Attack of the Zombies (3 page)

The whole class fell about the floor laughing
at me and I thought I would just die of embarrassment when Darth
came to my rescue, I know, totally unexpected right. Yeah well, it
was unexpected by Darth too.

Darth picked himself off the floor, pointed
at me and exclaimed. "Look at the poor Little Person hiding under
the desk, is he scared of a silly little potion," and he threw the
potion up in the air so everyone could see it, and that was his
downfall.

Why? Oh right, I need to explain. We had been
making Potions of Slowness, and like I said, Darth being Darth had
turned his into a Splash Potion, but what he forgot was that to
activate a splash potion you throw it and by throwing it into the
air it activated, so when he caught it the Splash Potion of
Slowness went all over him.

The look on Darth's face was priceless. The
room went silent for what seemed like forever and then Darth moved.
At least I think he moved because it was so slow it was hard to
tell, he he.

He lifted his arm and pointed at me and said,
"Yoooouu, iiiitttt'''sss aaaallllll yyyoooouuuurrrr
fffaaauuuulllttt."

What he really said was, 'you, it's all your
fault,' but it was all drawn out, just like watching a movie in
slow motion. Well you can guess what happened next, the class just
burst their sides laughing and this drove Darth nuts. He started
coming at me, screaming as he came, 'I will kill you Little Person.
You have embarrassed me for the last time.' Well I tell you, that
could have been really scary except that it was all slowed down. By
the time Darth would have reached me I could have run all the way
back to my room, barricaded the door, had a nap, read a book,
anyway, you get the idea.

Seeing Darth moving so slowly across the
room, his face a picture of rage just made everyone laugh harder,
even Mr Larrson was rolling around on the floor, trying desperately
to get control of himself. Eventually he dragged himself to his
feet and spluttered, "Really Darth, you are incredibly entertaining
but I daresay you never meant to be. I did not give you permission
to turn your Potion of Slowness into a splash potion so as
punishment I think I will leave you like this and let the potion
wear off in it's own time. Yes, that's the answer, now class
dismissed."

We all dragged ourselves out of the
classroom, leaving Darth alone, slowly turning a deathly shade of
red. I just hope that he has forgotten about me when the potion
finally wears off - in about 4 hours!!!

No such luck. Darth was waiting for me at
breakfast this morning. He and his cronies grabbed me as I entered
the Atrium and dragged me outside.

I really think he would have killed me if Mr
Larrson had not walked past at just the right moment. Man, this guy
must think he has a full time job looking after me! Anyway, just as
Darth raised his huge fist to punch me Mr Larrson called out. "Ah
yes, Darth, nice to see you are moving a little quicker this
morning, no ill side effects I take it?"

"Ah, no sir," he replied, not letting me
go.

"Good good, carry on then."

What was he thinking, Darth was going to kill
me and Mr Larrson gave him permission, is he MAD! Well, Mr Larrson
stopped as he was about to enter the school and turned back to
Darth, "Oh, be a good chap Darth and let the Little Person go will
you, good lad."

We all stood in stunned silence - Little
Person - not again! Well, it worked, all of Darth's cronies fell
about laughing and even Darth cracked a smile, "guess it's your
lucky day, little person, run along now, before I change my
mind."

And just like that, he let me go. Death
sentence commuted, hopefully for a very long time.

"Come along Jeb, you don't want to be late
for breakfast now, do you?" Mr Larrson called to me as he turned
and strolled into the atrium.

Gathering myself I dashed after him, not
taking any chances that Darth would change his mind and deliver his
deadly blow even with a teacher still close by.

I caught up with Mr Larrson just as he was
seating himself at the teachers table. "All ok Jeb, no harm done I
hope?" he asked.

"No sir, and thank you for saving me
again."

"Yes, it's becoming something of a habit, is
it not?"

"Yes sir, sorry sir," I replied.

"That's ok Jeb. Darth is a bully, in fact he
comes from a long line of bullies, but be that as it may he still
has just as much right to be here as you. He was picked at the
Choosing Ceremony and can only be expelled at the express wishes of
Steve or by death, so you need to learn how to deal with him."

"Yes sir, I will try harder. Uh, can I ask
you a question?"

"Of course Jeb, what is it?"

"Why do you keep embarrassing me, calling me
a little person?"

Mr Larrson then gave me one of his world
famous stares, the sort of one that burns the top layer of skin off
your face. "Think about it Jeb, what would have happened if I had
just rolled in and demanded that Darth release you?"

"Uh, he would have let me go?"

"Maybe, maybe not. As I just explained to
you, bullying is not an expellable crime here at the School of
Minecraft, in fact, I do not really have any right to demand
anything of Darth outside of the classroom."

"Really! Does Darth know this?"

"Judging by his behavior I would say that he
does not. Now, by diffusing the situation with humor, even if it
was at your expense, I was able to get Darth to back down and
hopefully leave you alone for a little while."

This totally knocked the wind from my sails.
The teachers don't have any control over the students. If Darth
learns of this I will be dead before I can scream. "Uh, thanks
sir."

"You are very welcome Jeb. Now off you go and
get breakfast and I will see you in my class shortly."

And that was it, I needed to learn how to
deal with him. I suppose I should have guessed that would be the
response, after all we are learning how to become Player Avatars,
and many of us will die before graduating. In fact, many had
already died so toughen up Jeb. Yeah right, easier said than
done.

School was so quiet today, nothing really
happened. We had class like normal but no one was killed, no one
was beaten up or embarrassed. I must be going mad but I sort of
miss all the bad stuff, it really is a little boring without it.
NOT! School was

NO Death Threats, NO Embarrassing Moments and
NO Pain. How totally cool is that! Hopefully that is the end of all
the trouble and we can get on with the good stuff.

The headmaster re-opened the Survival Room
today, so lessons will commence on Monday morning. Yeah - I get to
fight Darth! Yippee - Not!

This could be my last day alive so I am going
to enjoy it. Me and Numbers are going to explore the school.
Strange, we have never really looked around the place after out
last excursion when Numbers got us lost and we walked for 7 hours,
yep 7 hours, oh did I mention that before? Anyway, I'm in charge
this time so hopefully we won't get into any trouble. Back
later.

Totally awesome dude. We hit the jackpot
today when we stumbled over this old storage room in a disused part
of the school. It was packed with School memorabilia and supplies
but hidden behind a painting on the wall we found a secret alcove,
yeah how cool is that! Anyway, in the alcove was an old book
chained to the wall, and I can tell you, we found the mother load,
The Journal of Steve. No really! Not a biography or a story but
Steve's actual journal from when he was stuck on the Overworld.

The Zombie Wars, strange, I've never heard
tell of them before, I wonder why Steve has never mentioned them?
Ah man, the book was half missing, there were pages torn out all
over the place and it looked like someone was eating breakfast
while they read it, there was tomato ketchup splashed over most of
the pages.
*gulp*
Numbers just said that
was not ketchup!

We tried to remove the book but the chain
must have been enchanted or something because however hard we tried
we could not break it. By the time we decided there was no way to
get the book out of there we only had time to read one page before
we were disturbed.

Yeah guess who came along, none other than
Darth. I don't know how he knew we were there but he burst into the
room like a mob attacking a villager. Numbers only just managed to
pull the painting back over the alcove before he saw what we were
doing. The only good thing to come out of the whole situation was
that fact I realized that Darth is just a bully. Yeah I know, we
all know he's a bully, old news, but what I mean is just like any
bully he is only powerful when he is intimidating someone he thinks
is vulnerable, so when he burst in on us, screaming and shouting he
did not know that Numbers was there also. So when he pushed me
against the wall, ready to punch me he got the shock of his life
when Numbers stepped up and said,