Chapter 10

I woke up to a creaking sound. I must have fallen asleep. My mind was still in dream mode, so I didn't realize where I was until I was forced out of the truck by someone who had definitely been working out.

"Hey, wha-?" were my intelligent last words before I was thrown into what seemed to be a slightly oversized dog crate. I banged against the back of the cage and immediately crawled to the front, only to have the crate door slammed on my fingers.

"Wait here." said a voice.

What the heck was going on? My mind raced trying to determine where I was and stay awake at the same time. I had no idea what time it was because the van that we had been taken in had parked in a weird giant garage with flickering white lights and buzzing sounds. I shook on the cage door, but I noticed that the locking mechanism was not one of those easy bars that you slide to get out. I was screwed.

Suddenly my thoughts froze. Had I been kidnapped? I mean, my mom always lectured me about not accepting candy or rides from strangers and staying away from older men in general, but I never thought those things would ever be real to me like they were now.

I choked on tears and dust, which seemed to everywhere on the ground level.

My tiny yorkie heart was beating faster than a hummingbird's wings at the thought of being kidnapped.

Oh, wait.

I turned my head to the side and saw the label "Experiment H-07".

The memory of men in white coats invading the Family Fun Diner flashed through my mind.

I knew where I was.

"NO! No, please, no. Not again! You…can't…do…this…to me!" I recognized Jay's worried tone.

I pressed my face against the bars and saw him being dragged by two official-looking men toward what I assumed was another dog crate, next to me.

He was trying desperately to escape, but there was just no way, seeing as both the men looked like they could snap him in half without breaking a sweat.

I heard a clanging sound as he was thrown into the dog crate.

"Jay! Jay, are you there?" I said. My legs were totally cramping up from being smushed against the sides of the crate. Also, my neck was hurting from bending in this awkward, but necessary position. AND my fingers hurt from where those STUPID JERKS slammed the cage door on them.

"We're at the school." Jay said, his breathing uneven and shaky.

"Yeah. I know. Don't worry, we'll figure this out." I said, half-reassuring myself.

"Ella, there's something that I haven't told you and I think I probably should because it's something you should probably know." he said.

"What?" I said.

Suddenly, someone's face was pressed up against my dog crate.

I yelped. "Oh my gosh! Who are you?"

The man didn't respond. He was quite bald, except for around the ear area, where he had tufts of reddish-orange fuzz. His glasses were small and wiry and barely fit on his pudgy face, which was covered in lots of freckles. His eyes were blue and watery, but completely voice of any interesting emotion. His nose was one of those ugly fat noses that only really obnoxious people seem to have. In other words, in a past life, he was probably the troll who lived under the bridge.

He stared at me until I felt awkward and uncomfortable. "Um…" I said, hoping that he would see whatever he was looking for and move on.

"This is Experiment H-07." said a gruff voice behind him.

"No, it isn't." I said.

Someone banged their fist against my cage and I winced.

"I don't get it." the troll said. His voice sounded exactley like Squidward from Spongebob Sqaurepants. "What does it do?"

"According to her profile, she is 3% Yorkshire terrier." the voice sounded like it was trying to hold back laughing.

The troll back away, giving me a chance to recover from being stared at by someone hideously ugly and creepy. "You mean…like the poodle?"

WTF? No.

"Uh…kind of, sir. But not really. They're different breeds, but both part of the canine species."

Mr. Troll didn't seem to completely understand what the man behind him said, but he wrote something on the clipboard he was holding. "Alright, sounds good. I'm allergic to poodles."

Okay, you can't be allergic to just poodles, can you? How did this guy become a Whitecoat? Was the School having a shortage and needed to do a draft from the Stupid and Ugly Center. Oh, snap, I went there.

They both moved out of my line of vision. I heard Jay make a strangled crying sound.

"Let me go!"

I heard the cage rattle.

The two idiots ignored him completely.

"This is experiment B-89."

"Really?" Mr. Troll said in a whiny voice. "He looked so much cooler when he was 6."

Wait. Hold up.

If I remember correctly, Jay had told me that he'd never heard of the school, let alone been there. That means he lied to me, the girl who he just recently met, who he knows absolutely nothing about except that she was also a mutant.

Okay, it sounded more like an accusation in my head.

"And he is-"

"Part chameleon." the troll finished.

Suddenly, another voice broke through the awkward silence.

"Magahi. Stepholocaucus. You two are not permitted in this area at this time. These experiments are mind and should be treated as such. Don't let me catch you trying to deal with them again."

It was a woman's voice.

And it pretty much made sense that the troll guy's last name was actually Stepholocaucus.

"Sorry!"

"Sorry ma'am."

"We're truly, very sorry."

"Oh, for the love of God. Please leave." she said.

I heard quick footsteps as the two weirdoes stumbled out the door, still apologizing over their shoulders.

Then, I heard the cracking sound of a walkie-talkie being turned on.

"Where is Experiment R-25?" she said.

I heard more crackling sounds, but nothing I could make into sentences.

"Okay. Thank you." she deadpanned.

I felt my crate being lifted and then dropped onto a rolling cart. I was now sort of facing the woman. She had dark hair, which was pulled back into a super tight ponytail. Her eyes were so dark that I couldn't see her pupils. She was beautiful, but she also looked harsh as if she might rip your head off with her teeth if you asked where the bathroom was.

She was wearing a Whitecoat, but she was wearing a slinky black dress underneath it. That was confusing because most evil sadistic scientists don't go on hot dates in their off-hours.

She walked over to Jay's crate and picked it up to put it on the cart. She seemed way to strong for her thin frame. Maybe she did P90X.

"Please don't hurt us." Jay said, without emotion.

"I'm not going to make casual conversation with an experiment." she said.

"It's not casual. I just-" Jay was cut off by his crate falling off the cart.

There was a crashing sound and he cried out.

"Jay!" I yelled.

"Oops. Sometimes my fingers slip when I'm dealing with mutants who don't know when to shut up." the woman said, placing the crate back onto the cart.

Um, bitch?

I heard the dog crate being placed back on the cart and we started rolling.

My mind suddenly had all this free time to think about what had happened:

1. We'd obviously been kidnapped by a bunch of hostile scientists who were only supposed to exist in my sister's world.

2. Everyone here was apparently crazy and had decided that child abuse was okay.

3. I was being rolled down a hall by a creepy lady who didn't like mutant kids at all and probably wanted to experiment on us.

4. My life, as we speak, was pretty much stuck in an eternal toilet bowl.

Ever see one of those commercials with a mildly attractive nobody in her 40s, holding a puppy in her arms, with a Josh Groban track playing in the background as images of sick or injured puppies come across the screen. Doesn't that make you want to save all these puppies?

Well, multiply that by two million and you'll get an idea of what you feel like when you're at the school.

First of all, there was screaming. Everywhere we turned there was someone screaming. They were feint, covered up by doors, but never the less, the hairs on my arms stood up straight.

There were glass window panes where you could see everything that was going on inside the rooms. I couldn't stop watching as we rolled by. What I saw made me sick to my stomach.

In one room, a girl with 6 extra arms was trying to climb the wall while a timer counted down. She was sweating profusely and had bruises and scrapes on her face. Her eyes were dead.

In the next room, there was a boy, probably a year or two younger than me being zapped with electricity every time he moved a puzzle piece into the wrong area. Every time he was zapped, he would shake himself and stare at the puzzle some more before moving his next piece. He looked so young and determined.

The last room in the hallway was the worst. There was a snake wrapped around a teenage girl's arm and I could hear her screaming as its fangs got closer to her neck. There was a red light and a siren going off to warn whoever the scientist was that ran this experiment, but there was no way he was going to be able to get the snake off in time.

"Don't look."

It was Jay's voice. "You don't have to look."

And that's when I realized how unfair this was. These people didn't care if I was 14 and had my middle school graduation in a few days. They didn't care if I was young or old. They were going to hurt me.

I wanted to save all of these puppies.

Most of all, I wanted my mom.

When Max visited us, she never gave away any specific information about the School. I had no idea that one place could make you feel so depressed and scared than the fluorescently lit hallways which led to the fluorescently lit rooms.

The woman had kindly left me and Jay in an dark room that resembled a garage with mice in it.

All I could hear was Jay's breathing and my breathing. It was eerie.

"Jay, are you there?" I asked, even though I knew the answer.

I heard him sigh, "Yeah."

"Okay." I said. "Do you think we should do something to pass the time?"

"Um…" he said, and for a second, I heard the part of Jay that I liked: the sarcastic, witty, dorky Jay. "I don't know. Should we sing show tunes?"

I nodded and laughed. My laugh sounded more like a cough, but it made me feel much better anyway.

The silence enveloped us once again and I tapped against the inside of my crate.

"The sun'll come out tomorrow." Jay suddenly sang. I could almost hear him smile, only not really.

"Jay, you know this song?" I said.

"Hey, keep singing."

"Bet your bottom dollar that tomorrow they'll be sun." I sang.

"Not bad. You have a nice voice."

"Hey, keep singing." I said.

We finished up to the second round of 'tomorrow's when suddenly, Mr. Troll burst into the room.

"Hey, kiddies." he said.

Jay swallowed the words, "you're only a day away."

Mr. Troll looked at my cage and then at Jay's cage.

"They need to ask you some questions before you can begin experimentation. But I just wanted to let you know that I hate kids." Wow, this guy was so mature.

Jay whimpered.

"Bite me." I said, throwing away my dignity in one cliché little line. "Leave us alone."

"Oh, is the puppy upset?" he laughed. "Does the puppy want a bone?"

"Hey, you. Shut up. You're a jerk." Jay said.

Troll guy scowled and threw open my cage door. He yanked me out by my hair and pulled me to my feet. Then, he attached a child leash around my chest and shoulders. He did the same thing to Jay. I saw Jay's eyes bug out when Mr. Troll touched him.

Mr. Troll messed with Jay's hair. "Hey, kid. Remember me?" he said.

Jay gulped and looked at his feet, which told me that he probably remembered him. I officially could not stand Mr. Troll.

The child leash was black and leathery. I tried to tug on it and felt a zap inside my head. My eyes blacked out for a second and I felt like I was going to puke. Mr. Troll looked happy, the sick jerk.

"New technology to restrain the freaks from attacking." he said. "Now, let's get down to business."