by Ariel Roma
WARNING
Look-out for the SnaggleTooth, and the Chop-Stick Lips!
4
A WEALTHY & IMPORTANT MOUSE
LENNY DE VILLAIN HAD just left the principal’s office after talking his way out of a notorious playground incident when he noticed a black streak glide past the school windows. He was a die-hard roving snoop. It never did take much to hook him on a mystery. He rubbernecked. Looping back to have a look, he punched one of the oversized front doors propping it open with his foot.
“Wow!” he lit up.
An elegant car, coasting on air was rolling to a stop only a few yards away. It looked like a runway-model of the auto world. A fresh whack-of-dazzle conked him in the head. What was it doing here he wondered, and with rocketing curiosity, who was inside? The fancy cars in Chicago had always enchanted him. Only important people got to ride around in these classy cars he reminded himself. How could one of these turn up in a sleepy town like this? he wondered.
Maxx Buckslinger’s driver ignored the sign that said cars were not permitted this far onto the school grounds. He drove the shining black Bentley right up to the main doors anyway. Inside, a young boy’s hand gripped the door handle. He was more than anxious for the car to stop. He didn’t want the limelight that he was used to riding under to follow him here. That meant losing his car and driver in a full-tilt rush.
“You don’t need to come in with me,” the boy’s voice was tense. “I can go in by myself,” he said firmly to the driver, knowing his mother gave strict orders otherwise.
“Now Maxx,” Charles shook his head, gently reasoning, “you know I’m supposed to go in with you,” he argued.
Maxx looked away, but insisted, “They know I’m coming. I’ll be fine. I won’t tell that you didn’t come in.”
Charles sighed. He knew there was no use in getting into an argument with the boy. He understood where he was coming from. There was nothing much to do anyway except make sure he got inside alright. He decided that he could do that watching from the car window.
“Well ok,” he unwillingly agreed. He was a smart kid and Charles knew he’d be fine. Still, he felt guilty about not following exact orders. He prided himself in providing excellent, dependable service to the family.
Maxx was nearly out of earshot when the front car window zipped all the way down. Charles called out to him asking if he had his puffer with him. Maxx turned back with a nod. “I’ll be back for you later then,” Charles yelled, cheering Maxx on with a wink. “Have a nice day,” he said. Cutting Maxx off from the world he knew best, his safe-place, the window slid up again smooth as glass. Charles watched, carefully looking through the shadow-like tinting until Maxx disappeared behind the heavy double doors.
From the very first moment, Lenny adored the luxurious car. When the back door suddenly opened for the tall dark haired boy to get out, he held his breath. In his eyes he was a movie-star, dressed to the nines in what you could tell at a glance were fine, expensive clothes. He was in awe at the sophisticated style the boy had, swinging the strap of a leather designer messenger school bag over his shoulder, leaning in to leave orders for the driver, effortlessly closing the door.
Lenny was thrilled that he was in the right place at the right time. His ear-to-ear smile was as wide as the door he swung open to welcome the boy inside. It would have been impressive that he offered his hand like a gentleman if it wasn’t so odd for a boy his age, and especially coming from him. He even surprised himself. If the other boy found it strange too, he hid it well. He smiled politely and accepted his hand with a shake.
Lenny was rarely caught by surprise or jabbed by a sudden air-head impulse. But maybe it was something else too. He was so used to switching gears that he hardly knew when he was doing it. Could it be that on impulse he moved into his usual game of cat-and-mouse without giving it a thought? A wealthy and important mouse? A sly and very hungry cat? These tactics came natural to him… or maybe supernaturally to him?
Even a brush with wealth and importance was good reason to announce the day as the happiest one ever. Suddenly Lenny had the manners of a socialite. He formally introduced himself, found out the rich boy’s name was Maxx, and offered to show him around the school. First stop was the office to announce his arrival to the school secretary, who by the way, was blown away by the new Lenny. The debonair Lenny. Who only minutes ago was standing in the exact same spot sparring with Principal Lemon like a trigger-happy gun-slinger. And now, Lenny’s eyes beamed like stars when the secretary asked him if he would take Maxx to his classroom and they learned that they were in the same one.
After a quick tour of the school, there would be a moment in the spotlight. A master of ceremonies kind of moment, when he introduced Maxx to the class. There wasn’t a second that he didn’t suck completely dry.
“There’s an empty seat over there for you,” Lenny pointed to a desk.
“It doesn’t already belong to someone?” Maxx asked.
With a twinkle eyed look, the kind that put a sparkle on his snaggle tooth, Lenny smiled big and just shook his head.
Charles stayed in the car just like Maxx wanted him to. He didn’t take his eyes off the boy until the big school doors opened wide and then boomed shut again swallowing him out of sight. That was only after he saw a freckled faced, titian-red haired boy open the door for Maxx and let him inside. Still, he didn’t leave. He just sat there and waited. Finally, he put the car into gear and it floated back to the main road, traveling to the Buckslinger estate on the edge of town.
Lucas finally reached the school yard. It was empty. The kids were already inside. He had just missed the bell. The metal green doors felt heavier than usual and clanged shut way louder than they needed to.
The smell inside the school was always the same. It could have been an aroma-cocktail of kids and the whiffery-bouquets they brought in with them, books, paper, and packed lunches. On the days when the photo-copy machine spit out a mountain of copies, the ink-potion perfume spritzed the hallways and classrooms. Whatever it was, it was the only place on earth that ever smelled this way and you could tell you were in a school with your eyes closed. This morning, the forever revolving outer doors kicked in wind-rushes of fresh air. They barged through the hallways interfering with the normal, weirdly- soothing smell.
Lucas’s steps echoed in the empty hall. His classroom door was straight ahead. He zipped off his wind-breaker, hung it on his hook, pulled off his rain boots and dropped them underneath. The short rain drizzle hadn’t made them worth wearing today but his mother had insisted, and now his socks, flopping like noodles were pulled halfway off. He didn’t notice.
Instead, his eyes watered at the possibility of conking-out right then and there. His whole focus was on the closed, airplane-hanger sized classroom door and the billboard-sized face in the window. And it wasn’t Miss Goodwin’s face. It was Lenny!
Lucas’s back iced-over and his legs turned to rubber. He didn’t want to… but he reached for the doorknob anyway. It was like grabbing a hot potato. Now he wished he had listened to his mother. He was late and getting later by the minute, and how was he going to get to his desk now?
Lenny made a beasty face through the glass and held the doorknob tight. There he was… armed and dangerous, as tricky as a fly trap, ready to torment him. Lucas squeezed the handle so hard his knuckles turned chalky-white. He twisted and tugged with all his might. His chicken-greased hand slipped off the knob again and again. Lenny just showed his snaggle tooth in a fake nasty smile. His snaggle tooth looked a lot like a fang. Whenever Lucas looked at him, there was no way around it, his eyes always seemed to get stuck on that tooth!
On days like this one, if you think things can’t get much worse, sometimes they do. He dreaded the sound. Heavy, hollow footsteps were hurrying. They stopped. He was caught!
A pudgy hand poking out of a yellow shirt sleeve reached past for the door handle. Lucas’s eyes grew two sizes by the time he looked up, then ping-ponged off the pair o
f eyes slamming into his.
Principal Lemon was looking down at him with his caterpillar eyebrows arched. Lucas was just ready to sputter something about Lenny locking him out of the classroom, but suddenly, Lenny was gone. His excuse disappeared like words on a brushed blackboard. He didn’t know what to say now, and he was really late.
Principal Lemon had a sour look on his face. He always looked the same. He was a pot-bellied, yellow-shirted man, with bushy eyebrows forever looking like two caterpillars that were ready to fight one another. His lips stretched together in a tight line, even when he talked.
The students at Target Middle School were always on edge whenever he was around. But they didn’t need to be. People are not always the way they seem.
Principal Lemon couldn’t help it that he looked stern. He actually had a very sunny nature. He was really a very nice man. In fact, he was the nicest, kindest man in all of Paradox County.
“Ahumm…” Lucas heard Principal Lemon clear his throat. It was his way of silently scolding him for being late.
Finally, with his lips like two chop-sticks clapping together, he started to talk. “Well Lucas since you’re here anyway, I guess you will do just fine.”
Just fine? I’ll do just fine? Lucas fought off the fascinating, almost hypnotic power of Principal Lemon’s chop-stick lips and still managed to think. He was on the edge… waiting to know if in the next moment he would be thrown into a full-blown panic.
“You will be the class monitor this morning,” Principal Lemon began.
And there it was… he didn’t hear another thing. The rest was dumbed-down to a slow-mo’ drone. He was in a fog and all he could see were humongous, gigantic chop-sticks, clapping… and clapping… and clapping.
Principal Chop-sticks… err… Lemon went on… as if everything was normal. “Miss Goodwin will not be coming in today,” he said matter-of-fact. “I have a supply teacher on her way but I’m afraid she will be a while.”
Ahgg! What could he say? Lucas stared up at Principal Lemon wishing hard that he could scream Nooooo! It was bad. His face turned a whiter shade of pale. And wouldn’t you know it? The classroom door couldn’t have opened any easier if it were triggered by an automatic sensor now… and it welcomed him into the room like an honored guest. So, with his lead-pole legs, he hobbled in.
Principal Lemon made his announcement, instructed the students to read or play games quietly at their desks, and to be on their best behaviour until the supply teacher arrived. After that he left.
Lucas’s gut tilt-a-whirled, screaming loud and clear that things were about to unravel fast. He shot his friend Sloane a chicken-hearted glance across the room, hoping like heck she’d catch it. She did.
Sloane Kurridge was the kind of girl that got along just as well with the boys as she did with the girls. But really, Sloane liked hangin-out with boys’ best. That worked for Lucas. He thought she was the coolest of cool. She didn’t have anything to prove to him though, they had been good friends since the first grade.
Lately he was starting to change his mind about girls. They weren’t nearly as annoying as he once thought they were. As for Sloane, she didn’t seem like a girl anyway, she was just Sloane.
People were always looking at Sloane. Though Lucas missed it, others were charmed by her bubbly personality and lured to take a second look at the would-be glamour girl wearing the face of modest, natural innocence. She was tanned and fit. Curled, fanned lashes highlighted her dramatic, confident eyes… the kind that said, if you mess with me, you’ll lose. When her sleek chestnut hair divided and circled her neck, it reminded Lucas of a horses mane.
He wouldn’t admit it, but he felt safer whenever she was around. Maybe it was because she could always beat him at arm wrestling. Maybe it was something else. He wasn’t sure. He just knew something about her made most of the mean kids back down. He knew her well enough to know that when the veins in her neck stood out, look out!
Sloane met his look with a shrug and her usual, jump-to-the rescue act.
“Hey everyone, let’s play some games from the new games cupboard,” she called out with a happy lilt in her voice.
Miss Goodwin was trying to avoid classroom drama and fooling around when she was away. Her suggestion to the kids seemed like a good idea at the time. Board games from home could be brought in to share with the rest of the class. The idea was a hit. In a snap, the games cupboard was bulging. She hadn’t even had a chance to look them over yet.
The noise level in the room went from a buzz to a dull roar in no time flat. A couple of the boys were already at the back of the room rifling through the shelves, sorting and shuffling and pyramid-stacking games.
“Hey, what’s this?” Jason asked.
“Uh… let’s look at it,” replied Sergio.
“Squawk! Squawk!” There he was again. With his wings whirling, Radger hovered at the window in a helicopter-like maneuver. His eyes were tuned-in. Again and again he zoomed off, only to come back again for another sortie. This morning’s mission was important. He didn’t want to miss a thing.
“Yesss! There it is!” Radger shrieked. He celebrated the victory with a hasty break to furiously preen his licorice black feathers. “Squawk!” He was back on duty.
Jason looked up, “Hey, look at that big raven in the window!” he exclaimed. “What’s he squawkin’ about?”
The game was captivating. Sergio couldn’t tear himself away from the box. He wanted to figure out how to play.
“This game looks cool!” His excitement called Jason back.
“What is it?” Jason wondered out loud, reading the box lid too. “It says it’s a game that talks to you,” he said. “You can ask it questions and it will answer you,” he added.
“Cool! Let’s see if it works. Who brought this in anyway?” Sergio was curious.
The boys caught Olivia’s attention. The two at the back of the room, wearing low-slung jeans, were slumped over a desk. They were curiously studying the game her mom bought for her at a garage sale.
She shyly wandered over. “That’s my game,” she told them.
Jason looked back for a second, “It looks cool,” he said turning away, “how do you play it?” he asked without looking back again.
Olivia blushed, but it didn’t matter, no one noticed. It was ok. She was used to not getting noticed. Sometimes she wondered if she was invisible. Sometimes she wished she was.
“I don’t know, I haven’t played it yet,” she answered faintly. “My mom bought it for me,” she offered, leaving out the part about the garage sale. Everything she owned was bought at some kind of second hand sale. It was just her mom and her, and money was always tight.
Sergio was busy reading the instructions. “It says we can ask it questions and it will tell us stuff.” He was wound-up.
“Hey Frankie, turn off the lights,” he yelled.
“What for,” Frankie yelled back.
“We’re gonna play a game. C’mon everybody let’s play this game!” Sergio was fired-up.
His energy sparked curiosity in the others. They drifted closer, circling around the unpacked board game, open, across one of the desks. The off-flip of the light switch was a signal to start. They were getting into it. Questions were shooting from every direction… what was the game about, how do you play it?
Jason leaned over the board, Sergio set things into place. The face of the board was simple with a string of letters and numbers running across it.
“Here,” Jason said, taking the glass pointer from Sergio’s hand, “You put that right in the middle like this.” He set the game piece in the centre of the board.
“What’s a see-ance?” Sergio was puzzled. He was back to reading the box. “I wonder what that means,” he said.
Sloane’s antennae’s suddenly went up. Uh oh, that doesn’t sound good, she said to herself.
Everyone was fidgety. The game was like an adventure ticket to somewhere, someplace far away fr
om Target. They were all anxious, waiting to ride.
“Squawk!” Radger hung open-mouthed on the ledge of the glassy window strip. His eyes were sparkling, darting black beads. He chirped so hard that his beak opened up wide showing his waggly tongue. He was rocking. The tip of his bill clunked the glass as his claws scratched the grooves of the wood sill for balance.
He was as wide-eyed excited as the students. And why shouldn’t he be? It wasn’t that it never happened… but it was rare for such youth, innocence, anticipation and consent to run in a head-on collision course.
Another wind gust lifted and fluttered a couple of Radger’s feathers, tipping him, but he didn’t budge from his place. The tactical-unit scheme was working according to plan. His squadron seldom got to see this kind of action. He was proud of his part in it. He wouldn’t miss it for anything. This was big.
A flicker set his camera-eyes rolling, zooming in on the scene. Instantly, microelectronic data zipped effortlessly through a sophisticated, invisible cosmic sensor. No doubt, this would trigger a response. He was so anxious to get started he didn’t bother to wait for his cohorts to arrive.
Sergio was explaining the game. “You put the glass pointer in the middle, ask a question, and it will spell or point to the answer,” he said.
With that, babbling and chatter broke out in the room until finally, Lenny’s fantasy about living the high-life was trumped by curiosity. He sauntered up to the board.
“Hey! I’ve played this before. We have this game. It’s cool!” he announced. “You can get spirits to talk to you.” He took a quick look and began to explain. “But you need to play it in the dark… it has to be dark,” he insisted, shaking his head as if it wasn’t going to work. “You have to be really quiet too,” he added. “Sometimes it takes a long time to get an answer. I don’t think it’s dark enough in here,” he said.
Wait a minute… Lenny has this game at home? Now there’s a clue! Anyone? Anyone?
“Spirits…,” a girl named Marley repeated with her nose turning like a corkscrew. “What’s that sup-posed to mean?” she whispered.
“Let’s play it anyway,” a boy named Tommy said. He shrugged, “We can at least try it, maybe it’ll work!”
“What can you ask?” one of the girls wanted to know.
“Anything, I think,” Jason answered. “I don’t know,” he added.
“I wish it was darker in here,” Lenny stated.
And who could have guessed? It was as if some-one was listening… could it be? Suddenly, a gigantic, gloomy, cape-like shadow draped the safe, pristine classroom window. The room went very, very dim. Surprise. The cavalry had arrived!