Elle sprang out of her seat then remembered to raise her hand as the class swiveled exorcist-style to stare at her.

  “Yes, Elle?” Mr. Johnson sighed, thinking to himself, “Here we go again. Five more years to retirement, Stan. Only five more years…”

  “I’ve got a problem. Um. A big one. I need to go to the bathroom,” Elle said loudly, and then mentally face-slapped herself. Great, now everyone probably thinks I just wet myself. Or worse!

  Turning a bright shade of pink, Elle tried to ignore the twitters from the class. Even Mr. Johnson looked embarrassed, but luckily, he waved her towards the door, probably just happy that she wasn’t yelling or hitting herself.

  Elle speed-walked out of the classroom. As she passed Juan, she heard him whisper, “Take a map,” and she silently vowed to make him pay for that one, but soon she was outside the classroom and sprinting down the tiled hall towards the nearest girl’s bathroom, which was luckily deserted, and slammed herself into Stall #3.

  “What the heck was that thing?” she asked, pulling Moonie from her shirt. Moonie was alarmingly grey-colored. He made a pathetic attempt to lick an eyeball, but got his tongue caught in a nostril instead.

  “Inimicus,” Moonie moaned.

  “What?” Elle asked with some panic. “What does that mean?” She felt like an idiot standing in the bathroom stall talking to someone that no one else could hear. “Does this have to do with your mission? Look…… we gotta get you out of here,” Elle said, when she got no response from Moonie. “Why didn’t anyone else in class see that thing? Or smell it? Not easy to miss!”

  “It is unknown,” Moonie said. “You are not like other humans. You are special.”

  “I am NOT special!” Elle exclaimed, annoyed.

  “Got that right,” a voice growled as the stall door slammed open, and Elle squeaked as she turned abruptly. Standing outside was the bruised face of Kat, grinning at Elle malevolently.

  “Talking to yourself again? I can’t believe you are such a loser. Elle-OOOOOOOSER!” Kat snickered, obviously pleased with herself for making such an inane joke. “I’m going to go tell Mr. Johnson and everyone that you’re in the bathroom crying to your pet toad about wanting to be special!” Kat said, gleefully.

  “No, Kat…don’t!” but it was too late. Now Elle really was talking to herself. Kat had left.

  “How are we going to get out of here?” Elle worried aloud. “Wait—I’ve got it,” she said snapping her fingers. “Operation: Stomach Ache.”

  Phase one: Elle will tell Mr. Johnson that she’s sick, which was brilliant: she had already laid all the groundwork earlier this morning, so her “stomach ache” would be totally believable.

  Phase two: Elle would be sent to the nurse's office, thus effectively avoiding the creature for the next hour or so while the school nurse tried to find an orifice from which to take her temperature. Now the only thing left was to quietly sneak into class and convince Mr. Johnson to excuse her.

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  But that would mean walking straight back to the creature, and if possible, she wanted to avoid any further confrontations. She quickly formulated the new plan: “Operation: Get the Heck out of Here.”

  Phase one: Make a stealthy getaway. Elle searched the restroom for any secret escape routes and found nothing. She glanced up at the open window near the ceiling and decided that it was her only option. It was only a few feet from the ground outside—an acceptably safe distance to fall and only slightly break her neck.

  She carefully set Moonie on her shoulder, climbed on top of the heat register and pulled herself out the open window. She fell a few feet onto the wet mud outside, slipped, did a belly flop, jumped up, and assumed a crouching stealth position as she surveyed the playground. Moonie floated carefully down and landed lightly on her shoulder.

  Phase two: Run to the other side of the school, grab her bike and escape.

  Phase three: Come back tomorrow and pretend like she had got locked in the bathroom. Sure, she would be taunted for the rest of the year, but the important thing was to get out of the area while the creature was around.

  She bolted for the bike rack on the other side of the school.

  As she turned the corner, she bumped into someone running from the opposite direction. “Geeze, Juan, are you stalking me or wha…” she started, fulling expecting to see Juan, her constant shadow, but to her utter terror, she looked up into the face of the thing.

  “Deditionem,” it said, the buzzing voice sounded strangely robotic.

  “I’m sorry, I don’t speak psycho,” Elle said, backing away.

  “I can smell your fear,” it said, slowly, as it approached her.

  “Look that is NOT me! That stank followed you, buddy!” She shoved the creature as hard as she could and sprinted towards the other end of the building. As she burst through the back door of the school, she risked a look behind. It was completely clear of stinky creepers. She had lost him!

  Barely allowing herself a moment’s rest, she jogged down the hallway, trying to ignore the stitch in her side. She could see the front door of the school down the hallway, and right outside, the bike rack and a short trip to freedom.

  A few feet down the corridor, Elle’s skin crawled with goosebumps, and she looked up just as the creature stepped out from a doorway and made a swipe at her. She deftly dodged it (Mr. Shuck would be really pleased to see that all her training in gym was really paying off) and resumed her dash with the extra dose of terror fueling her muscles.

  “Deditionem!” it buzzed behind her.

  Adrenaline coursed through her body, she cranked up her speed and pummeled down the passage barely award of her surroundings. In the distance, she saw the school secretary, Ms. Tracy, delicately balancing a tower of freshly filed papers in her arms, on her way to Principal Burke’s office.

  Elle bowed her head purposefully and charged in her direction, saying a little prayer under her breath as she prepared to ram her, “I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry…”

  Elle ran straight into the oblivious secretary—WHAM!--sending the entire stack of papers flying into the air.

  The papers rained down, and the screams nearly broke her eardrums during the ensuing pandemonium. Ms. Tracey landed on the ground and shrieked as the creature also ran into the fray. Between the frenzied downed-secretary and the piles of loose paper, the creature slid, slipped and finally its legs shot straight out, and it landed –SMACK--on its back.

  Elle watched the scene over her shoulder and made a promise to herself that she would get something nice for Ms. Tracey at Christmas. Maybe a new file folder. She definitely could use one—looks like she’s got a lot of sorting to do, Elle mused, brain clearly in shock.

  Elle slammed out the front door and hustled over to her bike. She was just shoving her helmet over her ponytail when she heard the front doors bang open and the thing burst out, pausing momentarily on the steps of the building. It did NOT look happy.

  Elle focused all her efforts on pedaling as furiously as possible, staying upright and not panicking. Just because some mysterious masked maniac is chasing me, that’s no excuse, she reminded herself. Stay calm.

  Amazingly, the self-talk was working, but then out of the corner of her eye, Elle saw the creature grab something from its robe and then she heard a--SWOOSH –and then an earth shaking –KAAABOOOOOM! She blinked and there was a giant hole in the street in front of her.

  She swerved to avoid biking into the smoldering pit just as she heard another---SWOOSH—followed by an ear shattering KAABOOM! The parked car behind her exploded into a million particles of glass, tires and rust.

  IT WAS SHOOTING AT THEM!!

  “AAGHHHHHH!!!!” Elle yelled as she tried to move her legs faster on the pedals, which were already going as fast as they could; the bike was dangerously close to collapse. She risked a glance back and saw the thing sighting down the laser barrel, taking careful aim. She was a sitting duck in the middle of the street.

  “MOONIE! Do something before we get BLASTED!” Elle shouted, pedaling even more furiously, gears grinding.

  The creature fired again, but at the same instant, Elle felt the warm buzz of the electric bubble crackling over her body like a giant shield. It was good timing; the creature’s aim had improved. It would have been a direct hit.

  The laser blast ricocheted off the shield while Elle wobbled dangerously on her bike and blasted back towards the school.

  KABOOOM! Elle flinched, as she heard bricks falling and glass shattering behind her.

  Elle glanced back one last time before she rounded the street corner, just in time to get a good look at the school. The laser had blasted through an entire wall and part of a window—right into her homeroom.

  “Well, I did warn Mr. Johnson that I had a big problem,” Elle sighed.