A Normal School Day

Andrew yawned as he pulled on his hoodie, rubbing sleep from his eyes. The morning light streamed through the window, making the scattered circuit boards and half-finished gadgets on his desk gleam. He stretched, then turned toward Onyx, who hovered near the ceiling like a lazy balloon, blinking slowly.

"Don't look at me like that," Andrew muttered, stuffing books into his backpack. "Just because yesterday was quiet doesn’t mean today won’t be."

Onyx’s eyes narrowed slightly, and he gave a slow, deliberate blink.

Andrew snorted. "Yeah, yeah, I know. ‘Normal never lasts long.’" He zipped up his bag and slung it over his shoulder. "You staying here?"

Onyx bobbed slightly, blinking once.

"Right. Guard the house, monitor signals, and don’t mess with my laptop again."

A very intentional blink.

Andrew gave him a pointed look before rushing out the door, grabbing a slice of toast on the way.

The morning passed without a hitch. Math was

mind-numbing

, history was

long-winded

, and lunch was

adequate

—all signs of a perfectly normal school day.

Then came science.

Andrew walked into the hallway, adjusting the strap on his backpack, when a murmur of voices caught his attention. A cluster of students stood near the science room, whispering with raised eyebrows and curious glances.

“What’s going on?” he asked, nudging a kid from his class.

“Didn’t you hear?” The boy looked excited, like he was sharing a juicy secret. “Science is canceled. Mr. Thompson’s missing.”

Andrew blinked. “What do you mean…

missing

?”

“Like,

gone

. Just

poof

—never showed up today. Office says no one knows where he is.”

A strange unease settled in Andrew’s stomach. Mr. Thompson wasn’t the kind of teacher to just

not show up

. He was always there, early, setting up experiments, scribbling formulas across the whiteboard before anyone even walked in.

“So, no class?” Andrew asked, trying to sound casual.

The boy shrugged. “Nope. Free period, I guess.”

The crowd dispersed, but Andrew lingered, his mind racing. Teachers didn’t just

disappear

. There had to be a reason. Maybe he was sick. Maybe he had a family emergency.

Or maybe something else happened…

Before he could overthink it, his feet were already moving. He pushed open the door to the empty science room and stepped inside.

The classroom was eerily quiet. Without the usual hum of chatter, the scraping of chairs, or the bubbling sounds of experiments.

Andrew’s gaze swept over the tables, the neat rows of microscopes, the shelves lined with chemical bottles. Everything was perfectly in place. Then, he noticed something.

A single object sat on Mr. Thompson’s desk.

Andrew frowned and walked closer.

It wasn’t a book, or a stack of graded papers, or any kind of lab equipment he recognized. It was small, metallic, almost like a palm-sized cube, but with strange, intricate markings on its surface. As he reached out and picked it up, it felt oddly warm.

“Okay… this is weird.”

Andrew turned it over in his hands. Was it some kind of scientific tool? A forgotten experiment?

Or something else entirely?

A tiny ripple of energy buzzed beneath his fingertips.

Andrew’s pulse quickened.

Could it be… alien?

His mind raced through possibilities. Was Mr. Thompson studying something

he wasn’t supposed to

? Did

aliens

take him?

He shook his head. “Let’s not jump to conclusions.”

Andrew glanced around the empty classroom. No one was watching.

Making a split-second decision, he slipped the object into his backpack.

If there was a mystery here, he wasn’t about to leave it unsolved.

And if this

was

alien?

Onyx was going to have a lot of explaining to do.