6 Hide and Seek

"She's kidding, right?" asked Gavin. "Hide and seek? In highschool?"

He noticed a number of eyeballs turn and glare at him and became even more confused.

"She's not kidding," was all Jupiter would say as she and Jud stood, leaving their trays on the table.

Jud turned to Gavin and indicated that he should follow them. Gavin wasn't sure what was going on, but he got to his feet and joined the other students shuffling through the dark hallways and then out onto the driveway where three dirty, yellow school buses stood idling.

He blinked at the unexpected brightness of the afternoon sun. It occurred to him that this was the first time since he'd arrived that he'd been outdoors. That seemed wrong, but he couldn't quite explain why. A grunt from Jud brought Gavin out of his thoughts and he stepped up into the bus.

Climbing aboard, Gavin nodded to the driver, who was Mr. Choi, his Honors Chem teacher, and shuffled down the aisle in search of a seat. More of those glaring eyes beamed out at him, their owners making it perfectly plain that there wasn't a space for Gavin in that particular row. He got to the back of the bus without finding anywhere to sit, then turned back around to see a number of kids sitting down in seats which had magically opened up once he was past. He finally walked up to Jud and Jupiter, who were sharing a seat, and the two reluctantly squeezed together to make room.

"Why is everyone so angry at me?" he asked as the bus coughed up a ball of phlegm made of thick black smoke and began its labored journey.

"Hide and Seek is kind of a sore spot here at the Academy," explained Jupiter. "Your question sort of put everybody on edge."

"Why? What happens during the game? Does it get violent? Do people use their abilities? Not that that would do much of anything, but maybe someone has an ability that can do damage."

Jud shook his head. "Besides me, the closest anyone at St. Hibbard's comes to being dangerous is Magda Helena Fierro, whose hiccups cause a small sonic boom between her ears and knocks her deaf for a couple of hours. But they don't bother anyone else, so that doesn't count."

"Then I don't see what the big deal is. Does the losing team have to do double chores or something? Do we even have chores here?"

The bus hit a pothole and bounced a few inches into the air, which knocked Gavin off the edge of his seat and into the aisle. He ignored the few snickers that came his way and sat back down. "How are teams chosen, anyway. Is it by bus?"

Jud shook his head. "No. It's nothing like that. We don't go up against each other."

"So everyone hides and nobody seeks? That doesn't make any sense. Or do the teachers seek us? Are we being graded on how well we hide?" Gavin hoped not. While he was pretty good at keeping quiet, he wasn't very good at standing still. Of course, he had it easy compared to Stanford, whose ever-present cloud of garbage would probably give him away within seconds.

"You're missing the point," said Jupiter. "We don't hate these official Hide and Seek games because we don't like playing, we hate them because of who we play against."

"And who is that?"

She closed her eyes and sighed. "Lord Thumbledown's School of Heroics."

***

About twenty minutes later, their beat-up excuse for a school bus pulled into the parking lot of Locklolly Community Park, Butterfly Garden, and Stone Sanctuary. It was the third of the three buses from St. Hibbard's, and Mr. Choi pulled it alongside the other two and then pumped the brakes a few times until the vehicle finally came to a complete stop. He opened the doors and Mrs. Gruber somehow managed to work her way up the steps and into the bus.

"Good afternoon," she said in her sickly voice which nevertheless managed to carry the length of the bus. "We will start the game in a few moments, once everyone has disembarked and Barry Zipper has had a chance to throw up."

In the back, little Barry Zipper nodded his thanks, his face turning green from being incredibly car sick.

"Today's game will follow the basic rules by which our two schools have always played this game," Mrs. Gruber continued. "You will all run and hide and the students from Lord Thumbledown's School of Heroics will wait ten minutes, and then spread out to find you. If you want to avoid injury, I suggest you stand in the center of the field with your arms raised over your head in surrender. Any questions?"

"Can we use our abilities?" asked Gavin, sitting up to be seen over the back of the row in front of him.

Mrs. Gruber slowly turned her head to focus her attention on the new kid who had bothered to ask a question. She didn't glare or make any sort of threatening gesture, but rather just stood there a moment, looking at him. Frankly, it was a little unnerving. After a few uncomfortable moments, Gavin ducked back down, mumbling, "Nevermind."

Mrs. Gruber took a satisfyingly-deep breath and then returned her attention to the rest of the bus. "No questions, then? Good. Try not to break anything, our infirmary is low on splints."

With that, she turned and climbed down the steps. Through the window, Gavin could just see the top of her head as she shuffled away. An elbow in the ribs snagged his attention.

"Move it, Squishy," said Jupiter, the owner of the elbow. "Time to get off the bus and get creamed."

***

The children from Gavin's bus lined up next to the passengers of the other two busses from St. Hibbard's and waited at the edge of the parking lot. As apprehensive as Gavin was becoming regarding this game, he was also a bit confused. If they were supposed to hide from students from the School of Heroics, where were they?

The park, parking lot, butterfly garden, and stone sanctuary were all empty aside from the contingent from St. Hibbard's. After a few moments of standing around waiting, small murmurs could be heard breaking up and down the line. Maybe the School of Heroics wasn't coming. Maybe there wouldn't be a game today. Maybe nobody would get injured.

A moment later, Barry Zipper came out from behind a tree and rejoined the line, eyes downcast. Seeing this, Mrs. Gruber nodded to Mr. Atros, the gym teacher, who raised his cell phone up and stated, "We're ready."

An instant later, a huge, transparent shimmer appeared in the parking lot, accompanied by a searing screeching sound. All the students covered their ears as the shimmer turned into a hole in the fabric of reality. On the other side of the hole, Gavin saw a majestic blue bus streaming toward them. The hole widened until it was just big enough to allow the vessel to make it through, and then it slammed closed with a thunderous clap. A small girl stood smiling where the hole had been, obviously pleased with herself.

The big blue bus came to a stop opposite the three ugly yellow school buses and opened its door with a gentle hiss. Out came a line of identically-clad students in blue and white jumpsuits. They lined up tall and proud and, Gavin thought, very smug. They eyed their prey with intimidating smiles.

A moment later, two blue and white-clad figures zoomed in from above, landed next to the other students, and took their places in line.

"Show offs," murmured Jud.

A large, burly man exited the bus and went straight over to Mrs. Gruber to give her a big hug. A hug, Gavin noticed, that she did not return.

"Aquatica!" he cried after breaking off physical contact. "It is so good to see you again!"

"Symphonius," she replied tersely. "Can we get this over with?"

The man laughed. "Never one for small talk, this one!" he announced to his students. They all laughed along with him. Mrs. Gruber glowered, her mood even darker than before. After he'd had a good laugh, the man turned back to his fellow head of school. "My students are ready to test their powers on living subjects."

Mrs. Gruber frowned. "No disintegrating anyone," she said.

"You have my word." He turned back and addressed one of his students. "You hear that, Mr. Noseby? You can only disintegrate plant material. Maybe one of the butterflies if it's in your line of sight."

The student nodded, grinning.

"Anything else, Aquatica?"

"Yes," she snapped. "Don't call me that."

The man sighed, but nodded. "As you wish."

Gavin wondered what that was all about, and reminded himself to ask Jupiter about it later.

Mrs. Gruber turned to face her students. "Alright, remember what I said. Middle of the field in plain sight is probably safest. Good luck."

The head of the School of Heroics stepped forward and stretched his arms wide. "Ladies and Gentlemen," he roared. "I give you the 114th match of Hide and Seek between our two noble schools. Students of St. Hibbard's! My students thank you in advance for allowing them to practice their truly awe-inspiring superpowers against you. You have ten minutes until they are unleashed! Let the game begin!"