“Will you two stop acting like babies?” Fletcher shouted to us from the soccer field. “It’s not like it’ll happen twice within twenty-four hours with nearly the same set of students!”
“Yeah, we know!” Aleck responded as we stood by the gym’s side entrance. “We… We’re just… enjoying the shade!”
Fletcher, understandably, didn’t buy that claim. “Whatever you’re scared of, hurry up and get over it! These agility hurdles aren’t gonna set themselves up!”
I griped, “Oh, why not? It’s the twenty-first century- why doesn’t equipment like that exist?”
As we grabbed the rods that bore the appearance of monkey bars that were separated and three-dimensional, Aleck pointed out, “If they did exist, we probably wouldn’t have the budget for it!”
“Oh, yeah!” I acknowledged the accuracy of his statement. As we began setting the agility hurdles up, we kept glancing at the boys’ team practicing passes close by. Eventually, I asked Fletcher, “How does everything look out there?”
“Totally normal!” Fletcher huffed. Jimmy put a bouquet of dandelions in his mouth and motioned for his teammate to aim there, so Fletcher blew his whistle. “Spit those out! What did I say about eating crap off the ground?”
Jimmy argued, “I wasn’t gonna eat them! Well, not on purpose anyway!”
Fletcher gritted his teeth, and then he relayed to us, “See! That’s totally normal!”
“That’s true! ‘Kay, you win! We’ve gotta stop!” I acquiesced to his argument. “It’ll be nice to think about something else for a change! Okay, no more talk about spooky stuff!”
“Hey, Connor!” Casper approached the field. “I wanna talk to you about some spooky stuff!”
I let out a frustrated breath, and then I grumbled, “So much for that idea!” When he joined our group, I relented, “Alright, Casper! What is it?”
Casper narrated, “So, I was on my search for the source of that dark magic, and my divination rod led me to the English department. It suddenly jerked when I came to Room One-Three-Nine, so I opened the door. Do you know what I found in there?”
“Imelda grading papers?” I presumed.
“Yes!” Casper confirmed. “There weren’t any signs of the fairy folks anywhere, but I knew they must be around there somewhere! When I sought Imelda’s permission to search the area, she told me no! Can you believe that?”
I responded, “Uh, yeah!”
Casper seemed affronted by my lackadaisical attitude regarding his revelation. “Really? I thought we were on the same page with this matter! How are you not outraged?”
“What do you want me to do?” I shot back. “Scour the space without her permission? Consent is important, Casper! A woman has a right to say no!”
“Kaleva never tells me no!” Casper folded his arms and pouted.
Aleck clicked his tongue in complete skepticism of his remark. “I don’t believe that for a second!”
Casper looked miffed, so, to end this potentially long spat, I humored him, “Fine! When we get the chance, we’ll check out her room.” Aleck gazed at me quizzically, so I gestured in a manner that indicated that I wasn’t serious. I attempted to finish this conversation by telling him, “We can’t do anything today, so you can go home. That concludes the spooky business for today!”
“Mister Fenmore!” Corvina ran up to me with a frantic frown. She appeared to be in a panic, but she oddly kept a tight grip on the sunglasses she was wearing. “I was just in the girls’ restroom, and… I think something’s wrong!”
“Oh, gosh! That sounds like something you should bring up to a female teacher! Coach Huppert is in the wrestling loft running cheer practice…” I had enough knowledge of medical lore that I probably could’ve advised her with this issue, but it made me uncomfortable to do so! I mean, there was a reason I dropped my pre-med major!
Corvina insisted, “No! I need to show you now!”
We all shielded our eyes, but when we dared to have a peek, we realized she wasn’t referring to any feminine problems! Our relief in that was short-lived though- Corvina had kaleidoscope eyes! Our skin paled, and all I could determine to do was to put her sunglasses back on her head. We found the latest victim (well, technically, she found us!), and as much as we anticipated this event, we still didn’t have a plan for what to do with the afflicted, so, for a lengthy stretch, we were at a loss of what to do!
“Hey, Coach Jackson! What’s going on?” Jimmy craned his neck in an attempt to catch a glimpse of our activity.
“Nothing! Everyone go run laps!” Fletcher directed them with his voice at a slightly higher octave than he typically had it.
Aleck decreed, “I cannot go on another trip with them! Let’s get her away from here!”
I suggested, “The gym is empty. Come on!” As we steered her away from the field the boys were now running around, I requested to Casper, “Can you watch soccer practice real quick?” We dashed into the gym prior to getting an answer.
“What’s happening?” Corvina frantically pressed us.
“Nothing!” I espied her disbelieving expression, so I altered my assertion slightly, “Not yet anyways” I turned to Aleck and Fletcher, and I ruefully commented, “Out of all the medication I saw developed during my stint at Novak Neander, I don’t recall seeing anything that’d cure this!”
Casper perched himself in the doorway of the gymnasium and posed to us, “What is this?”
I grimaced at his presence, and since I was aggravated, I accidentally blurted out my honest opinion, “Ugh! You are truly useless!”
“Ouch!” Casper didn’t seem to relish that insult, but he didn’t seem deterred by it either. “Nice try, but I’m not leaving ‘til I understand what’s going on! Tell me, Corvina, did you encounter any individuals with webbed hands and blue skin?”
“What?” Corvina stared at him in confusion.
Aleck recommended, “Don’t ask!” He shifted his attention to us and theorized, “Maybe we can get the cure if we track down the person who fed her the-.”
I cut him off, “Shh! Don’t give him any information about the… you-know-whats!” I lowered my volume and entreated them, “Let’s minimize the amount of people who know about the other realms! Him especially! If he learned about this, he’ll always get involved with our plans, and we’ll never get rid of him!”
“I disclosed my findings to you, so I demand you give me the same courtesy!” Casper badgered us. “We’re part of a collective that combats the occult, so it doesn’t benefit any of us to cause rifts with one another! When I played football, my fellow players and I never-!”
“Will you shut up for a minute?” Fletcher rubbed his temples in exasperation. “I can’t conjure up a solution with all your yapping!”
Corvina clutched her stomach and moaned, “I don’t feel so good…”
This behavior struck me with a bolt of inspiration. “Real fast while you still have your memory, what did you eat and drink today?”
I eagerly awaited her response, and I avidly anticipated the notion of finally obtaining a clue to the culprit responsible for carrying out Damon’s demented misdeeds for him! Unfortunately, my strategy only perplexed Corvina further. “Huh? Why am I gonna lose my memory?”
“It’s a part of the spell, undoubtedly,” Casper put in.
“No! It’s not a spell! It’s… Argh!” I emitted a noise of sheer annoyance, but I fully intended to continue with my interrogation… until…
Two cheerleaders emerged from the entryway to the loft, and one of them exclaimed, “So, yeah! Now, my abuelo wants to have a ‘chat’ with my date before we leave for prom! Can you believe that, Donna?” The pair of them spotted us, and they justifiably ogled at us in bewilderment. Donna’s friend inquired, “What’s going on?”
“Detention! She was tardy to all of our classes!” I fibbed. They appeared mollified by that explanation, and when I sensed Casper readying himself to deny that statement, I pinched him to shut him up. I was glad they were appeased, but the girls’ arrival caused me to wonder if this would become a trend, so I catechized, “Is cheer practice over already?”
“Oh, no! We gotta use the toilet, and someone clogged the drains up there!” Donna shared with us.
Fletcher recollected, “That’d probably be Stevenson! He carbo-loads before wrestling matches, so when he goes, he goes! Ooh, I probably shouldn’t have mentioned his name…”
The two cheerleaders were clearly at a loss for words from that exchange, so I sagaciously communicated to them, “In general, if you don’t know what to say, you should just walk away!”
“I believe that, Maria!” Donna heeded my advice and headed towards the bathroom as though she hadn’t witnessed our oddity whatsoever. “My parents wanted to escort me to the prom!” They nearly exited the arena, which would’ve garnered us more time to unearth a remedy for this catastrophe, but then Donna scoffed at her folks’ intention, “I’m, like, what is this? Colonial times?”
“Colonial times! Colonial times! Colonial times!” Corvina chanted.
As the swirling vortex manifested above us, Fletcher vexedly uttered, “Gosh darnit! This is not what I wanted to do with my afternoon!”
Casper differed, “It isn’t? Why not? We’re off to an adventure!”
I got the impression that if the vortex hadn’t swallowed us up, Fletcher would’ve toed the line of letting himself smack Casper! Not that I would’ve blamed him, and not that the interdimensional travel provided us any real benefit, but at least in this instance, perhaps it prevented one bad scenario from unfolding!
We gently landed on some vines, and a tri-corner hat fell over my vision prior to me getting to scope out our new surroundings. Once I readjusted myself, I saw that we were all donning eighteenth-century garb in the middle of a pumpkin farm. Corvina gawked at her outfit in disgust. “I can’t wear something so utterly conventional like this!”
“Trust me, in a minute, your wardrobe will be the least of your worries!” Aleck knowledgeably addressed her.
My ancestors materialized by us, and Natalia proudly showed us her footwear. “Look! The Big Guy gave me new shoes! Thank goodness! For a while, I was worried He’d make me go barefoot!”
My brows furrowed at the image she raised. “Why wouldn’t He give you another pair?” Natalia’s visage shifted in a slightly guilty fashion, but preceding her ability to explain herself…
Damon sat on a giant pumpkin as if he was lounging on a comfortable recliner, and he taunted her, “Yes, Natalia! Why wouldn’t he want to do you a favor like that?”
Natalia glared at him, but Kalmali was the first to react, “What? Like you’re so righteous! Didn’t you steal property belonging to Heaven?”
“Maybe…!” Damon snickered.
“Why did you do that?” I probed. “I mean, other than trying to get petty revenge against our town! You have such a grudge against Rosemary King High School- what did that place ever do to you?”
I’m not sure why I expected Damon to actually reply to that! It did make his expression sour though, so I deemed my effort as worth it. Damon seethed, “We’re not here to discuss my past! Only your future… in the past! Are you ready to hear your quest?”
Maria anxiously articulated, “I don’t even understand what this is all about! Are we in some sort of dream?”
“Some sort, yeah,” Osra stated.
“Your goal for this mission: persuade General Carnotes to go into battle pantless!” Damon dramatically announced.
Kendra threw her hands up in puzzlement. “You can’t be serious!”
Damon laughed, “He was the American Rebels’ most trusted military leader aside from George Washington, and not only will this humiliate him, but it’ll cause his men to lose a hundred percent of their confidence in his competency! Therefore, the British will become the rightful victors of this war!”
“You’re a Loyalist?” I questioned. “I don’t see why a nihilist like you would have a stake in this conflict!”
“If the colonists don’t win, then Terra Belle will cease to exist!” Damon leered. “Ha! And you probably all thought I lost my mind!”
Eamon verbalized, “We still do! Why expose the poor chap’s undergarments like that?”
Damon shrugged. “Well, I was going to have you kill him, but I assumed you do-gooders would’ve refused to do that!” We all recognized the accuracy of that accusation, and since that objection got resolved, he wrapped up our interaction, “Have fun!”
“Yes, we shall!” Casper enthusiastically avowed. Damon gave him a peculiar stare as he disappeared.
“Gosh, I hope this General Carnotes has nice legs!” Donna gushed as she and Maria giggled.
Aleck warned them, “Don’t get too excited! Before we judge whether or not this historical figure has a cute butt, we gotta survive the monsters first!”
The girls grew terrified at that concept, and Corvina implored us, “What kind of monsters are we gonna face?”
We heard some rustling in the sunflowers on the crops’ perimeter, and Jasper proclaimed, “We’re about to find out!”
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