by Katrina Cope
“Thanks, Avando. I’m glad you found me, too,” he said, smiling.
“Off to get breakfast, are you?”
Jayden nodded.
“Then I won’t keep you.”
They parted ways and Jayden continued to the dining room. He went straight over to the buffet to select his breakfast. He chose fluffy pancakes, poured pure maple syrup over them, topped them with crispy bacon, and finished his creation with bananas, blueberries, and strawberries. On the side, he added a glass of fresh orange juice. He turned around to see if he could find his friends. He was happy to see them over by the large windowed wall.
That window, he thought. Who could ever get used to that view? He started toward his friends even though he was temporarily distracted by the fantastic view. So much beautiful nature around here. The large lake glistened in the morning sun. And such a contrast to my view not so long ago.
Suddenly, he felt himself falling face forward and landed on the floor with a forceful thud. His breakfast tray went flying out of his hands, and the glass and plate smashed on the ground. He looked up to see that his food had landed all over Robert.
At first, Robert had a shocked look on his face, but this quickly turned to delight at the arrival of the tasty food. He picked the pancake off his lap and bacon off his shirt and started to eat them, unfazed by the mess.
Jayden got up and looked around, wondering why he had tripped and fallen when he heard a snicker. He looked to his left, where the snicker had come from, and saw Taylor sitting with Ben, Declan, and Jessica.
“Oh, look!” Taylor said with a sneer. “The agile sniper isn’t so agile after all.”
Ben and Declan snickered again.
“Is that all you can come up with?” Jayden responded while getting up off the floor. “That’s pathetic. All you managed to do was make a mess—and does Robert look upset to you?” he asked, indicating Robert.
“Like I care about that pig’s opinion,” Taylor said.
“What’s going on here?” Ms. Helen had arrived, wiping her hands on her apron. She was always quick to the scene if she heard a loud crash in her dining room. “Oh what a mess!” she cried, when she saw the spilled food and juice.
“It’s all right, Ms. Helen. I just tripped. Taylor here,” he indicated Taylor with a sweeping hand, “was offering to clean up the mess while I refill my plate so that I can be on time for class.”
“Oh, so wonderful of you, Taylor! Come right this way with me and we’ll go get the cleaning things.” She turned to go. “Oh, Robert, stop eating that!” she said when she saw him going for the second piece of bacon that had landed on the floor. “Go and have a shower.”
Robert looked disappointed, but reluctantly did as he was told.
Taylor gave Jayden a filthy look while Jayden just smiled at him in return.
“Thanks so much, my friend!” said Jayden as he gave Taylor a friendly slap on the back. The fumes coming from Taylor were almost visible to the naked eye as he followed Ms. Helen away.
After he had come back from getting more breakfast, Eva congratulated him. “That was such a good payback.”
“Thanks. I’m sure Taylor appreciated it.” They laughed together while watching him clean up the mess.
“Shut up, Jenkins.” Taylor glared over his mop.
“Oh, that’s not nice. At least I’m helping you win points with Ms. Helen,” he said, laughing.
After Jayden had finished eating his breakfast, they made their way to the common room and met up with Robert, who had showered and changed. They walked toward the lobby, preparing to go to their next lesson with Charlie. Cowering in the corner near the front door was the older boy, David.
“What’s his problem?” Eva asked while pointing to David.
Jayden looked over at him and said, “I think I know. He tried to fool Scarlet again, and she’s pretty mad at him.”
“Oh, it’s you!” David said with enthusiasm as he spotted Jayden. “That extremely big B wouldn’t let me out.” Jayden saw the desperation in his eyes. “I really need to go,” he added while doing a little jig with his legs crossed like a two-year-old child.
“Wow! She’s really mad,” Aaron observed, quickly understanding what the problem was by David’s body language.
“Can one of you please see if you can get me out?” he asked the teens desperately.
“I’ll give it a try,” Aaron volunteered, looking at David with sympathy.
Aaron placed his hand on the identity scanner. The door started to open but then stopped and closed once again.
“Aaron Maison!” Scarlet’s face appeared on the screen near the door. “I’d be glad to let you and your friends out if you get that naughty boy, David, to move back into the common room.” Her lips formed a sly smile.
“It’s nice that you’ll let us through, Scarlet, but David looks like he is going to pee himself if he doesn’t go to the bathroom very soon.”
“He should’ve thought of that before he tried to mess with me,” she snapped before she disappeared from the screen.
“That’s cold,” Eva said.
“Perhaps we should find Professor Showden,” Robert suggested. “He programs Scarlet.”
They left the front lobby to head to the video rooms, since there was a good chance of finding the professor there. They opened the door, but the rooms were empty.
“Scarlet,” Eva spoke to the screen inside the door. Scarlet’s face appeared. “Do you know where Professor Showden is?”
“My dear, Eva Bower! I know you’re trying to help David Schatzville, so I’m not going to tell you.” There was still a smug expression on her face.
“But Scarlet—” Eva began to argue, but Scarlet had already disappeared from the screen.
“Maybe we’ll run into him in our lesson outside with Charlie,” she said.
They left together to go back to the lobby passing David as he continued doing his dance in the common room. “Sorry, David. He’s not in the video room, and Scarlet won’t tell us where he is because she knows we’re trying to help you.”
“Damn it!” he cursed.
“Why don’t you use one of these potted plants?” Aaron said.
Eva screwed up her face.
“I wish,” David said. “There are too many people around to use one of these potted plants, and besides, that would land me in so much trouble.”
They left him while they went to their lesson.
When they reached Charlie, he was finishing building what looked like a caged pen. It had plenty of shelter and open space, with kennels in each sectioned-off area as well as another caged area that was a common area. Not far away was an enclosed van, with doors that opened up from the back. The van looked as if it were shaking on its own and also making strange noises. The students were curious as to what was going on in the van but went directly to where Charlie was standing to find out about their jobs for the day.
“Good morning, students,” he greeted them. His gray hair glistened in the sun.
“Good morning, Charlie,” they replied.
“What’s all this?” Robert asked, nodding toward the pen.
“Ahh.” Charlie raised his eyebrows, looking pleased with himself. “Today we’re taking in some new residents at the college—and, if you like pets, you should be happy with these.”
“What are they, Charlie?” Aaron asked enthusiastically.
“We’re now the proud owners of eight little puppies.” An enthusiastic grin spread across his weathered face.
“Ooh!” squealed Eva. “I love puppies. What kind are they?”
“Let me see,” he said. “We have three Labradors—one golden, one black, and one chocolate. There’s also a German shepherd, two border collies, a beagle and a Saint Bernard.”
“Can we see them? Can we see them?” Eva was jiggling with excitement.
Charlie laughed. “Soon. We need to make sure that these pens are secure and comfortable first.”
“What can we do to help?
” she asked.
“I need everyone to help make sure that these pens are safe and sound, ’cause we don’t want these little guys getting out and exploring and not coming back, do we?”
The students shook their heads.
“We also need to make sure each puppy has a padded mat in its kennel, a bowl of fresh water and another of food.”
“Why do we need so many puppies, Charlie?” asked Jessica.
“Well, we’re going to be training them to do all sorts of things.”
“Like what?” asked Emma, another student in the class.
“All different things, depending on the breed and its characteristics. Hopefully, they will all be loving pets to both the students and teachers. We’ll be using the border collies for herding the sheep. The Labradors and beagles make great pets, but are also great sniffers, while the German shepherd is an efficient detection and security dog. Last, but not least, the lovely Saint Bernard is a gentle giant who is renowned for finding lost people. We’ll be aiming to train all the puppies to make the most of their natural traits and any extra talents as well, if we can. So let’s do this—and get the kennels done so we can bring in these dogs and get them trained.” Charlie said to everyone.
All the students moved quickly, eager to help prepare the kennels for the new arrivals. Aaron and Jayden worked together, checking for any holes they thought might be big enough for a small puppy to escape through.
While helping to complete the set-up of the kennels, Aaron reflected on the events of the day before. “Hey, what did you think about the visit we made yesterday to that school?” Aaron asked Jayden.
“I was shocked when you told me after your next visit to the school that the science buildings had been destroyed,” Jayden responded while checking the lock on a gate.
“Yeah, it’s such a shame. I was only in that building that night we helped Avando and Professor Showden, when we went to see if anyone there was responsible for the train station bombing,” Aaron said while he checked that the gate’s self-closing mechanism worked properly.
“Yeah, I saw you there,” Jayden said, then chuckled. “I was actually spying on your group until I realized it was you. Then I left.”
“Really?” Aaron laughed when Jayden nodded. Aaron continued, “We were working really hard on that toy train prototype to see if the designer was the culprit. Now it’s been destroyed. When I returned the next day, the group I was working on it with was pretty upset, because all their hard work is gone. They were eager to find out who did it.”
“Yeah. I’m still not sure that the school is responsible, but I guess the Professor Showden is right,” Jayden said. “It could be a small group of people from that school that’s to blame.”
“I also find it hard to believe that it’s the whole school—especially when it was a bomb that destroyed the buildings,” Aaron said.
“Seriously?” asked Jayden. He stopped what he was doing.
“Yeah. Didn’t you know? It was apparently contained in a white backpack. They’re asking for any assistance at all to help them find the owner.”
“In a what?” Jayden asked. His feet halted as he was in total shock.
“In a white backpack, which was left just outside of science building A.” Aaron frowned.
“But I put that backpack there.” The blood drained from Jayden’s face. “I was told it was only a prop.”
“Are you sure? Maybe you’re confusing the building with another one. It was your first time there,” Aaron said.
“No, it was the right building. I left it outside the room you were in. Professor Showden told me I was wearing it so that I would look like a student if I was seen on campus. So I asked if it was necessary, since it nearly got me busted because it was white. I didn’t know it had anything in it.”
Eva hurried over and interrupted their conversation. “We’re getting the puppies out of the van!” she exclaimed, beaming. Robert had followed close behind her. When there was no reaction from the two boys, she took a long look at their ashen faces. “Why so sullen? Puppies are adorable.”
Aaron told her, “On the first night that Jayden helped with the spying on that school, he dropped off a white backpack outside the science room that blew up the other day and started the fire. He thought it was a prop.”
“There was an explosion? Are you serious?” asked Robert as the three nodded. “Boy, we need to talk more outside of that lesson. I thought there was just a fire.”
“But why would one of our backpacks have explosives in it?” asked Eva with a frown. “We’re trying to stop this from happening, not make it happen.”
“Maybe someone found the backpack that night and filled it with explosives?” Aaron suggested.
“Why would they do that?” asked Eva. “That’d mean they were blowing up their own school.”
“Or there could be other people penetrating that school as well as us,” Robert suggested. “We should tell the professor as soon as we get back.”
“I don’t know,” Jayden said, feeling hesitant. “Maybe we should keep it to ourselves, just in case.”
“Just in case of what, Jayden?” Eva demanded to know. “No one from the Sanctum could possibly do anything like that.” She crossed her arms over her chest.
“Probably not, Eva—but like we say about the other school, maybe there’s one or two of us that may be up to something,” Jayden responded sadly. “I don’t want to cause any trouble, either, since I love being here.”
Charlie was calling to them. “Hurry up! I thought you were keen on getting these puppies out.” He motioned for them to come back.
The kids started making their way over to the van, but their minds were on other things.
“I vote we follow Jayden’s suggestion,” Aaron said.
“Me, too,” Robert agreed. “What’s the harm in that? We’ll just be more careful about what we do.”
Eva looked distraught. “I don’t know.” She wrapped her arms around herself. “I feel like I’m backstabbing Avando.”
“Why?” Jayden asked. “We aren’t going against Avando or the Sanctum—just against the possible evil person—or people—in the Sanctum.”
Eva thought about it for a moment. “I guess so…okay, then,” she said. She still sounded hesitant.
They reached the van and joined the other students who were standing at its rear.
“Okay. Is everyone ready to be puppy sitters?” Charlie asked the students. They responded by nodding eagerly, so he opened the door, revealing eight cute puppy faces, all looking out into the light.
“How adorable!” Eva squealed. All the seriousness of their recent conversation was gone from her face.
“Go on Eva—you seem like the keenest. You can grab the first one. Pick the one you like the most,” Charlie told her.
She walked up to the back of the van excitedly and looked closely at their little faces. “Oh! I can’t choose. They’re all so cute.” It was then that the little chocolate Labrador came over to her licked her hand and started biting her fingers playfully. She giggled and picked it up. “I’ll take this one,” she said, giving it a hug. “I think I’ll call her Bessie.”
“Good. Now everyone is to work in pairs, to train your dog for its particular purpose. Once you’ve chosen your partner, you can then both choose your dog.”
Eva paired up with Robert, while Jayden and Aaron partnered up. “I want this little guy,” Aaron said, indicating the Saint Bernard puppy.
Jayden took one look at the white puppy with its black nose, dark-brown eyes, and dark patches on its body and said, “Done.”
“You do know the puppy will grow up to be massive, don’t you?” Charlie asked, seeing their choice.
“Yeah. But they’re kind dogs—plus they’re great with people, and help them,” replied Aaron. “What do you think about the name Barney?” he asked Jayden.
Jayden rubbed the Saint Bernard’s head between his ears. “I think is suits him.”
“Fair
enough.” Charlie turned to the rest of the class. “Today we are starting with simple instructions like come, sit, lie, and stay. We’ve got a bag of doggie treats over here. Take a small handful and give them as a reward only when the dog has done what you instructed.” Charlie spoke to the students after they had selected their puppies. Most of the kids were getting their faces licked.
“Those of you who haven’t already, quickly think of a name together,” he continued. “Once this is done, we’re going to start with the simplest of commands—the ‘come’ command. For those of you who don’t know how to teach this command, let me explain. I want you both to stand a distance apart while the person who has the dog puts it down on the ground, and the other person calls for it to come.”
Following theses instructions, the students stood apart and called their dogs. Some of them called their dogs by name, while others slapped their thighs for the dog to come. Once released, the puppies went off in all directions. Some went to their new owners, some went to other people, and Ryan’s border collie headed off after a small wild animal it had seen not too far away. Ryan ran to get the puppy while the whole rest of the group laughed at the catastrophe, including Charlie.
“That went well,” he joked.
When the class was over, the students chatted excitedly on their way back to the main building.
“I wonder how far David has gotten in trying to get Scarlet to let him use the toilet?” Eva queried.
They entered the lobby and started toward the common room when they saw David sitting on one of the seats around the garden, with his legs crossed tightly and a pained expression on his face. They stopped as the rest of the class filed past them.
“No luck yet?” Jayden asked, amused.
“Nope.” David was anguished.
“Wow! Scarlet is really stubborn,” Jayden observed.
“Hasn’t Professor Showden come past here yet, or Avando?” Eva asked.
“Not that I’ve seen—and trust me, I’ve been looking for them.”
Jayden turned to his friends. “Let’s see again if we can find the professor.”
They nodded in agreement.
