Guardian Angel Academy

by C V Ricks

  Journey, Felix, Kevin and I were all happy that we passed Floating 101 and would be able to go on to Floating 201 next week. The better we got at floating, the closer we felt like we were flying. It was a super power.

  Next was invisibility. We went to the practice rooms for the final. We were to make ourselves invisible when Professor Occult requested it. Then, when Professor Occult told us to, we were to make ourselves visible in human form. If we could do those things when asked to do it, we would pass. Journey and I both went into our practice room. When Professor Occult came to our room, he asked us to turn ourselves invisible. I concentrated on it. After a couple of seconds I was invisible. Journey was as well. Next, he asked us to turn ourselves to spirit person form and we both did it. We passed. It went well for the others in our class, too, except for one angel who presumably turned himself back into a frog instead of his human spirit form, but fortunately was able to correct himself and get back to his angel self.

  After class, all four of us met up in the cafeteria for dinner. We were all pretty relieved that we did so well in our finals. “I think we will have a fun and relaxing weekend knowing that we did well our first week,” said Kevin. “Now we only have seven more weeks of Guardian Angel Academy left.”

  “Yes, I'm pretty excited,” I said.

  Chapter 17

  It was Saturday morning. The alarm clocks went off a little later than usual. The sign-ups for Play Day started at 8:30 in the auditorium. Journey and I met Felix and Kevin at breakfast at 8:00 and after eating we went to the auditorium to sign up for some of the activities. We browsed the various sign-up booths. One was a Flotation Ball tournament. “Let's sign up for Floatation Ball,” I said. The others readily agreed. We were put on the same team and given 3:00 our time to play.

  We floated over to the next booth. This one was a telepathy contest game. Since none of us had taken telepathy yet, we decided to pass on that. We floated to the next booth which was a haunted house catch the ghost game. In this game you were to float around from room to room in a “haunted house” and shine your glow on each other. When you ran out of glow, you had to find a charging station or super light and recharge. Then you were to go around trying to catch the ghost before the ghost caught you. If one of your teammates was killed by the ghost then you could rescue him or her by shining your glow on them for about ten seconds, but you had to do it carefully or the ghost may catch you while you were saving a teammate. It was all your team against the ghost. Then sometimes, you could be the ghost and play against the team. It sounded fun so Journey, Felix, Kevin and I all signed up for the 1:00 game, just after lunch.

  We went on to the next booth. The next booth was the sign up booth for Invisibility Freeze Tag. In this game you were to go to a large practice room and your team would play tag against another team. One team of four would be It and would have to tag all of the other team of four. You would have to rely on the sound the team members made as they floated around the room and a small ring that they wore which was always visible. If you ran into or touched an invisible opponent, then they were tagged. When one team member was tagged, they became visible and frozen. For about 3 seconds after a player became visible, the other team members also became visible for 3 seconds, so they had to be careful. Team members could unfreeze a player by touching them, but every time a visible person was unfroze, all the players were visible for 3 seconds, so you had to be careful not to be caught soon after saving someone. That game sounded fun, so we all signed up for 11:00.

  Each event lasted an hour so we had a few more time slots we left to fill. “Let's have lunch at 12:00,” I suggested. “And we still need to do laundry and letter writing. We can do both of those the same hour, say 5:00. So, we still have 9, 10, 2, and 4 that we can fill up. At 6:00 we'll have dinner and then at 7:00 I say we go to the show. How about you guys?”

  “That sounds good,” said Felix. “Let's check out a few more booths to fill up those four slots.”

  The next booth was Angel Food Cake baking contest. “That sounds pretty fun,” said Journey.

  “I don't know,” said Kevin. “I don't really know how to cook. I've never cooked before.”

  “That's right,” I said, “You haven't been to earth yet.”

  “Well, we are on teams and you have pretty good instructions,” said Journey. “I don't think you have to have previous cooking experience. I could be on Kevin's team, since I like to cook, and Ally likes to cook and Ally and Felix could be on a team together.”

  “Do we get to eat our creations?” asked Felix.

  “Sure,” I said.

  “Then I'm in,” said Felix.

  So we signed up for the 10:00 competition.

  The next booth was a Name That Tune contest, with hymns and choir numbers as the songs for the competition. That sounded fun so we signed up for the 9:00 game.

  “We have 2:00 and 4:00 left,” said Kevin.

  The next booth was a Hoverslide. This was like a waterslide, except instead of sliding on water, you hovered by floating just above the slide, all the way down. Your ability to float enabled you to hover just above the surface, and therefore stay right above the slide. That sounded like a blast so we signed up for the 2:00 slot.

  The next booth was a floating race. This was for a twenty mile race. We all looked and each other and knew what we were thinking, I am not the fastest. So, we passed on that booth.

  The next booth was a Saving Gallery game. Like humans' shooting galleries where a shooter tries to shoot a duck going by, only our job is to quickly float in front of the duck being shot at and let the bullet ricochet off of us and the most ducks we save the more points we get. We thought that sounded fun so we signed up for the 4:00 slot.

  “Great,” said Kevin. “We are ready to go for a fun day.”

  It was almost 9:00 so we floated over to the auditorium for the Name That Tune Competition. Angel Crystal, Persephone and Angelique were in charge.

  “The first part of our competition will be naming a tune by trivia. We will read you a clue about the song and you have to guess the title. We will start with three contestants from our audience,” said Angel Angelique.

  There was about thirty of us in the audience so each of us had about a ten percent chance of being called up.

  The first contestant is (Angel Angelique paused as she pulled a name out of a jar), “Julie.”

  It was Julie, one of my roommates.

  Julie went up to the contestant stand and stood by her podium and buzzer.

  “The second contestant is, Kevin.”

  Kevin excitedly and smiling as always, ran up to the stage and stood by the second contestant stand.

  “The third contestant is Journey.”

  Journey ran up to the third podium.

  I was somewhat relieved, because although I wanted to play, I didn't want to be first.

  “When you know the answer to the question, buzz in on your buzzer,” said Angel Angelique.

  Who wrote the words to the hymn “Nearer My God to Thee?”

  Julie buzzed in, “Sarah Ann Flowers.”

  “That's correct for 1000 points.”

  “What scripture reference were the lyrics taken from?”

  Journey buzzed in, “Genesis 28, Jacob's dream.”

  “That is correct for 800 points.”

  “What is the name of the popular Easter hymn written in the 1700s by Charles Wesley?”

  Kevin buzzed in.

  “Yes?”

  “He is Risen?”

  “That is not it,” said Angelique.

  Julie buzzed in.

  “Yes?”

  “I Know that my Redeemer Lives?”

  “That's not it.”

  Journey buzzed in.

  “Yes?”

  “Christ the Lord is Risen Today?”

  “Yes, that's it for 500 points.”

  The trivia round went on for about 10 more minutes and then Journey won first place, Julie second and Kevin third. Next is the Nam
e that Tune round where the music is played and we had to buzz in to guess the song. I was chosen as a contestant along with Felix and a girl named Maria. When it finished I won first place, Maria and Felix tying for second.

  After the game was over it was time to go on to our 10:00 activity.

  It was time for the Angel Food Cake baking contest. Felix and I were on a team and Journey and Kevin were on a team. Angel Crystal was in charge of the competition.

  “You are to create a cake. You will be judged on taste, appeal and originality. You may begin now.”

  I looked over the recipe and Felix and I decided that we would make a standard angel food cake and cut it into three parts and fill in two parts with vanilla pudding and top it all off with chocolate ganache ( a delicious chocolate topping). So, we got busy, me with the cake and Felix with the pudding.

  Meanwhile, Journey and Kevin were making a cherry flavored angel food cake which they would pipe with whipping cream inside and drizzle cherry syrup in stripes on the top and top off with some cherry pie filling.

  Another team was really trying to be original by shaping their cake in the form of a star and frosting it with silver icing and decorating it with sparkling silver candy beads.

  “I hope we get to taste everyone's creations,”I told Felix.

  “Yes, I don't even care if we win, just if we get to taste them all,” he replied.

  When everyone finished and the time was up, we put our creations on the judging table. Angel Crystal and two other professors were the judges. Felix and I had named our creation the Boston Cream Machine. Journey and Kevin's was named the Cherry Fairy. The next one in line was called Wish Upon a Star. After that was a creation named Simply Heaven and was all white with sparkly glittery candies on top. Another creation was called Golden Trumpets and was shaped like a trumpet and frosted in a gold glaze.

  There were so many delicious entries I didn't know if I would get sick tasting them all, then I remembered that in my spirit body I couldn't get sick.

  “You've done such a wonderful job, all of you,” said Angel Crystal. “The awards will not really separate the best from the worse because I think they were all great. However we will give a first, second and third place just for fun.”

  “The third place winner goes to..... the Boston Cream Machine.” Felix and I excitedly floated up to receive our sparkle medals.

  “Second place goes to.....the Golden Trumpet.” Everyone clapped and the team came forward and accepted their medals.”

  “Finally, first place goes to Simply Heaven.” Everyone clapped and they received their award.

  Finally we were able to taste a sample of each. That was my favorite part. I especially liked the fact that I could eat all I wanted and not get fat.

  Chapter 18

  It was time for the 11:00 activity, Invisibility Freeze Tag. We named our team The Incredibles and we were up against the team Mostly Ghostly. We went to a large practice room. This room, to make it more fun, had some dividers here and there, kind of like a maze.

  “We will flip for who is It first,” said Professor Occult, the professor in charge of this activity and rightly so since he is the Invisibility instructor.

  I thought Professor Occult was going to pull out a coin to flip, but then I remembered we don't use money in heaven. So, I wondered what he would flip. Professor Occult waited to see that we were all watching and then reached into his gown pocket. He pulled out a smooth and beautifully detailed sand dollar.

  “I'm a sand dollar fan,” he simply said. “I like to collect these.” And then he tossed it up, catching it and flipping it over onto his arm very quickly.

  “That's how it's done, I've labeled one side heads and the other tails, so choose a team captain and come up and call it,” he said.

  I was chosen to be our team's captain and I went up near the professor along with the captain from the Mostly Ghostly team, a small boy, looking only 10 or 12 in appearance.

  “Heads,” we both said at the same time.

  “Call again,” said Professor Occult.

  “Tails,” we both said at the same time.

  “Again,” said Professor Occult.

  “Heads,” said their captain.

  “Tails,” I said.

  'Very well.”

  Professor Occult tossed up the sand dollar, quickly caught it and turned it over on his arm.

  “Tails it is,” he said.

  So I chose for our team would be It first.

  I went back to my team and we chose areas to cover. I would cover the northeast area of the room, Felix the northwest, Journey the southeast, and Kevin the southwest. That way we had all four sections covered. Anyway, we thought that was a good plan. Having never played the game, we couldn't be too sure.

  “Okay, I have the rings you are to put on. These will be the only thing visible until you are touched. Come forward team captains and take your team's rings.”

  I got four rings and distributed them to my team, after which we went to our places. After putting on the rings, we became invisible except for the ring.

  “Everyone ready?”

  “Yes,” I said.

  “We're ready,” said the Mostly Ghostly team captain.

  “All right, then go!” said Professor Occult.

  We floated around our sections looking carefully for any floating rings. The rings were so small, it was difficult to spot them. I saw one in my area and quickly floated toward it. Unfortunately it escaped me quickly and I let it go into Felix's section. I wanted to stay in my area because that was the plan.

  I saw another ring floating in my area and this time I quickly floated toward it and reached out my hand to try to touch whatever was in its whereabouts. This time I succeeded in making one of the Mostly Ghostly visible and frozen. It was a girl named Gretchen. Quickly, I looked around the room and could see the whereabouts of another ghost, but the other two were hidden behind some of the dividers creating the maze-like divisions in the room. The one that I did see visible was in Journey's territory so I yelled to Journey. “Catch that one, Journey.”

  She heard me and quickly floated toward him. He quickly floated away and as the three seconds were up he became invisible except for his ring. He floated away into the maze of dividers and Journey had lost him.

  I continued to look for rings in my area and to stand guard over my captive. I didn't want anyone to come and free Gretchen. She stood frozen and visible in my area. Finally I spied two rings headed toward Gretchen. One was coming from one direction and one from another direction. There was no way I could get them both. So I called for help. I let out a whistle. We had decided that we would have a special whistle that we would give loudly when we needed help in our area and the others would know to come quickly.

  The whistle startled the other team's members who were moving quickly toward Gretchen, causing them to pause for a second. However, my team members, when hearing the whistle, floated as quickly as they could in my direction. I was already floating toward one of the rings that I saw moving in on Gretchen. In just one second, I reached the ring floating toward Gretchen, swinging my arms in the air and touched the would-be rescuer, causing her to become visible and frozen. Meanwhile, Journey and Felix had reached the other one and froze him as well. Now we had three of their teammates frozen. Just one more to go. We had to guard these frozen victims well, and capture the last one. We were on our guard.

  I motioned for a time-out. Earlier, when explaining the rules, Professor Occult said that we were allowed one time-out per game. So I gathered my teammates to form a plan.

  “Shall we each guard one of our prisoners and the fourth man out rove around looking for the last guy?” I asked.

  “That sounds like a pretty good plan to me,” said Journey.

  “Any other suggestions?” I asked.

  “I think we should give a signal if we need help, but we should change it this time to surprise them,” said Felix.

  “Okay, what should the signal be?”
I asked.

  “What other annoying sounds can we make?” asked Kevin.

  “I say we yell “Help” in another language,” said Journey.

  “Yes,” I replied. “It always gets my attention when people speak in another language.

  “Okay,” said Felix. “What language?”

  “How about we all say help in Lithuanian,” said Journey. As a young college graduate she had spent a year in Lithuania teaching English.

  “Okay, Lithuanian it is,” I said. “Now you have to tell us how to say it,” I added.

  “Say padeti,” said Journey.

  We decided who would guard who and Kevin was left as the rover.

  I signaled that our time-out was over. I carefully began to guard Gretchen, my assigned captive. I watched for any floating rings coming from any direction. Journey was guarding Hector and Felix was guarding Jocita.

  A few moments of quiet time went by and then I heard “Padeti” yelled loudly by Journey. I could see that someone had just got by her and released her prisoner. They were both still close so I floated quickly over to tag one of the two who were starting to get away, but were still totally visible. Jocita was astonished when she heard Journey scream help in Lithuanian because she herself was from Lithuania while on earth and didn't expect us to know the language. Journey tagged her captive, Hector, and I tagged Maynard, the last man out, so to speak. Our team had won the first point of the game.

  Now it was Mostly Ghostly's turn to be It. They huddled together to make their plans.

  “I hope they don't copy us,” I said.

  “Yeah,” said Journey, “Like whistling or yelling out code words.”

  “Maybe they have something else up their sleeve,” said Felix.

  “What are our plans?” I asked.

  “Try not to get tagged,”Kevin chuckled.

  “Is there any kind of strategy we can use?” I asked.

  We have to be careful when we are trying to unfreeze someone,” said Felix. “You don't want to get tagged when they see you.”