Chapter Ten

Sarah's eyes flew open and she leapt out of bed, racing downstairs.

"Hi auntie, bye auntie" she said as she shot past Great-Aunt Zelda, who felt the wind go by. "Sarah? What in blazes are you doing that makes you go so fast?"

Sarah reached the bugs and looked inside each one of the jars. She grinned nastily as she saw that the bugs were sleeping, all the pills eaten, and they were growing about half a millimeter a minute. Already they were twice their normal size.

"Excellent. They should be ready in about"—she glanced at her watch—"four hours. Joy."

She raced back upstairs to see that everyone else was up. That is, mostly up. Some of them were…um…nine-tenths asleep. Koran for instance.

He had gotten out of bed, tried to stretch, and fell promptly on Sarah's bed, where he had started to snore. Sarah sat down on her pillow and pushed him off, saying "Shove up, there." He bonked his head, sat up, and his head whipped around. "What? Did New Zealand invade? I tried to tell the President, but would he listen?*"

"Ugggh…what time is it?" groaned Rian as he scrabbled for the clock. "Easy, Rio. It's 8:30."

"GAH! I OVERSLEPT!" He got up and tried to run out the door, but Milo grabbed the back of his shirt. "Chill. We got it covered." "Got what covered?" asked Rack as he sat up and rubbed his eyes. "Uh..nothing" said Sarah quickly. She got Silas, Marcus, Nora, and Milo and pushed them towards a walk-in closet. "We need to discuss something for a moment."

As soon as they were in there, she poked Milo in the nose. "No more slips, okay? One more and we'll be in the doghouse." "Why can't we just tell Rian and Rack? It has nothing to do with them." Sarah raised her head for a moment, then walked over to the door of the walk-in closet, opened it slightly to the inside, then slammed it outward. "YOW!" She stuck her head out and smiled sweetly, then hissed, "ZIP!

"Anyway" she whispered, "I checked the bugs and it'll take them about another four hours. So we've got a bit of a wait. Until then, shut the bleep up, okay, Milo?" "Hmmmph." "So, let's plan this out" said Marcus. "Yeah" agreed Nora.

"Okay" Sarah told them. "He loses. All of us stay a little bit, and then we go home. We announce to everyone that he's a disgrace to the name of 13-year-old. We keep playing pranks on him, like shooting soap balloons into his window. We do not hang out with him if we want to, only if we have to."

She clapped her hands, and said, "Alrighty, that's settled."

Sarah was heading for the door when Nora asked, "What if he wins?"

She turned back with an evil grin upon her face. "Trust me, he won't."

Koran was suspicious of the RRs. They were acting very odd, always glancing at the sun or their watches. It was about 12:00 when Sarah walked up to him and said in an ominous voice, "It is time for the purpose of our visit t to a certain Marram Marsh. Come Koran Un-named." He raised an eyebrow. "Un-named?" Milo shrugged. "Well, come on, do you really want your dad's last name?" "No." "Good."

Rian and Rack followed them curiously. Koran glanced around; Sarah was leading the way with Milo next to her, Silas was on the left and Marcus on the right, Nora took up the rear with the other two boys walking behind her. "Why do I feel like I've been captured?" he muttered. Nobody answered.

They reached the house and they heard great grunting and buzzing from behind the house. Koran turned his head toward it slowly. "I repeat from earlier, are you trying to get me killed?" Sarah shrugged. Koran shook his head in exasperation. "I swear, makes me almost not want to be the ExtraOrdinary Apprentice." Then he snapped his fingers. "That's it!" he crowed.

"Alrighty, Rian, Rack, you might want to back off a bit" Sarah warned them as she headed towards the hole. She yanked out two of the stakes that held the tarp down over the bugs, and then the monstrous beings, over 25 of them, shot into the air. They were as big as 15-year-olds with the temper of a giant homicidal tiger that hadn't eaten in weeks. "Funny" remarked Sarah as she looked up at them. "I thought we had more than that." "Oh, most of them probably got squashed against the glass," said Nora, reading a comic book.

Silas and Marcus focused all their Magykal powers on creating an invisible shield around everyone BUT Koran.

Milo struck a gong, and the last test began.

Koran backed away from the bugs. He was surprised, and chagrined. He didn't think even Sarah would be this cruel. If I get out of this alive, I'm gonna kill her.

He pulled out something from his pocket: the Flyte Charm. He shot up into the air and whizzed around the Bogle Bugs. But one of them snagged him and he tumbled to the ground. "Oof!" he wheezed as he hit the ground.

About 15 of them landed around and surrounded him. He gulped and grabbed a little icicle out of another pocket. "Ha!" he yelled, and Froze about 5 of the bugs before 10 seized him in their pinchers and brought him up too high to be seen.

Sarah looked up and squinted to see nothing but a black speck, and she heard shouts.

Then she winced. The bugs had dropped him, and Koran was plunging more than a mile through the air.

But he had a trick up his sleeve, or more accurately, the Flyte Charm in yet another pocket (how many does he have???)

He zipped past the bugs and broke a stick off a tree. Brandishing it like a spear, he kept those 10 at bay for a few moments, and then he dived down into the thick trees. The bugs, being a lot bigger, got stuck in the upper branches.

Koran grinned. Only ten left to handle.

He landed softly on the ground where the last ten were, and they stared each other down until, with a wild yell, Koran hurled himself into the bugs, and all 11 disappeared in a cloud of fists, antennae, and legs.

Sarah was holding a clipboard, checking off and X-ing things as she watched Koran fight the Bogle Bugs.

About 15-so minutes later, to a chorus of oohs, aahs, and ouches, the cloud dissipated and the 10 bugs were all unconscious. Koran was covered in cuts, scratches, bruises, and welts. He glared at Sarah, then rasped, "How did I do?"

"Well, we'll have to figure this out. Come, fellow RRs." The five kids gathered around the clipboard for about five minutes.

Five minutes later…

"Alright, this is the final little thingy," said Sarah. She set her jaw and her pencil moved across the page so rapidly that it was a blur.

Nora went over to look and suddenly cracked up. She fell to the ground, shaking with laughter and the other three RRs came over to see just what was so funny. Silas snorted, and then they were all off roaring with laughter. Then Rian and Rack came over, grins on their faces. Soon they were guffawing too.

"Oh fer the love of cheese sandwiches—WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU ALL LAUGHING ABOUT??!!" demanded Koran as he walked over to peek. Sarah held out a hand right in front of his face and he promptly fell over. Staggering to his feet with yet another bruise, he grumbled, "What was that for?" "You aren't allowed to see the results," said Sarah simply. "Now go away."

Koran sat down on a stump and waited. Then he saw Sarah erasing something. In fact, she erased the whole page. He raised an eyebrow again but said nothing. Then she beckoned Nora, Silas, Milo, and Marcus over and they whispered among themselves for a moment. Marcus pulled out a calculator and typed in something, Silas tapped his watch, Milo scratched his chin, Nora quietly pointed out something, and Sarah nodded and erased something else before writing something else.

Crickets chirped in the background, and then finally the results.

"Okay, Koran Un-named, you have n—wait a minute…" Sarah squinted at the paper, turned it upside-down, right-side-up again, widened her eyes, scratched something with her fingernail—"JUST READ THE RESULTS! YOU'RE KILLING THE POOR READERS, HERE!" yelled Koran. "Fine, fine, sheesh."

"Koran Un-named, you have—"

Sarah fainted on the spot. Nora picked up the clipboard before it hit the ground.

"—passed the Test."

A/N: Ha ha! You see THAT coming?

Edit: *I ripped off the Simpsons XD Issue #64.