by Ian Schrauth
“Selena, you’ll be paired up with Blake Bailey,” Huxvey announced, “Alice, you’ll be paired up with Megan Adelie.”
What?! She is paired up with my best friend?! Huxvey, you’re now on my hate list!
* * *
After everyone was in the foyer, the announcement of the rules began.
“OK, you all have a piece of paper in your pockets that will say your first clue. The places are only in the Tumspuv Districts, so don’t go past the borderlines of the sea. There will be consequences if you do,” Huxvey explained, “BEGIN!”[I46]
I pulled a piece of paper out of my pocket and began to read it.
“Your first clue will be in the city of Gothsigh, there, you will try to find something pus musy huj vuhji fuxu puhus pussub. Good luck,” It said.
“Blake, follow me and we’ll go to the city!” I demanded.
We hopped on our brooms and lifted off.[I47]
“Selena, do you know what to do?” he asked, “I was confused.”
“Pus musy huj vuhji fuxu puhus pussub. means ‘on any of the buildings’ in Sathinish, so we need to go to Gothsigh and find something like a clue on one of the buildings!” I explained as we reached the city.
We flew past each building until we found Mr. Snookie grading papers.
He looked at us, and we land on the pad.
“Selena! Blake! Congratulations! Here is our next clue,” He congratulated and gave us a paper.
“Love corn? Well, your next clue is with corn!” It said.
I decided to use a little magic, so I decided to read Mr. Snookie’s mind.
Failed.
Blake thought about it for a moment, and then said, “I know! Follow me!” And we got on our brooms and flew off.
On the way to a different place, Blake explained his idea to me.
“OK, the next clue must be in the cornfield somewhere,” He explained, “But which one? They’re many of them.”
I then heard a voice in my head saying “Field two.”
“How about field two?” I asked.
“Why that one?” he asked.
“I just have a feeling,” I answered, drove down to field two, and crash on the ground hard.
“Selena! You OK?” Blake asked and landed safely on the ground.
Lucky.
Once He helped me up, my clothes were torn and my hair was a complete mess. I looked like one of those old witches you find online for your book report.
“Selena, you OK?” Blake asked again.
I then saw a barn! I ran over to the barn, opened it, and saw Mr. Sauda.
“Congratulations Selena and Blake! Here is your next clue!”
I took the clue, Blake ran up to me, and we read it.
“I think we need to do our laundry at five,” It said.
“What on Ear—Saturn does that mean?” Blake asked.
“We need to go to the laundry mat and find our next clue!” I said, “C’mon!”
Blake and I ran out of the barn, hopped on our brooms, and headed over to The Laundry Service House in the city where we found nothing but people.
“You’re wrong!” Blake said.
“Wait…. at five… station five!” I announced, headed to station five, and pulled out a box full of clues.
I took one out, and read it.
“This is your fourth and final clue! Look for Lucy,” It said.
“Who’s Lucy?” Blake asked.
I got out a pen and translated Lucy to Sathinish.
Huxvey!
“We need to find Huxvey!” I said.
“Wait, before you go running off, why her?” Blake asked.
“Well, it said to find Lucy, and Huxvey is Lucy in Sathinish. Now let’s go!”
I put the box back in the station, and we ran into Alice and Megan by the door!
“What does it mean at five?!” Alice yelled, “TELL ME!”
“Bye!” I said and walked out of the laundry mat. Blake and I flew back to Tumspuv Genimis, and we ran into Huxvey's office!
“Good Lord! You startled me!” She said, “What do ‘ya need?”
“We figured out the last clue!” Blake said, out of breath, “Let me rest for a while.”
“You’re first place!” Huxvey congratulated and gave us long skinny boxes.
I open mine and it was just a stick with a rubber end on it.
“A stick?” I asked.
“No, your wand!” Huxvey said, “You have the rest of the day off, or you can study some spells with a wand in the library.
While Blake headed back to the dorm, I studied some spells in the library.
19
The week had passed and there were now finals. The worst things in the world.
Out of all the studying we did, in class and by ourselves over the past weeks, it’s ‘gonna sure pay off.
When I woke up, I had a note on my dresser saying we will have our finals in the dining room. Hope we get to eat!
I got dressed and headed down to the dining room where I found my spot with a name tag, and my finals. I sat down in my seat and just waited for everyone to come.
While I was waiting, I took a peek at my finals and they looked as hard as something you would see on an eighth-grade exam. Not too hard, not too easy, just my style.
OK, This is your finals for the semester. When you’re done, bring up your finals and put them in the sorter to give to the teachers. You may begin,” Huxvey announced. Short, sweet, and straight to the point.
I took the first final and started to answer the easy questions. This final was easy because it was English I Foundations. I flew through like an eagle soaring for its prey. I then did my dreaming final and wrote through that like a train traveling on its tracks. The other finals were the same way and soon enough, I was one of the first ten to finish.
I felt proud.
I got my butt up from the seat and traveled all the way to the front to turn in my finals to be graded. I put them in the trays for the correct teachers. There were about sixty-five trays, but they made it easy for us because they put a machine on the top of them all, so it sorts them out in the correct order by a barcode. Easy…
When I put the English I foundations final in, it rejected it and spit it out.
“Selena, I’ll take your English Final,” Huxvey said. “It has to go in a special pile for the special finals.”
That word hurt me. The SPECIAL finals. Made me feel worthless and wanted to just drop out.
I handed the final to her and told me to wait. “What for?”
“Because the grader will grade your paper and give you your schedule,” She said and put the paper in the special pile.
I heard the machine transfer my finals form the pile, over to the grader to grade. When it was done grading, it printed out two papers. One had the grades of my finals, and the other had my schedule.
Student: Selena Dixon
Sex: Female
Year: Freshmen
ID: 5749057494
Classes in order
1) World History foundations
2) Chemistry concepts
3) English II foundations
4) Study hall
5) Algebra I AB
6) SEE HUXVEY
7) SEE HUXVEY
8) SEE HUXVEY
9) Physics
Now, what was “SEE HUXVEY.” for? Did they mess up? Did they do this on purpose?
“What is this for?” I asked and pointed to the SEE HUXVEY text.
She took the schedule from my hands and looked it over. “Let me see in the system,” She said, scanned the barcode of my schedule on the scanner, and looked at it. “You do not have the requirements for Creative writing, The Novel, and Short stories. They took them out so I can fill you in with a class.[I48]
“What do I do?” I asked.
“I know that I’m going to put English I concepts in for one class, and here is a list of the classes you can take. Gardening, broom flying, introductions to Creative writing, singi
ng, woodworking, introduction to business marketing, and personal finance. Personal finance is required next year, but I will make it so if you want to, you can take it this year.”
I had to think about that for a moment. I did need to learn personal finance, and I didn’t need half of those classes. I already had English down, and I was thinking about broom flying.
“Broom flying, and introduction to creative writing,” I said.
“Sure, let me put them in…here you go. It’s printing,” She said and handed me the printed paper.
When I looked at it, Introduction to Creative writing was missing. Something was fishy here.
“Creative wiring is missing,” I said and looked at the schedule again. “AND English I concepts.”
Huxvey snatched the schedule and retyped the numbers in to submit to the servers.
It printed and it was still missing.
“Follow me to my office,” Huxvey said and got up. “Mr. Snookie, take my place till I return.”
I followed her to her office, and she typed it up on her computer to submit.
Once she printed it, it was STILL blank!
“What’s going on here?” She asked and called IT. “Hey, I need your help. Come down here.”
As soon as she hung up, she tried printing it out again.
No luck.
* * *
It took fifteen minutes for IT to arrive, and when they did, Huxvey was PISSED! “Where were you?”
“We had to talk to a lot of students playing games after their finals in their dorms.”
“Wait, they’re supposed to wait there and get their schedule.”
“Oh, they had them. Mr. Snookie just sent them back to their dorms.”
“I’ll have a talk to him,” She said and clicked on her computer mouse. “Listen, I am trying to put in some classes for Selena here, and it is printing out as if it is not there. Look.”
She handed Hailey the schedule, and Hailey scanned the barcode on her phone. “It says on my phone the class was deleted.
“Deleted?”
“Well, the class was removed from her schedule as you printed it off, therefore, making her not able to take the class and her not bring on the class roster,” Hailey said.
“IS there any way you can fix this?” Huxvey asked.
“Let me see your computer.”
Huxvey got up from her computer, and Hailey took her place.
“Now, I have found this file on there with something in it containing a code. The code that has Selena’s ID on it and that says whatever class she signs up for, it will be approved or declined by computer GQUTD2,” Hailey replied.
“Do me a favor.”
“Sure.”
“Tell me what on Saturn that even means!”
“A file is put on your computer that sends the data to another computer of what Selena signs up for. That computer will decide if she will take the classes, or if she will be switched,” Huxvey replied.
“What computer is that?”
“It seems like it is in room 129,” Hailey replied.
“That’s Mr. Xjungatha’s room!” I said in surprise.
Huxvey looked at me in surprise. “Your English I foundations teacher?” She asked.
“Yes.”
“We better go down there and see him,” Huxvey said and got up from her desk. “C’mon.”
We walked down to room 129 and walked in. “Mr. Xjungtha, we need to speak to you now!”
He got up from his desk and walked over. “What can I do for you?”
“You made a code in the system to change Selena’s grades.”
He looked surprised. “I don’t know what you’re talking about!”
“Don’t play dumb with us! We know that you put the script on her computer and changed Selena’s class over to your class!” Hailey said.
“What do you have against me?” I asked.
“I don’t know what you all are talking about. If you will excuse me, I have to go get some grading done,” He said and walked back into his classroom.
“Now what?” I asked.
“Call the I.O.N.S,” Hailey said.
Huxvey grabbed her phone and dialed three numbers. “We have an illegal hacker here in Tumspuv Genimis, and we need someone here now… thanks.”
“Will he be arrested?” I asked.
“Well, Hacking anywhere on Saturn is illegal, so yeah… he will be arrested,” Huxvey said.
* * *
The IOSN arrived within a minute flat, and they entered the building. “Where is the hacker?”
“In here,” Huxvey said and opened the door.
“Now, what do you want?” Mr. Xjungtha asked.
“IONS! You’re being arrested for hacking!” they said and rushed in. In there, I could tell there was a fight because there was magic spilled everywhere and banging going like crazy.
“Soon, they came out with him handcuffed. “Where are you taking me?”
“You are going to the X[I49] jail.”
“Isn’t that where Nuxsums[I50] is?” He asked.
“Yes,” One replied. I could have sworn I heard him say something in Sathinish under his breath, but I wasn’t sure.
“Take him away,” Huxvey said.
As they took the man away, I heard Mr. Xjungtha yell behind him, “SELENA DIXON! I WILL GET YOU!”
And that was the last I had heard from him… for a while
“Selena, I need you to come to my office,” Huxvey said.
As I followed her to her office, she sat me down and told me to wait
While I was waiting, I was wondering what she would do. Would she change my English class? Would she tell me that I had a new teacher?
She printed out a paper and gave it to me.
My schedule!
Student: Selena Dixon
Sex: Female
Year: Freshmen
ID: 5749057494
Classes in order
1) Broom Flying….. Fruno, Dr…. Field (outside)
2) Saturn Government…. Mr. Snookie…Room 421
3) Algebra I….Mrs. Kenyafe….Room 341
4) Study Hall...Snookie, Mr....Room 421
5) Chemistry……Mr. Hethren….Science lab B4 on floor 2
6) Creative Writing….Mrs. Mendela….room 128
7) Short Stories….Mrs. Mendela….room 128
8) Honors English I….Ms. Fernath…room 232
9) The novella…Mrs. Mendela….room 128
YES! I got out of English I foundations! Did I mention that I hate that class? I don’t think so!
“I just wanted to say – for the confusion – I have excused you from Physics,” Huxvey said. GOOD! “And Now that you have your new schedule, you are free to go back to your dorm,”
“Thanks,” I thanked and exited the office to take a nap in my dorm.
20
Geez, that day had gone by so quickly! It was already morning!
I got dressed in my usual clothes under my uniform (Yoga pants and a pink shirt) and headed down to my new first class.
I decided to jazz it up a little bit and fly down to broom-flying. When I got to the class earlier, Doctor Fruno saw me flying my broom on the school campus.
“Stupid girl! DETENTION!” She yelled, “And you will never do that EVER AGAIN! DO YOU HEAR ME?!”
“Yes, Ma’am,” I smarted back.
“Another detention for smarting back.”
Two detentions in less than two minutes?! No wonder some students call her the Tumspuv Torcher Teacher! I decided to stick up for myself.
“You know what, you—”
“‘Wanna make it three detentions?” She asked in a strict voice.
There went that.
When all of the kids arrived, there were a total of ten detentions given out to five students. Two for each student. They did the same thing I did, fly to class and then smarted back. Shows how smart we freshmen were. We all sat down, and listen to the Tumspuv Torcher Teacher (AKA T3)
&nbs
p; “OK, all you students are stupid on how to fly a broom, but it’s my job to actually slam some knowledge into your thick skulls with a hammer and hope it breaks into your brain! Now, some rules. You will obey my every command, you will not smart back, and you will do all your work. If you disobey, you will receive a detention for your wrongdoings Understand?”
At that point, I could tell that this semester was ‘gonna be the worst.
“Now, a month after the first six weeks are over, I will prepare a field trip to the broom history, and you will take notes and write me a ten-page paper over it. If you skip, you will have to write me a book in Sathinish with no help! OH, by the way, you give it to me and I will publish it with my name as the author. Don’t believe me? Why do you think I’m a best-seller? Also, if you don’t write me a book, I will fail you! Understand?”
Man! She was worse than I thought! She couldn’t get any of my precious ideas. She could have failed me for all I care! I could have recovered the credit in another class. But then again, if she failed me, I would have to go for a fourth year at Tumspuv Genimis and have to make my mom pay money for it. It’s like ten grand an extra year!
* * *
Basically, we learned how to get on and off the broom for the whole class! BOORING[I51]!
While everyone got on and off the broom, one kid got on, and flew off!
I don’t blame him!
He was caught ten minutes later and given a three-day detention for escaping class, but thank goodness that the class was over!
I rushed out of the broom flying area and rushed into the building. I was so ready to get out of that class, and it was over!
“Good morning, Selena!” Mr. Snookie greeted. “Please take one of these papers.”
I walked over to his desk and grabbed a paper from his desk.
It was a permission slip to go to a court case in downtown Dotholistr!
“I will say more information when class starts,” He said. Prepared to get out your laptops to take notes.
“OK,” I replied, walked to my desk, and brought it out.
When the class finally started, he walked up to the front and started to speak.
