Spider-Fold: Rent Case

Spider-Fold: Rent Case

By SF Guillermo

 

Introduction 

By Guillermo

This story is weird for a couple of reasons, because it’s not just the fact that wielding origami puppets at my school is weird. It’s also strange that the puppets were inspired by none other than the original Spider-Man trilogy characters. You know, the movies by Sam Raimi.

You see, schools like Clater School (my school, it’s in Spain) are not the sort of school to go to if you don’t have a very disciplined mind, because it takes a lot of work to get good grades. Even if you care for these you need to give up finger puppets, or anything that distracts the learning environment. 

 

How This Started – Monday 

By Guillermo

So, everything started on a normal Monday. I got out of the car just like I always do, being careful not to knock my origami Spider-Man out of my pocket, which is, as I said, inspired in the original trilogy Spider-Man movies from 2002 to 2007.

Why is an origami Spider-Man in my pocket? you may ask, for a couple of reasons. First, it keeps my concentration and focus in class, and then of course, it helps me stop strange people trying to copy from my exams, because Spider-Fold (as I call him) in my school is known for shooting strange things at people. 

When I get off the car, all I see is my homeroom teacher, Pure Serranito waiting at the school entrance to give her greetings to everybody that goes into the school. 

I go in. “Here goes nothing” I say to myself, but when I get to class, Mr. Brown says something to me and I can’t hear anything because Andrei was shouting and making noise. Mr. Brown told him to stop, because the last thing you want to do in you life is mess with Mr. Brown. 

What was he trying to tell me? No idea, and I don’t really care; probably that my Biology research paper was a great success or something.

First period starts. Great, Chemistry. That’s my favorite. We get to learn about very strong covalent bonds or ions, but right then, I realise that my pen had been stolen. Or maybe it just fell. 

I searched everywhere; my bag, my pants, even my PE bag, but nothing. 

I turned around and I had to ask, of all people, Manuel M. He gave me a pen, saying he hadn’t found mine, but that I had to give him at least one euro for lending me his pen. I agreed, but I thought to myself that I would be dead before I ever gave him a euro.

Turns out I was wrong.

 

First Attack (sort of) – Monday

By Guillermo

So Chemistry class was over. It was so easy, and it always when I lived in England, where I studied chemistry in Elementary School. 

I went to my locker, and thank God we have lockers now, because we didn’t have them a month ago (it all started when an angry mother came saying that her son had to carry his 8-ton Maths book from one class to another, so for safety reasons, lockers were introduced in Clater School of Studying and Writing).

So, anyways, when I get to my locker I find a note, in yellow paper (who writes with yellow paper?) that clearly says ‘RENT’. 

I didn’t recognize the handwriting, and it was practically untraceable. It was impossible to know who wrote it, since every letter was in different handwriting. That meant that there was no telling who wrote ‘RENT’ on a piece of paper that was on my locker

I wanted to spend the rest of the day wondering who could have written that stupid word, of course. I ended up thinking that it was just an error, someone wrote ‘RENT’ on their paper and the piece of paper landed on my locker, simple as that. 

I couldn’t spend much time thinking about it because I had bigger things to worry about. I had a Maths test the day after, and I was really nervous. If I got a 100% on this test it would be the third time in a row that I got that mark. That would be great. 

I needed to get to work.

 

Next Time, Think About It – Tuesday

By Andrei

I heard what had happened to Guillermo. It was strange. I mean, if I had to compare this with Doctor Strange, this would be stranger. Anyway, we had a Maths test, and no one likes Maths tests. Probably because they get you really nervous, and you end up screwing up. However, that wasn’t the only threat to Guillermo today, no sir: there was something else waiting. 

After he told me what happened, I started paying attention to every single thing that happened in class, to see if there was anything that could lead me to the person responsible. Even if Guillermo told me that it had been a coincidence, I didn’t believe it. I was on the case.

Ok, sorry, I get carried away, Maths test. 

I get my test, I check it for any missed answers and turn to Guillermo, who still hasn’t got his. I could sense he was nervous. He needed that 100% to make a record. 

Suddenly, he gets the test, flips it over and over the test is the same handwriting as before. It said: ‘RENT?’ 

“Oh my gosh!!!”  says Guillermo. He raises up his hand, and the teacher starts wondering what on earth could be the problem. 

She walked over to him but she didn’t need to ask. The problem was clear enough. Anyone could see it from a thousand miles. Guillermo’s test paper was asking for rent.

 

Mystery – Tuesday

By Guillermo

The exam was canceled for everybody. Something had to be done. The problem wasn’t that the test paper had ‘Rent’ written over it. The problem was that someone had to have written that word on the exam, and that meant that that person had seen all of the exams and knew, whoever he was, what questions were on the exams.

“But whoever wrote ‘Rent’ in the exam also knew that the test paper was going to get to YOU, not to anyone else, and that must’ve been something he left to chance,” reasoned Andrei.

He was trying to explain to me that the exam that people get is aleatory. In other words, it was chance. The fact that the same exam that I got said ‘Rent’ said that there was more to it than chance, so I replied: “Or maybe it was chance alone. Maybe there is an order to the exams, or maybe… no.” 

“What?” 

“Maybe the teacher is asking for rent!” I said.

“Are you supposing the teacher is the one that’s writing rent? But what does she need the rent for?” Andrei asked.

“I don’t know, but we have to find out.”

 

Finding Out – Wednesday

By Manuel M

Ever since the exam day, I had been asking myself why was there a word written on Guillermo’s Maths exam. I decided to join the case along with Andrei and Guillermo (and Spider-Fold, of course) and we decided to go to the teachers lounge where only teachers were allowed. 

That seemed pretty strange to me, since Guillermo never did anything against the rules. he was just a nerdy kid from Spain, who got all As and stuff. I would never have thought it in him. Had Spider_Fold something to do with it? I don’t know, but what I do know is that we found what we were looking for, and best of all, we didn’t get caught. 

“This is it,” Guillermo said, using Spider-Fold, “The tests are given out not alphabetically nor by chance but by an order that only teachers know. So, that means that either the Rent Pursuer is a teacher, or a student that got the information somehow.”

Did I say how we didn’t get caught? Well, we could’ve been caught, but luckily Guillermo saved us. Or, should I say, Spider-Fold did. 

So, when we found all that out, someone started pounding on the door, and it wasn’t another student: It was a teacher. It was Mrs. Rose.

“Oh my gosh, what are we going to do?” said Andrei, panicking.

Guillermo got Spider-Fold out. “Hold this for me, will ya?” spider fold said, and Guillermo used a little spray can to shoot some glueish stuff that was really sticky at the door. Fortunately, that gave us some time. Unfortunately, Spider-Fold had just ‘webbed’ shut our only exit. 

“You gotta be kidding me.” I said. “Well done, Guillermo. You just had to save the day, didn’t you?”

“What do we do? I’m getting really nervous right now,” Guillermo asked no one in particular.

“Well, you are the one who closed the door, so shut up,” Andrei immediately shot back. 

The door eventually was forced open and the teacher walked in. I was really worried we’d be caught.

Suddenly, there was a huge bang sound coming from another classroom. Mrs. Rose left the room before she saw us, and pretty soon we could hear her chewing out another student. “Hey, you are not supposed to do that…” we could hear her saying.

Then, we looked at each other, and I am really sure we were thinking about the same thing. Andrei broke the silence getting an origami Mr. Azis (Joe’s pizza boss) out of his pocket.

“Well… Go!!” said Origami Azis.

We left quickly, and when Mrs. Rose came back, there was just and open up folder and some sticky stuff for clues for her to find. In shorter words, we were gone.

 

Second Attack – Thursday

By Guillermo

After luckily escaping from Mrs. Rose we went straight to class. We tried to fit in with the rest of the group, like nothing had ever happened.

The second attack came the next day, when we were in Homeroom. The teacher was telling us how great of students we all were when the Rent Pursuer took over the loudspeaker: “Guillermo, you have until tomorrow to pay rent. If not, it will come with interest.”

Then, there was a strange sound. Our homeroom teacher looked at me, confused. “What was that all about?” he asked me. 

I couldn’t answer. The Rent Pursuer had now taken over the loudspeaker. What would he do next? I had no idea, but I had one day before the next surprise attack. I didn’t know how much rent he wanted, but between me, Adrei, and Manuel we managed 40 euros. I figured it was enough.

 

Mystery Revealed – Friday

By Guillermo

So, I came in the next day, ready for whatever was coming. I had my Spider-Fold in my pocket, ready for action.

First period, nothing. No sign of the Rent Pursuer. Second, third and fourth period went by, and nothing happened.

Fifth period, at last. Chemistry. It started normal, but wait, what was on my notebook? There was something written on it. Sure enough, it asked for, very clearly ‘RENT?’

In fact, it wasn’t just me who had ‘Rent’ written on his notebook. Everyone had the same message.

“I told you,” said a voice behind me, ” I want my rent.” I turned around. What I saw made me feel incredibly betrayed.

Manuel M. was standing there with an origami puppet on his finger: an origami Mr Ditkovitch. Manuel was the Rent Pursuer.

“How could you?” I asked, disgusted. “You were a good person.”

Origami Mr Ditkovitch answered “I am good man.”

I was so angry because of all the problems he’d caused at school, and because he had betrayed me. Spider-Fold shot his ‘web’ (my can of sticky spray) at Mr Ditkovitch and that made Manuel drop him.

Everyone was staring.

“Why do you even want the money?” I said

“That pen I gave you? It was worth one euro. Now, with interest, it is worth more,” he replied, angrily. He jumped at me, shouting, “Where is my money?!?!”

I dodged. Spider-Fold shot his web and got Mr Ditkovitch straight in the body and pulled him towards me. The puppet flew straight towards me and I was able to catch it.

Once in my hand, I ripped Mr Ditkovitch because of what he had done.

“I’m sorry,” I said. “I don’t want to, but I have to.”

“Ah, it’s no big deal,” Origami Ditkovitch said. “But if you feel so bad about it, you can buy me pizza sometime, today’s good.”

“Ok,” I answered.

I looked at the raging Manuel for one last time, and then the teacher came in.

 

Epilogue

By Guillermo

So yeah, I destroyed Origami Ditkovitch, and the epic fight that I had against Manuel was soon famous around school. I decided that I should go and apologise to Manuel. 

Just as I was walking through the hallway, the school TV came on, starring Pablo Jiménez, the school student reporter, with an origami J.Jonah Jameson on his finger.

“After a massive fight in which Guillermo Valenzuela and Manuel Mackett fought each other with Marvel finger puppets,” Pablo started, “My friend Manuel has been temporarily suspended from this school for ‘safety reasons’ and for disrupting the learning environment.

“Now, if you ask me, I think that Guillermo and his Spider-Man puppet are as much at fault as my friend. I think that Spider-Fold is a menace and should be suspended for just as long as Manuel!”

I, once more, didn’t know what to say. I went with: “Oh my gosh!”

 

To be continued in ‘The Rise of Namor!’

Advertisement