"Fillmore! Ingrid! What. Happened?" Principal Folsom had just arrived at the nurse's office. Her face was hard, angry, and just a little bit concerned. "It's Jun's first day back at X," she said, pacing the room as the two officers stood near the door of the enclosed room in the office. "I made you two-my best Safety Patrollers-her bodyguards. First you let that Renault boy into the garage. Then you let Jun challenge him to a race and go through with the race. Now I hear she's collapsed on your watch. What happened?" "Please, Principal Folsom, it's not their fault," Nadia Renault spoke suddenly, opening the door of the enclosed room and stepping into their midst. "Jun's all right-she's just a little anemic now because of the accident last year. She tried too hard at the race. She's all right, really. She's awake now." Folsom let out a heavy sigh, pressing her manicured fingers against her temples. "Is there anything else I should know about?" she asked tersely. "Yeah," Fillmore admitted grudgingly. "Renault challenged her to a two-month build-off-whatever that means." "A build-off is where a person or a team have a certain amount of time to build something of similar fashions to outdo another person or team," Ingrid replied. At the raised brows she received, she shrugged. "I watch a lot of the Teaching Channel." "What are the stakes?" Folsom questioned. "All of Jun's titles," Fillmore answered. "Head technician, president of the Mech Club, and captain of the motocross team." Folsom frowned and rubbed her temples harder. "Jace Renault," she said angrily, "is little more than a delinquent who knows how to weld and ride a bike. Jun Faolan is the greatest technical mind to cross X's threshold in years. I want you two to make sure that nothing goes wrong during this build-off thing. Do not let Renault take her rightful positions. Do not let him sabotage her. Am I understood?" "Crystal," Ingrid responded. Folsom nodded, turned, and left the office. Fillmore and Ingrid turned to Nadia. "You said that Jun's awake?" Fillmore inquired. Nadia nodded and walked back into the room with Ingrid and Fillmore following. Jun was sitting on the psuedo-couch in the room, which was little more than plush cushions on a wood ledge. She was leaning heavily into the junction of the walls, her denim jacket draped over her front. She still looked quite pale. "Bloody hell," Jun grumbled when Nadia sat ddown in a chair next to her. "Feel sick as a drowned rat." "Jun Faolan?" Ingrid asked. She and Fillmore stood at the end of the couch-ledge where Jun's feet were. Jun looked up at them expectantly. "Principal Folsom is assigning us to be your bodyguards during your build-off." "Guessed as much," Jun muttered. She didn't seem very keen on the idea of opening her mouth much. "Don't think Renault's against a bit of sabotage." "That's the idea," Fillmore agreed. "It's safe to say that he might try anything to get your titles-and abuse 'em. So, starting tomorrow, we'll be with you for most of the day and whenever you're working for the build-off." "So 'm gettin' bodyguards?" Jun asked with a faint smile. "Along with my tutor?" "Tutor?" Ingrid questioned. "You don't get your grades waved?" "I do my work," Jun replied. "'Sides, Nadia's a good tutor." Nadia blushed crimson. "My dad's probably going to be here soon to pick us up. Thanks for the escort up here, officers." Seemingly summoned by the words, a man with an abundance of thick muscles burst into the room. He was pale before he saw that Jun was awake. "Jun!" he sighed. "Thank goodness. Thought you'd really passed out for a while there. Come on. Let's get you home. You coming, Nadia?" Nadia nodded with a bright smile. The man walked to Jun, turned about, and crouched down. Jun put her arms around his neck and he easily lifted her up off the couch. Nadia followed them as they left the room. Ingrid and Fillmore watched them leave before leaving as well. They abruptly parted when Ingrid continued to walk back towards Safety Patrol headquarters. "You gonna do some digging?" Fillmore asked. "Yeah," Ingrid said with a nod. "You're right. Something about this whole case is giving off a bad vibe. Late?" "Late," he responded. They parted with their staple nod and went their separate ways. ---------- "Did you find anything yesterday?" Ingrid shook her head, still staring at a sheet of paper. Three separate files were spread across her desk, one for Jun, one for Nadia, and one for Renault. "Everything seems to check out," she said. "From old photos that were in the past few yearbooks, Nadia always seems to be with Jun, even when she wasn't at X Middle School. She's technically a year behind Jun, but since Jun lost a year from her accident..." She trailed off, putting the sheet of paper down and looking up at her friend and partner keenly. Fillmore sighed and leaned against his desk. "So where does Jace fit in?" he asked. "He doesn't," she answered. "That's the weird thing. A few months after he and Nadia started middle school he joined the Mech Club, but he almost never went to any of the meetings. After that, he started his vendetta against her. No one knows why he hates her so much. And to add insult to injury for him, Jun doesn't seem to care at all that he hates her. She's polite to an exceptional degree." "That's gotta make Renault ticked," he murmured. "So he joined the club after his sister had been there for a few months, skips out on the meetings, and starts gettin' mad at Jun all the time. There's really somethin' missin' from this." "Why does Renault hate her?" Ingrid voiced the question aloud. The bell rang and signaled the end of homeroom. "We can ask Jun and Nadia about it right now," Fillmore murmured. "Come on-let's get down to the garage." They made their way through the swarm of students to the metal garage, but when they arrived, the door was closed. A note on the door read: "Mech Club meetings cancelled until January." Fillmore tried to open the door, but it was locked. He knocked. There was a pause before Nadia opened the door. "Sorry," she said with a smile, stepping aside and letting them in. "We've been here since homeroom with the door locked. Jun thought it would be a better idea if we kept the door locked since she and I are the only ones with keys." "Good thinking," Ingrid said with an appraising smile. "You won't have to worry about Renault bursting in on you." "And speaking of Renault," Fillmore rumbled. "Do you have any idea why he's got such a grudge against you, Jun?" "Not a single one," Jun answered. "Never knew why he was so shirty with me. Never cared to ask, really. You live with him, Nadia-'m sure he complains about me a lot. Any ideas?" Nadia paused briefly before shaking her head. "He does complain a lot, but he never says why he doesn't like you," she sighed. "Maybe he's just jealous that you spend so much time with me and he doesn't." "Sounds logical," Ingrid muttered. "But if that was the case, why wouldn't he come to the Mech Club meetings? That way they could both hang out with you." Nadia shook her head with a faint sigh. "I've tried to suggest that to him, but he always storms off and tells me to stop bothering him," she said mournfully. "He doesn't want anything to do with Jun." "Nadia, c'mere," Jun said suddenly. "I need your opinion on this." Abandoning the conversation, Nadia walked quickly to where Jun stood. A frame was on a lift and pieces of metal were on a table nearby. "It's going a sport bike," Jun answered the question the Safety Patrollers didn't ask. "The kind of motorcycle that you see for races. My father normally works with choppers. Those are more for show and are harder to ride. Honestly though I think I have a good idea to make this bike look just as good as a chopper." Nadia looked the bike over, examining the metal pieces and the frame. "How are you going to be able to make this?" Ingrid asked curiously. "Even Folsom won't shell out thousands of dollars to help you." Jun grinned at her. "My dad's introducing me to the business of motorcycles," she said. "He says that I've done enough work for him to pay for a few bikes, and he's going to help me buy the things we'll need." Fillmore raised his brows in surprise. "Your dad does well, huh?" he questioned. "I guess that's true," Jun murmured, looking towards the ceiling as if thinking about it for the first time. "Never thought of me-self as well-off before." She shrugged slightly and turned to Nadia. Nadia was running slender fingers over the metal pieces. "I think I have an idea," she said softly, vaguely as she continued to trail her fingers over the metal. "Are you planning a full-body casing?" Jun smirked and nodded. Nadia smiled at her. "Then I think we'll go for a full-body drawing." Jun grinned again. "If you're doing the painting, then we might win just for that," she chuckled. She and Nadia leaned together over the pieces and began to speak in terms and specifications that neither Ingrid nor Fillmore understood. The day continued in this thread. Jun and Nadia began to cut metal and weld pieces together, occasionally calling to each other for input on something or for assistance on something. Despite their total lack of knowledge in the mechanics field, Ingrid and Fillmore couldn't help but stay on their feet, standing a safe distance from the builders, but watching everything they did avidly. Both of them, even Fillmore who had known of her before, soon realized why Jun was so admired for her technical skill. She was a fast worker, but she checked each aspect of her work multiple times for any faults. When she found one, which was neither rare nor common, she fixed it easily and just as quickly. The bell rang almost too soon for the group. Jun gave the clock in the garage a very ugly look, but cleared away her tools and packed pieces of paper into her courier-style bag. "My father will help me bring what we need tomorrow morning," she said to Nadia. "Are you going to have sketches done for me?" Nadia nodded quickly with a healthy blush. Jun gave her a smile, pushing back her evident weariness and irritation with the time to favor her friend with that sign of friendship. Nadia smiled broadly as well. ---------- The build went rather smoothly for the first month. Neither Jun nor Renault let news of what they were building slip out to the Examiner. Renault was reported to snarl and show his fists to whoever asked him about his project, but Jun rebuked the questions with a vague smile and a reminder that she wouldn't tell. Fillmore and Ingrid dodged questions as well, but only murmured a casual "No comment." The sport bike that Jun and Nadia were building was completed at the halfway mark. As Fillmore and Ingrid were told on the last day of the first month, the only things that needed to be completed in this final month were to powder coat the frame, chrome certain pieces, finish the paint job on the body casing, reassemble the bike, wire it, and take the initial ride. "Ingrid?" Fillmore questioned. "Aren't you a little early? Wait, this is just like the Ultra-Box, isn't it?" Ingrid gave him a sheepish smile. "Well, you can't say that Jun doesn't have style," she murmured. "I've never seen such a cool thing in my life. I've never met such a cool person." Fillmore chuckled at the statement. "But Jun doesn't seem to care, does she?" "Nope," he agreed, a thoughtful frown appearing on his face. "It's like she really only cares about how good her work is. Even if tons of people say it's the coolest thing they've ever seen, she just smiles. She never brags." Ingrid looked thoughtful as they made their way to the garage. "Maybe Renault hates that about her," she sighed. "Maybe he'd prefer it if she acted like she was the best builder in the school instead of like a average worker." Fillmore shook his head. "I don't think that's it," he said. "You know, I don't even have an idea of why he hates her. Maybe...naw, there's no way." "What?" she questioned. "You don't think maybe Renault's crushin' on Jun, do you?" he asked in return. "Some people act weird when they like someone. Renault might get angry and jealous that his sister gets to hang out more with Jun than he does-he might want to spend more time alone with Jun." Ingrid thought about this, but never received a chance to give her reply. A shout and a curse echoed through the hallway, emanating from the garage. Fillmore and Ingrid broke into a run and knocked on the door sharply. Nadia pulled the door open, her eyes wide and shining. "Someone broke in and...and they...oh, no," she moaned, moving aside so the officers could step into the room. The Safety Patrollers took in the scene with frowns on their faces. Pieces of metal had been sawed from the bike and bent terribly. The exhaust had been sliced in half and mangled. The drive chain had been torn forcibly from bike and ripped apart, links of the chain scattered around the room. The brake pads had been pried off as well and were tossed haphazardly on the floor. Jun stood in the midst of the shards of her work, standing quite still and staring towards the bike. "Looks like Renault was just waiting for you to get this far," Fillmore sighed. "Dawg. This is awful." "How could he get in?" Ingrid asked. "I've seen you lock the door everyday when we leave. Could he have gotten your key, Nadia?" Nadia shook her head, looking quite distraught. "I wear it on a short necklace," she said. "I never take it off. Even if I was asleep, Jace couldn't get it. I'm a light sleeper, so I'd know if he took it. Oh, Jun, I'm so, so sorry about this!" Jun did not reply. After a moment, she let out a small scoff and lifted her hand to grab the goggles resting on her head. "You should never apologize if it isn't your fault," she said, her voice rather energetic and cheerful. "Your brother might think this is a setback for us, but I can repair all of this before the end of the day. We'll break it down, send the frame out for powder coat, and everything for chroming. We'll polish everything off in three weeks or less." She slid the goggles to rest over her eyes. "'At's a promise, Nadia." She smiled and gave Nadia a thumbs-up before diving into her task. Jun was as good as her word. She seemed to enter a higher gear than the previous month and flew through the damage as quickly as she had during the time trial she had beaten Renault in. Shortly after noon, she and Nadia had broken the bike apart and packed the items for chroming. Jun's father arrived at twelve-fifteen to take the items to their destinations, as well as to escort Jun and Nadia to the powder coat shop. Fillmore and Ingrid declined a polite invitation and replied that they had to remain at the school to insure that Renault did not break into the garage again. The two girls returned before the end of the day and explained that the frame and the chromed parts would be delivered to the garage at six o'clock exactly the next morning. The deliverymen had received the code for the lock on the garage door and had promised to relock the garage after leaving the packages and the frame inside the building. Fillmore and Ingrid shared a semi-perturbed glance. ---------- The reason for the unhappy expression on the patrollers' faces was simple: December had just started. That night, the town received a frigid snowfall. Unfortunately for everyone that went to X Middle School, the snow was not deep enough to warrant a snow day and they were forced to bear the chill. Ingrid and Fillmore, however, were on school grounds with a few other patrollers by five forty-five in the morning. "So me, Tehama, and Anza were walking your beat, right?" Danny O'Farrell said in a low voice as he and Fillmore hid behind a bush near the metal garage's loading area. "I see this kid who's got a real shifty look, you know? So I say 'X Middle School Safety Patrol!' and he just-" "O'Farrell," Fillmore sighed warningly. O'Farrell took the warning and shut his mouth fairly quickly. Fillmore plucked his talkie from his belt and lifted it to his mouth. "Ingrid, do you see anything?" "Nothing," Ingrid replied. She peered from around the tree she was behind, lifting binoculars to her eyes and looking for any signs of movement at either side of the loading dock. "Has O'Farrell asked the question yet?" "You know, maybe Jace Renault isn't going to do anything," Danny murmured thoughtfully, looking up at the light snowfall that had started only moments ago. Fillmore sighed at him. "Yes," he grumbled over the talkie. "The truck left five minutes ago. Renault should be here soon. Vallejo's up at the door inside, so there's no doubt that he'll come around back. We just have to wait." "Hold on," Ingrid said, her voice dropping to a whisper. "There's someone coming up the path. It's definitely Renault. Get ready." Fillmore clipped the talkie back onto his belt and waited. Renault jogged around the corner and heaved himself up onto high ledge. He punched in the code for the door to open without a single hesitation and slipped inside when it was low enough for him to crouch under the door. He came back out carrying a box full of chromed pieces. "Jace Renault!" Fillmore rose to his feet and called out when Renault jumped to the ground, box in his arms. "X Middle School Safety Patrol! Put down the box and come with us!" Renault put the box under one arm, groped in his jacket pocket, and threw what looked like a full water balloon at Fillmore. Fillmore dodged in time, but O'Farrell received the balloon in the face. It exploded and splattered paint all over the red-haired boy. Renault was already off and running. "Ingrid, come on!" Fillmore shouted as he started after Renault. Ingrid rushed out from her hiding place and caught up with Fillmore, matching pace with him as they tore after Renault. The two officers were fully prepared to chase Renault clear across campus, but they didn't have to. Renault had stopped when he came around the foremost corner of the school. Jun stood before him, frowning angrily at him. "If you're so confident of your work, why are you sabotaging me?" she snapped. "Or trying to, you pathetic little bug." She paused, staring at Renault. He was trembling visibly, his knees shaking as if he was utterly terrified. A moment later, he fell to the ground, dropping the box in the snow and covering his face with his hands to try and muffle the sob that wrenched from his throat. "I'm sorry, Jun!" Fillmore and Ingrid almost jumped at the voice. The thief-the saboteur-was Renault, but it was Nadia Renault. "I'm so sorry!" Jun stared at her in shock. Nadia only sobbed.
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