***
"Here you are, Ms. Swanson," Mr. Snodgrass said as he tore the slip of paper from his Post-it note pad. "Blaze will pencil you into the class, and I'll notify Ms. Tupper, your next period PE teacher, that there's been a slight change in your schedule."
"Thanks," she said sullenly, staring at the note as she got up from the chair in his office. The altercation in the cafeteria had earned her and the Geek Squad, as she'd come to learn Jinx, Isaac, and Nikki were often referred to, a week's detention. And it also got her enrolled in Superhero Mentoring 101.
Great, she thought, just great. What a wonderful way to start her first week at school. She sighed as she walked out into the hallway.
Nikki was leaning up against the wall as she emerged from the principal's office. "Looks like you're officially one of us now, new girl." She gave a bright smile, then gave Serena an up and down perusal. damn she is fine glad we snagged her before the Supers could
Serena tried not to blush too hard at the stream of thought coming from the little blonde. "So what's this mentoring class like?"
Nikki waved a hand, rolled her eyes as they started down the hallway together. "It's dull as death. Blaze talks about himself more than anything. I usually just zone out and picture Angelina Jolie." Then she changed the subject, but the new topic made Serena wish she'd change it again. "So, is it true you're the daughter of the Night Witch?"
Serena swallowed and avoided the little blonde's eyes. "Umm…yeah, I am. How'd you know that?"
Nikki shrugged, and from her peripheral Serena noted the girl's anxious expression. "Some of the Supers were whispering about it after the cafeteria incident. What's it like? Witch World, I mean. I've heard there's some wicked cool technology over there."
Serena gave the enthusiastic Nikki a small smile. "I've never been to Witch World."
Nikki's eyes grew wide with surprise. "You're kidding. But your mom was the Night Witch."
"Yeah, but whenever I'd ask about Witch World," Serena shrugged, "she'd kind of avoid the subject."
"Oh." Obviously sensing her discomfort, Nikki let the topic drop off into silence.
"So what did old Snot-grass say?" Jinx hurried up beside Serena on the left, blowing a strand of scraggly hair from his eyes as he did so.
"I have to take this mentoring class with you all. Guess it’s supposed to mend my troublemaking ways." She shrugged, thinking that maybe she'd end up sitting at the back of her classes, after all.
When they entered the classroom, Serena decided today's session would be anything but dull as death. Their teacher, or the gooey, melted mess that was left of him, was fused to the blackboard in a spread-eagle position. She covered her mouth with her hand at the burning fumes coming off the body, Nikki let out a small scream, while Jinx said, "It smells like burned dog in here," before he, too, focused on the blackboard and the messy corpse.
Isaac came in behind them. "Hey, sorry I'm late, but—" then he let out a curse as he came up beside Jinx and spied their dead teacher.
"What happened?" Nikki breathed, her big, blue eyes swallowing up her tiny face.
"Good question," Serena said, moving a bit closer to the door to put some space between herself and the stench. That quiet life of anonymity she'd hoped for, here at her new home and in her new school, was looking less and less attainable by the day.
"Who would want to kill Blaze?" Jinx said, stepping closer to the murder scene with a frown of morbid curiosity crinkling his face.
Just then, a shrill scream came from the classroom entrance. Serena and the others turned to find two green-skinned twins staring between the mess and the trio.
"Oh, just great. Zack and Zoe." Jinx rolled his eyes at the pair. "Why do you two always pick the worst times to show up? Fly off to your home planet."
The male of the duo shot him a sneer. "We're alien/human hybrids, genius…"
"…and we were born on Earth," the female finished for her twin.
"You killed Blaze!" Zack cried, and a pair of thin feelers jutting from his otherwise smooth, bald head twitched as he did so. "I'm going to Mr. Snodgrass right now!"
Ah, this week just keeps getting better and better, Serena thought, her hopes for normalcy further plummeting.
Jinx ran after Zack, grabbing his arm and stopping him in the hallway. Serena and the others followed after.
"We had nothing to do with this!" Jinx argued. "We just got here and he was already dead!"
"Tell it to the principal." Zack smirked spitefully.
Jinx narrowed his eyes. "You annoying smear of green—"
"What is going on?" Before he could finish his sentence, Mr. Snodgrass appeared in the hall behind them. His arms were crossed over the front of his tweed blazer as he scowled. "Can't you freaks stay out of trouble for more than five minutes?"
"They killed Blaze!" Zoe squealed, wagging a finger at Serena and her companions.
"We did not!" Serena said, tiring of the antics of these alien twins. "We found him murdered, Mr. Snodgrass."
The bulgy-eyed principal gazed between the twins and the Geek Squad. "Show me the evidence, and let me be the judge."
Why did Serena feel doom blossoming in the pit of her stomach at his words? She tried to ignore the foreboding and, with the others, she followed Mr. Snodgrass back into Blaze's classroom.
One look at the melted mess that was once a Superhero and Mr. Snodgrass let free a bloodcurdling scream. The principal retrieved a paisley handkerchief from the top pocket of his blazer and held it over his mouth as he approached the corpse.
"This was done with intense heat," he exclaimed after a lengthy silence in which he examined the remains, choking back gags as he did so. He shot an accusatory glare at Jinx. "You're known for your little bouts of pyromania."
"No way!" Jinx waved his arms and glared as he backed up. "There is no way you're pinning this on me. I'm not the only one in this school who could've done it."
"No," Mr. Snodgrass said, straightening and offering a look of disapproval to the entire Geek Squad, "but you have the best motive for it. Blaze was always sending you and your clique to detention, or my office."
"This is crap," Serena blurted, thinking how she was further cementing herself in the troublemaker camp even as the words spilled from her mouth. "Would Jinx really hang around the crime scene if he'd done it?"
Mr. Snodgrass shrugged and frowned at her tone. "Maybe he would, simply to try and defer suspicion." Then he walked closer to Serena and shook a finger in her face. "Either way, I'm calling the police, and if Jinx did do this, remember," he paused to bore a hole through the entire Geek Squad with his penetrating scowl, "you're all accessories to murder!"