It was the first day of the third quarter, which meant that we students were assigned new special classes like Drafting and Art. This time it was Home Economics. Since my friends Aelita and Starfire have it with me, we walked to class together.
"I heard that there's a new Home EC. teacher this year. I don't know her name, though," I said as we walked down the hall, books in hand.
"Probably a weird old lady or someone fresh out of college, " Aelita added.
"Hey guys," Star said under her breath, "Look who it is."
It was getting close to class time, so the halls were nearly empty. The only people we saw were Luke and his moronic friend, Elliot. It's amazing how much we… how should I put this nicely?… dislike him. He's always going around making fun of people. Even the teachers are sick of it. He was all talk, though, and it's been proven. Once, he threatened to beat my friends and me up and we accepted his challenge. Do you know what he did? He made some stupid little comment and walked away. Come to think of it… he walked away from us rather quickly!
Luke took one look at us and started whispering something to Elliot. I just gave him my most deathly stare. My friends are always telling me that I have the most vicious and dangerous stare they've ever seen.
"What are you looking at?" He said, then he started to walk away.
"Yeah, go ahead. Just walk away. You seriously need to get a life," I said after him.
"Hey, Stick. You'd better watch it," He sneered.
"Wow. Stick. That's original. By the way, loose the drone," I nodded towards Elliot. "He's an embarrassment. Even to you."
Luke took a step towards us.
"If you want a fight," Star said, advancing, "Just ask."
He walked away, Elliot trailing along.
"What a loser," Aelita said as we went to class.
The thing is that we have the advantage.
Star can shoot water or fire from her hands. Whichever she prefers. She can also charge it up and make the blast stronger by holding the fire/water ball in her hand for a few seconds before launching it. Starfire can revive people or heal them, but it takes a lot of her energy.
Aelita is a little different. She is able to use telekinesis to move things.
Whenever I want, I can make the nails on my hands grow to be up to a foot long. The cool thing is that they're a silver color and razor sharp. I guess my nails are really hard, too, because they're really strong and never even scratch.
A few seconds later, my friends and I walked into the Home EC. room right as a woman in her late forties was about to write her name on the chalkboard.
"Hello, girls," she said in a falsely cheerful voice. There were only two other girls in that class: Danielle Zimmerman and Julita Malinowski. They consider themselves "popular" and would never speak to "the likes of us".
"It looks as if we have a small class this quarter," the woman said. "By the way, my name is Mrs. Karlow. I thought we'd begin the lesson today by talking about the harmful effects that drugs and other chemicals of the like have on the human body."
Then she went on gabbing about who knows what. The only thing that I heard was that if you mix Zinc and Sulfuric Acid together, it will delude the acid so it wouldn't be able to eat through anything. It would also let off the awful odor that is guaranteed to knock someone out.
Ping! Ping! Ping!
Saved by the bell!
"Thank God it's over! That woman was so boring!" Star slammed her locker shut I know! I spaced out during the whole thing!" Aelita added.
"Let's go. Not that I care if we're late for science, I just don't want to deal with Mr. O 'Donnel's complaining right now," I said, rubbing my forehead.
"Raven, are you okay?" Starfire asked me half way to class.
"Yeah. It's just a headache. Now that I think about it, it started right after we came to school today. It's nothing, though."
"If you say so. Hey! Where's Mr. O'Donnel?" We had just strolled into room 404, the science lab, to find that there was no teacher present.
"You guys, something's not right here," I looked around the room. Nearly half the class was missing, not counting the teacher, and the remaining students looked lethargic.
"What is going on here?" Aelita asked no body in particular.
"I think we should get out of here," Star said.
"Wait," I stopped in the doorway. "What's that smell?"
"Geez! That stinks!" Aelita waved one hand in front of her face.
"I don't know what it is, but it's been in the building since school started," Starfire said.
"I don't like this at all. Let's go tell Mr. Preston what's going on, I suggested.
"Good idea. C'mon!" Aelita led the way as we raced down the hall to the principal's office.
I glanced into some of the classrooms only to see that the entire class, teacher included, was unconscious. When we were only half way to our destination, everything began to spin around me. My friends became a blur of colors as my headache worsened. I tried to grab onto the wall as I struggled to maintain my balance, but was overwhelmed and collapsed onto the cold tilt. Aelita and Star ran over to me and started speaking, but I couldn't understand them. I blacked out.