MY SCIENCE TEACHER IS A WIZARD
Book 1 in the 'Stewards of Light' series
by Duane L. Ostler
Copyright 2014 Duane L. Ostler
All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced, copied or distributed without the express permission of the author. If you would like to share this book with someone, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it or have it purchased for you, please purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the work of this author
Cover art: S.D. Ehrhart, "Superstition Has Always Ruled the World," in Puck magazine, 1901.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER 1 - The Man in the Lumpy, Grey Suit
CHAPTER 2 - What Do You Think of Science?
CHAPTER 3 - The Electrifying Experience of Phillip Booth
CHAPTER 4 - It’s Only a Textbook
CHAPTER 5 - The Substitute
CHAPTER 6 - Protections
CHAPTER 7 - An Explanation that Wasn’t
CHAPTER 8 - A Visit to the Cooks
CHAPTER 9 - The Awful Truth
CHAPTER 10 - An Unexpected Choice
CHAPTER 11 - The Test of Power
CHAPTER 12 - It Was Only a Dream
Sneak Peak from book 2 of the Stewards of Light series - Chapter 1 of "My Math Teacher is a Vampire"
The Stewards of Light Series - List of Titles
CHAPTER 1 - The Man in the Lumpy, Grey Suit
It was a horrible first day of fifth grade. Rain was pouring down when my Dad dropped me off at the sagging entrance to Millard Fillmore Middle School. I slipped on the stairs going up to my first class, and my books went flying all over the place. They had spaghetti for lunch—which I hate, since it reminds me how weak and flabby my arms are—and the official school bully Donny Poindexter made fun of my name in the hall, asking how vomit water like me could be dry, and why I didn’t just dry up and blow away.
I couldn't blame Poindexter really, since a name like mine--Blake Drywater--was sure to stir up trouble. Poindexter was just following his natural instincts to make fun of it. The truth is, most kids couldn’t help smiling when they heard my name for the first time. Sometimes they'd blurt out some comment about how water can’t be dry. It was even worse if they took time to think about my first name, ‘Blake.’ Take away the ‘B’ and you had a ‘lake’ of drywater. Mom and Dad had obviously been out of their minds when they named me.
My stomach was gurgling unhappily as I headed to my sixth period class--science. It was upstairs and down the hall with some of the other science classrooms, as far from the principal's office as possible. Principal Clark didn't like to smell gaseous things made in science classes.
“Hi, Blake!” said an annoyingly cheerful voice behind me. Turning, I saw gossipy Mary Ellen Paul, who had been in some of my classes last year. She was the only kid I knew that actually liked science and math, and all those boring subjects. She was also one of those kids who always got good grades, and then had to let everyone know about it. In fact, she also let them know about everything else too, since she was the official school gossip.
“Hi, Mary Ellen,” I replied unenthusiastically.
“What class do you have next?" she asked excitedly. She was a pest.
“Science,” I replied, trying to sound as bored as possible.
“Really?” said Mary Ellen happily. “I had science already, in 4th period. Mr. Hornsby is my science teacher. He's got a table full of chemistry tubes for his students to use. They say sometimes they bubble over, and the chemicals fall on the floor and eat their way down to the first floor classroom underneath.”
“Thrilling,” I said in an unthrilled voice. I was suddenly grateful she'd had science already, so there was no chance she would be in my class. An enthusiastic, pesty Mary Ellen all year long would be more than I could take.
I started walking again, hoping she would take the hint I didn't want to talk to her. She didn't, of course. Girls like Mary Ellen were creepy.
“Who do you have for science?" Mary Ellen asked, as she walked along beside me. Grumbling under my breath, I pulled out the mangled paper that had all my classes listed on it. "Mr. Marlin," I said in a dull voice. Mary Ellen smiled in a way that made my stomach crawl.
"Really?" she said happily. "I heard he’s a new science teacher here."
My stomach curdled some more. If he was a new teacher he was probably some young guy fresh out of college. That meant he would be full of enthusiasm about science, just like Mary Ellen Paul.
I felt kind of sick, and reaching into my jeans for the pocket watch Grandpa had given me. It was a round, gold watch on a chain, with the face of the watch covered by a little door. When I opened it, the watch face under the hands was a bit battered and cracked. On one side it was completely ripped out and gone altogether, leaving an empty space next to a bunch of rusty looking, moving gears. It was a lousy watch, but it still kept good time and I liked it anyway. Whenever I got nervous or worried, I would pull it out and start swinging it around by its chain—which is what I did now.
A shadow suddenly crossed the path in front of me. Looking up, I saw the bully Donny Poindexter standing there. He was as big as a tank, and was the toughest, meanest kid I’d ever known. He loved to pulverize weaker kids who had arms as thin as pieces of spaghetti—arms like mine.
Mary Ellen frowned at him, then turned and started walking away. "See you later, Blake," she said annoyingly over her shoulder.
Poindexter smiled in cruel glee at what she'd said. It was obvious he couldn't pass up the chance to comment on it. "Going to take your girlfriend to the movies after school, vomit water?" he sneered at me. I suddenly found myself wishing I'd come down with the German Measles, or some other disease that would last nine months until school was over.
"She's not my girlfriend," I said emphatically. I tried to walk around him, which was no easy task he was so big. "I've got to hurry or I'll be late for science," I added in a voice that wouldn't even convince me. The hurry was obviously not about getting to hated science class, but getting away from him.
"Science, eh?" said Poindexter with a wicked grin, stepping in front of me and blocking my path. "Who's your teacher?"
"Mr. Marlin," I said in a faint voice. My heart sank as his wicked grin grew even broader. That could only mean one thing--he had the same class!
"Cool," he said, reaching out and starting to crush my puny wrist. "I've got the same class." I smiled unhappily. Having him in one of my classes was like getting a paper cut on my tongue.
Suddenly, I looked up. A man I had never seen before was standing not far away, looking down on us. He was obviously one of the teachers, but no teacher I'd ever seen looked like he did. He had a long gray beard and bushy eyebrows. He wore a lumpy, gray suit and looked like he had just come out of a science fiction movie. At the sight of him, Poindexter let go of my flabby arm and headed quickly down the hall. He'd always found it safest to not torture his fellow students in front of watching adults.
The man smiled at me. I looked quickly away, and started twirling Grandpa's pocket watch again. But when I looked back, the strange man was still staring at me. And as I looked into his eyes, the strangest thing happened. The light around him seemed to fade, while his droopy, watery eyes suddenly expanded and grew as big as two large, bloodshot mud puddles. Those mud puddles seemed to pierce right into me, as if he was reading something written on the inside of my eyeballs.
And then suddenly, everything was normal again. The light had come back, and the mud puddle eyeballs were back to their normal, ugly size. The weird bearded guy smiled at me with his gray teeth, then waved.
I didn’t wave back or smile.
What had just happened? Was I going nuts?
I didn’t wait around to try to figure it out. I just darted quickly down the hall toward my science class and was gone.