Alice in Vocabland

Welcome back to another possibly dreary Monday. A math test fried my brains so we're back to vocabulary stories! These stories actually helped me ace last week's vocabulary test! I suggest it as a study tool if any of you have a hard time vocab or if your teacher makes intensely difficult vocabulary tests. There are no free points in that class. I've never seen a teacher grade everything in such a detail oriented manner. I do appreciate it though, after I'm done sobbing over lost points, because my work ethic is slowly improving as well as my writing. My work ethic hasn't increased by much though because it's 9:36 pm and I still have to write 5 darned reflections. Moby Dick really isn't bad and has a lot of wonderfully insightful quotes. I do recommend it as a leisurely read for some of the more dedicated readers out there. It isn't a chick flick or an easy skim though. . . hahah. It's up to you!
Today's words are all about "Problems and Solutions" as it so helpfully states. It will not be a continuation of last week's in spirit of a true Monday Memoir.

Perspicacity. Patent. Adduce. Cryptic. Conundrum. Rudimentary. Confound. Construe. Equivocate. Paradox. 

Alice Jenkins was a junior detective. She had her badge, given to her by the detective club, and her sister, Marie, had even pitched in to get her one of those cool spy kits that were always advertised on TV. It came in the mail a couple days ago and was a complete disappointment. She was back to fashioning her own gadgets which worked a whole lot better than fancy junk. Alice used to have a lot more time before high school. Now she was a freshman in high school already lugging around back breaking textbooks. Marie was a senior and always said how easy freshman year was to spite her. 

She was sitting in her "office" with her computer open to Tumblr. There was an office in their house but it was usually occupied by her father or Maurice, the cat. Maurice and Alice did not get along at all. In fact, it wasn't too much of a generalization to say that Alice hated all cats. Alice scrolled through her dashboard and grimaced at the endless pictures of cats. She crinkled her nose and adjusted her thick brown glasses. Unfollow. Done. She wasn't an avid blogger but she liked skimming through the pretty pictures once in a while, except when the cats came up. The phone interrupted her. 

"Hello?" Alice felt excitement tingling. She had begged her mother to place a landline in her bedroom. Her mother agreed after seeing the way Alice lit up whenever the phone rang. That momentary happiness would disappear as soon as the customer service person's voice streamed in. 

"Hello is this Alice Jenkins, junior detective?" Alice pushed her mousy brown hair behind her ears in a leap of faith. She had never heard this nasally voice before but this could be her first big case. He seemed to add the junior detective part hesitantly. 

"Yes, speaking," Alice said in her most professional voice. She felt her hands getting clammy. Marie was an expert at talking on the phone. She coached all her friends whenever they had college interviews or something of that sort. But Alice stuck her nose up at the idea of asking Marie for coaching. 

"Um Doug, the senior detective, was busy. He said to call you," the nasal voice continued equivocally. Doug had told someone to call her? She was ecstatic. She wondered why he wouldn't just tell her the case. 

"So what is it? You're really beating around the bush." 

"We can't talk here. Someone might be listening." Alice rolled her eyes. In her four years of detective work, no one had ever been so paranoid. 

"Okay, can you at least tell me a name?" Alice twisted the phone cord around her finger. 

"The Diner."

"You're name is the. . . diner?" 

"No, no, that's where we can meet. At five o' clock tomorrow. I'll find you." It was the most cryptic message ever. The phone hung up abruptly. She had a weird feeling, not one that usually came with landing a case. She dialed Doug immediately. 

"Hello?" 

"Doug, who did you send my way?" 

"I don't know." Doug was a perspicacious person. He noticed everything around him. Alice didn't believe that he couldn't know who the nasal voiced person was. She waited for him to continue. It was patent that he would. "Fine, fine. Do you know Mike Steckleberg? He needed some help with something involving a girl. Obviously that meant he didn't want my help. Natalie is busy with another case and Georgia doesn't get along with Mike. I wouldn't have asked you take this if I didn't trust you, Alice." He didn't bother asking at all. She didn't care either since it meant that she made it up into the big league. 

"Sure, I'll do it," she said with a grin. "I'm meeting him at five at the Diner." 

"The Diner? And you said yes? The Diner is a dangerous place!" Doug went on to adduce statistics about what made the Diner so dangerous. Alice zoned out. Doug only got this defensive about his love for cats. 

Alice hung up a few minutes later after saying a rushed goodbye. The events of today confounded her. Why wasn't Doug happier for her? He did give her this case. Alice clicked open the Tumblr page again. There were so many paradoxical posts that everyone liked. Did anyone stop to consider them? She shut down even the most rudimentary of thoughts and went down when her mother called her for dinner. She'd face the day another day. 

Maybe I'll continue it later. Writing isn't like solving math problems. Even slight changes in your mood can sour the whole story. The heroine could die, the backstabbing villain could get the happily ever after, and maybe saddest of all the stupid prince wouldn't know the difference. Well. . .  sorry for that note. xx