Avis Blackthorn and the Magical Multicolour Jumper (The Wizard Magic School Series, Book 2) by Jack Simmonds Page A

damage to my back.”
    Robin was so white and pale that he resembled some kind of transparent fish, you could almost see all his organs. “Put it away before you blind me,” I chuckled.
    “Oi! Don’t say that, I don’t like taking my shirt off in public, you’ll ruin my confidence…” he scorned.
     
    I couldn’t help but let out a long and extremely satisfying ahhhhhh noise as I got into bed and stretched. It felt better than anything. The soft crisp sheets, the lighter than air pillow and mattress, the laying down of all those tired muscles. Robin was asleep and snoring almost immediately, but I lay wallowing in the beautiful relaxed feeling that now swept over me. The orange embers sparking lightly in the fireplace, casting a dim orange glow around the room as the lights outside the window from nearby towns flickered in the distance. I wondered dreamily about Tina — something seemed different about her this year and I couldn’t put my finger on it. Before I knew it, the white haired girl from the Snare’s form jumped into my mind — a small wriggling feeling in my stomach writhed. Sweet sleep gently drifted over me. Even when the others slowly limped into the room and went to bed, I hardly stirred.
    Zzzz …
    A channeller pendant just like mine waved in front of my face in a hypnotic fashion. My Granddad’s gaunt, lined face turned twice around on it’s axis and began laughing silently at me, his mouth opening black and huge, like a tunnel. Then Tina, standing at the end of the tunnel, in the light, looked up and saw me, but then, she looked straight through me as if I wasn’t there. Before, a giant crashing sound echoed around us, as the tunnel rumbled and fell on top of her and she disappeared in a flash of smoke. And then screaming…
    I woke with a start and looked around. Everyone was sitting up in bed peering through the darkness. “What is it?” I said through the gloom.
    Jake leant forwards. “‘Der was a noise outside, did you ‘hear the crashing noise?”
    “I heard it! Nearly scared me half to death!” Hunter cried.
    “Came from over there,” Robin pointed out the window. I shook the dreamy sleep away and pulled my legs out of bed. Or I tried to. They were thick with pain, I couldn’t help but yelp.
    “What is it?” said Dennis pulling his sheets closer.
    Simon snorted. “Not another ghost was it?” He was a git, just because a ghost had scared me in my sleep last year, he never shut up about it.
    “No. If your gonna get out of bed, do it slowly…” I said, slowly edging myself out from the covers.
    “Where are you going?” said Graham.
    “To see what the noise was.” The dorm above us must have heard the noise as well as small thuds echoed about our room. “Come on.” I said to them, marching over to the curtain and gently drawing it back. Jake and Robin joined me — just off in the distance the lights leading down the path to the Riptide stadium were lit… illuminating utter devastation ahead. We all gasped, plumes of dust were spilling into the air over huge piles of strutting wood.
    “Oh no …” said Jake in a terrified voice.
    Hunter jumped up, before yelping. “What is it?” he called.
    “It’s…” I couldn’t say.
    Robin, who was blinking rapidly at the sight without his glasses on cried: “The bloody Riptide stadium has collapsed!” Simon and Graham, still in bed, looked to me and Jake to confirm, maybe they thought Robin couldn’t see properly without his glasses on.
    “It’s completely demolished,” I said.
    “Is anyone out there?” said Simon. I scanned around but couldn’t see anyone.
    “What’s the time?” said Jake, looking at the clock on the fireplace. “Nearly four ,” he said, as if this added to the mystery.
    Simon sniffed. “Who would be out there destroying the Riptide Stadium at four in the morning? Surely they’d have been spotted by the Occulus’s?”
    “Doesn’t have to be someone from the school does it?” said