School by Nathaniel Hardman (top reads .TXT) 📕

the door,” Nacho said, looking down and blushing a bit. Suzy looked back at him, and he hurried on in a slightly defensive tone, “I kind of got stuck behind it when it blew open. So I didn’t hear the spell as loud. It was muffled.”

“Huh,” said Suzy. “Everyone! Quiet! What are we going to do?”

“What do you mean, ‘What are we going to do’?” asked Peter. “What is there TO do? Your little wand didn’t work, and now Jeff attacked the guards, so the rest of them are probably going to come and kill us. Or at least lock us up, and they won’t let you and Jeff go on all your precious little school trips anymore.” The venom in his voice was practically dripping.

“Uh, actually,” said Jeff, “I don’t think we used to have a wall like that in here, so I think the wand DID work.” He pointed to the grim stone wall, which looked decidedly out-of-place in the otherwise cheerily decorated room.

The class erupted in argument. Yes, some said, it hadn’t worked completely, but it WORKED. Yes, others said, it worked partially, but who wants to get sent PARTIALLY back to Earth?

“What we need,” said Jeff, loudly enough to cut through all the hubbub, “Is a stronger wand.”

“Yeah, but we already tried the class wand. And the guards’ wands won’t be able to do it either, will they?”

“So what are we going to do?”

“Where are we going to get a stronger wand?”

“Hey everyone shut up! I think I hear something!” This last was from Ramon, who was sitting closest to the still-open door. They all stopped talking, and then they could all hear the sound of alien voices coming down the hall.

“Quick!” yelled Suzy. “Drag them over into the back corner. Or Ms. Hacking’s closet! That’s even better. Then we can lock them in. Ramon, close the door. Everyone with wands, hide them!” Miraculously, the class moved to follow her instructions.

The door, unfortunately, wouldn’t close. Something had happened to the hinges when the guards broke in, and now the best they could manage was closing it to about a three-inch gap.

The frosted-glass window of the door was a massive spiderweb of cracks, only holding together because of the wires inside. “THAT’S not going to look suspicious,” Suzy muttered.

In the hallway, a pair of guards called out something, and Suzy racked her brain, trying and failing to translate. Names, she finally realized, they’re calling for the other guards.

A shout sounded from inside Ms. Hacking’s closet.

There was a chorus of cursing from the kids. Peter pulled out one of the wands and started toward the closet with a furious expression. “No!” Suzy yelled, and then two guards from the hallway burst into the room.

As chaos erupted around her, one detail captured Suzy’s attention and stayed imprinted on her mind – the expression on the first guard’s face as spell after spell hit him, and he toppled to the ground. That look was pure, undiluted shock. Not fear or anger or pain, just mind-blown, the-world-is-suddenly-upside-down surprise.

The other guard had time to move beyond surprise and got really angry and knocked out two of the kids with a spell they had never seen, but then he too went down.

Suzy ran to the door and stuck her head out into the hallway. Behind her, she heard Shen ask, “What was he saying? Did anyone catch that knock-out spell he was using?”

No one was in the hallway. Suzy pulled her head back just in time to see Shen point his wand and say, tentatively, “Griggiax?” A spell shot out and hit Ryan, who slumped to the floor. Shen pumped his fist in triumph.

They all seemed high on adrenaline from the two fights, hyper and wild. Suzy, though, looked at the two new guards on the floor and just shook her head. “What are we going to do with them?”

“We could take them to Ms. Ablom’s class,” Jamal answered. “They have a closet like ours.” He looked at Suzy like he was waiting for her approval.

“Okay,” she nodded. “Sure.”

“Here, Nacho, help me!” The two boys grabbed one of the guards, and after a furtive check of the hallway, they slid one alien out.

“Here!” Suzy stopped the boys on a whim and tossed them a wand. “Give them this. They should know how to use it from the dictionary.”

“Okay,” said Jeff, catching Suzy as the two disappeared, dragging the alien behind them. Jeff spoke to her, but loud enough for rest of the class to hear, too. His voice was trembling, and he was unusually serious. “I’ve been thinking. We need a stronger wand.”

“The guards’ wands won’t work, because they don’t have the tree-man magic. We could try stealing one of the other kids’ wands from zvuiy, but those aren’t much bigger than ours.” He paused dramatically, and no one said anything.

“But I know where there’s a wand that HAS to be powerful enough.” Everyone stared, waiting. “The biggest wand we’ve ever seen.” They still waited.

Jeff pointed in the direction of the back of the school. Toward the courtyard. Toward the red-leaved, black-trunked, three-foot tree with its hyper-vigilant four-man guard.

“You’ve gotta be kidding,” Peter said.

“I bet he’s not,” said Suzy.

“It’s simple,” Jeff said, his voice rising with enthusiasm. “We knock out the rest of the guards – they’re not expecting us to have wands, so we can take them by surprise. Maybe we can even get some of the other classes to help. Then we go get the rest of the tree-man root from that house, fertilize the giant wand, harvest it, and then BAM, we’re back home.”

Maybe it was the leftover buzz of seeing her wand bring the pen from Earth. Maybe they were feeling cocky from having knocked out EIGHT guards. Whatever the reason, by the time Ms. Ablom burst