Chapter 2
Kelly was pacing again, this time on the sidewalk outside Acmetropolis High School and with her backpack's weight breaking her stride.
"Relax, Kelly, I'm sure we'll be fine," Ryan said, helping his sister stop pacing.
"Fine? How can you say that? Not only is she late, but she's about to arrive in our dimension in a flying school bus and Witch's robes, thus freaking everyone out and proving to the Council that humans haven't changed and making them take our powers and permanently shut down the portal between the worlds—"
HONK! HONK!
They all turn to see Daniella scramble out of a normal old car in her standard clothes. "Hey, guys!"
They all stared at her.
"I don't even wanna know," said Kelly.
Sophie helped her sister around the car and over to the group. "This may be a bit redundant, but how are you doing?"
"Oh, fine."
"Really?" Tech asked, "Because I didn't know you could drive one of these things."
Daniella looked at him. "Oh, I can't. I asked a coupled leprechauns to work the peddles for me." She looked back into the car. "Thanks, guys!" A couple tiny, redheaded fellows dressed in green waved back at her.
"OK…" Nadine said, "What about the kids? Where are they?"
"Oh, hold on a second," said Daniella, opening the car door.
A brunette girl came out. "Hi! How are you? Oh, are you mortal?" They all looked at each other. "I've never met a mortal before, you know. My brochure says to just…make direct eye contact and not to show fear."
"Hi," Kelly reacted simply, "I'm Kelly, and, uh…that would be lesson #1 on how not to greet a human. You know, people around here automatically assume that everyone they meet is human."
The brunette girl stopped smiling. "Oh. Well…I ought to write that down."
Daniella sighed and stopped her. "This is Callie. She's a neighbor of ours. Uh…let's see what's taking the others so long. Guys, get out here!"
A bunch of other kids came out of the car…way more than the thing's maximum occupancy.
"How many people can you fit in there?" Duck asked.
Finally, the last kid came out.
"OK," said Daniella, "This is, uh…Paul, Chuck, Natasha, Ella…oh, where's Evan?" She looked back into the car. "Evan!" It echoed through the car. "Evan Holloway!"
"Holloway?" Kelly asked.
Daniella looked back at her niece. "Yeah. I believe you met his father." Kelly's eyes widened.
A blonde boy came out. "Sorry. Chuck's armadillo ate a hole in my bag."
Danielle took out a pocket-size bag. "That's why I keep mine travel-size so it'll fit in my pocket." She opened the bag and turned it out, making it bigger. She did it again and again until it was it's normal size and dropped it on the ground. "OK. Now, remember: if anyone asks you where you're from, you…" She looked at Kelly. "Where are they from again?"
"Canada! You're all from Acme Canada!"
Daniella wrote that down. "OK, I gotta go. You guys can take it from here." Daniella started to walk off to the school, then stopped and came back. "Where's my bag?"
"Uh…" Lucy pointed to a nearby lamppost. "Over there and kicking!"
Daniella noticed the bag walking over to the lamppost. Wait, walking? It had actually grown legs! Daniella ran over there and grabbed it, making it go back to normal. She gave the group a nervous smile and then left.
"And we have to go back to watch our kids," Lexi said, leading her husband and their friends off back to HQ.
"I guess we're the welcoming committee," Benny said, leading the group into the school building.
Ryan sighed while they were walking into the school, handing each kid their schedules (following his Warlock sense to determine which student was which). "Well, I have to get going. Gotta get to AP Algebra."
"I'm taking that class," said Natasha, a pretty little dirty blonde girl with curly hair, "All of my classes are AP."
"Geek," Callie whispered to Kelly.
"My brother's not that bad compared to our d—oh, you mean her!" Callie nodded.
"Right," said Nadine, "Well, Ryan, why don't you show Natasha where those dazzling intellects congregate and we'll show these kids around." Ryan nodded, leading Natasha off as the rest of the team continued into the halls of the building.
"OK," Kelly said as they walked through the school halls, "First things first, try to act normal. And when you get to your classes, act the way you would in the school back in…actually, for that one just go with the first rule."
Meanwhile, Daniella walked into the principal's office. "Hey," she said to the man behind the desk, "I'm Daniella Runner. I'm the one giving you the exchange students?"
"Oh, right! Sit down, Ms. Runner."
Daniella smiled and complied, laying her bag on the floor next to the seat. "It's actually 'Mrs.'"
"Of course. Well, I've gotta hand it to you. When you called asking to enroll over a dozen foreign exchange students, I thought 'there's no way.'" While the somewhat-tall dark-skinned male kept going, the bag sprouted its legs back (along with a tail) and set its sights on the tiny parakeet in the cage by the bookshelf. Daniella took notice of this and tried to act casual as she kicked the bag. "But here you are, paperwork all done. You've got the Coyote kids and their friends showing them around. It's like magic."
Daniella smiled. "Remarkably similar." The parakeet then started tweeting fiercely and shaking the cage. "You know, I think that bird wants to be let out of its cage." Principal Flanders just looked at her and then at the bird. "I'm just excited for these kids to…get a new experience in a completely different culture."
He looked at her. "You're all from Canada, right?"
Daniella looked down at the note she'd crumbled in her pocket and saw "Acme Canada" printed on it in ink. She looked back at him, smiling. "Yup." He kept looking at her. "Well, I better get going." She grabbed her bag and it turned back to normal. "Gotta get to that class and…stuff." She left. Suddenly, the cage rattled. The 2 turned to see that the bird was gone.
"What happened to my bird?" asked Principal Flanders, getting up from his chair and walking over to the cage.
The bag coughed up a couple feathers.
"I told you to leave them alone!" Daniella hissed to it under her breath, "Bad bag!" The principal looked at her and she forced out a nervous smile. "I'll tell the others to be on the lookout for it, just…" She ran out.
"Peepers?" Principal Flanders looked around.
3 minutes later…
Kelly and Lucy and Michael led 3 of the exchange kids into the chemistry lab for class.
"Where's the teacher?" asked Lucy.
In came Daniella.
Kelly's eyes widened. She ran over there. "Aunt Danni!" Daniella looked at her. "What are you doing here?"
"I needed to keep an eye on the kids and I figured 'what other way than from the inside?' So I convinced the principal to give me a job teaching the classes until the students are ready to go back home. Wendy said she might come help if she gets a chance. Oh! By the way…" She took out a piece of paper rolled up like a scroll and handed it to her, whispering: "…I found a perfect place for us to get together. You don't have to tell the others just yet but these kids need some time out during the breaks."
Kelly took the paper. "OK." She started to go back to her desk and then came back. "What are you going to do about the teaching?"
"Oh…it's all in the books." Kelly glared at her. "Which I used magic to speed-read." Kelly glared at her harder. "Relax, I'll remember to lay low for now."
Kelly nodded and then went to sit down next to Lucy. While Lucy was putting on her goggles, she unrolled the paper:
Locker 214
37-21-09
Kelly put it in her pocket and put on her goggles.
"OK," Daniella started to figure things out, "All we need to do right now…"
One boy looked at his friend. "Is this some kind of joke?"
Daniella heard this and glared at him. She smiled and walked over to him. "Something wrong? 'Cause I was so hoping there wouldn't be any problems between us. Oh, and I must warn you…" She crossed her arms. "…I have quite a temper." She twitched her pointer finger incredibly quick so that it appeared to the boy's eyes that her eyes were popping out of their sockets at him.
He jumped back, almost falling backwards. He was panting heavily, but calmed down when he saw that everyone else was fine.
"Put your goggles on," Daniella scoffed, walking back to the desk as he quickly obeyed, "OK…" She sat down behind the desk and picked up a couple test tubes filled with liquids. "…if we mix these 2 chemicals, we should make a puff of smoke." While the other students grabbed their identical bottles, Daniella mixed the 2 liquids in an empty bottle, creating a puff of smoke…which cleared to reveal a rainbow parrot standing on a perch.
Kelly gasped. "Daniella!" She took off her goggles and ran over there. "What happened to laying low with the magic?"
"I…OK, I may have just overstepped my bounds a bit, but come on! It's more fun! I mean, he's a parrot!"
Kelly glared at her again.
"Alright, I'll put it back." Daniella took off her goggles and looked around as Kelly sat back down and gave her the "I've got my eyes on you" sign. "Alright, I guess no one else got the parrot. But you all managed with the smoke thing. OK, can anyone tell me why the chemicals reacted the way they did?" Kelly groaned… "Why you got smoke and not a parrot?" …and slammed her head on the table.
