Emma and the Minotaur Read Free Page B

said.
    The next morning, during attendance, Emma kept her eyes fixed on the suspected wizard. He was plain, and hard to notice. The boy was slunked down on his seat, but not so much that it would draw attention from the teacher. His hair was neat and his clothes were clean, if a bit faded. As Miss Robins called out the names of the students, the boy sat perfectly still and avoided looking at the teacher.
    “Collins, Suzanne,” Miss Robins said, and the girl who sat behind him raised her hand.
    “Close!” whispered Emma, but then she realized that was silly.
    The teacher went on down the D’s and the E’s and so on.
    “Grieger, Eric.”
    Another boy raised his hand. There was also “Johns, Jeff” and “Laurier, Molly” and other names that were familiar to Emma from previous years. Even when Miss Robins got to her name, way down the list, Emma didn’t stop looking at the boy. She raised her hand and barked a swift, “Present!”
    “Good,” Miss Robins said. “Everyone’s here.” She walked back to her desk and put her clipboard down.
    “What?” Emma said.
    “Emma, is there a problem?”
    Everyone was looking at her. She hadn’t meant to shout. Even the wizard boy was watching her. She hadn’t taken her eyes off him during all of attendance. She was sure that his name simply hadn’t been called.
    “Do you people even see him?” Emma said, still more loudly than she intended. “Is he invisible too?”
    “Emma, settle down,” said Miss Robins. “Who are you talking about?”
    “Him!” she said and stood up and pointed at the boy. Her hand hit her notebook and it flipped up and hit the boy in front of her in the back of the head. Jeff Johns turned to glare at her as he rubbed his neck.
    “Emma Wilkins!” Miss Robins said. “Sit down right this minute. That’s one strike for disturbing the class!”
    Over on the side of the room, on the wall, there was a poster board with the word “STRIKES” written at the top of it. The rest of it was blank but Miss Robins took a permanent marker and wrote on it:
     
    EMMA WILKENS: X
     
    Emma was mortified in equal amounts by being the first one on the Strike Board and by the misspelling of her last name. She tried to protest but the teacher hushed her down and threatened to give her another strike immediately if she didn’t stop talking.
    She pressed her lips together into a thin line to keep herself from speaking. She reasoned that at least now she knew that the boy was, in fact, a wizard and there was a strong indication that she was the only one who could see him. She was more determined than ever to find out his secrets and question him about the disappearance of Andrew Milligan.
    The chase went on that same way for the next day. Emma didn’t give up trying to catch the boy but he always got away from her somehow. He was always in the classroom before she got there and he always rushed out before she could catch up to him. He wasn’t in the cafeteria during lunch time.
    On Thursday morning, the boy didn’t show up at school at all and his desk stood empty. Emma raised her hand.
    “Yes?”
    “May I go to the bathroom?”
    Miss Robins nodded and continued her lesson. Emma stood up. On her way out, she paused in front of the boy’s desk. Suzie Collins gave her a quizzical look.
    “Are you here?” Emma whispered at the empty chair. She waited a moment but, when there was no answer, she waved her hand through the air above it. “Oh, alright,” she said and looked up to see a look of puzzlement on Suzie’s face.
    “Emma,” said Miss Robins. “Are you going to the bathroom or are you just going to stand there all day?”
    Emma ran out of the room.
     
    The worst time of the day at the Wilkins household, as Emma saw it, was right after dinner because it was the time for violin practice. Mr Wilkins, being a physicist, idolized Albert Einstein. Because Einstein had played the violin, he was trying to learn to play it as well.
    Emma was sitting in