I didn't even get into the school buildings before I got a reminder of the downsides of going to school.
Taranee was being backed against a tree by four guys I recalled from my first day, the ones that had probably trashed the bike shed. The only one I could put a name to was the spotty one with ginger hair (lighter than mine and Will's) gelled up in spikes: Uriah. However I did recognise the other three and mentally labelled them until I learned their actual names. There was the fat one, the tall one and the... eh, for lack of other terms the nervous one. He looked pretty reluctant to be involved in whatever was going.
"Let's go, Uriah!" the nervous one pleaded. "Kids are starting to get here."
"Shut it Nigel." The leader of the little pack jostled forwards and cupped Taranee's chin. "I just want this little girl to understand the rules around here. Her family has just arrived in town..."
"Ooo. I just moved here," I chimed in, having snuck up on them while their attention was directed at Will's... at my friend. "Are you going to tell me these rules too?"
"Whu- what! Where'd you come from?" spluttered the ginger-haired boy, letting go of Taranee and trying to muster an intimidating sneer.
I snapped my finger. "Oh wait, there's only four of you and there's two of us. You're outnumbered. Do you want to get... four more losers to hang out with you, so you don't feel intimidated? Wait, make that six. I have a pet dormouse and you know how bady you got hurt last time you ended up in a fight with a small furry animal."
The small furry animal in question was Will's dormouse. Uriah was, in a backhanded way, the reason she'd adopted the little creature and the cause of her first meeting with Matt. Not that I think that the ginger boy thought of the event that way.
"Yeah?" he snapped. "I still owe you for that."
"All donations to my lunch money are tax-deductable!" I have no idea what 'tax-deductable' means but I'm pretty sure he didn't either."
Nervous Nigel shot Taranee a look. "Uh, dude, there's people watching us on the steps." He hadn't even looked in that direction, but it got the other boys' attention.
We all looked and the only one there was Hay Lin, today wearing a shocking pink pair of goggles as a heair band and just taking her nose out of a comic book.
"People? There's like one little girl?"
"Uh, it looked like more..." Nigel muttered. Was it my imagination or was Taranee paying rather more attention to him than to Uriah?
"Whatever." There were other students arriving which I guess may have influenced Uriah's decision-making process (whatever that was). "Come on boys. We'll finish this conversation some other time."
They schlepped off, Nigel lagging behind them. He looked back and I saw Taranee give him a little smile and a wave.
"What was that about?" Hay Lin asked. "Were they bothering you."
"I think one of them was flirting with Taranee," I teased. "And she liked it."
Hay Lin gasped. "Not Uriah!"
"No!" squeaked Taranee. "Nigel!" Then slapped both both hard hands across her mouth and if had been possible with her skin tone I swear she'd have blushed like a traffic light.
"You could do worse."
"Will!"
I grinned broadly. "Just saying. Hope it works out for you."
She hung her head. "My mom sentenced him to a year of community service for breaking into the museum. She's gonna hate him."
(This had happened during our own mis-adventure in the museum, but since Uriah's little band snuck in after the Guardians got zapped into the painting and were caught before we left, we hadn't seen any of it. All things considered I could live with that. Excactly what they'd been up to I didn't know, but since they'd apparently claimed to have encountered monsters, it was a safe bet that Cedric was involved.)
"Your mom?"
"She's a judge, remember?" Hay Lin 'reminded' me.
Whoops. "Uh..."
Taranee's eyes narrowed suspiciously behind her glasses. *You're not Will!* her voice accused in my mind.
"Yeah..." I scuffed my trainers against the grass. "I wasn't trying to hide that from you?"
"Shhhh..." Hay Lin hissed. *Talk like this.*
*Uh... this is kind of weird,* I 'thought', uncertain of how they were doing this or if they would hear me.
*It's kind of useful for talking about private business,* Taranee thought dismissively. *But where's Will? Is she okay? Did something happen?*
*She's fine, she's just... er, it probably wouldn't be a good idea for her to be in Mr Collin's class this morning.*
*She's cutting class? Maybe we could too!*
*Hay Lin! We can't do that!* Taranee sounded appalled at the idea. *What if we got caught? What if Will gets caught!*
*It should be okay just this once. She's gonna get caught up on her homework,* I assured them although the fact that Will had just gone straight back to bed once she was sure I was up and starting off her morning routine didn't reassure me. *Her Mom was complaining about her grades last night.*
*Well she shouldn't be cutting class then. I'd have suspected Irma of this but not Will.*
The bell went and I knew I'd have to hurry to get to class on time. Fortunately Will had given me a map to guide me between the classrooms. I didn't want to get her into trouble by being late.
As it was I managed to get into the classroom barely before the second bell went off. If I remembered my notes right, that one was the tardy bell so I was only just in time. I'd have checked, but I knew that one of the notes was an instruction not to look at the notes in class in case someone else got a look at them. Which wasn't going to make them terribly useful I realised.
"Welcome back," the teacher - Mr. Collins presumably - said archly as he saw me slip in. "Good of you to turn up on time... barely."
Well, my first impression was that he was a jerk. That was a point in favour of Will's opinion being right.
Cornelia leant over slightly as I sat down at the desk next to her. "Are you okay, Will?" she whispered.
"Just a little Uriah problem," I muttered back.
She rolled her eyes. "Better watch out for Mr. Collins. He got out of the wrong side of bed this morning. Donny already got sent to Principal Knickerbocker."
I nodded my understanding and hasitly unpacked my notebook and a pencil from Will's bag, trying to recall who Donny was - other than presumably whoever had been sat at the only unoccupied desk that had paper and pen on it.
"This year's programme is extensive," the teacher announced, moving around his desk and stalking through the class. "And this is why I've decided to give you a healthy review."
He was heading in my direction I realised. Had he noticed something out of place. No way! I'd done everything right so far, hadn't I? I don't think Cornelia had noticed I wasn't Will yet and she had to know us much better than Mr. Collins (I'd have to tell her as soon as I got the chance or she'd be furious at being left out of the loop).
"Will!"
Urk!
"Can you remind us what life was like in the Middle Ages?"
It took a moment to sink in that he was just asking me a question and not unmasking me as an imposter. Okay, right... Middle Ages, Middle Ages... "Could you be a little more specific?" I asked to buy time to remember some of my information. "The Middle Ages lasted about five hundred years?"
"One of us is the teacher, who just asked a question," he told me with a nasty edge to his voice. "And it isn't you."
"Okay, okay. Um... it was the feudal period. Most people were peasents who had these little allotment type farms and couldn't grow much more food than they needed to feed themselves and had to give a... tithe, I think? - to the local baron..."
"Uh-huh." He raised his finger. "Well it doesn't seem that much has sunk in."
Hey! That's totally unfair. I had, like, ten seconds. There are two whole chapters in Will's textbook about the Middle Ages - that's more than a hundred pages. How could I possibly sum that up so quickly?
"Well I think there's a simple remedy here, Will." There was a mischevious look in his eyes before he turned away and I glared death at the back of his head. "Today we're going to move on to deal with the Renaissance period but you can also write me a report on the state of the man during the Middle Ages. Thirty pages should do it."
I looked at my notebook and then started counting pages. Ten, fifteen, twenty... oh no! Thirty pages is a huge amount of paper.
"Thirty pages?" Cornelia exclaimed.
"I think that seems fair," Mr. Collins agreed. "Would anyone else like to do the same report? Because that's as well as the regular homework for today's class..."
Cornelia shot me a pitying look but shut up. I couldn't blame her. What did I do wrong? Will's going to be furious and Mom's going to have a field day!
D for Drakensis
You're only young once, but immaturity is forever.
Taranee was being backed against a tree by four guys I recalled from my first day, the ones that had probably trashed the bike shed. The only one I could put a name to was the spotty one with ginger hair (lighter than mine and Will's) gelled up in spikes: Uriah. However I did recognise the other three and mentally labelled them until I learned their actual names. There was the fat one, the tall one and the... eh, for lack of other terms the nervous one. He looked pretty reluctant to be involved in whatever was going.
"Let's go, Uriah!" the nervous one pleaded. "Kids are starting to get here."
"Shut it Nigel." The leader of the little pack jostled forwards and cupped Taranee's chin. "I just want this little girl to understand the rules around here. Her family has just arrived in town..."
"Ooo. I just moved here," I chimed in, having snuck up on them while their attention was directed at Will's... at my friend. "Are you going to tell me these rules too?"
"Whu- what! Where'd you come from?" spluttered the ginger-haired boy, letting go of Taranee and trying to muster an intimidating sneer.
I snapped my finger. "Oh wait, there's only four of you and there's two of us. You're outnumbered. Do you want to get... four more losers to hang out with you, so you don't feel intimidated? Wait, make that six. I have a pet dormouse and you know how bady you got hurt last time you ended up in a fight with a small furry animal."
The small furry animal in question was Will's dormouse. Uriah was, in a backhanded way, the reason she'd adopted the little creature and the cause of her first meeting with Matt. Not that I think that the ginger boy thought of the event that way.
"Yeah?" he snapped. "I still owe you for that."
"All donations to my lunch money are tax-deductable!" I have no idea what 'tax-deductable' means but I'm pretty sure he didn't either."
Nervous Nigel shot Taranee a look. "Uh, dude, there's people watching us on the steps." He hadn't even looked in that direction, but it got the other boys' attention.
We all looked and the only one there was Hay Lin, today wearing a shocking pink pair of goggles as a heair band and just taking her nose out of a comic book.
"People? There's like one little girl?"
"Uh, it looked like more..." Nigel muttered. Was it my imagination or was Taranee paying rather more attention to him than to Uriah?
"Whatever." There were other students arriving which I guess may have influenced Uriah's decision-making process (whatever that was). "Come on boys. We'll finish this conversation some other time."
They schlepped off, Nigel lagging behind them. He looked back and I saw Taranee give him a little smile and a wave.
"What was that about?" Hay Lin asked. "Were they bothering you."
"I think one of them was flirting with Taranee," I teased. "And she liked it."
Hay Lin gasped. "Not Uriah!"
"No!" squeaked Taranee. "Nigel!" Then slapped both both hard hands across her mouth and if had been possible with her skin tone I swear she'd have blushed like a traffic light.
"You could do worse."
"Will!"
I grinned broadly. "Just saying. Hope it works out for you."
She hung her head. "My mom sentenced him to a year of community service for breaking into the museum. She's gonna hate him."
(This had happened during our own mis-adventure in the museum, but since Uriah's little band snuck in after the Guardians got zapped into the painting and were caught before we left, we hadn't seen any of it. All things considered I could live with that. Excactly what they'd been up to I didn't know, but since they'd apparently claimed to have encountered monsters, it was a safe bet that Cedric was involved.)
"Your mom?"
"She's a judge, remember?" Hay Lin 'reminded' me.
Whoops. "Uh..."
Taranee's eyes narrowed suspiciously behind her glasses. *You're not Will!* her voice accused in my mind.
"Yeah..." I scuffed my trainers against the grass. "I wasn't trying to hide that from you?"
"Shhhh..." Hay Lin hissed. *Talk like this.*
*Uh... this is kind of weird,* I 'thought', uncertain of how they were doing this or if they would hear me.
*It's kind of useful for talking about private business,* Taranee thought dismissively. *But where's Will? Is she okay? Did something happen?*
*She's fine, she's just... er, it probably wouldn't be a good idea for her to be in Mr Collin's class this morning.*
*She's cutting class? Maybe we could too!*
*Hay Lin! We can't do that!* Taranee sounded appalled at the idea. *What if we got caught? What if Will gets caught!*
*It should be okay just this once. She's gonna get caught up on her homework,* I assured them although the fact that Will had just gone straight back to bed once she was sure I was up and starting off her morning routine didn't reassure me. *Her Mom was complaining about her grades last night.*
*Well she shouldn't be cutting class then. I'd have suspected Irma of this but not Will.*
The bell went and I knew I'd have to hurry to get to class on time. Fortunately Will had given me a map to guide me between the classrooms. I didn't want to get her into trouble by being late.
As it was I managed to get into the classroom barely before the second bell went off. If I remembered my notes right, that one was the tardy bell so I was only just in time. I'd have checked, but I knew that one of the notes was an instruction not to look at the notes in class in case someone else got a look at them. Which wasn't going to make them terribly useful I realised.
"Welcome back," the teacher - Mr. Collins presumably - said archly as he saw me slip in. "Good of you to turn up on time... barely."
Well, my first impression was that he was a jerk. That was a point in favour of Will's opinion being right.
Cornelia leant over slightly as I sat down at the desk next to her. "Are you okay, Will?" she whispered.
"Just a little Uriah problem," I muttered back.
She rolled her eyes. "Better watch out for Mr. Collins. He got out of the wrong side of bed this morning. Donny already got sent to Principal Knickerbocker."
I nodded my understanding and hasitly unpacked my notebook and a pencil from Will's bag, trying to recall who Donny was - other than presumably whoever had been sat at the only unoccupied desk that had paper and pen on it.
"This year's programme is extensive," the teacher announced, moving around his desk and stalking through the class. "And this is why I've decided to give you a healthy review."
He was heading in my direction I realised. Had he noticed something out of place. No way! I'd done everything right so far, hadn't I? I don't think Cornelia had noticed I wasn't Will yet and she had to know us much better than Mr. Collins (I'd have to tell her as soon as I got the chance or she'd be furious at being left out of the loop).
"Will!"
Urk!
"Can you remind us what life was like in the Middle Ages?"
It took a moment to sink in that he was just asking me a question and not unmasking me as an imposter. Okay, right... Middle Ages, Middle Ages... "Could you be a little more specific?" I asked to buy time to remember some of my information. "The Middle Ages lasted about five hundred years?"
"One of us is the teacher, who just asked a question," he told me with a nasty edge to his voice. "And it isn't you."
"Okay, okay. Um... it was the feudal period. Most people were peasents who had these little allotment type farms and couldn't grow much more food than they needed to feed themselves and had to give a... tithe, I think? - to the local baron..."
"Uh-huh." He raised his finger. "Well it doesn't seem that much has sunk in."
Hey! That's totally unfair. I had, like, ten seconds. There are two whole chapters in Will's textbook about the Middle Ages - that's more than a hundred pages. How could I possibly sum that up so quickly?
"Well I think there's a simple remedy here, Will." There was a mischevious look in his eyes before he turned away and I glared death at the back of his head. "Today we're going to move on to deal with the Renaissance period but you can also write me a report on the state of the man during the Middle Ages. Thirty pages should do it."
I looked at my notebook and then started counting pages. Ten, fifteen, twenty... oh no! Thirty pages is a huge amount of paper.
"Thirty pages?" Cornelia exclaimed.
"I think that seems fair," Mr. Collins agreed. "Would anyone else like to do the same report? Because that's as well as the regular homework for today's class..."
Cornelia shot me a pitying look but shut up. I couldn't blame her. What did I do wrong? Will's going to be furious and Mom's going to have a field day!
D for Drakensis
You're only young once, but immaturity is forever.