by Gracie Dix
Jessica began floating over the edge. As soon as she was off the floor, she started to sweat. A small piece of hail hit her arm.
“Force Field! Right!” she remembered.
She quickly put out her Force Field. Suddenly, Ondrea screamed and fell off the edge of the bus. Jessica began to fall and she, too, screamed. Oliver Flew down, ignoring the hail pounding his back. He reached Jessica and grabbed her arm. Jessica felt Oliver free fall for a split second and then start Flying again.
“Hang on tight!” he yelled.
She had an idea. Jessica lifted her hand and put up her Force Field again to protect her and Oliver from the hail. Oliver zipped down again as fast as he could go, while Jessica literally flew behind him like a flag.
8.2
Ondrea screamed as she fell out of the bus.
“No! Jess!” she thought as she started free falling. She had fallen through the air for far too long when she felt someone grab her arm. Then the hail stopped. Ondrea looked up. The hail hadn’t stopped, but Jessica’s Force Field had stopped the hail from hitting her.
8.3
Oliver was holding both of the girls, but he didn’t know what to do. He Flew up, but the two girls weighed him down so much. Oliver strained to go up, but he lagged.
8.4
When Ondrea fell and screamed, everyone on the bus also screamed. Teddy heard Jessica start screaming, too. He went to the window and saw Oliver dive down faster than he had ever seen a boy Fly. Darla bit her lip. Will tensed up, and his Ice Powers accidentally froze the seat. When Oliver didn’t come back up for five minutes, Teddy began to panic.
“Can anyone in here Fly?” Teddy asked.
Darla screamed. “SNOWBALL?” she yelled. The sweet puppy had just Morphed into a human girl.
“Hi! My name is not important right now because my masters need me,” Snowball exclaimed. The girl jumped out of the bus and instantly Morphed into a medium-sized dragon. Teddy, Darla, Will, and every other person on the bus gasped.
8.5
Snowball flew at the speed of a dragon down to three little specks that were falling ever so slightly. Oliver’s vision was blurry and starting to blacken. The light was dimming as he tried not to faint.
“You can do it Oliver!” Jessica screamed. A dragon flew underneath them just as Oliver dropped.
8.6
Snowball felt a thump on his back and heard two girls scream. Ondrea grabbed on to one of the scales, and so did Jessica. Oliver began to slide off, so Ondrea used her Strength to hold Oliver on the dragon’s back.
The dragon flew high above the bus and placed all of them on the floating school yard. Next, the dragon found a large patch of grass and settled down for a nap.
Ondrea tried to process everything that had happened, but she just couldn’t. Then she remembered. Oliver! She crawled to where Oliver was placed and shook him. His eyes twitched and then they opened slowly. Jessica walked over to Ondrea.
“I’m really dizzy!” she exclaimed. “How is Oliver?”
At the sound of his name he spoke. “How did we get here?”
8.7
From inside the school bus, Teddy saw the dragon fly up and over the bus. They got to school ten minutes later. When the bus parked, Darla, Teddy, and Will exited the bus and Teddy took out his phone. He texted Ondrea, asking her where they were. When he got a text back, they went to the location. Two minutes later, they saw Ondrea and Jessica hovering over Oliver, and helping him sit up.
“What happened to you, Oliver?” Darla asked when they reached them.
“I don’t know. I guess trying to Fly two people up a few hundred feet with hail pounding on my back kind of wore me out,” Oliver replied wearily. “Teddy, where’s Snowball?” Teddy made a weird face and pointed to the sleeping dragon.
“THAT thing is OUR dog?” Jessica gasped.
“That thing is your dragon,” Will corrected.
“Snowball! Come here, boy!” Oliver called. Snowball’s eyes opened and he bounded straight toward Oliver. Oliver ducked for cover.
“Thanks for saving us, Snowball!” Ondrea exclaimed. Right then, Snowball transformed into a human girl.
“WHAT!” Ondrea, Oliver, and Jessica gasped.
“Hi! Now that my masters are safe, I can introduce myself. My name is Rachel. You two have been very gracious owners, and I would like to thank you for turning around whenever I go potty outside,” she said almost robotically.
“Where is your personality?” Darla asked.
“Darla, that’s rude!” Ondrea scolded.
“No, no. It’s all right. I’ll just keep that in mind next time I Morph into a dangerous animal or creature,” Rachel whispered under her breath.
“Hey, guys! Cut it out, we need to get to school.” Oliver said, standing up.
“Rachel, can you be our pet for the day?” Jessica questioned hopefully.
“Yeah, sure. Remember to feed and water me,” she answered, Morphing back into her dog self, a Maltipoo.
NINE
In Which There Are Two Sticky Situations
By around second period, Oliver felt normal again. By recess, he was really happy. He picked up Snowball and went to find Jessica and the gang. Once he found them, he took Snowball to the corner where almost no one goes and set the dog on the ground. Snowball instantly turned back into a human girl.
“Wait, what are you?” Teddy asked. “A girl or a boy?”
“Well, as you can clearly see, right now I’m a human girl. But when I’m in dog form, I’m male,” she explained. “But more importantly, I need to pee! I only remember going to the bathroom at the toilet at the house—and that was just to lick the water out of the bowl!”
“Couldn’t you just use your water bowl?” Teddy asked.
“To use the bathroom in? Of course not!” she responded.
“No, I meant to drink!” he corrected.
“To drink what?” she questioned, confused.
“You have the attention span and intelligence of a hyper puppy!” Will hissed.
“Will!” Ondrea growled. “That is so rude!”
“I need to pee!” Rachel reminded them.
“Right,” Oliver began, “Jess, can you take her to the bathroom?”
“Sure, let’s go!” Jessica exclaimed, taking Rachel’s hand. They both headed into the bathroom.
“Do you know how to use the toilet?” she wondered.
“No,” Rachel sighed.
“WHAT? How do you NOT know how to use a toilet? I mean, it’s a freakin’ toilet!” Jessica exclaimed. “Just pull down your pants and underwear, then sit on the toilet seat. I am NOT helping you with the rest!”
“Thank you!” Rachel said. As soon as Rachel entered the stall, Jessica went outside and sat by the bathroom door. She waited for ten minutes.
“No! I forgot to tell her how to flush!” she remembered. She poked her head through the door and saw Rachel standing directly in front of the door with her pants down.
“I used it. What do I do now?” Rachel asked.
“Wait, are your pants still down?” Jessica questioned nervously.
“Yep, just like you said,” Rachel confirmed.
“Thank goodness your shirt is a bit too long. Go back in the stall and you will see white sheets of thin paper. Take a lot of those and wipe your . . . whatever you used. Just wipe your behind and your . . . front-hind,” Jessica sighed.
As Rachel went in, Jessica remembered something.
“Don’t forget to pull up your pants!” she called to Rachel. Jessica went back to wait by the door as someone else entered the bathroom. Exactly twelve seconds later, she heard barking and then a small scream. Oh, no!
“She didn’t lock the stall!” the girl whined when she came out.
“I’m so sorry!” Jessica called as she ran in. “Rachel!” she exclaimed, as she saw her standing in the middle of the bathroom.
“A girl opened my door, so I barked at her,” Rachel laughed. “She ran with her tail betwee
n her legs!”
“Did you wash your hands?” Jessica asked.
“What?”
Jessica took her back and led her to the sink. She turned on the water. Rachel put her face next to the faucet and began to lap up the water as it came out. “No! Put your hands under the water! Get them as wet as possible, and then take a little bit of soap, spread it all over your hands, wash all the soap off, and dry your hands,” Jessica explained. Rachel did exactly as she was told. Jessica was impressed.
“Good, now let’s go!” Jessica said.
Suddenly, the fire alarm went off. “Of course,” Jessica thought to herself, “this again?”
She led Rachel to the front of the school where everyone else was exiting. She was happy to see that all of her friends made it out. She walked over to them.
“What took you so long?” Oliver asked Jessica when they got there.
“Rachel had some trouble. I have never seen anyone so incapable of simply going to the bathroom,” Jessica sighed.
Will spoke his mind. “You’d think since this school is so good at repairing itself, it would make everything fireproof.”
It turned out the door caught on fire, and the fire had spread to the school. This situation had turned into the perfect time for a Vork mission. After the fire was put out, Mrs. Macintosh and Mrs. Thomas pulled them together to discuss the mission.
“The Vork facility is in the ground underneath the New York sewers,” Mrs. Macintosh told them, cringing in disgust.
“Wait, UNDER the sewers?” Darla asked.
“Yes,” Mrs. Thomas answered.
“What are we trying to accomplish by doing this exactly?” Ondrea questioned.
“You’re trying to eliminate the villains,” Mrs. Macintosh said. It was a poor explanation.
TEN
In Which Pet-Sitting Becomes Difficult
Everyone was sitting in Mrs. Thomas’s flying car, heading to New York. “This is going to be awesome!” Will yelled, pumping his fists in the air.
“I have to agree this will be fun. BUT we have to be careful, guys!” Oliver pointed out.
“He’s not wrong, you know,” Teddy confirmed.
”Where’s Snowball?” Oliver asked Jessica.
“Here,” Jessica responded, pointing to the floor of the car.
Snowball hopped up onto the red leather seat beside Ondrea and turned back into human form. Ondrea smiled deviously and rolled the window down.
“Yes!” Rachel yelled.
She got on her knees and stuck her head out the window, but not before she stuck out her tongue. Rachel began making strange noises and flailing slightly. Oliver reached over and pulled her back in the car. Her mouth was dry and hanging open. Will looked at her and used quick thinking. He conjured up small ice cubes and held them in his hand for a few seconds. As soon as water formed around the now melting ice, he shoved the ice cubes into her mouth. Rachel felt water touch her dry tongue and she began to roll it around her mouth. She was finally able to close her mouth again.
“What happened? I always stick my head out the window, but that’s never happened before!” Rachel whined.
“Have you ever stuck your head out of a car moving at over 300 miles per hour?” Darla questioned, already knowing the answer. Rachel stopped to think.
“It was a rhetorical question!” Darla stated.
“Oh,” Rachel said.
“How much longer?” Oliver asked Mrs. Thomas.
“Just thirty more minutes, kids!” Mrs. Thomas responded.
Oliver put his arm around his twin sister, not even realizing he had done it, and felt her lean into him. He looked at her and smiled as she put her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes. Five minutes later, she was sound asleep. Teddy glanced over at her.
“How does she sleep in cars? I can’t even sleep in bed!” he remarked.
“I don’t know, but this ride is so smooth that it’s as if we aren’t even moving,” Oliver said.
“I think it’s you,” Ondrea commented, turning to face them.
“What do you mean?” Oliver questioned, not knowing whether to be offended or not. “Are you saying I’m boring?”
“No, stupid,” she teased. “Jess loves you and feels safe when she’s with you.”
“Just like me and you, Ondrea,” Teddy added. She smiled at him and gave him a kiss on the cheek.
“Thanks.” She sighed happily as she turned to talk to Rachel.
Ondrea was still trying to explain the concept of wind and flight to Rachel when they arrived at the hotel in New York. “I give up!” she yelled, throwing her arms in the air. Her phone flew out of her hand and hit the door. Jessica woke up, startled.
“Vork!” Jessica screamed when she woke up.
“What the . . . ” Oliver began, jumping back.
“What about Vork?” Jessica shouted. “They are planning something!”
“How do you know about that?” Mrs. Thomas questioned.
“I had a dream. But how do you know about that?” Jessica shot back.
“I don’t. I was just curious about how you could possibly know,” Mrs. Thomas said.
“I remember you said there was a place called Vork. But we are in New York. Why are we stopping here when we are supposed to be going to Vork?” Oliver inquired.
“I was going to tell you this later, but I guess there’s no time like the present. This facility is one of many bases that the enemy owns,” she explained.
“You never told us that!” Jessica exclaimed loudly.
“I thought your dream would have told you that!” Mrs. Thomas said sarcastically.
“Okay, this is no time to turn on each other!” Oliver shouted.
“This changes everything! If our enemies have bases everywhere, then what the crud are they planning to achieve? World domination?” Ondrea ranted, glaring at Mrs. Thomas.
“I understand your anger, but we can’t talk about it here,” Mrs. Thomas sighed. “Let’s head on up to the rooms.”
After they checked into their rooms, picked up lunch, and unpacked their bags, they arranged who was going to be staying where.
“I think I should stay with Jess!” Oliver called quickly.
“Yes, that is a smart idea,” Mrs. Thomas remarked. “It shall be done then.”
“I call rooming with Ondrea!” Teddy yelled.
“No!” Mrs. Thomas said definitively.
“What? Why not?” Teddy whinnied childishly.
“Dude, she’s your girlfriend. Jess is my sister.” Oliver answered.
“He’s right, you know,” Ondrea stated.
“Oh, so you don’t want me to be in the same room with you?” Teddy asked defensively.
“No! It’s not that. It’s just . . . ”
“Okay, everyone, I will decide!” Oliver yelled, stepping in between Ondrea and Teddy.
“Ondrea with Darla, Teddy with Will, me and Jess, and Mrs. Thomas with Rachel,” Oliver demanded, pointing to everyone as he said their names.
Surprisingly, no one argued. Oliver thought back to when Mrs. Thomas appointed him to be leader. He’d wanted to distribute equal leadership; he hadn’t wanted to be a bossy guy. But, for some reason, whenever he said something, the group would do it.
Everyone went back to their rooms, repacked, moved to their newly assigned rooms, and then unpacked again. “We should have done the room assignments first,” Oliver said to himself, making a mental note for the next time.
“Hey, Ondrea, are you okay? You know, from the . . . fight, I guess, with Teddy?” Darla asked while sitting on the twin bed across from Ondrea.
“Yeah it wasn’t a big fight, so I’ll be fine,” Ondrea stated.
“All right,” Darla sighed.
10.2
“So, what do you do for fun?” Mrs. Thomas asked Rachel awkwardly.
Rachel was walking around the room in human form sniffing everything. “I love, love, love to nap and eat and drink water from the toilet and take walks and lick
table scraps and have someone pet me . . .”
“Okay! Thanks. That’s enough,” Mrs. Thomas interrupted. “I get that you are an animal, but why such strange hobbies?”
“I’ve been a dog my whole life! Except for the time I was a dragon and now, a human!” Rachel explained.
“You’re not answering the question,” Mrs. Thomas sighed, losing her patience.
Suddenly, Rachel started barking at a bird that landed on the window sill. Mrs. Thomas couldn’t take it anymore. With much effort, she dragged Rachel away from the window and took her out in the hall. From there, she grabbed her arm and took her to Oliver and Jess’s room. She knocked. “Children! I can’t put up with Jessica’s animal anymore. You need to take her!” she shouted through the door.
A man came out of the room across the hall and looked at Rachel, then at Mrs. Thomas. “Did you call her an animal?” the man questioned, an eyebrow raised.
“Yes, but it’s her pet name,” Mrs. Thomas said, rustling her hair playfully. Rachel growled. “See! An animal,” she laughed.
“All right,” the man said.
“Oliver!” she called again as the man went back into his room.
“Sorry, I was using the bathroom! What’s up?” he questioned, looking at Rachel.
“Take her! She’s nuts,” Mrs. Thomas hissed.
“Ummmm . . . yeah, okay.” Oliver hesitated, opening the door slowly. Rachel skipped inside.
ELEVEN
In Which This Could Be A Good Place For A Fire Trap
The next day, the Vork mission began. Mrs. Thomas briefed the group and then they headed off.
“Wait, you don’t know what system you’re going into, do you?” Will asked.
“Do you?” Oliver countered. “Because I don’t see you lowering yourself into a New York City sewer system.”
“Someone needs to go with you just in case,” Darla said quickly.
“Do you want to come?” Oliver offered.
“Heck, yes!” she exclaimed. “Finally, some action I can add to my otherwise boring life!”
A few minutes later, Darla and Oliver were crawling through a disgusting, smelly, and merciless underground tunnel.
