Taken Over by Z. Fraillon Page A

wrenched back by the hood of his jumper. He felt himself lifted up and spun slowly around. The Bruno look-alike held Jasper at least a foot off the ground. He pressed his nose against Jasper’s. ‘You’re McPhee, aren’t you?’
    Jasper gulped, ‘Um, well,’ he began. Being suspended in the air by a hoodie was really quite uncomfortable.
    The prefect dropped Jasper to the ground. ‘My brother told me all about you,’ he sneered, and shoved Jasper out of the food hall and into the corridor, where they were alone. No-one could help him now.



2
    Jasper closed his eyes. Bruno’s brother! He was going to die. And if this guy was anything like Bruno, it would be a long and painful death.
    Jasper hated the prefects at Monstrum House. They were probably the worst thing at this place, which was saying a lot. The monsters were dangerous, the teachers were definitely creepy, but the prefects were just nasty.
    Jasper had been to plenty of schools. He’d been expelled countless times. But he’d never been to a school like this – with prefects who wanted to beat you up, teachers who could read your thoughts, and monsters all over the place. But perhaps the weirdest thing about Monstrum House was that of all the schools Jasper had been to, this was his favourite. At least, it had been until now.
    â€˜Sorry,’ Jasper tried.
    â€˜So am I,’ the prefect scoffed. ‘Sorry I wasn’t here to see it.’ Then the prefect grabbed Jasper’s hand and started shaking it up and down. Jasper felt as though his arm was about to be wrenched from his body.
    â€˜All those years of putting up with Bruno and no-one has ever tried anything like that. Awesome. You’ve got guts. I just wish I’d seen it. Boris, by the way.’
    Jasper’s brain was still trying to catch up with what he was hearing. ‘Um, I’m Jasper. Hi,’ he managed.
    â€˜Bruno is absolutely spewing. He wouldn’t stop going on about it. All holidays he was trying to work out how to get back at you. When I was accepted for my year here, he was stoked. He gave me your picture so I could work out who you were straight away. You should’ve heard all the things he wanted me to do to you.’
    Jasper gulped.
    There were actually two schools called the Monstrum House School for Troubled Children. They both looked the same, but were very different. The Monstrum House everyone knew about was a military school. That’s where parents thought their ‘troubled’ kids were sent to be straightened out.
    But what most people didn’t know was that some of the students were selected to go to another, secret Monstrum House. A Monstrum House where they were taught how to hunt monsters. The two schools didn’t usually have anything to do with each other – except for the fact that the biggest, toughest kids from the military school were sent to the monster-hunting school in their last year to be prefects. That’s why Bruno was at Jasper’s school last year, and why his brother Boris was here now.
    â€˜So tell me everything,’ said Boris. ‘Every detail. I want to –’
    â€˜NOW!’ yelled Saffy, as she and Felix came bursting through the door. Jasper managed to catch a glimpse of Saffy’s furious face before she launched her kickboxing attack into Boris’s stomach. Saffy had a lethal kick. So did Felix.
    â€˜No, it’s OK!’ Jasper shouted, but Felix had already swung his foot up to karate kick Boris in the head.
    â€˜Yikes,’ Felix yelped, hopping backwards as he rubbed his foot.



The last person Felix and Saffy attacked had been knocked out cold, but their kicks bounced off Boris like rubber.
    Boris rubbed his head, looking confused.
    â€˜Are you, um, OK?’ Jasper asked Boris nervously.
    Boris looked at Jasper. ‘Friends of yours?’ he asked quietly.
    Jasper nodded, as Saffy and Felix both shook their heads