Page 53 of With the Potion in the Courtyard

The man shook his head. "We’ll be leaving then, but we expect a full accounting on our desk, Mr. Vanderflit."

"Of course," Mr. Vanderflit said.

The hunters turned and disappeared, and the circle around us closed. No one seemed to care the least bit about the hunters, they just seemed happy to see us. Which I tried not to be annoyed about. They did seem to turn from hating me to liking me on a dime though.

Mr. Vanderflit stepped up next, his eyes twinkling with curiosity beneath his fiery-red hair. "One thing still puzzles me, Jaylyn. Cendi's name was found in the courtyard. Canyou explain that?"

"Her name?" Jaylyn blinked in surprise. "I didn't write it. I saw it there and was curious about why it was written. When I went to look, I tripped, and suddenly I was in Doodle."

"Really?" Mr. Vanderflit said, stroking his chin thoughtfully.

"Strange as it sounds," I said. "None of us planned to end up in that world."

"Indeed," he nodded slowly. "Well, the important thing is you're all here now. Let's make sure such accidents are avoided in the future."

"Agreed," I said, breathing a sigh of relief. We were home.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

The first thingthey had to do was close the portal Jaylyn had gone through. Only a tiny sliver of it had remained open, which we’d just so happened to fall into, but no one had known to look for that kind of magic because portal jumpers are so rare.

Mr. Vanderflit worked with Jaylyn to show her how to close it, and the other students cheered when it was done. It seemed that the whole school was relieved that we didn’t have another dangerous person among us.

When it was done, Mr. Vanderflit looked around the courtyard. "One thing doesn't make sense."

"What?" I asked.

"The statues. They're broken, everywhere. Why?"

Jaylyn ducked her head. "Yeah, that was me, too. When the portal opened, it sliced through one of them." She pointed to a statue of a griffin. "See how clean that cut is? The top of it fell over, and it caused a domino effect."

"Ahh, I see, I see." Mr. Vanderflit peered through his glasses and began muttering to himself, his nose nearly on top of the griffin statue.

"I’m glad everyone is happy," Jessie said to the three of us. "But I’m starving. Care to sneak away?"

"That sounds amazing," Jaylyn said.

My stomach grumbled as I followed Jessie's lead away from the others. All the students remained in the courtyard, talking excitedly. I even saw a few of them acting out our big battle.

"Hold on!" Mr. Vanderflit called, hurrying up to us as he glanced between the other students and us. "I don’t want to pry, but the four of you are swimming in power. Is there anything you want to tell me?"

It was Robbie who answered. "We found a room full of powerful objects in the Lizard Wizard’s lair."

Mr. Vanderflit nodded. "Things I suspect were stolen, given the fact that I can sense some are from our world."

"Really?" I asked, shocked.

"Yes." Mr. Vanderflit hesitated. "I won’t take them from you, but I do suggest you put them in my office, so we can figure out which ones are safe and which ones are dangerous. And because, well, we wouldn’t want any of the objects to fall in the wrong hands."

We readily agreed and went to his office to unload all our stolen goods. Which each item we placed on his desk and tables, his eyes widened. It wasn’t until I put the key on the table that he picked it up eagerly.

"Do you recognize that key?" I asked.

"It’s from our academy," he said in a hushed voice.

We waited for him to say more, but he didn’t. After exchanging another glance, we left him, eager to eat and rest after our long journey.

In the halls, Jessie leaned in, a strange look on her face. "I need to talk to you tonight,after we've eaten and showered, it's very important. Meet me back in the courtyard," Jessie said, her gaze locking onto each of ours.