Unseen

Chapter 5

"The voice of the Lord strikes with flashes of lightning." (Psalms 29:7)

"Static electricity.  Can anyone tell me what that is?"

Milly's science teacher Mrs. Williams, walked in front of the classroom, probing the students through her large glasses.  Milly, who disliked science, looked down at the ground and began to play with her pencils.

"It's an imbalance of two electric charges," Eloise answered, raising her hand but answering before the teacher called her.

"Correct- again," Mrs. Williams shook her head in disbelief.  "Eloise, you're on a roll today."

"Thanks, Mrs. Williams," Eloise smiled.  "I read the science textbook because it looked like fun."

Most of the kids rolled their eyes.

"How interesting," Mrs. Williams grinned.  "Is science your favourite subject?"

Eloise nodded, "Next to math."   Everyone else groaned.

"Be quiet, everyone," Mrs. William shushed.  "I'm introducing the new science project."

Eloise sat up straighter in her chair.

"You'll be working in pairs." Mrs. Williams pointed a finger at the class before the kids could start looking towards a friend.  "And no- you don't get to choose your partner."

The disappointment was visible, Mrs. Williams didn't always put the best pairs together.

"All the criteria is posted on my class website.  You'll be researching static electricity and presenting it in a creative way."

The kids groaned even louder than the first time.

"Didn't I say be quiet? Y ou're not allowed to talk when I'm talking," Mrs Williams scolded. "Anyways, this project will be thirty percent of your final grade."

Milly sat up straight in her chair.  This was her chance to boost her average, she wasn't doing so well in science.

"Maybe if I have better grades, I'll get adopted," she thought.

"Let me choose the partners now.  How about... Jane and Eric, Anna and Ryan..." Mrs. William pointed at different students.  Milly zoned out until she heard her own name.

"Eloise and... Milly. I think that's it, right?"

Eloise nodded and turned to look at Milly.  "Let's start now!"

Milly raised an eyebrow.  "We only have ten minutes of class left."

"Exactly!  We can get lots of work done in ten minutes."

Milly shrugged and Eloise opened her laptop.  "So, we need a creative way to present static electricity.   Got any ideas?"

"A posterboard?" Milly suggested.

"That's not creative at all!" Eloise frowned.

"I don't even know what static electricity is," Milly exclaimed.

"Oh, here- read this," Eloise pulled up an article and moved her laptop so Milly could clearly read off of it.

"I can rub my hair, touch you and all of a sudden you'll be shocked?" Milly grinned at Eloise.  "That's really cool!"

"Um, I don't think it works that way," Eloise tried to get Milly to read the rest of the article, but instead Milly rubbed her hair and poked Eloise.

"Ow!" Eloise cried, and she fell out of her chair backwards.  Milly's eyes went wide as Mrs. Williams rushed to Eloise.

"Are you okay? What happened?" Mrs. Williams demanded, helping Eloise up.

"Oh, nothing, Milly just shocked me," Eloise laughed, sitting back in her seat.  "You shocked me pretty hard," she said, playfully nudging Milly, but then falling down again.

"Sorry!" Milly exclaimed, before reaching her hand out to help Eloise.  

Just as she did, she saw a dark figure with red glowing eyes looking into one of the windows.  It looked like a huge shadow, but scarier.  She was about to take a closer look, but Eloise grabbed her hand, only to be shocked again.

"How do you keep doing that?" Eloise wondered, picking herself up.

"I don't know!  I just rubbed my hair - you try!"

"It's not supposed to work like that!" Eloise snapped.  "That was just an unrealistic example, and besides, static electricity shocks aren't that powerful."  She looked at Milly, bewildered.

"Really?  That's... strange," Milly said.

"Actually, you know what?  I think I might have an... nevermind,"

"What?"

"Forget I said anything," Eloise turned back to her computer just as the bell rang, signalling the end of the school day.