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I knew the french fries were tasting weird. See, this is why I never trust school lunches. You never know what they put in them. Plastic instead of bread, rat meat instead of turkey, using blood instead of oil to fry the french fries. If you want to read this story, best go get a paper bag to throw up in or something.
It was a seemingly normal day. Me gruelling out of bed, getting dressed, going to the bus stop in the freezing cold, going to middle school, blah, blah, blah. I was getting bored in every class, even the ones I like. In the middle of a particularly boring Language Arts class, I heard a weird nose, like a broken leaf blower or something. It was quite an interesting noise. It's hard to describe exactly. Everyone noticed it. Even our teacher stopped explaining the lesson to listen to it. When it finally ended, the teacher went back to the lesson, but all the students in the class had their minds on that noise.
I'd forgotten about the noise until lunch, when my friends brought it up. Stella, a short, dark-haired girl who was one of my friends brought it up, "Did you hear that noise during second block? It was like a weird gust of wind or something." Everyone murmured in agreement. I was just about give my opinion on it when a rather odd man comes along and sits down in an empty chair at our table.
"Hullo! My name's the Doctor! Mind if I join you ladies for lunch?" he asked. We all were a little hesitant, but we agreed. He was wearing a tan trench coat with a royal blue suit beneath. He had brown hair with sideburns and spiky hair at the top which was kind of like a mohawk, but not really. He was quite weird, and he creeped everyone out at first, but later we started to like him.
After the monitor had sent our table to get lunch, well, those who were buying their lunch anyways, we all got up and stood in the line. I looked at the menu. They were serving salads as usual, turkey sandwiches, bread and chicken nuggets, and french fries. I decided to get the nuggets and french fries, while the Doctor, who was right behind me, decided to get everything. Literally, everything. Even all the fruits and vegetables, and all the snacks and everything. He took out a wallet and scanned it in front of the card scanner. The lunch lady looked very surprised that he had enough money for everything.
"Thank you… Doctor." the lunch lady said. At our school, they started this thing where the lunch lady thanked you with your name. It was annoying for me since no one could pronounce my name right. It's really not that hard. It's 'Gun-gaa'. Not 'Gan-ja'. In Hindi, 'Gan-ja', or ganja, means bald! Do I look bald? Do I?! Seriously, people. Back at the table, the Doctor asked everyone their names.
Enola, a blonde, short-haired girl, was the one most intrigued by him. She asked him a lot of questions rapidly. The Doctor replied just as rapidly.
"Hi." Enola said.
"Hello!" the Doctor answered.
"Where are you from?" she asked.
"Far away." he answered.
"You sound British. Are you British?"
"No. I just like British accents, don't you?"
"Yeah. But American's the natural accent for me. Why are you here?"
"Wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey stuff."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Oh, don't rack your brain about it. Too complex for a human."
"You talk like you're not human."
"I'm not."
"You look human."
"But I'm not. Besides, you look like my race."
"What's your race?"
"Oh, you don't want to know."
"What's your race?"
"I said, you don't want to know."
"Would I be asking if I didn't?"
"You make a good point. I'm a Time Lord."
"Who are you, really?"
"Like I said, I'm the Doctor."
"Yes, but what's after that? Doctor what? Doctor who?"
The Doctor smiled.
"Everyone says that. I should trademark that."
"Trademark what?"
"Oh, nothing."
"Ok, then, Mr. Time Lord, if you're really an alien, who is the president of Venezuela?"
"Nicolás Maduro. How does this have anything to do with me being alien?"
"Oh, nothing! I just needed it for my Social Studies project!"
The Doctor looked at me. He leaned forward.
"You've got some amazing friends, Ganga."
"Uh, yeah…"
He stared at me with an intense gaze, "Don't take them for granted."
"Ok…" I munched on my french fries, which tasted a little weird. Was their less salt today?
"I'm serious. One day you'll know what I'm talking about." He leaned back again and smiled.
"I'm here to investigate some evil stuff at your school. Would you mind helping?"
Everyone sprang up to help him. I stayed quiet. The Doctor pointed at Enola, Stella and Shreya, a hyperactive, dark haired and olive-skinned girl.
"You, you and you." he said, pointing at them. They cheered. The Doctor got up, without eating anything of the many, many foods he got and look at his wrist. But it had no watch.
"Meet me at 1:45" the Doctor said. The three nodded with much enthusiasm. I, again, stayed quiet. Seriously, what was wrong with the lunch today? Everything tasted so weird! I got up to throw my lunch away and put my tray back. When I came back to the table, the DOctor was gone.
During 3rd block, I couldn't focus. All I could think of was the Doctor. He really was the strangest man I had ever seen. And I was partly worried, too. For my friends. Honestly, a random man comes and asks for some random help, and they all jump to help him. I love my friends and all, but what idiots. I needed to see if they were safe. I know I couldn't keep them safe, but at least I could get my phone and keep 911 close. The more I thought about my friends and the Doctor, the more scarier possibilities came to mind.
Finally, I cracked. Hurriedly, I looked at the clock. 1:30. I shot my hand up. The Math teacher picked me, thinking I was the only one that had the answer. I did have the answer, but I asked, "Can I go to the nurse?"
The bathroom was near, so if by chance anyone was following my movements, it would be hard to explain why I went in the opposite direction of the bathroom. The teacher looked a little disappointed, but asked, "Why?"
"My head and stomach hurt. I feel dizzy." I said, and the teacher nodded and let me go. I slowly went out into the hall, and walked slowly out of range of the door window. Then I sprinted. I ran like, excuse my language, hell. Finally, I reached the cafeteria, where I saw my friends and the Doctor standing.
"Why aren't we going yet?" Stella asked impatiently.
"It's not 1:45. It's 1:43." the Doctor said.
"But we're all here! What does it matter?" Shreya said, practically bouncing.
"It matters because we're waiting for one more person." the Doctor said.
"But you only picked us three!" Enola said.
"I know, I just also know that one of your other friends was interested by my timey-wimey stuff, and she followed us and she's right… there! Hello!" the Doctor said, pointing right where I was hiding, and waved. I slowly got up.
"Ganga! What're you doing here? I thought you didn't want to go!" Enola said.
"Uh… I do now…" I said.
The Doctor smiled, looked at his imaginary watch and said, "1:45! Glad you made, Ganga! Allons-y!"
He marched away into the kitchen, my friends giggling and following him. I was hesitant but I followed too, my phone in my pocket.
Amazingly, there was no lunch lady in sight. The kitchen was completely empty. There were giant boxes labeled 'French fries', 'Chicken patties', 'Cold CUts' etc. There was this other part with friers, which were covered for now, grills, microwaves, ovens. I have to admit, I was surprised it was like this considering the quality of our food.
The Doctor got out a blue tube with a blue bit at the end. He pressed a button and the blue bit lit up, making a weird buzzing sound. He waved it around, and put on a pair of glasses.
"What's that?" I asked.
"It's my sonic screwdriver." the Doctor said, continuing to march along, and continuing to buzz and wave the thing around.
"Why's it called a sonic screwdriver?" Enola asked.
"Because it's a screwdriver that's sonic." the Doctor said cheerily, and continued his weird investigation.
"Nooooooo, really?" Enola asked.
"Yes, really!" the Doctor said. He continued to do his sonic investigation, until he finally landed near the friers. He put his sonic screwdriver back in his suit and said, "Something tells me that's not oil in there."
My stomach did a 360, "Well, then what is in there?"
The Doctor stayed quiet and slowly lifted the lid up to reveal…
You probably might want to get near a sink or get a bag to throw up in or something like that, because there wasn't oil in the frier. There was blood. Thick, red, oozing human blood. The Doctor turned around quickly and put his finger up to his lip before anyone could scream.
"You all need to get out of here. Quickly." he whispered. The rest were hesitant but I pushed them along, We were just out, when the lights went out. We still could see, because of the light coming in from the door window. We all scrambled towards the door, when a figure blocked our way. I could tell it was a lunch lady, but I couldn't see her face.
"RUN! GET AWAY FROM HER!" The Doctor's voice came from the darkness. Suddenly, all the lights switched on, and we saw the lunch lady's horrific face. Her skin was as pale as ivory, her eyes were completely red, and she had fangs that went to her chin, the tips covered in blood.
Me and my friends screamed and ran towards the Doctor. All around us, lunch ladies swooped in, surrounding us.
"VAMPIRES!" I screamed, and the Doctor said, "Well, it's technically-"
One of the vampires screeched. The Doctor looked offended.
"Well, that's not very nice, now is it?" he said, and I asked, "You know what they're saying?!"
"Yep, and it's aaaall thanks to my TARDIS!" he said.
"Your WHAT?" I asked, but my question became less significant as the vampires started coming closer. The Doctor asked a more important question, "Whose blood is that?"
One of the vampires screeched and the Doctor seemed to understand, "The headmaster? Do you mean to say, you killed the headmaster-"
"We call them principles…" Enola said.
"America is such a strange place. Even more strange than Ulpatio, and they have ten eyes, three tentacles and a thirst for plastic!" the Doctor said.
The vampire screeched again. Stella yelled, "I dunno if I should be offended or not!"
"I think you should worry more about the fact that our lunch ladies are freaking vampires!" I yelled at her.
"If the headmaster suddenly disappeared, wouldn't that be suspicious? How did you cover that up?" the Doctor said, daring to step forward. The vampires in front of him stepped to the side, and a woman we knew as our principal came through.
"Wait, wait, wait. Our principal was a vampire this whole time, and we didn't know?" I asked, and the Doctor said, "That about sums it up right!"
He turned to our principal, who had also turned into a vampire. The principal-vampire didn't screech, but had a raspy voice, "We made the previous principal resign. Not willingly, of course." She laughed a laugh that sounded like a thousand blades being sharpened.
"We promised we'd leave her alone if she resigned." the principal-vampire said, and the Doctor said, "But you didn't keep your promise, did you?" The principal-vampire smiled, her fangs even pointier than the lunch ladies', "Let's just say, Ms. Principal won't be coming back for a visit."
A chill ran through my spine as all the vampires laughed. The Doctor took out a small bag and said, "Why are you here?"
The principal-vampire stopped laughing and said, "Because of you, Time Lord."
"Why me?" the Doctor asked, and the principal-vampire smiled again and answered, "we've heard that Time Lord meat is so tender. Oh, so tender and juicy." The vampires murmured-or what I think was murmured-in agreement.
"We've not had a full meal in a long time, since your little Time War." the vampire said, and she bent her legs a little, "Now, we can finally have our revenge and have a meal in a single day!"
"Get closer to me!" the Doctor shouted to us as the vampires prepared to pounce. We ran to him and all the vampires jumped at us as the Doctor raised his bag. The vampires immediately flew away, their pale skin now angry red and steaming. They were all screeching in pain.
"RUn!" the Doctor yelled, and we sprinted out the kitchen. As we ran, I pulled a fire alarm switch along the way. The sirens blazed as we ran past the cafeteria, past the front office, and into a computer lab.
"Why didn't we just exit?" I asked.
"Because if we did, then they would cause a havoc outside." the Doctor said, and he suddenly stopped. "Although, now that I think about it, I could have distracted them for a while and you could exit…"
I could hear all the children and teachers frantically exiting the building. I could also hear the flap of wings. Oh, boy.
"Get out your bag thing! What's in there, anyway?" I asked.
"Diallyl trisulfide. It's a component in garlic. They can't stand it." the Doctor said.
"So, vampires are real, and they can't stand garlic. The next thing you know, werewolves are real as well!" I said, laughing frantically. The Doctor gave me a look. My laughing stopped, "No way…"
The door exploded and the Doctor pushed me and my friends under a desk. He stood in front of the vampires, his hands raised as if he were being arrested and said, "You can take me, but you don't have to harm any of these humans."
The principal-vampire came forward, "We would accept that offer. If you would take your little bag off."
The Doctor was silent. Then, he slowly lowered his arms and tossed the bag away. The vampires screeched with what I think was joy.
The principal-vampire raised a hand, and the screeching stopped. Her eyes glinted evilly as she said, "Too bad I'm not good at keeping promises. Sisters, it's dinner time!"
The vampires pounced on the Doctor, their fangs bared. He raised his arms to his face, when something shocking happened. I got up from under the desk and extended my hand, yelling, "NO!"
All the vampires turned towards me. I felt someone hit my leg from under the table. Suddenly, the whole world held its breath. The vampires laughed and the principal-vampire said, "I guess we have another turkey for the table!" I didn't know whether I should be offended or not. I suddenly caught a glimpse of something behind a vampire.
A hand reached out and dropped a ball in one of the vampire's mouth. Two other hands did the same to two other vampires. They started to choke, and soon, all of the vampires had the balls inserted and were choking. The principal-vampire was outraged, her eyes watering and she managed to say, "WHO DID THIS?!"
"Hello!"
My friends, Enola, Stella and Shreya stepped out under a desk, Stella twirling a bag in her hand. Those sly geniuses. The Doctor laughed, and soon, the vampires were dissolving into steam. The last of their screams filled the room as they disappeared into smoke.
I ran to my friends and hugged them. When we broke apart, Shreya smacked me upside the head. Shreya said, "You idiot. You had NO defence whatsoever, and you run along, show yourself to the vampire. You could have DIED! What good would that do?"
"I… Well, I… Uh…" I stammered, and my friends laughed. I smiled and said, "Have I ever told you guys what geniuses you are?"
Enola went into deep thought, "Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, nope."
"Well then, you guys are geniuses!" I said. I turned to the Doctor, but he was gone. I looked around the room, but he was nowhere.
"Where's the Doctor?" I asked and my friends shrugged. I ran out the room, and looked down the hallway. At the very end of the hallway was an exit with a glass door. I could just see the end of a tan trench coat swish away. I sprinted down the hallway, my friends calling after me, but I turned deaf to them. I pushed open the doors where a freezing cold greeted me. Good thing I didn't have my coat, or I wouldn't have got frostbite!
I looked around, and to my right I saw a big blue box with the words 'Police Box' near the top. There was a small lightbulb flashing at the top, and I felt a gust of wind as the weird sound came again. Curious, I ran towards the box, threw its doors open and stumbled inside. At first, I couldn't believe my eyes. The box was bigger on the inside than the outside. My breath was knocked out of me. I tried to catch it, but failed.
"Oh my gods…" I breathed. The Doctor was in the middle of the gigantic room, where a giant tube thing with a bunch of buttons and gadgets and stuff were surrounding it. He turned around quickly and shouted, "WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?!"
"Uh, I… Sorry, I'll go." I turned around to find the doors had already closed themselves. The Doctor yelled, "No! Don't open the door!"
But it was too late. What I saw was time and the universe zipping past me, all of space coming close and moving away in a millisecond. I leaned forward, wanting to get lost in the infinite wonders of time and space, but a hand suddenly jerked me back and closed the door. It was the Doctor. He looked at me with a worried look. He went back to the weird control panel and said, "I need to get you back to your home. Fast."
I turned around quickly, "No! Can't I just go to one new place?"
The Doctor gave me a 'Can you believe her nerve?' look and said, "No. You're way too young, and I can't risk anything happening to you."
"I'm not too young!" I said.
"You're, what, 10?" the Doctor said, and I was deeply offended.
"Ex-cuse me, sir! I am 12 years old! A seventh-grader!" I said.
"How is that any different?"
"It's a whole 730 days different! That's 17,520 hours!"
The Doctor seemed impressed with my math skills, but still said, "No."
He turned to his controls, but before he could pull a handle that I assumed made the box start, I ran towards him and pulled the other way. He struggled against me, and finally, he won, and I sort of tripped and landed on a box with a bunch of buttons on it.
"No!" the Doctor yelled, and the box started shaking. I could feel myself zipping through time, and finally the box stopped moving.
"Where are we?" I asked. The Doctor helped me get up and looked at the box. After a few seconds, he looked towards the door.
"The TARDIS has taken us in the past. We're in the Middle Ages."