School by Nathaniel Hardman (top reads .TXT) 📕

Getting the mulch into the ground only took a minute, but when Jeff finished, he collapsed backward onto the cobbles feeling like he had just run a mile. “That sucked,” he said.

A horrible thought occurred to him, and he jerked up to look at Suzy, who was rubbing her hands together and looking wounded. “How are we going to PICK that thing? It’s going to EAT us before we pick it.”

“I don’t know,” Suzy said. “All I know, is I picked the last one. So this one is your job.”

“Hey,” said Nacho, “I got a little more out.” He held up a little pile of wood chips he had managed to scrape from the inside of the root.

“Knock yourself out,” Suzy said, pointing at the dirt.

Nacho looked uncertain but knelt and scooped out a little hole in the dirt. “Yuoshr swiOUCH!” He jerked his hand out and stuck three fingers in his mouth. “-at hu-t” he said, around his fingers.

The look on Nacho’s face – the innocent surprise and hurt – it was so pathetic and silly it made Jeff laugh.

Then Suzy said, “Yeah, actually, we were going for ‘switch’, not ‘swi-OUCH’.”

Jeff laughed even harder. Then Nacho, laughing a little himself now, pointed an imaginary wand at the school and said, “Swi-ouch!” and Jeff was undone, doubled over, laughing for all he was worth.

After some time, when the fit was over, and little giggle aftershocks were all that were left, Jeff wiped his eyes and said, weakly, “Swi-ouch.” Dimly, he heard Nacho say he was going to see if there were any trowels they could use to dig in the mulch, and he heard the footsteps as his friend walked away.

Finally, Jeff wiped his eyes again and turned to Suzy. “How long do you think we need to wait? I’m pretty sure this tree was sucking up the magic as soon as we put it in the ground. Should we just...”

There was a soft exclamation of surprise from behind, where Nacho had gone.

Jeff turned, a smile already spreading across his face.

Nacho was on the ground, not moving. Striding past Nacho’s fallen form was an alien warrior.

“Suzy!” Jeff yelled as he jumped to his feet, but she was already up too, pulling out her tiny wand and firing off a paralyzing spell. The alien lifted his shield – he must have taken it from Nacho – and blocked the spell.

Jeff dodged instinctively to the side, but the alien’s return spell didn’t come. He didn’t have a wand, Jeff realized. And his slow stride wasn’t so much confident and measured as it was AGONIZED. Something was wrong with the guy’s feet, and it was hurting him to walk toward them. Jeff didn’t recognize this soldier; maybe he’d been out because his feet were hurt.

Suzy shot another wire-thin ripple at the man, and another, but the alien blocked them effortlessly. Jeff searched around on the ground for something to throw at the man or use as a weapon, but there was nothing. Plus, the guy had beads, so throwing something at him would be useless.

“He’s coming for the tree!” Suzy yelled. “Jeff, you’ve gotta pick it now!”

“Are you crazy?!” Jeff yelled. He ran at an angle to the alien, trying to come around behind him. “We’ll take him out first; then I’ll pick it.”

A crash sounded to the side, and Jeff glanced over at the school. The back doors were open, and through them, he could see Jamal lying unconscious, a wand still clutched in his hand. Beside him, Peter and Shen were both crouching behind one of the big alien shields, shooting spells one after another down the hallway.

“Shoot,” he said. “Shoot, SHOOT!”

“Jeff!” Suzy yelled again, “Get the big wand! I can hold this guy off; he’s slow, and he doesn’t have a wand.”

Jeff ignored Suzy and came in on the man from behind. He expected the alien warrior to bring his shield around for protection, but he kept it firmly between himself and Suzy, held with one steady arm. With his other hand, he gestured for Jeff to come and get him.

“A little cocky for someone whose feet are oozing blood,” Jeff muttered, edging closer. “Little do you know… that I KNOW KUNG FU!” On this, he launched himself forward with two fast left jabs and then a hard right cross.

The alien blocked both jabs with one hand, and seeing this, Jeff overcommitted on the right cross, swinging too hard and too far.

The warrior, who moments before had appeared so slow and injured, now dodged in a move so graceful and fluid that Jeff hardly registered its speed. The alien was just suddenly inside Jeff’s punch, driving his fist up into Jeff’s chin, snapping his head back almost to his shoulder blades.

Everything went black for a second as he fell, and then again as the back of his head hit the cobbles.

He heard Suzy scream his name, and instinctively, he rolled, feeling the sharp edge of the alien’s shield slamming down, glancing painfully off his ribs. The shield pinned his shirt to the ground, and his roll jerked to stop. He ripped at it frantically, finally pulling it over his head and scrambling back just as he heard Suzy’s voice, followed by a curse from the alien.

The warrior swung the shield back between himself and Suzy, barely catching her spell, but his eyes were still following Jeff. Jeff stared back, stars dancing at the edges of his vision, much more wary than he had been a moment ago. This guy was dangerous.

“Jeff!” Suzy yelled. “Just get the big wand! He won’t be able to block both of us. Go!” Jeff shot a glance over at the school. In the doorway, Shen was down, unconscious, while Peter continued shooting spells from