He ran upstairs, to Jeff and Tony's dormitory; he found it to be in the similar state of disuse that it had been in the night before.
As he walked out, he bristled, seeing a door open to the side of the dormitory. He hurriedly closed the door behind him as another Snow Wood student, dressed in his casual clothes, a black sweater and dark blue pants, walked out.
"Good morning, Richard," Maxwell said, addressing the student.
"Good morning to you as well, Maxwell," Richard replied. He headed towards the stairs, then turned around, as if thinking about something. "By the way, have you seen Jeff today? I want him to try and break my Bicentennial Jubilee project -- to see if I did it right."
Maxwell's heart leapt, realising that this indiciated that Jeff hadn't returned the night before. But he didn't wish to let on his motives for determining Jeff's whereabouts to Richard; after all, he could be a stool pigeon of sorts, passing information onto Jeff.
"No, I haven't seen him yet today, Richard," Maxwell answered. To himself, he silently added: And he'd better hope I don't see him today.
"Oh, okay. I guess I'll find someone else." Richard turned his back to Maxwell and wandered downstairs.
Perhaps I should unlock the doors now, and then, after I eat lunch, I'll go and look for them. He chuckled silently to himself, realising that Jeff's folly/excuse would eventually bring about his own downfall.

Sebastian Chambrill put down his binoculars. He wondered as to the logic in maintaining the Tessie-watching Club, which was intended to prove the existence of Tessie, under its current operation, when the existence of Tessie had been proven. Everything had changed, but nothing had changed; they still looked out over the lake to try to prove the existence of something whose existence had already been proven.
He leaned back, letting the Winters snow soothe the pain that pounded up and down his vertebrae. His brother Charles was preparing some tea.
Charles... Sebastian thought. Don't you realise that the Tessie-watchers are a sham now? We've proven the existence of Tessie, but why the Tessie-watchers exist now makes no sense. Proving that which has been proven.
"Thinking about something, Seb?" Charles asked, walking towards his brother with a thermos of tea and two cups.
"Just things that have become obsolete because they refused to change. Like most Communist countries, and Parliaments in which powers have become vested in the Prime Minister's clique. And like the Tessie-watching Club."
Charles dropped the thermos and cups into the snow. "Sebastian, you can't be serious."
"Charles, face the facts. The Tessie Watchers have lingered in constancy since Tessie's existence was proven; I can't think of anything that was more pointless."
"Reality television?" Charles offered, giggling.
"That's not really pointless. It's more misleading than pointless. But let's be serious now, Charles. The worldview where Tessie's concerned has changed, but the Tessie Watchers haven't. We're still just looking for Tessie, looking for proof she exists; but it's been proven that she exists. So why keep the club running?"
Charles opened his mouth, but silenced himself. Sebastian appeared puzzled, but his brother turned him around.
"Ness? Jeff?" Sebastian asked no one in particular. "What are they doing here?"
The three staid travellers and their tagalong Tony noticed the Chambrills staring blankly at them. Assuming that they might be a help, Jeff walked over.
"Hello, Sebastian," he said.
"Good morning, Jeff," Sebastian replied. "I don't think you've met my brother Charles before, have you?"
"No, I haven't. Pleased to meet you, Charles."
"The same to you, Jeff," Charles said, picking up the dropped now-lukewarm thermos and cups from the now-puddle where they had fallen. He stood up. "Is there any particular reason that you've come here?"
Paula had come over by now. "We're just passing through on our way to Dr. Andonuts' lab. Is the Bubble Monkey around?"
"No," Charles answered, "but my shift for the Tessie Watching Club is coming up. If you want, I'll look for the Bubble Monkey and alert you once he appears."
Sebastian grumbled. "There's no reason to do that, Charles. They could watch for him themselves."

Time passed. Ness and Paula had gone off to look for the Bubble Monkey, and, finding him, brought him to the small promontory on the northern shore of the lake.
"Kyaa kyi! Oo kye kyu aa kyaaaaa!" (My wife was baking me banana cookies! Now I won't get a siiiiiiiingle one!)" complained the Bubble Monkey.
"He's been complaining about those cookies since we pulled him out of that tree," Paula muttered. "You would think that he'd understand that cookies don't appear magically out of nowhere."
"Kyeeeeeeee ookyuuu! (I doooon't caaaaaaare!)" insisted the monkey.
"Just help us this one last time," Ness said, knocking the monkey on his back. "And I promise you'll get back home in time for your 'banana cookies' -- not that I myself would eat them."
The monkey grunted, clearly showing his disbelief. "Kye. (Sure.)"
"Here's some gum," Jeff said, tossing a small dollop of pink, slightly chewed gum on the monkey's chest. The monkey picked himself up and tossed the gum into his mouth.
Tony plugged his ears to escape the loud, annoying sounds the Bubble Monkey would make while he chewed the Bubble Monkey, including glrp, wshl, and glkad. Finally, the Bubble Monkey stopped chewing. He slightly parted his monkey lips and blew lightly. The pink bubble appeared slowly at first, taking no real shape; sometimes it was like a balloon; othertimes it would be distorted; and every so often it would seem to come close to popping, but would then deflate slightly, thereby re-strengthening the weakened parts of the bubble.
As the bubble became larger, the Bubble Monkey began to float off the ground. Jeff had never understood how bubble gum, which was of a neglible weight, and likely had no majority of lighter-than-air materials in it, could have levitated the monkey, and he wasn't ready to learn how that happened right now.
A gentle breeze began to blow, and the Bubble Monkey was brought to the south. The four watched intently as the water below the Monkey began to ripple, and a purple lizard's head with the consistency of rubber arose from it. Tessie's head.
"See?" Sebastian complained to his brother. "We've proven Tessie exists! No one's rushing out of their tents to see her. Why don't we change the point of it from trying to prove her existence -- which we've done -- to something that makes sense with her existence proven?"
Tessie arose fully from the waters. Ness, Jeff, Paula and Tony climbed onto the prehistoric sea-lizard's back while the Bubble Monkey landed on her head. With a gentle hiccough-like call, Tessie set off towards the southern shores of Lake Tess, leaving two squabbling Chambrills and about seven apathetic Tessie Watchers.

In the forests of Winters, like on the shores of Lake Tess, all was not well. Four shadowy figures stood near the fringes of the forest that opened onto the lake. Watching Paula, Tony, Ness and Jeff sail off. Arguing about letting them do that.
"There they go," one of the figures said. "I don't feel right, just sitting around."
"Remember," another figure warned the first, "we received our orders before this whole escapade even began. We're to remain in the shadows, acting only when those kids need help."
"It's not honourable," the first figure insisted. "Don't worry," a third figure offered. "You don't really have to worry about it. I have a few tricks up my sleeve if we need to break our cover."
The fourth figure, who had been listening silently, finally spoke up, saying, "Perhaps we should go after those four before they get too out of range. My car's almost caught up with us."
As he spoke, a car of some make appeared, strangely hovering, before the four. They climbed in, and the fourth figure made a two-word expression for which he had become infamous.

"Did you hear that, Sebastian?" Charles Chambrill asked his brother.
"Hear what?" Sebastian asked back, pouring a cup of tea. "Oh, how I would very much enjoy crumpets with this tea."
"Something strange..." Charles trailed off. "Maybe I was just imagining it."
"What did you imagine hearing then?" his brother pressed, his curiosity subconsciously vowing not to stop until it had learned what Charles had thought he had heard.
"It's such a silly thing, now that I look back on it. I thought I heard a car rev up over there--" He pointed. "--and then I heard someone say--"
"Say what?" Sebastian asked.
Charles' mouth opened, but no noise came out.
"Speak up!" his brother pleaded.

Jonathan Falken activated the Fourside Observatory's link with the Quadrant Four Ball Space Telescope. He had recently been hired at the observatory in a janitorial position; however, due to his technological acuity and astronomical capabilities, he had quickly risen, half through luck, half through merit, to head of the Astral Variances Measurement Office.
His responsibilities as AVMO head consisted of the monitoring of each quadrant of the sky, every four days, to more accurately measure the periods of confirmed V-stars, or variable stars; to detect any new V-stars, specifically those V-stars at such a distance from Earth that their variability had not yet been detected; to monitor for excessive levels of astral radiation; and to monitor for exolunar objects [objects beyond the moon's orbit, as he had learned] that might impact Earth.
As he scrolled through the various cameras that were installed on the Telescope, Jonathan noted nothing in his role. He disconnected from the Quadrant Four telescope and was about to leave when his boss called his private telephone line.
"Jonathan Falken," Jonathan answered. "Mr. Cornwell? What are you calling for? Check the Quadrant Two telescope? What for?"
Jonathan slipped back into his seat and connected to the Quadrant Two telescope. Listening to the instructions that Mr. Cornwell gave him, he navigated to the fifth camera. His eyes opened wide as he saw the stars flaring.
Those stars aren't V-stars! Jonathan argued in his mind. I've monitored them for the last few weeks. They have not been proven to be V-stars. And their pulsing is more like a pulsar than a V-star...
"You're shocked, aren't you?" asked Mr. Cornwell. Jonathan didn't hear him. He was quickly typing, activating his OverlayStars program.
Only a few seconds later, he had his answer.
On his second computer monitor lay the information:

---

Constellation: Cygnus [the Swan]
Lucida: Deneb [ a Cygni ]
Major non-stars in constellation: NGC 7000 [North American Nebula]

---