The Adventures of Lanny and Louis
Lanny and Louis had been best friends since they were in 1st grade and Lanny had accidentally knocked a giant tub of glitter into Louis’s hair and Louis took a big handful of it and threw it at Lanny. It was the start of a beautiful friendship.
Lanny loved to read. She wanted to be a book reviewer when she was older. Sadly, Lanny was so focused on reading she sometimes neglected her schoolwork. But mostly, she neglected exercise. Lanny loved to eat, too, so she was a little chubby. But everyone still loved her, because she had this great personality. She was always making people laugh and she was very understanding of other people’s problems. She had these big green eyes that were always bright and really thick, curly hair. She kind of looked like someone easy to pick on, but she defiantly wasn’t. Lanny was a tough cookie.
Louis looked like the complete opposite. He was tall and skinny, a trait of being on the swim team. He wasn’t all that funny, but he had a nice personality and everyone loved him. He also had really nice hair, which everyone was always messing up. He was the kind of person who was picked on, but he didn’t mind. Most of the time, Lanny protected him. They needed each other. Louis needed Lanny to protect him while Lanny needed Louis to confide in.
Louis often called Lanny “Bigfoot” because he thought her feet were big, while Lanny called him “Pinhead” because with all his hair, his head looked kind of small…to her, anyway.
Lanny and Louis always walked home from high school. They would almost always stop for Dairy Queen on their way home, even if it was snowing out. It was tradition. The two would chat about their day and flick sprinkles at each other. It was one of their favorite times of the day. But just as they were crossing the street…
…a strange thing happened.
Lanny was walking in front, with Louis behind. They were crossing just as the light turned yellow. But a car, trying to make the light, sped up.
It hit both Lanny and Louis.
The car stopped and a young woman got out, looking horrified. She stood out among the dark-haired people getting out of their cars, rushing to the scene of the accident, since she was blond. She had turned rather pale, and her hands were shaking. She kind of collapsed on her knees and just stared into space.
Her name was Griffy Fenrir. She had just moved to this small town from the big city of New York.
Her life, and the life of Lanny and Louis, was changed forever.
* * *
Lanny and Louis both survived the accident. Neither of them was seriously injured, but they were weak for weeks afterward, and just lay in bed for hours at a time. They were in the hospital for three long weeks before being sent home under the orders “don’t do anything to stressful for another three weeks, at least.” This included school.
All but one of their teachers let their missing school slide. The one was Mr. O’ Malley. He taught Geometry at the high school were Lanny and Louis attended. He believed that “the world stopped for nobody”. He didn’t bother to offer to tutor them, visit them at home, or even send their homework home with anybody. He expected Lanny and Louis to know everything they missed.
But things were changing, and Mr. ‘O Malley was going exactly what he deserved.
* * *
On Lanny and Louis’s triumphant return back, they discovered something rather odd. A woman was in Mr. ‘O Malley’s classroom. A woman with blond hair. Lanny and Louis kind of gaped at her. She gaped at them right back.
Ms. Griffy Fenrir got up and unexpectedly hugged each of them, almost causing Lanny to drop the large cake she had been holding.
“I’m so glad you two are alright. I am so, so, so sorry I hit you two. It was horrible. I’m so used to New York City traffic; I wasn’t expecting anybody to come in front of me. I’m glad you two are okay. They said since I had just moved, and neither of you were seriously injured, I was off the hook. But I still felt so bad!” All her words came out in a jumble.
Lanny and Louis had seen Griffy from a distance, but they hadn’t talked to her. While Griffy talked at them, the just stared at her, surprised. Eventually, she stopped, not because she wanted to, but because she had to. Mr. ‘O Malley had walked into the room.
He wasn’t particularly scary. Griffy was just nervous, because it was her first day as a student teacher and she wanted to make a good impression. None of his students were afraid of him.
They just hated him.
He was a horrible teacher. He didn’t explain things. He didn’t care about his students. He just kind of taught them stuff without paying attention to anybody’s questions. He was also one of the evilest teachers in the school.
On this particular day, while Ms. Fenrir shuffled papers at her desk in the corner, ‘O Malley took one look at Lanny and Louis and semi-threw two giant stacks of paper at them.
“Make this up by next Monday,” he said. Lanny glared at him, ready to say something mean, but Louis kicked her and kind of pushed her into her seat. She sat and glared at the teacher. Louis pulled the cake off her desk and put it on his. He was going to start cutting pieces for everyone. Not only was it their first day back, but it was also Lanny’s birthday.
Of course, Mr. ‘O Malley swooped down and snatched the cake from Louis’s hands.
“Sugar is bad for you!” the teacher said. Then he wrote a page number on the board and began to eat the cake. That was the last straw for Lanny. She got up and looked like she was about to beat the crap out of Mr. ‘O Malley. She swallowed her anger and began to head for the door.
“Hey!” Mr ‘O Malley cried. He got up and tried to grab Lanny’s arm. But he never got there. He was thrown into the wall and pinned there by a desk. Louis had pushed it at him to try and stop him from touching Lanny, but he didn’t think he had pushed it that hard.
Ms. Fenrir got up from the back of the classroom, looking kind of shocked. All the kids in the classroom got up and left. Lanny and Louis stayed behind, glaring at ‘O Malley. Ms. Fenrir walked out the door, motioning for the two to follow her. She walked out the doors of the school and leaned against a tree. Lanny and Louis followed her without really thinking.
She stood against the tree for a minute, her face still.
“So you two realize what you have?” she finally said under her breath.
Lanny and Louis exchanged worried glances.
“Are you all right?” Louis asked.
“I’m fine. It’s you who aren’t.” She stood up, away from the tree. “Lanny, I want you to jump.” Lanny looked at Ms. Fenrir strangely. “Just do it,” Louis whispered to her. Lanny jumped.
She flew up into the tree, touched the top and smacked her leg on a branch on the way down. She lay on the ground, kind of stunned. Ms. Fenrir continued talking as if nothing had happened.
“I’ve already saw what you did to Mr ‘O Malley, Louis, so I won’t ask you to knock the tree over.” She picked Lanny up the ground and looked both of them in the eye. “You two have taken away my superpowers.”
Louis began apologizing at once.
Griffy waved her hands. “It’s not your fault. You see, when I hit you with my car, I gave my superpowers to you.”
There was a long silence.
“This is gonna be fun,” Lanny said under her breath.
* * *
Things went crazy for our two heroes at that point. Training with Ms. Fenrir was hard, but it was even harder now that she had taken over math class. Mr. ‘O Malley had been fired for “disorderly contact” and “complaints from students and teachers alike about your horrible teaching skills.” Rumors were flying about where he was and what he was doing now, but only Ms. Fenrir knew.
“He does nothing. He just sits at home, wasting money and not looking for a new job. I think he might be planning something. We need to speed up your training.” Lanny moaned when she heard this.
One day, after training, Lanny and Louis were walking home when the ambush happened. Mr ‘O Malley flew down from the sky and slammed Louis to the ground.
You see, ‘O Malley had superpowers, too.
Lanny ran up and kicked him and punched him until he got off Louis, who immediately kicked him so hard he flew into a tree and knocked it over. Lanny jumped into the air and landed on top of him, knocking ‘O Malley’s breath away. He flew up in the air and glared at the two of them.
“I will have my revenge!!” he yelled, then flew off into the clouds.
Lanny and Louis looked at the sky in silence for a moment.
“This could be a problem,” Louis said.
“Ya think?” Lanny replied back.
* * *
It seemed to the duo that ‘O Malley had threatened them with nothing; that he wasn’t planning anything. At least, they thought that until two weeks after they had seen him.
Instead of Ms. Fenrir walking into the room, a stern looking old lady who called herself “Mrs. Murphy” walked in, glaring at the students, who immediately quieted down. She was just as bad a teacher as Mr. ‘O Malley. Lanny and Louis exchanged worried glances.
At the end of the day, on the way to their lockers, Lanny saw something taped to hers. She opened it as Louis looked over her shoulder.
To Lanny and Louis,
I have your precious teacher. Meet me at Fireflower Field when the clock tolls twelve. If you are not there, you will never see her again.
‘O Malley
Louis began to fret immediately after reading this.
“What are we going to do, Lanny??”
Lanny folded up the paper calmly. “We’re going to give him the fight that he wants.”
* * *
They met at the field at noon. ‘O Malley and an unconscious Griffy were on the left side of the field, while Lanny and Louis were at the other end. Only the large field of red flowers separated them. Lanny and Louis didn’t really have a plan. They knew ‘O Malley would kill them if given the chance, so they knew they had to get him first.
Lanny made the first move. She jumped into the air, but ‘O Malley flew up and slammed her to the ground, his hands around her neck. She kicked and punched him, but he kept choking her. Louis came to her rescue and pushed him off her. But ‘O Malley just pushed Louis away. He only had eyes for Lanny.
Lanny get fighting and fighting, but she was getting weaker and weaker. Louis was covered with bruises for everytime ‘O Malley had pushed him away. He kept trying to get to Lanny, to save her, to for once be her protector, but ‘O Malley had some kind of force field around him; whenever Louis got close he was pushed away.
In almost all stories, the good guy always wins.
Not in this story.
‘O Malley shoved Lanny to the ground, smashing her head against a rock. Louis made a dash towards him, and slammed into ‘O Malley. But ‘O Malley just stood there, laughing.
“She is already dead,” he said to Louis.
That’s when Louis screamed, and used up the last of his might to smash Mr. ‘O Malley into a rock.
Then all was black.
* * *
Thankfully, Griffy has woken up in time to be able to tie up ‘O Malley, but it was to late for Lanny.
She was gone.
Louis locked himself in his room for three days. No sounds came out, no screams, no crying, no smashing furniture. He only came out for meals and such. After three days, he went back to school. He was quiet; he didn’t talk to anyone and he looked at his feet. Griffy finally, one day, went up to him.
He looked up from his feet and started deep into her eyes. She was taken aback; she had not expected to see so much sadness in just one’s person eyes. But Lanny had been his other half, of course he was sad.
“It’s not my fault, is it, Ms. Fenrir?” he asked, tearfully.
She hugged him, and they stayed together for a minute or so.
She whispered into his hair. “It’s nobody’s fault. It’s nobody’s fault.”
THE END