CHAPTER THREE
Honoring the Improvised Waivers
I.
Friday seemed to take forever to get here, but it finally did. I spent all week talking about comics with Chuck, telling Phil that his jokes didn’t make sense, and studying the large, bolted metal door in the back of Professor Nog’s classroom. Every day I sat in Astronomy, I had a new theory.
At first I thought it was a giant robot that Nog had secretly been building with my parents tax dollars. Then I thought it could possibly be a science experiment gone wrong. Maybe Nog was a mad scientist who experimented on students in his spare time. Maybe he used the Astro-Nog’s as test subjects. I even thought for a second that I dreamt the whole thing up, but quickly put that theory to rest when every time I would turn back around to face forward in class, Professor Nog was staring at me, squinting his eyes and putting his index finger up to his lips like he was ‘shushing’ me.
It didn’t matter what wild theories I had brewing – I was going to find out for sure today after school.
I sat at the lunch table with Chuck and Phil, but barely touched my roast beef and white cheddar wrap that my mom had thrown together for me. I saw Philly kept eyeing it, so I ended up just giving it to him. Chuck set down his cold pizza and finished chewing his last bite before he commented to me:
“What’s up, Scout?” he asked. “You’ve been kind of quiet today.”
“Did you not like the roast beef and white cheddar wrap?” Phil asked, finishing it off with a wipe of his napkin.
I couldn’t tell them what I was thinking about. Would they even believe me if I told them that Professor Nog was hiding a giant human-scorpion hybrid in the back of his classroom? That was another theory that I came up with…
“I’m fine,” I said, very unconvincingly. I couldn’t tell them yet. But, I wouldn’t have to tell them if they saw it for themselves. “Are you guys going to join any clubs this year?”
“What do you mean, clubs?” Phil asked.
“Like after school, school-related clubs?” Chuck chimed in.
“Yeah, school clubs. Are you guys going to join any? I’m thinking about checking out the Astro-Nog’s after school. You guys care to come along?”
In unison, they both simply said no.
“Oh, okay,” I said. The day was coming to an end, and I couldn’t have been more nervously excited.
II.
The sound of the final bell ringing for the day was magnificent. Chuck caught up with me as I was exiting study hall.
“You want to hang out this weekend?” he asked, hopeful for a ‘yes’ from me. I didn’t disappoint.
“Sure man. What do you want to do?”
“Sleep over at my house tonight. Philly will be there. Make it around 6 o’clock or so. We’ll watch some bad movies and eat pizza all night,” Chuck said.
“Sounds like a plan. Are you sure you don’t want to hit up the Astro-Nog’s, man?” I double-checked.
“I’m sure. I have a meeting with Jakon in an hour,” Chuck said.
A meeting with Jakon? What on Earth did that mean? “Alright then. See you tonight.”
Chuck patted me on the back and took off down the hall. A sleepover would be fun. I’d never attended one before, so it’d be a new experience for me. I wandered out into the hallway and loved the sight of the student body thinning out of the school. The first meeting of the Astro-Nog’s was about to be in order!
About fifteen minutes later, I found myself sitting in an empty hallway outside of the Astronomy classroom. The door was shut and the lights were out inside the room. I had tried to look through the small window on the door to the back of the classroom, but it was impossible to see.
I’d hoped this was the right spot to meet at. The sign up sheet never specified an exact location. I stood up and looked down either end of the hallway. It was a ghost town up in here. The clock on the wall read 3:00 pm – I was hoping this thing started soon. I needed to be at Chuck’s house in three hours.
I stood in front of the door and peered through the window again. It was too dark. Where was Nog?
A slight tap on my shoulder made me jump and I shrieked like a little girl. I turned around and speaking of girls, the girl from my astronomy class stood there smiling.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you,” she said quietly.
“It’s alright, I…” I realized I just sounded like a girl, so I deepened my voice the best I could, “I just didn’t know what was going on out here. Have you seen the Professor?”
“No, but he said to meet him at his classroom for the Astro-Nog’s,” the girl said.
Good, I was in the right place. I’d been sort of attracted to this girl all week but since I was so intrigued by the bolted metal door. I never caught her name during the roll call.
“I’m Scout,” I introduced myself with what I was hoping was a charming smile.
“My name is Mandy.”
“It’s nice to meet you,” I smiled and extended my hand. She shook back. She had a very light grip – very feminine. Her smile, and just the touch of her hand put me in a slight trance - which was interrupted by a booming explosion!
Mandy and I both turned around quickly as the building started to shake, and saw at the end of the hallway, smoke billowing from an unknown location. Sparks flew in every direction and with another ear-pounding ‘boom’, a door at the end of the hallway exploded from its hinges and hit the floor, shattering its’ glass window.
Through the dark smoke, I could see a figure materialize and start sprinting toward us. It was Professor Nog! He was covered in black soot, and his lab coat and red tie were shredded. He saw Mandy and I standing – startled – up ahead of him.
“Scout! Get up outta here, my brotha!” he shouted. Naturally, I stood there, confused as could be. What the heck was even happening? Terrorists?
There was a quick, high-pitched piercing sound that emerged from down the hall, and I saw a short beam of green energy pierce through the smoke and come flying at us. I grabbed Mandy and tore her down to the floor with me. The energy blast hit the wall next to us and burned a hole into Nog’s classroom. Was that a freaking laser? Like a space beam laser from the movies? Holy crap!
Nog finally made it to us and frantically juggled his keys in his hands. “I thought I said to get up outta here!” He opened the door as fast as he could. Another green laser beam hit the door to the right of Nog’s head.
“Hurry!” Nog ordered as he shoved us into his classroom and slammed the door behind us.
“Nog, what’s going on?” I shouted.
“It’s Professor Nog! Just get down!” he corrected, and then instructed us.
Mandy and I knelt down against the wall and I watched as the weird old Professor stood facing the door. I leaned forward just a tad to look out the glass window, but all I could see was the black smoke inching its way down the hall. Everything got quiet and Nog grew uneasy.
“Professor, I just…”
“Quiet down Scout,” he hushed me quickly as heavy footsteps grew closer out in the hall. I saw Nog’s eyes widen to lengths I’d never seen before, so I leaned forward again to see what he saw.
The footsteps came to a stop and there was a tall – almost 7 foot – being standing there. It was wearing a heavily armored exterior with strange markings on it. It was a beast! It wore a helmet of some kind that had a pitch-black visor on the front blocking any possible visual of the face behind it.
“Is that a person?” I asked.
“What in craps sake do I have to do to shut you up, Scout!?” Nog screamed, not once removing his eyes from the strange being.
He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small device – almost like a remote key for a car. It had a red button on the top of it, and a green one on the bottom. Nog hovered his finger over the red button for a minute. The beast on the other side of the door stood still, but I could hear sound coming from him. It was almost like something was charging up – the laser gun perhaps?
Nog heard it too and quickly pressed the red button. He swung around to avoid looking at the hallway, just as a blinding white light out there flashed; it lit up the entire classroom. Mandy and I sheltered our eyes, and a moment later, I opened mine.
Professor Nog was sitting on the floor in a state of relief. I looked to Mandy – her eyes were still closed, and she was holding her head, scared. I leaned forward again to look out the window. The thing was gone.
Nog stood up just as I did.
“Is that guy gone?” I asked – even though I had about a thousand more questions about the crap that just happened.
“Yeah. Back to Bethani where he belongs,” Nog walked over to his desk. I stood by the door and looked out the window. There was nothing. No being, no smoke – nothing. I walked up behind the old man.
“What’s Bethani?”
“Nothing. Don’t worry about it, Scout. As a matter of fact, I’m gonna need you and Mandy to sign a couple waivers here for me, alright?”
“But I…”
“Alright?” Nog reinforced. I nodded.
III.
I sat in Chuck’s bedroom, in his computer chair against the wall. The sleepover was officially underway, but all I could think about was the mass confusion of the armored robot attack at the school a few hours ago. What on Earth had even happened? Professor Nog made Mandy and I sign some waivers saying that we never saw a darn thing, and that we couldn’t even speak of it. That was impossible. Plus, Nog typed up the waivers right there on the spot anyways, so they were in no way legal. I needed to know more about this.
I watched as Chuck and Philly were playing video games while sitting on the floor. I scoped the room out – it was a cluttered mess. No way in heck I’d have people over with my room looking like this. There were clothes everywhere, pizza on the floor, posters of bikini-clad girls with their faces covered up by cut outs of famous video game characters’ faces. There were little figurines spaced out all over the nightstand, TV stand, bookshelf and even a stuffed superhero hanging from the ceiling. C’mon, Chuck…
“We should order more pizza,” Chuck said, licking his lips. I was already full, but I looked at Philly to see his response. He didn’t speak, but just licked his lips too while remaining focused on the game.
I wondered if Mandy had said anything to anyone, or if she was honoring the improvised waivers. I wanted to say something so bad. I just couldn’t.
Chuck turned and faced me after his video game character fell to his death for the eleventh time. “You’re a little quiet back there, Scout. What’s wrong, mang?”
“Oh nothing. Just thinking about stuff,” he continued to stare at me, so I had to come up with something fast. “How’d your meeting with Jakon go?”
“Pretty fine.”
“What was it about?” I asked, actually curious.
“I’ll tell you guys soon. I want to wait for the deal to officially go through,” Chuck said, respawning his character.
“So when are we ordering this pizza?” Phil asked.
“Soon. What kind do you guys want to devour next?” Chuck asked, pausing the game.
“I don’t care,” I said. I really didn’t. I had too many other weird things on my mind.
“PMS,” Phil said with a smirk.
All right, that caught my attention. Chuck and I both stared at Phil.
Phil continued, “Pepperoni, Mushroom, Sausage. Don’t you guys know pizza lingo?”
I shook my head. Chuck nodded, “PMS it is!”
Chuck picked up the phone from his nightstand and dialed up some pizza. After it arrived, we ate it pretty fast – well, Phil ate it pretty fast. We turned the games off close to one and started to settle in for the night after Phil exclaimed, “That’s all Philly Manilli can take for the day.”
I was curled up in Chuck’s old fire truck spotted sleeping bag, Chuck had his bed with wooden sides so he wouldn’t fall out and Phil took a blanket to the hallway, claiming he couldn’t sleep in the same room as other people.
Chuck and Phil were out pretty quick, but I was awake for at least another hour thinking about Nog and that robot thing. What the heck was that? I couldn’t get it off my mind. Slowly I faded away into a slumber and dreamt horrible thoughts about aliens opening up my brain, robots shooting at me, and Nog robbing a store at gun point for a new batch of red ties.
I had quite the headache when I woke up.