Emma Reston was hiding under her desk in Miss Wheeler's third grade classroom. She's been staying in from recess with Todd when the noises had started.

They'd sounded like a weird mix of sirens and machinery.

Their teacher had told them that it was just another drill. Just like they'd practiced, but Emma knew that something was different. Miss Wheeler went around the room shutting all of the windows and told them to stay put while she went outside to fetch the rest of the class. When Miss Wheeler opened the door to go outside, Emma could hear screaming in the hallway.

"What's happening?" her friend Todd asked her from the desk across from hers.

Emma just shook her head. "It's just a drill."

Todd didn't believe her. "No, something's wrong," he persisted.

Emma rolled her eyes and was about to tell Todd to shut up, when suddenly there was a popping noise and something crashed onto Emma's desk.

Todd jumped at the sudden noise.

Emma yelped a little herself when there was another crash and a woman about Miss Wheeler's age fell off the desk and onto the floor.

"There goes the ten point landing," the woman muttered to herself, pushing some of her hair away from her face.

She was wearing a lacy white dress with flowers around the bottom and she had a brown bag strapped across her chest. But Emma was really confused by what the woman held in her hand. It was a broomstick; an old one. It looked like something Emma saw in her history book.

"Where did you come from?" Todd asked, his voice laced with fear.

The woman turned around at the sound of his voice and noticed the two children. She seemed surprised to see them there.

"Don't worry," she told them. "My name's Glinda. I'm one of the good guys." She got up on her knees and looked around the classroom.

Emma tried to think. Glinda? Last year when her neighbor had been sick, her mom called someone named Glinda to help.

The woman lowered her head back below the desks. "Now where can I find a cell phone?" she asked Emma and Todd.

Maybe she is one of the good guys, Emma thought.

"Todd has one," she told the woman, pointing at her friend. "It's for emergencies, but he uses it to play games when he thinks Miss Wheeler isn't looking."

"Emma," Todd whined at her, "you promised you wouldn't tell!"

Emma just rolled her eyes. Todd could be such a girl sometimes.

"To be fair Todd," Glinda seemed to agree, "This is an emergency. Can I please borrow your phone?"

Todd didn't move.

Glinda sighed and sat back down on the classroom's tile floor.

"Look Todd," she started in a soft tone. "I know that you know that something's wrong, and I know that you're frightened. Both of you," she added looking back at Emma. "I promise you that I can help, but I can't do it alone."

Todd looked over at Emma, looking for some direction. Could they trust her?, his face asked.

Emma considered it. Something strange was going on, but she didn't think Glinda was a part of that. She seemed kind and good.

Emma nodded to her friend.

At her signal, Todd reached up into his desk and pulled out his phone. He handed it to Glinda.

As soon as it was in her hands, she quickly dialed a number from memory and put the phone to her ear. She left the broomstick on the floor and got to her feet, where she started digging for something in her bag.

"Bobby?" she asked into the phone after a moment. "Yeah, it's Glinda."

There was a pause as she hefted a large plastic container from her bag and walked over to the door. "I borrowed it," she told the person on the other end of the line.

Glinda tipped the container until a thick stream of white powder poured out and onto the floor. She used it to draw a line up against the door.

"I need a favor," she continued, repeating the process in front of all the windows. "I need you to describe a sigil to me, ancient Babylonian. I've got a bit of a situation here."

Emma watched as Todd reached out and touched the broomstick, but nothing happened.

"No I don't need help," Glinda told the man on the phone, sounding almost offended, "I just don't have my books in front of me right now."

"Mmm-hmm, yeah just let me grab a pen." She put the container back in her bag and looked around the classroom, scrambling to find something to write with.

Emma grabbed her pencil case out of her desk and brought it over to where the woman was standing by the pencil sharpener.

"Thanks," Glinda told her as she yanked a cap off a green marker. "Go ahead," she requested, turning her attention back to the phone.

She listened to the person on the other line for couple minutes. Then she started drawing on her arm with the marker.

There was a circle then added some letters and numbers that Emma had never seen before, asking a couple clarifying questions as she worked.

"Great, thanks Bobby," she finally told the man on the phone, "I owe you one."

She laughed as she handed the marker back to Emma. "You know I can't do that, abuse of power and everything. Why don't you just try switching to light beer?" She laughed again.

"Alright," she continued, walking back towards Todd, "I'll have to catch up with you later. I've got work to do."

She pushed a button on the phone to end the call and handed it back to Todd, ruffling his hair. "Thanks, Todd. You did good today," she told him as she reached down and picked up her broom.

Before Emma could say anything else, there was a quiet pop and Glinda had vanished.