• description:It started out as a mystery, until he found the school. Now Matt Tiki is thrown into a whirlpool of advenure that could end in light, or dark. Will Matt and his friends be able to destroy Despot and free the land of his evil clutches, or will he fall to his hand and allow Despot to rule evermore? Read "The Threatening Threat" To find out.

    The real deal“Ding dong, the witch is dead, the wicked witch is dead!”




    “Oh my gosh! Turn your dumb alarm clock off!” That was me yelling. I wasn’t happy. It was time for me to get up and go to school like I do five days a week. Not only do I have to deal with life itself, but every morning I’m awoken by my sisters Wizards of Oz alarm clock.




    “Follow the yellow brick road!” I ran into my sister’s room, ripped off her covers, and told her to get up. I wasn’t very nice. Then I went into the bathroom, brushed my teeth, got dressed, ate Cheerios, and headed for the front door.




    “Matt, your not going to school today”. My mom.




    “What do you mean?” I asked.




    “Well, sit down and I’ll tell you.” I sat down.




    “We are moving,” my mom said. I stared at her.




    “What do you mean!?” I yelled.




    “I mean what I said. I found a really good paying job. You will have a better school, more clothes…,” she trailed off.




    “We can’t be moving!” I stormed off to my room and slammed the door. There go my friends. There go the places I like to hang out. There go my teachers. There goes… everything. Knock, knock, knock. Mom again.
    “Just so you know, we are moving to Washington.” I turned off my light and closed my eyes.




    “You might want to start packing…..” Washington. At least for the first time ever I’ll get to see snow.




    It was two hours later. I got off my bed and picked up the phone. “Time to break the news to all my friends,” I mumbled glumly.662-3585. Jake’s house. “Hello?” “Hi Mrs. Brennan. Is Jake there?” “Well he is at school….” Mrs. Brennan said. Duh. “Sorry to bother you. I’ll call again later.” “Anytime, Matt.” I hung up the phone and looked around my messy, navy blue room. Might as well pack. I grabbed my cotton, long sleeved shirt, the warmest thing I needed in Tallahassee, Florida. I’ll need more winter clothes if I’m moving to Washington. I opened my shirt drawer and saw that there weren’t any shirts. Same with all my other drawers. Mom must have packed for me.



    I hopped down the stairs, feeling slightly better about having to move, and asked my mom what my school was called. “I’m not positive, but I think it will be the Academic Express for Young Scholars,” she said. “What kind of name is that?” I asked. “It’s a private school,” she answered. I went back upstairs.
    I peeked into my sister’s room and saw her putting her things in a box, a smile pasted on her face. “At least someone’s happy,” I mumbled. I got on the computer, pulled up Google, and typed in The Academic Express for Young Scholars of Washington. I hit enter. “1,236,973 results in 0.332 seconds,” the computer bragged. I scrolled down to the first result. “Buy Brainblast! It’s the academic game for young scholars!” Nope. All the results were basically the same. “Academic monkey spells scholar!” Wow. I typed what I had previously typed but put it in quotes. Now there was one, and only one, result. I clicked on it. Immediately the screen filled with color. Then, words began appearing so slowly it seemed as if they were coming by magic. After about a minute, all the words had assembled in neat, orderly lines. The title of the page was, “The Academic Express for Young Scholars”. I scrolled down and saw that the school was built in 1953. It had previously been a mansion, then renovated into the largest hotel in the Northwest States in 1974.Then it had finally been renovated into its current form in 1986. The school was for grades 6-12, with two buildings for each grade. Each building had ten sections and every section had around 30 kids. I did the math. 7200 kids!? How big could this place be? I scrolled down the screen, hoping this was some kind of joke. In the sixth grade alone there were 600 kids! How was this possible? Why had I never heard of this school? At the bottom of the screen it said, “Lick Dan fresher after reeth sticks.” Huh? Do people talk differently in Washington? Am I expected to lick Dan fresher so he’s fresher after a wreath is made of sticks or something? Maybe this was some prank site and wasn’t actually the school site. That would make perfect sense. I was about to get off the computer when I scrolled over the words, Lick Dan Fresher after Reeth Sticks. The pointer on my computer transformed into a shape that looked like a triangle divided in half vertically and horizontally by a line, with a circle around where those lines intersected. These words are a hyperlink! I excitedly clicked the words, seeking the answers to my questions, but was disappointed when all that happened was the computer started saying, “Tick, tock, tick, tock,” sounding like the metronome I had to use when I attempted to play the piano. The tick-tocking went on for about a half of a minute, and then stopped. I clicked the words again. The same thing happened. Feeling discouraged, I turned off the computer and went downstairs.




    Downstairs, it smelled horrible. I gagged and wondered how anything so foul smelling had ever gotten into my house. I rushed into the kitchen. Basically everything in our fridge (ketchup, baking soda, mustard, pickles, syrup, my birthday cake, sauerkraut, and loads of other things) was lying all over the floor, counter, and everywhere else you looked. There were smears on the walls, the trashcan was overflowing, and in the center of it all was my sister, blender in hand, standing in front of the biggest bowl she could find, the punchbowl. In the punchbowl was everything that was all over the kitchen, plus some non-edible things. “WHAT ARE YOU DOING?” I yelled at the top of my voice. This got my mom running into the kitchen. “Now Rosa, try not to be as messy.” After a lot of talking, I understood that my sister had decided she wanted to cook something in this house before we moved. She had made a huge fuss and eventually got what she wanted. Mom said she figured that Rosa would be out of her hair as she packed anyways. After this conversation, Rosa said she was done, and made another huge fuss until my mom had finally let her cook her meal, which Rosa called The Rosa Delight. I took the huge bowl and tossed it into the oven. I put it on 325 degrees and told Rosa that we would cook it for a half hour. My mom said that she had to go and get cleaning detergent and I was forced to clean up the kitchen, at least as much as I could without detergent. I sighed, told Rosa to help, and started picking up the food. My mom told me to throw it all away because we didn’t need it anyways. BBQ sauce, leftovers, Chinese food, chicken, all into the trash. I kept picking things up, scarcely standing the stench. Then, Rosa started about her eyes stinging from onions. I ushered her into the bathroom.




    When I walked into the bathroom, I was surprised to see that the usually messy room was spotless. Mom again. Rosa managed to make a total mess of the bathroom. She spilled soap on the floor and let the sink overflow. After that, she said she had to, “Go”.




    Standing in the dim hallway, I realized the temperature was a lot warmer than usual. I ran upstairs, grabbed the phone, dialed Mom’s cell number, and waited while it rang. One ring. Two rings. Three rings. “Hello?” “Hi mom. I just wanted to tell you that the house feels really warm,” I said. “Oh, I had the cooling turned off already, “she replied. “MATT!” Rosa screamed. I quickly told my mom that I had to go and rushed down the stairs. When I made it back to the bathroom, I saw that it had been filled with water. “The toilet overflowed!” She said, like it made the situation any better. “Can you do anything without making a completer mess?” I asked despairingly. I was about to go get some paper towels when the fire alarm went off. “What now?” I sighed. Then I smelled smoke. I remembered the heat. All my internal alarms went off. I ran into the kitchen and knew that there was fire. I peeked in and saw the flames hungrily eating the kitchen, licking the ceiling. I breathed in the suffocating smoke and ran back to the bathroom. I grabbed Rosa and told her that there was a fire. She immediately started crying. I thought about our house’s layout and knew that the only safe way out was the back door. I spun around and ran down the hallway, coughing. I was about ten feet away from the back door when the ceiling right in front of me collapsed inward, blocking my escape. The fire had already spread around the house! Suddenly, the hallway carpet caught on fire and started burning towards me. I remembered reading in a survival magazine that if you put a wet towel over your head that you can run through small amounts of fire. This didn’t really classify as a small fire, but it was our only hope. The book had also said in large, bold letters: DON’T TRY THIS AT HOME! Sorry. I went into the bathroom, grabbed two towels, and ran to turn on the sink. Just then, the fire burnt through the wall where the sink was. The cement and wood smashed to the ground with a deafening crash. Sparks flew everywhere and caught one of my towels on fire. I threw it to the ground and turned to run. The fire had already crept up the hallway to the bathroom doorway! I looked down and saw the water from the mess Rosa had made. I knelt down and made the towel as wet as I could. I stood up and threw the towel over Rosa and me. I shook my head to clear the dizziness that was coming in. The weight of Rosa, the heat, and the smoke were getting to me. I readied myself and jumped into the hungry flames. The pain was unbelievable! I felt like I had been thrown into heck. I felt like I had been cut, soaked in a sea of boiling vinegar, and thrown into the sun. I blindly turned left and ran. I felt like I was dead. I didn’t know where I was. Just then, the towel burnt through and I was plunged into pain far worse than what I had already endured. “I NEED WATER, I NEED WATER!” I screamed like a madman. Suddenly, when I thought I was done for, all hopes erased, a tidal wave of water erupted from the ceiling. In a straight line to the nearest door, the water came, giving me a path to freedom. I ran my heart out and flung myself through the door. I ran across my yard and collapsed in a heap. The last thing I remembered was welcoming the darkness.