Guardian Angel Academy (9 page)

Chapter 16

Angel Walter announced that we will be taking our final exam for Mind instillation 101.  Those who pass will go on to Mind instillation 201 next week.  Those who fail, will retake Mind instillation 101. 

“For our final we will watch a movie of a girl who was helped through mind instillation from her guardian angel.  I would like you to write on your paper what you think the angel did to help her.”

The lights went out, the movie began.  A girl named Patty in her early twenties was driving home one night from her job.  As she was driving over a bridge, she noticed a small orange light underneath the bridge.  She kept driving but then started to turn around.  She drove back to the bridge and got out of the car, to see a car had slid off the bridge and was in the ravine.  She quickly dialed 9-1-1 and emergency personnel came to help save the three survivors of the five people in the accident.  Lives were saved because of her actions.

The lights turned back on.  Okay, write down what you think the guardian angel did.

This is what I wrote:  I believe the guardian angel told Patty to stop.  When she kept driving the angel then told her to stop and turn around and go back  She followed the prompting and lives were saved.

For the final in Controlling the Elements, we went to the practice rooms  We were to each choose a partner.  I chose Journey.  Kevin and Alex were partners.  We were to save our partner's life by controlling the elements, as we had before.  Our partner would be in a scenario that would seem so real and we were to watch and go into the scene saving our partner when the time was right.

Journey decided to go inside the practice room first.  I watched outside, getting ready to go inside at any moment.

The scene began with Journey asleep in a bed.  Smoke filled the air around her as the kitchen of the house had caught on fire.  I tried to think quickly of what to do.  The fire was coming closer to her room.  Journey woke up coughing and straining for air to breathe. She looked toward the door and saw the flames headed her way.  Quickly she went to the window and pulled up the blind.  She tried to open the window but it wouldn't budge.  Quickly I pushed up the window with a strong gust of air.  Journey jumped out of the window, pushing the screen out as she went.  She hurried out onto the front lawn and away from the house.

The scene turned back into a practice room.  Journey and I  came out of the practice room, relieved that we had passed that portion of the test.  Next it was my turn to be the subject and Journey to save me.

I nervously walked inside the practice room, butterflies fluttering inside my stomach.  I stood still in the quiet room.  Then, all of a sudden I found myself in a terrible storm, maybe a tornado.  Would Journey know what to do to save me?  I decided to duck down close to the ground.  I saw other people motioning and yelling at me to come into the root cellar.  I tried to walk that way, but the wind just pushed me back the other way.  Shutters flew off windows and gates banged open and shut.  I prayed, please help me!  Then it happened.  The wind that was pushing me away shifted and I was pushed toward the root cellar.  The wind nearly lifted me off my feet, forcing me to run quickly.  I scrambled in and the lid of the cellar was shut tight.  Huffing and puffing, I was safe inside with the other people.  Then it was over and I was once again in the bare practice room, with Journey at my side. 

“Thank you for saving me,” I said.  “How did you do it?”

“I actually was able to direct the wind to blow the opposite way.  I'm not sure how I did it, but it worked!”

“Well, that was amazing!” I said.  “Wait until I tell the boys about this.”

As Journey and I floated out of the practice rooms, we met up with Kevin and Alex who were also floating toward our next class.  We all had Glowing class next.  “So, did you guys pass?” I asked.

“We did,” said Felix.  “It's always kind of scary to have to do those near death experiences.”

“I know what you mean.  Even though we know we can't die again, it is still frightening.  What happened to you guys?” Journey asked.

“I was in a terrible train crash,” said Felix, “But Kevin helped me get out alive.”

“Yes, and I was in an earthquake,” said Kevin.  “How about you guys?”

“I was in a tornado and was able to get to safety thanks to Journey causing the wind to shift and Journey was in a house fire.” I said.

“Wow,” said Felix.  “Well I wonder which of us will pass glowing today.”

“I think you all will except me,” said Kevin. 

We got to the classroom and Professor Angel Jeremiah greeted us.  “Today for our final you will need to glow up the room and stay so for twenty minutes.  You will be timed.  Those of you who succeed will pass the Glowing course and not need to take anymore glowing classes.  You who do not succeed will need to take this class again next week.  Get ready to start.  As soon as the lights go off, you may begin.  The lights in the room went off and everyone began to glow.  With everyone glowing it was very bright in the room. Professor Angel Jeremiah watched us while the time clicked by.  After about ten minutes, some of the students started dropping out.  Each student whose glow went out were eliminated and were required to take the course again next week.  Up through the brightness, I looked at Kevin and he was still glowing.  I had hope that he, too, would make it.  We continued to glow until the time was up.  Kevin, Journey, Felix and I all made it.  We excitedly gave each other a high five.

The final in suicide prevention consisted of a written exam.  We were given twenty-five scenarios and were to write down what we would do to save the potential victim.  If the answers were solutions that would indeed work, we were given full credit.  Otherwise we were marked off.

After class, I walked out in a daze.  “I think I did pretty good, but it's hard to tell,” I turned to Journey. 

“I know what you mean,” she replied.  “We can only hope that we passed.”

We floated to the lunch room.  “This floating is getting easier.  I don't have to float-walk anymore.  I can actually float all they way there.”

“Me, too,” said Journey.  “It so beats walking.”

We sat at our usual table with Felix and Kevin.  “Four more classes and week one is over.” said Kevin.

“Yes, I'm looking forward to relaxing this weekend and just taking it easy,” I said.

“It will be fun,” said Felix  “I hear they have some fun games and activities for us to do.”

“I also look forward to visiting my  family, those who've passed anyway.”

“Don't you wish you could go back and talk to your husband, what's his name, sometimes?” asked Felix.

“You mean Nick?” I asked.  “Sure I do.  I'd love to.  But I know he's got to live the rest of his life without me.”

“That is the tough part,” said Journey, “You miss him and it may be years before you are together again.”

“I guess you don't have those worries, Kevin, seeing you haven't lived yet.” Felix said.

“No, I can visit all my family.  They haven 't gone to earth yet either.  Who knows when my turn will be, but I can guess that in about 20-30 years from when my Mom goes down to earth.”

“Do you know how often we get to visit our family members in the Spirit World?” I asked.

“I think every Sunday we get to visit them.””

Angel Jeremiah greeted us and passed out a written final exam.  We were given various scenarios and ways in which we should react to the situations, all involving evil spirit confrontation.  It was all multiple choice and I was glad.  That just seemed easier to me.  I didn't feel like I knew a lot about evil spirits and hoped I wouldn't ever have to learn about them.  But I surely wanted to be prepared for anything.

I was glad to get to choir.  No one could fail choir.  I enjoyed choir class.  I loved the music and I loved singing.  Surely an angel would feel out of place if he or she didn't enjoy singing.  I also loved to play the piano which I had the opportunity of doing from time to time.  Journey was excited to start learning to play the harp. 

“For our final, we will sing all of the songs we know so far, by heart and those who can, will float as if on risers.” Angel Crystal took charge of class today.

Most of us were able to float.  Others had to stand on the floor.  Journey and I decided to go to the highest level and float while we sang.  A few other of our roommates joined us.

“I think I will definitely get over my fear of heights now that I know nothing bad will happen if I fall.” I said.

“Yes, you will just float, you won't fall at all,” said Journey.

Angel Heather greeted the class.  “We will get started with the Float-sit Exam.  When I say to begin you will float-sit from where you are in front of your chairs.  Those who make it for the whole 5 minutes, will pass this portion of the final exam.  “Ready, begin,” she motioned for all to start by waving her arm downward.  I began float-sitting.  I looked around the classroom.  Some students made it look easy, as if just sitting on a chair.  Others looked like they were straining to keep sitting upright.  Others were somewhere in between.  I remember as a human, doing the sitting against the wall exercise.  That's how float-sitting felt to me at first.  But not now.  I was improving.  Five minutes ticked by slowly, or at least it seemed so.  But, finally the five minutes were up and those of us still float-sitting passed.  About 75% of the class passed.

Next we went on to the 5 minute mile.  We floated out to the field and lined up at the starting line..  The trumpet blasted and we all started floating as fast as we could around the track.  As I floated, I hummed one of our choir songs.  Finally I hit the finish line before the 5 minute bell went off.  I made it!

Next was the float-standing portion of the test.  This time we were to float-stand in the air without touching the ground for at least 5 minutes.  “Ready, begin!” said Heather.  Once again, five minutes seemed like a long time, but finally the bell went off.  I made it!

Journey, Felix, Kevin and I were all happy that we passed Floating 101 and would be able to go on to  Floating 201 next week.  The better we got at floating, the closer we felt like we were flying.  It was a super power.

Next was invisibility.  We went to the practice rooms for the final.  We were to make ourselves invisible when Professor Occult requested it.  Then, when Professor Occult told us to, we were to make ourselves visible in human form.  If we could do those things when asked to do it, we would pass.  Journey and I both went into our practice room.  When Professor Occult came to our room, he asked us to turn ourselves invisible.  I concentrated on it.  After a couple of seconds I was invisible.  Journey was as well.  Next, he asked us to turn ourselves to spirit person form and we both did it.  We passed.  It went well for the others in our class, too, except for one angel who presumably turned himself back into a frog instead of his human spirit form, but fortunately was able to correct himself and get back to his angel self.

After class, all four of us met up in the cafeteria for dinner.  We were all pretty relieved that we did so well in our finals.  “I think we will have a fun and relaxing weekend knowing that we did well our first week,” said Kevin.  “Now we only have seven more weeks of Guardian Angel Academy left.”

“Yes, I'm pretty excited,” I said. 

Chapter 17

It was Saturday morning.  The alarm clocks went off a little later than usual.  The sign-ups for Play Day started at 8:30 in the auditorium.  Journey and I met Felix and Kevin at breakfast at 8:00 and after eating we went to the auditorium to sign up for some of the activities.  We browsed the various sign-up booths.  One was a Flotation Ball tournament.  “Let's sign up for Floatation Ball,” I said.  The others readily agreed.  We were put on the same team and given 3:00 our time to play. 

We floated over to the next booth.  This one was a telepathy contest game.  Since none of us had taken telepathy yet, we decided to pass on that.  We floated to the next booth which was a haunted house catch the ghost game.  In this game you were to float around from room to room in a “haunted house” and shine your glow on each other.  When you ran out of glow, you had to find a charging station or super light and recharge.  Then you were to go around trying to catch the ghost before the ghost caught you.  If one of your teammates was killed by the ghost then you could rescue him or her by shining your glow on them for about ten seconds, but you had to do it carefully or the ghost may catch you while you were saving a teammate.  It was all your team against the ghost.  Then sometimes, you could be the ghost and play against the team.  It sounded fun so Journey, Felix, Kevin and I all signed up for the 1:00 game, just after lunch.

We went on to the next booth.  The next booth was the sign up booth for Invisibility Freeze Tag.  In this game you were to go to a large practice room and your team would play tag against another team.  One team of four would be It and would have to tag all of the other team of four.  You would have to rely on the sound the team members made as they floated around the room and a small ring that they wore which was always visible.  If you ran into or touched an invisible opponent, then they were tagged.  When one team member was tagged, they became visible and frozen.  For about 3 seconds after a player became visible, the other team members also became visible for 3 seconds, so they had to be careful.  Team members could unfreeze a player by touching them, but every time a visible person was unfroze, all the players were visible for 3 seconds, so you had to be careful not to be caught soon after saving someone.  That game sounded fun, so we all signed up for 11:00.

Each event lasted an hour so we had a few more time slots we left to fill.  “Let's have lunch at 12:00,” I suggested.  “And we still need to do laundry and letter writing.  We can do both of those the same hour, say 5:00.  So, we still have 9, 10, 2, and 4 that we can fill up.  At 6:00 we'll have dinner and then at 7:00 I say we go to the show.  How about you guys?”

“That sounds good,” said Felix.  “Let's check out a few more booths to fill up those four slots.”

The next booth was Angel Food Cake baking contest.  “That sounds pretty fun,” said Journey.

“I don't know,” said Kevin.  “I don't really know how to cook.  I've never cooked before.”

“That's right,” I said, “You haven't been to earth yet.”

“Well, we are on teams and you have pretty good instructions,” said Journey.  “I don't think you have to have previous cooking experience.  I could be on Kevin's team, since I like to cook, and Ally likes to cook and Ally and Felix could be on a team together.”

“Do we get to eat our creations?” asked Felix.

“Sure,” I said.

“Then I'm in,” said Felix.

So we signed up for the 10:00 competition.

The next booth was a Name That Tune contest, with hymns and choir numbers as the songs for the competition.  That sounded fun so we signed up for the 9:00 game.

“We have 2:00 and 4:00 left,” said Kevin.

The next booth was a Hoverslide.  This was like a waterslide, except instead of sliding on water, you hovered by floating just above the slide, all the way down.  Your ability to float enabled you to hover just above the surface, and therefore stay right above the slide.  That sounded like a blast so we signed up for the 2:00 slot.

The next booth was a floating race.  This was for a twenty mile race.  We all looked and each other and knew what we were thinking, I am not the fastest.  So, we passed on that booth.

The next booth was a Saving Gallery game.  Like humans' shooting galleries where a shooter tries to shoot a duck going by, only our job is to quickly float in front of the duck being shot at and let the bullet ricochet off of us and the most ducks we save the more points we get.  We thought that sounded fun so we signed up for the 4:00 slot.

“Great,” said Kevin.  “We are ready to go for a fun day.”

It was almost 9:00 so we floated over to the auditorium for the Name That Tune Competition.  Angel Crystal, Persephone and Angelique were in charge.

“The first part of our competition will be naming a tune by trivia.  We will read you a clue about the song and you have to guess the title.  We will start with three contestants from our audience,” said Angel Angelique.

There was about thirty of us in the audience so each of us had about a ten percent chance of being called up.

The first contestant is (Angel Angelique paused as she pulled a name out of a jar), “Julie.”

It was Julie, one of my roommates.

Julie went up to the contestant stand and stood by her podium and buzzer.

“The second contestant is, Kevin.”

Kevin excitedly and smiling as always, ran up to the stage and stood by the second contestant stand.

“The third contestant is Journey.”

Journey ran up to the third podium.

I was somewhat relieved, because although I wanted to play, I didn't want to be first.

“When you know the answer to the question, buzz in on your buzzer,” said Angel Angelique.

Who wrote the words to the hymn “Nearer My God to Thee?”

Julie buzzed in, “Sarah Ann Flowers.”

“That's correct for 1000 points.”

“What scripture reference were the lyrics taken from?”

Journey buzzed in, “Genesis 28, Jacob's dream.”

“That is correct for 800 points.”

“What is the name of the popular Easter hymn written in the 1700s by Charles Wesley?”

Kevin buzzed in.

“Yes?”

“He is Risen?”

“That is not it,” said Angelique.

Julie buzzed in.

“Yes?”

“I Know that my Redeemer Lives?”

“That's not it.”

Journey buzzed in.

“Yes?”

“Christ the Lord is Risen Today?”

“Yes, that's it for 500 points.”

The trivia round went on for about 10 more minutes and then Journey won first place, Julie second and Kevin third.  Next is the Name that Tune round where the music is played and we had to buzz in to guess the song.  I was chosen as a contestant along with Felix and a girl named Maria.  When it finished I won first place, Maria and Felix tying for second.

After the game was over it was time to go on to our 10:00 activity.

It was time for the Angel Food Cake baking contest.  Felix and I were on a team and Journey and Kevin were on a team.  Angel Crystal was in charge of the competition. 

“You are to create a cake.  You will be judged on taste, appeal and originality.  You may begin now.”

I looked over the recipe and Felix and I decided that we would make a standard angel food cake and cut it into three parts and fill in two parts with vanilla pudding and top it all off with chocolate ganache ( a delicious chocolate topping).  So, we got busy, me with the cake and Felix with the pudding.

Meanwhile, Journey and Kevin were making a cherry flavored angel food cake which they would pipe with whipping cream inside and drizzle cherry syrup in stripes on the top and top off with some cherry pie filling.

Another team was really trying to be original by shaping their cake in the form of a star and frosting it with silver icing and decorating it with sparkling silver candy beads.

“I hope we get to taste everyone's creations,”I told Felix.

“Yes, I don't even care if we win, just if we get to taste them all,” he replied.

When everyone finished and the time was up, we put our creations on the judging table.  Angel Crystal and two other professors were the judges.  Felix and I had named our creation the Boston Cream Machine.  Journey and Kevin's was named the Cherry Fairy.  The next one in line was called Wish Upon a Star.  After that was a creation named Simply Heaven and was all white with sparkly glittery candies on top.  Another creation was called Golden Trumpets and was shaped like a trumpet and frosted in a gold glaze. 

There were so many delicious entries I didn't know if I would get sick tasting them all, then I remembered that in my spirit body I couldn't get sick.

“You've done such a wonderful job, all of you,” said Angel Crystal.  “The awards will not really separate the best from the worse because I think they were all great.  However we will give a first, second and third place just for fun.”

“The third place winner goes to..... the Boston Cream Machine.”  Felix and I excitedly floated up to receive our sparkle medals.

“Second place goes to.....the Golden Trumpet.”  Everyone clapped and the team came forward and accepted their medals.”

“Finally, first place goes to Simply Heaven.”  Everyone clapped and they received their award.

Finally we were able to taste a sample of each.  That was my favorite part.  I especially liked the fact that I could eat all I wanted and not get fat.