Nicholas Palmer's Story

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"No, Nya stop it." Ashton sighed for the at least tenth time. He was trying to get ready but his cat was very persistent in the attempt to eat his tie. Today was the day now students arrive and he wanted to get to the school gates a bit early but that wasn't likely if Nya kept slobbering over every single tie he pulled out of the drawer.

He took out a dark blue tie and and put it on the top of the dresser where Nya couldn't reach it. Ashton proceeded to button up his shirt when he noticed that the light in the bathroom was still on. He turned it off and heard a breaking sound, when he looked back at the rest of his room there was a sight to see.

Nya had somehow managed to climb up the curtains and jump onto the dresser, knocking down a lamp and was just about to reach his tie when he snatched it away. "I can't take you." He said compassionately scratched the cats head. I'm meeting the detective I'm paired up with today, I have to make a good impression. The cat purred as Ashton continued to pet her. "And we both know you'll just end up trying to eat her hair. He picked Nya up and put her on the bed. After arranging his tie and another glance to the mirror he was out the door.

I wasn't that late after all and he got to the school gates relatively early, it was only 7:15. He settled for a place a bit off from the crowd. He leaned onto the wall a few meters or so away from the gates and started inspecting the students that were slowly gathering. He wasn't all that interested in the missing principle case, mostly because he believed it to be a hoax. It must be just a welcome prank for the new students to give them a taste of what real mystery is like. Nevertheless he revised some last year lessons. What was it observe, locate target estimate distance and then take action or did he miss any steps? He was doing good on the observing part but locating Anna seemed to be causing him a problem and who could even concentrate with all this yelling.

Ashton turned towards the source of the unpleasant noise and discovered it was coming from Nicholas. That guy was always so very loud and seemed to love making a fool of himslef. He was apparently arguing with a black haired girl. She had her back turned towards Ashton so he couldn't get a good look at her face. Well, he might as well be polite and go say hello to Nicholas. At the girl's mention of his own name he stopped for a moment. Was this the mysterious Iridian he was to work with. He came closer to the pair and started speaking in a courteous manner. "And, with all due respect, I sincerely hope you're not this strident all the time."

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Mornings. . . Catrice wasn't overly fond of those. Were they bad? No, of course not. They were the start to the day, how could they possibly be bad? Mornings were like the first pages of a book, they were always the introduction, the beginning of a bigger story.
Unfortunately, today's introduction was going rather badly.

"Why aren't you downstairs yet?" Her mother called from the kitchen, reminding Catrice that yes, she was running late. She had been supposed to be on her way to the Sherlockian Academy thirteen minutes ago, at 6:40. It was 6:53 at the moment, and she didn't know when the bus would arrive. Heck, it had probably already passed.
"One more minute!" The girl replied, pulling her socks around her feet in a hurry.
". . . Fifty-nine, fifty-eight, fifty-seven. . ." Catrice could hear her mother counting from down the stairs, the words only adding to her already existing frustration.
"Stop it!"
"Fifty-three, ten seconds off! Forty-three, forty-two, for-"
"Mum!" Catrice snapped, bolting down the steps so fast she nearly tripped. Shooting a scowl at the grinning woman beside her now, the girl rolled her eyes as she snatched her bag from her mother's hands and rushed out the door.

***
The distance from her house to the academy was a bit far but not overly long on Monday, May 25th. The impressive time was due to Catrice running half the way and catching a ride on the bus for what was remaining.
She arrived at the school gates just a little bit over the time she had wanted, and quickly tried to navigate this 'partner' she had been set up with. What was his name? Nicholas Pa... Pal? Palmer? Whoever he was, Catrice only knew his name from a list she had been given through the mail. Due to never being an actual student at the Sherlockian Academy a day in her life, she had no clue who this Nicholas was, but she was sure she would hardly even need him.
Still, finding him may be a good idea.

"I'm looking for Nicholas Palmer, have you seen him?" Catrice asked as a rather cheerful looking girl skipped up to her, probably to say hello. The girl nodded, "Yeah!"
Catrice blinked, "Can you tell me where he is?"
"Oh! He's right over there!" The girl said happily, pointing through the growing crowd, "I'm guessing you're here for the case, huh? Have fun, working with Nick!" She giggled, almost knowingly, as she skipped away.
Shrugging, Catrice headed in the direction of which the girl had directed.

The crowd had grown big now and the girl quickly lost her way. Annoyed with herself, she turned to the first person she saw and asked for directions again,
"I'm looking for Nicholas Palmer, do you know where he is?" she asked, speaking to a blond haired boy who was caught up in a conversation with two others.

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Ashton mentally cursed himself for speaking so bluntly. The sentence sounded lass offensive in his head, he hoped it didn't offend the girl he will be working with. His doubts soon disappeared as Anna spoke. "Ah, straight-forward. I like that." She even smiled. It had seemed that the greeting had upset Nicholas far more than it did Anna.

"Gosh! Don't get so clever, she's not always like that... Just to people who like fun, though. But hopefully, you're just as colourless as your hair... You two should get along fine! Anyways, I guess I should be going now. It looks like the assistants are arriving. Tootles!" The boy's rant surprised him considering the fact that his potentially insulting comment was directed at Iridan who he obviously wasn't the best of friends with. The joke, was that part about his hair even a joke or an insult, well whatever it was, it went over his head. Ashton crooked his head a bit to the left and watched the blond boy leave.

He was now alone with Anna, well not really alone since they were standing in the middle of a courtyard filled with their fellow students, but their attention was directed only at one another. "You must be Ashton Brooks. Please, call me Anna. It's a pleasure to meet you." She held out her hand for a shake but instead of doing so Ashton lifted her hand and kissed it. It wasn't anything special, just what he was thought a gentleman is supposed to do. "The pleasure is all mine, Anna." He said with a genuine smile.

"I think the welcome ceremony for the first years is about to start." He spoke after a short break. "Don't you think we should go, the vice principal might talk more about the disappearance. With at least 300 other students as competition we should use every opportunity to find evidence." By the discussion Anna had with Nick Ashton assumed she would be more than keen on solving the case. His words were spoken with the best intentions but they lacked honesty. He would be happier if the principal just popped up from behind the podium and said it was all a joke but that was highly unlikely.

It's not like he's not going to try it's just that he wasn't as excited about the mystery as the rest of his schoolmates. Ashton is rather good at finding missing things. How much different can it be with finding people?

Ashton took a step in the general direction of the auditorium the ceremony was going to be held in and waited for Iridian to follow or take the lead he was fine with either.

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"What? You come to an investigation and don't even know your partners face!? How foolish you are.." Nicholas said, adding in an eye roll that Catrice thought really wasn't needed.
She scowled at him. She had been given the name, not the face of who her partner was going to be. While she could have looked into it a bit more, announcing the mistake wasn't necessary.
"...Oh well. I have a special question for you, Catty! I'm thinking of a number between 1 and 100, Give me the numba that first comes to your mind, and I'll make the real judgments on ya then!" Nicholas said with a smirk and an annoying attitude.
'Guess a number'? What did that have to do with anything? Nothing, that was what.
"Fifty three." Catrice snapped, folding her arms, "And don't you dare call me Catty, Palmer. I don't want to here that nickname again." Her name was Catrice. That was it. No stupid short version that sounded like something one would name a pet. It was just Catrice.
If there was one thing that the girl hated that had an actual reason behind it, it was nicknames. They were pointless, stupid.
And yet, Nicholas had been all cheery and called her 'Catty'.
Still, just one little thing had no reason to get her so mad.

Catrice took in a breath and let her arms hang back at her sides. She was being unreasonable.
"I suppose that you know more about what's going on than I do, for the moment..." She said, looking around, "With that said, what do you suppose we do first? I was thinking we could go around and see if anyone has any news." That was reasonable, wasn't it? She had never gone to the Sherlockian Academy, much less trained to be an actual detective, but hearing that the principal had gone missing. . . that was an opportunity she saw and took. Already she could tell that her partner, Nicholas, probably didn't think very much of her.
Right now, asking him what they should do, she could definitely see why that was. Still, they were going to win. All the girl had to do was catch up a little bit and get into the swing of things.