Haunted School - 5
Science vs. Curse
Table of Contents
Before Demonstration
Josh looked for his mail. And there was yet another message from Quinn Pensky ... "Yeah! That's incredible!" He beamed.
"Boob?" Megan pondered.
Drake chuckled. "What is?"
"A sensation! The winner of this year's science fair is coming to PCA!" Josh squealed. "The last day before their summer break!"
Drake and Megan shrugged. They knew that Josh was going to make it there, rigorously at any cost, and that they better followed him, not because of the scientific demonstration that was going to expect them, but in order to meet thier favourite pupils: Dustin, Nevel, and Lola!
Josh smiled. "The winner comes from Colorado." He announced. "Her name is Paige Howard. I'm so looking forward to learning from such a genius!" Josh beamed proudly.
Drake and Megan choked when they heard that name.
Drake grabbed Megan by her top. "Sorry, we've got to talkk about something!"
Megan shrugged and followed her real brother silently. Usually she would have protested, but she knew that there must have been a serious reason. Background: Paige Howard, the scientific genius, was no other than another cousin of Drake and Megan! Even more, Megan and Paige almost looked alike, similar to Carly. Josh did not know about that branch of the family. Megan had visited her a few times, but always under the pretense of seeing another girl from her town, Jessica. [ 37]
"OK ..." Drake stammered. "This is calling for trouble." He sighed. "Josh will know that we've lied to him for year ..."
"We haven't lied ..." Megan corrected Drake. "We just have failed to mention Paige at all, that's it."
"This won't make Josh any happier ..." Drake moaned.
"True!" Megan admitted. "But it was for the better of Josh ..."
"So he couldn't prefer Paige over you?" Drake scratched his head.
Megan shook hers. "Boob! I've known long since that Josh will never like me that way ... no, don't you remember why you wanted to keep it a secret?"
Drake only remembered vaguely.
Megan sighed. "OK ... Paige is four years younger than Josh, yet she had won lots of awards already. You didn't want to discourage Josh by facing her. I'm sure Josh isn't less smart than Paige, she has just got more luck with her relatives ..."
Drake sighed. Now that megan had talked about it, he remembered clearly that this was the reason why he had started to urge Megan to stay silent about Paige. And in a few days, the fake curtain was going to be ripped apart into oblivion.
Cookie was totally excited. "Paige Howard! Yeah!" He beamed and ran all over the school yard. He had so been looking forward to see the demonstration of Paige's invention, an improved engine to turn trash into energy. It was going to power the PCA from the next term onward.
Jenifer wondered. "OK, I guess I have to come with you ... otherwise you will run like an idiot into that machine, whatever it is meant to do ..."
Ned Bigby shrugged. "OK, I'm in it ... whatever it is!"
Mr. Sweeny, science teacher at James K. Polk School, had been faster than the kids and hence organised a compulsory field trip to the PCA in order to meet up with Paige Howard and her invention.
Mr. Beringer, teacher for physics at the PCA, counted the mass of visitors from all over California expected for the demonstration of Paige Howard's apparatus.
Dean Rivers was most honoured. He still wished Paige to come to the PCA for high school, although Paige had already done the SAT at the age of 10 years with full score, and she was probably nowhere in need of high school. In any case, the publicity he expected for his school was phenomenal and unreached in the whole history of this educational institution, since Mr. Bradford Senior had founded it.
Zoey Brooks had been called into the headmaster's office. "Dean Rivers?"
"Brooks!" Rivers boomed. "As you know, Mrs. Paige Howard is coming for a demonstration of her invention ..."
Zoey nodded. "I've heard about it ..."
"Very Good!" Rivers stood up. "And your task is the one of guiding Mrs. Howard around the school. It's a great honour and resposnsibility. Are you aware of that?"
Zoey nodded. "Completely!"
Dean Rivers grinned. "OK. It is an important event for us, and we can't afford any mistake!"
Zoey shrugged. For sure, she didn't want to be made responsible for any trouble during Paige's visit.
Dustin smiled. "Paige Howard is a cousin of Megan and Drake ..."
Nevel grinned. "Very cool!"
"Do you think that the ghost and the curse are going to sabotage the whole thing?" Dustin was worried.
Nevel nodded. "Indeed, that's a great question." He sighed. "The recent events must have upset the ghost a lot. And I'm sure that it won't work out as expected. Alas, what it means, I can't tell!"
"Let's be on guard ..." Dustin suggested.
Nevel grinned and highfived. "As dangerous as it is, if we are observant, we may learn a lot about the origin of the curse and how to deal with it ... if we make it through it alive! But then again, who wants to live forever?"
Dustin shrugged helplessly.
"I admire Paige's genius ..." Nevel admitted. "But it can't hold a dim candle to the power of the curse."
Dustin nodded solemnly.
Quinn was very excited. But she was afraid of losing it again. Not long ago, she had almost given up on science because she had been unable to develop a gas to knock out her stray rat: Rather, she had knocked herself out. Alas, this time, the danger of being humiliated was much bigger. She was preparing an anti-gravity chamber. And it better worked. If younger Paige Howard was better at that, Quinn might as well o and dig her own grave
The Big Machine
Quinn felt already humiliated. Paige had just been in her physics class and corrected Quinn on various occasions. And now ... this antigravity chamber refused to work properly ... Quinn knew that Zoey was going to show up with Paige not much later, and hence she was nervous.
The door opened, and, luckily, it was Drake and Josh.
Lola jumped into Drake's arms, smiling happily, although ... "Quinn has just shredded my new pear phone!"
Drake was upset at Quinn who just stammered helplessly.
Josh sat down by Quinn's side and took a look at that thing. "OK, I wish it was night, or Cookie came in through that door."
Drake carried Lola out of the dorm. "Sushi Rox?"
"Yes, please!" Lola smiled happily, forgetting about her stupid pear phone.
Cookie rushed in. He had been informed by Quinn about her despair and thus he had hurried up, escaping especially from Sweeny's stern control.
The three science freaks brainstormed over the buggy anti-gravity chamber. After ten minutes, the thing started to work.
Quinn, Cookie, and Josh highfived. None of them would have been able to fix the thing all alone, but the brainstorming triple knew no limit.
Zoey bounded in. "Excuse me, Paige Howard is here ..."
Josh and Cookie had been waiting for that moment. They turned around in order to shake Paige's hand.
"Hi!" Paige smiled. "So you are scientists, too?" Paige asked Josh and Cookie.
Cookie nodded solemnly.
Josh wanted to nod, as well, but then he noticed the close similarity between Paige and Megan. He was totally consternated and almost passed out.
Lola and Drake were sitting in Sushi Rox, ordering California rolls.
"And you really are related to that science star?" Lola beamed.
Drake nodded. "And now it will break Josh's heart because she's much younger yet more successful." He sighed. "I couldn't watch it, hence the walk to Sushi Rox ..."
Lola understood. "Paige also appears above Quinn's capacities. She had humiliated her when she visited our physics lessons ..."
"And Josh will break my skull when he figures that we've hidden her from him ..." Drake whimpered.
"So ... let's ignore them and sit here, making out?" Lola suggested smiling.
"Sure!" Drake pulled Lola into a lingering kiss.
Megan walked past. She was upset and grabbed Drake by the ears. "You've promised to stand by Josh!" She also noticed flabbergasted Lola. "What a sort of roomie are you? Quinn needs your reassurance!" She grabbed Lola's top. Then she dragged the love birds out of the restaurant.
Megan pushed Drake and Lola rudely into dorm 101 where they found Quinn, Cookie, and Josh all embarassed by Paige's intellectual superiority.
Well, Josh would have shown his embarassment, had he been conscious enough to do so, but he was in the middle of somewhere between a daze and a trance.
Quinn was looking for some potion against Josh's miserable condition, but her disappointment about not being able to hold a candle to the prodigy from Colorado was almost paralysing her.
Cookie's condition wasn't substantially different.
Megan hugged Paige.
"I'm so sorry!" Paige sighed.
"Josh!" Megan tried to help her step brother. "Paige may have been more lucky so far, but that doesn't mean that you're potentially less brilliant as scientists."
"As she said .." Drake added.
"I may borrow you my hair lotion!" Lola offered to the disappointed geeks. "So at least your hair will look better than Paige's!"
Quinn stared oddly at Lola.
Zoey Brooks looked at her watch. "The demo is going to start in an hour, so you better get ready for it!"
"And what if we don't want to see it?" Quinn asked, speaking for Josh and Cookie as well.
Megan shook her head. "Josh, you've worked so hard for it. Why do you want to trash it for no good reason?"
Paige shrugged helplessly. "Sorry, I now really have to go!"
Zoey nodded. "OK, Paige. If they want to rip themselves apart in self-pity, we can't help them anymore. Dean Rivers is already waiting for us!"
Paige took her folder and followed Zoey out on the campus.
Megan shrugged helplessly. "One day, Paige might need your help."
"No way!" The consternated freaks stared oddly at Megan.
"May I now hide with Lola in a dark corner?" Drake begged.
Megan shook her head. "You're going to stand by Josh's until the bitter end, and so will Lola by Quinn's!" She sighed. "I've got some important things to do!"
There it was: The machine that everyone had been admiring.
"Paige's top is uncool!" Geena Fabiano remarked, shuddering with disgust.
Addie sighed. She strummed her guitar and sang along.
Runrig: The Apple Came Down which I don't own.
Life support genius
At the end of time
The greatest living brain alive
A breath of chance matter
From a fallen star
The power is on
And reaches far
Mary Ferry and Duane Ogilvy, two of Addie's and Geena's friends, were not pleased at all by Geena's attempts to mock Paige. They stared downright oddly at her.
Dean Rivers gave his usual pathetically boring sermons before Paige could pull the lever.
Jeremiah Trottman talked insanely about a lot of unscientific humbug.
Zoey asked Dean Rivers to call security, as Jeremiah was just an annoyance and a bad example for the youth.
Dean Rivers agreed. "Security!"
Mr. Sweeny had made his way to Paige and asked her about a few scientific details. "Oh, have you already met Cookie? He's the valedictorian in science at my school ..."
Paige nodded sadly. "He hides in 101 Brenner Hall because he feels unworthy of my presence ..."
Mr. Sweeny was flabbergasted. He was going to tell his other students about this.
"Cookie is a dork and a coward!" Evelyn Kwong, the co-valedictorian, thundered energically.
Chase took his guitar and played a tune,[ 38] singing along.
Standing there alone
The system's waiting
All systems are go
"Are you sure?"
Control is not convinced
But the computer
Has the evidence
No need to abort
The countdown starts
The point of no return was finally reached.
Zoey shook Paige's hand after she had pulled the trigger. "A little gesture for you, but a huge gesture for the PCA!"
Flattered Paige Howard chuckled. But she didn't forget to watch the control instruments conscientiously. "So far, it';s perfect!" She smiled.
Nevel, Megan, and Dustin watched the whole thing from Dustin's dorm.
"Hey! I sense something supernormal ..." Megan alerted.
"Galloway?" Dustin trembled.
"Don't fear the ghost of Galloway ..."Nevel corrected Dustin. "Fear the demon that is at the bottom of all the fuss!"
Megan nodded. "The sensation increases ..."
"OK ... time for our countermeasures?" Dustin shivered.
Nevel rushed to his miniature piano - a big one didn't fit into the PCA dorms.
Megan had already held her oboe nervously in her hands. She was just waiting for Nevel's sign.
Nevel Papperman hit the keys, singing along, as did Dustin.
Dies irae, dies illa
Solvet saeclum in favilla
Teste David cum Sibylla[ 39]
--Requiem based on medieval hymn "Dies Irae Dies Illa" by Tom of Celano
back at the machine ...
"There's something wrong ..." Paige sensed. "The numbers start slagging way behind my calculations."
"Is that good or bad?" clueless Zoey asked.
"In the best case, it's a waste of time, in the worst case ..." Paige turned more and more worried the longer she watched the instruments. "Oh no, I can't break it ..."
Zoey started shivering. But, no matter what, she would stand through the whole thing by Paige's side, because she might not have been a science geek, but she wasn't a coward like the rest of the PCA.
Paige already wanted to beg Dean Rivers to order the evacuation of the campus ... but the feared the likely panic reactions of most of the pupils.
Zoey whispered to Dean Rivers. "It';s dangerous, we better get everyone to leave the campus in time, and no panic!"
Dean Rivers was upset. he has seen too many bad movies by Malcolm Reese where evacuations encouraged criminals to sack the alerted villages. Hence he hesitated.
"It's urgent!" Zoey pushed Dean Rivers.
Sighing deeply, Dean Rivers ordered the evacuation of the panic, telling the pupils to leave calmly. but it was for naught, they broader mass of the pupils panicked like a stampede of wild buffaloes.
"If we have to die ..." Lola beamed "I want to die fashionably, at least!" She swooned. "In mt best dress and with glistening hair!"
"As long as it is with you in my arms ..." Drake swooned.
Lola kissed Drake.
Alas, there wasn't any time to waste. Drake and Lola grabbed Josh, Cookie, and Quinn by theire tops and dragged them away when the red alert bells sounded across the campus.
Josh preferred to die in there, as his life was already ruined. Quinn and Cookie thought in a similar manner.
On their way out, they stomped all over Mr. Sweeny who was still looking for Cookie.
Suddenly, a megaphone yelled. "Mr. Simon Nelson Cook, Mrs. Quinn Pensky, and Mr. Joshuah Nichols are requested to come to the campus fountain in order to assist Mrs. Paige Howard. The time is running out on us!"
"We are too dumb for that!" Quinn, Josh, and Cookie boomed unison.
Drake and Lola looked sternly at those cowards of scientists.
Addie finally stumbled into Chase. "Nice tune ..." She remarked about his song.
"Yours was wonderful. too!" Chase admitted.
"Oh, really?" Addie wondered. She took her guitar and continued.
There's not long left
It's a race against time
They say he's close
He could lose his mind
The blind masses had already lost their mind. Chaos ruled Pepperdine beach.
Chase took his guitar and continued his own song.
Back at ground control
There is a problem
Go to power full
Not responding
"Hello are you receiving
Turn the current on!"
We're standing by
...
There's no reply
Clueless Zoey did some slave jobs, but she couldn't replace the three competent experts.
Drake Parker kicked the butts of Josh, Quinn, and Cookie hard. "Now help Paige!" He was terribly worried about his cousin.
Nevel Papperman stumbled along. He sniffed. "You need a better metal! Zinc is so suckish a conductor!" He could distinguish metals from their smell, even when he was yards away.
The guards didn't want to let him pass. But he was sure that nothing bad could happen to him because he had been charged with the power of the requiem.
Dustin distracted the guards with a gummi worm.
Nevel stormed along and grabbed Zoey's dorm key. "Take this!"
At the same time, Quinn, Josh, and Cookie had found the theoretical problem.
Zoey was upset and yelled like a high-tone fury
Paige smiled. Using the key, she bridged the circuit and halted the machine before it could blow up and bury the PCA in a heap of stones and dusts..
Quinn, Josh, and Cookie explained now their discovery unto Paige.
The bells rang the end of the red alert.
Megan chukled when she ended her oboe performance.
After the Demonstration
After the demonstartion, Paige jumped into Drake's car. "It's nice that you let me spend the summer break with you in San Diego!" she told Drake and Megan.
Josh was still speechless.
"Joshie!" Paige sighed. "You've been so great!"
Josh sighed.
"And now you get to know the smarter branch of Drake's family!" Paige chuckled.
Megan glared oddly at Paige.
"They aren't dum!" Josh justified Drake and Megan. "They are just ... smart in another manner!"
Megan huggled Josh.
"I know!" Paige smiled. "Just why did you have to hide me from Josh?"
"They did the right thing!" Josh moaned. "If I had known earlier, I hadn't been able to handle it at all. I may hardly handle it now ..."
Paige nodded. "OK! You're probably right ..." She started sobbing.
Dustin still wondered. "Did our ceremony stop the ghost, or the technical intervention?"
Nevel scratched his head. "Maybe this, maybe that ... I wish we knew it. But I'm sure that we've just delayed the trouble that is ahead. The dystopia is pending unless we may spellbind the demons again, as did King Solomon."
"We need the seal!" Dustin shrugged helplessly.
Nevel nodded solemnly. "It's a race against time ... I sense that the demons that have been released when the temple got destroyed will start to strike again from this place of the earth, unless we're faster than them ..."
Dustin trembled.
A fewq days later, Paige received a message from the caltech. "Josh! Read this!"
Josh looked at the letter. "They've accepted you to Caltech Undergraduate school?"
"Read whom else!" Paige whistled innocently.
"Quinn Pensky ... Joshuah Nichols ... Simon Nelson Cook!" Josh bounced around.
"Will you accept the invitation?" Paige answered.
"Sure, if dad lets me ..." Josh beamed. "Alas, only if Quinn and Cookie do the same!"
"Ask them!" Paige smiled. "That's better than just sitting around!"
Josh ran to the phone.
Megan bounded in.
"Have you got a moment, cousin?" Paige asked.
"Sure!" Megan smiled.
"I don't think that the whole accident at Pepperdine beach was a scientific problem ..." Paige moaned. "I've never believed in ghosts, but I start reconsidering it ..."
Megan grinned. "Oh, you do? As a scientist?"
Paige shrugged. "Don't tell Josh about it, please ...!"
Megan nodded. "That's for the better of Josh, too. He respects you, and if your worldview is stumbling , he'll suffer even more now."
Drake came back, dragging Josh along. "Josh is going where?"
"Quinn and Cookie agree!" Josh beamed. "Off to Caltech!"
"And why am I the last one to know?" Drake pouted.
"Megan hasn't known either!" Paige shrugged.
Megan threw her arms around Josh. "I'm proud of you, boob!" She chuckled.
Drake sighed bitterly. "Now I'm going to be all alone!"
"The doors of the PCA are still open for you!"
Drake moaned. "They require thrice as much effort as a normal school!" He sighed. "And I hate schools!"
"But you like Lola!" Megan grinned. "And you hate Mrs. Hayfer!"
Drake beamed. "Good argument! PCA, here comes Drake Parker!"
Megan threw her arms around Drake. "I would have been sad there without you. boob!"
Drake sighed. Now he had to beg mom, which wasn't too hard, as she felt better when Drake was there at the PCA for Megan.
Paige and Megan continued talking about the ghost.
"The seal of solomon? Temple curse?" Paige shrugged. "All of that sounds very interesting. There are things between heaven and earth ..."
Megan nodded solemnly.
Zoey was sad when she heard the message about Quinn's pending departure from the PCA for Caltech, but she had to accept it.
Lola shrugged. "Whom will they force us to live with? I hope it's Lisa Perkins ..."
The door went open.
Stacey Dillsen bounded in, sobbing piteously. "My cotton swab sculpture from stonehenge ... " She started weeping when she showed a pile of deformed cotton swabs. "The stampede destroed it!" Stacey hadn't noticed at all that much worse things than the coton swabs had bee at stake. " Anyways, Mrs. Burvich said that I'm going to move in with you, as Quinn is about leaving."
Zoey and Lola choked and coughed. Maybe the machine should have exploded instead? That would have been a much more merciful destiny than sharing a dorm with Stacey Cottonswab Dillsen.
Alas, Paige wasn't the only scientist ready to reconsider.
Wayne Gilbert aka Firewire stood in the door. "Hey! I've heard you are experts for the apocalypse?" He chuckled.
Arthur, Neil, and Cody, the companions of Wayne, chuckled equally.
Nevel looked sternly at them. "This is no subject of jokes!" His voice went trembling through their marrow and bones. "Stop laughing, or you're going to rue the day!"
Firewire and his pals went silent, all of a sudden. Firewire just showed them some cartoon that mentioned the apocalypse. "Little unforeseen explosions are going to precede ..."
Nevel nodded. "OK, if you see it like this ... yes, dystopia is around the corner, unless ..."
Dustin wondered. "Wow, a scientist that succumbs to apocalyptics?"
"Science can't prove apocalyopse right, but it can't prove it wrong, either!" Arthur exclaimed.
Firewire nodded.
Nevel snickered. "Megan will help us even more once she's here as a pupil ..."
[ 37] from the Drake & Josh special about Drake and Josh in Hollywood
[ 38] Peter Schilling : Major Tom which I don't own, and I'm not related to P.S., the common surname notwithstanding!
[ 39] Days of wrath, those true days, obliterate the world, as witnessed by David through Sibyl