Nowhere Boys (18 page)

‘What
would
he do?’ asked Raquel.

‘He’d risk life and limb to save the damsel.’

Betty wrinkled her nose. ‘Damsel?’

‘So I leapt towards her. The bus missed us by millimetres. I felt the heat of its engine as it roared past us. The world went into slow motion.’ He stopped. The next bit wasn’t so easy to talk about.

‘And then what happened?’

‘Er, that’s it, really. That’s all.’ He couldn’t talk about the fact that he’d ended up lying on top of Ellen. Just thinking about it made him nervous. His heart pounded in his chest and he started sweating.

‘Nothing else happened?’ asked Ellen, twirling her hair.

Andy was finding it hard to breathe. He jumped up. ‘Is that the bell? I’ve got to go. I’ve got a free period.’

He scampered across the oval. Free period? What kind of dumb excuse was that?

When he reached the school building, he gave a sigh of relief. All that attention had made him nervous. And the whole thing was a great big lie, anyway. He was no hero. If anything, Ellen had saved
his
life. If she hadn’t been walking along the road, he probably would have thrown himself in front of the bus.

He wiped his face with his sleeve. He felt sweaty and disorientated. He made his way to the library. He’d be safe there. Maybe he could do some research on inappropriate perspiration? Although, he had a feeling that what he was experiencing was not something that could be researched.

He took the library steps two at a time and opened the door. Good. It was quiet. He needed to sit down, read something he understood.

He made his way over to rack 530–533. The physics section was where it always was. That was a good start. He pulled out some books on string theory and particle physics. These should do it. He opened a book called
Blackholes and Timewarps
.

‘I had a free period too.’ Ellen came around from the other side of the rack, surprising Andy so much he dropped his pile of books.

‘I didn’t want to ask you in front of the others, but have you had any interesting correspondence lately?’

Andy stared at her. How had she got here so fast? ‘That would presuppose the existence of a letterbox, so, no.’

‘Or it could have been hand delivered?’

Of course. The note. He knew it had to be from her. Andy swallowed hard.

Ellen smiled. ‘What you did was amazing. I wanted to thank you, and I couldn’t find you on Facebook.’

She had such a pretty face, and he could smell that clean shampoo scent of hers again, kind of flowery and sweet.

She took a step closer, and the lights flickered on and off. Then the library was suddenly plunged into darkness.

‘Must be an electrical fault. We should go and see,’ said Andy.

Ellen took his hand. ‘Kind of romantic. Don’t you think?’

Andy did think. He thought very much. In fact, if he thought anymore he might do himself some damage. He should stop thinking.

He looked at Ellen’s face. Her slightly parted lips. If he moved his head towards her, their lips might meet. Would that be a good thing? It felt like it would be, but what would happen once he got there? Would he know what to do?

Of course he would, he told himself. It would be like positive and negative forces meeting. He moved his head towards her, but froze.

A hissing, snarling sound was coming from behind Ellen.

Andy looked up and saw a dog that looked a lot like his baring its teeth. ‘Terabyte?’

The dog snarled at them, its hackles raised and eyes gleaming in the semi-darkness.

Ellen looked at Andy, frightened. ‘What is that?’

‘Um. I think it’s my pet.’

‘
That’s
your pet?’

The dog inched across the carpet towards them. Andy’s eyes had adjusted to the darkness, and he could see now that it was definitely Terabyte. But something was wrong with him. Very wrong.

Andy pulled Ellen towards him. ‘Whatever you do, don’t look him in the eye.’

They both looked away and, to Andy’s surprise, Terabyte backed off. ‘I saw Bear Grylls do that to a rhino once,’ Andy whispered.

Terabyte growled, then leapt at them, snapping his jaws.

‘
Run!
’ yelled Ellen.

As they burst out of the library, Andy saw the school was in chaos. Kids ran down corridors, with wild-eyed dogs barking and chasing after them.

Felix, Sam and Jake emerged from the confusion and ran towards them.

A Jack Russell ran past, snapping and growling madly.

‘It’s Wiki,’ Ellen yelled, taking after him. ‘Wiki, heel!’

‘Ellen, don’t!’ cried Andy. He went to follow her but Felix grabbed his arm. ‘Let go of me,’ yelled Andy, but Felix had a vice-like grip.

He pulled a necklace with a weird glowing stone from under his shirt and started chanting. ‘
Divinity of the elements, I summon thee.’

Andy tried to wrest his arm free. Felix was going to give him a massive bruise. He had to get to Ellen. It wasn’t safe out there. The dog could attack her any second. ‘Ellen!’ he called after her.

Felix clenched Andy’s arm with one hand, and held the necklace in front of him with the other.

‘
Earth, water, air, fire
Within this stone I invoke ye place
Your greatest strength, your kindest grace.’

The fire alarm suddenly went off in a piercing shriek. Water started to splash down on them. Felix kept chanting, oblivious.

‘And while this stone remains at hand
Thou shall be safe throughout this land.

’ The stone flashed brightly. Almost immediately, the dogs stopped barking. They shook their fur, whimpered and started behaving normally.

Felix let go of Andy’s arm.

‘Did you have to do that?’ said Andy, rubbing his arm. ‘I can take care of myself.’

Felix put the necklace back under his shirt muttering, ‘Actually, you can’t.’

Jake turned to Felix. ‘What is that thing? What did you just do?’

Felix looked at them warily. ‘You won’t believe me, even if I tell you.’

‘Oh, come on,’ said Sam. ‘That thing around your neck – it stopped the dogs attacking.’

Andy scoffed. ‘The dogs stopped attacking as soon as the fire alarm came on. The high frequency affects their behaviour.’

Sam and Jake ignored him. ‘Felix?’

Felix reluctantly pulled the necklace out from under his shirt. ‘It’s a talisman, okay? Phoebe gave it to me to protect us against elemental attacks.’

‘Against what?’ asked Sam.

‘We’re being attacked by elements of nature. The storm, the bees, the crows and now dogs. They’re all part of this world. And the attacks are getting bigger each time.’

Jake inspected it. It was still faintly glowing. ‘And it actually works?’

‘Well, yeah. That’s the third time it’s saved us.’

Andy looked at it sceptically. ‘Where’s the battery?’

Felix gave him a dark stare. ‘It doesn’t have a battery. It’s powered by us all being together, and the spell I chant.’

Andy rolled his eyes. How could Felix believe such nonsense? ‘Oh, come on! The bees were driven away by insect spray, I erased the security tape with a magnet and the dogs were stopped by the fire alarm.’

The other three looked at him, unconvinced.

‘What?’ said Andy. ‘It’s obvious.’

‘Not everything can be explained rationally,’ said Felix.

‘Really? You name anything and I’ll explain it to you.’

‘Us. Here. Now,’ piped up Sam.

Andy hesitated. That was a good point. ‘Well, I’m working on that.’

Sam turned to Felix. ‘If witchy lady has powerful stuff like that, then she might know other spells. Spells that could get us home.’

‘Maybe.’

‘What do you mean
maybe
? What you just did then, that was …’

‘Magic,’ Felix finished.

‘Oh, come on!’ said Andy.

‘No, he’s right,’ said Jake. ‘Magic makes no sense – just like us being here makes no sense. So maybe magic can get us home.’ He looked hopeful.

‘Does she know what happened to us?’ asked Sam.

Felix shook his head. ‘No. Just that we’re being attacked.’

‘Maybe we should ask for her help?’ Sam pressed.

‘There’s this Book of Shadows.’

‘Book of what?’

‘It’s a book where witches keep all their powerful spells. I’m pretty sure the clue to what’s attacking us is in there.’

‘Then we need to get it,’ said Jake firmly.

‘I’ve been trying,’ said Felix. ‘But she keeps it in her back room.’

‘Well let’s break in and get it,’ said Sam.

‘And the train to Hogwarts leaves in thirty minutes,’ Andy scoffed. He felt something brush against his leg and looked down to see Terabyte, pawing at him. ‘Hey, he remembers me.’ Andy leant down and ruffled his dog’s fur.

‘Okay, fine,’ hissed Felix. ‘If you don’t believe me, you can just hang out with your dog and your girlfriend. But don’t expect me to save you if there’s another attack.’

‘Ellen’s not my girl–’

‘Hey, Andy,’ called Ellen, walking down the corridor towards him with Wikileaks in her arms.

‘Hey, Ellen,’ said Andy, turning red.

‘You want to go and do some “study” in the library?’ Ellen smiled sweetly.

Andy felt the sweat start to pour off him. He was pretty sure she didn’t actually want to study.

Felix looked at him darkly. ‘Answer your girlfriend, Andy.’

‘Sure,’ Andy said to Ellen, wiping the sweat from his forehead. He wasn’t going to listen to any of Felix’s nonsense.

He’d taken one step in the direction of the library when he saw Viv round a corner at the other end of the corridor. Her hair was dyed purple and her school uniform looked like it had been slashed with a knife. She saw Andy and raced towards him. ‘Oh my God. Get your hands off my dog, stalker,’ she yelled. ‘First you’re after me and now you’re after my dog.’

‘That’s so wrong.’ Andy protested, taking a worried sideways glance at Ellen. ‘I’m not after you!’

‘I found you in my bedroom,’ shrieked Viv. ‘And then you hang around our restaurant. You’re a total weirdo.’ She grabbed Terabyte and stormed down the corridor. ‘Just keep away from me,’ she called over her shoulder.

Ellen’s face dropped. ‘Actually, I just remembered I’ve got band practice.’

‘But you don’t play an instrument and you’re tone deaf,’ said Felix.

She glared at him and walked away.

Andy looked at Felix. Was he actually smiling?

felix:
a bona fide hell-bent-on-murder demon

Felix watched Ellen walk off. He felt a stab of pleasure that she was upset with Andy. At least now he wouldn’t have to watch them making eyes at each other. Ellen and Andy? Man, he’d love to go back to his reality just to see Ellen’s face when he told her she’d fallen for that nerd. They’d have a good laugh about it.

He sighed. He missed the real Ellen horribly. Yeah, it was great that Oscar could walk. But losing your best friend? That hurt.

The corridor was starting to fill up with kids again. Felix made sure the talisman was hidden away under his shirt. He wanted to get out of there – he didn’t want the whole of Bremin High questioning him. Andy was bad enough.

‘Come on, let’s go.’

‘We can’t just leave,’ said Andy. ‘You need a permission slip if you’re leaving before three-thirty.’

‘Well, go and ask your parents then,’ Felix snapped. ‘See how that goes.’

Andy looked hurt, but Felix didn’t care – Andy was getting on his nerves, and not just because of Ellen. The whole
science can prove everything
line made Felix want to yell,
It can’t! It can’t prove this, because science didn’t make this happen – magic did!
But then he’d have to explain how he knew that, and he wasn’t ready to do that yet. Not until he’d worked out how to change it.

Jake gave him a shove. ‘Come on, dude. Let’s go nick this Book of Spirits thing.’

‘Shadows,’ Felix corrected him.

‘I don’t care what it’s called, so long as it gets us home,’ said Sam.

The boys made their way down the corridor. The school was still in chaos. The sprinklers had been turned off but there were puddles of water all over the floor and kids everywhere. It was the perfect time to slip away unnoticed.

They were walking past the staffroom when Bates appeared at the door.

‘Boys! Hang on!’ He came out, clutching a few sheets of paper. ‘You all okay?’ A poncy little poodle trotted at his heels.

‘Fine,’ said Andy, then turned pointedly to Felix, ‘although my arm is rather bruised.’

Felix gave him a death stare. Man, if they didn’t all have to stay together he would happily leave Andy in a locked dumpster.

‘Doesn’t sound like anything to worry about,’ said Bates. ‘But I don’t know what’s brought all these dogs here. Never seen dogs behave like that.’

He picked up the poodle. ‘We’ve been looking for Pips for days, and then I find her here at school with a pack of wild dogs! Not sure what got into her. She’s normally so good-natured. My wife is going to be over the moon to see her.’

Felix noticed Jake clenching and unclenching his fists as the poodle licked Bates’s nose.

‘Thanks, Mr Bates. We’re all good,’ Felix stepped in. ‘Just got to do some study before our next period.’

‘Good. Oh, and before I forget, I need you to get these forms filled out before tomorrow.’

‘Okay, thanks, Mr Bates,’ said Felix brightly, taking the forms.

The boys waited till Bates had disappeared back into the staffroom, then stuffed the forms in their bags and made their way towards the front door.

This was their chance. They had to get to Arcane Lane, distract Phoebe and get the Book of Shadows. How they were going to do that Felix wasn’t sure. He’d been avoiding Phoebe since the day before. To be honest, he was kind of terrified about the deal he’d made with her.