Milly-time had begun.

After leaving Niki a note, Milly started her stopwatch and took a quick stroll around the school to confirm what she already knew to be true. Everyone she came across was standing still, and it was once again eerily quiet.

On the plus side, this time Milly kept her cool just fine. Armed with a lot more knowledge, she found herself a nice sunny spot in the grass to consider her next move. First, she noted down what she knew so far.

Milly-time: 05:34 - 06:20 = 46 minutes Base-time: 06:20 - 07:46 = 86 minutes Milly-time: 07:46 - ? (Prediction: 8:32)

Milly tapped her pencil on the notepad as she stared at the numbers. There wasn’t any immediately obvious pattern that sprung to mind. After her first Milly-time, she’d spend about twice as much time in Base-time but not quite.

“Maybe it’s duration based?” Milly mused while she checked her stopwatch.

00:01:74 Base-time

07:15:00 Milly-time

Milly had to mentally add that conversion. It was a bit tedious, but it gave her a sense of control. She’d felt so lost in the void before when she couldn’t even tell how much time was passing from her perspective.

“Mhm, so if it works the same as before, then after forty minutes I’ll be back to base. Which would be about… forty minutes times two-hundred-and-fifty…” Milly had faith in her ability to do math, but this was a bit much. She jotted it down in her notebook to make it easier on herself. “Ten-thousand minutes?”

A week?!

Milly triple checked her math. The answer never changed.

“Holy cow! If that’s true, then forget waiting this out! I got plenty of time to discover the trigger instead.” Milly hopped to her feet.

To the cafeteria!

————————————

About ten Milly-minutes later, Milly had exhausted her list of possible triggers.

The sandwiches didn’t work. None of the chairs had any special effects. Nor did any other food or tables.

Milly expected as much, but she had to try. Not that she had gotten to try all that much food; she was still stuffed from breakfast.

“So much for that,” Milly said while she crossed out the cafeteria from her list. “It’s fine. Worst-case scenario, I just have a week of vacation.”

It really helped to know she wasn’t stuck. That has been the most terrifying thought the last time. Now, though, Milly mostly just wondered how she was going to pass the time.

The only other thought was whether there was a trigger to start her speed.

Both times, she had been in a hurry to get somewhere on time. First on the track to get to the finish line faster than her last lap. Then in her dorm when she had wanted to get to class before it started.

“I’ll have to remember that. I can’t test that while I’m already fast.” Milly made a note while she left the cafeteria to roam the school.

Most of the students were out in the halls as well. All going through the hustle and bustle of finding their way to class on time.

Milly smiled.

Since she had plenty of time to kill, it was a fun chance to do a bit of people-watching as she weaved between them unnoticed.

The experience was even more surreal than last time.

Before, the frozen crowds of people on the street had been practically faceless, easy to think of as just obstacles to carefully avoid. Not that different from normal.

But now, many a frozen face was familiar to her. The girl that sat behind her in math. Another who loaned Milly an eraser. Some were classmates who she recognized, who she might have normally given a quick nod in passing.

Milly caught herself waving at a few of them out of habit. It felt silly to do it when she knew she was moving too fast for them to even see her, let alone wave back. Even though Milly knew that, it still felt as if they were ignoring her.

It sucked.

Milly dipped out into less crowded hallways again and again until she was climbing up a completely abandoned staircase.

Halfway up, Milly took a seat on the stairs and rested her head in her hands. “So, that wasn’t fun. Any other bright ideas?” she asked herself, just so she could hear something.

“Nothing to do with people, and I guess browsing the internet is out of the question too. I’d die of boredom while waiting for the pages to load.” Milly leaned back, staring up at the ceiling. “What did people do before YouSupe?”

Her dad would tell her to go read a book.

“…That might work, actually.”

————————————

Arkwright Library

Opening hours: 09:00 - 19:00

Milly stood before a pair of massive wooden doors. They were locked up tight. Apparently, she was over two hours and thirteen minutes too early.

Who even knew libraries closed?

“Reckon this would be a serious setback,” Milly grinned while she spun the custodian’s key ring around her finger, “if I wasn’t already a hardened criminal.”

As bad as Milly had felt for accidentally stealing the keys before, she was all too glad to have them now.

After trying a couple of different keys, Milly unlocked the doors and pulled them open, revealing an empty reception desk and rows upon rows of bookcases.

“They can’t all be school books, right?” Milly wandered through the library aisles. The variety of books on display was encouraging, even if most of them struck her as boring or well beyond her reading level. Even the fiction section was stuffed with what looked like old tomes from centuries ago. “The odyssey? To kill a mockingbird bird? The lord of the Bling—oh! I know that one’s a movie!”

Even knowing that, the sheer size of the multiple volumes caused Milly to swiftly move along. She wasn’t that desperate and never would be.

Finally, tucked away in a far corner of the library as though to hide the fact they were forced to stock it, Milly struck pay dirt.

“Comics!”

————————————

A solid eight Milly-hours later, about two minutes had passed on the clock.

Milly had with her feet propped up on the table, leaned back on the rear legs of her chair in that way she was always told not to do. An open comic book was left draped over her face. She was bored out of her mind. It didn’t help that most of the comics only had the two or three issues per series here. It wasn’t like she could binge one she liked from start to finish.

“Ugh,” Milly groaned when she checked the time. “Not even a whole day yet?”

She’d been so sure the week would just fly by while she entertained herself, but she was going to need some variety if she was going to make it through this.

What else did she feel like doing?

Milly stretched and pulled out the locker key that she’d found on the roof. “I guess the hallway must have cleared out some by now. How about we go see where you belong?”

——————————————

In a mere ten seconds, Milly zipped all over the school, tried the lockers of all the first and second-year students, had a sip of water, went into her own class to scrub her name from the list to ensure she could not be marked ‘absent’, then tried some more lockers and found a match!

How terribly fast and convenient it must have looked! If it had it not taken a full forty Milly-minutes.

“Ughhh finally!” Milly groaned as that blasted key fit at last. She pulled open the locker and rummaged through. Pretty standard high school stuff that she’d seen dozens of times already. No convenient villain costume, but an English textbook gave her what she was after.

Orchid Bramble

Class 4B

“A fourth year, huh?” Milly searched for anything else she could use but came up empty. “Huh, I wonder if she has a diary in her room or something.”

Milly closed the locker then headed off toward the dorms. On her way there, she swung by Niki to leave her a quick note on what she was up to. Milly found her standing with the rest of the students, waiting to be let into their class room.

Niki was holding their notebook close to her chest.

Still, it was easy enough for Milly to take it and borrow a pen from the student next to her. Flipping through to the last page, Milly paused as she discovered a sentence that hadn’t been there before. Right after the note she’d left to tell Niki she was back in Milly-time.

I’ll cover for you. Are you okay?

It was short and hastily scribbled, but it made Milly feel warm inside. A little reminder that even if the world was all but frozen still, someone was thinking about her, backing her up.

It brought a smile to Milly’s face.

“Thanks.” Milly hugged Niki. She was as still as a mannequin, of course, and Milly awkwardly broke away. “Right, uhm, sorry.”

Niki probably would not have objected, but it still felt wrong to make that decision for her. Just because Milly could do it without anyone noticing didn’t mean it was okay.

Even as Milly was mentally scolding herself for it, she was relieved. Maybe it was silly, but she was just glad that Niki hadn’t actually felt like hugging a cold and hard mannequin but warm and squishy.

Then again, it had only been for a Milly-second. Maybe she should try again just to make sure. Definitely just for science.

Milly stared at Niki for a moment while she teetered on the edge of fooling herself. Finally, she sighed, then walked over to the nearest wall. A nice hard surface would help write out her reply.

Originally, Milly only planned on making a quick note, but she had all the time in the world and Niki was worried about her. It wasn’t that much trouble to add a little summary of her day and speculation so far.

Satisfied, Milly slipped the notebook back into Niki’s embrace.

“I’ll see you later.”

————————————

The fourth year dorm building was largely the same as the first. Both in its rectangular keep-like design and its inner layout.

The difference was that Milly’s dorm key didn’t open this one. Fortunately, the custodian keys did open the front door. Unfortunately, a quick test on the first room in sight proved the custodians didn’t have access to those.

Milly was glad to know their privacy was secure, but it also was frustrating to be foiled by such a simple obstacle.

Milly trudged up the stairs toward Orchid’s room.

It had been a colossal pain to get that information from the front desk. Not because getting to the computer was hard, the receptionist had been looking away, but because the entire process was painfully slow. The computer hadn’t registered half her keystrokes, and less said about her attempt to wrangle the mouse, the better.

After all that, Milly was at least going to see the darn room. There might be something she could figure out.

Second floor, last room on the left. Room 209.

Once she confirmed that, she could try running up the outer wall to get a peek through the window.

Milly felt a dull ache thrum in her back just at the thought. Maybe not.

While she walked down the second hallway, Milly noticed the window at the end. It was big enough to easily climb through.

As Milly approached the window to get a better look, she noticed the door to Room 209 was wide open.

The room was a mess. Everything was either turned over, turned inside out, or discarded into piles on the floor.

“A fight?” Milly stepped into the room then spotted the culprit right around the corner.

A girl was sitting on her knees with her butt in the air and face to the ground, trying to peer under the bookcase in the corner. She was using her phone as a flashlight.

Less of a fight. More of a desperate search.

“What is—-Ohhh, I get it.” Milly pulled out the locker key. “You’re looking for this, huh? Yeah, I reckon it’d be kinda distressing with a guilty conscience.”

This had to be Orchid then.

Well, since Orchid’s room was so conveniently on display, Milly had a quick look around. If Orchid was the plant-powered pickpocket from Ruth’s notes, then there had to be loot, or at least a lot of potted plants, right? But Milly couldn’t find any of that.

Milly did find a hairbrush with red hair. Orchid’s was black. A roommate? She probably wasn’t going to be thrilled with Orchid for making such a mess.

Finally, Milly turned her attention to Orchid herself. A dark-skinned girl with frizzy hair that hung down and obscured half her face. The other half was only visible because Orchid was blowing her curls out of her face to get a glimpse under the bookcase. Even just that half was enough to notice Orchid looked just as frazzled and tired as the members of ACE had.

It must have been a rough night all around.

“Mhm, what to do with you, ey?” Milly sat down on the floor beside Orchid. “I hadn’t thought that far ahead. I guess I could just leave Ruth another note. Come to think of it, I probably should check how they reacted to the last one.”

Milly didn’t have any hard evidence that Orchid was responsible. Would Ruth just use her power to make Orchid confess? Was that even allowed? Milly wasn’t sure. She also wasn’t sure she wanted to allow that to happen.

If Orchid was guilty, what was she doing with the money? Nothing in the room looked expensive. No brand-new flat-screen TVs, designer clothes, or makeup. Where did it all go?

“Uhg, this would be easier if I could talk to you.” Milly complained. Her gaze drifted to Orchid’s phone. “Texting might work. It’ll be tedious, but I reckon it’ll get easier with practice… On second thought, I probably should avoid giving my phone number to suspected supervillains.”

Not that Orchid looked terribly intimidating. She was four years older than Milly, but Milly still felt like she could fold the gangly girl like a cheap deck chair.

Looking around, Milly spotted a notebook underneath the bed. “That’ll work for now,” she said as she snatched it and flicked through the pages to find an empty spot.

00:00:01,

We want to talk.

You are not in trouble.

Accidents happen.

-ACE

Milly dropped the book in shock and stumbled back. “What?! How?” She looked around but couldn’t find anyone else.

Was she being watched? How did they write it without her noticing?

After a few panicked seconds, Milly approached and examined the book again. The words were still there. She leafed back a few pages and found familiar notes. Including her own writing and a big ‘STAKEOUT’.

“This is Ruth’s notebook?” Milly asked, bewildered. That made no sense; Orchid could not have stolen that last night. Milly looked back to the hairbrush with red hair, same as Ruth’s.

Either Orchid was trying to make a voodoo doll or…

Milly ran over the nearest desk and grabbed the first book in sight, Calculus.

Ruth Russel

Class 4B

“Hah! Your roommate is Ruth?!” Milly laughed while she waved the book at Orchid. “You can’t be serious! Woah! Okay, now I have to know how this went down. Does she know? No, no way.”

Milly snatched a pad of sticky notes and jotted down a message for Orchid to invite her to talk in exchange for her key.

After slapping the sticky note over Orchid’s phone, Milly left the room to go bring Ruth their notebook.

Ruth must have written the message that morning right after Milly cleaned them up at the nurse’s office, but ‘00:00:01’ hadn’t come back or responded.

Time to go fix that.