Fandomania

Chapter 18 - Everybody Special Please Line Up

"Where were you?" Jason hissed at Miles when he showed up fifteen minutes late for lunch.

Miles and Caspar had just endured a heated lecture from Ms. Lisa. When they finally arrived at the cafeteria on the first floor, they took their normal meal seats at the table with Jason and Kane. The tables in the cafeteria were arranged by cabin, so every cabin ended up sitting together, even though there weren't assigned seats. Nothing special ever happened at meals, and they were overall pretty boring, even though the food was great.

"Getting detention," Miles muttered back.

"What?" Lilly's voice came from the table behind Miles. He and Caspar had not filled Jason or Lilly in on their plan.

"Yeah," confirmed Miles, turning to look at Lilly, whose eyes were wide in shock.

"For how long?"

"A week."

"A week!" Lilly voice was shrill. Several people looked over and Lilly scrunched down a little, embarrassed.

"Better than Caspar's," Miles replied, turning back to his food. "He got the rest of the years worth, plus a chance of expulsion."

Miles didn't get to see Lilly's reaction, but if she was that horrified over the thought of a week of detention, he couldn't imagine her reaction to a years worth. Miles looked to see Caspar talking hurriedly to Kane, and they were both laughing, probably over what Caspar had said to Ms. Lisa. Punishments didn't seem to faze Caspar in the slightest, no matter how bad they got. Miles shook his head and concentrated on his food. The cardboard box he had taken out of Ms. Lisa's desk was light, but felt heavy as a rock in Miles' pocket. Miles realized that he felt guilty and tried to think of something else.

In English forty-five minutes later, Ms. Lukeson had launched into a explanation of how figurative language was important in writing and how to use it correctly. Miles found the lesson very hard to focus on, especially since he was preoccupied thinking of detention later that afternoon. What would Ms. Lisa have them do? Write sentences? Scrub the undersides of all the desks?

Then Miles had another, more frightening thought: What if Ms. Lisa was the traitor. Would she know something was missing from her desk? If so, what would she do? Miles shuddered and tried one more time to focus on the lesson, which turned out to be unsuccessful. He was grateful when class was over and everyone had stood up.

"Finish that and turn it in to me on Friday," Ms. Lukeson smiled as she waved everyone out.

Miles hadn't been listening when she had given the assignment, and made a mental note to get it from Jason later. It was also only Wednesday, only the third day of school. Miles had only been in Oregon for about a week, which was crazy considering all that had happened.

"Oy, Miles!" Caspar came jogging up from behind Miles and slapped him on the shoulder. "Sorry about the detention, mate, ol' hag got away from me."

Miles shrugged. "No big deal. I've been in detention before, and it's only a week. You have a years worth, and a chance of getting kicked out."

Caspar made a big show of mocking Miles' shrug. "She'll tell the Doc what happened alright, but they won't kick me out. We're here to be protected from what's out there. There's no safer place, or at least that's what we thought. But if they want to stop Necron from threatening us, they need all the help they can get."

Caspar had a point. The whole point of Fandomania was a hidden, protected area for the people Necron was after. The academy was just a way for Lancaster and the so-called "staff" to give the kids an education and not seem like complete kidnappers.