4 The Home-made Wave-disruptor

I stared in fascination as the clerk levitated the box and then whistled a high shrill note. The bats swooped down, each taking on a corner of the box as if it weighed nothing.

"Sorry I can't leave the counter and escort you back to the Third Years Building, but these should do the trick."

"Now, put your hand on the box and guide it to where you need it to go." He moved his fingers around the box to demonstrate. "The bats will keep the box levitated. All you need to do is mentally tell it where to go."

Careful to keep my bloody right hand inside my pocket just in case the bats were as cracked as the rats from Pomello's class, I reached out my left hand and touched the box.

It wavered a moment as the bats linked their thoughts to me. Amazingly, the box stabilized and we were ready to go.

I gave the clerk a big grateful smile. "You don't suppose I could get me a set of these bats, do you? How much are these little guys?"

His eyes crinkled at the corners. "They're my pets, so they're not for sale, but I'm sure you could probably get some from the Montelucia Petshop in Topaz City. Old Brumhead has a good selection of young bats in his inventory."

"Do they know levikinesis like these guys do?" I asked.

He shook his head, laughing. "Brumhead doesn't sell adult bats. They're too valuable because of all the training they have to go through to be useful. Only the pups are for sale, but you can train them in levikinesis yourself if you're patient enough..."

He stopped and stared at me in growing awareness of my disability. "You know, there's another way to skin this bat. Mrs. Markleford's levikinesis class is in session right now, and she's teaching middle schoolers how to train their bats. You could probably convince her to use a set of your own bats for demonstration purposes."

"Will she agree to that?" I asked.

"I can probably put in a good word for you," the clerk smiled.

"Oh, would you please?" I flashed a grateful smile.

"You bet!"

I smiled at him. "Thank you!"

"You're welcome!" He gave me a loaded smile and a slow wink, reminding me once again of that creepy feeling I had when I first met him. I gave him a nervous smile and took off as quickly as I could manage.

Within the confines of the MB, there was little room to maneuver, but once outside, I found that the bats were quick to respond to my mental and physical manipulations.

Who said bats were stupid? They were far smarter than some people I knew. Unlike me, they were experts at levikinesis. I bet they could even give Mrs. Markleford a run for her money.

Once I figured out how to drive the bulky thing, I made good time getting to Alder Alley. Even going uphill all the way was easy when you're not loaded down with a heavy box.

As luck would have it, the classroom was at the end of the long alleyway, but I was doing great, thanks to the four bats. If my luck held, I would be at the doorway soon.

The alleyway was narrow, and the box was wide, which meant that it took my full concentration to ensure that the sides of the box did not bang into any protruding objects.

As it was, I barely avoided banging my head into a mailbox that jutted out of the side of the building, ready to attack short people like me.

Unfortunately, I could not manage to squeeze through unmolested by the hot red chili pepper plant. It was hung from a hook high above the alleyway on the second floor of the building I was passing under.

It was just my luck that it had been watered recently. All that excess soil-stained run-off overflowed through the sides of the planter pot and plopped down onto my blue tunic dress, splattering a nice grime-speckled pattern down my back.

Still, I couldn't complain. I was making good time with the box and it was starting to look like I was going to make it on time for lunch today.

Just as I thought things were finally going my way, all of a sudden and without warning, the bats lost whatever hover-ability with which they had been imbued.

Unable to maintain the waist-high altitude, they scattered up into the air, flapping helplessly as the box came crashing down onto the cobblestone pavement.

"No, no, no--oh no!" I wailed, clutching at the sides of the box which had weakened from the fall and split open at the seams, dispersing the contents onto the ground.

Great. Just great! What the heck had just happened to the bats? Why did they all of a sudden seem to lose their ability to transport?

I stood there, wringing my hands and squeezing my forehead, unsure of what to do next. I didn't have far to go, maybe I could carry a handful at a time, going back and forth until all the books had been delivered.

But that would take all afternoon, and there went my lunch.

"Hey look, it's that Banana-Nana!" The voice came from one of the side buildings followed by a clamor of chortles and shouts.

Just what I needed. Hecklers.

I sighed and turned to face them. Six sophomore boys, all around fourteen years of age and at various stages of physical development, stood in a semi-circle facing me. The largest of the group was so big, he looked like a bull dog.

I knew him well.

Torrence Edinger, the Third.

He had a large head with waist-length black hair pulled back in a shaggy pony tail. His face was dominated by a bulbous nose covered with a smattering of freckles scattered over both cheeks and the bridge of his nose.

The freckles looked friendly enough, but his brown eyes were hard and mean-looking.

"Torrence, what do you want?" I faced them squarely.

"Ha ha! Hey Tory, she called you Torrence!" One of the smaller tow-headed boys laughed and pounded Torrence's back.

"Shut up Simon," Torrence---or Tory, as his minions were now calling him---scowled and brushed the blonde boy's arm away but I could see that his irritation was more feigned than real.

It was clear that Tory respected his second and considered him more an equal rather than an underling even though physically, their sizes were mismatched.

Simon was the scrawniest one of the bunch.

At fourteen, he was also the youngest and the brightest. His clear blue eyes pierced through everyone and everything, and he pulled the strings behind almost every truant activity.

From his genius mind came the bright idea of turning all of Magus Asada's priceless, prize-winning breeder koi in the Academy's oriental pond into worthless bioluminescent fish that could thereafter, reproduce nothing but glow-in-the-dark fry.

It was also his hair scheme brainchild to teaching all the apes on campus a plethora of curse words having to do with various sexual acts. Consequently, the apes would randomly call out indiscriminate lewd words of a sexual nature in the midst of serving food or cleaning the grounds.

It was no small source of distress and embarrassment to the Academy, especially when visiting dignitaries paid high-profile visits to the school.

Tory raised a hand to stifle the snickering and whispered chatters of the other boys and then turned to me.

"Well, well, look who the bats dragged out of their cave," he drawled. His dark brown eyes glinted with some turbulent teenage angst. "Who'd a thought little miss Banana-Nana would be stuck in summer school. What's the matter, did you fail the semester?"

"Hardly," I sniffed. "But it looks like you're the one stuck spending your vacation here so don't even start with me." I stuck my hands on my hips and stared the boy down. "Tell me, Tory. Did you mess with my bats?"

"Ha!" He snorted. "Should I start calling you Batty-Nana now? What are you doing playing with little flying rats? Is that why you failed your senior year?"

I glanced at Tory in disgust. Had he not failed twice, he would have been behind me only one year. As it was, I had already graduated and he was still a sixteen-year-old trying to get out of ninth grade.

The fact that he was in summer cram school meant he was having a tough time. It made little sense, because the Torrence I remembered meeting for the first time was amazingly gifted and incredibly smart.

I had no idea what had happened in the intervening years, but he was turning into a truant right before my eyes.

"I didn't fail, Tory. I graduated last winter. I'm working for the school right now and you are interfering with official school business."

"Hold on there," Simon interrupted. "We didn't do anything. We just happened to be hanging around when you turned up." He rubbed his ears as he scrutinized the flailing bats around me.

"Looks like they got disrupted by something around here. Whatever it is, it's making my ears buzz too."

He looked around the alleyway, and then looked up. "Ah. I see your problem." He grinned and pointed upwards.

I followed the direction of Simon's finger and found something that looked like a purple lampshade, but it was pointed downward, covering the part of the alleyway where we were standing.

"What in blazes is that?" I asked to no one in particular.

Simon's bright blue eyes twinkled in merriment. "That," he jerked his thumb upwards, "is a clumsy, home-made wave-disruptor."