{ O N E } : J A C K I E.
T H R E E D A Y S E A R L I E R . . .

One would wonder why the golden girl of Bubble Academy was always the last to turn up at light's out, either she had dirt to dig up, some dork to mess up or she was solving a mysterious case.

Buttermilk and moonlight Aubrey Simon.

Unlike every other night she was edgy and agitated as she crossed the yard, speed walking. She had told Bonnie and Chloe to return without her tonight because she had some unfinished business. Well, she is Aubrey Simon, she always has unfinished business.

She cautiously walked through the halls of the girls dormitory, stopping at room 028, she stuck her little torch between her lips. Pulling a pin from her golden blond curls, she picked the lock.

Her target tonight was the girl sleeping on a bed positioned at the left side of the room.

"Psst! Freak! Get up!" She whispered coldly, shaking the girl under a navy blue blanket.

"I do have a name you know." The girl with dark curls mumbled and rolled over.

"Your name sucks... Jackie." Aubrey never missed an opportunity to razz the poor girl.

"Right." The girl turned to the other side and shut her out.

"Fine! I need your help, Jazz."

"Damn, wish I recorded that." The girl's voice drooled with sarcasm.

Aubrey groaned inwardly.

"Come on Cuz! Don't do me like this, I really need this solid."

The girl with the dark curls groaned and tossed her blanket to the side.

Aubrey grabbed something metallic from the side drawer while rushing her words, "The Brown House that's where we are headed, I've already gotten your laptop."

"At least let me grab my glasses, you know, I'm sorta blind."

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"So you believe everything that's been happening since last semester, haven't just been accidents?" Jazz repeated, drawing circles in the air as her hand rotated in it's socket.

They both sat in the dimly lit refectory with Aubrey's little torch light poised in the middle of the coffee brown table. Jazz's laptop was opened on the table as well but her attention was solely on Aubrey's white journal.

Aubrey nodded desperately as she tossed a Dunkaroos cookie into her mouth, refusing to take her fingers from her lips as she hooded the taste of frosting. "Mhmm, I'm certain. The trap door incident, when Allen's brand-new purple resin necklace that was the talk of the semester went missing too."

"Okay maybe there's a little thief, what's that gotta do with anything, Bri?"

"Not just a little thief, they are after the color purple, which is weird-"

"Totally!" Jazz sighed and slammed the white leather journal on the brown wooden table, "Aubs, school just literally resumed-"

"Just hear me out okay? I got this purple and silver charm bracelet, if my hypothesis is correct this thief is supposed to come find me-"

"Their favorite color is PURPLE??" Jazz read out, questioning her cousin's sanity with doe eyes behind her glasses.

Aubrey snatched the journal and closed it. "Are you even listening? Look I'm going to entrust you with my journal par adventure something unforseen happens to me, I have dirt on everyone, whomever this person is, I'm pretty sure their name is in this journal-"

"I'm a seventeen year old highschool newspaper journalist, in twelveth grade might I add and definitely not a CIA investigator."

Jacqueline Brown- oh, sorry- Jazz Brown was the average filthy rich yet emotionally neglected highschool boarding student. A total geek and wannabe journalist for the New York Times Newspaper publication or Seattle's biggest printing press; Shepherd Publishing.

Jazz was the seventeen year old senior at the prestigious Bubble Academy who writes for the The Buzz and feeds the Bubbles all the tea. Not to mention she was always jet lagged and uninterested in the world.

Her poor vision mixed with the chemical imbalances in her body were a huge contributing factor and to top it off she happened to be African American. With skin like her last name and eyes like honey- let's pretend the dark circles under them don't exist.

Aubrey rolled her eyes dramatically, "Are you in or do you suck?"

Despite being cooked up behind glass frames, Jazz's doe eyes were very visible. She could careless. Yes, she wanted something appealing and interesting to write about for The Buzz January front page but-

"I suck!" She said gaily and slammed her laptop shut.

Jazz stood up and made to leave. She was going to get it for the thirty minutes of sleep she had cut in on for some fairytale thief that is obsessed with purple. Well she herself was already seeing purple.

"Are you serious?!" Aubrey called after her.

"Okay maybe you're right Aubrey Simon," She tossed her free hand in the air and continued. "But what does it matter? It's not like what's being stolen can't be easily replaced neither has anyone been hurt or injured-"

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Another night, another fire drill. Jazz Brown thought as her chubby roommate defiantly interrupted her sleep disrupting her dream of talking cotton candies and crying baby jelly beans.

Grumpily getting out of bed, she jogged lazily out of the girl's dormitory and was greeted with a crisp atmosphere and rowdiness that seemed to mess all the more with her vision.

She had forgotten her glasses.

Super. She groaned.

Her feet felt disgusting and soggy, looking down she saw her stockinged feet were immersed in ice cold water. She cursed under her breath as she realized she had forgotten her rabbit ear flip flops as well.

Her fingers tips were turning pink from the cold. Two minutes and she already missed the heating system in the dormitory.

She squinted trying to understand the scene before her but all she could make out was colorful PJs and alarmed faces.

Something wasn't right.

Bubbles never gathered before the refectory during fire drills, the school authorities made them assemble at the parking lot.

She could hear gasps and inaudible conversations here and there but she never did well when she was sleep deprived or blind. She kept rubbing her eyes until someone shoved her from behind to get a better view of the scene, thankfully she didn't tumble.

Finally, the wooden doors of the refectory flew open and the gathering of students went in an uproar.

Jazz couldn't believe her eyes as the twitching body of her sassy cousin was wheeled out of the Brown House on a gurney with the Head Mistress May Anderson following behind the medical entourage on her platform loafers.

Her body willed her to follow after the medics but she was too paralyzed with fear as their last real conversation together washed down her memory lane clearing everything in it's path.

Purple bracelet! Her mind screamed.

Suddenly she jolted past the throng of students gathered outside the Brown House. Her sole crunched on cold interlocking cobblestones as she rushed after the medics, cutting deeper into the cold dark night.

Goosebumps cloaked her neck and arms instantly, the purple bracelet was missing and there was a cut on Aubrey's cheek. Her golden locks were smeared with blood, her face looked peaceful like she was asleep but the twitching felt more like she was having a nightmare.

Yes her vision was messed up, blurry and a bit foggy but everything was far more realer than those talking candies.

Jazz stood planted and speechless as she watched her cousin being lifted into the ambulance. She didn't know when she grabbed the insulated polythene suit of one of the medics. The medic shrugged her off and Head Mistress May Anderson caught her just in time.

"Will she make it?"

The medic sighed, dew covering the glass shield over his face as he turned to face them, placing his two hands on Jazz's sagging shoulders.

"Hope is all we have. I'm sorry."

In seconds, the ambulance was blasting out of Bubble Academy student yard with sirens blaring and disrupting the peaceful silence of the night.

If Aubrey was maybe right where would she start from?

Who was this insane purple maniac?

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A/N: first chapter... How do you like it? You guys should already know by now how I like to switch up my writing with every new book so this one is written in third person narrative. Kindly tap the little star at the left end. I'll see you in the next. xoxo.