All I could do was stare.
On the other side of the lift doors was the old Kepler Academy, still standing, and still outside.
The school had never burned down.
The story was a lie!
Totes dumped my bags onto the grass. ‘Ben Braver,’ he said.
‘Ben Braver,’ a familiar voice repeated. ‘Check him off.’
I stepped out of the lift and felt the soft earth under my sneakers.
Raymond Archer, the new headmaster, was off to my side, wearing a wrinkle-free Hawaiian shirt.
Joel, the kid who could open portals the size of a coin, stood next to him, checking off names on a clipboard.
‘That’s the last of them,’ Headmaster Archer said. ‘You can close your portal now, Joel.’
Joel went to the lift doors behind me. His glowing portal was propped open using long plastic tent poles, the ones that folded up when you wanted to put them away.
He yanked on one of the poles, popping it out of place. The rest fell to the ground, and the portal instantly closed.
‘I get extra cred for this, right?’ Joel asked.
‘A job well done is its own reward, and you’ve done your job well. Just remember, no unauthorised portals,’ Headmaster Archer said as he took Joel’s clipboard. ‘And welcome back, Mr Braver! Good to see you!’ he shouted over his shoulder as he walked off.
‘Cool trick,’ I said.
Joel shrugged. ‘I learned to stretch open my portals over the summer. Did you learn anything new with your power?’
‘Nope,’ I quickly answered. ‘I’m still at the exact same level as I was last year.’
Technically, that wasn’t a lie.
I scanned for my friends but didn’t see them.
Instead, I saw students using their powers right out in the open – a gigantic no-no at the academy.
Teachers ordered them to stop, but nobody listened. And there was no sign of Headmaster Kepler – I mean, former headmaster – anywhere. I wondered if he’d even be at the school this year.
Coach Lindsay Andrews was outside, too, defeated and sitting with the statue of Brock.
Man, school hadn’t even started yet and the new head of security’s spirits were crushed.
Everyone squealed as rain started pouring from grey clouds that someone had conjured up. A lightning bolt flashed, along with the loudest crack of thunder I’d ever heard.
I stumbled back. My foot slipped in the wet grass, and I went down a short slope like it was a Slip ’N Slide.
When I stopped, everything vanished.
Like, literally everything.
The school. The students. All of it was gone.
The only thing left was a pile of ash where the Lodge used to be.
This was one of those ‘what the heck?’ moments.
One second I was at school – the next second I was all alone in the mountains. Had I accidentally slipped into another dimension or something?
I saw shapes in the forest moving like worm-eaters coming to life.
I started freaking out.
Like, blurry vision, woozy head freaking out.
That’s when my best friend’s head appeared.
It was Noah Nichols.
But it was just his head, floating one and a half metres off the ground.
I lost it.
I pulled my hair and screamed.
The rest of Noah’s body suddenly appeared like he walked through an invisible wall. ‘Dude, chill! It’s just me!’ he said, grabbing my shoulders.
‘Where’d everything go?’
‘Everything’s still here! You’re just outside the holographic barrier!’
‘The what?’
Noah pushed me back up the slope. The school, the stormy clouds, and the rowdy students magically reappeared.
Penny and Jordan were there, too.
‘Dude, compose,’ Penny said. ‘Everybody’s looking!’
I clenched my teeth and sucked air through my nose until my hands stopped trembling.
‘Check it out,’ Noah said, pointing at a line of tripods behind us. ‘They’re holopods. They cover the school with a giant hologram of a burned-down building. It’s camouflage. Super rad.’
‘Are you all right?’ Penny asked. ‘You look a little … sick. You’re not gonna chuck, are you?’
‘No, I just …’ I said. ‘I’m fine.’
But I wasn’t fine.
I knew I was scared, but I didn’t know I was that scared.
That didn’t bode well for the rest of my year.