Doreen & the Cuckoos: Goal: Escape the Blondes

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Doreen runs into two of the Stepfords while looking for what will be her English Classroom.

"There you are," Doreen said, holding up her arm, she gestured for Monkey Joe to jump on down. The squirrel did, clicking about how many things there were to climb up on here and how she should try it.

Doreen shook her head. She had long ago stopped explaining to Monkey Joe why she couldn't climb curtains.

"We have to find our English classroom," she said, as her friend took his place on her shoulder. "Now, do you remember where it was?" she seriously asked her squirrel.

Because she didn't.

"Are you lost?" Doreen might have been forgiven for thinking she had double-vision for a moment as two of the Stepford sisters came around the corner and stopped, gazing in apparent concern at her. "Maybe we can help," said the one on the left. "If you tell us where-"

"-you're going," her sister said, picking up the thread of the sentence, "we can give you directions. Because we've been here for-"

"-a while." The first blonde rolled her eyes.

Doreen did a double take, as did Monkey Joe, the squirrel looking between the two girls with more confusion than she did. They must've been twins.

"Um..." Doreen took a moment to make sure she smiled, you always should make sure you made a good first impression. "Yeah. I had my English class next," Doreen said, "I'm Doreen by the way, what are your names? Are you twins? You guys look exactly alike."

"I'm Celeste," the one on the right said.

"And I'm Phoebe," the other added. "And no, we're not twins. Actually, we're-"

"-quadruplets, but the other two are off doing something else."

Celeste shrugged. "We're supposed to work on spending time apart. Or in smaller groups."

"Quad..." Doreen looked between the two of them, "So, there's four of you?" she asked, figuring it out. "It must be nice, having three sisters! I only have a little brother... he's not that bad though," Ryan was a good brother, when he had grown out of the tail pulling thing.

She tried to figure out the two of them out. "Is it hard to be apart? Oh yeah... um... the classroom... you wouldn't know where it is? I know the teacher's been gone, but I really want to know where it is when he'll be back because I've been having a hard time getting around."

"Oh, which teacher is that?" Celeste asked thoughtful. "Because you know, they do tend to-"

"-pop in and out," Phoebe confided. "So busy saving the world and all that jazz. Wreaks havoc with the-"

"-office hours. Just try and get someone to look at your term paper when-"

"-a supervillain is attacking New York, or a bunch of terrorists are having-"

"-a hissy fit."

"Well, they're super heroes right? You need to make a little bit of an allowance for that. I mean, the Huntress teaches and fights crime," Doreen pointed out. "And it's..." she pulled out the piece of paper it was written on, "Mister... Beaubier....?" she said it 'Bew-beer.' "Yeah. Is that how you say it? It looks French..."

"Oh, Monsieur Beaubier," Celeste said, a hint of gentle mockery in her voice. "You might have to wait a while, Doreen. He's been-"

"-rather preoccupied with his own personal drama," Phoebe said. "Many of the teachers are, of course. But the details of his are shocking even by our standards. It's really-"

"-quite impressive. It's the quiet bookish ones you need to watch out for."

"He has?" Doreen asked, "He's okay, isn't he?" she asked, "Or is he mean?"
since they were saying it was the bookish ones you have to watch out for, "Like grading hard?"

"Oh, no. Not mean, per se." Celeste's blue eyes glinted. "We imagine he's determined to put-"

"-a good face on it all. Make nice for the students, that sort of thing,"
Phoebe said dismissively.

"...What does he do that he'd have to do that?" Doreen squeaked, she thought that you should always put on a nice face, but these girls were making it sound like that really wasn't Mister Beaubier's goal.

"We'd tell you," Celeste said mildly, "but then you'd-"

"-freak out, and run to another teacher-"

"-and it would be so messy. Like usual. None of you new kids can keep a-"

"-secret, or appreciate good gossip." Phoebe sniffed. "It's quite pitiful."

"I won't freak out," Doreen said simply, "I swear. I'll only tell Monkey Joe and he might tell the squirrels, but squirrels can't talk to anyone else other than me." This was important, she was sure.

"I don't think we believe you, new girl. But then-"

"-maybe it doesn't really matter. These things have a way-"

"-of getting around, and maybe the new children should know that their teachers-"

"-like to decapitate criminals."

"Like to what...?" Doreen squeaked, even Monkey Joe looked shocked. She couldn't have heard that right, "I mean... that can't be right...."

"Oh, of course not," Celeste said, soothingly. "We're just-"

"-making up silly nonsense. After all, it's not like most of our teachers dress up in black leather and-"

"-fly around in a stealth jet that comes out of the basketball court."

"But... superheroes don't kill people..." Doreen interjected, thinking that she might have sounded a bit lame, "Batman never kills anyone and he's the BEST superhero. And he flies around in a stealth jet and wears black leather."

She paused.

"Or is it Kevlar?"

"So many questions," Phoebe said with another sniff. "You're an inquisitive little thing, aren't you? But far be it from us to deprive you of-"

"-the joy of discovering these things for yourself," Celeste finished.
"Just watch out for the crazy Frenchman."

"No... what?" Doreen shook her head, "He's not REALLY crazy, is he? I mean, he can't have really killed somebody..."

"Goodbye, new girl," Celeste drawled as she and Phoebe turned away. "Maybe you should talk to the professor about-"

"-changing your timetable. You never know. Maybe he has something against-"

"-squirrels."

"...Okay," Doreen squeaked, "I'll do that... I mean... I don't... yeah... so I'll just get going now," she managed pointing in a random direction. Goal: escape the blondes.