“Hyde for principal!” Grimes yelled, doing cartwheels around the room.
“Hyde for president!” Sarah corrected him, throwing beakers and test tubes at the wall and watching them shatter with delight.
That half of the class was dancing, doing headstands, or else just breaking stuff. But that only lasted for a few seconds, because soon the other teachers started pouring into the room.
“What in blue heaven happened here?!” a math teacher asked, practically fainting.
But half the class had already started chanting again. “Hyde! Hyde! Hyde! Hyde!”
It was a while until things calmed down.
25
The afternoon was definitely interesting. First the teachers tried getting a straight story out of the class, but they didn’t love what we were saying. (I mean, how would you react to “Our science teacher turned into an insane monster and wrecked the class to music while we cheered”?) Then the cops showed up and tried getting a more believable story out of us, but they didn’t do any better.
I’m not sure how it would have ended if Mr. Jekyll hadn’t stumbled out of the forest a few hours later, his clothes in tatters. A teacher spotted him at the edge of the woods and ran toward him, the cops following. They gave him a lab coat, brought him to the classroom, and half of our class looked at him in horror while the other half tried to high-five him. “Bring back Hyde! Bring back Hyde!” they started chanting until the cops shut them up.
Jekyll told a different story—of course he did—which made him sound like the victim. According to him, some crazy, super-strong guy wandered into the class and attacked him. He tried defending the class, but the guy chased him into the woods. Jekyll eventually lost him, but the guy must have been wandering the woods somewhere.
“How do you explain the hole?” the cop in charge asked, pointing to the wall.
“It must have been an unfortunate chemical reaction—perhaps he knocked the Berthelot’s salt into the red phosphorous. I’m just so happy that the children are safe,” he said. Honestly, that part sounded sincere. Maybe Jekyll didn’t have much control over this Hyde guy. And maybe he wasn’t on good terms with him either.
Things were starting to get a bit calmer now that the cops and teachers seemed to be buying Jekyll’s story. I had been in full freak-out mode since it happened. I mean, Hyde seemed friendly, but he also seemed super excited about punching people in the face. And his fists were bigger than my head.
Well, to be fair, Wiki would probably think up a foolproof plan that would save us from getting Hyded to death. Now that it had been a few hours, I was starting to breathe normally again.
Then who waltzed into our classroom but one Edward Teach.
Blackbeard took a look around the room, asked a student what happened, and then nodded thoughtfully. The cops might not be buying our story, but someone who had just traveled through time thanks to a magic table probably would. As the cops and teachers dispersed, Blackbeard walked over to Jekyll and put out his hand. “Edward Teach,” he said excitedly, as they shook hands. He then put his arm around Jekyll and walked him out the door. “You and I have a lot to talk about, my new friend…” He turned his head as he walked out the door, made eye contact with me, and gave a devilish smile. Gulp.
* * *
“What about a dumpling?” I asked Wiki and Brady.
The three of us had just been called down to Principal Gale’s office. After she asked us to take a seat, she told us to give her a minute and left the room again. I knew she was going to grill me about Jekyll and Hyde, so I didn’t want to tell the story twice. I was trying to make small talk, but…yeah, I’m the worst at small talk.
“It’s meat or veggies surrounded by dough. I mean, it’s basically fillings sandwiched between a kind of bread. I think that’s definitely a sandwich. You’ve gotta give me that one.”
“Javi, would you just tell us what happened already?” Brady blurted out. “You don’t think we heard the huge crash earlier? Or noticed a gaping hole in the science class as we walked by? Or saw all the cops that are walking the halls? The teachers aren’t saying anything yet, but we know you were in there.”
Wiki was pacing the room, breathing into a paper bag, and talking to himself—clearly he was about to completely lose his mind. “It’s impossible. It’s completely and utterly impossible. That book is fiction. No part of that story is real. Dr. Jekyll isn’t based on a real character. And nobody—no actual human—transforms into a monster.”
I scrunched all the muscles in my face, looked at Brady, and managed to give the tiniest nod. “It’s possible.”
“Whoa. What’s he like?” Brady asked.
“Hmmm. Well, you know how there’s all those different versions of Beauty and the Beast, and in some versions the Beast looks awesome and kind of nice but in others he looks like a terrifying monster that would probably make you poop your pants if you ever saw him in real life? Yeah, Hyde is like the poop-your-pants version. He’s huge, he has tusks for teeth, he could probably fit your whole body into his hand and then crunch all the bones and—”
“Enough! Okay, okay, I get it. Ew. I’m freaked out enough as it is.”
Wiki kept pacing and talking to himself. “Have my parents written out my will? Because they must. Tonight. I’m as good as dead. A pirate teaming up with a monster—they should write out their wills too. Everybody should. We’re all dead.” He breathed into his bag again.
“That’s not true,” said Principal Gale’s voice behind us. She walked in with Ms. Calderon and Mr. Scrimshaw, who closed the door as Gale sat at her desk in front of us. Ms. Calderon and Mr. Scrimshaw took their places standing on either side of her. Okay, that was weird…
“First things first. Javi, are you okay? Did he hurt you or anyone in the class?” Principal Gale asked.
“No, he didn’t touch anyone. He broke a bunch of desks and ate glass and tore a huge hole in a brick wall, but no one was hurt.”
Wiki’s jaw dropped.
“At least no one was hurt. Now, it appears that you might have known more about Mr. Teach than you let on when we last met.” Gale held up the bell and I gulped audibly. “Don’t worry, I understand why you might have been hesitant to say anything, given the circumstances.”
She scooted her chair closer to the desk, put her clasped hands on it, and looked at each of us carefully. “Now that we are all on the same page, it is important that you tell me the complete story. Please be honest, and don’t leave anything vital out. Don’t worry if some of it sounds impossible or made up. We know what Brocéliandus is capable of.”
We?
“The whole story…” I muttered, staring at her emerald necklace because I couldn’t look her in the eyes. “I’m trying to figure out where to even begin.”
“Well, where did you meet Brocéliandus? That’s a good place to start.”
I inhaled once, gathered my thoughts, and began. I told her about finding him in the antique store, our assignment, our dinner party, and everything after. Wiki and Brady jumped in with details, and Brady even made sound effects at crucial moments. The entire time I talked, the three adults looked at us intently. I could tell they were working things out in their heads, and I could tell that this definitely wasn’t the first time someone had been summoned by Andy.
When I was finished, Gale looked down at the desk, deep in thought. After some time she looked back up at us.
“So 16 Fig Tree Road is the new gateway.”
“Excuse me?” Wiki said. “Did you call their house a gateway?”
“Yes,” she said, looking at Wiki. “It is clear that Brocéliandus chose you three, and that until he decides otherwise, Javi and Brady’s house is the gateway.”
“A gateway to what, exactly?” I asked.
“Not to, from. A gateway from just about anywhere. It seems to be limited only by one’s imagination.
Set the place cards on the table, ring the bell and—snap!—any guest appears.” She then gave us a little smile. “We are lucky that you are the Chosen Ones. Brocéliandus has been missing for a very long time, and we’ve been afraid someone less ethical would awaken him. It happened before, and it caused a lot of…problems. But that is a story for another time. Let us get through our present challenge first, as it is not insignificant.”
Just as she was getting to the good stuff.
“So you understand the secret of Finistere now, lads,” Mr. Scrimshaw said.
“And it is very important that you keep it a secret,” Ms. Calderon added, looking at us sternly.
Brady tilted her head and looked at them. “Wait, was Javi actually right? Is Finistere’s secret that it’s hiding Jekyll and you, Ms. Calderon? I mean, Ms. Kahlo.”
Ms. Kahlo smiled, and Brady glared at Wiki. “See? Javi can be right once in his life.” I blushed.
Gale stood up, walked around her desk, and sat on it, looking at us seriously. “You have trusted me with your important secret, so I will trust you with mine. The secret of Finistere isn’t just about Ms. Kahlo or Mr. Jekyll. It’s much bigger than that. It’s about the school’s mission.”
“And what exactly is that?” Wiki asked, leaning forward. Gale was speaking his language.
“Finistere’s mission is to be the single best school in the world.”
She walked over to a framed picture of the faculty and pointed to it. “The quality of a school isn’t in the building or the curriculum or the facilities. It’s entirely in the faculty. Great teachers make for a great school. So we find and hire the very best teachers out there for this school.”
She walked back to her desk and sat down. “Now, the best teachers don’t all live in Maryland. And they’re not all alive at this moment in history. And some of them exist in other worlds entirely. But I am gathering them here because I can. Because of Brocéliandus. Who is a better art teacher than Frida Kahlo? And who knows more about science than Dr. Jekyll? And there are a few others.”
Scrimshaw chuckled. “Aye, just a few…”
Wiki fell into an empty chair. He hadn’t completely fainted but it kind of looked like he’d logged off from life for a minute. His circuits were blown.
“I spent my youth far away from here. Very far away,” Gale said softly. “I learned so much from so many amazing, peculiar teachers. One day I realized that I needed to give other children that unique opportunity. I needed to create a school with that kind of diverse, worldly faculty. Nobody is more passionate than our teachers. And wait until you get to the high school.”
Now my mind was blown. My crackpot theory was right! But how many other teachers were there? And were any of them legendary heroes? Would Principal Gale ever tell us, or would we have to keep guessing? The image of that locked bookshelf in the library came into my mind. There were a lot of books in there. A lot. I started feeling light-headed. Don’t faint, Javi. Don’t faint.
Only Brady kept it together. “So that’s why you have the Any Three People assignment every year. You’re trying to find Andy so that you can summon more teachers.”
Gale nodded. “Finding Brocéliandus is a safety issue first and foremost. But, yes, once we find Brocéliandus and his Chosen Ones, we ask that they help us summon a new teacher or two. But we can speak about that at another time.”
“Cool, cool, cool. So what do we do about the pirate and the monster?” Brady asked, punching one fist into the other hand.
Principal Gale stood up and looked out the window at the wreckage. “Jekyll will be fine. We have been treating his condition for a long time, and, in all of his years here, this is his first flare-up. We will make sure it doesn’t happen again, now that we know the one unlikely trigger.” She looked over at the three of us. “I apologize about the pirate. He had us all fooled. But I spoke with him, and you three have nothing to fear. If he attempts to fool us again in any way, we will send him back.”
“That pathetic sea robber,” Scrimshaw muttered darkly. “Once a pirate, always a pirate, I say. And he has the nerve to call himself a captain! We should’ve sent him packing on day one.”
“Why not just send him back now?” Brady asked. “Wait, is Blackbeard secretly the best groundskeeper of all time?”
Principal Gale chuckled. “Not exactly. Some of the teachers here were accidentally summoned like Mr. Teach, and each one gets the chance to stay on as faculty. Mr. Teach gets one more chance, because the temptation to use Brocéliandus’s magic is powerful. I know it firsthand.” She smiled at Ms. Kahlo and Mr. Scrimshaw, who looked dubious. “I can’t blame any visitor for wanting to use it. But only you three can use it. And now he has been warned.”
We were all quiet for a minute, taking in everything that had been said. And the fact that our school was weirder than we’d ever imagined. And that a monster from a book had just ripped a hole in my science classroom’s wall.
Suddenly the silence was broken by Principal Gale’s ringing phone. It was so jarring that all of us jumped a little bit in our seats. She picked up the phone, stood up, and started pacing as she spoke.
“Mm-hmm. Yes that sounds good. Okay.” She paced and paced, and as she talked, she took the bell from the desk and placed it gently in the covered cage behind her desk. When she closed the cage it made a heavy locking sound. Fingers crossed that the cage was pirate-proof.
I let everything she’d just said sink in, and then, all of a sudden, a plan came together in my head. Not just a casual, why-don’t-we-try-this plan, but an urgent, we-must-drop-everything-and-do-this-or-die plan.
She hung up the phone and looked at us. “Apologies. It sounds like I am needed in the cafeteria. I think we’re clear though, yes? Please don’t hesitate to come see me if absolutely anything suspicious happens. I’ll be checking in with you regularly until this matter is resolved.”
We nodded, said our goodbyes, and left the room.
“Okay, amigos,” I said. “I hope you slept a lot last night. Because we have a long night ahead of us.”
26
“I think I hear crickets outside.”
“Okay, that means it’s late enough.”
“Let’s go.”
We were hiding in a big pile of costumes backstage at the high school theater. It was nighttime. And we were about to do something really, really stupid. I guess desperate times call for really, really stupid ideas.
“Okay, follow me,” I said. I peeked out at the auditorium from behind the curtain. “The coast is clear. Vamos.” We climbed off the stage and tiptoed through the dark auditorium toward the dim light coming from behind the doors ahead.
We’d spent hours waiting and waiting for the school to empty. For most of that time we’d talked about Principal Gale’s big revelation and tried to figure out other teachers who might be Andy-summoned visitors. So far we hadn’t landed on any more (though I was still suspicious of Ms. Vlad), because they all probably used aliases. Then we tried to figure out which ones were weird enough to be from history or fiction, and they pretty much all were, so that wasn’t helpful. Then we guessed which ones were accidents. (Ms. Vlad was definitely not the best English teacher of all time.) When we’d gone through every teacher we could think of, Wiki ran through all the reasons this was a bad plan and that I should let him be the plans guy. I could only put up with that for a few minutes, so we set off, probably to our deaths.
“This is really freaking me out,” Brady whispered behind us. “I feel like Hyde is going to pop out of the shadows any second.”
“Don’t freak us out too,” I loud-whispered.
“Yes, let’s focus on the task at hand,” Wiki agreed.
I creaked the center auditorium door open a bit, looked around, and then motioned for them to follow.
We were in the castle again. It was really cold and dank at night, and one thousand times s
pookier. It wasn’t Hyde or Blackbeard that I was freaked out about—it was the rumors of all the mythical beasts kept in the basement. Had Principal Gale actually summoned some? I kept picturing a dragon crashing its head through a door and spitting fire at us. I wasn’t exactly in the mood to become a dragon’s midnight snack.
We made our way through the dark stone hallways, up a flight of stairs, and into the high school library. I could stomach medium-scary horror movies and slightly scary video games, but walking into an almost-pitch-black medieval library at midnight was a bit much for me. “It beats being butchered by Beardo,” I kept repeating to myself, though it wasn’t a very helpful mantra. Wiki was too busy analyzing everything to be scared, and Brady eats fear for breakfast, so I tried to borrow their bravery.
I traced my path back to the impossibly high bookshelf, and once I thought we were close, I pointed up. Brady shined her pocket flashlight into the darkness above. A glint! She tossed me a gym rope and we tied it between us like mountain climbers. Then we began our ascent into what felt like an infinite black hole. I didn’t even bother counting shelves this time, focusing one hundred percent on gripping each one for dear life. If I fell I knew Brady would pull me up with the rope, but if she fell we were both done for. Shelf after shelf after shelf—it felt like we were climbing for hours. Finally we got to the top and rolled onto it panting like we’d just scaled Everest. Then Brady got to work while I caught my breath.
“Um, Javi,” Brady said, as she dangled her arms over the ledge to open the shelf. “This bookcase is locked.”
WHAT?! I almost jumped up screaming, until I remembered where I was. Did Mr. Bottom climb all the way up here and lock it? Was he Spider-Man? We took turns trying to open the bookcase in every way we could, but the lock was solid and the glass was extra thick. The longer we were up there, the more vertigo I was getting. I guess vertigo gets worse when you feel completely hopeless. “Well, there goes my plan. We’re toast. I failed us.”
Time Villains Series, Book 1 Page 11
