by Lia London
I didn’t actually see any Mages except Jack and two of his Punker buddies, hanging out near the door. Curry was conspicuously absent, and I wondered if Jack knew about Rikki.
By the time the bell rang, most kids had taken seats in the central reading area where there are rows of old wooden tables and chairs. Some were reading while they waited for Mr. Whittle. One of Jack’s boys looked out the door down the hall, presumably waiting for him. Jack himself was at the water fountain. A moment too late, I realized he’d made a Water Ball. He threw it right at my face. The guy never misses. I lost it and headed over to him, but he and his friends let loose a shower of sparks that filled the air and backed away. Everyone nearby screamed. By the time the sparks had landed on the tiled floor, the Punkers were out the door, laughing. Jack’s voice rang out: “It’s only a matter of time, Kincaid. The Nomers are never going to survive Magian High.”
I banged on the bar of the door, but it wouldn’t budge. The jerk was probably holding it shut on the other side, and I wasn’t about to push against it with all my strength just to have him swing it open so I could fall flat on my face. Instead, I went over to the water fountain to get a drink and cool off. Jack had obviously messed with it so that it locked in the ‘on’ position. It also looked like he’d jammed something in the drain because the water spilled over the edge of the basin and onto the floor. All of a sudden, it started spraying with about ten times its normal force, splashing water all over the floor. The other students reacted with alarm.
“What’s going on?” shouted a girl, trying to open the door on the opposite wall. “Hey! It won’t open!” She kept banging on it. Soon others were helping.
“No use. We were locked in.”
For the first time, I noticed that there weren’t windows, since it was the central room of the building with everything else built around it. It was essentially a concrete box with some shelves of reference books. And, as usual, the librarian wasn’t there to help.
“Fire!”
Jack’s sparks must have caught on the shelf nearest the door he’d gone through. Flames had eaten about a row and a half of books. No wonder. The books were old and dusty, which made them perfect kindling.
One of the other kids went for the fire extinguisher, but the hammer was missing from the case. He pounded on the glass with his fist, but of course the glass wouldn’t break. Another kid picked up a dictionary and tried smashing the glass. Others scooped water in their hands, trying to splash it at the fire.
One guy punched me in the arm. “C’mon, Mage, throw one of your Water Balls at it.”
“I…can’t. That’s not my—”
“Take off your shirt!” ordered Amity.
“What?” I turned and she grabbed at my shirt.
“Take it off. Hurry!”
Not knowing what she had in mind, I pulled my shirt over my head. She took it from me, ran over to the growing puddle by the water fountain, and soaked it. Then she started slapping at the flames with it. Several other guys followed her lead, and in a minute, they’d beaten the flames out.
We all stood there, panting and staring at each other.
“This place is crazy!” yelled one of the guys who’d put out the fire. “I’m leaving.” He sloshed over to the door and shoved his big body against it, but it didn’t give an inch. He started swearing like a madman.
That’s when I noticed that no water was seeping out under the door. I stared, horrified. “The door’s been sealed,” I said.
“What does that mean?” asked the big guy.
“It’s Elemental Magic—advanced. A grown up did this to us.”
“Can you get us out with Magic?” asked a girl hopefully.
Suddenly the sprinkler system went on. Late, since the fire was already out. Magian High really was a dump, after all. Girls screamed and tried to cover their hair. I squinted up at the ceiling and counted the faucet heads: twenty-two. That would pretty much turn all the books in Magian to sludge in a matter of minutes. Wet Nomers started banging on everything to make noise and vent frustration. Only Amity and I stayed quiet, watching the door that didn’t open…or let the water seep out.
“You know, we’d better find a way out of this soon. I can’t swim,” I said.
Amity gave me her classic look. “Kincaid Riley, you scare me with the number of things you can’t do.” I think my face showed the sting because she quickly changed her tone. “It’s not drowning we need to worry about. The room’s too big to fill very fast.” She spun and faced the crowd. “Hey, everybody, we’ve got to get up out of the water before it hits the outlets!”
Everyone’s eyes searched the walls by the baseboards, and a new wave of screaming and swearing ensued. I’d never noticed how close to the ground the outlets were in this room—an inch or two above the floor.
“Hold still, you idiots!” screamed Amity. “If we stir up the water, it might splash up higher. Get up on the chairs and tables or something.”
The sprinklers continued spraying, and I was cold without my shirt. The water was seeping into my shoes. Everyone stared at me, blaming me somehow for what another Mage had done. “C’mon, guys! We can fit all of us on the tables and the chairs. Start climbing!” I lifted Amity up beside me on a chair. In a minute, we had all crammed ourselves onto the slippery wooden islands, but pretty much everyone had to ditch their books and backpacks to fit, which really made the Wisers mad. I could see their frustration—all their brilliant work floating in a huge soon-to-be-electrified pool of water.
Some of the girls were crying, but most were staring down at the water by now. We had to hold on tight to each other so we wouldn’t fall in. Everyone voiced the same concern in their own way: Why hadn’t anyone come to help yet?
I felt horrible about the whole thing. Like it was partly my fault that these people were being bullied so dangerously, all for some ideal that I had never thought through. I closed my eyes and buried my face in Amity’s back. The room erupted in screams. I opened my eyes and couldn’t see anything.
“What happened to the lights?”
“Must have blown a fuse when the water hit the outlets!”
Amity squeezed my hand. “This is great,” she said.
“Your idea of ‘great’ and mine are not the same,” I said, shivering in the dark.
“That will have power out all over the school. Someone will have to take action now,” she said.
We listened in the darkness. The sprinklers had stopped—probably when the power cut out—but it sounded like the water fountain was still spraying. Out in the hall, people were yelling and running. Overhead, it sounded like a marching band practicing formations.
“Does this mean the water is safe?” asked a girl.
There followed some debate, and with the presence of doubt, we all decided not to risk it. No one felt like getting electrocuted. There was a splash and a yell.
“Did someone fall in? Is everyone okay?”
A light appeared above us—a flashlight—and I heard a familiar voice. “You guys in there?” called Hadley, peeking through a hole left by the fallen ventilation grid. He swept the light around. Everybody still clutched each other for dear life, and the glare of the moving light was really disorienting.
“Get us out of here, Hadley!”
“Hang on,” he said. “I brought help.”
His head and the light disappeared back into the ceiling with a shuffling sound. A moment later, a girl hung upside down through the same hole with a light in one hand. She reached out towards the nearest table. “Take my hand!”
“What? Are you crazy?” asked one of the girls.
“It’s okay. I’m secure. I’ve got two guys holding me up.”
“But you’ll drop me.”
“No, I won’t.”
“Wait!” called someone else. “We can’t risk falling in the water. It might be electrocuted.”
“It’s okay,” said the upside-down girl. “We turned the breaker off to make sure. No juice.”
“What’s up there?”
“We’re in the air duct system,” called Hadley’s voice. “C’mon, Kincaid, get ‘em moving. Up up up!”
“Are you sure about the breaker?”
“Curry did it himself,” said the upside down girl. “And the fire department is on its way.”
“Rikki? Is that you?” I asked.
“Yeah, hi! Can you hurry? The blood’s rushing to my head.”
I laughed. “It’s okay, guys. The electricity’s off!”
“I don’t trust a Mage,” shouted one guy. “Especially not a Punker. They’ve been harassing the Wisers—”
Rikki grunted and pulled herself back up into the hole in the ceiling. She stuck her head back out with the flashlight shining at the guy. “You are so stupid, you know that? Let me tell you something.” She swept the light across the group back and forth. “Mages rely on magic, and Wisers rely on brains. You’re both stupid. You should learn that people need to rely on each other! I’m up here hanging by my toes trying to save your sorry butts and you still don’t trust me?”
There was a stunned silence, and then Amity said, “That’s the smartest thing I’ve heard all year.”
“Magic,” I agreed. With a flutter in my stomach, I stepped off the chair and into the water. “I’m not dead, folks. Come on in. The water’s fine.” I placed myself under Rikki and kind of squatted a little. “Okay, who’s climbing me first?”
The kids slowly stepped down into the water, and a lot of the girls hugged each other out of relief. Two guys moved a table under Rikki, and I climbed on top.
“That’s more like it!” said Rikki, flipping herself back upside down.
We started feeding people up into the ceiling. They’d get on the table next to me, step on my leg and then shoulder, and then use Rikki’s hands for balance until Hadley and Curry could pull them up. It was wet, slick work, and hard to do in the dark. I’m sure if I ever touched a girl the way I had to then, I’d get slapped. But something amazing was happening. Not just that we were getting out of a dark, flooded library. We were working together. No one had an advantage—except maybe Rikki—and I think it was good for all of us. I felt a surge of emotion towards everyone there. This was a bad thing turning good. Like the strands of a braid squeezed together, we were one, even if it was just for now.
Amity was the last to go. As I lifted her, I whispered, “I think I love you back.”
Standing on the table, I looked up at the hole after her. I tried jumping, but I couldn’t get high enough, and when I landed back down, my wet shoes skidded and I fell forward off the table. I landed hard on the floor with a splash, and I felt my chin crack.
“Kincaid! You okay?” yelled Hadley. He shone the flashlight down on me. “You’re bleeding man! You okay? Answer me!”
I pulled myself back up onto the table and rubbed my jaw carefully. It really hurt, but I’d worry about healing later. Careful not to slip this time, I reached again.
“Fly, Kincaid,” said Hadley.
“I can’t,” I said.
“You don’t have to go high. The table’s enough. Just your usual four feet, man!”
I measured the distance with my eyes and knew he was right, but… “I can’t!” I didn’t have enough energy—magical or physical. I was tired and dizzy.
The doors banged open. I held up my hands to shield my eyes and looked over at the rectangle of dim light. Mr. Blakely and Mr. Whittle hovered in the air above the flow of water escaping the room.
“Kincaid!” shouted Mr. Blakely, flying over to me. “What happened in here?”
I tried to focus on the table I was standing on. My blood dripped down my wet, bare chest. Books floated nearby. “I…”
I lost consciousness.
Chapter Eight: I Wake Up
“He’s awake, Mom! He’s awake! He’s awake!”
I opened my eyes, but lay still, taking stock of how I felt. Mom came in with Kelsey shadowing her, and I could see relief on her face. “Oh honey, you look much better!”
“Shouldn’t I? You’ve always healed me before.”
“Yes, but dear, you’ve been out for over twenty-four hours.”
“What?!”
“It’s Tuesday, honey,” she said, sitting next to me. “Are you still dizzy or sore?”
“How is that possible?”
“You’ve been groaning about the room spinning. You’ve been fuzzy-headed.” She winked. “Even more than usual.”
Kicking the blankets back, I swung my feet to the ground. “I feel pretty good, actually.” I stood up and stretched. I gave Kelsey a sparking thumbs up—at least that’s what I meant to do—but big flames shot up. “Whoah! Sorry about that!” I turned it off immediately and stared at the place where the flame had been. Mom grinned at me and nodded. “What? Why are you looking at me like that?” I asked.
“You lost your Jump, didn’t you?” she asked, still smiling.
My mind raced back to my last waking memory. “I tried to fly, but I had no energy.”
“Hadley says you helped every Nomer in that room.”
“I had to, Mom.” Emotions rushed back to me, and tears welled in my eyes. It had been scarier than I’d wanted to admit. “They didn’t deserve that trick, and…I cared what happened to them.”
“You cared and showed it, and it drained your magical energy.”
I flipped my thumb in the air and let up another huge flame, careful not to let it touch the ceiling. “Oh, really? When have I ever been able to do that?”
“You cared and showed it, and they cared and showed it.”
Kelsey bounced excitedly. “A million people came to see you while you were sleeping!” She jumped off the bed and closed my door so I could see the back of it plastered with Get Well cards. “There’s flowers and balloons downstairs, and Hadley even brought you a new HydroPlane game.”
I bolted out the door and flew down the stairs. The living room was stuffed with gifts. Mom and Kelsey came up behind me, both hugging me.
“I’m so proud of you, honey. You loved, and have earned real love back. You had Mages, Wisers, and Corporals visiting you. Everyone will be so happy that you’re better.”
“Was I asleep when they came?”
“Mostly. Sometimes you mumbled stupid stuff,” said Kelsey.
My empty stomach flipped. “Amity?”
Mom patted my shoulder. “She came with all your homework yesterday and read to you in your sleep, hoping you’d hear some of it.”
I laughed. “I doubt it sunk in since I don’t even understand it all when I’m awake, but that’s…” I didn’t know what to say.
“Probably what fueled your flame,” said Mom with a knowing look.
***
While I was getting dressed, the doorbell rang, and a minute later, Amity was pounding on my door. “Open up! I’ve got awesome news!”
I opened the door a crack. “No peeking, now. What news?”
“Petercriss is gone!”
“What? How?”
“Mrs. Bagler came down from the district offices to investigate what happened in the library yesterday, and they traced the door sealing thing to him.”
“Whoah.”
“I know!” she said happily. There was a pause before she continued. “Mr. Whittle subbed in chemistry class today and even explained the science behind what Petercriss did. I guess he used water like long skinny Water Balls, but he found a way to make it adhere to the metal door frames, which takes a knowledge of chemistry. So, duh…”
“He sealed water in with water?”
“Kind of cool in a criminally sick way, isn’t it? It leaves no evidence once it’s broken.”
Downstairs, the doorbell rang again, but I stood staring at the floor. The idea that Petercriss was behind the trouble scared me. “So he’s fired? Tell me he’s going to jail for this!”
“Not sure about that.” She poked her head around the door. “Aren’t you done changing yet? You’re slower than a g
irl!”
“What? Oh, sorry.” I pulled my door open.
Hadley bounded up the stairs and into my room. He actually picked me up with a hug. “Man, I’m glad you’re okay! Word of what happened to you has spread all over town.”
“What are the people at Wiser saying?” asked Amity.
Hadley shoved some books aside and sat on my desk. “According to my cousin, even the Mages doing the Protest didn’t like what happened. Sparking and Water Balling is one thing. Flooding the library is crazy.”
“By a teacher, no less,” agreed Amity.
“Man, I knew that guy would lose it someday,” said Hadley. “The guy was a bomb waiting to blow.”
“He blew all right,” I said. “Did your aunt hear anything about what’s going to happen to him?”
“No, too soon. But you know what she did say? Mrs. Bagler is getting pressure to mix the teachers up, too. Spread the Mage teachers around to the different schools. That way there’s healers in every building.”
“It’ll also make it harder for teachers to favor or pick on any one group of kids,” noted Amity.
My mouth fell open. “This is fantastic!”
“It’s a revolution!” laughed Hadley, punching my arm. “Mrs. Bagler will have to restore order and enforce the rules, or she’ll lose her job.”
“Which means Jack will have to go to Wiser now,” I said grinning.
Chapter Nine: The Party
Mr. Blakely was greeting everyone at the front door as we entered the building the next morning. When he saw me, he gave me a big hand shake. “Kincaid, you’re upright!”
“Yeah, all better.”
“Things are going to be better now,” he said confidentially. “I’m sorry you and your friends had to be in such danger to wake everyone up, but…”
“We all survived, right?” I waved. “See you, Mr. Blakely.” I stepped inside and noticed that no Wisers were sitting in the halls. In general, the atmosphere felt more relaxed than it had been all year. Several people greeted me with cheers. I felt like a returning war hero, except Hadley, Curry and Rikki were the real stars. And there they were, waiting by my locker with Elizabeth. I stopped in my tracks and pointed to the group with both hands. “You guys are awesome!” When I got to Hadley and Curry, I put a hand on each of their shoulders. “Thanks, guys. Thanks for coming after us.” I poked Rikki lightly in the ribs. “And thank you for bringing this guy around. You should win a prize for that.”