Zak Turner - A Twist In Time Page 10

  He glanced quickly at Zak and then back at Steven as he made his decision to tell him about their living arrangements.

  “I’m staying at the Turner’s during the week as it makes it easier to do school.”

  Steven wasn’t so easily fooled, and raise a sceptical eyebrow first at Tallion and then at Zak.

  “Easier?”

  Zak frowned. He hated keeping things secret from Steven, especially as he was part magical himself. The only reason he didn’t want to tell him everything was that knowing it all would make his life much more difficult!

  “Steven, you know we’ll tell you everything we can mate, but… It’s to do with us being wizards…”

  “Then yer best say now’t fer now Zak. Yeh can explain another time. So, are yer all set fer t’ academy then?”

  “Aye,” answered Zak with relief, dropping easily back into the local dialect of Netherdale. “Will yer be able to come round on Sunday, we’ve loads to ter tell yer about what’s been goin’ on this week!”

  Steven grinned, this was more like his old friend. “Sure. Here or at t‘ farm?”

  “How about at my house Steven?” asked Tallion with a grin, “an’ best make it Saturday afternoon.” He suddenly wanted to share everything with their friend.

  Steven’s eyes went wide, “Truth? Blimey, yer on!”

  Are you sure father won’t mind Tallion?

  No, but I’m sure Steven’s going to see the entrance archway behind the post office anyway, and we’re not going to be able to stop him riding his bike up the driveway…

  Zak grinned at his blond-haired friend. Where had this mischievous Tallion come from? That was more like the sort of thing Zak would say or do! Then he understood. It was Zak speaking, or rather it was his personality inside Tallion! He knew he was becoming more cautious, but he could now see that Tallion was becoming more laid back! Their personalities really were merging together, maybe this was what being soul mates meant?

  * * *

  The front entrance to Netherdale Academy was crowded with school buses and parents dropping off their children. John Turner wisely stopped a little way down the road to let out the three new first years, and after agreeing to meet them at the same place at the end of the day, drove away to his building site leaving them to walk the last hundred yards back up the road to school.

  “I suppose we just go to our form room then, like Miss Hamilton told us?”

  “Aye. I were hopin’ ter see Sam before we went in though, but he ain’t hangin’ around anywhere. Shall we wait fer a minute?”

  The three boys stood near the school entrance, but after a couple more minutes there was still no sign of Sam, so they made their way over to the first year block and went inside. There were lots of nervous first years milling about, just like at Mhonarr Castle, and Zak and Tallion both got a sense of déjà vu!

  Sam was already outside their form room when the three arrived, and he looked very relieved as his three friends walked towards him grinning. They quickly started chattering about where they’d all been during the holidays, and then what the two farmer’s sons had been up to on their farms. The magical world of Mhonarr Castle faded further and further into the background for both Tallion and Zak as the realities of dales life took once again took centre stage.

  * * *

  Class B1 crowded into their form room for registration, and were then dispatched to their first lesson, which was French. For their first year, they would stay together as a class for each subject, only splitting up into different ability levels from second year onwards.

  Alice Entwistle, headmistress of Lower Nettleton Primary School, had tried her best to get some French into her student’s heads, and with most of them it had worked, after a fashion! Tallion had paid the most attention, and therefore had a better vocabulary then the others, but it was still only words with no grammar.

  The French teacher at the academy, Mrs Diggle, had been teaching French to Yorkshire farmer’s children for more years than she cared to remember. Her no-nonsense approach started with a textbook plonked on every desk, a program of vocabulary learning, and some tried and tested learning by rote.

  It was a bit old fashioned, but it still managed to achieve better results in the exams than most other methods, especially regarding pronunciation. Yorkshire farmers and French didn’t mix very well, and for most of her students, there were a whole load of new sounds to be mastered, let alone new words and grammar!

  Sixty minutes later, the bell rang and the new first years had survived their first lesson in secondary school, and picked up their first batch of homework! Ten words to master in terms of meaning, spelling, and pronunciation before their next lesson. As that wasn’t until the following Tuesday though, there seemed to be no rush to try and get it done.

  * * *

  As the boys tumbled out of the classroom, Tallion dug around in his schoolbag for his timetable.

  “Library next, that’ll be easy.”

  There was no animated map on the back of their Netherdale Academy timetables though, so they had to remember where it was. Luckily, they only had to follow the rest of their class, one of whom seemed to know where she was going. So, pied-piper style they all trailed along behind.

  The library was dead quiet, at least it was dead quiet until class B1 arrived, and that might have been something to do with the fact that no-one else had been there except the librarian up until that point. As B1 clattered through the door though, Mrs Rigg looked daggers at the noisy newcomers.

  “Pile your bags on the tables by the door please, and then gather round my desk here.”

  B1 tried to be quiet, but the process of dumping thirty schoolbags and coats on three desks was inevitably going to create some noise!

  “Right, some rules first,” announced the stern faced librarian to the group of eleven-year-olds who were crowding round her.

  “Silence, that’s the first rule, and if you break it you’ll be out of that door and standing outside the staffroom for the rest of the period. Tidiness is the second rule. Put the books back where you found them, in order! If you don’t then you’ll spend a lunchtime learning how by putting books back on the shelves that have been returned by other students. Third, no food and drink. That includes chewing gum. Anyone breaking that rule will also find themselves outside the staffroom for the rest of the period.”

  “Fourth, no damage. Anyone who wilfully, or neglectfully, damages a book will get a bill for a replacement. If a genuine accident happens, then you must report the damage to me when you return the book. Fifth, no borrowing a book without signing it out. You’ll all get swipe cards next week, and to borrow a book you simply swipe the card through this reader and then scan the barcode on the back of the book. It very easy these days.”

  “The sixth rule, maximum three books on loan at any time, and maximum one week loan before you return it. Seventh, if I want to make up any more rules I will.”

  The librarian finally smiled as she finished her last sentence, and although it was a bit of a ferocious smile, it was genuine.

  “Right, now that the awkward stuff is out of the way, does anyone know how a library numbering system works? No? I expected as much. Ok, follow me and I’ll show you, it’s all very easy.”

  The next fifteen minutes were spent watching Mrs Rigg demonstrate the different card indexes, and then explain how the books were numbered and arranged round the room. It was all very easy too!

  “Okay, I’m sure half of you couldn’t see what I was doing, so when you’re stuck next time you visit just come and ask, I really do like to help, even if it doesn’t always sound like it. Now, last thing, I’m always on the lookout for assistant librarians who want to earn extra house points and who are interested in books. As well as helping to keep the place ship shape, you’ll learn all about books, how they’re made, how to look after them, how to repair them etc. You also get certain privileges within the library. Anyone who would like to have a go just let me know before the end
of next week!”

  Mrs Rigg then shooed her students away.

  “Go and find a book to read for the next half hour, and remember the rules!”

  Class B1 spread themselves out around the library looking for books, and then settling down at tables to read. Steven and Sam both ended up with books about farming, which was hardly a surprise. Half the library seemed to be about agriculture of one type or another, which was understandable considering the location of the school!

  Zak found a book about football, and Tallion finally settled on a history book about Netherdale.

  “What on earth do you want to read that for?” whispered Steven in amazement.

  “I’m interested in finding out how things used to be organised round here, I enjoy finding out about the past.”

  Steven looked a bit sceptical and was about to answer when Mrs Rigg appeared round the end of the shelves peering over the top of her half-moon glasses at the four of them.

  They all buried their noses in their books.

  * * *

  Chemistry held lots of promise as the excited B1 class lined up outside the lab after break. They all had visions of lab coats, goggles, Bunsen burners, and test tubes. However, they were destined to be somewhat disappointed!

  Mr Greenwood, the rather young chemistry teacher, had a well-defined curriculum to follow, and the first stage was all about lab safety. After they’d learned how to avoid getting injured, poisoned and blown up, which took up half of the lesson, they then had to copy down the rules into the front of their exercise books. Next, a textbook landed on each desk, which looked from the cover to be rather more interesting. However, the first three modules were all theory with no experiments at all!

  As they made their way to the main hall for lunch, Zak and Tallion exchanged glances.

  Not quite like potions was it?

  Nothing like! Can you imagine Mr Greenwood deliberately giving us an experiment that would blow-up in our faces like Barty did?

  Exactly. Going to be a bit boring here compared to magic school if you ask me!

  * * *

  Lunch came and went quickly, although it was a bit nerve wracking queuing up with the rest of the school for the first time. The four boys just watched how everybody else did it though, and copied them. It was the sort of thing that once you’d done it, you’d never worry about it again.

  Their first lesson after lunch was CDT (craft and design), taken by an amiable and friendly looking Mr Leonard. He too obviously had a curriculum to follow, which insisted on putting workshop safety first, but he rattled through it quickly enough to leave half an hour for them to get their teeth into their first project.

  Zak had never given much thought to where furniture actually came from, other than a shop. Tallion hadn’t even got that far! Steven and Sam though, being farmer’s sons and having a necessity to be able to fix things, could bring their rudimentary knowledge to the situation.

  Their first project was to make a simple wooden box, with a lid, using proper dovetail joints and glue, but no nails.

  Step one, design. Mr Leonard put a basic design on the white board, and then asked them all to get a sheet of paper each and design their own box to scale using the one on the whiteboard as a template. They had to decide what it was going to be used for first, and then design an appropriate interior arrangement.

  The time flew past, and they were all surprised when the bell went at two thirty and it was time to move on to the last lesson of the day. By then, Zak had already decided that he was going to enjoy making things; CDT was his kind of subject!

  * * *

  Their final lesson was history, and it was back in their form room in the first year block with their form teacher Miss Hamilton. It felt like they’d escaped from the rest of the school and got back to a safe place somehow.

  History was, however, a bit dry. After a quick introduction, a rather simple text book appeared, and they plunged straight into Medieval Britain of 1066, learning about the Norman Conquest. Still, half past three came round quickly enough, and Miss Hamilton got them packed up before the end of the lesson so that they could shoot out of the door the moment the bell rang.

  They’d survived their first day, and they’d actually enjoyed it and were looking forward to Friday. It was quite a relief though when Zak found himself back at home, surrounded by all the familiar things in his life after another day in unfamiliar territory. It was only as he got changed that he remembered he’d had his wand with him all day strapped to his arm. He wondered if it was really necessary and asked Tallion what he thought.

  “I dunno Zak, Father said to take them everywhere with us, so I suppose he thinks we need them. Would you ever use it though, at school? I mean, if someone suddenly fired a curse at you, would you even think about it, or would you just duck?”

  “Duck, but then I’d think about it! What’s the chances though? In the academy? No-one’s going to come in there to get us!”

  “We only survived two days ago because the people trying to kill us decided to kill the bodyguards first. If they’d aimed straight for us then we’d both be dead. I think I agree with Father, and I’m going to keep mine with me all the time.”

  “Me too, don’t worry. That raises an interesting question for tomorrow though, what are we going to do during PE? Do we keep them strapped to our arms or legs?”

  “Legs. On your thigh is what father said for when we’re doing sports. There’s less chance of it getting damaged, or damaging us!”

  “I wonder what we’ll be doing tomorrow, it’s PE for two hours!”

  “Well, I’m looking forward to athletics, but I don’t suppose we’ll be doing that until next summer. I suppose it’ll be football or maybe rugby?”

  “Football would be great! Yikes, I forgot! I’ve got my first training session on Sunday morning for the under twelves! We’ll have to meet Steven in the afternoon instead…”

  “You’re right, you forgot. I already changed it so that we’re meeting him on Saturday afternoon! I remembered about your football, that’s why I did it.”

  Zak slapped his forehead and grinned. “Doh! Thanks, Soul Mate!”

  * * *

  The boys diligently did their French and History homework before dinner, meaning that they were free during the evening. Zak wanted to get a bit warmed up for football on Sunday, now that he’d remembered about it, and so the boys went to the meadow behind the post office to have a kick around with the football. They managed about an hour before dusk started to fall, and they called it a day to get to bed in reasonable time.

  Zak was a bit worried how unfit he’d become. He’d struggled to run about as much as he needed to, and he was going to have to work hard to get back in shape if he was going to play for the dale again!

  As they’d run around with the football, neither boy noticed the cloaked figure walking along the track to Upper Nettleton, neither did they notice therefore when the figure glanced across at them, and then vanished from sight.

  * * *

  Friday morning started at seven o’clock again, but this time the boys had deliberately slept in the same bed. There seemed to be no point starting out separately when they always ended up back together again!

  “Tallion, how are we going to cope with this at Mhonarr Castle during half term?” asked Zak as they were getting out of bed. “Alfie and Harry are going to get completely the wrong idea about us!”

  Tallion frowned.

  “I don’t know. I really don’t remember coming to join you the other night, it must have happened in my sleep, so there’s no way we’ll stop it in the dorm room. I think we’ll just need to tell them beforehand?”

  “Maybe Barty can come up with a spell to keep us in our own beds?”

  “I doubt it Zak! I don’t think there’s any magic in the whole world that’s powerful enough to stop this happening, and to be fair, I don’t want it to stop happening, no matter what anyone thinks! I like being with you, it makes me feel complete and whole
somehow. I’m always so relaxed and calm in the mornings when we’ve slept like this.”

  “Well, me too really. How come it didn’t happen on Tuesday night at Mhonarr then?”

  The boys studied each other with puzzled looks, and then Zak suddenly remembered what had happened.

  “We had that potion from Nurse Salvae to restore our magical energy! That knocked us out. Maybe Mother can give us a potion to take each night to make us sleep so deeply that we stay in our own beds?”

  “You didn’t hear me Zak. I don’t want to sleep in my own bed, I want to be with you…”

  Zak smiled at his soul mate.

  “Well, I want to be with you too, I just don’t want to cause any problems for us, that’s all.”

  “It won’t be a problem, trust me. Harry’s from a magical family so he won’t give it a second thought anyway, and Alfie’s smart enough to understand when we explain.”

  “I trust you, Soul Mate!”

  Tallion threw a rolled up sock at Zak who dodged quickly into the en-suite to get his shower. Half an hour later they were downstairs having breakfast, trying to finish this time before Steven arrived on his bicycle.

  * * *

  PE turned out to be half theory and half practical. The theory bit was done in the gymnasium with a session about muscles and joints, and the importance of doing warm ups and cool downs before and after sporting activity. Then they went through a short warm up routine to get them ready for some seven-a-side football on the main sports field.

  Zak and Tallion were both very aware of their wands as they stretched and jumped in the gymnasium. A couple of times Zak’s hand brushed the handle of his wand and he saw it start to become visible before it quickly faded away. He glanced round each time hoping no-one else had noticed, and decided that he’d got away with it. This was going to need some careful thought, and he decided to mention it to Barty first thing on Saturday morning.

  Once they were outside though, and running around playing football, the problem and all thought of his wand vanished from his mind. He was in his element, finally playing his beloved football again, and realising how much he’d missed it! He found the running harder than before though, and by the end of his first game, he was definitely ready for a break, which worried him a bit. That was no good for playing in the under twelves! He had to be able to do two thirty minute games back to back! He decided to get up early two or three mornings a week to go for a run before breakfast to get back in shape.