Chapter One
Clay pushed open the doors. It was the first day of school, and the halls of Mountain Middle School were busier than ever. Teachers were standing outside of their classrooms, directing traffic. New students battled with their lockers. Others rushed by, clutching new notebooks and shiny folders.
He was tall for his age, but, being a sixth grader, Clay was lost in the sea of students. He stumbled around blindly, accidentally knocking over a tiny girl with white-blonde hair.
"Hey!" The girl squeaked in protest. She turned. When she saw Clay, her face turned white as a sheet of paper.
Clay reached to help the girl, but she quickly picked herself up. "I'm so, so sorry! I didn't see you there! Are you okay?" He asked worriedly.
The girl picked up her books. "Me? Oh, I-I'm fine," She said hastily, glancing at her watch. "I-I have to go." The girl darted away and disappeared through the crowd in a flash.
Why had the girl been so anxious to leave? Was she scared of him? Clay shrugged it off, more worried about finding his way. He looked down at his schedule. "Excuse me, but you wouldn't happen to know where Mr. Dune's classroom is?" He asked the teacher closest to him, who Clay couldn't help noticing had a scar down his face and his arm in a sling.
The teacher gave him an odd look and responded in a hoarse voice, "Why, it's right through this door."
...
"Role call," Mr. Dune rasped, looking down at a list of names. "When I call your name, say 'here' and raise your hand, just so I can get a clear idea of what you look like, okay?"
Clay made a mental list of his classmates. Sunny was the tiny girl from the hall. Tsunami had blue hair (a wig, maybe?) and a fierce scowl. Starflight had black hair and glasses and carried more books than anyone Clay had ever seen. Glory wore not one, not two, but three brightly colored scarves, rolled her eyes a lot, and questioned pretty much everything the teacher said. Mr. Dune called many, many more names, but for some reason those five stuck out in his head. There was something weird about them, but Clay couldn't figure out what.
Mr. Dune's voice cut through Clay's thoughts. "Now, you aren't in elementary school anymore, so the first thing I need to know is if how many of you know your times tables, up to seven. This should be easy for you all, but you never know when you'll get a class full of dummies."
Some students looked frightened of Dune; Sunny seemed on the verge of tears. Clay was relieved when only about half the class raised their hands, for he only knew his up to six.
"Not too bad," Mr. Dune scribbled something on his clipboard. "Up to eight?"
Several students lowered their hands.
"Nine?"
The number of students with their hands up dropped considerably. By the time Dune got to twelve, two students' hands were still in the air.
Dune snorted. "Fine. Except for these two-" He motioned at Starflight and Glory- "Your homework will be memorizing your tables. You have until Wednesday. Class dismissed."
...
Mr. Dune's assignment gave Clay a perfect reason to invite someone over, so after class, he seized the opportunity and caught up with Starflight.
"Hey," He said, "I'm Clay. I was wondering- I mean, I know you don't have to do them, but maybe if you have time afterschool we can study our tables together?"
Starflight looked shocked, as if he'd been asked if he wanted to come scuba diving with sharks. "Sorry, I can't- I'm, uh, busy," He said, flustered.
As Starflight turned away, Clay finally realized why Tsunami, Glory, Starflight and Sunny had seemed so weird. Even when they were speaking to him, they never looked him in the eye.