School by Nathaniel Hardman (top reads .TXT) 📕

into their room, demanding an explanation, the majority of the class were defending Jeff’s plan, and Suzy agreed.

Ms. Ablom took a lot more convincing than the rest of the class, but when Suzy finally pulled out her wand and performed a switch, the teacher began to reconsider. By then, there were more voices in the hall. A lot of voices.

“Everyone, hide your wands!” Suzy called, “But be ready with them. Ms. Ablom, move out of the way!” Ms. Ablom paled visibly and wobbled a bit as she scurried away from the door. A hush fell, inside the classroom and out.

For the third time that day, alien guards burst through the door.

Cries of “griggiax!” sounded from all around the room, and ripples flew from stolen wands toward the five men who had charged in. Holding shields.

“Shoot!” Suzy growled through clenched teeth. The spells seemed to evaporate as they hit the leather-covered shields, and now the guards were aiming their own wands. Suzy grabbed Jeff and yanked him sideways behind Ms. Hacking’s desk just as a spell rippled past his head.

“Shoot!” said Jeff. “Shoot, shoot, SHOOT! Suzy, we’re dead.” Suzy peeked over the desk to see the aliens were now stunning everyone, not just those holding wands. Ms. Ablom gave a theatrical shriek as she was knocked backward off her feet. They’d be done with everyone in a few more seconds.

A guard saw Suzy and aimed his wand, but Dusty jumped out of nowhere and bit his leg. Suzy dropped back down, and Jeff suddenly grabbed her wand hand. “Here! Switch me!” he whispered, fumbling for her wand.

“What? Why?” she whispered, but she let him take her wand. The guard’s wand he gave her was stronger anyway.

“On three, plug your ears,” Jeff said. Then he started whisper-chanting, “Caoshsz zggshuoqu,” as fast as he could go.

“Oh, geeze. Not again,” Suzy groaned. Jeff held up one finger. Then another. It struck Suzy that the rest of the class had fallen silent.

A guard leapt around the desk and shouted something at the exact moment Jeff jumped to his feet and shouted, “Oqur!” Even plugging her ears tightly, once more, everything went black for a second.

When she came to, a single alien was standing, bracing himself against the doorframe, shaking his head groggily. He seemed to gain his balance, staggered forward, and pointed his wand at Jeff’s unconscious form.

“Choshoythmu!” someone called from the hallway, and the alien toppled. Ms. Ablom’s class had arrived.

Jeff opened his eyes to a hive of bustling, nervous energy. He saw Pete Harvey from Ms. Ablom’s class dragging one of the alien guards out the door, and Peter followed him, dragging another. He started to smile; then a wave of pain ripped his brain into little pieces and left him moaning, head down on the floor.

This was even worse than the first time.

“Yeah,” said Shen to someone nearby, “But I don’t think the closets will keep those guys forever. We should probably keep a couple of the wands here and make sure they don’t escape.”

“Don’t you guys know a kill spell?” Peter demanded. Jeff opened his eyes just so he could glare at him. The dork.

There was a gasp from the doorway followed by a “Holy...” that trailed off. Jeff looked over to see Mr. Halverson standing there, looking stunned as another unconscious guard got dragged away. Jeff wondered who had thought to get him. It was a good idea. Mr. Halverson taught US History and loved to go off on tangents about battle strategy. He’d be good to have around right now.

“Jeff, get up,” Suzy grabbed his arm and tried to drag him off the ground. Jeff pulled away and used the arm to cover his aching head.

“Leave me alone,” he mumbled.

“Jeff, come on. We gotta go.”

Jeff cracked an eye. “Where?”

“Mr. Halverson and Ms. Ablom are going to take care of fighting the guards. We have to go get the root.”

Jeff shuddered. He felt like someone had been jumping on his brain with a pogo stick. Suzy grabbed his arm again and pulled. Jeff groaned in protest but finally rolled shakily to his feet.

He closed his eyes as a wave of nausea rolled over him. “But Suzy, we’re not going to get out of here until they take care of the guards.”

“Sure we are,” Suzy said. Jeff opened his eye to see her grim smile. “We’ve done it before.” Then she pointed up and over, to the open ceiling tile and the dark jumble of cables and tubing beyond.

Jeff stroked frantically across the river, waiting for the guards’ spells to connect at any moment. They had made it through the school and across the roof without anyone seeing them, but as he jumped, he thought he had heard something, had maybe caught a flicker of movement in his periphery. It was dark now, a couple of hours past sundown, but still he could have sworn...

He nicked something with his fingertip and jerked to a stop before swimming headlong into the shore. Suzy pulled up next to him. They gave each other a wordless, panting nod, then heaved themselves out of the river onto the stony bank. Above and behind, someone yelled, “Oyeur choshoythmu!”

Jeff scrambled up the stones like a frightened mountain goat, Suzy right on his heels. Just as he crested the bank and burst out onto the street, he heard Suzy’s shout behind him. She was dragging herself onto the cobbled street, and at least one of her legs wasn’t working.

Jeff grabbed her arm and jerked her savagely out of the way of the next spell that rippled past, inches from her head. Then tripping, staggering, hopping, crawling, they took cover behind the Channel 4 news van that had been sitting here for weeks.

“Just your leg?” Jeff gasped out. Suzy nodded. “Can you walk?” Suzy nodded again. Behind them,