The Guardian of Threshold Read Online Free PDF Page A

graphite on paper, I would’ve doubted I was in high school. As always, the room smelled of chalk, which made me sneeze for several minutes before my nostrils got accustomed to the smell.
    “How nice of you to join us,” Mrs. Black said sarcastically, attracting a stream of muffled laughs from around the room.
    “Good morning,” I said, scouting the room in an effort to find the closest seat to Carla. A good ten minutes passed before I could muster enough courage to interrupt Mrs. Black’s nail polishing session. As much as I liked not doing any work, I was bored; surely anything had to be better than nothing at all.
    “Excuse me, Mrs. Black. What’s today’s assignment?” Carla gave me a subtle look. Jonas didn’t deviate his gaze from his English assignment.
    “Page eighty-nine, Mr. Ryser,” Mrs. Black replied, looking over her glasses, something she did only when she was extremely annoyed.
    I worked hard to catch up, but I left a couple unanswered questions. I turned in my paper and went straight to French class, which was boring as usual. I still didn’t know why I would need to speak French. Sure, I’d probably visit France one day, but I was sure the hotel staff would speak English fluently. Try explaining that to Mrs. Finningan, though.
    “As you may have heard, we had an incident this morning…” She paused and looked around as though searching for the person responsible. “Someone called in a fake bomb threat. I don’t know who it was, but I’m certain the police will find out. If I were that person, I would turn myself in right away.” That’s how Mrs. Finningan started her class. Throughout the whole hour, she kept reminding us to rat out the person who called in the bomb threat, as if we knew who it was. We heard it in English, French, Spanish, and even in German. She was determined, I had to give her that much.
    On a rather strange and interesting note, during history class, I kept hearing the girls whisper and giggle, but whenever I looked at them, they would blush and turn away.
    “See you all later,” Wendy said, turning slightly to Jonas and me as we were leaving history, much to our astonishment since she never talked to us.
    “That was different,” said Jonas as we navigated the sea of people in the hallways.
    We arrived at the science lab just as the class was starting. It would’ve been another quiet chemistry class if Jonas hadn’t mess up his experiment and filled the whole lab and ground floor with smoke, setting off the fire alarm and triggering pandemonium among the rest of the student body in the process.
    We were told to evacuate the building and go to the courtyard. Fortunately, the smoke covered the lab so quickly that nobody else saw that Jonas’s experiment was the cause of the incident. I dealt uncomfortably with the bumping and grinding as people rushed to be the first to leave the building, probably not because they thought it was on fire, but so they would be the first ones to get to the few remaining cardboard pieces outside to go sledding on the snowy hills.
    About three minutes later, the fire trucks arrived at Stoneham High for the second time that morning. By the time the chief gave the all-clear, it was lunchtime.
    “I’ll get our usual table,” said Jonas as he headed for the cafeteria.
    “I’ll be there in a few,” I replied as I went the opposite way toward the restrooms. I’d grown accustomed to always washing my hands before eating. Jonas, on the other hand, thought the practice was a waste of time.
    In the restroom, everyone tried to guess who called in the fake bomb threat, but they stopped talking when I entered.
    After I was done, I waited outside patiently for Carla to come out of the girls’ restroom. We took our time walking carelessly through the grounds, talking about nothing and everything. It was my favorite time of the day. A good ten minutes or so passed before we reached the cafeteria. Jonas was already halfway through his lunch.