Winston Academy Middle School: Year 2

Chapter Five: ...Apparently Not

Just as soon as I let my guard down the slightest bit, obviously something happens.

It was a completely regular Math lesson with Ms. Lana. I was sitting on my seat, doing a math problem, when a piece of paper flew into my face.

"Whoa! Whose paper is this?" I asked.

"Mine. Sorry." Sarah, my classmate, said.

Suddenly my own paper got blown away. I scrambled to grab it.

I sat down again, ignoring what happened... until I heard the windows banging.

"Ms. Lana, what is happening?" Jasmine frowned.

"I don't actually know. The wind is suddenly so strong. It's never this severe before." Ms. Lana looked at the rattling windows.

I noticed that the sky had oddly turned partially dark. By that, I mean you can see a really contrasting line between the dark part and the bright part. The dark part had also started thundering, then drizzling, then full-on storming. Worst thing about it is, the storming part is right over the academy.

I immediately knew that something was wrong. I looked over my shoulder, scanning the class. After a few seconds, I locked eyes with Michel. Even without words, I knew what he was thinking.

Since the sudden, partial violent storm is definitely an oddity, Ms. Lana was called to gather with the other teachers. She left the class without any instructions. The class instantly became a noisy bunch of kids.

I used the opportunity to call a little meeting with my friends.

"Okay, is there another villain you guys are hiding from me?" I demanded.

"No. Really." Kaiden shook his head.

"We know as much about this weird storm as you do." Ruby sighed.

"Being us, I think we probably have to rid the school of the thing, whatever it may be." Felice noted.

"Yup." Joan replied.

"If we are to rid the school of this thing, we'd have to know what it is first. I'll see what I can find." I dashed to the nearest window and looked out.

The wind was still very powerful. I almost got blown backwards because of it. Squinting from more wind, l could just about make out the shape of a big black cloud. It was at least 30 meters tall and wider than I could estimate.

It seemed almost like a normal cloud, but one thing was off. The 'cloud' was only bobbing in place and not moving despite the strong wind. That didn't make sense...

A particularly big gust of wind pushed me off balance. I stumbled backwards, though luckily I didn't fall. Staggering back to my friends, I reported my findings.

"...It seems cloudlike, but it's not acting like one. And I'm sure I saw a flash of something like eyes-"

"No way...Well, just saying, clouds generally don't have eyes." Willow cut off.

"So it's not a cloud." Theo blurted.

"Then what is it?" Amber asked.

"I don't know..."

"I do know of a mythical creature that resembles a large, violent storm from a book I've read. But it's way worse than this. Which is lucky, since I do NOT want to deal with them." I informed.

"Is it Greek myth?" Willow said suddenly.

"Yes."

"Oh, that. I know what you're talking about. It's Typhon, isn't it? "

Suddenly a notebook slammed into the chalkboard behind us. Then a bunch of paper. A marker. A pencil case. Somebody's jacket. The teacher's stationery case tipped over and spilled out. Our bottles started swaying, some emptier ones falling over.

Not only that, our clothes (and hair) started fluttering violently. Girls with skirts or dresses frantically tried to keep their clothing from getting blown. The boys' hair stuck up in weird ways. It was not great.

"Guys, close the windows!" Between the shouting of my classmates and the noise of the wind, I didn't know if anyone heard me.

Apparently a few did, since they closed the windows. It could also just be common sense though.

My friends and I quickly picked up everything that flew into the chalkboard and returned it to their owners. The whole class helped clean the mess up- some tidying up the teachers' tables, some mopping (and magicking) the spills away, some throwing out the significant amount of trash the wind blew in. A few even magicked the whole class to rid it of bugs that may have been blown in by the wind.

Just as we finally settled in, Ms. Lana returned to the class. She looked, well, wind-blown. Her hair was quite frizzy and disheveled, her top was creased heavily, and her bottoms had bits of those fuzzy-looking flowers stuck to it.

Everyone was whispering to each other about Ms. Lana's odd look. Some were laughing quietly. Confused, Ms. Lana gave me a what's-wrong? expression.

Joan saw the expression and decided to show Ms. Lana how she looked. So Joan made a large mirror appear in front of Ms. Lana.

Ms. Lana stared into the mirror, then burst out laughing. The class did the same.

"Class, please excuse me, due to my, um, untidy appearance, I need to go and sort it out first in the bathroom. I'll be back in a few minutes." Ms. Lana left the class.

The class went back to being a loud, rowdy bunch of people. Sighing in exasperation, I ignored them. I had more important things to do: one of them is to figure out what in the world that storm creature is.