Chapter 22: The School Of Evil

It was Mara Jade.

Mara put her briefcase on the ground next to the board. She pulled out some books and handed them out.

"Gather up your things," she boomed, "the first thing we will do is find out everyone's names. You?"

"Wyan."

"Alright, Wyan."

"Not Wyan, Ryan!" Ryan said, finally pronouncing his name right.

"Good," said Mara. "Next!"

I better think of a fake name. She might recognize a weird name like Anakin. "Nick," he decided.

"You?"

"Jane."

"Next!"

"Jack."

She went around the whole room. Then she said, "Next we get a seating chart. Front table: Ryan, Nick, and Lisa. Back left: Julia, Jack, Joanne, and Mary. Last table: Jane, Roger, Amy, and Ida. Everyone happy?"

There was a chorus of no's. "Too bad. This is how you will sit as long as I am teacher."

There was a click at the door. A girl wearing a T-shirt, jeans, and a dark blue hat walked in. She looked strangely familiar, although they had never seen her before.

"Name?" Mara barked.

"Molly," the girl said quietly.

"Sit next to Nick," Mara said pointing, "and remove your hat!"

Other girls in the class removed their hats. "Do I have to?" asked Molly.

"Of course."

"Please don't make me! I don't want to!"

"Remove it, or I will remove you!"

Molly had never been a bad student, and she always followed directions, so she removed her hat.

Everyone gaped at Molly's hair. It was blue.

"Ha, ha!" laughed Julia. "That girl has blue hair!"

Molly looked down at the ground. "That's enough, Julia," said Mara. "If you don't want to be embarrassed, Molly, don't wear dye in your hair tomorrow."

"Dye? For hair?" Molly looked confused.

"Don't act smart with me, young lady! You will not wear dye tomorrow!" Mara shouted. Molly nodded. There was no point in arguing. Who would believe her hair was naturally this way?

"Teacher!" Roger called.

"Do not call me teacher! I have a name!"

"That's what I was asking about. You never told us your name," Roger stated.

"My name is Ms. Jade. There is another one of my rules; you will address me after every time you speak to me. You will not call me teacher, either ma'am or Ms. Jade! Understand?" Everyone nodded.

"Now we will start with a book. It is called Go to Bed. We will each read a word. Who wants to start?" Only Molly raised her hand.

"Molly?"

"The first word is, Dad, Ms. Jade."

"Next?" Again, Molly raised her hand.

"No, Molly, I'm not calling on you again. I believe in being fair, so you can't go until everyone has gone. Nick? How about you?"

Anakin didn't know the answer, so he said, "I don't know."

"Sound it out!"

"I can't."

"Don't you even know your letters?"

"No," said everyone.

Mara sighed and then told everyone the letters and the sound it makes.

When they got to the letter J, Mara said, "This is the letter J." She drew it on the board. "It makes a sound as in Jedi." She paused. "Does anyone know what a Jedi is?"

Molly raised her hand. "Since this is not really related to what we are doing, I suppose you can answer, Molly," Mara said.

"I think Jedi are those mythical people who can control things with their minds. They can read minds, too. I don't think they really exist," Molly explained.

"You are right, but wrong. They exist. In fact there is a particular one I am looking for. His name is Obi-Wan Kenobi. He lives somewhere on this planet. I know I have been there before, but for some reason I can't remember where that was. If any one of you knows his whereabouts, tell me now!"

Jaina, Jacen, Anakin, and Ryan looked nervously at each other, but even Anakin had the mind not to say anything.

Mara got on with the lesson, and soon it was time for lunch. Molly sat by herself at a table. Jaina went over to join her, and the other three followed Jaina.

"Hi," said Jaina. She introduced herself and the others, with their fake names, of course.

"Hi," Molly said glumly. "I suppose you came over here to tease me about my hair."

"No," Jaina assured her, "we have already seen someone with blue hair before, so it's not that fascinating."

Molly looked up from her tray. "Who do you know that has blue hair?" she asked curiously.

"Someone who lives with us has blue hair," said Anakin.

"Oh. He's probably from my planet. Maybe I know him!"

"Oh, you know him; he's your brother," Jaina said casually.

"How did you…?" Molly started.

"You look exactly like him!" said Jaina.

"Oh yeah. People always tell me that. But they never say I look like my sister. I wonder why."

"You have a sister?" Jacen asked.

"Yeah, two of them."

"Two? Yuck! I can hardly stand one!" Anakin said. Jaina gave him a dirty look.

"What do your sisters look like?" asked Jaina.

"Well, my older sister, Cara, has blond hair and green eyes. My baby sister, Caitlin, has no hair and black eyes, like Damien."

"That would explain it. They look nothing like you! Except for the green eyes," said Jacen, matter-of-factly.

Then, they went out to recess. The boys played kickball with Roger and some second graders, and Jaina and Molly sat on the swing set.

"Molly," Jaina started, "can I ask you a question?"

"Shoot," answered Molly.

"If you live on Pokemon, why do you come here for school? Are there no schools on Pokemon?"

Molly laughed. "No, there are schools on Pokemon. I was too smart for my grade, so they told me to move up to a much higher grade. But I didn't want to leave all my friends, so they told me I could go to school on another planet so that I wouldn't be ahead. That's why I know all the answers."

"There's only one school on your planet?"

"Yeah, in Viridian City. I live in Cerulean City. There's one city in between, Pewter, but I used to take a bus to school. It was a water bus."

No one spoke for a little while, until Jaina said, "Do you know anyone by the name of Josh?"

"Oh, no! Don't tell me Josh is here!"

"He's not. You know him?"

"Unfortunately. He's my brother's best friend!"

"Not anymore. Do you know Misty?"

"She's my next-door neighbor."

"Oh." Just then, Mara called her class back into the room. They sat down at their desks. Mara taught them how to add and subtract. Then they worked on reading the book they had tried to read at the beginning of class again. Then the bell rang for them to go home.

Tim came and picked them up. Molly looked worried. "What's wrong?" Jaina asked just before getting into the car.

"I don't know if my sister will know when to get me. She'll be in school now, so I can't call her."

"Why don't you come with us?" Tim offered. Molly accepted and squeezed into the car.

Tim drove very slowly back to the forest. When they got back, they all went into their cabins to start their homework, which Mara had given them a ton of. Molly followed Jaina into her cabin.

Damien was sitting on his bed. When Molly came in, he looked up. "Oh, hi, Molly," he said casually, and looked back down. There was a short silence. Damien looked back up. "Molly? What are you doing here?"

Molly and Jaina laughed. "She goes to our school, Damien," Jaina told him.

"Yeah, she's in our class!" said Anakin.

"Cool," said Damien. He went back to what he was doing.

In a few minutes, Cara, directed by one of the Jedi, came into the forest. She was older than Damien was, fourteen. She was riding a large bird called Fearow.

Molly took a Pokéball from her pocket and threw it. A huge dragon popped out. She hopped onto its back and she and Cara flew off.