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 Posted: Mon Feb 13, 2017 12:33 am
 Zoe fell in line at the entrance to the cafeteria, sniffing the air curiously to try and guess what they were serving today. She had been so caught up in reading books in a small corner of the large library that she would have missed lunch altogether if a few other freshlings hadn't walked excitedly past her chatting about lunchtime. Usually she would scope the menu out ahead of time, but who in the world could resist a book on the conflict management tactics of law enforcers?
She peeked through a gap that had opened up in front of her, and she smiled; the pile of yellow cheese, the stacks of large, flat tortillas, and the spicy smell surrounding them; today was a day of soft tacos. No wonder the others at the library had been so excited! She carefully selected what she wanted, careful not to take anything that was so lacking that she would end up taking the last of it; not only would it be rude, but she had heard stories of older kids who would take it as a personal affront if they were not the recipients of the last of the refried beans.
She selected a spot at a table that was void of anyone else, and worked on putting her tacos together. She sprinkled a generous amount of hot peppers over one, but as she bit into it, she made a face and set it down quickly. Something seemed......off about the peppers at the academy lately. It seemed like they were a bit TOO spicy. Looking around and seeing a few others gagging and reaching hurriedly for their beverages, she knew she wasn't imagining things. They didn't used to be this way......maybe it was some senior's idea of a school-wide prank. Well, she thought to herself with a sniff, it wasn't at all funny. She righted her bitten taco with one hand and began the tedious task of picking all of the offending peppers off with the other.
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Posted: Mon Feb 13, 2017 6:24 am
 Tabe blinked as she entered the cafeteria to the site of freshlings and juniors acting strangely, she must be out of the loop about something. She went to start making her soft toco she didn't put any peppers on because she didn't like peppers to begin with. She also didn't have any meat on her plate since Tabebuia didn't like meat, she never had. She then started looking around for a place to sit. She finally spotted an imp hybrid that didn't seem to be waving her away like they didn't want her around. This was a very strange luck indeed. Tabe smiled brightly and said "Hi I'm Tabe, do you mind if I sit with you??" She asked in a cheerful tone. She was hopeful this would go well since this one freshling wasn't freaking out like the others in the room. It was really weird normally everyone loved toco day, so whatever could be wrong?? She wondered to herself. Maybe she should investigate and figure out the mystery of the toco Tuesday. She nodded to herself in a silly manner. Tabe really didn't know what was going on and she really did want to help to fix it if she could.
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Posted: Mon Feb 13, 2017 1:04 pm
Zoe paused in the middle of her pepper picking, a piece of the offending veggie dangling from her long claws. She smiled at the freshling that came to join her; she didn't recognize her, but that didn't mean anything; if you avoided strangers ALL the time, then you'd never make new friends. "I'm Zoe; nice to meet you." She gestured to Tabe's tray, the pepper still in her claws. "You didn't get any of the hot peppers, did you? They're spicier than usual today." She blinked a little and then continued rather hastily. "Of course if you like spicy that's just fine; I didn't mean to assume your tastes or anything. I just know that sometimes people can get their mouths hurt if their food is too spicy."
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Posted: Mon Feb 13, 2017 1:14 pm
Tabe smiled and said "Nice to meet you Zoey." Then she listened to Zoey say that the peppers were hotter than usual. "No I don't like peppers, but I do wonder who is the cause of this case." Tabe said trying to be as serious as she could which still was a little silly and playful. Since Tabebuia wasn't a very serious person in general. She pretended to pull out a notebook and said "Miss did you see anyone acting strangely today??" She was ready to look for the criminals, even if there were no real criminals to be found.
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Posted: Tue Feb 14, 2017 4:48 am
"Case?" Zoe tilted her head slightly at the strange wording; she had never really thought that the matter was worthy of being likened to a criminal investigation! On the other hand, it could just as easily turn into one if someone developed a reaction to the overly-spicy peppers. "A pepper-caper?" she suggested with a smile.
She didn't mind the seriousness; Zoe tended to be a little more serious herself, and not always prone to silly play unless it was instigated by her friend Gilly. "Strangely?" She tilted her head the other way this time, half-pretending to ponder. She liked the game, but she really was curious if she saw anything strange. "Well.....I didn't see anyone strange, BUT everyone was heard talking about taco tuesday and how much they were looking forward to it. To disrupt such a joyous occasion for so many unsuspecting people points to quite a fiend indeed!"
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Posted: Wed Feb 15, 2017 9:42 am
Tabe nodded happily "Yes the case!! You can be my assistant!! That's a great idea the pepper caper, we will find the pepper criminals and make sure the caretakers and teachers know about the crime!!" She said in an excited tone. Tabe made a noise that she was thinking. "Ok so no suspects yet.. Let's go look for clues by the peppers or maybe we could interview the cafeteria workers, maybe they saw something strange." Tabe did a silly little shifty eye movement as she said strange. This was her first case and it was important to her that she figure out the answer.
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Posted: Wed Feb 15, 2017 10:14 pm
Zoe nodded enthusiastically. "It'd be great to put a stop to this; we'd be helping the school out a lot!" Not only that, she secretly added, but it would be a great stride towards her goal for when she got older. Many of the famous people of the world seemed to start out doing great things for their communities, and since hers was the school, it would look really good once she tried to become a top-notch diplomat. She could almost see it; already-important people going over her records. Hmm.....stopped a mass allergic reaction to peppers? For the age you were, that's quite impressive!
Tabe's second suggestion caused her to come crashing back down to the table. She looked a bit nervously in the direction of the kitchen. "Do you think.....they'll let us back there to speak to them? I want to solve this, but I don't want to get into any trouble if I can help it." She scowled to herself a little bit even as the words left her mouth; if they waited until after lunch, the workers would be too busy cleaning up or will have left already, and that would have been a wasted opportunity. "I think you have the most experience here; I'll just follow your lead, okay?"
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Posted: Thu Feb 16, 2017 6:16 am
Tabe smiled brightly she agreed and said "Yup let's help the school lots!!" Tabe thought about Zoe's next question "I guess the only way to find out is to try, if we don't try we'll never know!!" Tabe said cheerfully. Tabeunia nodded and lead the way over to the place where they spoke to the cafeteria people to get their food. She looked up it was already clear over here since everyone else was already eating their lunch or freaking on because the peppers were too spicy. "Excuse me I was wondering if we could interview you and your staff??" Tabe asked the purple nixie standing behind the counter. The nixie gave her a funny look but agreed to let the two freshlings back to take to the cafeteria staff. Tabe looked at the various races that were relaxing after the lunch rush, she looked for anyone acting strangely. She tapped her finger on her chin as she thought. "I'm here looking for a possible pepper prankster." Tabe said to the crew, then she looked around for reactions to her declaration.
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Posted: Thu Feb 16, 2017 2:50 pm
Zoe nodded and couldn't resist taking her last taco with her; no sense wasting perfectly good food, and besides, they would need the strength if this turned out to be a full blown mystery. She was just glad she had gotten the peppers separately and not put them on every taco. Munching the last of it, she followed Tabe through the crowd, most of them having already finished their lunch and was dispersing back to their regular school activities. Did any of them even think to complain to the lunch workers? If they knew they tasted off, they probably wouldn't have served them.
She was relieved when the nixie actually allowed them to go back to the kitchen; maybe they figured they were working on a paper or something. Well, she wasn't about to correct them in any case. She looked around for any reaction from the staff, and when she didn't see any immediate change, she tried a different question. "We've noticed that the peppers are REALLY spicy lately and we think someone might be doing it on purpose; do you know if anything's changed with the peppers lately?" At this, one of the dishwashers perked up. "I think the other day I saw a pepper or two in the basket that had a really bright color; I remember thinking that they almost looked radioactive." He chuckled a little, but didn't get any humor back from the other workers. Zoe couldn't blame them; if they had allowed potentially hazardous peppers to be served to the students, someone would get in BIG trouble.
Zoe turned and smiled at Tabe. "Sounds like we should pay a visit to the gardens next."
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Posted: Sat Feb 18, 2017 1:32 pm
Tabe nodded as she listened and pretended to write notes since she didn't have a pen or paper. She turned to Zoe and said "Yes I think your right, let's go!!" She said excitedly. They were making progress on this case Tabe was confident they would break this case wide open very soon. Then Tabe would have solved her first case with Zoe!! Maybe Zoe would agree to be Tabe's sidekick in her fight against crime. Tabe went outside with Zoe to the garden and started looking around for the peppers in question and for whoever might be in charge of the garden. Tabe also wondered if there was an enchantment or something at work here. "Come on Zoe let's look for clues!!"
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Posted: Tue Feb 21, 2017 1:49 am
Zoe smiled as she followed Tabe; her new friend reminded her much of Gilly; eager and impulsive. Still, it was fun doing something like this instead of studying constantly and keeping out of trouble. Problem-solving WAS something she needed experience in, after all; this might be just the thing to get her going. They did say that experience was a far better teacher than any book.
When they reached the garden, Zoe couldn't help but look around in admiration at the neatly kept rows of delicious vegetables, tender plants, and towering trees sporting all kinds of yummy fruits. It seemed so unlikely that any sort of mischief could ever grow here, yet here they were, looking for it. She looked around for any sort of keeper or gardener, but at a glance, they appeared to be alone.
She started looking among the rows of vegetables, looking for any odd colors or shapes that didn't look natural. She passed plant after ordinary plant with juicy tomatoes, striking purple eggplant, clusters of cauliflower as big as her face, and a few that she couldn't conjure the names of off the top of her head. She reached the pepper plants at last and looked around, but all she could see were plain green peppers, growing happily and festooned with the shimmering droplets of a recent watering.
She was about to turn around and retrace her steps back to Tabe when a splash of bright color caught her eye. Crouching down, she lifted up a few clusters of leaves and blinked in surprise. Staring back at her in all their garish glory were at least a half dozen peppers, relatively the same shape as the others, but these were a strange orange-red that made her squint just looking at them; they were so bright in color that Zoe fancied they would glow in the dark if she replaced the leaves that were hiding them. "Tabe!" she called out, looking around for her friend, "I think you ought to look at this!"
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Posted: Fri Mar 03, 2017 11:23 am
Tabe grinned at Zoe when she looked at the brightly coloured strange peppers, "Great job Zoe!! Now we just need to find the gardener and the case will be solved!! We should take some of these as evidence so no one destroys them before we can prove they were here, or maybe we should take pictures with a cell phone??" Tabe pondered this was her first case and she didn't know what to do with every step of the way. She wouldn't have gotten this far without a partner like Zoe. She really liked Zoe a lot and wondered if they would want to be her side kick!!
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Posted: Mon Mar 06, 2017 3:04 pm
Zoe looked at the peppers for a few seconds before reaching out to daintily pick one with the tips of her claws. "We'll have to be careful about touching them; if they're as spicy as they look, they might be dangerous to pick without gloves. Whoever planted these probably used gloves themselves." She used her other hand to pull out the bottom of her shirt and made a small sort of pouch, where she gathered a few peppers and placed them in it. "I don't have a cell phone, but I think the gardener might be better able to identify actual peppers anyway."
She looked around and finally saw someone ambling around in the tomatoes, humming placidly and watering the plump red orbs with a definite practiced hand. Clutching her shirt, Zoe ran up to him, careful not to trod on any of the plants in the process. "Hey mister, can you help us? We found these peppers in your garden and we don't know if they should be here. Do you know what they are?" The gardener blinked and looked down as Zoe opened the bottom of her shirt to show the bright peppers.
"Hmm....." the gardener mumbled as he took one and held it up to his nose. His eyes suddenly bulged out and he promptly sneezed, hard enough to send spray from his watering tool showering over Zoe's shirt. "What's all this, then? These are geist chilis, FAR too spicy for the school gardens! Where did you two find these?" Zoe pointed back in the general direction of the pepper patch. "You mean you didn't plant them, mister?" "Certainly not!" he replied in a huff, "These are meant for connoisseurs of spicy food; that means experts, children."
Zoe didn't bother to reply that she knew what the word meant, but instead turned around and looked at Tabe. "Looks like it just got even more strange; if the gardener didn't plant them, who did?"
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Posted: Thu Mar 09, 2017 2:52 pm
Tabe frowned Zoe was right this mystery was just getting deeper and deeper. If the gardener hadn't planted these here then who had. Tabe looked up at the gardener and asked. "Have you noticed anyone in the garden that didn't belong??" Maybe if they got a clue about what the person looked like they could figure out where to go next. If this person didn't know it looked like Tabebunia's first case was going to be a dead end and go cold till she was old enough to figure out the next step to this case, or just let it go. At least they had pointed it out to the gardener so the plant could be removed and not hurt any more freshlings.
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Posted: Fri Mar 10, 2017 8:11 pm
Zoe had hoped the gardener would have a positive answer, given how far they had come, but the gardener only shook his head. "Sorry my dears, but I haven't seen anyone out of the ordinary; we get plenty of volunteers to tend the garden as part of a career in horticulture; that means plant care; it could be just about anyone." Zoe frowned, more at the answer than the fact that once again people seemed to think she knew less than she did.
She sighed and looked over at Tabe. "Well, I'm sorry that wasn't the answer we were looking for, but that doesn't mean it's over completely. Now the gardener can get rid of the plants, and maybe it might deter whoever's doing it. Who knows; if the mystery pepper planter tries to continue, they might get careless one day and be caught. At the very least, we did save the next Taco Tuesday, right?"
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