บท 2: - Case File - 001 - The Smiling Creature - 01 - A Trip

16 year old Alex sat in class looking out of the window not paying attention to the teacher as always.

Alex had scruffy blonde hair, he was skinny, a little above average height and a complete rebel, his only defining trait was his brutally bad luck, other than that he had no other defining personality or appearance trait.

"School was boring and never really taught anyone anything useful." Alex thought.

The bell rang, the teacher finished his sentence and everyone left.

Alex got up and left for the canteen to pick up a bite before returning to his dormitory. He met his friends at their usual spot, the table right against the left wall furthest from the entrance (they always met here after classes for the day were finished). The canteen was a large, white, plain room boring just like most other things.

[???]: "Hey Alex you ok, your kinda lookin' miserable."

Alex looked up at the concerned voice asking the question. It was Darius one of Alex's few but close friends.

He was tall, he was muscular, he had long brown hair tied loosely into a bun at the back of his head, he was sociable and good at sport, a polar opposite to Alex.

But he was very short tempered and would get into fights (with students and teachers alike) sometimes, but despite this he was a good person and when he would calm down after on of his rage filled episodes he would go and apologise (unless he felt the person deserved what they got).

[Alex]: "Ya, I'm fine just tired."

[???]: "Yes Darius, he IS very tired from all the napping and looking out of the window he was doing in class!"

A voice, sarcastic as humanly possible spoke up. Xavier, a person who's personality Alex could sum up with the words 'Sarcastic Smartass'. And overdose on sarcasm he did, one some days every other sentence would be a sarcastic comment but everyone was used to it by now.

Xavier was about average height, he was plump but not quite fat, he wore black glasses with square rims, his hair was jet black and neatly combed back as mentioned before he was also an over playful smartass.

Unlike Darius, Xavier was in all of Alex's classes. Really the only reason Alex and Xavier had become friends with Adam was because they shared a dormitory (3 people per dormitory).

[Alex]: "Oh haha, your so funny!"

Alex said copying Xavier's tone.

***

After finishing their food they went back to their dormitory.

Alex was excited, actually everyone was excited. The school's end of year trip was tomorrow, it was a trip to Elsier Forest. It was a beautiful, large forest secluded from the rest of society know for its heavily varying tree sizes and the fact that no physical maps of the area existed, only when someone was at a group of campers were at a campsite they would send signals to their HQ if no signal was sent the campsite's location was unknown, it also meant that there were no people at the site.

To all the overworked and tired students this trip was a shot at a temporary heaven.

Xavier, Alex and Darius began to discuss about the trip.

[Darius]: "This will be great!"

[Xavier]: "You can say that again!"

[Darius]: "This will be gr-!"

[Xavier]: "It's a figure of speech!"

[Darius]: "Oh."

[Alex]: "Go to sleep damn it, we need to wake up early!"

[Darius & Xavier]: "Sorry!"

And with that they went to sleep

***

In the morning, after waking up, they quickly got done with their morning routines

(Brushing Their Teeth)

(Showering)

(Eating Breakfast)

(Getting Dressed)

They then pack their bags at a speed that would make them seem like prisoners preparing to escape prison. But it in all reality to then it was just that.

Everyone from all the 2nd year classes gathered in the school hall where they were split into groups of 24 (8 groups of dormitory mates in 1 trip group, leading to 12 separate trip groups).

Every group was then filtered into coaches (2 trip groups per coach). They then set off to a campsite in Elsier Forest...