Todd moved quickly and carefully through the hallways of Fillmore Junior High. He hugged walls, peered around corners, and took only the routes which experience taught was typically the least traveled. The whole process made the trip from the principal’s office to the school auditorium take much longer, but was far safer in Todd’s estimation. Long ago the district gave up on trying to make the first day of school a productive start to the year, and decided to use it as a soft landing for the end of summer; the day started late and ended early, there was an assembly to start, tour through your scheduled classes and picnic before being dismissed. In the past, Todd spent most of the first day trying to get a head start on his classes, until he was reprimanded for trying to turn in three future assignments early. The school then took on a ‘mandatory fun’ policy and any chance of getting anything serious done was out the window. Even at Viltburg, the most prestigious and elite school, the first day was more carnival than class work.
The meeting at the principal was scheduled for the normal school start time. Todd didn’t know if Principal Park did that purposely to give Todd a chance to arrive before everyone else or not, but he was grateful either way. Now, the mission changed: get to the auditorium undetected. Once there, even if Todd couldn’t hide by blending in, the chance of a direct confrontation was low.
Todd heard a door open and distant chatter far back in the direction he’d come from. He checked his phone for the time. “Shoot. This is taking too long.” Todd said. His heart started to beat a little faster as the idea of being caught in a swarm of mockery gnawed at the edges of his mind. Ahead was the foreign language hallway, which lead directly to the cafeteria and the other side of the gym. Todd tilted his head back and forth. It would cause a slight double back and cutting through the gym would put him at the auditorium entrance closes to the front of the school, but if he hurried through he could still make it before the majority of students arrived.
As he neared the bend, Todd heard the sound of another door slam shut and froze. His heart sank as the first ridicule seemed imminent, but instead of chit chat he heard what sounded like a howl.
“What the?” Todd slowly moved forward. He stayed close to the wall and slightly leaned out as he came around the curve. In front of the door leading outside to the cafeteria loading dock, a man stood staring down at an empty cage. Todd guessed he was almost seven feet tall, burly, and had thick eyebrows. He was gesturing apologetically to another man in an all black suit. His back was to Todd, so there was no way to identify him, but considering Todd had never seen the large man before, it wasn’t likely Todd knew who the man in the suit was or what either was doing at Fillmore.
The man in the suit pointed over his shoulder in Todd’s direction and turned around. Todd immediately withdrew back around the curve. He didn’t see much other than the man in the suit wore sunglasses, which meant it was unlikely that the man didn’t see Todd in return. He slowly walked backwards and jumped when he heard the sound of skittering steps come from behind. Todd spun around but nothing was there. He relaxed until a hand clamped down on his shoulder.
“Can I help you?” someone said. Todd turned and jumped away from the hand.
“Ah I mean I’m fine. Who are you?” Todd asked. The person who grabbed his shoulder was a lanky man in a yellow flannel shirt and gray pants. He wore large glasses and had black hair swooped over the top of his head. He had a disdainful look on his face.
“Who are you?” he asked.
“I’m a student.” Todd said.
“Well I’m a teacher.”
“Convenient. I’ve never seen you before...teacher.” Todd put air quotes around the word teacher.
“I’ve never seen you before so that makes sense.” the so called teacher replied.
“What do you teach?”
“A class.”
“I’ll have you know, I spent a short stint as part of the Community and Students Engaging with the Student Community Club community. I can recognize over half a dozen different signs of suspicious behavior.”
“I’ll have you know I also spent time with the CSESCC community and you’re the one throwing red flags.”
“Oh no you don’t. I go here. You’re the one whose a stranger doing strange things. What’s going on back there?” Todd took a step forward and the man moved to block him.
“Why do you want to go back there?”
“What are you hiding?”
“What are you looking for?” The man in the flannel and Todd looked at each other. Todd moved first to try and get past the human road block, but was quickly matched. Back and forth the two went in a tit for tat of attempt to progress and equal movement to obstruct. Neither party was graceful or athletic in their maneuvers, and the back and forth turned to a slow and clumsy side to side shuffle.
“It seems we are evenly matched.” Todd said, as he caught his breath.
“Agreed.” the flannel man said. He similarly huffed and puffed.
“Except, I’ve just learned a new move. Hooyah.” Todd took a step and summoned every bit of muscle memory he had to repeat the juke from his escape from the teens. It was just enough to blow past the man and Todd stumbled past him. He hurried around the bend but found nothing once he’d entered the hallway. Both men and the cage were gone without a trace. Todd looked at the empty classrooms as the man walked up behind him.
“You better...” he stopped to gather his breath. “get to the assembly young man, before I write you up.”
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Todd shifted in his seat as the auditorium filled with chatting students. He was shocked by the amount of sweat on his sleeve after he wiped off his forehead. He was filled with so much dread the odd occurrence on his way to the assembly was the furthest thing from his mind. Todd expected the first couple of days to be filled with whispers, pointing, and insincere questions, but the very first meeting on the very first day would be the worst. Todd slipped into the auditorium and discovered a lot of students had arrived early for the assembly. Even considering the ease of the first day, nobody had done that before.
He slid down in his seat as more students streamed into the auditorium. Todd tried to hide his face in an inconspicuous manner with the only book in his bag: the Book of Tricks. Todd frowned as he noticed the forward on the front page. “Written by The Ever So Great Frissini and produced by Frissini publishing?” Todd read out loud. He turned the page and sure enough was greeted by a picture of the old magician giving the reader two thumbs up. “So much for this ancient and mysterious book.” Todd said. He rolled his eyes and slowly lowered the book to see if the whispers and pointing were in full swing. To his surprise, student seemed so focused on finding their seats, no one so much as looked in Todd’s direction. Even the chatter was different than what he expected. Rather than raucous laughter and yelling as friends reunited after months apart, the room was filled with more a nervous and anxious energy. What Todd heard as people walked by seemed normal, but it felt as if everyone was distracted.
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Someone Todd recognized from math class entered on the far side of the room. He slid back down in his seat and covered his face with the open book. Todd’s leg bounced and he tried to focus on something else. It was then he noticed the words on the page: The True King. Underneath the title, written in an ornate font, were several paragraphs of story. “That’s neat. A little lore for the card trick.” Todd said. At the bottom of the page was a diagram which showed what Todd assumed was initial the set up. The cards in the picture looked exactly like the pack Frissini had given him. Instinctively, Todd flipped the page and came across more diagrams. He turned another page and there was a painted picture of a boy performing the trick in front of a crowd. Todd flipped through several pages and surprisingly found them filled with information until he reached the end of the trick and encountered another blank page.
“Yeah well if they don’t want me to occasionally change a roll, they should find a new game because that’s what DM’S do.” a voice said.
“I don’t do that when I DM. Maybe that’s why they want me on the schedule more.” a girl replied. Todd’s heart caught in his throat. From behind, he heard the two voices he most did not want to hear: Sarah and Ivan. Todd would have given anything to avoid running into them. Yesterday’s close was bad enough, but now he was trapped. His stomach churned. What if they asked about classes? The thought of saying out loud to anyone, especially Sarah that he wouldn’t have any advanced courses to start the year was an absolute nightmare scenario. Ivan would be ridicule him to to no end, but the embarrassment of admitting that to Sarah made Todd want to run home and never return. Why couldn’t he have seen her the second semester when his plan was in full swing?
Todd quickly put the book up and even closed his eyes hoping they wouldn’t notice him. Todd waited, then slowly peeked over the top of the book. They were in line to get a seat several rows away. Todd exhaled.
“Todd Stewart!” someone yelled. Todd turned his head and grimaced when he saw Jun, the boy in the hooded jacket, as he waved wildly and walked towards him. “Todd keep that seat open as my publicly established and documented sitting spot.” Todd tried to mouth ‘shut up.’ at him, but Jun continued to walk and draw attention in his direction.
“Will you stop that?” Todd hissed from behind the book as Jun stepped over him to get to a seat.
“Stop what?” Jun turned away from Todd and cupped his hands to his mouth. “I’m just conclusively and without uncertainty establishing my presence at the assembly, with you as an obvious witness.” Jun shouted. Todd lowered the book to glare at Jun when he felt a tap on his shoulder.
“Todd it’s great to see you! Sarah said. Todd froze as if he had been caught mid crime and turned towards her with stilted movement.
“Sarah?” Todd said. His voice cracked as he tried to sound enthusiastic, but not overly so, and conceal the fear. “What are you doing here? I mean obviously you go to the school. I’m just surprised to see you at this moment. I mean it makes sense you’d be at the assembly, I just meant right here and now.”
“Oof.” Jun said.
“Magic? Trying to make yourself disappear to match your academic future?” Ivan asked. He appeared like an annoying phantom over Sarah’s shoulder. Todd looked at the book and quickly closed it. He stood up.
“Ivan.” Todd said his voice flat.
“We’re back together. I was so worried.” Sarah said, a smile on her face. Todd could have melted. Sarah was the top student in their class during elementary school, and at first Todd disliked her; mostly out of jealousy. When she and Todd were the only two who scored high enough on a test for a pizza party, they became fast friends. Todd enjoyed how it felt when it was just the two of them at the head of the class. Everything ended when Ivan moved to town during fifth grade and barged his way into their world. It turned the duo into a trio, and they were reluctant friends ever since.
“Really?” Todd asked, breathless.
“Of course. We both were!” Sarah looked around and lowered her voice. “After last year...I’m glad to see you back to normal.”
“Oh. Yeah. Of course, thanks. Everything is all good.” Todd said. He sighed.
“I didn’t see you turn in your summer project. Ivan and I dropped off our projects yesterday, but of course he wanted to try and put finishing touches on this morning.” Sarah said. Ivan elbowed her.
“Don’t tell him that. I bet we didn’t see him because he was so busy being crazy last year his project is probably a shambles.”
“You might be right.” Todd said. “I mean, you do have an eye for second rate projects. A second sense for what’s runner up, if you will.” Todd said. He smirked as Ivan screwed his face up in fury.
“We’ll see when the grading is done.” Ivan said through gritted teeth.
“I guess we will.” Todd replied as Ivan turned and stomped away. Sarah laughed and slapped Todd’s arm, completely dissipating his anger.
“Do not get him started. He was still fuming about that during the debate team tournament at the end of the year.” she said. The chatter in the cafeteria died down as the teachers took the stage. “I better get my seat. Let’s catch up at lunch.” Sarah said. She smiled and Todd was so drawn towards the sparkle of her green eyes that he mindlessly moved in for a hug. His brain registered her extended hand, but was too far gone to come up with a fitting reaction. He caught himself mid hug and extended his own hand, but it was the wrong one. In a panic, he slapped her outstretched hand and gave a thumbs up. Sarah smiled, though her confusion was evident, and waved as she left for her seat.
“Yeash!” Jun shouted. All the color and warmth drained from Todd as he turned and saw Jun physically convulsing in his seat. Todd plopped into his own chair and covered his face with his hands. “That settles it. I’m out of here.” Jun said. Todd looked up.
“What? You can’t leave. There’s a whole assembly to get through.”
“I know. That’s why I’m leaving.” Jun stood up but Todd put his arms up to block Jun’s escape.
“You can’t!” Todd said quickly. “The...principal is right up on stage. Principal Park will see you and you’ll be caught.” Jun looked at Todd then back to the stage. Yards away, the procession of teachers finished and Principal Park walked up to a podium.
“Good catch. I don’t care what anyone says, even kids who aren’t smart have value.” Jun said as he sat back down.
“Wait. What?”
“On behalf of the faculty, I’d like to extend a welcome to our Fillmore...students.” Principal Park’s voice boomed through the auditorium. Todd, still trying to figure out if he had just been insulted, looked to the stage; if he didn’t know better, it looked like the principal was speaking without a microphone. “I apologize for rambling just now. To be blunt: this year will be...different. I’ve been informed by our A/V department of an error which has prevented use of TV...carts.”
“What?” MR. Harold, the sixth grade English teacher screamed. “You can’t do this to us! What are we supposed to do? What are we supposed to do?” He began to sob and two other teachers rushed to comfort him. Principal Park slowly turned back to the podium.
“Right...Instead of the usual first day slideshow of teacher vacations we will have a selection from the...band.” Principal Park sharply turned to the school band, in what Todd thought was supposed to be a show of support of appreciation, but came off as more of a threat. A smattering of applause started. “After which the changes for this year will be...explained.” The band started to drag their instruments up the stairs and Todd scrambled to think of something to say in order to engage with Jun.
“Hey, fun fact about the bassoon.” He whispered. “Oh....crap” Todd said as he turned to Jun’s now empty seat.