Indispensables

“Look what Dewey gave me!” grinned Colin, and he held up the messaged toilet paper roll.

Seraphina looked right at the roll but hardly noticed it. “I know what’s going on. I’m telling you two, but you can’t let this leak.”

Dewey thought her word choice pretty funny given that they were holding a roll of toilet paper, but he figured this was not a great moment to say so.

“Haha! ‘Can’t let this leak.’ Get it?” Evidently, his mouth worked faster than the filter in his brain.

“Dewey! I’m serious. This is big, and we need to figure out what to do—immediately.”

“What?” Colin pressed.

“They’re getting rid of the vending machines,” Seraphina announced in a whisper.

“What?!” cried Dewey.

“No, they’re not!” exclaimed Colin. “Why would they do that?”

“I don’t know,” shrugged Seraphina. “But I heard Shawn talking to his guys about moving them out.”

“Well,” replied Dewey, already imagining what a bleak and tragic world middle school would be without vending machines. “Now we know what ‘the kids will be upset’ means. This is beyond catastrophic.”

“I know. I knew you’d be devastated. We have to figure out how to put a stop to this—and fast.”

“Hey, let’s not forget about the t-issue,” reminded Colin.

“For crying out loud, Colin!” wailed Dewey. “How can you even begin to compare a piece of toilet paper to a pack of pretzels?! We’re talking about indispensables! You’re on the level of luxury items.”

“Luxury? Since when did having enough toilet paper become a perk?”

“Since they’re taking away my Funyuns!”

“Okay, you two! We want both, don’t we? Stop it. What’s the matter with you? Let’s figure out how to talk to Shawn, and we can keep working on the t-issue. Don’t be so foolish.”

“Take away a man’s vending machines, and he gets prehistoric, I’ll tell you that much,” grumbled Dewey.

“Take away a man’s royal paper and he gets pretty cave man too!” chuckled Colin.

“Royal paper?!” laughed Dewey.

“You know you’re both nuts!” but she still laughed as well. “Well, what’s next?”

The first bell rang.

“UUGH!” they all cried.

“Okay, we’ll meet after school to discuss?” asked Seraphina, walking backward toward class.

“I gotta work on a case,” Dewey called back. “Tomorrow?” This delay would cause Dewey some anxiety, but he could see no way around it.

Colin just stood there not moving.

“Colin? Class?” called Seraphina. But as the quad emptied out, Colin just stood there.