got to be it!" Mike exclaimed.
The half an hour that they had spent investigating this had been equivalent to pulling teeth for these three teens, so this find felt invigorating, thrilling, and terrifying.
"Apparently this stuff can seep through the ground and leave toxic poison in the dirt and rivers for years. It clings to everything." As Mike read off the symptoms of this dastardly sounding poison that matched the description willfully given to them by those fools, Angel and Eddie, Cassie devised the next step.
"Guys," she cut off Mike midway through his description of how the pesticide could not be washed off the peels of apples once applied. "We gotta keep this to ourselves for a couple more days."
"Why?!" Chelsea immediately replied. "Cassie, these creeps are gonna get people killed if we don't say something."
"No, we will," Cassie insisted. Her priority was to let the people in the Place Between know before anyone else. "We'll keep this to ourselves for a couple of days, but in the meantime, we'll look into this pesticide more, we'll find the contacts for the mayor, and the local news places. If we try to go to the principle, you know nothing will happen. We gotta go to the big wigs to bust these guys."
Mike and Chelsea nodded. It made sense.
"We're gonna want them to fall hard, so, you know, like in all of the crime shows we've seen, we've gotta get as much evidence as possible to bring these guys down," Cassie knew that this would placate her friends for now. They wouldn't run to the police without her go ahead. This would give her the chance to tell the world that she was quickly falling in love with about the dangers that now stood to destroy their home. All that needed to be done now, was to wait until her parents went to sleep, when she could safely slip away to the Place Between.
~*~*~
Ok folks, here's the situation: this is the first blog post that I have done 100% on a desktop (that I borrowed from my mom), and I wrote it in under 90 minutes. It is not often that I have the luxury of sitting at a full size computer. But I really would like to call a desktop my own someday and I absolutely do not need anything fancy. If you would like to have guaranteed blog posts from me every Thursday, the best way for you to help me fulfill this promise would be to donate toward this cause. You can pitch in, by purchasing a work of my own to call your own! Visit Amazon's Kindle or Barnes & Noble Nook to make The Feasts and Follies of the Animal Court, a book in your e-library today! OR if you have already purchased my first published work, please feel free to send a donation my way up at that PayPal button at the top of the screen. I promise that your contributions go toward supporting my writing and not towards senseless nonsense. That's what my day job is for. ;)
Take care and we'll see you next week!
Your humble author,
S. Faxon
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