AN: Yea, I know, I know. This is a quick note to apologize for not updating in a long time, but everything's been so hectic, and I finally can write, so I'm hopefully gonna finish this, so wish me luck! Here's chapter four

CHAPTER FOUR

When Victor Pearson stepped out of his car and onto the parking lot out front of Blake Holsey, he was bombarded by new reporters. He was fortunate, managing to push through the overbearing crowd and make it to the front of the school without too much trouble. He ignored the calls he was receiving from the reporters and pushed inside the building, the door being slammed shut by two teachers put in charge of guarding it. Principal Durst stepped out of her office as Mr. Pearson marched towards her.

"What is the meaning of this, Amanda?" He demanded. "Where did that footage come from?"

"Oh, well, it appears to be in the science office, Mr. Pearson. You know how it's had a history of -." Victor pushed past her, walking hastily down the hall towards where the science room was. Principal Durst hurried after him.

He pushed open the door to see everyone staring at him - Lucas and Josie sitting on one of the tables, Professor Zachary at his desk with Ms. Sletzki across from him. Vaughn stood by the chalk board, watching his Father closely.

Principal Durst stepped up next to Victor, and looked around. "Oh Dear," She murmured.

"Miss Trent," Victor said after he'd studied the group in front of him for a few moments. "No doubt you are somehow behind this."

Josie narrowed her eyes at him, Lucas putting his arm around her shoulder. She stepped away from him, however, and looked Victor Pearson in the eye. "Surprisingly, no."

"Maybe someone should explain everything," Lucas said, stepping between the two, knowing Josie was anxious for a showdown. "Then we can try and come up with a plan."

"I wouldn't mind knowing exactly why a wormhole opened up in here," Victor said, looking over at Vaughn. The boy fidgeted.

"It's always been here," Lucas said, adjusting his glasses. "The founder of the school had supolatium (I really don't know how it's spelled) installed in the floor here."

"Supolatium?" Ms. Sletzki asked, looking surprised. "That's the least dense metal on the planet."

"Exactly," Lucas said.

"Excuse me, but who are you?" Victor demanded, looking annoyed. Ms. Sletzki winced.

"That's the reporter who took the footage," Josie said, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Now let's not jump to conclusions," Lucas said nervously. "We don't really know anything about what really happened, do we?"

"I don't care about who started this," Victor snapped. "Right now I just want all those reporters off the front lawn."

"For once, I agree with you," Josie said. "We were thinking a temporary distraction. Try and give the press a more interesting story, or something."

"Actually, I've been thinking about that," Z said, standing up from his desk. "Josie, do you remember when we needed to get the kids to leave the school because it was going to disappear?"

Josie grinned, while Principal Durst looked horrified. "When we pretended our skin was turning green."

"The school was going to disappear?" Principal Durst asked. "Oh my. I should probably go to make sure everything's okay out … somewhere else." She quickly left the room. Josie resisted a chuckle at this, and both she and Lucas exchanged amused looks.

"This sounds like something I should have been informed about when it first happened," Victor said, looking sharply at Vaughn once again.

"There's a lot of stuff you haven't been informed of," Josie said. "And with good reason."

"Josie," Lucas said nervously. "Now's not really the time to start a debate with Victor."

"That's Mr. Pearson," Victor growled.

"Right. Sorry," Lucas said. Then he cleared his throat. "I think we should sort of play off that angle of what Z mentioned earlier."

"What do you mean?" Vaughn asked.

"Well, what if we went out there painted green? And then we tell them that the fumes are leaking out onto the grounds. If they don't leave, they'll be turned green," Lucas said. Zachary nodded his head happily.

"It won't work," Ms. Sletzki said.

"Why not?" Josie asked.

"They'll know you're trying to get them off the grounds," Ms. Sletzki explained. "And besides, they'll recognize you from the video."

"Yeah," Vaughn said. "But what if you went along with it? And I can get some of my friends to do the green thing."

"What are you talking about?" Victor demanded.

"That's an excellent idea, Vaughn," Professor Zachary said, stepping into the center of the room.

"I don't get it," Ms. Sletzki said. "Why would me turning green help?"

"Because you would be one of them," Lucas explained. "It would just be possible proof that something was happening."

"Perhaps enough to get them off of our case for a little bit," Josie added.

Victor frowned. "And then what? Do you have a plan for after that?"

"On thing at a time," Josie said. "Vaughn, you'd better get a couple of kids willing to be turned green. Ms. Sletzki, maybe you should come with me. This better work."

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"I'll bet you it's a bomb," Marshall grunted.

Corrine resisted the urge to roll her eyes. "It's not a bomb, Marshall. It's just a rock. I wonder why it's so important, though."

"I say we just leave it there," Marshall replied. He leaned against the door. "And after that we can work on finding a way out of here before the janitor comes back."

"There isn't any way out," Corrine said, looking at him. "We've been through this six times already."

"So let's make it seven. Tell me again why we can't get out of here."

This time Corrine did roll her eyes. "We're trying to make the best of a difficult situation, Marshall." She put the rock back on the table, and turned away.

Marshall's eyes widened in disbelief as a piece of the rock lifted up and a red laser beam prepared to shoot out … right at -.

"Corrine!" Marshall exclaimed, pushing her onto the bed just as the beam shot where she had been standing. After a moment Corrine and Marshall both looked up at the slight scorch mark on the floor. Corrine blinked.

"Marshall, I think that rock had been meant to kill someone," Corrine said.

"Kill?" Marshall squeaked. "Why would anyone want to kill one of us?"

"I don't know," Corrine said, pushing Marshall off and then dropping to her knees, once again examining the rock. "This is a machine," She said after a moment.

"I think we established that when it tried to kill you!" Marshall exclaimed.

"Well, if that was what it was meant to do, then I can see why the janitor would take it. I wonder what triggered the laser."

"You're not really going to fiddle around with that thing, are you? Do you have a death wish?" Marshall demanded.

"Marshall, you're being ridiculous. I'm going to be careful. Besides, I held it before, and nothing happened," Corrine said.

Marshall crouched down beside her. "I just don't want to see you get hurt, okay?" He took her hand and gave it a light squeeze. She squeezed back. "You're not going to have to worry. I'll be careful. We'll approach it like any scientist approaches something out of the ordinary, okay?"

"Okay, okay," Marshall said. "We'll try and figure this thing out. What do we do first?"

"Perhaps we should look it over again," Corrine said, cautiously picking it up. "I must have hit something to activate it the first time. I wonder what it could have been."

"Whoa, I don't think so," Marshall said, taking the rock out of Corrine's hands. "Maybe I should check it over, first."

Corrine gave Marshall an annoyed look, and then shrugged. "Fine."

Marshall looked at the machine, turning it sideways. "What I don't get is how it got in the science lab in the first place. And why was Durst so sure it was Josie's?"

"Let's take one thing at a time," Corrine said. "I'm sure once we figure out what this thing does; the rest will come with it."

"Do you think the janitor left it there for Josie?" Marshall asked, now looking at Corrine instead of the machine. Corrine met his gaze.

"I don't know. But after what happened today, what can we be sure of?"

Marshall went to turn the rock in his hand, his fingers running across a smooth bit of granite at the bottom. The little thing popped up again and the laser began to thrum. Marshall dropped the machine on the ground and the two backed away, watching as the beam generated for a moment, before shooting at the floor, in the same place it had before. The wood began to singe, and then the most unexpected thing happened.

Where the beam was shooting, a wormhole opened up. It was different than the one they were used to seeing. This one was purple with green swirls.

"It's a … a wormhole," Corrine said, looking surprised.

"Should we go through it?" Marshall asked, looking to Corrine. She looked up at him.

"I'm not sure," She replied. "I mean, what if it takes us somewhere we shouldn't be?"

"But what if it could take us home? I don't know about you, but I don't want to be stuck in this basement forever," Marshall said. "I'm going." He took a few steps forward, but Corrine grabbed his wrist.

"Are you sure this is a good idea? I just have this bad feeling that if we go through there, things will only get worst," Corrine said.

"It's the only chance we have, Corrine," Marshall replied. "Who knows how long the wormhole will stay open."

"Alright," Corrine said. "I really hope it takes us home."

"What's the worst that could happen?" Marshall asked. Corrine shrugged, and the two jumped through the wormhole. It waited a moment, and then pulled the device through as well. After that it closed up behind them, leaving the room empty again.

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Josie peered out from the curtains at the reporters just standing around outside. Then she looked back where Stu and several other football payers stood next to Vaughn, green as if they were aliens. Josie let the curtain fall and looked to Lucas who still held her hand comfortingly.

"I hope this works," She said.

"Don't worry … it worked last time," Lucas reassured her.

"I don't get why we're doing this," Stu said.

Josie looked at him. "It's just to sort of scare the reporters away," She said.

"But aren't reporters a good thing?" Stu asked.

"Yeah, they give us athletes the attention we need from scouts," Another football player said.

"These aren't good reporters," Josie replied. "They're not going to help you to get into any good colleges. They just want to bring down our school and make it look bad."

"Well why's that bad? We might get out of classes," Stu said.

Josie and Lucas exchanged a look. "Its bad, Stu," Lucas said slowly, "Because college scouts won't want students from a preparatory academy with a bad reputation that those reporters will give our school."

Stu was silent for a few moments, and then he threw his hands in the air. "You heard the geek! We've got to try and help the school!"

"Yea!" The other football players exclaimed, butting heads.

"I don't see Ms. Sletzki," Vaughn said, peering out the window.

"She's over by the side entrance with Z," Josie explained. "Waiting for Stu and the others to make their grand entrance."

"Dude, green is so not your color," One of the football players said to Stu.

"Are we almost ready?" Lucas asked, turning back to Josie and Vaughn.

Josie frowned, looking out the window once again. "Yeah, I think so. Now we're just hoping to chase most of them off. No doubt there will be some who stick around, but most should head out."

"So let's get this over with, then," Stu said, clapping his hands.

"Alright, you guys are going to come around from the back door. Toss the ball around or something," Josie instructed. "Act like you don't even notice you're green. Remember, when they ask you what happened, tell them that the science room is leaking fumes that are turning the students green, okay? And that it will probably spread to them if they stick around."

"Got it," Stu said. "Come on guys; let's get this thingy over with." The group set out around back, leaving Vaughn, Josie, and Lucas. Vaughn let out a loud sigh.

"Any ideas as to what we're going to do about my Dad?" He asked.

"This is too big for us," Josie admitted, although she didn't want to. "We're probably going to need his help if we're to get this whole mess fixed."

"What if we still can't trust him?" Lucas asked.

"I didn't say we were going to let him in on everything. He wants the same thing we want," Josie said. "That should be enough to make us partners for now. After that we'll have to come up with something."

"If this plan works, what are we going to do to get them away permanently?" Vaughn asked.

"We're going to get Corrine and Marshall back, and pass the whole thing off as a fake," Josie said.

"That's it?" Lucas asked with disbelief.

"What else can we do?" Josie demanded. "We stopped this from happening before, but we can't prevent it once it's already happened."

"What about the janitor?" Lucas asked. "Maybe he'll know something."

"I couldn't find him anywhere," Josie replied. "I think we may be alone on this one."

"Then we're going to have to do the best we can," Vaughn said. "And hope it works."

"Here goes nothing," Josie said. The three peered out the window.