Miss Chalmers has started the usual rant all teachers give before the test. I wait until she tells us that we can write before I start filling anything in. Fortunately, science is one of my best subjects, so I wasn't too worried about what would come up in the paper. Plus, I've been studying, so I know I can get at least something on each question. About halfway through the allotted time, Clyde starts muttering to himself. Miss Chalmers gets up to tell him off, but I can hear something. It's like a high pitched, wailing noise. Quiet enough that you wouldn't immediately clock it, but annoying enough that once you hear it, you can't stop. Miss has started actually shouting at Clyde, so I discreetly turn my head enough to spot the plants growing on the windowsill. That's strange, they weren't there when we can in. At this point, everyone has started whispering about the noise. Miss yells for quiet, having walked away from Clyde and Rani, but at this point, no one's going to be listening. "Miss, that plant, I think it could be dangerous." Clyde tells her. She's walked back over to him but has yet to see the plant. "What plant?" She asks, sounding confused. Clyde points the plant out, and it's then that she notices it. She marches over to it and bends to investigate. Suddenly, the plant seems to open up and shoot something directly into her face. She starts chocking, then passes out. I see red and black marks all over her face. "Everyone, out, now. Someone, run and find the nurse and talk to the office, no one should come back in here! Move it!" I yell over everyone screaming. Fortunately, they all comply, leaving only Clyde, Rani, K-9, and me in the room. Clyde has knelt next to her by the time I dash over. "She's passed out!" he states. "Obviously. Come on, we need to leave." I pull Clyde up and we all follow the rest of our classmates.
In the hall, we see more people in the same state as our teacher. I check one girl's pulse, letting out a relieved sigh when I can still feel a heartbeat. It's faint, but it's still there. "She's alive. It's just knocking everyone out." Clyde comments. I frown. Something's not adding up. "How did the Rakweed get from Sarah Jane's house to here?" Rani asked as we rolled the unconscious girl into the recovery position. "That was Rakweed?" I asked. "Yeah. You saw those seed things; it must be spreading itself." Clyde points out as we stand up. "Kind of like fungi." I mutter to myself. "It's obviously not a good idea to breath them in." Rani says sarcastically. I freeze. "What if Luke did? He's physically incapable of being ill, so it would have to be some alien disease, or infection." I have never hated not having my phone on me more. Fortunatly, Rani has hers, so she passed it over to me when she called Luke. We continue walking down the hall.
"Rani?" The weak voice of my best friend shatters my heart. "Asha, actually. The Rakweed got you, didn't it? Are you okay?" I ask, desperatly hoping I'm wrong. "Yeah, I'm okay." He lies. Well, he's probably just repeating the social acceptable answer, but I can't take that. Not right now. "Please don't lie to me. You sound awful. Is Sarah Jane with you?" I ask, trying so hard not to snap at him. "She's gone...find Blathereen." Luke sounds on the verge of passing out. He then goes silent. "Luke? Luke? Luke, answer me?!" Nothing. I then heard a clatter, like he dropped his phone. I pull the phone away from my ear. "He's...he didn't...he's ill. Like, really, really sick. I think he passed out on me. And Sarah Jane's gone, probably to threaten the Blathereen, so he's by himself with only Mr. Smith. We're on our own." I ramble, a tear leaking out. I wipe it away before the others can comment. "Then we've got to sort this by ourselves. Just the three of us." Clyde places a hand on my shoulder when he says this. "Correction, Master Clyde." K-9 has caught up to us. We turn to watch him roll closer. "Four of us." He reminds us. "And you called me insane for bringing K-9 to school." Clyde teased Rani. "Because you are. Don't worry, we all are." I remind him. Rani just reminds us that we need to get to Luke before we run off again.
When we burst into reception, the place is covered in the plant. It's somehow managed to grow out of the chairs? Even the table has a few plants sticking out of it. "What do we do?" Rani panics. "Well, not breath it in, I'd suggest." I comment sarcastically. "It's everywhere." Clyde is staring at the plant growing in the celling when he says this. I refrain from calling him captain obvious, but I will be reminding him of this later. One of the plants opens and spits out the spores. Rani yells for us to watch out and drags us back a bit. K-9 rolls forward and shoots the spores with his nose laser. We open the front doors, only to pull them closed a second later. A swarm of red was coming closer, which could only mean one thing. I tune out Clyde and K-9's conversation, already knowing that K-9 can't just blast them all. Clyde then yells to run to the Canteen, so I did.
Rani and Clyde are discussing how wide spread this is as we run. One thing agreed apon is that this is definetlt further spread than just our school. Which leads us to the computer lab. We realised that there is definetly news reports if people are being infected by the plant. I hold the door open for K-9 while Clyde and Rani log onto the computer and find a news report. "Cases of the, as yet, unidentified infection have increased to over 300, and doctors warn there could be more in the coming days. It all started in Ealing, but it's spread as far as Southall, Perivale, Acton, and Chiswick. Members of the public, especially those in West London, are advised to act with extreme caution." I've started pacing. I'm running through any potential weaknesses for the plant, but I'm coming up empty. My best guess would be some sort of sound, just because of the high-pitched whine the plants seem to make, but it would take far too long to figure out what frequency would combat it. It's definitely not something in the earth's atmosphere, because that would have killed it instantly. Also, given what it's growing on, I doubt it would care about the toxicity of the soil. Maybe water? But I highly doubt that. "What would Sarah Jane do?" Clyde asked, getting up from the chair he and Rani had been sharing. "She'd do what she always does. Improvise." Rani answers him. Well, strictly speaking, she's gone to threaten murder, so maybe don't take that too seriously, I think to myself while following them out of the room.
"That's the gym, art, and canteen blocked. There's got to be an exit that isn't blocked by Rakweed." Clyde complains as we march through the school. "What about a window?" Rani asks as we slip into the staff room. "Windows are locked." I say after giving it a few tries. "Give me a shove up." Rani orders. "Oh, all the glamourous jobs." Clyde sulks, dropping down so Rani could use his knee to check the top window. It isn't locked, but we would never be able to fit through the gap. "Warning. Danger." K-9 warns us, just as the plant in the pot next to me opens up. "Clyde, Asha, No!" Rani yells when Clyde pulls me out of the way, putting himself in the way of the spores. I try and pull him back, but the bell rings. Suddenly, the whining stops. The plant just...dies. Shrivels up and disappears. "What?!" Clyde's bewildered face is kinda funny. "Saved by the bell. Literally." I joke. The others look at me, confused. "It's like how phones interfered with Odd Bob's powers. Only, this time, it's the bell and it kills the plant." I explain. The confusion lifts from their faces, and we start to come up with a plan as we make our way to reception.
We peer round the doorframe to make sure that no one is in the room before we enter. "We need you to set the bell off again, but much, much louder this time." Rani explains to the dog as we enter. "K-9, can you boost the volume?" Clyde asks. "Easily accomplished." He tells us, smugly. As we crouch near the desk, K-9's sensor extends, allowing him to connect to the bell and setting it off. "I clamp my hands over my ears as the shrill sound of the bell sounds out. I try not to react too badly, but the sound is almost physically painful. I think it's worse than usual because I'm right next to it, and it's being made louder, but it still hurts. We watch as the Rakweed growing all over the waiting area shrivels up and dies. "It's working!" Clyde yells over the bell. Rani praises K-9 while I start thinking. It suddenly goes quiet. Then the whining starts outside again. There's still more. "We're never going to defeat it!" Rani moans, the defeat plain on her face. "Yes. We will. K-9, call Mr. Smith!" I command, squatting next to the dog. "Contact with the computer interferes with this unit's synaptic circuits." K-9 whines. "You mean he gets on your nerves?" Clyde asks incredulously. "Affirmative." The dog replies. "I'm giving you both couple's therapy." I roll my eyes. Rani laughs. "They really need to work through their issues." She agrees with me.
K-9 uses Clyde's phone to make the call. As soon as Mr. Smith picks up, Sarah Jane's voice comes throgh. "Clyde! Are you okay?" "Yeah, we're fine." Clyde reassures her. "And we think we've found a way to kill the Rakweed. The school bell." Clyde tells her. "Brilliant! You're all brilliant!" She cries out in relief. "It's like with Odd Bob, only more extreme. And bells, instead of phones. The plant lets out a high-pitched wail when it flowers, so I think it's highly noise sensitive." I explained my theory. "The Rakweed is connected by that terrible wailing sound. It's how the plant says alive, communicates." Sarah Jane explains. "So, the bell breaks the connection?" I guess. "Precisely." "Would it be possible to get Mr. Smith to play the sound of the bell on everything? K-9 can give him the exact frequency, and then Mr. Smith can connect to everything that plays sound and play it?" I ask, the plan coming together. "Brilliant, Asha! Why is K-9 there?" She demands, having just processed what I said. "I'll er, I'll explain later." Clyde stammers out. "Fine, Mr. Smith, is Asha's plan possible?" Sarah Jane gives in. This conversation definitely isn't over for Clyde. "Yes. I just need the exact frequency." the supercomputer confirms. "1421.09 hertz." K-9 recites. "I am now linking to all electrical devises in the area invaded by the Rakweed, and retuning them to replicate the bell's frequency." Mr. Smith tells us. "How's Luke?" I ask timidly. I heard Sarah Jane sigh. "He's unconscious." She admits. Mr smith then cuts in. "Prepare yourself, Sarah Jane." "Cover your ears, this is going to be really, really loud!" She orders. Just in time too. I clamp my hands over my ears and squeeze my eyes shut, but it didn't help much. It felt like the whole building was shaking. I couldn't breathe. It felt like the room was closing in on me, and everything sounded like it was underwater. It seemed to go on forever. Suddenly, something hit my shoulder. I screamed as I flinched back. "Asha. Hey...over." I vaguely heard someone say. I couldn't form words. I could hear people talking, but no words permeated my brain. I felt something take my hand, but it was gentle, so I allowed it. I felt my hand being pressed against a wrist, where I could feel a strong pulse. "Count it." A voice told me. I did. I latched on to the task and started counting. By the time I reached 60 heart beats, I was able to open my eyes. I saw Rani knelt in front of me, with my hand around her wrist. Clyde and K-9 were stood a little way behind, watching as I calmed down. I try and say something, but I can't form the words. "Hey, you back with us?" Rani asks. I just nod. She frowns a bit. "No words?" She asks. I just shrug. "That's okay. We're going back to Sarah Jane's house. Come on." She gently helps me to my feet, then tucks me under her arm and leads the way back.
We burst into the attic to find Sarah Jane and Luke talking to Mr. Smith. "Sarah Jane!" Rani exclaims, letting go of me to hug Sarah Jane. I just give Luke a hug, not even reacting when Clyde hugs over me. I tune out the conversations and just focus on the fact that Luke's okay. Reluctantly, I pull away from Luke and flop down onto the sofa. That panic attack really drained me. I laugh silently as Sarah Jane starts prying the story as to why K-9 was at school with us. As she starts in on Clyde about cheating, a golden flash lights up the room, and I groan. I decide to let the others handle in, and just watch. I'm not sure I'd be much help at the moment. "We meet again, Miss. Smith." A brownish red Slitheen like being exclaims. I frown. I'm guessing these are the people responsible for the last few hours of excitement. They aren't Blathereen. The Blathereen are more grey that brown. "Oh, why don't you just go home!" Sarah Jane groans at them. "This is your final warning." She says menacingly. "The Slitheen-Blathereen do not take kindly to ultimatums." the one on the left announces. Ah, that makes more sense. That's also why I probably never heard of them before. I hear Clyde mutter, but I don't have the mental energy to pay attention. Rani comments that they're only half bad, to which I roll my eyes. Blood doesn't define if you're good or bad. That's all on you and your choices. And these beings chose to try and kill us all. They seemed to agree with me, calling their Blathereen side soft hearted do gooders. Which, kinda rude, but whatever. Just as they yell about the hunt, Mr. Smith lets out the bell again. Fortunately, it's not as loud, so while I clamp my hands over my ears, it doesn't feel quite as bad as it did last time. It still feels like rescraping your already grazed knee but dulled a bit.
The ringing cuts off, but the Slitheen-Blathereen are still screaming in agony. Oh. I understand now. It's killing the Rakweed I'm guessing they've eaten recently. It's killing them from the inside. I roll off the sofa and make my way to the wall. I know the drill with these creatures, and I take great joy in having yet to be splashed. Just in time too, as they explode, coating everything in the attic, apart from where I am, because I'm just around the corner. I laugh as the others complain about it but keep my distance. I would cry or throw up if I touch any of the slime at the minute. As they all hug Sarah Jane, they seem to notice I'm not there. Sarah Jane looks around frantically until she sees me curled up on the floor away from them. She just sighs and nods to me. She then exiles Clyde to clean up, while she, Luke and Rani take their showers. I carefully manoeuvre my way out of the attic and down the stairs. I collapse onto the sofa in the living room and curl up, waiting for someone to join me.
30 minutes later, Sarah Jane has wrangled us into a barbeque outside, with Clyde managing the food. He took over after he came down and found that Sarah Jane had burnt a sausage to literal charcoal. He was not impressed with that. He's kept one half of the barbeque clear of meat for me, and I'm so grateful for these amazing people. I couldn't ask for a better family. They all realised that I don't really have the energy for words, so they don't try and force me into talking, but let me sit on the swing, with someone joining me for a few minutes just to make sure I'm not alone for too long. It's nice. A nice way to end a horrible day.
An: I don't own the Sarah Jane adventures. I just own Asha. Yes, she did go nonverbal, that's based on me and my experiences with overstimulation and panic attacks.