19

Friday the Thirteenth

It was a cold, sunny morning on Friday, December 13, at 8:00 a.m.—the day of the attack.

Nobody liked the idea that the monsters would be attacking on Friday the thirteenth, but there certainly wasn’t anything that could be done about it. Jason was the only one who thought it was a good omen.

The Scary School students had been working all week to form a plan of defense. Staying home to avoid the attack was not an option. That would be like leaving a friend to die on the field of battle.

By the end of the week, every student knew where they needed to be and what they needed to do. The plan had to work to perfection if they were to survive.

All the students had arrived half an hour early to rehearse the plan one last time and take their positions.

Meanwhile, ten thousand monsters marched in formation toward the front entrance of Scary School. There were five thousand karate monsters, well-trained in the deadliest forms of martial arts, and five thousand monster-pirates, not well-trained in anything, but bloodthirsty nonetheless.

Just as Ms. Stingbottom had warned, all ten thousand were wearing earplugs.

Closer and closer they marched, drums pounding and flags waving.

The smell of ten thousand garbage trucks dumping their loads in the middle of a skunk convention grew stronger by the second. The overwhelming stench signaled the time was at hand.

The front lawn of Scary School was soon to be a historic battleground.

When the monsters arrived, it was quiet and virtually empty, save for one student.

Charles Nukid.

Charles stood proud and unflinching. He wore his gray shorts, white dress shirt, and polka-dot tie—the school uniform that everyone else refused to wear. If he was going to die, he was going to die following the rules. He stared with defiance at the massive army before him.

Charles calmly patted his head to make sure no hairs were out of place.

Ten thousand monsters bared their lethal fangs and raised their sharp swords.

Charles Nukid, who looked more like a oversized toothpick than a human boy, raised his two fists and said:

“Bring it on.”