The Super Awful Superheroes of Classroom 13

When unlucky schoolteacher Ms. Linda LaCrosse woke up Thursday morning, she hoped it would be another beautiful day. You see, in recent days the weather had been perfect—sunny skies with a crisp, cool breeze.

But not today.

Ms. Linda opened her curtains to see a terrible thundercloud rolling over the neighborhood. The cloud was black and red, and crackled with purple electricity.

Mumbling and grumbling to herself, Ms. Linda got ready for the day. She put lipstick around her eyes and mascara on her lips. She put a necklace in her hair and a bow around her neck. Then she put her skirt on top and a sweater on the bottom. As she left the house, she whispered, “I feel as though I’m missing something.… Oh, yes, my umbrella!”

Ms. Linda then realized she had also left her keys inside the house. “I’m locked out of my own home—again,” she said to herself. You might be thinking to yourself, That Ms. Linda sure is forgetful. This is true. But so are most people with a lot on their minds.

Ms. Linda had hidden a key somewhere in her yard. But she couldn’t remember where she’d hidden it. In fact, she had done this dozens of times. (She needed to remember to write it down—but of course, she’d forget this, too.)

Not wanting to be late for work, Ms. Linda hurried along the sidewalk. With no keys and no umbrella, she couldn’t drive or protect herself from the rain, so she had to be fast. As she walked along quickly, she felt as though the scary storm cloud was following her. But that was unlikely…

…wasn’t it?

The strange cloud crackled with purple electricity and then went KRAK-KA-BOOM! It shot a bolt of lightning right at Ms. Linda. It missed her by only a few inches.

“Yikes!” the teacher yelled, running as fast as she could.

As Ms. Linda ran into the school, she saw her boss. “I know, I know, I’m late!” she said.

The principal said, “No, you’re not. You’re actually early for once.”

But Ms. Linda was still running. She ran down the hallway and into Classroom 13. She locked the door and closed the windows. The thundercloud was still outside. She was sure it had followed her. So Ms. Linda did what any sensible person would do—she pulled down the blinds and pretended the cloud did not exist.

A few minutes later, there was a knock knock knock at the door.

“Ms. Linda, may I come inside the classroom?” Olivia asked from the hallway. “I would like to learn today.”

“Oh! Yes, yes, of course, come in!” Ms. Linda said, unlocking the door.

“Why did you lock the door?” Olivia asked.

“A storm cloud followed me to school,” Ms. Linda explained.

“That is highly unlikely,” Olivia said.

“What’s unlikely?” Mason asked, following Olivia into the classroom with his cow, Touchdown.

“Mason, what have I told you?” Ms. Linda said. “Touchdown has to stay outside. We already have a class pet. His name is Earl, and he is a gerbil.”

“You mean hamster,” Olivia corrected Ms. Linda.

“Is there a difference?” Ms. Linda asked.

“Gerbils have long furry tails. Hamsters do not,” Olivia said. She was a bit of a know-it-all.

“Pleeeeease let me bring my cow inside,” Mason begged the teacher. “There’s a scary storm cloud outside, and Touchdown is scared.”

“Fine,” Ms. Linda said. “Touchdown may stay, as long as she does not disrupt class.”

“How could a cow disrupt class?” Mason asked, rolling his eyes.

When the bell rang, the rest of the students rushed in to take their seats. Of Ms. Linda’s twenty-seven students, all twenty-seven were present. Ms. Linda counted again to make sure that was correct. She asked, “Santiago, are you well enough to be in school?”

“Yes!” He sniffled, wiping his nose on his sleeve. “I refuse to miss another exciting day of school just because of a dumb little cold.” Santiago was so pale, he was the same color as the chalk. When he sneezed, huge strands of neon-green snot came out of his nose.

“There’s nothing exciting about school.” Preeya yawned.

“There is in this classroom,” Santiago said. “This class has won the lottery, made magic genie djinn wishes, and become famous!”

“And then we lost all of it,” William reminded him. “I bet we’re cursed.”

“Being cursed would be exciting,” Emma said.

“Well, it looks like we have a full day of class,” Ms. Linda said. “We should probably get started. Today we’ll be learning about—”

“Hold on. I’d like to return to our previous conversation,” Olivia interrupted. She was smart, but she was also quite rude. “You said that the storm cloud outside the school followed you to work. Could you please explain how and why a cloud would follow a person?”

“I have no idea. I’m a not a weather forecaster,” Ms. Linda said. “But it did.”

“Ms. Linda, really,” Olivia said, shaking her head. “It’s not like that thundercloud is hanging around outside the windows waiting for you—”

Triple J interrupted as he peeked outside. “Actually, it is.”

The students rushed to the windows to see. “Students, no! Return to your seats at once!” Ms. Linda cried. But it was too late.

A huge bolt of purple lightning crashed through the window and struck everyone in Classroom 13.

It was lucky for Olivia that Ms. Linda was not the kind of person to say I told you so. Because if she was that kind of person, she could have—and she would have been right in doing so. But Ms. Linda wasn’t that kind of person, so she didn’t say I told you so. (Though I, your honest author, Honest Lee, certainly would have.)

What’s that? Oh, you want to know what happened to everyone? Don’t worry. No one was hurt. Not yet, anyway…