Janitors: Secrets of New Forest Academy Read online

  Alice grabbed the box of Glopified equipment and shoved it recklessly onto the roof of the car. Max giggled as the SUV teetered and grated against the house.

  Spencer used his foot to scoot a broom within arm’s reach. He’d need a broom in order for this plan to succeed. Spencer gestured to the rest of the pile. “Quick, Mom.” He glanced at the BEM men below, already headed back from the van with Glopified brooms.

  Muttering incoherently, Alice gathered up the load of mops and brooms. Then, closing her eyes against the height of the open window, Alice extended her arms and pushed the supplies onto the car. She cracked one eye open.

  “I can’t do this,” Alice whispered, suddenly dizzy. “I can’t climb out there.”

  “You’ve got to,” Spencer urged. “It’s the only way.”

  Max turned to the open window. “It’s fun,” he said. Then, to Alice’s horror, the three-year-old stood up. Once she got over the urge to faint, Alice found the courage to climb onto the windowsill.

  “Sit down, Max!” she said. “You sit down right now!”

  Instead, the little guy took two shaky steps forward and reached a hand out for his mother. “Come on,” he said. “It’s okay out here.”

  Alice grabbed Max’s hand and slid off the windowsill. The car shifted with her weight and Max toppled into her arms. Holding her son tightly, Alice went spread-eagle on her stomach, gripping the car top rack with white knuckles.

  In the driveway below, the BEM workers were spreading out with their brooms, gauging the distance and angle of the flight that would get them to the window. Spencer knew he had one chance to get safely away. If he failed, it could cause immeasurable damage to property, not to mention serious injury to his mom and brother.

  Holding the SUV easily with one hand on the rope, Spencer bent down and picked up the broom he’d scooted aside. He backed across the toy room, feeding the jump ropes through his hands as he went. He’d need lots of momentum for this to work.

  Spencer had his back to the wall, the jump ropes stretching across the toy room and the SUV still dangling at the windowsill. Suddenly, two BEM workers soared into view on brooms, closing on the toy-room window from both sides. Spencer hefted the broom in his left hand and drew a deep breath.

  He sprinted forward, kicking and scattering toys in his way. The jump rope went slack and the SUV plummeted toward the driveway. Spencer heard his mother scream as he vaulted through the open window and slammed the b­ristles of the broom against the sill.

  Spencer shot forward like a bottle rocket, narrowly missing the airborne BEM workers and angling up and away from the house. The jump rope went taut and the SUV swung over the driveway, barely escaping mop strings from another BEM worker below.

  Max was laughing, Alice was screaming, and Spencer breathed a sigh of relief. It worked! The Glopified toilet plunger had adjusted the car’s weight so the broom was easily able to bear the load away.

  They soared over the street and Spencer squinted against the light as the sun peered over the neighbor’s roof. Eyes widening, Spencer realized that he’d breathed that sigh of relief too soon.

  From his angle on the broom, Spencer would easily clear the roof of the house across the street. But the SUV, dangling so many feet below, was on a flight path straight for the neighbor’s second-story window!

  Spencer fought the urge to panic. He glanced over his shoulder and noticed that the three BEM workers from the driveway had struck their brooms and launched in pursuit of the escaping SUV.

  Instinct told Spencer how to react. He swung the rope up, looping it over the flying broom. Using one hand, he began to pull frantically.

  He seemed to be hoisting the car in slow motion. Despite the cold, Spencer’s hands grew sweaty as the time to impact drew nearer.

  Glancing down, he saw the SUV only feet away from the neighbor’s house. Closing fast, the nearest BEM worker reached out, almost seizing the vehicle’s bumper.

  Desperately, Spencer gave one final pull on the rope, as hard as he could. The dangling car lifted above the gutter, but not quite high enough.

  The SUV tires squealed as they dragged along the roof’s shingles, leaving four tracks of black rubber across the frosted rooftop. Spencer’s broom jerked and he almost lost his grip. But the Glopified broom was powerful, and the toilet plunger was still working its magic on the payload.

  The SUV bounced off the roof, cleared the peak of the house, and sailed freely over the neighbor’s backyard. The pursuing BEM workers did not share the same fortune. The unalterable course of their brooms sent them slamming into the side of the neighbor’s house. Spencer cringed at the sound of shattering glass; he could only assume that one of the BEM workers had sailed right into the neighbor’s ­second-story bedroom. Flood Damage Cleanup & Repair was going to have a lot of explaining to do.

  The ground dropped suddenly as the Zumbros’ flying vehicle soared away from the steep slope of Hillside Estates. There were no obstacles now, just the open farm fields of small-town Welcher.

  The Glopified broom gradually descended. The SUV touched down first, bouncing and skidding into a freshly harvested field of potatoes. The jump rope went tight, angling the broom into a nosedive. Spencer let go just before he hit the cold ground.

  Spencer rose to his feet and dusted off his knees. In contrast to the rush of flying and the anxiety of their escape, it seemed peaceful and quiet in the middle of the potato field. Spencer couldn’t have asked for a much better landing pad.

  “Spencer?” his mom called from the top of the vehicle.

  “I’m okay, Mom,” he answered.

  “Well, you better enjoy your last few moments of being okay, because as soon as I get down from here ...”

  Chapter 14

  “Don’t get all technical on me.”

  Alice actually calmed down a lot faster than Spencer thought she would. In no time, they had the car loaded and running. Spencer clipped on his seat belt as they drove through the bumpy field of potatoes.

  Max made some noise, strapped into his car seat, but other than that, the drive to Dez’s was remarkably silent. The passenger side of the SUV was scratched terribly, the side mirror broken completely off. Spencer apologized again, but the look on his mom’s face said she wasn’t ready to accept it yet.

  Spencer sighed. Maybe he had been wrong. Maybe there had been a better way to escape than flying the SUV recklessly through Hillside Estates. His mom had shared a few ideas, but Spencer had quickly dismissed them. He’d taken on the situation alone, just like when he’d pulled the fire alarm, or rushed into the library to rescue Dez from the chalk bomb.

  “This is it,” Alice said, pulling the car into a tight parking lot.

  “Dez lives here?” Spencer scanned the area in disbelief. It was a row of dingy, small apartments. Trash littered the parking lot; rust stains dripped down the walls. Paint peeled off the doors, like it was trying to get away. Rickety metal stairs led to a second floor of apartments.

  Alice put her hand on the horn, but before she could honk, a door at the top of the stairs opened. Daisy came out, suitcase in hand. Her coat was zipped to her neck and she wore winter gloves. She reached the SUV and tossed in her suitcase as Dez appeared at the top of the stairs, pulling the apartment door shut.

  “I’m glad you guys finally got here,” Daisy said. “It was so hot in there.”

  Spencer saw that Daisy’s hair was clinging to her forehead with sweat. “Why didn’t you take off your coat?” Spencer asked.

  Daisy lowered her voice. “There was nowhere to put it.” She shuddered. “You would have died in there, Spencer.”

  Daisy glanced up the stairs to where Dez was struggling to lock the apartment door. She jumped into the SUV and started describing the apartment in fast-forward, trying to tell as much as possible before Dez reached the vehicle.

  “The whole place smelled like the inside of a shoe, and there was garbage and stuff all over the floor, and it looked like nobody has ever tried to clean
up. The TV was on, but it was playing a channel that I’m not supposed to watch, so I didn’t, but I saw Dez’s dad asleep on the couch. All he was wearing were little shorts—no shirt. All around him were empty cans. He must have been really thirsty, ’cause there were a lot of them. Then, all of a sudden, he just sat up—like a zombie coming out of the ground. He shouted five bad words and threw one of those Coke cans across the room, hard as he could. Then, bam, back to sleep on the couch.”

  “Um,” Alice said, “I don’t think those were Coke cans.”

  “Well, it didn’t look like Sprite,” said Daisy.

  The car door suddenly opened as Dez reached the vehicle. It was like someone pressed a mute button on Daisy. Her stream of commentary about Dez’s home life ended instantly.

  “What took you chumps so long?” Dez threw in his bag and climbed into the SUV.

  “We flew!” Max said.

  “Oh, seriously?” Dez moaned. “I have to sit by the little kid?”

  “No, you don’t have to,” Alice said. “Spencer would be more than happy to strap you on top of the car, if you might like that better.”

  “No, thanks,” Daisy said. “Too windy up there.”

  “Mom,” Spencer begged, “I said I’m sorry.”

  “Sorry for what?” Daisy asked.

  Alice peeled out of the parking lot as Spencer tried to explain how they’d escaped from the BEM at Hillside Estates.

  “You flew the car over your neighbor’s house?” Daisy’s eyes were wide when Spencer finished the story.

  Dez rolled his eyes. “Come on, Gullible Gates,” he said, bringing back his old nickname for Daisy. “Don’t tell me you believe that junk.” Dez suddenly reached up and pinched Spencer’s arm.

  “Ow!” Spencer jerked away. “Why would you do that?”

  Dez shrugged. “This whole conversation about flying cars is so Twilight Zone ... I had to make sure I wasn’t dreaming.”

  “Um ... don’t you usually pinch yourself to see if you’re dreaming?” Daisy asked.

  “You think I’m dumb?” said Dez. “I don’t want to hurt myself.”

  “Look,” Spencer said, trying to regain control of the conversation. “No one’s dreaming, and no one got hurt.”

  “What about me?” said Alice. “Deep wounds here, Spencer.” She pointed to her head. “Serious emotional damage to your mother.” Her face went tight again. “We all could have died.”

  “Wasn’t there another way out?” Daisy said.

  “I had a few ideas,” Alice said. “Apparently they weren’t risky enough for Spencer.”

  Spencer slumped against the passenger seat. The SUV filled with awkward silence. It was going to be a long drive to Colorado.

  “Here.” It was Dez who broke the silence. “I filled out that application you printed for me.” He handed the Academy paperwork to Spencer. “Why’d they have to ask such hard questions?”

  “Well, let’s see ...” Spencer unfolded the papers. “Yep. You got your name right. Wait. Here’s a tricky one. What is your birthday?”

  “Hey! Stop looking at my answers!” Dez shouted. “Spencer’s cheating!” He lunged for the application, but Spencer pulled away.

  “I’ve still got to spray the signatures,” Spencer said.

  “Well, hurry up and do it.”

  Spencer unfolded his own application and looked at the list of signatures at the bottom. Most were so extravagant that they weren’t even legible—big loops and indecipherable scribbles. They would have been impossible to forge by hand, but they didn’t stand a chance against Walter’s Glopified ink remover.

  Spencer reached between the seats and grabbed the small bottle from the box of supplies. He pulled off the plastic cap and gave a few sprays onto the signatures. A fine mist settled, and the paper barely wrinkled from the moisture. The handwritten names seemed to absorb the Glopified spray.

  Before it could dry, Spencer took Dez’s application and pressed it tightly against the damp ink. When he peeled the papers apart, the original signatures looked untouched, but an identical copy had bled through onto Dez’s page.

  “So,” Dez piped up. “What kind of stuff are we going to do at this sissy Academy?”

  Alice glanced at him in the rearview mirror. “You’re going to stay out of trouble and do what you’re told.”

  “Oh, please,” Dez said. “You’re starting to sound like the mother I never had.”

  “Not true,” said Daisy. “If you never had a mother, then how were you born?”

  Dez stuck out his tongue. “Don’t get all technical on me.”

  Spencer blew on Dez’s copied signatures, but the replica was already dry. Folding the application, he handed it back to Dez.

  “Perfect copy,” said Spencer.

  “Good,” said Dez. “Now you can give me that spray stuff so I can change a few things.”

  Spencer pulled the ink remover away as Dez lunged for it from the backseat. “You heard Walter,” Spencer said. “You’re not getting any of the Glopified supplies unless there’s an emergency.”

  Dez suddenly crossed his legs and rocked back and forth, pretending like he had to use the bathroom. “What kind of emergency?”

  “It’s for Toxites,” Daisy said. “Or in case the BEM finds us.”

  “You keep saying that,” Dez said. “But it sounds lame.”

  Spencer and Daisy shared a quick glance. Walter had told them to answer Dez’s questions. It was better that he learn it from them than any other source. Taking a deep breath, Spencer started explaining the basics.

  He told how the invisible Toxites inhale kids’ brain waves and exhale sleepiness, distraction, and apathy, so that kids couldn’t learn in school. But the Toxites didn’t affect all the kids in the same way. Daisy was more prone to the distracting breath of the Grimes, while Spencer had a hard time resisting the sleepiness from the Filths. Bullies like Dez had a higher tolerance for the Toxites overall, since the creatures wouldn’t waste their breath on kids who didn’t really want to learn.

  Spencer went on to tell how the Bureau of Educational Maintenance had protected schools for centuries by hiring janitors who could see and kill the little monsters. For no apparent reason, the BEM had recently withdrawn all support from the schools and were letting Toxites run wild. They were destroying education and, with it, the future. Other janitors, like Walter and Marv, had banded together to form a Rebel Underground, dedicated to go against the BEM and continue to fight Toxites in schools.

  The more Spencer explained, the faster Alice seemed to drive. Time passed quickly, with Daisy adding her own comments about the situation. Dez sat quietly through most of it. His expression was unreadable. Surprisingly, he didn’t have any questions.

  Dez listened passively as Daisy described the sludgelike Glop that gave the janitorial equipment magical powers. She explained about the three Founding Witches who had discovered Toxites. When they died, they placed their magic into three bronze hammers, each with a matching nail. The bronze hammers were passed down among the BEM for years until Walter stole one for the Rebels and made himself a warlock.

  Spencer jumped in again, adding any final details that he could think of. At last, exhausted, Spencer and Daisy leaned back, having explained everything they knew.

  Dez rode silently for a moment, staring out the window at the passing mountain landscape. “So ...” he said at last. “When do I get my share of the stuff?”

  Daisy slumped back against the headrest. “Not unless there’s an emergency!” she said. “That’s what we just finished explaining.”

  “Sorry,” Dez said. “I kind of zoned out after a while. You guys talk way too much.”

  Chapter 15

  “It’s just cleaning stuff.”

  Alice almost missed the freeway exit, darting across two lanes of traffic and onto the off-ramp without even using the car’s blinker. The movement caused Spencer to jolt awake.

  “Everything okay?” he asked. His mom’s eyes were glazed af
ter so many hours behind the wheel.

  “Fine,” she said. “We’ll be there soon.”

  The great metropolis of Denver lay to the southeast. But the directions to New Forest Academy took them through the residential outskirts, winding westward toward the mountains.

  Alice mostly ignored the speed limit, and soon they were driving a long road at the base of the mountains. The late autumn scenery was amazing. Most of the trees were already bare for the winter. Dead leaves whipped across the road.

  Alice slowed down at an intersection and quickly consulted the scrap of paper that bore Walter’s directions to New Forest Academy. A car behind them honked and swerved around the Zumbro SUV. Alice checked the street sign and then turned onto a narrow, twisting road that rose steeply up the mountainside.

  “You told me we were going to a school.” Dez watched the mountains through his window. “Aren’t schools usually in cities?”

  “We’re not lost, if that’s what you mean,” said Alice. As if on cue, they crested a hill and the road flattened out. Before them was a wide parking lot dotted with cars. A huge sign hung on the side of the road, as big as a billboard.

  WELCOME TO NEW FOREST ACADEMY

  Home of the Overachievers

  As Alice pulled the vehicle into the parking lot, Spencer got his first look at New Forest Academy. A tall brick wall fenced in the large campus, blocking any view other than the tops of the school buildings. Behind the man-made structures, the mountain continued to rise in a forested incline.

  The whole school seemed to be nestled quietly into the mountainside with the city far below. It was remarkable how removed the campus felt, even though Alice had just been driving through neighborhoods not ten minutes ago.

  Alice drove toward a wide gate in the brick wall. The gate looked sturdy, and the man in the operating booth looked even more so.

  Alice rolled down her window. The outside air was chilly, and Spencer was glad he’d brought his heavy coat. The man in the booth leaned out.

  “Hi,” Alice said. “I’m here to drop off some kids for the New Forest Academy recruitment program.”