Preternatural (Worlds & Secrets) (7 page)

We walked through the playground in some sort of unawar
eness whilst people threw us uncomfortable glances. We were still wondering if this was some strange, bizarre joke that the entire school was planning. However absurd and unlikely that may seem, it was the only solution we could come up with.

“
I think the best thing to do is just go and put our stuff down before we have our next lesson,” Jaden suggested.

“
Seems like the only thing we
can
do,” I voiced.

We walked through the
swinging blue doors to find the halls like they usually were: students walking up and down to their lockers and conversing sometimes so loudly it sounded remotely close to squawking. We were the only ones who looked suspiciously odd, still having our trench coats on and our rucksacks on our backs as we walked up to the cloak room.

“
At least this room still hasn’t changed,” Jaden mentioned after an exasperated sigh. Jade went to the girls’ cloak room next door as we entered ours.

Jaden and I went in to hang up our coats
on the available hooks before returning outside, hoping to now stand out less. We looked almost exactly alike but extremely out of place. Before we could even head for the playground, the bell had already rung. We hung around the locker rooms waiting for Nicholas to run past as he persistently did.

“
Hey. What are you guys lingering around ‘ere’ for?” he asked as he jogged by and finally coming to a halt.

“
Waiting for you,” we replied, dull-toned and simultaneously.

“
So,” Nicholas started, drinking from his water bottle, “what do you guys need? What do you want?”

“F
irst off, Miss Strottman’s assignment was due today, yes?” I asked.

“
What are you talking about?” Nicholas asked, looking at us as if we were clearly insane.

“
What are
you
talking about?” Jaden retorted loudly, unexpectedly losing his cool and snapping into impatience. I pulled him back and calmed him down as he suddenly straightened himself to his full staggering height that clearly reduced Nick to a mouse whilst Jaden became Goliath.

“
Miss Strottman got the sack ages ago. We’re in Miss Georgina Fanwall’s class now. You know this.” Nicholas took another cool sip of water. Jaden and I glanced at each other from the corners of our eyes for a couple of seconds and turned our heads back, only to see Nicholas’ face almost as confused as ours.

“
Hang on just a fuzzy moment, Miss Fanwall’s a year ten teacher. So how could we be in her class if we’re only in year nine?” Jaden demanded.

“
Ha…you guys are so,
so
funny. So I’ll tell you what: I’ll go along with your plan.
We
,” he gesticulated to Jaden, himself and me, “are in year ten, which is exactly why Miss Fanwall’s our teacher. Look,” he showed us a crest on the right side of his blazer, sewn in delicately and mentioning our school's name in all its splendour. Jaden and I noticed how all the other boys and girls in our year group coincidentally had them as well. But
was
it a coincidence? It was customary in Cressile that seniors of years ten and eleven have clovers stitched onto their uniforms.

“
We’re seniors now! So does that answer all of your eerie questions?” Nicholas sarcastically asked, grinning about what he thought was another harmless joke. On the contrary, this was actually becoming a frustrating matter.

“
Ye–”              

“
No! It doesn’t!” Jaden interrupted me. “Look, we were in school yesterday!” he snapped. He had lost his calm and subconsciously began screaming. Even I couldn’t hold him back now. Heck, I didn’t even think I wanted to. I was becoming equally enraged by all this nonsense.

“
Yes
,” Nicholas answered.

“
And we were in year nine!” Jaden finalised.

“
Nooo
! Listen, you’ve got it all wrong, mates. We’re in year ten and we have been since the beginning of September. Year nine’s long gone!” Jaden and I tapped our soles on the ground, now drained of tolerance and respect for jokes.

“
Ridiculous, isn’t it?” I uttered underneath my breath to Jaden. “Barbaric,” he seconded.

“
Anyway chaps, listen, we’ve got class now so I suggest we hurry up. Oh and here, I have two spares.” Nicholas put his hand in his pocket and handed us two palm-sized, stitched, emerald green clovers, stating:
Senior Year 10, Academic year 2014–2015: Cressile International School.

Although Jaden and I were
still looking at our clovers with incredulity and still had not understood an ounce of what was taking place (even if we were trying to behave as normal as possible), I grabbed Nicholas’wrist before he could leave to his next lesson and he rolled his eyes.

“
I’m serious if you don’t break out of character of your joke, Aden, I
will
punch you.”

“
Nicholas,” I asked, panting for no apparent reason other than surprise.

“
I think there must have been a mistake? These are a year ahead,” I pointed to the crests he gave us.

“
No. No mistake. It’s 2014.” Jaden rubbed his eyes whilst shutting them with a long and irksome moan.

“2014. What? Do you think
I was born yesterday?” I retorted. Jaden and I subconsciously scratched the backs of our heads.

“
Yeah, I know. Still takes me some time to get used to my exercises in English. You know how Mr Durell makes us number our exercises?” Nicholas asked.

“
Uh-huh,” Jaden subliminally agreed.

“
Yeah, I would think so. Except who the hell’s Mr Durell?” Jaden said, correcting what he had previously said. Nicholas sighed exasperatedly, running out of his previous newfound patience.

“
This is getting really annoying now. All right, Mr Durell is the new English teacher for upper secondary – for seniors. Look, guys, I’d love to stay and chat but we’ve got Physics in two minutes so I’ll tell you what, we can chat on the way,” he said dully.

“
Actually, we’ve got to go and see Miss Fanwall so you just go on ahead,” I responded, still clutching the clover in my hand. He ran down the corridor, about to catch up to his friends when Miss Fanwall (who seemed to be walking towards him as he ran) shot him a sharp glance. 

“
No running in the corridor,” she scolded.

“
Yes, Miss,” he replied, intimidated and slowing down respectfully.

Physics? Mr Durell? Miss Strottman getting sacked?
Had the world gone mad?!

Jaden and I look
ed at each other again before quickly running off to the girls’ locker room, hammering our fists against the swinging doors.

“
Jade! Jade, come out – we have something to tell you,” we screamed.

“
What’s wrong, fleas?” she exhaled as soon as she opened the doors. I put the clover in front of her eyes and she rapidly read its text in her head.

“
But that’s impossible. It’s 2013. Now I know it
must
be a prank,” she said, trying hard to convince herself.

“
No, it isn’t,” Jaden immediately countered.

“
Look –” he continued, dragging Jade forward to the direction Miss Fanwall was walking. I quickly followed. We slowly approached Miss Fanwall: a middle-aged frizzed brunette woman with a glowing smile and eyes nearly always squinted due to her constant beam.

As soon as she caught sight of us
, she opened her eyes and mouth in total relief, as if seeing us was the prize of the year. Frankly, I was lost here because she had seen us yesterday – therefore I didn’t understand the enormous grin that was spread across her face. Jade was her favourite student and being her two brothers, Jaden and I gained some leniency from her.

“
Jade, what are you doing here?” she asked, approaching my sister with her arms wide open and embracing her in a tight hug.

“
Ow…
intruding comfort zone
!” Jade mouthed to us behind Miss Fanwall’s back.

“
How have your A-Levels been?” she asked. Jade narrowed her eyebrows in confusion.

“
A-Levels? Um, Miss Fanwall –”

“
Boys, why are you so late? It’s not a very much appreciated entrance. Do you have an excuse?” she asked.

“
Y-yes –” Jaden stuttered.

“
The dentist’s,” I quickly interjected without hesitation.

“
School policy says you need a note from a parent or guardian. Do you have one?” she automatically responded with not a second to lose. I turned my head slowly towards Jaden.
What
mess had I just gotten myself into? Thinking was not a hobby of mine.

“
Improvise!” I said through gritted teeth to Jaden. But he didn’t comprehend. I smacked my hand onto my face and sighed out of
extreme
annoyance.

“
Well –” I said whilst digging my hand into my pocket. Suddenly, my eyebrows furrowed. There was something in my pockets that felt out of place. It wasn’t the usual pieces of gum in wrappers, neither little sweets – but what felt like a very neatly folded piece of paper. I pulled it out and opened the note. I skimmed through it, not caring about the contents (for the handwriting was too ghastly to decipher) so I just skipped to the bottom. That’s when I realised things were severely wrong today. The note – in fact the
letter
– was signed ‘Angelina Blue’. 

I stared at the note in dismay but
I was also very bemused. I couldn’t delay otherwise Miss Fanwall would become suspicious of anything I wasn’t aware of for some reason. And so would Jaden and Jade. I handed Miss Fanwall the note, with my eyes still trailing after it. She took out her reading glasses and saw the signature.

“
Okay, I see your mother still has the same signature from high school,” she said.

“
You went to school with our mother?” Jade asked. Miss Fanwall nodded back.

“
Ow,” Jaden mumbled, breaking the awkward silence between us and Miss Fanwall.

“
What’s wrong?” she interrogated.

“
My molar – it’s aching,” Jaden replied.

“
Oh, maybe you shouldn’t have come to school the same day you went to the dentist. Would you like to go home?” she asked.

“
Well, I don’t mean to cause a fuss,” Jaden pretended, with his hand to his left cheek.

“
I assume you went to the dentist’s as well. I think you should also rest. Would you like to?” she asked me.

Jaden looked at me
viciously in such a way that said:
say yes, say yes.

“
Yes? Yes. Please,” I replied unconvincingly.

“
Okay,” she said, all chipper and utterly too bubbly for my liking, “I’ll go make a phone call. So, Jade, how’s your new sixth-form working out?” At that specific point, I knew this couldn’t be a joke. I mean seriously – a teacher was involved in this ‘advanced year’ misunderstanding. Jade was a year away from sixth-form and it wasn’t even April fool’s day to be making such a baffling prank.

“
Sixth-form, what do you mean sixth-form?” Jade stammered, “I’m still in year eleven. You do know that, don’t you, Miss?” A terror-stricken look was on her face as she glanced at us for some sort of explanation. 

“
Oh, Jade,” Miss Fanwall said with a soft chuckle.

“
What?” Jade asked.

“
You can’t let go, can you? Don’t worry, I’m sure you’ll get used to being away from this place after a while. I must say, however, that I was extremely proud to hear of your six A stars and five A’s in your final examinations. Best results out of the whole year group.” Miss Fanwall beamed a radiant smile that knocked Jade’s face from confused to damn near emotionally terrorised. Jaden and I looked at each other again, even more emotionally undone than our sister.

“
Um, Miss Fanwall, if you don’t mind could we make that phone call to our mother? My toothache is starting to get to my head,” said Jaden.

“
Yes, of course! Look at me standing around here blabbing on. Follow me.”

The teacher
walked ahead whilst we followed her eagerly. She clutched documents to her chest as she led us to the reception. Jade still seemed shocked and unaware of the circumstances that had mysteriously happened. We made a stop at a blue painted door with a triangular sign reading “Reception” in white writing. Miss Fanwall swung the door open only to reveal a wide room with a broad, brown, polished desk that seemed to be nearly half the size of the neatly furnished office.