Locker 2375 c16

The Lab.

Of course you can only run so fast in the hall before you become an obvious target of the hall monitor in training, Mr. Smith!

Actually, the gang as I have now come to refer to them, was pretty sure that the administration had installed human speed-detecting webcams around the school to cut down on students moving too fast!

Of course there was a huge debate ongoing in the staff room about what walking too fast was.

Omar had placed a listening device under a lamp to get the inside scoop on what was happening on campus, as any student council president should.

Ana and Kevin took it as a personal challenge to send the system into chaos by reprogramming it and substituting in video of a tortoise on a skateboard being pushed down the hall by a ferret.

Imagine, the administration thought that this was happening in real time!

After day three of the video feed being simulcast, at exactly 12:03pm, and the extraordinary number of teachers milling about in the hallway, also at exactly 12:03pm, we knew that we were right, hall speed was being monitored.

From that moment on we were careful to move fast but not so fast as to attract attention.

Nathaniel pulled me aside just in time to miss the glaring eyes of the science teacher, Mr. ½amolaculemissing.

“We need to get into there”, Nathaniel said pointing to the science lab.

“We need to take a look at this latest piece of paper left in place of the detention book, which if we do not find very fast we are going to be in it so deep that Ms. Shelley’s face stuck to the floor in a pile of paper pulp will look like art” Nathaniel said with a little smile.

“Speaking of Ms. Shelley it looks like she is still there, but I see the janitors have put those yellow slippery when wet cones around her”, I was beginning to wonder if this was  a bad dream! Is it possible that someone thought that Ms. Shelley stuck to the floor was art?

I knew it wasn’t a dream because at that exact moment Jeanne walked past me, slammed her heel into my big toe and winked as she whispered, “thanks for the cake”!

Instinct told me to chase Jeanne, but before I could react Nathaniel pulled at my arm distracting me.

The question going through my mind was why the science lab?

“What are we looking for”, I said with more than a hint of question as I sure did not want to get on the bad side of Mr. 1/2amoloculemissing.

Michael had already tested Mr. 1/2amoloculemissing by putting popcorn, crazy glue and a dozen eggs into the microwave oven in the lab and setting the timer for exactly the time that Mr. 1/2amoleculemissing had his 13th coffee break of the day!

Well not only was the lab not a pretty site, but the punishment for Michael, well, it is still ongoing and he completely sidestepped the detention hall.

Michael is serving out his time collecting cockroach samples from the septic tank of the school.

Mr. 1/2amoleculemissing is a world respected cockroach collector and his passion is using the little beasts as wall art!

“Max we need to get into the lab and power on the MAC127 portable OSmicroscope to get a better look at this piece of paper”, Nathaniel said as if this was something that he did on a regular basis.

“But the whole lab is like a bank vault with triple locking systems and an air movement sensor, not to mention laser detection units that reset every 4 seconds”, if the room was locked there was no chance of us getting in there I told Nathaniel, hoping he would agree so we would not have to join Michael.

Nathaniel gave me that look as if to say that we were no at a Chucky Cheese, this is the real world and if there is one thing to learn about the real world it is to always have a plan.

Nathaniel reached into his pocket and squished what looked like a piece of snot between his fingers and then stuffed it into his ear!

I thought I was about to vomit and then Michael ran past us with what looked like a rat hanging on his back.

Instantly I realized that there are worse things than the old snot-talkie!

Nathaniel mumbled a few words, obviously he was in communication with someone.

Nathaniel looked over at me and whispered, “Sam seems to be manning the technology today”.

Like magic the red light on the handset strategically placed beside the lab door went from amber to green and an electronic click could be heard, the place was open.

“We only have 5 minutes and 34 seconds before the secondary alarm system is activated so we need to move fast”, Nathaniel said as he worked his way through the lab to the microscope.

I looked at Nathaniel and it was as if he was reading my mind.

“Max here is the thing.  Not only have we always had a piece of something from your locker show up when things have gone missing or been moved, but we have also had a calling card left. The only way to verify the calling card has been through a reverse polarized magnification of the object  left and the only place we can do that is in this lab”, how did Nathaniel know all this I wondered.

“Guys you have less than 3 minutes”, Sam said over the snot-talkie, which I had also added into my ear.

Nathaniel motioned for me to come over.

From the look on his face it was clear that as he suspected the disappearance of the detention book was indeed part of the larger picture.

“Look at this Max”, Nathaniel said turning his face away from the monitor and waiting to gauge my reaction.

There in plain sight was a word that sent a shiver up my spine because there was only one other place I had ever seen it, on my locker!

Geyomi was the word!

I looked at Nathaniel, Nathaniel looked at me and Sam shouted into our ears, run you have 12 seconds before the lab is locked down!

The Book is Lost!

That little package, once it found the frequency of the schools wireless broadcast system took on a life of its own.

As the school was erupting in an organized chaos we all seamlessly blended into our classes as if nothing out of the ordinary was going on.

Of course I pulled my shirt over my head and ran around the lobby saying, “Dreamland, Dreamland take me to the water park.”

Ana and Kevin ran behind me yelling at the top of their lungs, “MAAAAX, MAAAAX, we have to be outside.”

And the rest of the gang acted as would be expected.

Calm, Cool and Collected.

Omar stood at the front of his class line and tried not to laugh.

Brandon was sitting on a fence recording the whole scene in a pastel drawing.

Nathaniel was trying to get the wifi to work on his laptop so he could do a bit of homework.

Then it was over!

Just as fast as the commotion started it stopped.

Without a second’s warning the water stopped and the siren/bell/owl with its head caught in a humming bird feeder noise was gone.

And without any background noise the entire school, which was standing 25 meters from the front door, was absolutely silent.

There stood the entire administration soaked to the bone and nobody made a sound!

Then out of nowhere came the loudest snort/snore that caused the whole school to turn and look at Sam, who decided that this was as good a time as any to grab a quick 50 winks.

One by one each class headed back into the school.

There were large puddles on the floor.

The school was a real mess!

The student artwork that had been on the walls was now hanging torn or resting on the floor in clumps of gooey pulpy paper stew.

Surprisingly the classrooms were dry.

It would seem that the sprinkler system had malfunctioned!
Only the halls, the principal’s office and the staff room were soaked.

The rest of the school was bone dry.

Of course Ana had planned this all along so she was looking at the three of us and patting herself on the shoulder for another job well done.

I was sitting by the wall close to the door, almost ready to bite into the piece of chocolate cake with green icing that I borrowed from Ana’s lunch when Nathaniel ran past the room with a look of terror on his face.

It was at that moment that there was no question things were getting odd and this oddness was not a bunch of random acts of coincidence.

No, even if others did not see it I knew something was going on.

Jeanne walked past my desk, dropped a stapler on the end of my big toe that sent a sharp pain directly to my mouth and I let out the loudest scream ever.

At that very moment Ms. Shelley came into the room and glared at me.

“Out into the hall Mister…. Nobody makes those noises in my class!”

As I got up to stand in the wet and somewhat smelly hall I noticed that something was missing!

The cake that I had cleverly pulled from Ana’s lunch had been in my hand and with all the confusion caused by Jeanne and the stapler it was gone.

I quickly looked on the floor and then on the desk, all the while Ms. Shelley was counting and glaring at me.

I gave a quick look over to Jeanne and there on the corner of her lips was a trace of green icing!

I had been double-crossed!

Jeanne distracted me and ate the cake and Jeanne was the last person to do anything wrong so there was no chance anyone would believe me if I piped up about the cake being missing.

And it wasn’t my cake to start with.

I had borrowed the cake form Ana in the first place.

Just as I was heading for the door Nathaniel ran past the class again.

“Mister you wait in the hall and I will be right out to have a chat about your behaviour.”

So there I was standing in the hall marveling at all that was going on in the school that I had no clue about!

There was this group of under cover student espionage agents doing something.

There was a detention room that seemed to have a lot more than detentions going on in it.

There was a bat cave like room under a water machine.

And there was a book that seemed to be connected to all that was happening.

As I stood next to my locker, it made a sound.

At first I thought I was just imagining the sound that had come from the floor of the detention room.

Then I heard it again and it was clearly coming from my locker, and it was getting louder and louder!

I looked to the left and I looked right, the coast was clear.

From around my neck, the home of my locker key and 36 ½ key chains, I pulled my locker key from its protective cover.

Just as I was about to push the key into the keyhole Nathaniel tapped me on the shoulder and in a very low voice said were busted!

I just about touched the ceiling I jumped so high and I know I jumped that high because just as I was coming down Ms. Shelley came out of the door next to my locker and seemed surprised that only Nathaniel was at my locker since he was in another class in a totally different grade.

Thanks to Ms. Shelley I didn’t land on the floor I landed on her and not only did she break my fall but she saved me from getting absolutely soaked.

Unfortunately the force I generated falling from just below the ceiling caused Ms. Shelley to buckle under my weight and fall to the floor like a sack of sugar.

Fortunately Ms. Shelley wasn’t hurt.

In fact she was probably saved from serious injury by her face getting planted straight into a pile of English posters that had gone from being a wall display to a giant island of pulp on the floor beside my locker.

Nathaniel grabbed my arm and shouted we’ll get help Ms. Shelley don’t move!

Joining the 5

The red light was flashing, like a neon sale sign, above the door of the principal’s office.

With a loud clinking sound, the type you hear when a bicycle chain needs oil, and the sucking of air almost like a half full balloon being let go, the door to the hidden chambers opened.

The chambers are not really hidden or chambers but the vault door did swing open revealing the offices of the principal, vice principal, curriculum coordinators and the staff room.

It is rare to see this door unlocked and even more rare to be able to see inside.

What was even stranger was the fact that the place was emptying faster than when the teachers are allowed to go on summer vacation.

I was about to stop and ask if Marco had brought ice cream for the school again, but just as I broke pace Omar tugged on my shirt collar, “no time to stop Max RUN!”

I don’t think I have ever run so fast.

Out the back doors we went, around the corner to the shaded space between the fields and swimming pool and then into the cafeteria.

Once in the cafeteria Omar put some change into the water machine, the one that has never worked, and pushed 5 of the choice buttons to the tune of Old MacDonald Had a Farm.

Then, Omar gave the machine a good strong kick the sound you would expect from the door of a drawbridge being lowered could be heard coming from deep within the floor.

Then like magic the machine tilted and just visible under the machine was a steep staircase heading down under the cafeteria.

The rest of the group as if by instinct ducked their heads and quickly proceeded down the staircase.

“Max if you show anyone or tell anyone about any of this you will be stuck in this grade for the rest of your life”, Omar said looking at me with eyes that said he was serious.

I just nodded and followed Omar down the stairs, out of nowhere Ana came up behind me and pulled on a cord that made the water machine cover the hole.

When we reached the bottom what I was looking at was a room no larger than 10 meters by 20 meters with a big table off to one side, a few bean bag chairs in front of a huge TV hanging off the wall and a glass fronted fridge full of soda and what looked like cream stuffed cakes against the other wall.

“What is this place”, I asked looking around at the 5 students who I took to be this secret undercover team of student operatives.

Omar was about to answer when Brandon came out of the shadow beside the fridge eating a cream filled donut.

“Max I am glad we can finally talk to you about all this”, Brandon said wiping cream off of his face with the bottom of his shirt.

“For the last 18 months the group of us here have been working to uncover something odd here at the school”, Brandon said looking at the rest of the group.

Then as if they had been released from a spell the group became super relaxed and headed for the bean bags and the fridge.

“Max, individually at first very soon after we started coming to this new school, we each began to notice strange things going on that we could not totally explain and that to most people thought were just funny coincidences”, Brandon was now slowly pulling me over to the fridge out of the noisy area in front of the TV which was playing a rerun of Kim Possible.

“Brandon I have been noticing these things also”, I said.

“Ana and Kevin have been watching and working with you Max BUT until the locker contents moved and the toilet incident we were not sure if you were also part of this, well this phenomenon that seems to be focused on this school”, Brandon said with a little grin on his face.

“Boy did Ms. Shelley smell bad”, Brandon said with a chuckle.

“One by one the group you see here was drawn together and when we started to talk about some of the strange things happening, like the locker contents switching, we realized there was something going on”, Brandon said.

“Nathaniel found this place 3 weeks before school started when he was here on campus with his Mom”, Brandon took a good look around and continued.

“first he found the detention hole then the principal’s vault and Nathaniel could see that this was not your normal school and while he was trying to hide from the security guards he wandered into the cafeteria as it was being remodeled and fell through the floor onto the stairs and into this room” Brandon took a good look around.

“Of course there was a little fixing up to do, but we had this place to call our mission control center”, Brandon looked at me as if to ask if I had any questions.

“So how do I fit in”, I asked looking what I am sure was a dazed and confused expression.

Omar came out of know where and gently pulled me into a chair at the huge table that I am not sure how they ever got into the room as it appeared to be one solid piece of stone!

“Max you seem to be very close to where this phenomenon is coming from”, Omar was looking at me as if expecting an answer.

Just as I was about to open my mouth Sam came rushing over and dropped the detention manual on the table with a huge pounding echo like a basketball being tossed against a wall.

“I think I have found something we have overlooked” Sam said rather pleased with himself.

The 3rd to last page was missing!

All that was in the book was the top ½ of the title of the page, each page had a title, and this one looked like it said exit strategy.

Snot-talkie.

Seconds before the entire school seemed to explode into a flurry of chaos, Omar stuck something that looked like a shriveled booger into his ear.

“Men, catch”, Omar said in an uncharacteristically loud voice.

Omar flicked what looked like a booger at Sam and I.

When I got the thing in my hand I realized that this was not a booger at all, but some sort of earpiece.

“What you are holding in your hands are the smallest walky-talkies ever made and we did it here in secret in the DT/science/ICT and Arabic labs”, from the look on Omar’s face it was pretty clear that he was proud of these high-tech marvels and that he was willing to make our lives miserable if we did not follow his every instruction.

“We call them snot-talk”, Omar waited for one of us to laugh but with faces like stone we kept our eyes on Omar and waited for further instructions.

“Squeeze the snot-talk as hard as you can between your thumb and index finger and then stick it as far into your ear as you can”, I looked at Omar with a worried scrunched up face.

“Don’t worry we tested the idea on our brothers, sisters and sleeping parents. After a lot of failures we came up with these fantastic prototypes that simply dissolve into harmless ear wax after 24 hours exactly”, WOW Omar had a whole other life just like Kevin and Ana.

“And Yes Max I know you are thinking that Kevin and Ana are also up to some pretty cool stuff and yes we are part of the same covert ops student group.”

Sam had a look on his face that said he wanted to know what Omar was talking about but that he realized this was not the time or place to ask. I could see him making a mental note to come back to this conversation later.

“Men get ready”, Omar said with his eyes fixed on Mr. Smith.

The foyer of the school was chaos.

Students were running holding their noses.

The team of gas distracters, in unison, pulled snot-talk’s from their pockets, pinched them between their thumbs and index fingers and stuffed them deep into their ears.

Sarah saw the booger like things being pushed into the ears of the boys and had to run for a garbage can as her lunch was well on its way up from its resting place in her stomach.

Ana and Kevin had taken up strategic posts.

Ana was standing at the top of the stairs with a clear sightline between the front corner of the foyer and the detention cave door.

Kevin had strategically placed himself in front of the double think reinforced doors, with what looked like a combination lock tumbler in the middle, as you might see on bank vaults in old movies.

I had always wondered why the curriculum coordinators, principals and faculty lounges were located behind what appeared to be a blast proof door that could stop anything!

As the school seemed to descend into madness a flashing red light went on above the administration’s vault door.

Nathaniel and his team were too busy giving each other high fives to see the school security team coming out of every nook and crevice and they had their sights trained on Nathaniel.

The front left corner of the school foyer is the site of the schools environmental security system, something that intrigued and excited students form the moment it appeared 5 weeks ago.

The big question on most student’s minds was why do we need an environmental security system at all?

Students could be seen looking quizzically at the environmental security system at all times of the day but nobody seemed to think much about it and I suspect figured that we needed this system because of the science labs on level one of the school.

A handful of students, all who had to have been part of the covert ops student group, had been looking at the gas detection system with particular interest and scheming about how to use it for their own purposes.

Only now do I know that for weeks in science class members of the covert ops student group had been using Google, proquest and a series of science websites to find out everything they could about the environmental security system.

And what the covert ops student group discovered was that there was a major flaw in the system.

The flaw was that the gas detection and sensitivity could be momentarily changed from the factory settings using a Jawbone blue tooth mobile phone headset and a Blackberry and iPhone hooked up in series and simultaneously calling a control site in Brazil.

When the whole system was in place and the reset code was sent for the jawbone headset the environmental security system, for 6 minutes, could be set to detect any gas you asked it to look for.

In this case the gas detector was set for high levels of methane gas.

And on cue with Nathaniel and the boys letting their gas rip, and Ms. Shelley walking into the foyer, the deed was done!

As soon as the gas detection system was tripped a school wide alarm was activated and automatically all doors in the school opened.

The entire school was wired so even if Mr. Smith had wanted to keep the door of the detention cave closed to investigate what was going on he had no power to.

As Charles the security guard jumped ran up the front steps of the school Ana got on her snot-talk and screamed, “Charles 12:00 Nathaniel.”

Without looking Nathaniel held up his right hand with the thumbs up signal.

Nathaniel then pulled his harm down into the all right I won again gesture and signaled to his team to disperse.

As if Nathaniel was directing a jet to land he made rapid Frisbee like throwing gestures with his right and left arms.

And into chaotic crowd they vanished.

The Code.

I can’t be sure, but given the way Ms. Shelley wrapper her hand around my ear and pulled, she must have worked on a dairy farm at some point in her career!

Poor cows.

“Young man you are going to have a lot of explaining to do” Ms. Shelley said in what I can only assume was flawless Elizabethan English.

Out of the corner of my eye I could see that there was more action in the hall than usual.

Even Erin was getting into the act and was following along doing a pretty pathetic imitation of Michael Jackson’s moon walk from “Thriller”, as she followed the growing crowd of people parading down the hallway towards my locker.

Word had circulated around the school that there was trouble brewing in the corridor outside room 019 and it was all pointing to locker 2375.

Out of know where the grade 10 jazz ensemble seemed to materialize, instruments in hand, and not only were they there but they were also playing songs to keep people entertained as they waited to see what Ms. Shelley would do to me.

We were 7 feet from the locker, just passing outside the staff toilet when there was a huge explosion and the door was blown clear of its hinges!

Smoke, smell and particles of paper and unidentifiable brownish stuff was sticking to everyone and everything!

Fortunate for me Ms. Shelley, proved to be an ideal shield and I was miraculously untouched by the debris from the explosion in the washroom.

For a second the whole place was silent, it seemed like an hour, and then there was mayhem.

Kevin was standing next to the door wearing a raincoat and signaled to me to run!

Not thinking I attempted to bolt.

“And where do you think you are going”, Ms. Shelley said in a voice that I am pretty sure was that of the evil wicked witch of the west from the Wizard of Oz.

“Oh, uh, I was just going to go and check the washroom to make sure that nobody was hurt”, I said looking at Kevin with that look of despair that says I’ve been busted again!

“Sure you were darling”, Ms. Shelley said with that twisted, scratchy, evil voice of the wicked witch.

“No really I was”, I protested with the most innocent look I could summons up given that the hallway, everyone in it EVEN Ms. Shelley, was covered in what I could only assume was not cake batter.

We stopped in front of my locker and by that time everyone was looking at it and me!

There must have been 500 people crammed into the hallway.

The Jazz band continued to play and there was now even a lady selling ice cream and candy floss walking through the stunned yet excited students, some of whom were getting very smelly as the cake batter substance covering them began to drip and slide down their bodies.

Surprisingly my locker was clean, there was not a single speck of debris on it.

“Young man open the locker”, Ms. Shelley said in anticipation.

Then almost spontaneously, like the explosion Kevin rigged, the crowd began to chant, “op-en-it, op-en-it, op-en-it…”

I removed my lanyard from around my neck and gingerly pushed the key into the slot.

Ms. Shelley was tapping her foot to what I am pretty sure was the tune the jazz band was playing making me think she invited them!

As I turned the key the crowd went silent.

You could have heard a pin drop.

I know you could have heard a pin drop because what I could hear was the sound of droplets of that cake batter like substance splattering to the floor off of Ms. Shelley and pretty much everyone else who was in the hallway.

The droplets falling sounded like rain but had a very different smell.

And the smell was getting stronger and stronger.

The latch of the locker gave way and the door slowly began to fall open.

The crowd was no longer silent but gasping collectively in anticipation.
Even Ms. Shelley was gasping, but I suspect that she was gasping because the increasing smell was minutes away from overcoming her.

I know what you are thinking.

Why would I put Erin’s stuff in my locker!

But I wanted to know why I was the convicted suspect?

It was Abdullah who brought in the pet squirrel and then the fire ants.

And why would I put Erin’s stuff in my locker in the first place?

“Come on speed this up”, Ms. Shelley said.

The jazz band drummer began a tight drum roll and everyone was stretching to get the best possible view of my locker.

As the door swung open there was a collective sigh of disappointment.

Even I was a bit disappointed almost starting to believe myself that somehow I had taken the contents of Erin’s locker and put them in mine.

But there was something odd about my locker and even Ms. Shelley clued into that, although she didn’t let on about it just then.

Just under the hole punch on the front right hand corner of the locker was a scratch mark just like the one in Erin’s locker and this one said 0192ac4d.

“Hmmm… there is something fishy here”, said Ms. Shelley.

“Actually it smells a lot more like fetalizer from a cow…” before I could finish Ms. Shelley shot back “don’t get smart with me I know you are up to something Max I’m watching you.”

And just like that Ms. Shelley was gone the crowd dispersed.

“Where is my stuff”, Erin asked as she walked back to her locker.

It was when she let out another scream and my locker door slammed shut that I knew something was going on.

Erin’s locker was once again full and the scratched code in my locker was gone!

The hand was back on my ear, “to detention darling”, Ms. Shelley said smiling.

The Noise

After that morning thumb wrestle I had a nagging feeling that something was up!

The first clue was me loosing a thumb wrestle with my Dad.

Me losing is about a likely as seeing a flying camel in art class, ok English, well maybe in science… you get the idea.

Once Dad was out of sight I tentatively sized up my locker.

I had been in it not more than 10 minutes ago and all seemed to be in order.

I was sure if I cracked the locker open it would be a whole different story.

It took me a while and 3 detentions to come to the conclusion that there was something off about my locker.

The first time I began to get suspicious was when we were sitting in English class reading a poem about a chocolate cake.

Not any chocolate cake but a flying chocolate cake with green icing.

There is little doubt that Ms. Shelley our English teacher is mad, and I don’t mean angry.

If you were not a bit mad would you have a class read a poem about a chocolate cake, then buns, then bread and finally pasta, all chocolate, and then find a link to Shakespeare and the Merchant of Venice?

The guy had to eat Ms. Shelley said and what did her eat?
You’ve got that right!

Well it was in the middle of that very poem, line 74 to be exact, when Ana looked at me and then Kevin looked at me and I looked at then and figured that someone was once again eating too many beans for lunch and again I was catching the blame for the odd odor in the room.

But I hadn’t farted, I save all those for science class there are fume hoods there.

The questioning glares were coming my way from the crack undercover commando team because they heard something in the hall.

Ms. Shelley was so busy describing how the green icing rolled off the plate and onto the hand of Shakespeare as he wrote pretty much every poem that she didn’t see Ana take a look out the window using a mirror attached to a telescopic pencil and some kind of computer gizmo on her mobile phone wrist watch.

The hall was clear she signaled as the class began to get wrestles and a bit hungry as the poem now moved onto some other sweet food item, all of the poems in the class had been about some kind of food that has a calorie count of at least 1500 a serving.

Kevin slipped a funny looking hose to Ana that she plugged into her watch and the hose, like a snake, slithered under the door of the class and into the hall.

As Ms. Shelley seemed to come back to earth and do a bit of yodel, like something out of the sound of music, Kevin signaled to pull the snake back and everyone broke into a state of hysteria as the clock counted down to home time.

Just as the bell went Ms. Shelley shouted, “about time, oh did I say that out loud or in my head”, I passed her a package of well-expired Oreos to which she thanked me and ran out of the class as if she had fire ants in her pants.

Abdullah was laughing with a sly grin in the corner of the class, the same Abdullah who put a squirrel in Ms. Shelly’s desk, making me think that there was a good chance those fire ants were there.

Well Ana, Kevin and myself huddled in the corner and the discussion returned to the sound.

There was no doubt the sound had come from my locker.

But Kevin had been watching it all day because he wanted the Oreos so he knew there was nothing in it that might make such a racket.

Sam’s locker maybe.

Sam had been know to leave a kiwi bbq in his locker for over 40 days and aside from an interesting smell there seemed to be books and things moving.

And what was really cool was that everything was covered in an orangey moss that had a striking resemblance to Elmo!

But my locker was clean and Kevin could certify that.

Just as we were going to go and give the locker a good kick and open it like we were samurai there was a huge scream and panic in the hall.

Our first thought was that Ms. Shelley had forgotten where she put down the packet of Oreos, but no the commotion was coming from way down the hall close to the ping pong table.

Standing in front of her locker Erin could not believe her eyes.
The locker was empty. Nothing was in it.

No books, no lunch, no shoes NOTHING, absolutely nothing.

Well not absolutely nothing there was a scratch mark of sorts that if you cupped your hands over your eyes to shade them from the florescent lights looked like it said 2375.

MAAAAAAAAX was what was being screamed in the hallway.

As I ran to the end of the hall thinking I had won some sort of voucher I saw Ms. Shelley standing there, looking and tapping her long freshly manicured fingers, with one slightly chipped nail reflecting light into my eyes and almost blinding me.

“Young man explain this!”

“Uhhhh, maybe when you were reading the poem your nail got caught on a page?”

“Oh what, oh what have I done to deserve this”, Ms. Shelley said looking at her finger and then pulling a bit of Oreo cream out from under a fingernail.

“Young man why is your locker number in this absolutely spotless locker which 35 minutes ago had so much stuff in it that it might have been a fire hazard?”

Ana looked at me, Kevin looked at me and in unison whispered, “you’re on your own”.

“Uhhhh maybe Mr. Howsley has taken the stuff to use as a cultural display?”

“Young man march” Ms Shelley said.

The Security Guard

You know before all of this, happened, not only did I think I was an ordinary 11 year old boy, I thought I was pretty boring and just average.

But don’t believe me, you be the judge.

This is what my morning looks like 5 days a week.

Mom wakes me and Dex up at 6:15.

Dad comes into our room fresh from the tub and does a Hawaiian dance.

I answer the call of nature because you cannot put Mother Nature on hold, I have tried and it ended in disaster.

Brush my teeth; my Dad says for 2 minutes I do it as fast as I can.

Then I get dressed, now more than ever I wear clean underwear.

Next I pack the lunch that my Dad has laid out on the cutting board in the kitchen, and try to sneak a few more goodies in, like a brownie or a bucket of icing.

I then wait behind my brother to make a waffle for breakfast.

I eat my breakfast.

Then I feed the dogs.

Then if I am lucky I read for 5 minutes exactly.

Dad calls and says that Bono is here and he is leaving with or without me and I rush to put on my shoes.

I get into the car, tune the radio to Cat Boy and my Dad and I head off to school.

See what I am saying?  My life is one big ordinary routine of an 11-year-old kid.

But once I get to school, now, it is all different, strange in a way and sometimes really exciting in a weird way.

Come closer, look over your shoulder and make nobody is reading this and let me share the secret.

One more time check behind you to make sure it is just you and me.

OK here it goes.

Remember I was telling you about the space between the imaginary and the real before?

Remember? Here is what I said last time I spoke to you, I have a mind like a safe.

“I happened onto something that most people will never experience, even some I have shared this with have not seen it for themselves but believe, just because.
Sometimes you just have to believe and when you do drop your guard, just a little, in that instant something akin to magic enters the empty space and plays all sorts of tricks on you, some real and some I am sure imaginary. The problem is figuring out where the imaginary begins and the real stops.”

Well this space between the imaginary and the real is actually a real space! Yes it is 100% real.

No I have not been there.

No I have not met anyone from there either.  Well nobody I can prove is from there, yet.

But I have good reason to believe that there is a place, there is something there and there is a strange link between my school and that space between the imaginary and the real.

And just like in Ben 10 where there are those people called the plumbers, I think there are more people than just me who know about this place.

And what is really interesting is I think that something is communicating with me and someone or something else is doing its best to make sure that that communication doesn’t happen but also that I don’t tell anyone about what I know!

This is not a conspiracy theory I don’t even know what those are.

I know what you are thinking, Max go back to your books you seem to be living in them. Max you are off your rocker. Max you have eaten too much soup your brain is turning into a big noodle. You need to go see a doctor!

Hear me out because I was also very skeptical and though that maybe I had read a few too many books or seen “The Chronicles of Narnia” too many times and even I was starting to think that those ideas might be for real, when everyone knows they are just the product of a twisted imagination probably fueled by too many cans of mean beans.

Before I even realized what I had found, stumbled upon really, something was working very hard to distract me and erase any evidence before I could put 1 and 1 together.

My first inkling that things were not as they seemed at school was the morning 2 months ago when I arrived at 7:30 as usual and there was a new security guard, Charles.

I am sure Charles is a nice guy, he smiles and he nods hello BUT there is something about him, he always seems to have his eyes on me and an extra eye on my Dad.

I know you are saying that would seem to fit, Charles the security guard watching me, he is the security guard.  But I think Charles is not really Charles and that the security guard position is just a clever cover so that someone or something can keep a very close eye on me.

Charles even makes my Dad sign into the school when he drops me off.  Not because he really needs to know my Dad is there but I am convinced he want s to know exactly when I arrive and when I leave.

I was tipped off to something being up when my Dad couldn’t pick me up after school and I had to take the bus or get a ride from another person.  On those days there is no clear record of my whereabouts with Charles, no sign in and out by Dad, and on those days every time I turn around there he is, big, bold and watching out of the corner of his eyes, Charles is everywhere I am.

And then this morning the truth was revealed in a split second.

That crack between the real and imaginary must have slipped because right outside the student entryway to the school there was a broken bottle.  But there are no glass bottles at school, there had been no students before or after me and there was no broken bottle when I entered the building. But before I could make sense of what was going on Charles was there cleaning up the evidence.

But why?  What is he scared of?  And why me?