Saving Mim: Charlie Kadabra Last of the Magicians, #1

1

Pop Goes My Teacher

I’m the last… again. Oh sure, I get picked last for soccer and other sports related stuff, but being last never entered my mind the day I blew up my science teacher and saved the rabbit. I had no idea being the last would change my life forever.

But being first isn’t always sunshine and lollipops either. I’m the first one to get beat up after school, and the first one to get my lunch dumped in my lap. My foster care caseworker says life is all about what you make it. I don’t think she’s ever been a kid. I think she’s an alien or something. She’s nice and all. But being a twelve-year-old boy in today’s world… she’s totally clueless.

The day started out really lame. I got up in the morning feeling weird… kinda tingly in my arms and fingers. I shook it off – too much sugar last night. When I got outta science class, the really bad stuff happened. I left class thinking about the cool science project my friend, Clarence, and I had turned in. Guaranteed to amaze the class or at least get us an A plus.

All my thinking got me into trouble. I wasn’t watching for them to stay out of their way. Not until I felt the locker doors meet my head with a bang.

Hey, marble eyes. You’re walking too close to me.

My luck… as usual. I’d bumped shoulders with Jeff, the meanest kid in school. I’d made it to the butt-beating range on his radar map.

You’d better stay outta my way, wimp. I could feel little drops of spit hitting my face as he leered down at me, in my usual spot, on the hall floor, with my back up against the lockers.

He gave me one last kick and walked away with his merry band of buds, who looked like their heads were firmly screwed onto their shoulders. I called them the no-necks, and they followed him around like rabid puppies. I watched him swagger away, rolling from side to side, like some cocky sailor trying to impress a bunch of girls.

Yep, never far behind the litter… the popular girls, the ones I call the Barbies, were staring at me, pointing, and laughing. They act like I walk the earth purely for their entertainment. Off to the side, away from the Barbies, stood the new girl, Emily. She couldn’t be a Barbie because she’s too smart. She’s the most beautiful girl in school. The look on her face, all full of sympathy, made my stomach twist into a knot. Her look hurt worse than the twittering noises the empty-headed doll brains made.

I slowly collected my books, hoping Emily would walk away and let me die in peace. Of course not, not kind Emily. She stopped to help me pick them up.

Don’t let the stupid creeps get you down, Charlie.

I stood, and she handed me the last book. Yeah, whatever. I shoulda been paying attention. Thanks.

I stepped around her and hurried off, my face brimming red up to my dark hairline. I turned the corner and stopped at my locker. Putting my head up against my cool locker door, I couldn’t help but think my life truly sucks!

I slowly picked out my books for the weekend. I knew being smart didn’t help me get popularity points. I couldn’t help it; I liked learning. It was the one thing that took my mind off my sucky life.

Don’t get me wrong… my foster parents may be cool and all, but they aren’t my mom and dad. Of course, what did I know about parents? Mine left me, a tiny baby, on the doorstep of the Catholic church on Palmer Street. They must have been real jewels to abandon their kid. Walked away from me, like an empty candy wrapper on the street, wrapped in a blue blanket with the name, Kadabra, embroidered in red on it. They put an envelope with an ancient, tacky-looking pendant in my wicker basket, with a note saying, "Take care of Charlie. We love him with all our hearts." Yeah right, loved me so much they dumped me. And to top off the not-so-cool stuff in my life, I got stuck with the name Charlie Kadabra. Kadabra… a name to make everyone snicker. Probably the name of an out-of-business baby blanket company, or something.

My shoulders slumped and my feet were dragging as I pushed the heavy school door open. I looked around to see if I could see Jeff and his merry band of no-necks. All clear. I started for home as my book bag made painful furrows in my narrow shoulders. Someday I’ve got to learn not to carry so many books home.

The way home is shorter if I cut behind the school and go through Paxton’s Woods. I rounded the corner and spied my science teacher, Mr. Meyer, standing back by the dumpsters. He was holding a little white rabbit by the ears. He looked like a patient from Three Oaks, the insane asylum across town. His face looked like a red balloon, and I could swear I saw actual steam coming out of his ears, like in a cartoon. He was holding a small, shiny knife up to this little rabbit’s throat.

He kept babbling stuff like, I’ll teach you to get in my way; I must kill the boy.

The rabbit looked scared, with huge pink eyes, and a little mouth all puckered up into an odd O shape. Little bunny pellets kept making their escape out its butt. What the heck? I’ve heard of kids torturing little creatures… but full-grown men… and a science teacher to boot! What’s this world coming to?

Hey, Mr. Meyer, you don’t want to do that to a little helpless rabbit. Did he bite you or something? I kept walking slowly toward him, hoping to get his mind off the little white guy.

I stopped fast when he looked up at me. I’ve never seen anyone go that nuts about something… not even Jeff and the no-necks looked as batty as Mr. Meyer looked, even when they were punching me.

I’m glad you’re here, Kadabra. You’re just in time to get what’s coming to you too. He lowered the rabbit to his side, but raised the knife and started walking toward me.

No way… a teacher wouldn’t threaten a student. Okay, way. This guy could be crazy. I didn’t know what to do. My lame life was about to get snuffed. The closer he got, the more my arms and fingers tingled. He came at me fast! Three feet away, he lifted the knife over his head.

My book bag dropped off my shoulders with a thud. NO! I screamed, and my arms shot out in front of me like they had a mind of their own. STOP, NOW!

Sonic waves shot out from my fingertips and hit Mr. Meyer in the chest. He flew backward and hit the dumpster with a big thud. The rabbit flew out of his hands and tumbled to the ground. Nuts, bolts, screws, and springs flew out of my science teacher’s body. His head began to go around and around on his neck, and the steam increased with a whistling sound, like a hot teapot on the stove. All of a sudden, his head exploded like a ripe watermelon hit with a sledgehammer. Green, slimy goop and metal pieces hit the dumpster behind him.

My jaw dropped open, and my eyes bugged out of my skull. Holy cow! I just blew up my science teacher! And he’s a robot?!

Who said that? I whirled around looking for the voice behind me. Seeing no one, I spun around again, slower this time, looking for anyone who could have witnessed my crime. My arms and fingertips started to tingle again.

I looked over to where the voice sounded like it came from, but only the silly white rabbit sat there looking at me.

The shock of what I saw coming my way completely outweighed the disbelief I felt toward this whole messed-up situation. Jeff and the no-necks came barreling toward us with unbelievable speed. Unbelievable is exactly what I saw coming at me. Jeff mutated as he ran from his five-foot frame to a huge eight-foot monster with long, overly muscular, hairy arms. No one in the sixth grade should have those big hairy arms. His coloring changed to a sickly pea green, and darker, foamy green stuff leaked out of his mouth, which was filled with huge, sharp, shark teeth.

The no-neck squad put a whole new meaning to the words scary and gross. Each of the three no-necks was a monster, with massive shoulders, hair everywhere, and taller. They were several feet beyond their already-too-tall-for-any-normal-sixth-grader’s height. They glowed a strange green, like the glow sticks Clarence and I cracked open and shook on Halloween, to light our way to the next house.

I got it with the clichés, I said as I ran over and scooped the rabbit up. Now what?

the rabbit said as he lay trembling in my arms.

And run I did. I had no plan and no place to go. I headed to Paxton’s Woods as fast as my long, skinny legs and big feet would take me. I could hear the mutants’ heavy breathing. Their thick, stinky breath felt like hot acid going right down the back of my favorite Houdini tee-shirt. I hoped they don’t leave stink streaks on the back of my favorite shirt. I felt like a rubber band, ready to snap and go completely bonkers! My mind raced like a little hamster on a wheel, thinking over and over again… what the heck, what the heck, what the heck?

My panic-driven mind slowed to a stop, only processing my broken record of what the heck, when I heard my name being shouted. Off to the side of the path, about a rock’s throw away, stood Emily. If my heart hadn’t been racing so fast in my fear-driven body, I would have felt the customary flip it usually does when Em is around. Flip or not, I was glad to see her.

Charlie, over here! Em motioned with her arms in a large sweeping gesture, for the nearsighted or panic-ally impaired. Quick! Follow me. She turned and disappeared into a shimmering curtain.

Could the day get any stranger? I thought as I barreled through the curtain, like a Friday night football hero going for the goal post, cradling the rabbit like a pigskin football.

2

Top Hat and Magic Pants

I felt like a slow-motion replay of a football hero running for the goal post through the shimmering white curtain, only to be replaced the next minute by the bumbling clown tumbling along the ground, like a bingo ball in a cage. The little rabbit flew out of my hands in the opposite direction from me, and I finally came to rest with my face planted in the dirt. I sputtered and spit, my mouth filled with shiny sparkles and brown dirt. It tasted rather minty.

Minty? How can dirt taste minty? I lifted my head up out of the strange dirt, and found myself lying at Emily’s feet. My face felt hot from embarrassment. Oh, what the heck. As if she would think I might be cool… hardly.

I sat up slowly, absolutely humiliated. I looked up at Emily and realized I must have a concussion or something. Emily looked weird. She wore a forest green tunic and