Peter answered the question five seconds later, when he stopped in front of one of the two windows at the dead end and pushed it open.
Just outside was the top of the hedge that surrounded the building. Beyond it was a green van that looked like one of the maintenance vehicles used by the school district.
As soon as the window was open all the way, a man outside popped up from underneath. Though he was wearing the same kind of coveralls the school gardeners wore, Eric didn’t recognize him.
Peter waved at Eric to come forward, and despite his unwillingness to do so, Eric did exactly that.
Somewhere in the distance, Eric could hear a single set of footsteps running down a corridor. The other boys either didn’t notice or didn’t care as they positioned themselves around him, tilted him back, and raised him into the air like a piece of plywood.
The runner was approaching fast, the steps growing louder and louder with each second.
Peter and his friends got Eric level with the window and then started moving him toward the opening, feet first.
With a loud clomp, clomp, skid, the steps halted at the end of the corridor. “Put him down!” Keira demanded.
The boys faltered only a second before they continued feeding Eric to the man outside.
“I said put him down!”
This time her words had zero effect. Eric’s knees were approaching the window frame. Soon he’d be all the way out, so if yelling at them was the only trick Keira had up her sleeve, then he was a goner for sure.
Suddenly the gardener stiffened, his eyes rolled back, and he dropped straight to the ground.
That was good in one way, but bad in the sense that now no one was holding the part of Eric’s legs that was outside. His feet were starting to tilt downward, but then someone grabbed them and pushed them back up.
Eric thought it was the gardener making a sudden reappearance, but it was Fiona.
“I believe my sister told you to put him down.” She held an odd-looking gun in one hand, Eric’s legs in the other.
Peter and his friends stopped. As one, they looked first at Fiona, then at Keira.
“That’s right,” Fiona said. “We’ve got you surrounded. See this?” She wiggled the gun. “Sleep juice. You’re not going to be much use once you’re unconscious. Now put him down.”
Peter and his two friends backed Eric away from the window. “Sorry,” he said. “You are not as smart as you think you are.”
Eric could see confusion pass through Fiona’s eyes. He could also see something else— another gardener just on the other side of the hedge behind her. He wanted to yell out and warn her, but his lips still wouldn’t move. Maybe Keira would see him and alert her sister. Then he realized his body was blocking her view.
“Smart or not, you’re about to go to sleep,” Fiona announced.
Just as she started to pull the trigger of her gun, the gardener reached across the hedge and grabbed her arm. A dart flew out of the gun’s barrel and bounced harmlessly off the hallway ceiling before crashing to the floor. At the same moment, Eric heard something solid clatter against the tiles as Keira yelled out behind him. But whatever was happening back there, he was facing the wrong direction to see it.
Outside, Fiona was struggling to get loose from the second gardener but having little luck. Just then, Peter and Tommy lowered Eric’s shoulders a few inches so his body was now lying flat. Gravity then took over and Eric’s head fell back, giving him an upside-down view of the hallway.
Now he could see Keira. Just like her sister, she wasn’t alone. But the person holding her was Vice Principal Rose. What was he doing? And why wasn’t he telling Peter and the others to put him down? Then Eric saw it in the vice principal’s eyes — that same odd look he’d seen in Peter. It was as if Vice Principal Rose wasn’t really himself.
Eric started to panic. Fiona and Keira were out of action and he was no better than a statue. Was Mr. Trouble nearby? Would he show up? There was no way to know so they couldn’t count on that. If only his body would listen to his brain and move like it was supposed to. If only he could do something! If he could move, even if it was just a little—
His finger twitched.
Eric held his breath. Had he imagined it? He concentrated again. This time he could feel his left pinky finger move up and down. It wasn’t just in his mind. It was real.
But if I can move my finger, then… He kept only one thought in his mind. I can do this. I can do this.
Suddenly, warmth bathed over his skin, and the numbness he hadn’t even realized he’d been experiencing began to fade away. Carefully, he moved his toes inside his shoes then twisted his head just a tiny bit to prove that he could.
Yes!
Vice Principal Rose was walking Keira toward him. Eric could see her struggle, but he knew she was no match for the vice principal, even in his odd, robot-like state. He tried to catch her eye but she wasn’t looking in his direction.
Then he noticed an odd-looking gun on the floor maybe five or six feet away. It was just like the one Fiona had been holding. A dart gun. Keira must have dropped it when she’d been grabbed.
Trying not to draw attention, Eric lifted his head until it was level with his body, then shifted his gaze so he was looking over his chest and out the window at Fiona. She was still fighting with the gardener, the bush between them keeping the man from getting full control of her.
Though they continued to hold Eric in the air Peter, Tommy and Kyle seemed to be frozen in place like they were waiting for something. That something was undoubtedly the moment the Trouble sisters were under full control. As soon as that happened, he knew the boys would start moving him out again.
He counted to three in his mind, then jerked up so that his hips quickly sagged toward the floor. He rolled to the right, freeing first his legs from Kyle’s grip and then his shoulders from Peter and Tommy’s.
With a thunk, he landed on the floor.
Pain shot up his right arm, but he ignored it as he scrambled across the floor toward the gun. He had definitely caught the three boys by surprise. They hadn’t even tried grabbing him until he’d fallen out of their grasps.
The gun only two feet in front of him, he reached out to grab it with his right hand, but his fingers remained curled in a tight fist, not moving. Apparently, it was the only part of his body he still hadn’t regained control of.
He switched hands, thrusting his left out, but just as he was about to latch onto the dart gun’s handle, someone grabbed his ankle and yanked him back. He looked around and saw Peter Garr grinning at him.
Eric kicked at the other boy’s hand and said, “Let me go!”
Peter’s grip loosened but he didn’t let go. As Eric kicked again, his left hand knocked against something on the floor. He looked. It was the misfired dart Fiona had shot. Hoping it would still work, he grabbed it, sat up, and jabbed it into Peter’s arm. Peter froze for a moment, then looked at Eric, surprised, before passing out on the floor.
Free now, Eric dove for the gun. Once it was in his hand, he moved it around so that all the others could see it. “Let my friends go and leave us alone,” he said.
Everyone stared at him, including the Trouble sisters.
“I said, let them go,” he repeated.
There was silence for a moment, then Vice Principal Rose said, “We’ll see you soon.”
One by one, Tommy, Kyle, the vice principal, and the gardener outside fell to the ground.
The second she was free, Fiona scrambled through the window. “What happened? Did it fall off of you?”