Stanley walked past William and Polly and stood next to Mrs. Applebaum. She didn't look ill; she looked worse. She looked as if she'd fall out of her chair any moment. She swayed from side to side.
"Mrs. Applebaum, are you alright?" William asked.
She looked at him and scrunched up her forehead as if she didn't recognize him at first. Then her eyes lit up. "Yes, I'm fine. Thank you for asking. Perhaps my lunch didn't agree with me. You kids go on now."
"Could I get my phone back?" Stanley asked, hoping that she'd forget that he was supposed to come back after school. By school policy she was supposed to notify the office and his parents that he had his phone taken away.
"School isn't over." Polly snapped.
"It's alright, dear. I think it'll be alright this time." Mrs. Applebaum handed the phone to Stanley.
"Thank you ma'am."
Without waiting for anything to go wrong at this point, he turned and headed straight out of the class. He also needed to get away from the smell. How Bill and Polly could stand so close to her with the strange gym sock smell was beyond him. Perhaps they felt like they needed more brownie points with her or something.
"What was all that about?" Bert asked as Stanley exited the classroom.
"I think Mrs. Applebaum is sick. There's no homework so let's just be happy. Maybe we'll get a sub tomorrow. That'd be great for a Friday."
"Yeah, and no homework tonight. That means pretty much a free period tomorrow."
Chapter 3
Mrs. Applebaum looked even worse than the day before. She no longer looked sick, she looked dead. Her skin had a gray pallor and her eyes had partially clouded over. The entire class just sat and started at her as her head bobbed from side to side. Everyone feared to say anything. At one point her mouth opened and closed, but she didn't say anything.
"What should we do?" Bert whispered to Stanley.
"I don't know. I'm afraid to go up there. She doesn't look right."
"Should we call the front office?"
"It's Friday. This can wait until Monday."
Even though he said the words, Stanley didn't believe them. Everyone, even William and Polly, just sat dumbfounded by the teacher in the front of the class. They'd never experienced anything like this before. Probably no one had ever experienced anything like this before. Could they all really just sit and do nothing?
"Do you think I should go and talk to her?"
"Someone has to, Stanley. Look at everyone. They're just staring at her."
Stanley swallowed hard. Mrs. Applebaum was scary enough. Having to go up to the front of the class to see if she was alright was downright terrifying. Still, someone had to go and check on her. It might as well be him, right?
Getting up from his chair caused a squeak and the entire class turned to look at him. Several shook their heads, but Bert nodded and motioned for Stanley to continue. Even Polly looked like she wanted him to continue.
Each step felt like an eternity. One by one he made his way to her desk. With each step her smell grew in his nose. How could the kids in the front of the class be sitting so close to her? She smelled like a wet dog. Not just any wet dog, but one that had rolled in week-old dead fish that had died in a stagnant swamp. Stanley thought he would gag for sure.
Despite his brain telling him to turn around and go back to his desk, he stood before Mrs. Applebaum. From this close her gray skin looked as if it were going to slough off and fall to the floor. Several suspicious lumps bulged in spots and what looked like a mushroom grew out of her neck.
"Are you alright, Mrs. Applebaum?" Stanley asked.
A collective gasp rose from the room as the teacher turned her head to look at him. Her eyes couldn't possibly be focused on him as they had gone a milky white. A little bit of spittle dribbled down her chin and unless he was mistaken the mushroom on her shoulder twitched a little. She made some sound, but it wasn't anything Stanley could make out. More of a grunting groan or a groaning grunt.
"Mrs. Applebaum? Should I call the office or something?" Stanley struggled to stay standing next to her. He wanted to turn and run. He wanted to smash her head with a fire extinguisher. He wanted to throw up. None of those were an option until he knew what was wrong with her.
At least none of them were an option until she stood up and held her hands out. That's when the entire class took running as an option. Stanley, being furthest from the door, got stuck at the end of the crush of bodies trying to get out.
His backpack!
He couldn't leave school without his backpack. Sure he wouldn't have any history homework, but he did have other homework. He turned to run back to his desk and Mrs. Applebaum more stumbled than walked across the class room. With her going so slowly he'd have enough time to gather his things and...
William Schneider! He hadn't moved. He sat in his wheelchair looking at Mrs. Applebaum. Stanley snatched up his backpack and ran to the front of the classroom and pulled William backward. The sudden movement of his chair brought his attention to Stanley.
"What are you doing?"
"I'm getting you out of here. Let someone else deal with her."
"Fine, pull me out, but get my backpack first. It's right there on the floor."
Mrs. Applebaum had just made it around her desk. She moved so slowly that he'd have more than enough time to get the backpack and still get William out in time. The rest of the class was still trying to push their way out of the room at the same time. If he wasn't so scared, he'd laugh.
He fetched William's backpack and dropped it in his lap before spinning the chair around and heading for the door. The kids all poured out and ran screaming from the room and Stanley finally emerged with William. Thankfully Bert stood and was waiting for him just outside the door. He wasn't quite as happy to see Polly standing there as well.
"What are we going to do?" Polly asked, more annoyed than scared.
"I think we need to lock her in there somehow." Stanley said.
"And just how do you recommend we do that?" she snapped.
Bert moved in front of her. "How do we lock the door? We don't have a key."
"That's not entirely true."
All three looked at William.
"What? Being a good student has its perks. I have a set of keys."
"Hand them over. We'll lock her in the room." Stanley held out his hand waiting for William to hand over the keys.
He fished through his back pack and produced a single key.
"I thought you said 'keys'."
"This is the one for Mrs. Applebaum's classroom."
Stanley shoved the key in the lock and as he turned it, something slammed against the door. All four of them jumped back. It pounded on the door again. The key started to turn back.
"She's unlocking the door!" Polly yelled in Stanley's ear.
"No kidding." He reached for the key and started to fight to turn it back. At first it didn't give, but then locked all the way. As soon as he let go, it started to turn back again.
"She's still trying to unlock the door." Bert reached for the key and turned it back and held it.
"Hold on, I've got something here." William dug through his back pack and produced what looked like a lighter with two fluid-filled, glass containers.
"What's that?" Stanley asked.
"What does it look like? It's a mini blow torch. Now just hold the key."
"Wait a minute! Hold the key? You'll burn me." Bert let go of the key and again it started to turn.
"Do I really need to think of everything?" Again William dug into his backpack and produced a pen. "Hold it with this. When the pen starts to melt, the metal should be melting too and you won't get burned. Well, hurry up. It's almost open!"
Bert held the key in the locked position with the pen while William applied the mini blow torch to the lock. The pen melted and oozed over the key. Bert had let go and only the door knob jiggled. Once the jiggling stopped, something hit the door, and then the room fell silent.
"Wha
t happened to her?" Polly asked.
"I have no idea. She must be really sick or something." Bert said.
"She's not sick," William said.
"I think I know what's wrong with her, but I want to look it up to make sure. I just need to look at my phone."
"Look at your phone? That's not allowed during class. Why are you out of class and where did all those screaming children come from?"
Mr. Thompson, the principal, glared at the four students. Each took their turn mumbling and stuttering before the bell rang and they all dispersed. Stanley was glad he didn't actually get his phone out. The last thing he needed right now was to get into trouble. He and Bert started for the next class.
"We can't go to class," Stanley said and grabbed Bert's arm. "We need to figure out what's going on with Mrs. Applebaum."
"Isn't it obvious? She's lost her mind."
"She didn't lose her mind. She must be sick or something. Maybe we should get the school nurse to look in on her. Maybe she just needs a penicillin shot or something." Bert made a motion of giving Stanley a shot.
"Are you kidding me? She didn't look like she had an infection. There's something really wrong with her. Maybe we should just ditch our last class and head home and look this stuff up."
"My mom isn't going to like that. She's not going to like it at all."
"Well, my folks are still at work. Let's head over there. I need a snack to calm my nerves anyway."
Bert poked Stanley's stomach. "You don't need a snack, but I still can't believe you went up there to talk to her. That was so crazy."
"I know, right?"
Chapter 4
"This is great albondigas, Mrs. Dominguez."
"Please, call me Luz."
Stanley had always been afraid to ask either her or Bert what Luz was short for. Someday he would ask, but right now he was enjoying the hot meatball soup. They were supposed to have pozole, but Mrs. Dominguez promised that if he stayed around for lunch tomorrow, she'd make that for them.
"So you boys are going to the game tonight?"
That question brought a glare from Zita. She knew they were going and knew she wasn't invited. She had begged them to take her along, but it wasn't even their fault she couldn't come. It was Mrs. Dominguez who had told her she was too young to go to the game.
"That's right," Bert said between mouthfuls of soup.
"It should be a good game. Both teams are undefeated."
"Are any of your other friends going to be there?"
"It's just Stanley and I."
"Well, I'm glad he's a big boy to take care of my little hijo." Mrs. Dominguez reached over and pinched Bert's cheek.
"Mom! Not with my friend here."
"Oh, if I could reach him I'd pinch that chubby little cheek too."
"I still don't see why I can't go." Zita piped up.
She still hadn't eaten any of her soup. She looked up from it to glare at Bert, and then smile at Stanley. Stanley stuck his spoon in his bowl and began eating again. He always ate when he was nervous. Or excited. Or angry. Or sad. Or...
"Hija, I told you no. I'm not going to tell you again. If you're not going to eat your albondigas, give it to Stanley and go up to your room."
She slid her bowl in front of Stanley with a smile that made him uncomfortable. He looked down into his bowl and kept spooning food into his mouth until she finally left the table.
His phone chimed. It was a Facebook friend request from William Schnieder. He accepted and put the phone back in his pocket.
"So Stanley, how are your parents doing?"
"Just fine, Mrs. Dominguez. Um, Luz. My dad had to go out of town this weekend on a business trip and my mom has some reading circle tonight and some party tomorrow."
"That's nice, dear. It's nice to see them keeping so busy. I've got so many little ones running around it's all I can do to keep track of them. Go ahead and eat up. I've got some laundry to do. Let me know when the two of you are ready to go to the game."
Bert looked up from his bowl. "It starts at seven, but can you drop us off early?"
"Sure thing." Mrs. Dominguez got up from the table and went into the kitchen.
"Early? Why?"
"We need to head back over to the school and see if they let Mrs. Applebaum out of her room or found out what was wrong with her."
"I'm sure they did."
"How sure are you? I mean, Bill basically welded the door shut. He almost burned my hand off with that little torch thing. What if she dies in there? Everyone is going to blame us, you know."
"Not just us. Bill and Polly were there too."
"Maybe we should call them and have them meet us there so we can make sure nothing went wrong."
Stanley pushed his bowl away. He'd suddenly lost his appetite just thinking about how horrible she smelled. "I guess you're right. We should. Do you have Bill or Polly's number?"
Stanley's cell phone rang. He didn't recognize the number, so he hung up.
"Who was that?"
"I don't know."
A text message appeared. "It's William. Call me."
Stanley showed Bert his phone. "Look, it's William. What do you think he wants?"
"Duh, we were just talking about calling him. He probably wants to go and make sure nothing went wrong with Mrs. Applebaum either. Call him back."
Stanley dialed and the phone didn't even ring before William answered. "I'm at Polly's house. Get Bert. You need to meet us at the school."
"How'd you get my number?"
"You have it listed on Facebook. Not very smart. You should be better about protecting your private information."
"Well we're going to the game tonight."
Bert nudged Stanley. "Tell him we'll meet him at the school at six."
"I heard him. I'm glad Bert is there. Bring him along. Don't tell anyone that we're going to the school. We have business to take care of."
"What about the game?" Stanley asked.
"It's not until seven. We can get dropped off at the high school early, run back to the middle school, and still make it back in time for the game." Bert nodded his head the whole time he spoke.
William cleared his throat. "If there nothing for us to clean up, then yes. You'll make it in time for the game."
"Clean up? What are you talking about?"
"Mrs. Applebaum," William said firmly.
"I'm sure someone unlocked the door for her."
"Look, just meet Polly and me in front of her room at six sharp." William hung up.
Both boys looked at the clock on the wall over the television. It was already quarter after five. If they were to make it to the middle school by six then they needed to be at the high school at five-thirty and jog most of the way back to the middle school. Then they'd have to jog all the way back to the high school to watch the game.
"We're not really going to meet him at the school, are we? That's a long walk."
Bert looked to the kitchen, and then leaned in to whisper. "We're responsible if anything happens to her."
Stanley felt his face get hot and he thought he might break into a sweat. Sure they had locked a teacher in her room, but the other teachers weren't going to just leave her there, were they? Even though they were her last class of the day because of her schedule, surely someone would notice that she hadn't left.
She didn't look very good when they locked her in the class though. Maybe they should have called 911 or something.
"Do you think William knows what's wrong with her?" Stanley picked up his bowl and Zita's bowl and stood up.
Bert cleared his dishes and they went into the kitchen. Bert only shook his head.
"Boys, what time do you want me to drop you off?"
Again they both looked at the clock. Bert said, "Do you think you could drop us off now? There's supposed to be a pep rally and we didn't want to miss it. We need to get there really early if we're going to get a good seat."
"I guess that's alright. Let me just finish up with the dish
es and we'll go."
Chapter 5
Bert and Stanley were out of breath by the time they made it back to the middle school. Several times Stanley thought he was going to puke. He never should have had that second bowl of albondigas.
"You should be on track or the debate team." Stanley told Bert.
"Why do you say that?"
"Between how fast you pushed us to get here and how quickly you came up with lies to tell your mother, I have to say I'm impressed."
"Well, let's just meet up with William and Polly. Hopefully you were right and someone already let her out."
Stanley's phone rang. He looked at it. 6:01 and the number calling was William's.
"Hello."
"Where are you two?" Stanley could hear the echo from William talking and the voice in his ear.
"We're here. I can hear you. Why is it so dark?"
"It's always this dark when school isn't in session. It is the weekend, after all. What did you expect?"
"Well, you had a key to the classroom. I don't know. I just thought."
"You also thought Lincoln was the fifth president of the United States. Hurry up."
The line went dead and he could hear William talking. He must be talking to Polly. Once they rounded the corner of the science building that's exactly what they saw in the dim light; William in his wheelchair and Polly standing at his side all dressed in pink.
"What took you two so long and why are you all sweaty?" Polly asked when they finally got to the door.
"Well, you see. It's like this."
"We don't have time. I'm supposed to be at the football game. My parents will be there to pick me up once it's over and we need to address this situation and address it now."
"What situation? What are you talking about?"
"I did some research about Mrs. Applebaum's condition when I got home. The gray pallor of her skin. The smell of death. Even that strange mushroom on her neck."
Stanley was waiting for William to say something, but he didn't. "And?"
"She's a zombie."
Stanley looked at Bert and the two of them started to laugh. "Oh, that's a good one. You really had me going there."
My Teacher is a Zombie (Supernatural Learning Book 1) Page 2