Down We Go
“Hold on!” shouted TorrentBoy as they smashed past the roof of a nearby building. Gabby held on as tight as she could, but just about fell off as they crashed through a tree. When they came out the other side, she had a pair of sparrows in her hair.
“Hold on!” TorrentBoy screamed.
“I already am holding on!” Gabby yelled back.
“Oh! Well … good!”
Just then, the SpeedJet dropped a little faster, and before she knew it, Gabby was flying through the air herself, screaming all the way, landing in a pile of garbage at the side of a building!
She sat up and took a banana peel off her face. The two sparrows flew away. Probably because of the smell.
“That hurt,” she groaned.
She stood up, looked around, but didn't see any sign of TorrentBoy or the SpeedJet. The street was deserted in a way she’d never seen before, even when she went to school at 5AM by mistake that one time. Her left ankle was hurting … she rubbed it carefully, wincing.
“Ow …” she sighed, “better not have sprained it… I’ve got track and field at four…”
She dusted the trash off herself, took one last look around, and started limping off, back towards school. As she walked, she called out:
“Hello! Anybody! Where is everybody?”
Just as she rounded the corner to the school, she saw a big flock of ducks in the sky, flying north as fast as they could. She scratched her head at that.
“Where are they going in such a hurry?”
She jumped over the short fence around the school field, but her ankle didn't like the way she did it, and she tumbled down the hill to the edge of the baseball diamond. She lay there in the dust for a second, staring at the sky.
“Well,” she said to herself, “at least this day couldn't get any worse…”
Just then, Wesley popped his head over hers, smirking at her.
“That's worse,” she sighed.
“There you are!” Wesley said, pulling her up to her feet, “You took forever to get back here, slowpoke!”
“Excuse me?” she boomed, pushing him away, “I thought you got blown up in that … that explosion or whatever! How'd you get back here so fast?”
He shrugged, scratched the back of his head.
“I guess I'm a really fast runner!”
“I've seen you run,” she said, “you're about as fast as my grandmother. When she's asleep.”
“Hey!”
“Anyway, it doesn't matter. We've got to get back inside before somebody sees us out here. My mom's going to kill me if she finds out I skipped class again.”
Wesley’s mouth dropped open.
“You?” he said, “You skip class? Little Ms. Smarty-pants skips class? Since when?”
Gabby sighed, limped away from him.
“Last month there was a special advanced science class at the university that I really wanted to attend, but it was during school hours.”
“You skipped school for more school?”
“I like learning,” she grumbled.
Wesley wasn't listening anymore. He was laughing too hard. He actually laughed so hard he walked right into a fence post, but even that didn't stop him cackling.
“Will you be quiet?” Gabby hissed, “If you're not careful, we're going to get caught by —”
“The principal!” gasped Wesley, and froze in his tracks. There, just a little ahead of them, was Mr Sturgess, the principal. His funny little moustache was twitching side to side like it did when he was really angry, and his hands were fists at his sides as he walked.
“Stay calm,” Wesley said, “I'll take care of this.”
Mr Sturgess walked right up to them, and stopped, not looking down at them, or even in their direction. He must be really mad.
“Mr Sturgess,” Wesley began, “Gabby and I were just out collecting worms for our project on … on … poetry.”
“Poetry?” hissed Gabby.
“You try,” Wesley hissed back.
“What Wesley means, sir,” Gabby said smoothly, “is that it's a project about the poetical nature of worms, and their relation to the animal kingdom. And also how poets like Shakespeare viewed worms. With poetry.”
“Nice job,” Wesley observed.
“Better than you,” Gabby shot back.
Wesley cleared his throat, did his best casual smile.
“So, sir,” he said, “there's really no reason to get mad at us right now, because we're doing school work. Right, Gabby?”
“Golly, yes!” Gabby said with fake enthusiasm.
“So what do you say, sir?” Wesley said, smiling happily at Mr Sturgess. “Can we go back to class now?”
The principal stopped staring at the sky for a change, and his face got really confused, and he looked down at the two of them, put his arms in the air over his head, and then, with the biggest voice either of them had ever heard, yelled:
“STOP, DROP AND ROLL!”
And then he dropped onto his side and started rolling away from them!
They watched him go until he bumped into the basketball pole and got stuck.
“That's not what I was expecting,” remarked Wesley.
“I think you've made him insane,” said Gabby, “too many silly stories, and you've turned his brain to mush. They're probably going to take him to a padded room somewhere and feed him apple sauce up his nostrils.”
Wesley thought for a moment.
“That actually sounds like fun,” he said.
“You're nuts,” Gabby sighed, and limped into the school.
“Hey, Rezzit,” said Wesley to the watch under his breath, “are you seeing this too?”
“I am,” said Rezzit, “I'm trying to figure out what's going on. But right now, I think I agree with your girlfriend. You made the principal insane.”
“I keep telling you, she's not my —”
“Oh be quiet and keep up with her, will ya?”
Wesley jogged a bit and caught the door behind Gabby. Inside the school, there were no sounds. It wasn't just that there were no kids in the halls: none of the teachers in any of the classes seemed to be teaching. Nobody was sneezing. Nobody was coughing. Nobody was yawning and pretending they weren't. It was so quiet it was like somebody had sucked all the sound out of the school.
Wesley and Gabby walked carefully to their class, knocked twice on the door, and after a short pause, went inside.
Mrs Goldfield was standing facing the blackboard, not moving at all. The rest of the students were sitting with their heads down, probably reading something very important. Nobody said a word.
Wesley and Gabby slid into their seats carefully, kept looking around. It was so quiet, when Wesley’s tummy gurgled, it echoed off the walls like it was the loudest thing in the history of the world.
Gabby was nervous because she didn't know what everyone else was reading, and she thought she might get in trouble for being slow. She leaned over to Marisa, the girl next to her, and poked her shoulder gently.
“Hey…” she whispered as quietly as she could, “what are we doing?”
Marisa didn't look up. She didn't even flinch.
Wesley tried the same thing to Rob, sitting across from him.
“Hey Rob,” he whispered, “What's going on?”
Rob didn't move either. Wesley whacked him on the head with his ruler, but still nothing.
“We should ask Mrs Goldfield,” Gabby whispered to Wesley.
“Not a chance,” he replied, “we should just keep quiet.”
“Come on,” she said, “just ask. I can't stand the quiet.”
Wesley sighed, raised his hand halfway, and cleared his throat.
“Um…” he began, “Mrs Goldfield? Gabby and I were wondering … um … what are we doing right now?”
Mrs Goldfield shook all of a sudden, stood up a bit straighter, but still kept looking at the blackboard.
“Doooooooing?” she asked, her voice long and very angry.
“Uh never mind!” Wesley said, lowering his head and glowering at Gabby.
“DOING?” Mrs Goldfield said, and turned around suddenly, her mouth watering and her eyes wide open like she had just eaten fifteen extra-spicy jalapeños. She was not herself. It was like she had become some kind of monster!
“Today we're eating brains!” she cackled.
Wesley and Gabby exchanged uncertain looks.
“All of us?” Wesley asked carefully, “Because I'm thinking of becoming a vegetarian actually.”
“CLASS!” Mrs Goldfield yelled at the top of her lungs, “Eat their brains!”
Suddenly, every student in the class sat up at the same time. Their mouths were twisted and watering, their eyes were wide open, and they looked like monsters too. And they were all looking straight at Wesley and Gabby!
“BRAINS!” they all screamed at the same time.
“You and your dumb ideas,” Wesley sighed to Gabby as they backed away.