• Published 14th Feb 2016
  • 2,018 Views, 72 Comments

Sour's on the case! - AppleJTZ



A horrible(?) crime shakes Crystal Prep Academy! And it is up to Detective(?) Sour Sweet to solve the case.

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A horrible crime

Crystal Prep Academy – probably the most elite high school in the entire district. Here, the students learn the values of perfection and academic excellence, enduring their strict education with dignity and discipline.

But not on this day.

“THIS CAN’T BE HAPPENING!!!” a girl cried, collapsing on the floor. Alongside her several other students were lying in the crystalline hallway, sobbing in despair. Some slammed their heads against the lockers and walls, while other ran heedlessly in circles. Many were screaming in panic, their horrified screeches echoing throughout the entire school.

“It’s terrible!”

“The horror! The horror!”

“How could anyone do this?!”

“We are all doomed!”

“WHY? WHHHYYYY?!”

“Of all the worst things that could happen, this is the! Worst! POSSIBLE! THING!”

Sugarcoat raised an eyebrow. “You’re not even going to this school.”

Screams and sobs filled the hallways of Crystal Prep Academy. In the middle of all the hysteria Dean Cadence was standing in the corridor, trying desperately to calm the students. “Please, everybody, there is no need to panic!” she called out to the teenagers running by, her voice barely audible over the noise they were making. “It’s not the end of the world!

Suddenly a girl threw herself against the dean’s chest, almost making her tumble. “But Dean Cadence!” she stammered, looking terrified up into Cadence’s eyes “They… they…” She clenched the green fabric of the dean’s blazer, her hands shaking miserably. “They stole our puuuuudiiiing!” she cried right into her face.

Cadence winced, stumbling slightly on the spot. Once she had caught her balance again she put a hand on top of the student’s head, and with the other softly embraced her wrist. “Now, calm down” she said to her with a comforting smile, gently stroking her hair as the girl looked up at her with wet eyes. “The pudding may have been stolen, but it’s not like there will be no dessert for lunch today. We still have porridge leftovers from yesterday!”

The lips of the girl quivered before she broke out into tears. Letting go off the blazer she sunk to the ground, rolling into a ball on the shining floor. Cadence threw a worried, slightly awkward glance at the crying student in front of her feet. Her eyes quickly looked up however as a man walked past her. He was dressed in the uniform of a delivery man, wearing a characteristic cap and slightly baggy overall – though it wasn’t very baggy on him, for the corpulent build of the middle-aged man filled out his uniform quite well. “Wait!” the dean called out, carefully stepping over the sulking girl to go after him. Just before he turned around a corner the man stopped, grunting in annoyance as he turned with a grim face around to her.

“Ah already told’cha, lady” he mumbled with a heavy accent. “There ain’t no more puddin’, and Ah can’t just pull puddin’ outta mah pockets.”

Standing in front of him Cadence looked the delivery man in the eyes. “But we have a contract with your company!” she reminded him. “And the students really look forward to getting their pudding on Tuesday.”

With another grunt the man rubbed his temple. “Look, Ah’m just suppos’d to bring the puddin’ here with mah truck, and then carry it to the cold store” he explained. He lifted his cap slightly, his big bald spot shining in the bright hallway for a second before he put it down again. “Anythin’ that happens after tis ain’t mah business.”

“Can’t you drive back to your storage and bring us another load?” Cadence asked, almost begging. “We’d even be willing to pay the full price for both charges!”

The delivery man shook his head. “Sorry lady, but ain’t got no time for that. Gotta bring a load o’ tacos over to ‘nother school. Ain’t got no time keep chattin’ with ya either, to b’honest.” He turned around, tipping his hat slightly again. “Good luck, lady!” he told her before vanishing around the corner.

The dean glared after him as he left, a deep frown on her face. It quickly dissolved into a look of concern as she glanced around here. A large number of students was still lying on the floor, while others kept slamming their heads against their lockers or knelt on the ground and cried, the walls resonating their sobs and screams. With a deep sigh Cadence rubbed the bridge of her nose. Sometimes, she felt her job as a dean wasn’t so far from her babysitting days…

Among the commotion four girls were calmly standing at their lockers, watching with reserve everyone around them going crazy. The sound of approaching rock music made them turn their head, seeing a green-haired girl coming in their direction. She was smiling widely and shaking her head to the beat from her headphones, seeming completely oblivious to the chaos around. It wasn’t until she reached the other four girls that she became aware of what was going on, causing her to look at her surroundings in confusion.

“Um, sup guys” Lemon greeted her friends, putting her headphones around her neck while oddly staring at a boy on the floor who was sucking on his thumb. “Why is everyone freaking out like this?”

“Principal Cinch just announced the pudding for today’s lunch was stolen” Sugarcoat replied quick and dry while leaning against her locker.

Lemon gave her friend a blank stare for a moment. It wasn’t before she blinked once that the weight of the words started to drip into her conscience, making her eyes go wide in shock. “WHAT?” it broke out of her, pulling on her long messy hair. “But it’s pudding Tuesday!” she yelled, with a look on her face as if she had just learned they only had five minutes to live. “Without pudding, it’s just… Tuesday!!”

“Yeah!” Indigo shouted, a bitter ring in her voice as she threw her arms up in anger. “Why couldn’t they take the Tuesday and leave the pudding?”

In Sunny’s imagination, the image of the whole school drifting in a vortex outside of time and space, but full of pudding popped up. “You two are so cute sometimes” she said sarcastically. While her tone was snarky, her voice couldn’t hide the fact she was also sad about the lack of pudding for lunch.

Desperate and at the brink of tears Lemon was about to collapse on the floor like most other students. “But who could be so cruuuueeel?!” she cried, burying her face in her hands.

Gritting her teeth Indigo punched her palm. “I swear if I’m gonna find the dorks who did this, they’re gonna beg their parents to transfer to another school” she snarled. “After they get out of hospital, that is!”

Her arms crossed Sunny nodded. “Stealing the pudding in the middle in the middle of exam period is a new low even for Crystal Prep standards” she mumbled, a very dark look in her eyes.

Still bearing her usual look of hostile apathy Sugarcoat stared at her furious and gloomy friends, before her grump expression suddenly turned into a sulky one. “I want pudding” she pouted, staring at the shining floor.

Silently the four girls brooded for a moment. The grim eyes of Sunny then turned towards the fifth girl of their group. Hands behind her back she was gazing rather indifferently at her friends. “Aren’t you angry too, Sour?” Sunny asked, finding her nonchalant attitude a little dubious.

The girl with the long ponytail shrugged. “Not really” she told her, sounding neither happy nor upset. “I mean it’s just pudding.”

Everybody gasped – not just her friends. Every student in the entire hallway had suddenly stopped sulking for a moment, turning their eyes to Sour. She looked left and right, feeling very uneasy all of a sudden as she saw everybody was staring at her with furrowed eyebrows. Ducking her head she put on a sheepish smile.

“Dude, have you gone nuts?!” Lemon screeched into her face, grabbing Sour at her vest.

“Yeah!” Indigo shouted, joining Lemon. “Pudding Tuesday is the only good thing this friggin’ prison of a school is throwing at us!”

Scowling towards Sour Sunny struck a theatrical pose. “It’s the salvation from all the atrocities this Crystal Prep forces us to endure day by day” she declared grandly. “The flame that keeps our soul from freezing in this cold, desolate place!”

“Especially since Cinch went crazy and doubled the curriculum of almost every subject” Sugarcoat added, earning a nod from the others.

Held in the grip of Lemon and Indigo Sour looked at each of her friends individually, before flashing a smile at all of them. “But of course pudding Tuesday is great – if they actually serve decent flavors, that is.” She brushed off Lemon and Indigo, the two tomboys taking a step back from the frowning girl. “It’s been forever since they last served my favorite flavor” she muttered while evening the wrinkles on her uniform. “And they really haven’t outdone themselves with the choice of pudding this month so far. Or did you all forget last week’s flavor was woodruff, and the week before even dared to give us broccoli pudding?!” She stuck out her tongue, imitating a barf. “Call me crazy, but until they serve a pudding again that is actually edible, I won’t find Pudding Tuesday the salvation of all this school’s atrocities anymore.”

While Sour was talking Sunny had pulled out her smartphone from her pocket. “According to the school homepage, this week’s flavor would have been cherry with cream” she informed her.

Sour stared at her friend with the mobile phone, wide-eyed. “I’M GONNA TEAR THOSE DIRTY LITTLE PUDDING BANDITS APART!!!” she suddenly exclaimed, clenching her fist with a look of deep, pure rage in her eyes.

The sudden outburst made the other Shadowbolts wince, Sunny nearly dropping her phone. Sugarcoat was the first to regain her composure. “You’d have to know who did it first” she reminded.

Sour crunched her teeth. “Oh, I’m gonna find out who did it alright!” she told them, holding up her hands. “I will hunt them down... grab them at their necks… and then make sure they will never ever dare again to lay hands on my dessert again!” she yelled, clapping her hands together like she was smashing a fly. Still folding her hands she suddenly cuddled them against her cheek. “And then we can all sit down and have pudding♥” she cooed, all anger in her face dissolving in a cheerful smile.

Sunny tilted her head slightly. “And how are you going to find them?” she asked skeptically.

Holding up her nose Sour put a finger on her forehead. “That’s easy” she chirped “I’ll use my superior intelligence and detective skills to find traces which allow me to deduce the culprits before lunch.”

Sunny, Sugarcoat, Indigo and Lemon raised an eye-brow.

“…What?” Sour huffed. “Don’t look at me like I said something stupid!”

Shaking her head Sunny let out a sigh. “Well, because of the rather sudden cancelation of our music class we theoretically have some free time at hand” she admitted, adding more quietly: “Although I’m sure there are a lot better ways to spend it than playing Sherlock Holmes…”

Lemon slammed her fist against a locker. “Urgh, why did it have to be music?” she moaned. “Free time is nice, but why can't our math or history teacher ever leave because suddenly because of child-birth?”

Sugarcoat gave her an odd stare. “Our history teacher is a man.”

“Yeah, so?”

Suddenly Indigo stepped into the middle of the group. “Alright, let’s try and see if we can find those pudding-stealing rats” she declared, pumping her fist into the air with a devious grin spread over her face. “I’m also itching to give those suckers a piece of my mind!”

Sour smiled brightly at her. “Thank you for the offer” she chirped, before abruptly turning grumpy. “But I don’t need your help.”

Surprised the others stared at Sour.

“Um, what?” Sunny asked.

“You really think we let you do this alone?” Lemon frowned.

“Hey, I also want to have some fun!” Indigo yelled, stomping her foot on the floor.

“Also, your chances of actually catching the thieves will be a lot higher with us” Sugarcoat added.

Unfazed Sour shook her head. “Sorry, but I think it’s better if we don’t walk around as a large group searching the school” she told them. She looked down the hallway in both directions, at the other students who had resumed their sobbing and screaming, before she leaned closer to her friends. “I’m pretty sure the culprits are a group of students” she whispered, holding a hand at the side of her mouth. “Anyone here could have done it, so we can’t trust nobody!” She pouted, looking at her friends with big sad eyes. “The thieves are probably acting like they are all sad and broken…and once school is over they’ll go to their hide-out and shove all the pudding into their dirty little mouths!” she hissed.

The others exchanged some glances, pondering for a moment. “Makes kind of sense” Lemon eventually admitted, rubbing her head.

“And it would be a little suspicious if we all snooped through school” Indigo mumbled despite her apparent disappointment.

Sour nodded. “Exactly! And until we have found the rotten jerks who have taken the pudding, we can’t let anyone get suspicious.” She pulled her head back, smiling sweetly. “But if you insist to tag along, I guess it would be fine for one of you to come with me, you know, as my assistant to help me be brilliant” she suggested.

Sunny rolled her eyes. “What an honour” she mumbled, putting on a frown alongside the others.

Ignoring their looks Sour put on a smug smirk, confidently stemming her hands against her hips. “Don’t you worry about one thing, my friends!” she declared. “Detective Sour is on the case!

“That was a very clumsy title drop.”

“Shut it, Sugar.”