The Color of Darkness COMPLETE NOVEL

Roots

As if on cue, Nova burst through the door, trying to tame her wild auburn hair with one hand and dragging her overstuffed green backpack in the other.

"Ms. Fletcher! How nice of you to join us!" Elbright said with a tight smile. Nova dropped her backpack on her desk and flopped down in her seat with a sigh. "Didn't get in too much trouble today, did we? I'm going to assume you've executed your usual 'first day' antics."

"You assume correctly!" she reported proudly with her sweetest smile. "Probably got detention for a few days, I'm sure we'll hear by lunchtime. What did I miss?"

"Nothing in particular. We were waiting on you."

"How kind!" Nova pulled one of her tattered old journals from her back and plopped it open in front of her. "Shall we begin?"

Elbright shook his head and tried to hide his amusement. Though he didn't let anyone get away with anything in his classes we all knew he had a soft spot for Nova, which really came in handy when she pulled her traditional "new school year" prank on the first day. Elbright was the only one who seemed to be able to convince the Warden not to expel her by the second day every year.

"What was it this year?" I whispered sideways to her as Elbright had us open our textbooks to this first chapter so we could learn about analysis techniques. Nova just grinned at me and shook her head.

"It was good, that's all I'll say for now."

We were barely four paragraphs into the chapter when the overhead page beeped loudly. "Head of janitorial staff, could you please report to the main office?" There came a brief pause. "Bring paper towels, please. A lot of them."

The secretary did not sound amused.

I glanced sideways at Nova, who could barely contain her excitement. Three minutes later, the PA called for all maintenance staff to go to the main office. Two minutes after that, the Warden poked his head into Elbright's room, red faced and practically foaming at the mouth.

"Natalie Fletcher!" He nearly shouted. "You. Me. My office. Now!" He tried his best to look calm, but a vein looked about ready to burst in his temple. A few kids hid snickers while Nova gathered up her backpack with a solemn face and marched herself to the door, giving the room a dirty little smirk as she disappeared around the corner. As soon as the Warden left, everyone started talking at once. I just shook my head. Nova's last two pranks had been pretty mild: two hundred crickets in the air duct freshman year, and hiding two dozen alarm clocks in the library last September. Nova wouldn't let Rick or me help her with her pranks, either. She always said it was too risky for us to get in trouble. I suspected she just liked stealing the limelight her one day of the year, though, and making a hell of a racket in the process. That's what was funny about Nova: you could never really figure out her motives.

The class begged Elbright to let them go to the main office and see the aftermath of whatever "it" was before "it" got cleaned up. Finally, he consented, I'm sure partially because he looked like he wanted to see it for himself, too. We trouped out of the room on strict orders to behave ourselves, or we wouldn't be taking any other "field trips" for a long time.

When we arrived on scene, the office was utter...

Chaos.

Upheaval.

Bedlam.

No matter how you put it, the scene was an absolute disaster. Three janitors, the secretary, and two teachers were attempting to scrub a thick layer of gelatinous substance off of all the doorknobs in the office. It took me a moment to realize that Nova had smeared a huge handful of petroleum jelly on each and every doorknob in the office, making them impossible to open with bare hands. The janitors were trying to wash it off with buckets of soapy water, clearly oblivious to the basic chemical properties of oil, and were only successful in making a huge, wet, soapy mess in the process. I internally applauded her; harmless, yet massively disruptive. Since our school didn't have a CCTV system, there would be no way to prove it was her, too. We watched for ten minutes while the staff tried unsuccessfully to clean the gunk off before, visibly irritated, Elbright wrapped his hand in paper towels and showed the staff how to open the doors by applying friction with both hands. Embarrassed, late, and frantic, the chaos was finally sorted out just in time for passing period before the second class. News travels fast in a school of less than five hundred and by lunch time everyone knew what had happened. Even for a social outcast, Nova was applauded by every kid in the school for her ingenuity. The Warden's staff ran about an hour behind all day and Nova was nowhere to be seen, presumably lounging in an empty room in the main office alone to "think about what she did."