First Strikes Disaster

by Tatiyana Perkins

  Everyone began to write, and the rest of the class was quiet. Kris supplied them with pencils and paper.

  The second class was an animal care class with a teacher named Ms. Cassandra, where they got to pet a giraffe's head through a window, and study the habits of little bunnies. She told them that by the end of the week they would all get spiders to take home, which Rose and Lena seemed to be the only girls happy about.

  Finally, there was math, where they were on geometry. It was taught by a pair of best friends who frequently went into each other's rooms to get materials, told them to draw shapes in the air, and switched roles when one knew a subject better than the other.

  At one they followed Kris, thinking he’d lead them to another room, but instead he lead them outside. "That's it?" Lena asked.

  "Till six, and lunch is optional. It's good, so I usually go, but I'm not hungry today. Don't stress the late night classes, as we don't get much homework from them.” Rose frowned. A school where you can go home and hang out and then come back, now this was something she had never heard of before.

  “Can we stay here?” Lena asked, as Kana walked up to them.

  "The library is open to anyone, but most of the time they want students out by four or five," Kris answered.

  "What do you usually do?” asked Rose.

  "Work... well, if I have a job, but I don't at the moment since I'm still looking.” It was hard to imagine Kris with a job, as his family and house were so rich.

  They all seemed to be looking AT Rose.​Does this mean it's my time to decide​? She knew some places they could go, but she didn't know if they were good ideas, for they probably would not like them. She was happy for the distraction as the boy named Evan ran up, shaking sand out his hair, and rang, "What are WE doing today, buddies?" He clasped Kris and Kana on their shoulders, making them laugh and nearly fall to the ground.

  “Nothing that I can think of,” Kris said.

  “Come on. I know you have one of your bright ideas.”

  Kris stooped low and said, "Well, if you insist; do you guys want to play destroy the fort?"

  Lena looked at her, and Rose knew she was thinking about what Ana implied, about making new friends. "Let's do it.”

  Together the five found a big open quiet place in the woods. Rose lowered the temperature, and Lena used her air powers to make clouds; together they made it snow. Then Kristopher coated their area with water, and Rose froze it just enough so that more snow formed along with spots of ice.

  Spot the fort was a game they had all played as children. Two forts per player were built out of snow, and the person who spotted the most and destroyed them won the game. Adults tended to hate the game, as kids always seemed to get hurt. Lena assigned each person their corner, surprisingly giving the best place, where there were trees and many bushes to hide things, to Rose, and the worst area, the middle, to herself. She told them they each had a few minutes to look their spots over and then each of them, at Lena's count, would have one minute to build. Rose considered forming a group but decided to go against it. When Lena finally said "go," Rose took off as fast as she could to the far left and built a fort behind a tree, making sure to freeze it so it was harder to destroy. Then she made one on top of a tree way in the back, which technically wasn't against the rules.

  "Ready, guys?” Lena yelled. "Destroy the fort starts now.”

  Lena took off into the sky, flying above everyone else.

  "No fair," Kana yelled. Rose took off her shoes and immediately started skating, happy she placed down the ice.

  Evan tunneled under ground like you might see a groundhog do. Kris and Kana seemed to have been the only ones to form a team. Kris took off into the air to send instructions to Kana from above.

  Protect or destroy? Rose chose destroy. In the game you could either decide to put most of your efforts into staying by your fort, and holding it down, or focus your attention on going to get those of your opponents. She took off directly into Evan's direction. He was underground, and she could sense exactly where he was. They seemed to race against each other to get to the other's fort. She was winning, but then, at the last moment, she changed direction and headed straight for Kana's. It worked perfectly, as Kris did not have enough time to see her as she crashed into it - not really her plan, but good enough. Kana put up a diamond shield to block her out from the second fort; however, it didn't hold as Rose broke through it. They both began throwing every attack they could think of at each other, and in the end Rose pulled back, giggling. When the fighting stopped, she took her chance to look around.

  Hers had been destroyed, Kana's were gone, Lena's were nowhere to be found, and Kris fought Lena and Evan at the same time to protect his. Rose took off back to Evan's forts, going so fast that she was nearly flying.

  Suddenly a huge lion jumped from behind a thick tree and made her stop in her tracks. Kana snatched her back as fast as she could while the lion snarled and glared. Rose screamed, and that seemed to make it want her more. When it stepped into the light, she saw there was no way it was a regular lion, as it was all black and its eyes were bulging red. For a second, everyone seemed to panic. Lena drew her bow and arrow while Evan armed himself with two huge rocks. The tension ended when Ms. Cassandra ran onto the field. "Sorry, sorry," she yelled. "HARVEY WILSON THE THIRD, I TOLD YOU NOT TO COME OUT HERE. That was bad of you. VERY BAD. Do you want a timeout?” and they all laughed. For the rest of the game, however, Rose felt a little uneasy. At six, after their seventh game, they headed back to the school.

  The teacher for the fourth class was a somewhat crazy older guy who demanded they tell everything they knew about Alexander the Great from the door. He proceeded to use opal figures to show a war in the middle of class. The next teacher gave them all a fright by walking in dressed up in zombie make-up; it was art. The last class was English where he had them pick a season to write a poem about.

  When school was done, Rose, Lena, Kris, Kana, and, surprisingly, Bash walked out laughing together. Rose stopped dead outside, as she was surprised to see Anastasia waiting for her, looking calm. She waved her over.

  "I told you to go to day school," she said once Rose was in heading distance. Rose panicked. "I know."

  "Do you like night school too?"

  "I love it.”

  "You can stay, but please tell me next time," Ana warned. Did she know about the attack? Clearly she didn't.

  Rose turned to look for Lena and saw a boy with long red hair that made her heart stop.

  Chapter 5☆

  Lena and Rosalie both got up as early as possible and, after leaving a note for the others, they set out to school. The idea was clear: they were going to find Noah and question him. Rose thought back almost thousands of times, thinking that she had been wrong, but there was no way it could not have been him. She knew that hair and that face anywhere. Also the way he had looked at her, all surprised and wide eyed. He knew who she was and might even had wanted to speak to her. In fact, if anyone would want to help her, it would be him. He seemed to be the only one, aside from them, that could truly determine Artisan's innocence, and with that came a list of enemies. Rose put Daniel's watch inside her sock, just in case something happened and they had to flee.

  This time when Lena caught the wind magic, it was easier, but it still left them very dazed - it was as if the wind knew what they were up to and was purposefully trying to stop them. Upon arriving there, Rose was slightly shocked, for she had never seen a school so early in the morning before. Kids fought each other in small groups with the elements while others showed off cool tricks, including the ability to change plant colors, recreate beautiful paintings with leaves, and build forts made of electricity. Evan and Bash were having an argument on whether it was cool that Evan could burst things into piles of sand.

  It was so amazing to see that she almost forgot what they were there for, but Lena grunted and brought her back to her senses. "He must be inside," she stated, and Rose nodded. Together they walk
ed into the school and almost instantly split up. Lena decided that he must be in an older year, so she walked up the stairs. Rose, who was hungry, made sure to try the lunchroom first, where they served breakfast.​Nothing​. She picked up one of the muffins and gulped it down. After she was done she headed towards the maze of tunnels where the younger years tended to lurk. She went through each individual maze, peering into classrooms, but no one seemed to be back there except teachers setting up for classes.

  At seven forty-five she started to get worried.​Was I wrong? Will we not find him? Does he even go to school? ​Lena was nowhere in sight, so she went to Mr. Clark's room at seven-fifty to wait at the door; however a voice stopped her.

  "He's not in there," it said.

  "Thank you." Rose turned and jumped, for she met eyes with an animal. A small gazelle with beautiful green eyes that seemed to look around a lot.​Had he been the one

  talking?

  "Has he been there at all?” she asked.

  “No, he's been gone all morning," he said and shook his little bits of fur. "Are you from Ms. Cassandra's room?" she asked, still a little jumpy.

  "No, I don't know who that is."

  "A teacher."

  The gazelle stayed quiet. Rose noticed he was buffing up his chest, trying to make

  himself look stronger than he was.

  "Do you know exactly where Mr. Clark is?" she asked timidly.

  "Well, don't you think he doesn't want anyone bothering him?" He criticized, with an

  injured air.

  "Oh, sorry," she said, wondering if she had been rude.

  She thought she should go now, but the Gazelle hurried, "Unless it's important, then

  he wouldn't mind. Is it important?"

  "Well," she started, “I wanted to ask him about something he said yesterday.” With this, the gazelle began to walk back and forth excitedly. "Yes. yes. you really

  need to know, indeed, but of course he said do not disturb.”

  "I really don't need to go if he-"

  "Oh, come on, I'LL take you."

  “No, I-”

  “I'll do it.”

  "Are you sure?"

  "Yes, one little disturbance won't make him go mad." Rose wondered if the little

  gazelle did this often, for he was more than slightly happy for the company. “Where are we going?” she asked, trying to avoid him getting snappy again. “One of the rooms at the top,” he answered gruffly with another shake. “Like the second floor?”

  “No, the very top ” he corrected.

  Rose stared blankly. “Don't worry if you've never been, for you'll be riding me there,” he reassured. “There is no way you'll get lost.”

  “Oh, really? Should I just climb on?”

  "Behind that pillow on the window seat is a saddle."

  Rose spotted a window seat she hadn't noticed the day before and searched behind all the pillows. She finally found and picked up the saddle heavily; it looked like it was entirely too big for the tiny gazelle before her. It must have been old, for there were tears in many places. "I don't need-"

  He nudged her hand. "You have to put it on or else we can't go."

  She decided to listen and adjusted it to his back, hoping she did it right. It was so big that it started to slip off; the idea made her skeptical.

  “How do you talk?” she blurted, as she needed to know.

  The gazelle huffed. “I learned to mimic sounds. You see my owner made me smarter than he should have, and so I understand a lot. Once I understood, I learned. He doesn't like me telling people though.” The last part was said with the casualty of a child who just ate something he wasn’t supposed to.

  “Can all animals learn to mimic sounds?” she asked in a roundabout way.

  “No, but I'm a part of a special breed that was here long before there were dinosaurs. We're even older than humans.”

  “So you're not a monster?”

  “Heavens no.”

  She began to get excited. “Can you read?”

  “No, though I tried once. All the letters jumbled up in my head, and it was really confusing.”

  “Would you want to learn how to read if there was a way?”

  “If I can find someone patient enough, but many people claim it's a 'human' thing to do. It's like how many don't like when I wear clothes.”

  A long pause occurred while the gazelle stretched and Rose thought. It was truly strange to see, as even in their land, only the monsters were known to talk. “Do you work specifically for the school?” she asked after a minute.

  “When I can.”

  “Any specific teacher?"

  “All of them.” the idea seemed to make him happy. “Anything they need, I'm their man.”

  “And they pay you for it?”

  “In food, of course.”

  Rose made mental note on this. She just was wondering what day she would get Lena and introduce them when the gazelle impatiently huffed, "Well, get on, will you or are you going to question me to death?"

  She smiled and climbed on top. She could not find it in herself to be mad at the gazelle, for you could tell he was just naturally very blunt.

  "Okay then. We'll have to see what room he went to."

  "I thought you knew where-" but Rose didn't have time to comment. He took off and ran so fast that Rose could hardly imagine where they were going. In her mind she knew the school couldn't possibly be this big. They went through at least three dozen rooms before she lost count, and they were going faster than any animal she'd ever seen. The dizziness she felt nearly caused her to fall off. He slowed down at certain points, which she knew was for her benefit. When they reappeared, they appeared in a room so suddenly that Rose needed to catch her breath, and she stumbled so hard she almost fell off. In that moment of silence, that was her catching her breath, she caught a glimpse of everything. Mr. Clark lay on a mahogany chair with his eyes closed, in deep thought. On the floor close to him was an emotion that was bright yellow and cheerful and happy just the sight of it made her feel perfectly content. She thought, at first, that they were the only two in the room, but there was someone else. Behind them, on a big sofa, was a red haired boy reading a story.

  She took in a gasp that made them look up. Mr. Clark absorbed the emotion immediately with a look of anger on his face, causing her to grow scared. Behind him the boy closed the book.

  "Hi, Rose," her teacher said.

  "Good morning.”

  "Lorenzo, I see you've been busy," he added, somewhat irritated.

  "Yes, I-"

  "Come with me."

  Lorenzo, the gazelle, bowed his head at her shamefully, and together they walked through a little door. Rose started to go too, wondering if he would get into trouble because of her.

  "There's muffins if you want any," said a voice after her pause, so she surveyed the room. Sure enough, there was a plate of blueberry muffins on the table.

  "No thanks, but I need to talk to you." She tried to walk over, but the window opened with a snap, and cold air poured in furiously.

  "I forgot he controls that," said the boy, and they both went to close the window at once. She thought she could be of help, but he handled it by himself. While being close to him she got a better look; he was her age, only maybe slightly younger. He had a very reserved face, but it broke into a smile whenever someone spoke to him. "I'm Noah, and, well, thank you."

  "For?" she inquired.

  "Saving me."

  "Yeah, that. You're welcome."

  He frowned and sat down on the chair. "Are you going to turn me in now?"

  She looked up, almost offended, and crossed her arms. "Do you think I would do that?"

  "Would it offend you if I say yes?"

  “Yes.”

  "Yes," admitted Noah, “sorry.”

  "But why? May I ask?"

  He laughed. "Well, I have a good one. The daughter of a high elected official and the future head guard of a country walk into a room."

&nb
sp; She grinned despite herself. "It's not like we walked in to do good things, and I did make them let you go.”

  “You did.”

  Noah began gathering his things, and Rose hurried, "I have a question?"

  "Shoot.”

  "You were there to talk to your dad or break him out, whichever it was. Do you know something?"

  He placed his things down and seemed to look for the right words, "Well, I didn't know any more than you, or else I would have told them when they took him away. He hasn't been back since, by the way - I didn't even know they let him go from the prison but he's innocent."

  Things did not look too good for them; if Artisan was running, he'd automatically be convicted, no matter the reason. "Well, maybe it would help if you could tell me about him."

  "Well-"

  The door opened, and they could not finish their conversation, for Lorenzo and Mr. Clark bounded back into the room. Lorenzo sang so she assumed things went well. Mr. Clark sighed, "So you two have met?"

  "In a sense" offered Rose after Noah said nothing.

  "Ah, good, it's seven-fifty-seven. You're with me, Rose, and you too, Noah."

  He is?​But she saw him at the end of the day.​Did he skip yesterday's class because of me? ​Something about what he said made her think so. Noah made no sign to indicate if he did. He went and grabbed the book and a jacket from the back of the room.

  "Lorenzo, we'll go the other way. Take her back, please."

  Lorenzo walked to where she stood and kneeled. With Mr Clark's approval, Rose climbed on, slightly unsure. The door shot open as if on cue and they bounded forward without a backward glance. In silence Lorenzo took them back to the front of the room. "Sorry," she said, as she slid off.

  "It's my fault I tell you. They'll never let me do anything again."

  Mr. Barker walked by humming in a positively wonderful mood. He stopped short just in front of them. "Lorri, there you are. I'm leaving, can you watch my room? I'm dreadfully busy, so only come get me if it's important.”