The Second Prophecy (Part 1 of the Dragdani Prophecies) (28 page)

“
What?” said
Peter as he stepped to his left to try and hide it.

“
Do you think
I’m stupid?”

“
Trust me
when I say you really don’t want me to answer that.”

By now
Weavger was only two steps away from him. The English teacher waved
his hand to his left, gesturing for Peter to step aside, however,
when Peter did not, the man said, “Move.” And Peter did this time.
“So where is it?”

“
Where’s
what?”

“
I don’t
think you understand your position, Mr. Stark.” Weavger was
reveling in the thought of finally getting rid of Peter. In fact,
that’s all he could think about. “You see, you are in a lot of
trouble. First of all, you were late for your first class of the
day. Then you were late for my own class, which was to be your
third class of the day. I know that doesn’t sound too damaging, but
then there’s this.” Weavger held his hand up gesturing to the hole
that Peter’s fist had made. “Destruction of school property is a
serious thing. Under normal circumstances, I’m sure that you would
be fine. Though considering your past, I can’t see you worming your
way out of this one. So all that’s left for me to do is to take you
to the principal, and if you don’t confess, I’ll have to do my
job.”

“
Wel
l, there’s a first time for
everything,” Peter said under his breath.

Peter’s
witty comments directed
at Alistair Weavger did not mean he wasn’t scared of what might
happen at the principal’s office, for he was. Furthermore, what
really scared him senseless was the fact that he couldn’t remember
Weavger ever sounding or looking so happy.

The
thought came to him that this could really be
the end of his days at the school that to him was more like a
prison, and Alistair Weavger, who hounded him in and out of the
classroom, was the toughest, most unforgiving prison guard to ever
walk the halls. The thought lingered in his mind for a mere moment,
and this brought a slight grin to the boy’s face, though the
thought dwindled and quickly vanished as a new thought burrowed its
way into his mind. This one was of his mum and dad and what they
would say when he brought them this news. He stared at Weavger as
uneasiness rolled over him.

Peter had
always had an overactive imagination for as long as he could
remember, and although other people say that they daydream, it
seemed clear to Helen and the school faculty that with him it was
more of a problem, and it needed to be dealt with as soon as
possible. So the school principal set an appointment for Peter to
see the councilor, Alice Tweak, whom Peter liked, and for years she
worked with him to help him with his problem.

At first
Helen did not like it, for she herself knew what it was like to
have an overactive imagination and also knew what it was like for
other children to know. She had found out firsthand, and that was
the last thing that she wanted Peter to experience, as children
could be very cruel. Seeing Peter at seven years of age, she
realized that he was very like her, for now he was as pale, thin,
and angelic in looks as her.

Every one of
the Wizards and Witches privileged enough to get permission to
visit the Queen and the young King said that he looked a little
like his dad, too. Helen didn’t see it; however, every time someone
who knew John supposedly saw this likeness, it almost always lead
to the odd story being told of John’s adventures with his group of
friends. Most of these stories were told by Berlanin, who knew all
of them, as he was present for almost all of the adventures. Any he
did miss were told to him in the form of a play illustrated by
those in the group who were there, as was done when any of them had
missed out.

However, all
of the stories had to be altered in some way so as not to alert
Peter (who loved to hear them) of the existence of the world
Dorminya.

Helen loved
to hear them, too, though she thought he was too young and it could
give him ideas. Nevertheless, she let him hear them, for she knew
it wasn’t right to keep them from him and make him leave the room
so the grownups could hear the memories of their old friend and
loved one.

For Berlanin,
though, it was mostly guilt that made him tell Peter, as all of the
old group – Jastark, Neusod, Berlanin, Veris, Jebut, and Shilta –
all held a secret they had all sworn never to reveal. It had to do
with the real reason John was caught Phazing out of the Normal
World and back into Dorminya. It was actually John who made them
vow not to tell friend or family and hold the secret until the day
they died. John knew that his life in that world was over, and he
knew that if the secret got out, his friends would also pay the
consequences. So he took the fall and also made his friends promise
they would not waste their lives but do their best to rise as far
as they could to make his sacrifice mean something and to make him
proud.

Berlanin
alone felt the guilt of what happened, and he needed someone to
confess the secret too. He didn’t care about keeping it from Peter.
Now there were only two of the group still living, himself and the
Wicca Shilta. Besides, things had changed. The Council was not as
powerful as it had once been, and he was now the deputy Grand
Wizard. So he had decided to tell Peter the truth in Dorminya after
he had been told everything else.

Helen had
told her friends about the principal wanting Peter to see the
school councilor and had voiced her fears to them also. “I don’t
know what to do. I’m afraid that this woman might mess with his
head and something might bring back his memories,” said
Helen.

“
The
re’s no need to worry about
that. Only other spells can break down the ones I’ve used. She
won’t be able to do anything to disrupt them,” said
Delsani.

“
I
still
don’t want him to go,” said Helen.
“I don’t want him to think he’s different than other
kids.”

“
I hate to be
the one to break it to you, but I don’t think you could find a
child as different as Peter if you tried,” said Henkot
sarcastically and truthfully.

“
I think you
should go back to this principal and ask him if there’s another way
of dealing with this. I really think that would be the best way to
confront this,” said Berlanin.

However, when
Helen went to the principal, he said. “That is the best way of
dealing with it, Mrs. Lince.

“
Please call
me Helen.”

“
Helen,”
repeated the principal. “There is only one other way. And this is
what Miss Tweak has told me. If Peter’s daydreaming problem was not
dealt with, he would have to be moved to a different school, a
special school that would better suit his needs. For the truth is,
the teachers have so many students to teach that they don’t have
the time to concentrate on a single student with Peter’s problem.
And even if you did decide that you wanted to place him in such a
school, Councilor Tweak would still need to see him at least once
to be sure it would the right move before going ahead with
it.”

After that
Helen agreed for the meeting to go ahead, but only on the condition
that she also attend.

For a while
Peter was making a lot of progress but still had a long way to go.
He had just started and was happy with his teachers, at least at
first, for after only a week at senior school, it started, Weavger
was losing patience at Peter’s inability to finish all of his work
in time, even sometimes not having any work at all to hand in due
to his daydreaming. And for this Helen had been called in god knows
how many times, however, not because of Peter’s daydreaming, but
because of Weavger. For Councilor Tweak had personally told all of
the teachers of Peter’s lack of concentration and had been asked by
her and told by the new principal, Warren Holmes, to have a bit of
patience and help him as much as possible if he was lagging behind,
and give him a little more time and space also, if
possible.

All the times
that Helen had visited the school about the bullying teacher, she
went to the principal knowing that he would want to resolve this as
soon as possible and thinking that Weavger might finally be put in
his place. However, she was wrong. Nothing, as far as she could
see, had been done to stop the bullying, and in fact, it had
triggered more bullying from students, for they had seen the way
Mr. Weavger treated Peter and thought that it would be funny to do
so as well. This gang was lead by none other than Jerry Walters,
who would be in later times Wily Coyote, Peter’s best and most
trusted friend. However, Peter was already a friend of Cartman and
DesDan at that time.

The bullying
was short-lived, for Wily’s own little brother was being bullied by
someone bigger and beefier, and when Wily confronted him in front
of most of the school, he was nearly beaten senseless. It was then
that Peter stepped in to help, to the surprise of everyone, even
Mental Chris, as the beef bully was known. Although nobody really
knew why he was called that, for as far as they had seen, he was
never really that mental.

The two
former adversaries lay on the ground, both with bleeding noses and
black eyes, Peter’s left and Wily’s right. At first as they lay
there, the pain was not that bad; it was only as they made their
way to the nurse’s office that the pain began to set in, as though
their wounds knew exactly where they were headed. When they reached
the office of Nurse Paula Heeler, Peter knocked lightly three
times, and when no answer came, he lifted his fist again, ready to
knock a little harder.

“
Come in,”
said the nurse loudly, as to be sure they heard her. They did as
she said and were greeted by Nurse Heeler, who did her best to
muster the biggest smile on her pretty rounded face as she could as
they trampled their muddy shoes over her clean floor. As her eyes
fell on them, the big smile faltered. “Goodness what happened? Look
at the pair of you. You’ve been fighting again, then?” she said
sternly.

“
No,” they
said at the same time, making it sound like one voice.

“
The
n who?” said Nurse
Heeler

“
We can’t
say,” said Peter, who hated telling on anyone.

“
And why
not?” asked the nurse.

“
Because -”
Peter could not think of anything to tell her to make her stop with
the stupid questions.

“
Because,”
said Wily out of the blue, “the one that did it said that he would
come after us again if we told anyone.”

“
Oh he
did, did he? W
ell, I’ll have to inform
the principal of what has happened,” she said as she started to
wipe the blood from Peter’s face. “And he will most likely call
your parents to inform them.”

“
No,”
exclaimed Wily. “My mum will go mad if you call her at
work.”

“
Well,
I’m sorry but there’s no
other way. Your mum doesn’t get out of work until after school, and
by that time it would be way too late, and it is the principal’s
duty to inform the parent of any trouble,” said the
nurse.

“
Call my mum,
she’ll call Mrs. Walters, she’ll call her as soon as she gets
home,” said Peter.

They did call
Helen, and she and Berlanin (who had just started a three day
holiday to do a little work on the house) went to see “what the
heck those teachers are playing at,” which, of course, were Helen’s
words. As they headed for the principal’s office, they accidentally
ran into Mr. Weavger, who was on his way to class.

“
Good
evening, Helen, Ben,” said the teacher.

“
I can’t
believe you have the bloody balls to call us by our first names
after what you’ve done to our son. It’s Mr. and Mrs. Lince to you,”
said Helen who had changed her last name after remarrying, and the
guilt she felt for that alone was pretty bad. She thought that she
was betraying John memory in some way.

However, it
was Peter who helped her. He kept his birth name, but not out of
spite at his mother marrying someone else. In truth, Berlanin was
the only real father that Peter had ever known, and he was happy
and happy for them. Peter never really knew why he kept the name
Stark; all he knew was that for some reason, he felt connected to
it in a way that he was never able to explain.

“
I don’t know
what you’re talking about,” lied Weavger.

Berlanin was
pleasantly surprised at her restraint. He was sure she would have
lifted something and lobbed it at him by know. He took Helen by the
arm and took a few steps away from Weavger and said, “Helen, why
don’t you go on, and I’ll join you in a little while.”

“
I’m sorry,
but I have to get to class,” said the teacher.

“
I’m sure you
can spare a few moments,” said the Wizard. “Please go on and see
the principal. I think the last thing we need is for you to be
guilty of manslaughter,” he whispered to Helen.

Helen threw him a look as though to say very
funny, though she did as she was asked, but not before giving
Weavger the dirtiest look in the history of the human race.

Berlanin and
Mr. Weavger had only talked for about five or six minutes when the
vice principal, Herbert Leer, joined them. He had heard their
raised voices and decided to investigate.