Hello, Mr. California! School's out for today, and I'm back to being my freaking cheerful and bold and awesome self again, I think!

  Emotional third day- well, my second, actually, and a bunch of nonsense later, I'm- now chilling. Vibing. "Chillaxing", as Hippo Dad might call it. Whatever the word is, and whatever makes me sound the least like an old lady, I did that the entire time for Fourth Period.

  And when the bell rang, when that bell rang and signaled to us that class was over- I continued to relax and chill and blah blah blah as the four of us walked out that front door. Doors open, walking out like a whole entourage. Imagine, like, a slow motion montage with us wearing cool leather jackets, walking out with guitar rock playing us out. That's how it felt.

  Ah... this really is the life... just, carefree, not a worry in the world...

  ...

  ... okay, I know what I left off on. Yeah, there's one more thing I need to take care of before I can put all of this behind.

  Before our little break, our little "I'm going to stop talking to you for a bit" pause, Mr. California... I think you were left hanging on Elena wanting to know: what exactly did I find out about the whole Gumi getting her phone taken thing?

  It was a topic of conversation, one that we really, REALLY took our sweet time waiting to talk about. Didn't even bring it up yet, there's like- a ton that happens in between Elena asking that in Drama and Elena asking that- eventually.

  First, we first went on a little detour once class was over. Gumi asked Soleil if we could bring "Will" - AKA, Lizard Nerd - along on our food hangout, and she said it was alright.

  So, we walk to his last class of the day, and we got to see him in a big downstairs room with a ton of computers inside. Computers that seemed pretty standard, with a ton of people inside.

  Of course, I was like... expecting nerds, but there were a ton of pretty cool looking classmates inside. Classmates that didn't really fit the whole nerd bit that Lizard Nerd was, classmates that more or less dressed like popular girls and sports people and- so on. More variety, tons of variety.

  Even saw that the teachers - yes, teachers, plural, this class apparently had two teachers handling it - were different.

  Sure, one fit the nerd bill- the older one, who was some sort of tree man. A sort of birch tree with no leaves, a pair of glasses hanging from the top, and wearing kind of the same clothes that Hippo Dad wears. But the younger tree, the cherry blossom tree - that kind of tree with pink petals blooming and blossoming - had some sort of biker outfit on. Like, a leather jacket, rugged blue jeans, a white tanktop even... he's also a teacher of computers.

  Pretty diverse group of people in the room, staying behind even AFTER class was out. There was still, like, a little less than half still staying behind on the school's built in computers!

  ... but, uh, after I looked at all of that, we pretty much discovered: no Lizard Nerd in sight.

  "Huh... uhm... Will must be- somewhere else right now..." Gumi mumbled lightly.

  "D... Do you know where else he could be?" asked Elena.

  "... no, I just... all I know is his classes..." Gumi mumbles, frowning a little.

  So I have confirmation that Lizard Nerd's last class is Computer Science now, which leaves me to wonder which order he takes for his Spanish and Advanced Biology classes... but, eh, not that useful now that I'm not like- emergency searching for him and junk.

  "Right... do you know his number, at least?" I then asked, knowing full well the answer was no and that she did not remember his number or any number whatsoever... but I was curious if Gumi ever gave him her number to begin with. If Lizard Nerd managed to get a girl's number on the second day of his freshman year.

  To that, Gumi shook her head and answered with a big letdown to all Lizard Nerds out there: "N-No... we never exchanged our numbers..."

  Ah, poor friend-zoned Lizard Nerd... couldn't even get my sweet and kind sister's number.

  ... anyway.

  That entire conversation, Soleil walked in on her own and actually asked around for Lizard Nerd, where "Will" could be, and she came out a minute later saying that neither of the teachers have even seen him today. He never showed up to class.

  Kinda weird, but... that kind of reminds me of how Lizard Nerd was at lunch, on our first day. Dude was, like, bruised the heck out.

  He seemed fine this morning when Gumi and I were with him, so- my guess is that he might have gotten bullied, physically, by the same people who got him that first day. Maybe there's some guy messing with him in a class, beating him up and junk- which, y'know, rough.

  ... oh! Speaking of which, I should probably bring up- my face has been okay for a while, after my bullying incident! Like, completely alright. Healed it up eventually, although- pretty slow, if you compared me to Elena. I don't even think it was too bruised to begin with, I might have been hardcore exaggerating to you or whatever. Then again, the principal and counselor DID talk about my bruises a little bit, so-

  Okay, okay, sidetracked, back on track now.

  This was a whole, whole freaking mystery, a sort of- Where's Will, haha. Gotta find him and his striped sweater and striped beanie and junk.

  Gumi really wanted him to come with, wanted him to hang out with us and stuff. I saw the look on her face, she totally wants to give the guy the most girl-filled day of his life, I guess.

  And I also guess this scratches my detective itch, the one I've had since the phone thing, so I might as well- y'know, talk about it.

  "Gumi, you know his schedule today better than I do," I bluntly told Gumi first, getting that out of the way before continuing, "but I think we'll find him somewhere still in the school. I sat outside with Pops that first day, and didn't see him head outside whatsoever. He doesn't- have a bus to get to, or someone to immediately drive him, so..."

  Soleil ooohs a little, then nodded. "I see, I see. So we're going to arrange a search party for Will? Sounds magnifique...!"

  I nodded with a smile. "Awesome. I think we should split up. Two of us check his two other classes, 2nd and 3rd Period, while two of us go to the Nurse's Office and back to the Cafeteria. We ask around, talk to whichever teacher or person's around, and we meet back up in the front by like... 2:40 or something. If we don't see him, then- we just leave."

  "Sounds like a plan, a good one for once," Soleil responded, with a playful smirk. Throwing that light jab at me, making slight fun of me.

  I shrugged it off and threw a jab back at her. "Oui, oui, très bien, mon amie~" I exclaim, mocking and mimicking her voice with a proud grin.

  Soleil and I shared a knowing giggle after that. We - or at least, to my knowledge, I - didn't have a problem with this. It's okay for us to joke around with each other, insult and tease the other girl, kind of just- joshing each other as friends. Makes it more fun that way.

  But, anyway, back to search partying.

  After Soleil and I were done speaking, Elena then spoke up. "T-Then, Gumi and Soleil should be on classroom duty..." Looking down at her feet and just fiddling the tips of her hooves (her sheep hands. Elena's a sheep girl, in case you forgot) together. "Gumi knows the classes and Soleil can actually talk to the teachers... s-so, I- I think that leaves me and Cherri..."

  "Sure, let's go then. See ya two later," I told Gumi and Soleil, starting to walk away with Elena as we split up and begin our searches through the school.

  And thus, after our search, after our grand and intensive search, as we scoured the entire school for Lizard Nerd and prepared to drag him along to eat burgers or tacos or whatEVER we end up eating...

  ... disappointingly, we did not - in fact - find Lizard Nerd anywhere in this school.

  Like...

  Like, he's nowhere. We did not find him anywhere in the school.

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  I built up that whole "we're gonna find Lizard Nerd and bring him along" thing to everyone and to myself, made it a whole big thing that would have been cool. Us, finding a pretty nerdy guy that Gumi probably likes a lot, and inviting him to eat with us girls? Probably would have made his freaking year.

  But, I didn't see Lizard Nerd anywhere from the nurse's office to the cafeteria. Not a single sight of him. Elena and I had no luck finding him, and- neither did Gumi and Soleil. Turns out the teachers for Lizard Nerd's classes were not in their rooms- which, that does make sense, school's over, so nobody to interrogate.

  So, uhm, I guess we were really disappointed by that, and our group walk out of the school didn't really have- leather jackets and rock music. No, we, uh, had lively clown circus music playing behind us and had sad and upset looks on our face marching out of those doors.

  ... before that, though, uhm. As Elena and I were looking, searching, just going around and watching out for Lizard Nerd, she out of nowhere suddenly told me: "O-Oh- right, I- I forgot... Cherri, can I borrow your phone...?"

  She... "conveniently" did this, by the way, while I was crouching down and checking underneath lunch tables for Lizard Nerd. Asked me while I was looking for any unconscious lizard bodies underneath the tables, and asked while I could only find sleeping dogs lying down.

  I looked up at her, face against the lunch floor - the recently mopped one, by the way, don't worry - and eyes gazing up at her, and formally- ever so formally, asked: "Huh?"

  So, apparently, Elena forgot her phone or whatever and needed to text her brother to drive them through the city for our plans later. Turns out, Soleil and Elena get rides home from their brother after school, since Soleil's house is on the way and her mom has to stay behind to do afterschool work stuff, and- well, it's probably a sign that he's too busy to do so after not responding for three minutes.

  If this is a usual thing, then it might be a little weird that we're now talking about this... now, of all times. "Is... there a reason why he's not around, now?" I asked.

  "W-Well, he, uhm... when I don't text him, he tends to forget about it and goes home anyway..."

  And I'm gonna be honest... like... that's kinda funny? Had me chuckling a little. Elena, forgetting to text her brother, in the event he forgets as well... it's- it got an honest smile out of me.

  I guess I can't be talking, though. Buncha mornings, Gumi wakes me up so that I can make sure she doesn't go back to sleep, so I totally get that.

  "I see, I see... and, you're just... now... remembering this?"

  "W... Well, when I was with Gumi, I actually remembered during lunch, and forgot until now, so-"

  And I heard enough. "Alright, say no more... I'll text him, but solid chance he's not showing up..." I interrupted. It was clear that Elena's brother isn't going to be available if she needed to full on text him one and a half hours in advance, so... we needed to consider- other options, that we did not have whatsoever.

  Eh, but that thought can wait, because NOW this is the moment where we address the phone theft!

  As Elena was using my phone to text her brother and I was fighting the urge to poke one of the dogs with a stick (oh, anthropomorphic, by the way, so these are actually just people), she took this time to ask me- again...

  "I... Is now a good time to ask about Gumi's phone, then...?"

  ... and I nod. "Yeah, sure, just the two of us. Let's talk 'bout it."

  "I-If it's a bad time, I don't-"

  "Nah. Nah. I'm detective, right now," I tell her.

  So I told her the main points of what I discovered specifically.

  That, at 1 in the morning, I called Gumi's phone, and someone else answered. Some girl with a deep, masculine voice. I kept out the growl part, in case it was like- offensive to mention someone growling, y'know, and that they had someone in their contacts that led to them mistaking my name for a "Charlotte".

  "Charlotte...? That's your biggest clue...?" Elena asked, almost... disappointed in what I found.

  "Yeah. Been looking for a Charlotte ever since, see if she knows anyone with a deep and masculine voice. I know it's not the best plan, Soleil made that VERY clear, but, y'know..." I told her.

  And guess what? Then, Elena proceeds to drop the biggest bombshell onto me, basically telling me the equivalent of 'oh my gosh you were doing this all wrong'.

  "... I think... Gumi's phone is just like this, so... uhm... did... uhm... did you ever consider using the tracking feature...?" Elena asked me.

  To be real with you, Mr. California, I think I faintly knew that these phones could do that, but... when Elena asked me that, I thought to myself: tracking feature? Like, animal tracks, but for a phone. So if I did something, then Gumi's phone would start oozing battery juice onto the ground so that we could find where it is.

  I don't think I have to tell you that if that was my first thought, I'm probably the last person to talk about when it comes to phone crap. I looked at her all confused, asking about how - and I am not joking with you that I said this to her face - having the phone ooze battery juice would help with getting the phone back if it's already been taken.

  ... and, after staring at me with her own confusion at what I just told her, Elena next words were then:"I...If you have Gumi's phone account login and it, uh, the setting's turned on and enabled, you can find where the phone's geo-positional coordinates are, so..."

  I still had no idea what Elena described to me, and I definitely looked like I still had no idea what she was talking about, because she quietly stared at me... and then explained it better as: "Have thing turned on. Use website. Find where phone is on map."

  And I had the biggest, biggest smile on my face after that, having it clarified to me. "Really?! Oh, man, Elena, you're the best!" I shout at her, before holding my phone. "Alright, guess I got to-"

  Elena then immediately stopped me, as someone who just heard me suggest a phone ooze "battery juice", and did the whole process with me. I logged into Hippo Dad's phone account (both of our smartphones are under his name, he gave us his stuff to use it), she checked if Gumi's phone was still there, and...

  ... it worked.

  We have Gumi's location now.

  It was a whole complicated process that we have Hippo Dad to thank for, with his cautious tech knowledgeable self that anticipated us losing our phones (even though Gumi's taken care of hers for years and never lost it until now). On my phone, we at least have the phone's last known location, and- and it's still on, it's still being tracked! Whoever took it actually still hasn't turned it off, according to this!

  So throw out the circus music, toss it away, we're back to rock and roll, Mr. California! We got a detour to take. Screw being disappointed that we couldn't find Lizard Nerd, we're going to get Gumi's phone back, for realsies!

  Elena and I met up with Gumi and Soleil, told them the good news. That we could find Gumi's phone now that the tracker's set up.

  ... and then I was called out for not resorting to this sooner.

  "... you- you never considered using the tracking feature, darling?" Soleil asked me first, looking at me with raised eyebrows. "And... and you leaned towards finding a stolen phone with just the 'Charlotte' clue?"

  I nod, in full seriousness. "Deep voice, knows a Charlotte, that's my plan."

  Soleil listened to me and shook her head, sighing and (metaphorically) slapping me in the face with some more truth. "Cherri, darling, that's... I... I thought you had more conclusive proof than just that. You said they were close to who did it, and- you based that off of her mistaking your name for someone?"

  "Yeah, that's- that's really all I had to go off on," I told Soleil, shrugging. I did just only tell Soleil and the others that I found a potential Charlotte, so Soleil's only learning NOW of all times my clues.

  "But that's not a good clue, there's like... five, six different Charlottes at this school alone," Soleil explained. "The one you found might not even know whoever it is- and even if you did, maybe the person who did it isn't even close to a Charlotte, just recognized the name. Could just be a study partner, not even a close friend who- there's- there's so many holes to this plan of yours."

  I then respond back. "Well, the Charlotte thing was just a lead anyway. I was aiming to going through the entire school to find more clues after, to- play the long game, see if I can get lucky with it."

  "... n... not only that, Soleil, g-get this... she, uh, she thought the tracking feature involved 'oozing battery juice' to use it..." Elena told Soleil, explaining my little goof, covering her mouth with both hands as she snickered a little behind those hooves of her.

  And, uh, yeah, I watched as Soleil's eyes widen, covering her mouth and hiding her mouth behind her hand. Looking at me and resisting the urge to laugh uncontrollably at me, taking a long while before she says with a shaky voice: "... ex- excusez-moi? B-Battery juice-???"

  Elena nodded.

  ... and then Soleil just laughed for a bit, as did Elena, and- and honestly, I laughed too. I can laugh at myself, it's embarrassingly funny.

  So we shared a good laugh together, heh.

  ... well, except for Gumi, who then gives us another detour.

  "S-So, uhm... I... are we... are we going to go to where my phone is, right now...?" Gumi asked.

  I nodded. "Yeah, might as well."

  "B-But... shouldn't we eat first...?" Gumi asked, leaning in quietly. "S-Since- Cherri and I need to actually... eat... or... uhm..."

  Soleil and Elena look between us, and then it clicked in their heads that they did just discover they're now friends with two magical girls.

  "Right- right, yes... may I see the phone?" Soleil asked, and I handed her the phone, letting her see. "Let's see where it is, actually..."

  And after a bit, Soleil then ohs lightly. "Oh, it goes into the city. We could get some drive-through food on the way to the house."

  "U-Uhm- bad news on that, uhm, Ethan's probably not going to be available..." Elena spoke up. "I- I didn't text him in time, so I don't know if he'd be open to-"

  And then, it was that moment where a miracle dawned on us.

  Elena's brother texted back almost instantaneously after Elena was explaining that.

  All four of us check the text, opening it up, seeing that Elena's brother had been waiting in the parking lot the whole time for us. The student lot right in the front, having been in his car for a while. In fact, he was complaining a bunch that we took forever to get out, and actually contemplated leaving us for a while.

  I'm just staring at this, thinking: huh. "Forgetful", huh?

  ... but anyway, finally, that leads us to the final, climactic moment I've been building up to this entire part of my diary and/or telepathy.

  Out the doors we go, on a quest, marching forward to the final- FINAL concern on our minds, before we get Gumi's phone back from whoever took it.

  Oh, Elena's brother, by the way, I think I told you about him a little from what Gumi's told me, but turns out he's like- a really tall sheep guy. Like, six feet tall, with a brown coat of wool over his head. The benefits of being a senior, I guess. When we came out and saw him leaning against a gray minivan, we walked over and he looked down at us, dressed in his stylish designer sweater and jeans while having sunglasses over his eyes.

  Asked us briefly what took us so long, told him about the phone thing- and he responded with excited sheep noises, fully on board with our plan.

  Ah, and with that, that's about it.

  I'm actually telling you this, Mr. California, as we're already following my phone's directions. Elena, in the passenger's seat, with the rest of us in the back. And I'm just really, really freaking happy. We found the person's house, we possibly know where the girl lives, we're heading all the way there...

  ... I'm just- ah, y'know, I'm super excited right now.

  So, uh, I'll talk to you again when I get there, keep you up to date on what's going on, and uh... yeah!

  Let's gooooooooo!