WARPED
Chapter 2
Jocelyn's day, so far, had been unadventurous.
Strings had been stuffy and boring, as usual. AP History had been loooong—Mr. Bricker seemed to be very enthusiastic about America in 1905. And then Honors Spanish 4 had been that quiz on conjugations she'd studied for the previous night, along with the usual confusion of trying to decode what the heck Mrs. Morphin was saying.
Now was biology, something Jocelyn hoped would lift her spirits a bit. Mrs. Alvacado, once you got past the hysterical name, was an amazing teacher, and Jocelyn's personal favorite. Walking into bio normally felt like a breath of fresh air, but today was different.
Today was October first.
Jocelyn knew it was silly—Gravity Falls was just a TV show! Nothing bad was going to happen today, unless that idiot Racquel Wyatt opened her mouth in Pre-Calc and blabbed more stupidity all over the blackboard. Everything was going to be fine. It was going to be a normal day. Once school ended, she'd go to band practice, go home, eat dinner, do her homework, study for her English test tomorrow on poetry terms, waste away on Tumblr, and then go to bed.
Then why did today feel so weird?
Jocelyn hoped Hazelle and Lucy felt it too. She had exchanged very strange glances with them earlier in the day: meeting up with Lucy before History, and passing Hazelle as she left Mrs. Alvacado's room.
They definitely were all worried. But about what?
"All right, class, good morning," Mrs. Alvacado announced, jolting Jocelyn from her thoughts and making her plunge into her seat next to her friend Naomi Cliff. "Today's lab day. But, unfortunately, the weather is PMSing and we can't go outside for lab, like I had originally planned."
The class groaned and muttered in annoyance. PMSing weather? Jocelyn thought with one raised eyebrow. But it was perfect this morn . . . OH. She frowned as she gazed out the window into what was slowly becoming one of the most furious thunderstorms she'd ever seen. The sky, which had been as clear and glossy as a pearl earlier this morning, was now shrouded and swirling with obsidian clouds that crackled with lightning. Now, if she strained her ears, she could hear the howling of the wind outside as it pounded the windows and blew orange and red leaves everywhere, like a bully picking on the younger kids for lunch money.
Oh jeez. Jocelyn's stomach dropped. PLEASE be coincidence.
"So, instead," Mrs. Alvacado went on, "our lab will be watching Ms. Frizzle put her students in terrible and unrealistic danger as they explore the blood stream. Jocelyn, can you get the lights?"
The class's groans transformed to cheers and hisses of "YES." Jocelyn rose shakily from her chair in the very back of the classroom and extended her arm to turn out the lights.
FLASH! The light switch burst in a stream of light and sizzled with electricity. Jocelyn shrieked and backpedaled, ramming into a desk. The room was plunged into darkness.
"What in the world!" Mrs. Alvacado cried out. "What is—?"
The projection screen, which seconds before had been showing the main menu screen for the Magic School Bus film, was struck with a blizzard of static. The storm roared outside, and it felt like the building was quivering.
Familiar evil laughter began to etch through the static. Jocelyn stared at the glowing screen, heart beating frantically. It nearly stopped when she finally recognized the triangular shape that was becoming more and more apparent on screen.
NONONONONOWAYNOFREAKINGWAY.
And then he finally materialized: Bill Cipher. On the screen. In her high school biology class. Jocelyn tried to tear her eyes away from the screen and when she did, his image was burned on the inside of her eyelids.
"Hi, everybody!" Bill yelled, voice loud and obnoxious. "Happy October First! I'm sure a lot of you don't know what that means, but that's because you're all idiots!" he giggled. "It's funny how dumb you are. But to fill in any of you that don't know, today's the end of the world! The apocalypse! Doom's day!"
Jocelyn stole a terrified glance at her backpack and dropped down, yanking her phone out of the side pocket. She quickly texted Hazelle and Lucy: R U SEEING THIS?!
"Anyway, let's move onto the reason I'm here," Bill said, taking off his top hat and reaching inside. "I'm looking for…" He took out three pixilated images and let them float in front of him. "Music Note, Pen, and Caduceus?"
Jocelyn couldn't feel her body anymore. Everything was numb and fuzzy. She blinked at Bill and at the pictures of her, Lucy, and Hazelle onscreen, all huddled around Hazelle's computer, like they had been two days ago.
Lucy texted back. OHMYGODOHMYGODOHMYGOD.
No one moved or answered Bill. Jocelyn crouched lower on the floor, hiding behind the desk.
"Hmm? Anyone?" Bill asked. "Aw come on, someone peep! This is a classroom, isn't it? A place for learning." Sparks flickered around his body and his eye shined crimson. "So I'd really like to learn where these three are."
Jocelyn winced. She could tell he was getting angry. But what could she do? It didn't appear like anyone in her class was going to rat her out. Should she give herself up? She didn't want Bill hurting people.
Hazelle texted back, message hot with urgency. Meet me outside. i'm with lucy. We gotta go
Suddenly, Bill perked, and his red eye swiveled in her direction. "Ahhh. There you are, Music Note. I thought I'd find you in here."
Jocelyn took a chance. She grabbed her backpack and sprinted for the door. Hazelle and Lucy were right outside, phones and bags in hand.
"He's everywhere!" Hazelle shouted, showing her phone screen. Bill stared back at her.
"Let's go!" Lucy yelled, yanking on Jocelyn's arm.
Jocelyn glanced back into her bio classroom. Bill was completely red now, popping and sizzling as he had in the episode The Dreamscaperers.
"CLASS DISMISSED!" he roared, and every screen in school submerged into twisting static.