A Loki'd Christmas

Harriet, Sally, Anderson and I watched horrified from the circular window in the door as a strange man in a green cape and a horned hat made his way to the makeshift stage at the front of the room. Teachers were surrounding the platform our classmates were sitting on, all our friends were pale-faced and scared, and every time a child got up to try and leave a teacher would grab them by the arm and throw them to the floor, not speaking at all, with their eyes glowing a bright, deep red.

But I'm getting ahead of myself, so let's go back to the beginning of The Day Loki Stole Christmas.

It was the last day of winter term, and our class were tiding up the classroom, sorting out lost property, and cleaning out the desk drawers. Sally, as always, was bossing Anderson around, while he scurried around trying to do everything she said.

"Move the trainers to the left, the school books to the right, the coats, hats, scarves and gloves to the centre, and the shoes can go under the table."

"Yes Sally, sorry Sally, right away Sally!"

Harriet shook her head at Anderson and stole another one of my chess pieces.

"Damnit Ben! Focus on the game!"

I shook my head and scowled at the nearly empty chessboard. Harriet had been teaching me chess, but I'd been drifting off thinking about Anderson and Sally. Everyone knew Anderson adored Sally, except for Sally, who was utterly clueless. It was nearly funny.

Suddenly, out of the corner of my eye I saw Mr. Mcdermott, who'd been slumped over his desk with coffee and a book, shoot straight up, his book dropping closed. I frowned at the sight for a moment, confused, before he spoke;

"If everyone could please drop what they're doing and go to the Sports Hall please. Assembly in 5 minutes."

Sally huffed and told Anderson to chuck the last of the books onto the table. Harriet started to pack up the chessboard and pieces into the games cupboard.

The class began to file out of the room, down the stairs and past the corridors that led to the toilets. Sally yelled at Anderson.

"Oi! Wait for me, I gotta go to the toilet."

Anderson meekly followed her down the corridor away from the rest of the group. Harriet and I went after them to make sure they didn't get "lost" and skive off school. Again.

We followed them to the toilet and waited outside with Anderson, chatting quietly. Of course, when Sally got out and saw us she yelled.

"What are they doing here?!"

Harriet grabbed her arm and said "Making sure you don't ditch the assembly and go home, Princess."

Sally pouted.

"No fair! It's not like it's going to be important! The last half hour of the last day, c'mon!"

Harriet stood firm. "No. Now come on you morons, we've all been gone for ten minutes already. One of the teachers will have noticed by now."

We ran down the last hallway and stopped by the doors to catch our breath. Anderson peered through the window and gasped, his arm suddenly flailing like a mad thing.

"The floor's moving! It's sinking into the ground and all the teachers and kids are on it! What the heck?!"

We all crowded around the window just in time to see the last of the teacher's and kid's heads sink down and disappear.

"What's happening Ben?!" Harriet shouted at me. "Why are the teacher's eyes glowing?! Why are they doing this?!"

I shrugged, "I haven't got a clue, but I'd bet that the school has a basement or something, and there's a stairwell over there we could try. And whose eyes were glowing?"

"All the teachers! Glowing bright red!"

I grabbed Anderson and Sally's arms and began to drag them over to the stairwell. "C'mon, let's go see what's going on!"

We marched down the stairs and came to another set of windowed doors. Peering through, we saw the strange green cloaked guy get to the front of the room and speak.

And that's about where you came in. Right about now.

He stood dead centre in front of the kids, "Now children, My name is Loki, and I intend to ruin the merry Pagan holiday for you earthlings, as I have never been able to enjoy a, how do you call it, 'Merry Christmas'. But I need some help. And guess what? I've chosen your little school to provide me with my mindless little slaves to help me steal Christmas! Aren't you lucky?"

Immediately, all our classmates began whinging and whining and moaning about how they loved Christmas and hated Loki and weren't going to help him ever.

Loki raised an arm and all sound in the room stopped. Everyone's mouths were still moving, but no sound was coming out. Once everyone had stopped attempting to talk, Loki lowered his arm.

"Now, as you can see, I have magic, enough to control your teachers and your voices. But for this task, I need only to hypnotise you. So it everyone could look at me."

Loki raised his other hand, which had a sceptre with a glowing blue ball of energy in it, above his head. Blue light shot out to touch each kid's head, making their eyes glow blue for a moment, until each child had been hit and Loki lowered his arm, the kid's eyes following the movement.

"Now that we're all on the same page, shall we?"

He marched towards two large double doors and threw them open, with the kids and teachers forming a crocodile to follow him through the school gates and down the road.

I turned around and slid down the wall in shock. What was he planning to do to ruin Christmas? Why had he chosen our school to gather his forces? And why was I falling over?

I snapped out of it to see Harriet shaking me.

"C'mon Ben, we gotta get upstairs and figure this out so we can stop him."

I grabbed Sally's shoulder and dragged her with us to the stairs despite her protests. "C'mon Sally, Anderson. We need to get this sorted so we can save Christmas. And right now, we need all the help we can get." Sally huffed but followed us anyway. We headed back to the classroom, and started piecing together what we knew so far, which wasn't much. We had no clue how to stop him, what his plans exactly were, and how to stop said unknown plans. We eventually decided on slingshotting them from above, outside the gates they'd left by, pelting them with snowballs to confuse them. We arranged ourselves with Sally and Anderson along the window above the door, and Harriet and I on each door, armed to the teeth with snowballs, marbles, slingshots, and a plan.

Soon, Loki and our mates appeared in the school gateway, laden with presents and decorations, which they took inside and stacked up into piles of girl, boy, tinsel, lights, and trees. Loki led them back outside, ready to send them off again in groups of ten without him, when we struck. We pelted Loki from top to toe with snow, and soon he was sneezing, keeling over, his face greeny-blue and snot dribbling out of his nose.

One of my snowballs had skimmed the shoulders of a younger girl from year 3. She blinked a few times, looked around and grabbed a handful of snow and tossed it at another girl. That girl woke up from the hypnotizing too, blinking a few times before grabbing some snow and lobbing it at her friend. I locked eyes with Harriet and nodded, both of us sending a hailstorm of snowballs towards the lines of kids and teachers, watching as the spell over them broke and they regained control of their bodies. Me and Harriet emerged from our hiding spots by the doors and hi-fived each other, before running over to Loki.

"Not so tough are you now, Mr. I'm-So-Big-And-Scary! A bunch of kids beat you!"

Sally jeered as Loki sneezed repeatedly.

"Alas, my plans have failed. Farewell younglings. I promise you, we will meet again."

And with that, Loki disappeared, leaving in his place a blue, shimmery, glittery sort of powder that was blown away by the wind.

Harriet and I exchanged a glance that conveyed the message "What do we do with all the decorations and prezzies? Which houses did they come from?" but then a snowball hit her neck, and she grinned and ran after the boy who'd thrown it. I smiled. The presents could wait.

THE END.