Jake nudged me.
I eyed him and sighed. “I suppose, I might as well tell you. But you probably won’t believe me. Not at first, anyway.”
“Just do it,” said Jake, “she’s already gotten you in enough trouble.
“I’m sorry if I did, but I surely don’t see how,” said Beth. “All I did was walk onto this crazy bus with you crazy kids. Everyone’s been acting strangely since I got here. It’s like you all have a big secret. No one will tell me anything.”
I nodded. “Well, the thing is, we aren’t normal people in this town. It’s kind of hard to explain.”
“I can tell that!” she agreed heartily. “You all seem a bit nutty.”
“Come on, get to it,” said Jake.
“Can I just tell her my way?” I asked.
“First you make me squat down in a hole and now-”
“Toad-in-a-hole!” shouted Thomas from behind us. He laughed uproariously. He had a very strange sense of humor and it was probably best for everyone that he never said much.
“See?” said Beth. “Like that! Why don’t you just tell me about the toad thing?”
“Okay,” I sighed. “Jake here is a toad. At least, he can turn himself into a toad if he wants to. And when the moon is full, sometimes he turns into a toad whether he wants to or not.”
There it was. It was out, and now she could stare at me as if I was completely nuts, just as I knew she would.
Thomas shouted, “Toad-in-a-hole!” again from behind us, laughing like a mad man.
Beth opened her mouth, but for once, she didn’t know what to say.
Then, there was a whooshing sound outside. A big shadow came over the bus, as if a small plane or a huge bird were up there cruising by.
“What’s going on now?” said Beth.
We all craned our necks to see out the windows above the bus. There was something up there, above the snow-crusted pine trees. Or someone.
“Who is it?” asked Jake.
“I can’t see,” I said.
“It looks like a pterodactyl up there!” said Beth excitedly.
There was a thumping, slamming sound on the roof of the bus. Some of the kids squealed. Everyone started yelling at once.
Mrs. Terry pulled the bus over to the side of the road. We lurched to a stop. Everyone fell forward and some people were left rubbing their heads.
“No one lands on my bus,” muttered Mrs. Terry. She climbed out of her chair and pulled the lever to open the door. A cold gust of freezing air swept in.
We were on Berger Street, right near the park. Snow covered everything in the park, of course. The statue of a soldier standing at attention was a mass of icicles. We were only a few blocks away from the school now.
“What the heck is going on?” asked Beth.
“A flyer just landed on the roof,” Jake explained as if it were the simplest thing in the world. “Obviously, they wanted us to stop the bus.”
“Hey!” said Mrs. Terry, craning her head out the open door. “A flyer? Who’s up there? There had better be a bridge out or something!”
A figured climbed down from the roof onto the hood of the bus, and then dropped lightly onto the sidewalk. It was Miss Urdo, the school Principal.
“How can she fly?” asked Beth, staring. “She must have been on a hang-glider or something.”
“She’s a hawk. She must have changed back,” I told her.
Beth stared at me for a moment, and then shook her head and smiled in disbelief.
“Oh, hello Miss Urdo,” said Mrs. Terry. Her anger melted a bit, seeing as it was someone from the school. “I thought a high-schooler was playing a joke.”
“It’s not a joke, I’m afraid, Mrs. Terry,” said our Principal. “School is cancelled today. You have to take all the children up to the Estate.”
“The Estate?” asked Mrs. Terry. “You don’t mean…?”
“Yes, I do. A message arrived this morning. Vater is coming back. We must all prepare to meet him.”
“Hmm,” said Mrs. Terry. “I’ve got a new kid aboard. What about her?”
Miss Urdo looked back along the ranks of seats. We all sat in our places, quiet for once. Everyone wanted to hear. We all strained our ears and shushed each other.
Miss Urdo’s eyes zoomed in and landed squarely on Beth. She had eyes that made you feel like she was watching you from clear across the school grounds. Beth squirmed under her stare.
“I see,” she said to the driver. “We’ll have to bring her along.”
“If we are going to the Estate, maybe we will get to play Hussades,” Danny said excitedly behind us.
“Yes, Danny,” said Urdo. She had the ears of a hawk as well as the eyes. “We will be playing Hussades tonight at the Estate.”
A cheer went up throughout the bus. Everyone was smiling except for me.
“What the heck are Hussades?” asked Beth in my ear.
“It’s sort of hard to explain,” I said, “they are races. You race through an obstacle course. It’s a sport we brought over from the old country.”
“The old country?”
I looked at her pretty little nose and sighed. There was so much she didn’t know about. She would learn it all from Hussades. She would learn about all shapes the other kids could change into. And she’d learn that I couldn’t change into anything at all.
Chapter Seven
“Okay,” said Beth. She started talking slowly then sped up the more she talked. “You guys are good. I mean, really, good. You had me going, I’ll admit it. I’m the new girl and you had your fun. I actually believed you, for just a minute there. When the Principal banged on the roof, I’ve got to say, that was pretty wild. I mean, what is the deal? Was she up there the whole time inspecting it or something?”
“Beth-” I began, but that was all I managed to get out.
“Hold it! Stop right there! I know what you are going to say. You don’t have to keep shoveling out the fairy tale stuff! The fun is over now and I want to know where this bus is going. Maybe I should go ask the driver.”
“Her name is Mrs. Terry,” Jake said helpfully.
“Yes, whatever,” said Beth. She was tugging at the white fluff of her hood and winding it up with her fingers.
“It’s all true, Beth,” I told her gently. “Try not to freak out. Just sit back and watch. You aren’t in any danger. We are pretty harmless.”
“I’m not harmless,” said Danny from behind us. I noticed he was listening to us, but he wasn’t sticking his face into our conversation anymore. He glared at me with scrunched up eyebrows. He still had ketchup sticking the hairs of his left eyebrow together, I noticed.
I ignored him and turned back to Beth. I didn’t want her to freak out and run off. I liked her. “Just stay calm and watch everything that happens. If you don’t get it, ask me or Jake, we’ll fill you in.”
“So why don’t you just turn into a toad for me, to prove it?” she said to Jake.
Jake looked ashamed. “No.”
“He’s not happy about being a toad,” I told Beth.
“What about you then? What can you turn into?”
“I don’t know yet. I haven’t turned yet. Most kids my age have, but I’m still waiting. It could be anything.”
“Well, isn’t that convenient,” said Beth. She fluttered her eyelashes and gave me a mocking little smile. “I’m not buying any of this, just for the record. You can all have your big laugh on the new kid, but I’m in on it now. The fun is over, everyone. I’m so sorry I’m only gullible, but not extremely gullible. I’m sure you would all enjoy this even more if I were.”
“Okay,” I said, “you don’t have to believe any of it now. I’ll just tell you some things about our town, so you know what to expect.”
“This should be good,” she said, crossing her arms.
“You see the Principal up there?” I asked, pointing to Miss Urdo.
Our Principal had sat down up at the front of the bus in the seat right behind the driver. She and Mrs. Terry were having a hushed conversation.
“You mean the hawk-lady?” she said, sounding like she didn’t believe it.
“Yes. She’s probably going to give you a chance to get out of this. She’ll ask you for your Aunt’s phone number and she will call and get you a ride home.”