Mikhail stared at the door, hanging loose on its hinges and splattered with streaks of neon orange and pink. “A funhouse?”
“Midterms,” Professor Bleekley bellowed cheerfully. “Makes it more interesting, doesn’t it?”
Behind him, Liza clamped her hands over her ears and shook her head. Lefty and George, the fire extinguishers that floated above the djinn’s shoulders slid from side to side in definite agreement.
“You’ll be working in teams,” Professor Akira said gently, her tail bobbing in what Mikhail had learned was a conciliatory manner. “And against another team. Practical applications make a more efficient metric for judging how much you’ve learned so far.”
“Improvements!” Professor Bleekley yelled with obvious glee, his slippers and astronomy robes swirling with the storms of Jupiter. “Continual improvements! It’s the Wizurg Magical Academy way!”
“My clan calls the concept kaizen,” Professor Akira said with a smile. “It lets us tailor next semester. Don’t worry—we keep a close eye on how you’re doing.”
“All you have to do is get through the maze,” Bleekley shouted. “That’s all, boyo, get on with it now, there’s a good lad.”
Liza bounced, her fire extinguishers mimicking the movement. “Let’s go! This is the last exam.”
Mikhail’s movements were positively sluggish as he followed Liza through the brightly colored door. A blinding light stunned his vision, and he was alone after blinking spots away.
Alone, that was, as long as he didn’t count the endless reflections of funhouse mirrors. He tried to avoid meeting his twins’ eyes, digging instead into his bag.
“A maze,” he muttered, and pulled his notebook from his ever-present satchel. He’d sacrifice a page away from magical zoology if it meant finding a clear path out of this carnival of nightmares.
He tried to ignore the flashing of silver in the mirror as he was suddenly surrounded by stainless steel pens. If he looked up, he’d have to admit there was no way out of this room of glass and mirrors.
One of the pens caught his eye, and he made the mistake of looking directly into the face of a twisted version of himself.
His reflection tapped the tip of his pen on his nose and winked, then faded from view.
***
A snippet of something I’m working on, inspired by this week’s prompt of stainless steel pens from Cedar Sanderson.
Want more Mikhail and Liza? Check out Fantastic Middle Schools and Fantastic School Hols!
Want more prompts, to see what Leigh Kimmel did with my suggestion, or to play along? Check out more at MOTE!
