Flicker.
Boom.
The school heaved, and Jeff was thrown brutally into a wall. He shook his head to clear it. Was that the sound of guns? And was that the sound of helicopters?
“Jeff!” He spun to see who had screamed, and there, running through the open doors to the school, was his mom. Streaks of green paint couldn’t hide the expression of fierce joy on her face as her eyes met Jeff’s. Behind her, unmoving on the ground, Jeff saw the bloody-footed alien, a pink-plumed tranquilizer dart sticking from his chest.
Farther back, across the parking lot he saw what looked like a black metal forest – tanks and trucks and heavy guns like cannons. And beyond that, peaking over the horizon like an old friend, was Earth’s yellow sun.
Jeff’s mom collided with him and wrapped him in a bone-crushing hug. Jeff staggered backward, almost toppling. “Mom!” he laughed. He didn’t know what to say, but he hugged her back for a long moment before she saw Suzy stirring on the floor and pulled away to see to her.
As she bent, a ripple flew past her head. Jeff clenched his jaw, and his eyes narrowed. No one was hurting his family. Not now.
Jeff shot a quick “Juoy!” at his dad and another at Suzy as he lifted the fallen shield. His family crowded in around him behind the shield, and an intense pleasure filled Jeff, a feeling of rightness that had him grinning from ear to ear even as he fired paralyzing and stunning spells down the hallway.
His voice caught a little, and he almost couldn’t hold onto the wand as he reached up to wipe away an escaping tear.
“Something in your eye, there?” Suzy said, around a grin. She had taken the wand from their dad, and she was shooting spells down the hall with Jeff now.
“Yeah,” he said. “Dust. Hey Dad, look what I can do!” He shot a “chaw” down the hall. The spell from the giant wand shattered the shield of one soldier and hurled him backward off his feet. There were only a few of them left, and they could do nothing against the giant wand.
“‘Look what I can do’,” Suzy muttered between spells. “Show-off.”
Jeff opened his mouth to argue but closed it again. Some moments were too perfect to spoil.
After the school switch, things happened as if in a dream for Suzy. Only a handful of the alien soldiers had escaped from closets, so once she and Jeff had subdued their little force, the fighting was done.
A few minutes later, some black-clad commandos stormed the hallway. They seemed almost disappointed to find no resistance, but they ordered the family to the cafeteria. Suzy held her parents’ hands as they walked.
In the cafeteria they found the other students and teachers gathering. Many of them turned to look at her and Jeff, and Suzy heard them saying her name, but she ignored them and pulled her family toward the corner where she could see Prithi and Zoe and the rest of their class.
“Mom and Dad, you’ll never guess who we,” she started to say, when someone interrupted her.
“Suzy?”
“Oh hey, Jenny. I didn’t even know you were here. I thought you had gotten out before we got switched.”
“No,” the other girl said, looking wistful, “I’ve been here the whole time. Hey, I saw your dictionary. And someone said that you and Jeff are the ones who fought all the guards and teleported the school back to earth. Is that true?” As she asked it, she kept glancing past Suzy at Jeff. Suzy looked over at her brother.
“Well, maybe a little,” Jeff said, waving his hand modestly and blushing like an idiot. He still hadn’t put a shirt on.
“Jeff, are you…” Suzy stopped herself before the word flexing and smiled. “Are you kidding? You were amazing taking out those guards and switching the school back.”
Jeff looked like he might cry for joy. Suzy turned with a smile to her mom, who said, “Really? You and Jeff switched the school back? I thought your father...”
“Yeah, what were YOU GUYS doing?” Suzy asked her parents.
“Well I WOULD have said ‘rescuing you’,” her dad said ruefully.
They all started talking at once, but then a commando came into the room and barked through a megaphone. “Everyone, listen up! We’re going to get you out of here, but we need you to listen up to make this as efficient and safe as possible. The aliens set some defenses around this area that make an over-land evacuation impossible. We’re going to be taking groups up to the roof and flying you out by helicopter, but we need to be careful because of the dragons. I know you’re all anxious to get back to your families, but we’re going to need you to be patient and wait your turn.”
“Dragons?” Jeff said, looking at his parents, who looked as confused as he did.
At the edge of the cafeteria, a crowd was fighting to be first onto the roof. As they jostled toward the doorway, the mass of bodies brushed past a “Vote for Suzy” poster on the wall, which fluttered loudly to the floor.
Instinctively, Suzy took a step toward the poster to rescue it before it was trampled and ruined. She stopped after a step and looked back at her mom, who was digging through a little backpack and fussily applying first aid to a cut on Jeff’s ribs while Jeff insisted loudly that it was no big deal. Next to her, her dad had just found Dusty and had his arms wrapped around the old dog’s neck, laughing with delight at the frantic licking and tail wagging.
Suzy sat down by her dad and
