"Sophie! Hurry up!"
"Coming!" Sophie called, quickly stuffing her lunch into her backpack.
"The bus is leaving, Sophie!"
"I'm coming!" Sighing, the ten-year-old thundered out the door, stuffing the last of her toast into her mouth. She really needed to wake up earlier.
Sophie met her mother at the end of the walkway. The disheveled woman was frowning at her, still in her nightgown, recently retrieved mail in hand. "Let me guess…Your alarm again?"
The girl nodded. "Yeah. I set it for PM instead of AM."
Beside them, the bus blasted the horn. Her mother winced. "You'd best be off then."
Sophie nodded again, kissed her mother goodbye, and dashed toward the bus driver who was making a big show of slowly continuing on without her. She reached the doorway as it was closing, barely managing to squeeze herself in. The door shut on her backpack straps. She sighed. "Good morning, Harold."
"That's Mr. Harold to you," the driver grumbled, his eyes on the road. "Get to your seat."
"You went to work without your coffee again, didn't you?"
"Your seat."
Sophie ignored him, turning to tug at her backpack until the straps jerked loose. Then, she undid the zipper and dug around until her hand closed around something cold and round. "Here," she said, offering an energy drink to the surprised driver who accepted it with a grunt.
Her peace offering successfully delivered, Sophie strode down the walkway in-between the seats, sitting in the very back. She felt the bus lurch slightly as it officially 'got going' and closed her eyes, feeling it bump and rumble down the road. It was almost like a massage, and she nearly fell asleep.
THUD.
Her eyes snapped open.
"What was that?" someone asked.
The bus suddenly went quiet as everyone stopped what they were doing to listen. They heard what sounded like an animal skittering along the roof.
"A squirrel?" a boy guessed.
"No, too big," objected another.
"A raccoon, then?"
"I don't care what it is!" Harold thundered from the front. "I want it off my bus!"
The creature, whatever it was, didn't hear him or didn't care. The children listened as it skittered down the length of the bus, stopping directly above where Sophie was sitting. Seconds later, the roof underneath the animal suddenly started melting. She swallowed and quickly moved out of the way. A strange sound, like roaring wind, was coming from where the creature must be. The sound was soon forgotten, however, as all the children started screaming, surging in one jumbled mass toward the front.
All except Sophie. The little fifth-grader was hypnotized, staring as the roof started caving in. It gave way with a soupy 'SHLOUP!', the same sound her boots made walking through the mud. Climbing out of the sunk-in seat, molten metal dripping from its writhing form was a…a…lizard. At least, it resembled a lizard. At first.
Then, it stood, and Sophie could see that it had six legs, not four, and that it was about the size of a raccoon. A red scaly raccoon with one eye and webbed feet and claws. It blinked calmly at her, almost curiously, and cocked its head slightly to the side.
Sophie was too shocked to scream. She vaguely heard Harold yelling at her to get away from it.
THUD.
She jerked her head up to the roof. Another? This one didn't sound like an animal, though. In fact, it sounded strangely like footsteps.
"Oh, look at you!" a voice cried from above Sophie's head. The lizard-type-thing glanced up through the hole it had made, focusing on what must have been the voice's source. It blinked a moment, then opened its mouth and spat blue fire. There was a loud thump and the voice grunted as it ducked to avoid the flaming projectile.
Another sound followed, and Sophie whirled around as a man suddenly dropped out of square hole in the roof that definitely hadn't been there before. The man hopped to his feet and straitened his bowtie, taking in his surroundings. "That's more like it," he proclaimed, talking to no one in particular. "Nearly got knocked off by a tree. A low tree. Trees that low should be illegal. Never know when someone might need to go hopping around on the roofs of school busses."
He paused, frowning, and turned toward the front to the petrified children staring at him. "There you all are! What are you all hiding over there for?" He turned again, facing the creature. Or rather, facing Sophie, who was currently standing between them. "Oh, hello there," he greeted her cheerily, then held up what looked like a cross between a water gun and a classic alien death ray. "Squareness gun," he told her, grinning stupidly and looking very proud of himself.
"Squareness gun," Sophie repeated dully, her mind still not having quite caught up. "Seriously?"
The man opened his mouth to respond, then suddenly tackled her to the side as a burst of flame flew past them, taking out the front window. He hauled himself up on the seat, his brown hair everywhere, and grinned at her again, continuing on as if they hadn't just narrowly avoided death. "I traded it for a banana. A good banana too. No spots, no bruises, no-"
"Is that lizard thing yours?" Sophie demanded, interrupting.
"Yes. Well, no, actually. It's not mine. Well it is mine, but not really."
Sophie stared at him, the whole conversation seeming strangely familiar. She'd seen this man before, a long time ago. Who was he again?
"And it's not a lizard thing," the man continued, oblivious. He said the words like they were a disease, looking offended. "It's a belruse hatchling from the planet-"
"Did you bring it here?"
"Oh, yes, lets all blame the man with the bowtie!"
"And suspenders."
"And suspenders!" He threw an arm up in the air. "Really, what's it take to get some decent appreciation a round here? No, this belruse stumbled through a whole in space. Very nasty little things. Been popping up everywhere for some reason."
"Interplanetary gateways," Sophie whispered, feeling like she'd been hit with a refrigerator as a memory suddenly crashed into her. This was the garbage man, the one from when she was little. The one with the nose-less dog from the planet Barcelona. Or something like that.
The man suddenly leaned close to her, completely invading her personal space and forcing her to scoot back a few inches. "Have we met?" he asked, suddenly serious, and Sophie swallowed.
"Yes. You blew up my trashcan."
A heartbeat passed, and suddenly he grinned again. "Looking forward to it," he told her, and suddenly stood. Sophie sat there a moment longer, taking his response and rearranging the words, trying to make sense of them.
"Right!" The man rubbed his hands together. "Let's go catch ourselves a belruse." With that, he hopped over the seat, pointing what looked like a silver pen at it. Well, were it used to be anyway.
Sophie cautiously peered over the seat to see him frowning at a melted hole in the side of the bus.
"Right," he muttered. "Should've seen that coming. Driver!" he called, whirling around. "Stop the bus!"
Harold completely ignored him. "Is it gone?"
"Yes, and I need to go after it."
"Nope."
The garbage man stared at him. "No?" he clarified.
"Nope. Gotta get the kids to school."
Sophie grinned. Good old Harold.
The skinny man frowned, pocketed his pen, and marched down the isle toward the front, the children's eyes following him the whole way. Once there, he reached over with every intention of driving the bus himself. Harold, without so much as a glance in the man's direction, socked him in the stomach. The children winced, hearing the air whoosh from his lungs as he doubled over, gasping.
Ouch.
"My bus. My rules." Harold informed him, still watching the road. Sophie rolled her eyes. Good old Harold. The man was as stubborn and inflexible as an ox. She sighed, digging into her backpack. She'd been hoping to save this for a special occasion. But then it wasn't every day a giant six-legged lizard melted through the roof of your school bus. Or a skinny man in a bowtie for that matter.
Muttering to herself, Sophie swung her backpack over her shoulder, strode to the front, and held a small black notebook under Harold's nose. She could feel the skinny man's eyes upon her as she smiled sweetly at her driver. "You dropped this."
Harold paled slightly, recognizing the booklet instantly. He fixed her with a steely, albeit nervous glare. "Who did you tell?" he demanded.
"No one," Sophie replied innocently. She grinned. "Yet."
The man on the floor raised an eyebrow, his brown eyes flicking back and forth between the two.
Thirty seconds later, the bus pulled over at the nearest curb. The garbage man practically hopped down the steps, grinning wildly. "Thanks for the lift!" he called, waving back at Harold cheerily. Harold's response was to grunt and drive off.
Sophie just barley managed to dive out of the closing doorway, rolling over and over on the sidewalk. She stood as fast as she could and shouted after the disappearing vehicle. "Two seconds! You couldn't have waited two seconds." She sighed, adjusting her backpack. "Every time…"
Meanwhile, the man whipped out what looked like a little grey bowl with a mini steering wheel sticking out of one side and a rubix cube glued to the other. The bowl made a small 'ding' and the man shook it. "No, no, not me," he told it, spinning the little wheel. "It's the belruse you're looking for. The belruse. There's only one belruse on this-" He paused as the thing dinged again. "Oh." He frowned. "That's not good."
"What's not good?" Sophie asked, coming up beside him.
The man whirled around, his arms flailing everywhere, nearly tripping over his own two feet. "Oh. Hello there." He grinned, then frowned again. "What are you doing here?"
"Following you," she told him, adjusting her backpack again. "What is that anyway?"
"Why?"
"Because it looks weird."
The man shook his head. "No, no, no, I mean why are you following me? And it's not weird." He held it out to her. "It's a scanner."
Sophie scrutinized it disapprovingly. "Looks rubbish to me."
"Rubbish?" the man repeated, looking hurt. "This is top technology."
"Top technology made out of junk."
"Well, yes, but that's not the point. You can make a lot of good things out of junk. Useful things. Brilliant things. Things that go ding when there's a belruse nearby." As if on cue, the 'scanner' dinged again, and the man sent it a frown. "Stop it," he told it, then walked down the sidewalk, still staring at the scanner.
Sophie hurried after him. "Has it got a screen?"
"What?" he muttered distractedly. "Yes, of course it's got a screen. What kind of scanner doesn't have a screen?"
"A rubbish one."
"It's not rubbish." The man paused, still staring at the scanner, then held it up to the sky, like someone trying to get good reception.
"What about a keyboard?" Sophie persisted. "Has it got a keyboard?"
"No, why would it need a keyboard?"
Her look turned deadpan. "Right. Because who needs a keyboard when you've got a rubix cube?"
"Exactly." He spun the wheel again. "Why are you following me?" he asked once more, still studying the scanner.
Sophie shrugged. "A six-legged, fire-breathing cyclops lizard melted through the roof of my school bus and you're chasing it. Besides, you exploded my trashcan."
He finally looked away from the scanner to grin at her. "Yes, I did, didn't I? What's your name?"
"Sophie," she told him.
"Sophie, eh? Sophie? I once new someone named Sophie. She liked monkeys and Craig and football and nearly had her brained fried by a ship's holographic interface. Lovely woman."
Sophie stared at him for a moment. Again, she fruitlessly tried to comprehend his words. When her head started hurting, she wisely settled on a different topic. "So, where's the gateway this time?"
"Gateway? What gateway?"
She sent him a look, annoyed. "The interplanetary gateway."
The man smiled, his eyes lighting up. "Ah, yes, that gateway. Very inconvenient. Never know when one-"
"-Will pop up," Sophie interrupted. "Yes, yes, I know."
He pouted at her, looking offended. "Yes, well, no need to get snippy."
The scanner dinged again, cutting off whatever Sophie had to say, and the man gave a shout of triumph. "Ah-ha! Yes! Here we go!" Before she could say anything, he took off, running after whatever the scanner had shown him.
Sophie struggled after him. "Hey, wait up!" She followed the man to the edge of the sidewalk, where he suddenly stopped, making Sophie run into him. He barely noticed her, fixated on the device. He turned it this way and that, then suddenly took off the way they'd came. Sophie stared after him for a moment, then followed him again. He continued for about two blocks, stopped again, gave the 'scanner' a shake, and took off.
This continued for nearly a half-hour. Every now and then, he'd randomly stop, frowning, and whirl around a few times, spinning in circles until he found what he was looking for. Occasionally, he'd yell at the device and/or point his pen at it. Then, he'd be off again with a shout, his tweed jacket whipping about behind him.
The ten-year-old huffed after him, wondering if all of this running was worth her mother's wrath when she found out Sophie hadn't been to school. But then, there had been a monster in her bus, so she supposed she had a bit of an excuse. Hadn't her mother always told her to never miss out on an opportunity?
Finally, the man slowed to a walk, muttering to himself until he came to a stop in front of a museum. Sophie ran into him, nearly knocking him over. "Hey!" she shouted, jumping back. "Will you quit doing that?"
He looked back at her innocently. "Doing what? And what are you doing here?"
She folded her arms. "I told you, I'm following you." She glanced around. "Is it nearby?"
"Is what?"
"The belruse?"
His eyes lit up. "Oh! Yes, yes, it should be."
"According to your rubbish scanner."
"It's not rubbish!"
"Right. And neither is your pen."
"Pen?"
"The silver thing."
He frowned indignantly, digging into his coat pocket and producing said 'silver thing'. "It's a screwdriver," he corrected.
Sophie folded her arms. "It looks like a pen."
"It's sonic." The man huffed, pocketing the little device.
"I makes noise?" Sophie clarified, raising an eyebrow. "My, how useful."
The scanner pinged again, earning another frown. "I said stop it!" he told it, shaking it again, then reached down to the road and tried to pry off a manhole cover. After a bit of staring, Sophie reached down to help him. "It's underground?" she guessed.
The man grunted, letting the heavy cover fall to the street with a thud. "Yup."
"I'm not going down there."
"All right then. Bye!" Tucking the scanner into his pocket, he started heading down the small ladder.
Sophie was trying to figure out how something that big had even fit into his pocket when something occurred to her. "Wait!" she called after him. "Who are you, anyway?"
He paused a moment to grin up at her, that same smug grin. "I'm the Doctor." With that, he disappeared out of sight.
Me: See that shiiiiiiiiny blue button down there? Poke it!
l
l
l
l
l
l
l
l
V