"Skye, can you please tell us how to create a new tab?" At the mention of my name, my eyes darted to the front of the room. Ms. Dell looked at me expectantly, and I tried to remember what she had asked. But of course, I couldn't.

"Um, can you repeat the question?" I asked, and Ms. Dell narrowed her beady eyes in irritation.

"Please show the class how to create a new tab, Skye."

I smiled. Her question was stupidly easy. It's not like I had expected otherwise, I mean, this "computer science" class was so unbelievably elementary that it's a wonder a computer genius like myself didn't just die from boredom during the first two minutes. If I sound a little haughty, it's because my computer knowledge is basically the one thing I had got going for me, and I figured I met as well flaunt it. My life pretty much sucked otherwise.

Anyhow, my answer to her question came out almost automatically.

"Hold down 'command' and 'T' at the same time. That, or press the little plus button at the end of the address bar." Ms. Dell sighed, disappointed her absolute favorite student had answered correctly.

"Correct," she said, and turned back to the projector to continue making computer science a living hell.

From across the room, Phil gave me a knowing smile.

Phil was probably my only friend in this place, but what made it sad was that he wasn't even a student. Phil was 16 years old, and worked part time at this beauty of a public middle school as part of some senior community service project. Somehow, he seemed to be in every single one of my classes in the two weeks that I'd been there. I found it a bit of a weird coincidence, but truly I was happy he was there. None of the kids liked me much, and the feeling was mutual. Phil, however, had a genuine smile that made me feel like he actually cared about me, unlike almost every other person I'd ever met. He was also quite soft spoken, but you shouldn't let that fool you. Phil was tough as hell when it came down to it.

Like one time, this kid Ian Quinn (who I swear has been held back at least three times) was messing around with me at lunch. Phil came up to him and said, straight to his face, "Ian if you say one more word I swear I will have the principal call your parents and will play flappy bird while you have to explain to them why you were picking on a student 2 years younger than you." And then walked away. So it's safe to say he's a pretty cool dude. Except, of course, for his totally nerdy comic book collection, but that information is (his words, not mine) "highly classified."

Anyways, now that I was done answering Ms. Dell's extremely intelligent question, I went back to my real task. My hands flew across the keyboard, typing in strings of commands and breaking encryptions as I went. As I did this, I was reminded of the sole reason these computer classes were worth it for me: they gave me access to a computer. Soon, I would cause several loud Nyan cats to visit Ms. Dell's smartboard. And, because I was just that good, the hack would be untraceable and Ms. Dell would never know it was I who spoiled her lesson. She'd probably suspect it, but even she couldn't punish me without proof.

As I was preparing for my little shenanigan, that idiot Ian Quinn (who, regrettably, had been sitting next to me) leaned over to look at my computer screen. I tried to turn it away from him, but that only made him crane farther.

"Mind your own business!" I whispered to him, but unsurprisingly my words had no effect.

"What the hell are you doing, twerp?" He hissed, and tried to grab for the keyboard. I pushed the keyboard away from him and tried to shove him aside with my other hand. Suddenly I felt a pull in my stomach and my mind went blank. When I came to, Ian had fallen on the floor and was clutching his right left arm. The entire class was staring at me, eyes wide and mouths wide open. Ms. Dell's face was full of some kind of sick triumph, like she had been waiting for this moment along. I could hear a few whispers from across the room.

"The electricity-"

"-Like it grabbed him!"

I struggled to remember what I had done, but I kept drawing a blank, and cursed myself for it. Things like this had happened to me in the past, the blanking out and the resulting unexplainable occurrences, and I was never able to remember them or explain why they happened. I assumed that those strange behaviors were some of the reasons why I moved from school to school and foster home to foster home so often. The many therapists I'd seen over the years liked to tell me blanking out was just part of my ADHD, but I'd never been quite convinced that was the case.

"Skye, come with me. I'm taking you to the principal's office." Ms. Dell said, and began to make her way over to me. But before she could, Phil jumped up from his seat.

"Excuse me, Ms. Dell, but I think I should be the one to take Skye to the principal office," he said assertively, apparently trying hard to rescue me from torture at the hands of the monster that was Ms. Dell. "Isn't this what I am here to do? Take care of trivialities so you can focus on teaching? I wouldn't be a very Teacher's Assistant if I didn't take care of things like this."

Ms. Dell's eyes flashed with anger, her triumphant look fading.

"Maybe next time, Mr. Coulson, but due to the severity of the matter I would like to take care of this myself." She then grabbed me by the arm, and began to lead me out of the classroom. Phil protested, but there was nothing he could do. Ms. Dell slammed the door, and began leading me through the maze that was the hallway of MS 616.

As we turned corner and passed offices and classrooms, I started to wonder if she was really taking me to the principal's office at all. I had only been in this school for a couple of weeks, but I had been in the principal's office enough during that time to have an approximate knowledge of where it was. And it certainly wasn't where she was leading me.

My heart began to race. Just what was she going to do to me? She couldn't hurt me, right? I mean, she was pretty much one of the worst people I had ever met, but she was still a teacher. She couldn't be evil. Or could she? What didn't help matters was an impending sense of danger that I'd had since I'd first met her, which was increasing steadily now.

Finally, I decided to do what I did best: run. I broke from her grasp and sprinted down the hall, but before I could get far she somehow materialized in front of me, causing me to stop suddenly and stumble backward. Or, at least I thought it was her who appeared before me. Her eyes glowed red and she had talons instead of fingernails. Bat wings stuck out from her now-shriveled body, and her mouth was full of yellow fangs. What used to be a 30-something woman now seemed to be some sort of haggish monster.

But then something even stranger happened. Phil ran into the hallway, now in an orange t-shirt instead of his usual polo and slacks and carrying a sword.

"Skye!" He yelled, "Catch!" And before I had time to process the situation he tossed the sword to me. Luckily, I managed to catch it, but unfortunately my skill as a swordswoman ended there. I tried to jab what-used-to-be-Ms. Dell with it, but she easily flew out of the way. I tried to turn in order to keep up with her, but the swords weight threw me off balance and I fell to the ground, sword tumbling out of my hand.

The monster lunged at me once again, but before she could finish me off Phil slid beside me and grabbed the sword. He quickly shoved the blade in front of me, and the monster came into contact with the cold metal before it could get to me. The sword passed through its body like a knife through butter, and with a Hiss! she turned into a pile of sulfur-smelling yellow powder in my lap. Ew. Totally gross.

But before I could reflect on how utterly repulsive the powder was, Phil grabbed my hand and forced me up from the floor.

"Come on! We have to go!" He yelled, leading me hastily toward the entrance.

"What's going on? What was that?"

"No time! I'll explain later! We have to leave right now!" And before I knew it we were bursting out the school's doors and into the street. Phil and I ran into an alley, and before I could comment on how utterly sus he was being, Phil pulled a fancy-looking fountain pen out of his pocket and uncapped it. He threw the uncapped pen on the ground and it grew rapidly until before us was a shiny red corvette. Phil quickly got in and motioned for me to do the same. I hopped in, but I couldn't help ask him (with just the slightest bit of panic), "Um, do you even have a driver's license?"

"No, but you don't need a driver's license to fly." He said.

"What the h-" But before I could finish my sentence Phil started the car, and I felt us rise off the ground. And then we were whizzing through the air; off to where, I didn't know.