Lying in bed that night I kept on moving about, restless and jumpy. I was thinking about the work I'd done that day, trying to puzzle it out.
After I'd been hit by a pillow for the thirtieth time I relented, forcing myself to stay still, rigid as a plank of wood.
"Right, talk," Georgina said, giving me a stern glare. "Otherwise you'll burst."
I sat bolt upright and started talking, explaining everything that had happened with wild hand gestures. Before I began it was 11PM. When I finished it was 1AM and Georgina could barely keep her eyes open.
"So it was Thunder who contacted you, then?" she murmured sleepily, angling her head slightly further towards me. I sighed and rested my head on the pillow, wrapping an arm around her.
"If that's all you gathered from my speech," I muttered, stifling a yawn, "then I give up."
"No, no," she replied, eyes flickering open for a single second. "I know that you didn't die."
"I'm giving up."
*
One month later...
"Now, you lot," I said, clapping my hands together. "This lesson, if I can call it that, is testing you in the field."
Chelsee raised her hand. "A literal field?"
"No, a field as in the battle ground, a specific field, that sort of thing."
"Eh?"
Geez, how did she get this far? She's stupid!
"If you don't understand it now there's no hope," I said. "Anyway, for you two intelligent people-"
"That's sexist,"Chelsee said immediately, dragging out her syllables like the Essex girl she was. "I'm telling my mum that. She'll tan ya."
"And I'll incinerate her in one of my many machines, what's your point?" I snapped.
Just let me reach out and give her neck a hug.
"OMG, I am soooo telling S about this," she said, marching out of the room. Watching her leave I felt a deep sense of satisfaction, a smug smile on my face.
"Sir, are we going to move now?" Tony asked, bouncing on his heels excitedly. I smiled at him kindly and nodded, moving not to the door but the window.
"Out you get," I said, lifting it open and nodding towards the concrete below. "There are riddles hidden all around this compound. Each riddle has three passcodes attached to three different answers. You can only input one passcode into the keypad before it locks you out. What keypads? you ask. The keypads attached to the boxes containing the next clue location. As you go you pick up a counter. The first person to make it back here with all the counters wins."
"Wins what?" Jake asked, arching a perfect eyebrow, a competitive glint in his eye.
"My congratulations and a sense of pride," was my response.
"What does this test, exactly?" Tony queried.
"Your skills of wit, intelligence and how you work under pressure."
"Is Chelsee coming back?"
"Who cares?" I shrugged. "Now, on three, two, one... Go!"
I sprang back from the window as the boys lunged forwards, scrambling for their exit. Jake was first out and sprinted away, Toby stumbling close behind. I laughed as I watched them go, both trying to be the first to get to the clue.
Sitting on the edge of my desk and pulling out my phone I started playing Angry Birds, then Flappy Bird (yes I still have it), then reading on Wattpad and then getting even more bored and deciding to be social. Ignoring my Twitter, Tumblr and email I swept my thumb across the screen to access my texts.
"Who shall I irritate now?" I mused, scrolling through my contacts. "Rebecca, Sophie, Shaade, Georgina... It depends who has their phone on, I guess."
Typing out a quick message to them all ('Sup bish') I sat back and waited. I got a reply almost immediately.
'Shouldn't u be working?' Rebecca.
'You shouldn't be on your phone.', I replied, smiling slightly. 'You're meant to be teaching'.
'I have other teachers 😠 .'
'So do this lot'.
'You should still be teaching'.
'As should you'.
'Bye then'.
'Bye'.
A second later I got another reply.
'You're not dead, are you? Just that you called me bish...' Georgina had texted.
'I'm texting, how could I be dead?' I replied with a frown on my face.
'This is why you're the genius and I'm the fabulous'.
'I'm fab too!'
'Nope, just me.'
'Grr... wuu2?' The text speak had begun.
'I was asleep'.
'You're always asleep!'
'R00d'. I could imagine her mock-offended expression.
'True tho', I text back with a smile.
'Hm. Btw I bought a dog 🐩'.
'WHAT?!'
'I bought a dog 🐕.'
'Stop sending emojis, I get it.'
'Here's a photo'. Underneath the line of phone-speak I saw a picture of a dog staring at the camera, a happy light in its eyes. It had light fur and toffee-coloured ears and whiskers, deep brown eyes and a pink/red collar. Its fur was slightly curly and it had the look of a poodle about it, but another dog breed too.
'What's its name?'
'Lulu'.
'Cute name, cute dog :) What type?'
'Cavapoo, cross breed'.
I read the name and started laughing. 'That name tho'.
'...shut up'.
Footsteps pounded across the courtyard and excited shouting carried over the air. Realising that the two boys had finished at the same time and were racing towards me I finished the text conversation quickly.
'Gtg, bye and love u :)'
'C ya, love u too'.
Seconds after I turned my phone off it pinged back on. I snatched a look at the screen quickly and grinned. A picture of smiledog.jpg had been sent to me by Shaade, simply saying 'this is a bish m8'.
Tony flopped into the room and rolled across the floor, hands outstretched with three counters in his palm. "Fi... finished," he gasped, giving up and face-planting the floor.
"He runs fast for a little boy," Jake scowled. "And he is clever, too."
"If you can remember what the riddles were and their answers I'll be even more impressed," I said. Jake screwed up his forehead in thought.
"The first one was..." he began. "Um... oh yes. Imagine you're in a sinking boat and there are alligators trying to eat you. What do you do?"
"And the answer?"
"Stop imagining."
"I know the next one," Tony said, crawling upright. "What can be swallowed, but can swallow you?"
"Pride," Jake said quickly. "And the last one was-"
"What goes up, lets out a load and then comes back down again?" Tony said. "An elevator."
"A lift," Jake corrected. "Be English, like Thunder, like all the best things."
"Racist," I muttered. Jake's head snapped up and he glared at me.
"I am entitled to say what I think," he growled. "And I'm not English so-"
"So your words just ate one another," I interrupted, finishing his sentence. "Lesson over. You're dismissed. Oh, and if you see Chelsee, tell her I don't expect to see her back in any of my classes."