Heaven, Hell, and Everything in Between

Chapter 3: My Principal Turns into a Rat

CH.3 My Principal Turns into a Rat

My school day started out as any normal school day, run to your locker to get your stuff, and hustle to first period lest you be late. My favorite class was third period, because Mrs. Gardheart was the most polite and agreeable teacher in the whole school. In fact, all of the teachers were very nice, but the principal, Mr. Rovinsky, was the most stuffed-up, rotten, OCD person in the entire community. He always insisted on touring the school to keep an eye out for 'mischievous marauders', as he liked to call them, who in reality were just kids who happened to be on his hit list that day. It just so happens that I was on his list that day, and just as I was sitting down, guess who stepped in the door of Mrs. Gardheart's room. You guessed it, old 'rotteny', as we liked to say, was staring me down with his favorite look, dislike. Though whether that look was just for me, or for the entire class, I couldn't say.

"Mr. Marco," he said with his usual distaste, "I have been watching you in the halls, and frankly, your walk just plain irritates me, so straighten up, or you will spend the rest of the year in detention. Is that clear?"

I did my best to disappear, but something I did must have gotten on his bad side, for no sooner did I try to disappear, that he spoke to me again, this time with not just dislike in his voice, but pure rage.

"You will sit up straight when I address you, and reply to my questions with either 'yes sir' or 'no sir', is that clear, Mr. Marco?!"

"YES SIR!" I practically yelled, I almost saluted, but quickly thought better of it. The last thing I needed right now was more trouble. At this point the entire class was ram-rod straight and sitting perfectly still. At last, Mr. Rovinsky turned around and left, probably looking for another victim for the day. It was as if someone had flicked a switch, everyone went back to talking and discussing the homework. No one notice what I had seen. I at first thought I had been seeing things, but now I was sure, Mr. Rovinsky had, ever so slightly, started to change into what I could only think of as having the head of a rat. It was not a complete transformation, but I had seen the buck teeth and the blood-shot red eyes. I kept telling myself that he couldn't have been changing, but the more I thought about it, the more I remembered Shikia's task, and realized that Mr. Rovinsky was a demon. After class, I met up with my best friend Ricky and told him what I had seen, but left out the demon part.

"That would explain the reason he hates the Sun." he said, "Have you ever noticed that he always stays out of the light coming in the windows?"

"Yeah," I replied, "he always stays near the walls, but I always thought that was to spot more victims during passing."

"One thing is for sure, Rotteny is not all the way human, no matter how you slice it." Ricky said, "But I think that the sun hurts his eyes, because rats are nighttime hunters. They can't stand bright light."

I had my own reasons to think of why he stayed out of the light, but I didn't share them with Ricky. If Mr. Rovinsky was really a demon, then that would mean that my dream wasn't a dream, but real. I tried to stay on Rotteny's good side the rest of the day, but, regrettably, he doesn't have one. I believe it was around the middle of lunch when things went really sour.

I was enjoying my usual PB@J sandwich, when the entire lunchroom erupted in an all-out food fight. I couldn't believe my bad luck, not only was Rotteny homing in on the pranksters, but I was within disaster range of them. If I stuck around, food wasn't the only thing that would by flying. I tried to sneak away, but it was like Mr. Rovinsky had 'sneak radar', because he immediately switched directions to home in on me like a heat-seeking missile. Mr. Rovinsky was far beyond rage, I was pretty sure I could see every vein in his neck, and his face was a shade of purple that was only slightly brighter than a plum.