Dear Reader: The following snippets are rough draft chapters of my current WIP MG fiction novel CAUGHT IN THE ACT: THE SPELL.
Chapter 9
“I’ve never failed a spelling test,” Elyse whined as they walked down the hall. Her voice was so loud that other students moved out of the way leaving a wide path for them. “I’ve never even gotten a B on a spelling test. Or any test for that matter!”
“Good grief,” Josh said. “It’s not like it’s the end of the world.”
“I know I spelled the words right. Who wouldn’t know how to spell the word gallantry?”
“Did you trying talking to Mrs. Bowers? She’s pretty cool about stuff like that.” Travis finished the rest of his banana and threw the peel in the trash can beside his locker.
Around them the other students of Jefferson Middle School talked and laughed, only throwing slanted glances their way. Some were busy trading one set of books for another and talking a mile-a-minute, trying to catch up on the day’s social update. Others were racing through, hoping to get to class with enough time to finish last night’s homework assignment before the bell rang.
“Yeah, and she showed me the answer key. It was wrong. It has to be.” Elyse opened her locker.
“I had a similar thing happen last night. I was helping Lacey look up some words in the dictionary, and the ones she needed weren’t there.” Josh traded his English book for his science text and latched his locker back.
“Sometimes, depending on the dictionary, not all the words are there. You have to use a bigger dictionary.” Elyse looked at her reflection in her small locker mirror as she slicked on a fresh application of lip gloss.
“Yeah,” Josh nodded. “That’s what I told Lacey. She had one of the bigger ones. I looked for the words. They were missing.”
“Well, maybe it’s not a new enough edition,” Elyse added.
“No. Really. I mean actually missing. Like there was a space for the words to be there, but they weren’t. It was just this blank rectangle of white space.” Josh motioned with his hands to illustrate the point he was trying to make.
“Seriously?” Travis asked as he rattled the wrapper of an oatmeal cream pie. He looked like he was trying to decide if he should eat it now or not.
“I think it has to do with Noah Webster.”
“Oh, give me a break. Are we back to that?” Elyse slammed her locker closed and walked away without a second word.
“Yes,” Josh answered after her, as she disappeared down the hall. “And I have to go back again. Travis, I need your help. We have to get lunch detention again today.”
“What? Oh no-o-o. It’s pizza day.”
“Ms. Abbernathy will bring us lunch.”
“Not enough,” Travis ripped open the cream pie and stuffed it, whole, into his mouth. Without hardly chewing, he gulped. “Can’t we do it another way?”
“I only went back one other time.” Josh started walking down the hall toward science. “And it was on a plane. I don’t think I can recreate that. We’ll have to do detention.”
“Fine,” Travis said as they sat down in class and fished a granola bar out of his backpack.
“Thanks. I owe you one.”
“Yup.” Travis looked around. “Where’s Elyse? Is she getting out of science to do that volunteer peer counseling?”
“I think that was last week, the day we got detention. Remember, she wasn’t in here?”
“Yeah. She’d have reamed us. She takes her job as peer counseling leader a little too far sometimes.” Travis muttered.
“Here she is,” Josh dipped his head toward the front of the classroom. Announcing that she was in the room hadn’t been necessary. She wasn’t hard to miss, banging open the door, tramping over, and slumping in her seat.
“Where have you been?” Travis asked.
“Never mind.” Elyse flipped open her science text and ignored them.
Josh leaned over to ask her a question, but was stopped by Ms. Abbernathy coming into the room. Her billowing dress swished out behind her as she hurried to her desk and picked up her spiral-bound teacher book. Josh chuckled to himself, remembering the first day of school when Travis had leaned over and whispered, “Look she’s wearing a cape.” And today was no different. It was like she was trying to hide in the fabric.
Her hair was different though. Every day since the first day of school, her hair had hung down in brown and gray strands with a clip to hold it in place. But today it was pulled back and wound in a tight bun. It was so severe that it seemed like the skin on her face was stretched, making her never-before-noticeable nose stand out.
“Today, class, we are having a pop quiz. Get out a piece of paper and number it to forty-five.”
The class erupted with noise. Everybody had something to say. Even the kids who could care less whether there was a quiz or not, had something to add. Elyse was even shocked, and she could pass any test in her sleep.
“SILENCE!” Ms. Abbernathy yelled.
The class gasped in unison and sat back in their desks.
Josh raised his hand. Detention time, he thought and nodded, when he saw Travis do the same.
“Number 1. What page in your text book can you find information on the solar system? Number 2. Who is Louis Pasture?” Ms. Abbernathy continued without waiting for anyone to write the answer. Kate on the other side of the room was already in tears. “Number 3. What is the water cycle? Number 4—”
Josh waived his hand a little higher in the air, hoping Ms. Abbernathy would see.
“What?” Ms. Abbernathy snapped.
“Why are we having a quiz? Is it because it’s Friday?” Josh asked.
“How dare you question me? I am the professor, the teacher.”
“I was just wondering.” Josh frowned at Travis.
Travis shrugged his shoulders.
“Well, maybe you’re wondering what a ruler across your hand would feel like. Maybe you’d like to get the strap.”
“What?”
“Come up here young man.” Ms. Abbernathy walked to her desk and pulled open the top middle drawer.
“Ms. Abbernathy, I was just wondering. I’m not saying we can’t have the quiz. I just wanted—”
“Mr. Talbert, I will take no more of this. You come up here now or the punishment will be much worse.”
“Punishment?” Josh didn’t know what to do. “I’m sorry. I—I— Can’t I just have detention or something?”
“There is no detention in this classroom.” Ms. Abbernathy pulled a wide thick ruler from the drawer and stalked to Josh’s desk. “Hold out your hand.”
Josh scooted to the far side of his seat.
“Ms. Abbernathy, is this really necessary?” Elyse pleaded.
“You be quiet missy or you’re next.”
“Mr. Talbert, hold out your hand.”
Josh shook his head and tucked his hands against his body.
“I’ll do it myself.” Ms. Abbernathy grabbed his wrist and slammed his hand down onto the desk. Whack, whack, whack the ruler whipped through the air and stung Josh’s palm with each hit. “Now, back to the quiz,” Ms. Abbernathy commanded the quiet, stunned class.
Josh squeezed his eyes shut until the pain subsided enough to tolerate. He didn’t exactly feel like crying but looking at his hand he could have. The whole inside of it was red and stinging. The only part that wasn’t was the crescent shaped burn. It was white and throbbing.
