Chapter 44

44 Rude Awakening

I woke up the next morning, feeling a thousand times better than I did before. Maybe it was because I wasn’t feeling a bit weird about the whole WAC stuff. It felt just as bright as yesterday, I think. I got downstairs, and saw my mom in a blue dress, with her hair up in a bun. She smiled at me, and she asked, “How are you feeling?”

“Fine as ever,” I said, grabbing the cereal standing on the counter.

“That’s nice,” she said silently, barely enough to process a word.

As I was eating she said something else, stopping me cold from taking another bite. “So how’s the chess club?” she asked.

I felt like laughing at that point, but that wouldn’t be the wisest decision. “Fine, I believe,” I said.

She nodded, and she went over to the cabinet, opening and hoarding spices between her arms and neck. I continued to follow her movements toward the pots.

Are all moms like this? If not, then I must have a unique one.

I finished my food, feeling a blob of digested oatmeal settle in my stomach. “Bye mom,” I announced, waving my hand as a gesture.

She did the same and I closed the door. I began to walk down the sidewalk, taking the longer path to the school.

.....

Y’all know what happened when I took the shortcut.

I saw something I wasn’t supposed to see and I ended up here as a spy mage. It’s an entire story.

I eventually made my way to the school and soon enough, I was viewing Greg just waving his hand like a four-year-old seeing his best friend.

Guess you can kind of say that’s what it is.

***

Time passed and now we were about to be in lunch now-which not to be rude-but it ain’t exactly the best time in this school. Kirk usually comes and bothers me, and I’d always have to hide to eat my emergency meals.

As I was putting things in my locker, Greg came up to me and asked, “So how’s everything going?” I shrugged, “Fine so far I guess. Just heard about the WAC contest.”

“Oh, the Wand Annual Contest,” he said. Shock splashed onto my face. “You guys have it too?” I asked.

“Yeah, every single spy mage agency has it, it’s a very fun test. I’ve won about five times or so,” Greg said.

Bro, I need advice from him.

“How?” I asked.

“You just win,” Greg said with a flippant chuckle.

I wasn’t exactly amused by his joke.

“You know what I mean,” I hissed and he nodded.

“Just try to be as secluded as possible, as well as observant,” he said, and he pointed at the floor.

“Observant?” I asked, and I looked down at the ground.

Greg nodded with emphasis and said, “You have to look for anything that seems out of place, and that could give away your position.”

“That’s pretty vague,” I said, and I turned around to walk away. But then he quickly shouted, “Wait, wait!”

I stopped and turned back to him, and he said, “Don’t forget to be quick. If someone sees you, you have to be gone before they can say anything.”n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

“Okay, I’ll keep that in mind,” I said, and I began to proceed my way towards the cafeteria.

As I began to do so, I heard a notification bell come from my phone. I reached it out of my pocket and I quickly scrolled to it, seeing it was Mr. Drails.

I looked at the text, and horror was all I could think in my head.

Suddenly a portal appeared under me, sucking me from the ground, and teleporting me inside his office. I was the first one there because it seemed as if Mr. Drails was waiting for the others.

I looked around, trying to see if they were coming anytime soon. Instantly, Malachi opened the door and soon enough my friends poured into the silent, and eerie room.

Mr. Drails leaned and had his hands crossed, as he began to speak with a sigh.

“Okay, remember the Armonk?” he asked. We all nodded, and he followed on as well. “Alright, so we have a reason to believe that the TSA stole it, replacing Nikki’s temporary one with the actual one.”

“What?” Malachi shrieked. “There’s no way that could happen.”

Confusion rose in the room, as every voice began to complain in a communion of wonderment.

“There’s no way,” Nikki said. “It would only be able to last for a certain amount of time, and that’s it!”

“Yes, we are aware of that,” Mr. Drails said. “But we analyzed the room and the box that it was in. Figures they froze it for a certain amount of time so that they use it trick us.”

“Figures out you have a weakness in your power,” Malachi said with a laugh. Nikki responded with a repelling expression.

“Not really,” I said. “If she can freeze something and keep it contained for a longer time, it could be very useful.”

“So all of a sudden you’re a scientist,” Malachi said, though I just rolled my eyes.

“Anyways,” Mr. Drails disturbed. “We need to find where it could be, and luckily we just have that answer.”

He opened a section in his desk, revealing a remote that activated a screen to slowly descend into position.

“You see when that explosion happened, there were two Armonk’s in that explosion. We sucked in the real one, Rocke was left with Nikki’s version. We made sure to put a tracker on the Armonk specifically, just for these situations.”

Suddenly a screen popped up of a map, and although I wasn’t sure what it was, I know it was a very big city or state perhaps.

“Now, from what I can predict, this person is in Russia.”

“Russia?” I asked, and I looked over to Nikki.

“That’s where it’s at,” Mr. Drails said, and it’s in an unmarked area. He pointed at a building that seemed to be a cafe and looked back at us. “You see, in a regular GPS this wouldn’t show, but because of our advanced satellite, we get to find unmarked areas.”

“So we’re going to travel to Russia?” Nikki asked.

“No, it would be too soon,” Mr. Drails said. “We need to gain intel on them, so while you guys are participating in the WAC contest, we’ll be searching to find who it is and which area they are.”

“Good to know,” Malachi said, and he nodded.

“You guys will be competing against the other teams of the WAC,” Mr. Drails said. “Might wanna start setting up your teams before Saturday.”

He then ported me back to the school cafeteria.

I quickly studied the place before I could find Greg who was sitting quite far away from everyone else at that same table.

I rushed over to Greg, who looked at me concernedly. “You okay bro?” he asked.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” I said, trying to catch my breath. He continued to stare at me with a concerned look. “So, you ain’t gonna eat?” he asked.

“No, I’m fine,” I assured. “Just had something come up real quick.”

“Is it with the whole-”

“Yeah, the whole thing,” I said. I don’t know what was going on with me, but my heart was hurting bad.

I eventually caught up with myself and was ready to tell him. “So you know the whole thing about the Armonk?” I asked, looking around the cafeteria to point out the cameras.

They were in each corner of the cafeteria except the one that was by the door.

“Yeah,” Greg nodded.

“It’s been stolen,” I told him, as his eyes widened in a rude awakening.