| "Colleen can you bring this note down to Miss Connolly?" Miss Ball asked holding out a note in between two fingers. "Sure." I shrugged. I took the note and opened it up in the hallway it read: Jennifer, What did you find out? Are we in any immediate danger freeze things or send a note back with Colleen. -MaryBeth I knocked on the door; there was no one in there but Miss Connolly. She opened the door. "Here you are." I said holding out the note. She took it and read it, her lips silently moving as she did so. "Colleen do you have your wand with you?" she implied, I nodded. "Good take it into the bathroom and freeze things then call Miss Jackman and tell her Miss Jackson has a gym class so we can meet in here, got all that?" "Yup." And with that I walked to the bathroom holding the mirror Miss Connolly gave me to call Miss Jackman. I got to the bathroom and I had to wait until Maria McDonnell left. I took out my wand and froze things. But before I could call Miss Jackman Miss Towle called me. "Howdy." I said. "You better have had permission to freeze things." She warned. "Don't worry Miss Connolly told me to I was also supposed to call Miss Jackman to say meet her in the art room, is that O.K.?"jjh "Whatever, well I'll meet you in the art room," she started. "Don't bother calling Miss Jackman I'll do that." Then she was gone. I made my way back down to the art room; I had to pass Mrs. Faulkner and Wayde in the hallway. I just walked in this time. I walked over to her large for seeing pot and looked in. "Hey that's me." I pointed to the liquid inside, "But who's that?" "I don't know I think she's O.K. you're being nice to her, see?" she explained. "Earlier I got a reading that said if we don't act fast we'll be mourning the death of a friend." "That sounds like a message from a fortune cookie." I proclaimed glumly "Maybe so but my predictions haven't been wrong since you dropped the dead bird into the potion." She smirked at me. "Hello, hello" said Mrs. Whall "Kristine said that I'd find you two here hasn't anyone else gotten here yet." Then all the rest of the witches in a big talking group came through the door. They came in and kind of just stopped talking and went to a stool and sat down. "We're on the wrong side of the building!" Miss Towle actually came in two seconds later said, "You have the floor." And sat down next to Mrs. Pipitone. "Well pretty soon we're going to have a visitor," Miss Connolly began, "From what I've seen she isn't going to come through the front door rather the back door while it's raining." "Jennifer, it just started raining now." Mrs. Whall pointed out. "I also saw that Colleen is going to be the first one to see her, and she's going to be polite to her also." She picked up where she left off. "Isn't that a switch." I proclaimed. "I'm going to take a walk as long as there is no more important news." And I opened the door and walked to the gym to see what they had been playing. I got there and I was just about to walk through the doors when I heard a series of loud persistent knocks on the back doors. So I changed directions and saw a woman standing in the rain outside the door. I opened the doors, "Thank you so very much." She gasped. "Don't mention it." I told her. Then to get the other witches attention called the book to me with my mind. I knew they would follow the book. They followed it out into the hallway and gasped when they saw the stranger. "She's a crostostinator." Mrs. Whall said anxiously. "Dee, for heavens sake that's a horrible thing to say especially to our guest." Miss Towle said. And Miss Whall stormed off; I followed her to the library. Anxious to know what a crostostinator was. "What's a crostostinator?" I asked her when the other witches were out of hearing range. "It's sort of like a shape shifter, only it has to kill some one before it can take on their characteristics," she explained. "What makes you think that she's a crostostinator?" I was getting more and more curious by the second. "She was clicking her nails, did you notice that? And did you also notice she came to the back door?" she demanded. I thought she was going nuts. "Maybe you should lie down for a while." I suggested. "You don't believe me either I figured you of all witches would be open to an idea like that, I really strongly believe I'm right and, I'm not nuts." She went to her desk pulled open the drawer and pushed a button under some papers. Then in the middle of the floor came an old looking bookcase full of odd witch books. "Look out." She warned. "Huh?" and just then another bookcase same out from under me and I fell and grabbed the side of the bookcase. It went up as far as it was going to and it stopped with a lurch at the top, I fell down and several books fell on my head. Mrs. Whall picked up one that hit my head and opened up the book to a page towards the middle. "Here I read this last night, that's a crostostinator in it's original form." And on that page was a hunch-backed Cyclops with three legs. And on the other side of the page was, 'Ways to tell if someone is a crostostinator.' I read aloud: 1) Clicking nails 2) Picking at teeth 3) Out in the rain 4) Calm 5) Polite "Any one can posses those characteristics they aren't rare, well except maybe the likes the rain part." Well about then I realized that it would be better to leave Mrs. Whall to sulk instead of making her even more mad so I went to find someone. I saw Miss Jackman, "Where is Miss Towle?" I asked her, she pointed down the hall. "Thank you" I shouted as I darted down the hall. I stopped at the English room because I saw something move, and indeed you will just never guess what I saw so I'll tell you, I so a hunch-backed Cyclops. I gasped and ducked out of the doorway. I looked back in and she had turned back into that kind stranger, but this time she saw me. I realized this and ran down the hallway. I ran to the library and frantically screamed for Mrs. Whall. I ran in and saw a note on the table. I picked it up, because the outside said 'Colleen' I read it: I told you so Was all it said then noticed she left me the book too so I picked it up. And there was a bookmark in 'how to destroy a crostostinator.' I picked up the book and ran through the door on the opposite side of the library. I read the page as I ran through the first second and third grade hallway. I wasn't exactly looking where I was going so I collided with, you guessed it the stranger. I screamed as I turned to run but she had a hold of my pant leg. "Please, let go." I pleaded but she was not a sympathetic creature. She stood up still holding on to my pant leg, I toppled over and she dragged me down the hall. I screamed over and over but no one seemed to notice. I clawed at the ground trying to find something to grasp. She turned a corner and I held onto the wall, big mistake. "Stop that." She yelled and as hard as she could yanked me around, I lost my grip and she flung me into a wall. I grabbed the open door of the art room. "Miss Connolly?" I shouted as I pleaded that she be there. The stranger had turned back into her crostostinator form, which is extremely tall. "Stop that." She yelled again. She picked me up by the hair on the back of my neck. I screamed as loud as I possibly could, and that was even more blood curdling than when Miss Towle was being turned to stone. "Let her go." Miss Towle said in a calm voice. Then the stranger dropped me with a thud to the floor. "Why don't you go hop on your broom, witch." It called down the hallway. "Oh please what a clich�." Miss Towle declared as she sent the monster flying into the air, I scrambled out of the way before the monster fell on me, I decided it would be safer to watch from the art room. I saw that Mrs. Pipitone and Miss Ball emerged from the nurse's office and Miss Jackman, Miss Connolly and Mrs. Whall came from the other end of the hallway. Miss Connolly sent a fire ball out of her wand it hit the stranger and it shrieked and went lumbering toward Miss Connolly who had a scared rabbit look on her face. He was too busy wanting to mangle Miss Connolly to realize that Miss Jackman had stuck her foot and he fell with a crash to the floor. Then all of a sudden people started moving again. "Oh hell." Miss Towle said. "Tsk Tsk Miss Towle." I scolded "Can you re-freeze them." She said as she ducked to avoid being hit with a fireball. "I dropped my wand can't you do it?" I whined. "I think I'm a little busy at the moment." She yelled as she rolled away from being stomped on. Just then I saw my wand in the middle of the floor. I crawled carefully out to wher it was but then the crostostinator saw me and picked me up by the seat of my pants. I threw a couple of punches but all of them missed then I tossed my wand at his eye. It hit him and he stumbled backwards and hit his head on a door frame. I of course dropped very fast to the floor and about and inch from hitting it Miss Towle stopped me. "Thanks" I gasped I was very muchly out of breath. 'It' grasped for its head. Mrs. Pipitone bound it's hand to the wall and the other to the door. Mrs. Whall twirled her wand and then pointed to the floor. The floor swirled away like water out of a bath tub. Miss Ball then made the binds disappear it stretched out it's legs on either side of the whole. I was getting really annoyed with this guy. I walked over and stomped as hard as I could on his large foot. "Awww." He screamed and he grasped his foot then let it go slapped his forehead and fell into the whole. The school erupted with applause but then the monster stood up and grabbed Miss Towle by the leg and Miss Ball grabbed her hand. "Stop that." I shouted at 'it' and took off my shoe and hit him in the head repeatedly with it. He let go of Miss Towle and slumped over in my direction. I sent purple light out of my wand. He just roared. Then Miss Towle, who was wearing high heals took one off and hit him in the back with it causing him to cry out in pain. Then when he turned she hit him in the eye with the other one. He covered his eye and fell into a sitting position. "Quick Dee close up the whole." Miss Towle yelled. She did so then said "That won't hold him forever and he'll still be underneath the school now what do we do?" Then I realized I dropped the book on crostostinators in the corridor, I ran to get it. I didn't see it where I dropped it so I frantically looked around. I noticed something sticking out of the first grade classroom. It was a not written on a piece of computer paper. I picked it up and read: The book you are looking for Colleen is in the Math room at the other end of the school, hurry because he'll break out of the whole if you don't Confused but thankful rushed to the Math room I saw that anther note was placed in the basket under my desk but the rest of the people in the class were all watching the teachers battle a monster. I picked it up and unfolded it: Oops my mistake sorry I meant S.S. room No longer thankful only confused rushed into the S.S. room and then low and behold another not was written on the chalkboard: Ha Ha I tricked you, you were in the right place when you were down the first grade corridor, but why are you wasting time reading this you should be saving the school, do I have to tell you everything? I ran back to the corridor and found the book in the library, on the blue carpet. I bent to pick it up and it moved at least a foot then I tried to pick it up again and it moved away two feet. Then I tried to pick it up again and it zoomed into the hands of the stranger. My mouth hung agape then I turned as all the doors slammed shut and the lights flashed, the stranger laughed evilly. "It was you, you were the one leaving me all the notes and sending me on a wild goose chase wasn't it?" I demanded, "But you're supposed to be in a whole." "Dear child, I can Blink (in this case it means to disappear from one place and re-appear in another) and I do get hurt if someone hits me in the head with a shoe." "And you do realize I am a witch and I can turn you into a penguin and being a human being means it hurts when you fling me into walls." "You do realize I'm going to have to kill you now." "Wait a minute, crostostinators don't have the power to blink. And why you aren't a crostostinator at all are you, you're just an evil shape-shifting witch aren't you?" "Very good dearie you have been doing your studying, well tah-tah." She threw me against the wall and bound my hand to the card catalog. She turned away, and quietly called for my wand which was in the middle of the library floor it flew to me. "Gee sorry you have to be going now." I proclaimed and she turned. I took my wand and shot out a flame ball, Miss Towle taught me that one yesterday. She grew to enormous proportions and crashed through the roof. "This won't end well." I whispered to myself. I undid my hand opened the door and rushed down to my superior witches. "We have a few teensy problems." I told them and explained everything. "That's an easy one, if she's just a shape shifter that's easy to solve Shellie go fetch two rats tails a dead crow and of course we'll need a few broken witch fingernail." She rushed away and returned rather promptly. Miss Whall examined the contents of the bundle brought back by Miss Jackman. "You forgot broken witch fingernails." "I don't want to break my nails." She protested. "Don't look at me." I commented. Miss Connolly kicked at the ground and whistled. Miss Ball turned away and� wait a minute where was Mrs. Pipitone and Miss Towle? Then the ground shook and the whole re-opened and oddly enough Mrs. Pipitone and Miss Towle arose from it's depths. "I presume that you are fighting over whose nails to break." Miss Towle stated , "Someone just volunteer I can fix it after, for heavens sake. "Then break your own." Miss Ball protested. "I will not have this," Miss Towle started, "You are not to talk back to me because I am your superior do I make myself clear?" As they were arguing I wondered what happened to the shape shifter so without thinking wondered off. Luckily Miss Connolly followed me. We got to the library "Ooh that's a nasty whole can you fix it?" I asked Miss Connolly staring at the whole in the ceiling. "Most Likely." She told me. Then oh-no another note! I picked it up from the floor. Uh-oh this is not good you are in the library when I am in the corridor and it does not look good for your friends, no siree hurry go help them, but that just puts you in more danger, hmm what to do what to do�. I read as Miss Connolly read over my shoulder. I stood there for a moment and pondered. "Well you could conjure up the ingredients and I could break my fingernails, but that's not easy." I said. "I don't have my wand with me� I can't conjure up anything." she stated. "Hmmm." "Well I say we just go help them." She told me. "I'm not sure if that's the best approach why don't we look it up in a book or something." "That would take a while and we don't know what's happening to them." "Hmm. What the hay lets go." I turned for the door and Miss Connolly followed and we went to see them bound and gagged hanging over the floor just to the right of the art room. Then Miss Connolly spotted her wand in the middle of the floor. The witches were making muffled shouts and shaking their heads but Miss Connolly picked it up and sunk through the floor. Then I ducked into the nurses office, and the shape-shifter came out. "Hahahahaha now that I have captured all the witches nothing can stop me from destroying the rest of this puny school." I had to act fast but what could I do? Wait then it dawned on me the simplest thing in the world. I steeped put of the office, "Are you sure of that?" and with that before she could anything I turned her into a gerbil. I rushed out and picked up the small rodent and put it in a container Miss Jackman dropped. Then without thinking undid the binds and all the witches crashed to the floor in a large witch pile. I stifled a laugh. "Now can someone get Miss Connolly out of the floor?" I asked. "Sure." Mrs. Pipitone said and opened up the floor and levitated Miss Connolly into the art room. She emerged brushing herself off. "Now we have to erase their memories." Miss Towle complained. "Can you do that while they're frozen?" I asked. Miss Towle nodded. So I froze everyone and then all the witches put on sunglasses. "Ready?" asked Miss Towle. "No," I whined I don't have glasses. "Cover your eyes then." She instructed me as a flash of light lit up the whole school. |