Experiments [Dee]

Wrapping her arms around herself, Lia’s eyes scanned the district bulletin board. It was only September yet the girl could still feel a slight chill go through her body. Now as much as she would have liked to claim that there was a purpose in her reading the district bulletin board daily, she had no good reason. By then, it was simply a habit, something the fifteen-year-old girl had grown accustomed to. So now she was standing there, possibly leaving a footprint at the very spot she had been standing on for the past thirty minutes. Most of the news posted were the same old news Lia had read the day before; some had already passed.

One of the notes caught her attention, though, the one that looked like it was scribbled last minute and tacked on haphazardly. The fact that the note contained the words “six headed rats” amused Lia greatly. With a careful look to see if anyone noticed her, Lia deemed it safe, and she reached for the note. It was small, small enough that it could have been hidden by the mass of larger, flashier notes on the board. However, this was the one that had grabbed Lia’s attention, proving that it must have meant something. With a bemused look, Lia re-read the note to understand what the scribble was trying to say.

Assistant. Apprentice. Friend? Lia could almost see one of her eyebrows raise at the last word. She could be either of the first two but a friend? That was almost laughable. Lia was not known to make friends easily, and she knew it. With a shake of her head, she decided to dismiss it, figuring that since it was last, it probably was not the most important part of the note. Pay? Lia scoffed at the idea of being paid. Of course money would have been okay for her, but just having the job was enough for her. She shook her head, wondering how desperate the note-writer must have been to include that statement.

Ah…what? A laugh escaped Lia as she went over the last part of the note. Six pieces of cheese? Well, I suppose for the rat but still… A sort of snort/giggle accompanied Lia’s latest thought. The person who wrote that note was definitely interesting. Now if only she could find the mysterious person…and remember where her family had left the cheese. With a smile on her face, Lia raced back to her home, desperate to find six pieces of cheese. It didn’t take her long as the cheese was in a fairly obvious place, and the consistency was quite soft. Without notifying her father or Stacie, Lia raced back out to the bulletin board only to realise that she had no idea where to find the note-writer. Well, this is just perfect.

Under any other circumstances, maybe tracing footsteps would have been a good way for Lia to find the note-writer. But as it was the district bulletin board, the simple task became impossible. Fresh tracks, Lia…gotta find those. Of course, the ones that were most fresh were probably the ones leading to the bulletin board from Lia’s home. Applying a bit of deduction and a whole load of guesswork, Lia chose a random pathway she figured would lead her somewhere. At least there was no major activity she had to do. Before she knew it, her strategic guessing soon led to aimless wandering. She had stopped by a few places, asking if anyone recognised the handwriting on the note. Most of them had said “no” until one of the residents Lia vaguely knew recognised the scribble and directed her to a place she had never heard of before.

The door in front of Lia’s face looked a bit ominous as if it was about to blow up in her face. Definitely not something she would have liked. Cringing as her raised fist made a hollow sound against the door, Lia could feel herself shaking. It felt so strange to be standing there, to be waiting anxiously to meet someone she only knew through a note on the bulletin board. But that was not to matter. With the cheese in her other hand, Lia waited for the owner of the place to answer the door. Even if the person turned out to be a mad person, at least it was an experience Lia could claim she had. The only thing she could truly wonder about was the size of that rat and how in the world it operated with six freaking heads.