• Chapter 4: The Next Week

    Everyday, Kari would go straight to her room, changed her clothes, then took a shirt and looped it around a clothesline. Before she got onto the shirt, she grabbed a rope. When she reached the middle of the clothesline, she would tie the rope onto the line and begin to climb down (she lived on the 4th story of an apartment building.) Once she reached the ground, she would tug on the rope in such a way that her special knot would come undone, so her father would never find out exactly how she got out. She checked her surroundings, making sure no one was looking at her in her uniform, and she bolted down the street. She always made sure to leave a little early so she would be able to take the back roads.
    Everyday, Kari continued her practice with Lance until he started to become as good as her. She knew he had obviously been practicing on his own time. Everyday, the two would go out to eat or hangout so that they could get a little closer and get to know each other a little better everyday.
    After one week of this happening, Boss came to inspect Lance. Boss was a very mysterious and rarely seen man. His face was very stern and serious, and it wore the look as if he had seen his best friend suffer and die. He was completely bald, and you were very lucky to ever see his eyes because he always wore a suit, die, and sunglasses. It seemed as if that was all he had ever owned. Most people who worked for NYPDDE only would see him once, which is the day of their admittance testing. Kari was about to be one of the few who would get to see him twice, since she had to help Lance with the partner moves. If they didn’t pass the partner exam and they only passed the single-man exam, they would both remain at the level of detectives instead of working together. They would have to wait one month before testing again, since Boss was always so busy.
    As soon as Boss walked into the training room, everyone else left immediately. He sat down, put the clipboard in his lap, and clicked his pen to reveal the ink-covered, writing part. The clicking signaled for the tests to begin. First, Lance did his single-man part. As he did this, Boss took many notes. He turned and nodded at Kari, signaling that it was time for the partner exam to start. This also meant that Lance had passed his single exam, otherwise the second part would be a waste of time. They both worked diligently on this part, since it was by far the harder of the two tests. After they were finished, they waited patiently for his response to their work. He wrote down a few more things, looked over his notes, and then looked up at them.
    “You’ve passed. Lance, is this the first time you’ve done this?”
    “Yes, sir. Thank you so much.”
    “YAY!” Kari shouted as soon as Boss had exited the room. “This calls for major ice cream!”
    They stood around, waiting for any further news that may have come their way. Once they decided nothing was happening that involved them, they walked to the ice cream parlor, named Ollie’s after its founder, Ollie Baughman. After Kari ordered her moose tracks and Lance ordered his vanilla bean, they found a table to sit at and talk.
    “Vanilla Bean? Are you serious? Could you be any more… plain?” questioned Kari.
    “Maybe, if I would’ve gotten just plain vanilla. For some reason, I think that vanilla ice cream is gross compared to vanilla bean,” Lance stated as he looked around, noticing a group of about 4 men staring at them. “Who are they?”
    Kari took a quick glance, making her movements seem as natural as possible, following the gesture by staring straight at her ice cream, as if pretending never to have noticed them. After a mental check, she came up with her response. “I’m pretty sure they’re part of GIAOC. No one’s really sure what it stands for, but some people jokingly say it stands for Guys In Action Of Crime. They’re pretty much the opposite of NYPDDE. I’ve been told to avoid them at all costs. It’s kind of like Communism and Fascism. In a way, we’re related, yet we’re complete opposites and we don’t get along.” Kari looked at Lance and noticed him quickly twitching his eye in the direction of the small group of men. “Are you all right?”
    “Huh? Oh, yea. Something just like… flew into my eye,” he answered, looking back down at his ice cream.
    Kari looked over her shoulder over at the guys who had recently been staring at them. Now, they were looking at their ice cream and each other, just minding their own business. That’s… strange.
    “Why don’t we get along with them? If we’re kind of related, shouldn’t we be able to fight side-by-side for some aspects?” Lance questioned.
    “Well, we did at one time.”
    “What do you mean? What happened?”
    Kari sighed. She was tempted to tell him to ask Angie, but she was his partner, so it kind of was her duty. “Well, It’s kind of like a rumor. People say that they’re boss used to work with ours, because they were like, best friends. Then their boss realized that the talent we have could be used to our advantage to get money. Our boss denied, so he created his own organization to start the ‘money business’. It’s said that they do small robberies to keep up the funds, but we all believe that their waiting to do a huge attack to not only majorly increase their funds, but destroy NYPDDE in the process.” She looked back at Lance, who seemed intent on the conversation. She had never seen someone so fascinated on a simple story.
    The two continued eating, trying to go slow so the other group would leave first. This was to make sure they wouldn’t be followed. About 5 minutes after the men left, they decided it was safe to go home.