'You've got to be kidding me...'
Mmanuell really thought that whole diversion would have bought him a little more time than thirty seconds, but here we are. Miss Komodia is blocking the way out of the storage room, leant up against the doorframe and looking down at Mmanuell with jaded eyes as her signature style of Lava Magic, sticky, scatter-jack-shaped globs of magma, adhere to and return the spilt contents of the confiscation chest back where they "belong". But this can not be! These belong to the people!!! Such injustice cannot be suffered to stand.
Mmanuell picks himself up and dusts his clothes off, nearly buckling over from the pressure of failure and the heat from Miss' Magic. It's not looking good- Mmanuell is in check. BUT! He does still have a final trick up his sleeve. Mmanuell's gotta make the right move here otherwise it'll all comes crumbling down in a very not-stylish manner. The heat from his teacher's Magic was beginning to melt the splotches of ink covering her face and clothes, making them glisten a deep, crimson red as they soaked deeper into and further stained her attire.
'Give me the key. Get out. Wait in the corridor with Kkele. I am only going to say this once.' The carpet of glowing tacks on the floor bounced in sync with Miss' voice as she ordered Mmanuell to stop his foolishness.
Okay, calm down Mmanuell. Could I still try and make a run for it? If I can distract Miss long enough to entrust the rest of the mission to Ssamuell, that could work.
Mmanuell wipes the sweat from his brow and runs his hand back across his fro-hawk, 'Sorry Miss, but I can't do that. Last day of school, gotta end on a high note, you know how it gets!-' Mmanuell explosively breaks into a sprint and attempts to jump past Miss and over her field hazards, but barely manages to take a single step before the swarm of sticky-jacks schooled together and formed a wall directly in front of him.
This did not dissuade Mmanuell in the least, who then attempts to juke around the Magic of a well-practised adult...by hot-stepping from side to side. He moves left? It moves left. He moves right? So too does it follow. Mmanuell kicks off of a shelf and tries jumping over Miss' head? Her Magic flashes white-hot with rage and nearly burns him on the way down.
Okay, okay! Damn! Let's try this then. Mmanuell eases back and slowly puts his hands in the air, loosely twirling the confiscation chest key around a finger as he does so. Miss is locked on, Mmanuell can see her sticky-jacks melding together into a hand, hovering into position to snatch the key from him, but before she can Mmanuell (INCREDIBLY LUCKILY) slams down the confiscation chest's lid, inserts the key and locks it shut in one swift motion.
'Okay, I've had enough', Miss sighs and her hand of magma splits in two, closing in on Mmanuell to pick him up and carry him to the headmaster's office herself (Mmanuell actually finds it quite fun), but before she gets anywhere near him, Mmanuell slips a hand into his back pocket and holds the other one out towards Miss in a "stop" gesture, warning her to stay back.
'I surrender! Stop! Please, I- nooooo(!)', he wheezes in an overly dramatic voice.
Miss puts her hands in her pockets and uses a Magic one to pinch her eyes. 'Then do what I said, Mmanuell. Take the key out of your pocket and give it to me.'
Huh? Give you the key? Pfft- Alright, yeah- yeah take it...Pf-HAAAAA you dumbfuck!!
'Alright! Here you go!', Mmanuell singsongs as he reaches into his back pocket and pulls out one of two keys. That's right, one of two keys! Mmanuell has a replica of the confiscation chest's key (shoddily cut by yours truly) as a decoy... purchased from the exact same store the chest itself was bought from...the only shop...in the entire town.
Miss Komodia uses a hand formed out of appreciatively colder Lava Magic to pinch the "key" (wink-wink-nudge-nudge) from Mmanuell's grasp then gently places her real hand, still ink-stained from the diversion, onto Mmanuell's back and points towards the classroom door.
'Get. Out.'
Mmanuell nods and fixes his gaze to the floor. He's on the verge of bursting into maniacal laughter, but the entire plan is at risk of crumbling into piece if he lets the wrong kind of tone slip; Mmanuell must stay his elation, for there is still one more part of the plan to carry out before victory is assured. The rest of the kids in class all ran back to their seats and watched Mmanuell being escorted out of the class, paralysed out of fear of being the next target of Miss' ire if they so much as breathe wrong. A bunch of scapegoating snakes, they are. If Miss wasn't standing right in front of him, Mmanuell would have stepped on their toes for being too spineless to help him out. This just goes to show that besides Kkele, there's only one other kid in town that Mmanuell can truly rely on:
Come on, Ssamuell! I told you not to skip school today, where are you? There are only twenty children in Mmanuell's class and Ssamuell sticks out like a sore thumb, yet he's nowhere to be seen. One last Morbin' sweep across the room and...he's not here, great. Somehow just disappeared during the hour between doing the register and now. Mmanuell lifts his head in disappointment and-
Oh, never mind, there he is. Forgot he can fly.
Now only a few feet away from the door, Mmanuell finally spots the next vital player: a short Inani boy with an afro larger than his head, sitting atop a cloud of camouflaged Steam Magic and reading a novel thicker than all the books they've read in class combined, floating in the corner of the ceiling. He's ignoring Mmanuell, most likely already forgetting his role as backup in the BIGGEST SCHEME THEY'VE PLANNED IN DAYS.
Now, the only problem Mmanuell has to solve is how he is going to get the key into Ssamuell's possession when 1) he's not paying attention 2) he's 20 feet in the air 3) Mmanuell is already halfway through the door and time is running out. Mmanuell's GODDAMN GATES haven't grown in yet so using Magic to send it up there isn't an option...so how is he going to do it? Throw it? But if he hits his hand on the doorframe whilst making the throw then Miss will definitely notice...
It doesn't matter: Every second spent thinking about it is a second wasted not doing it, and there's no time to spare! I'll just throw it! I swear to Ethraksha, Sam, I hope you remember the rest of the plan! With mere inches to spare, MmanueIl flicks his wrist with all the strength he can muster and sends the key spinning through the air, rustling the coloured drawings pinned up on the wall as it whizzed by...and landed right into Ssamuell's face, knocking him off of his cloud with a gasp and a thud.
Contact! Success! Mission Complete!
Taking his final step before exiting the classroom, Mmanuell turns back to observe the absolute state he left it in. Destruction, disarray, and another day of disrupted learning. Nice. The Water Magic incident probably left a few of the other children a bit shell-shocked, though in his defence that has nothing to do with him. Kkele's Magic = Kkele's fault. Kkele =/= Mmanuell. Mmanuell doesn't care.
Mmanuell turns his back on his peers and melodramatically waves himself off, the faux tears streaming from his eyes rippling against the very fabric of reality as they solemnly hit the ground.
Ssamuell, you truly are a reliable guy. I'm truly glad I was born in this town and met you. And...good grief, I made it in time. I may be going away now, but I've played my part. That key...it holds our future...and that future, now rests in your hands, Sam. It's up to you now. My fate may be sealed, but it doesn't end here. In life, you have to look out for your friends. If there's a burden that needs bearing, put your foot forward and bear it...because that's your crew, and you never abandon your crew. Me? Heh, well...I'm off to go bear that burden...
'I'll see you later, crazy cats...'
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Hopefully Mmanuell only gets suspended this time.
