The Lost Defenders

CHAPTER 1

They should be avoided at all costs. Here’s the kicker, though: most people can’t even see monsters. Unfortunately, I can.
Yeah, I know it sounds cool, but trust me whe nI say it isn’t. The worst part is that if you can see them, you kinda feel responsible for whatever trouble they’re causing. I really don’t want to see monsters. I want to play soccer, I want to hang with the cool kids, I want to be normal. But it seems life has other plans for me. I guess I’d better start at the beginning . . .
Since I was little, I’ve seen monsters. I used to be scared, terrified even. Imagine lying in bed and spotting things lurking in the shadows of your room – things that shouldn’t be there, things no one else can see. Mum was scared, too, but not because she believed in monsters. No, she was scared her only son might be losing touch with reality. She even sent me to a psychologist; I stopped talking about it after that.
Then she bought me a puppy. Zilla (named after Godzilla, naturally) made everything better. With him by my side, I was less afraid of the things that went bump in the night.
These days, I’m more annoyed than frightened. Mostly because I get blamed for whatever destruction the monsters create.
So far, in my eleven years, I’ve neutralised exactly three monsters – an ogre, an imp and a giant sandworm – and chased off too many to count.
And by neutralised, I mean I got in a lucky hit and the monsters just kind of dissolved into slime. The worst part? Once they’re gone, whatever hides them from everyone else goes, too. Which leaves me, ankle-deep in goo, taking the blame.
The ogre got me in the worst trouble, by far. It was stomping around behind the school library, seconds away from causing maximum damage. I managed to rig up an awesome booby trap to trip it up, but when it hit the deck, it melted into a pile of stinky green goop – right as the librarian ran outside.
Needless to say, she slipped on the goo and wentdown like a bowling pin. That one earned me a week’s suspension.
Thankfully, rogue ogres are few and far between. It’s usually imps that show up. Imps are small and relatively harmless, but live to cause havoc. Picture this: something knee-high with bug eyes, twitchy wings and a grin that’s just a little too smug. Don’t say it sounds cute. Just don’t. That’s exactly what they want you to think. The stunts they pull look like fun at first, but they don’t end that way. They end with detentions. They end with broken bones. Sometimes, they end with fire and destruction.
But today, everything was going to be different. It was one of the most important days of my life, ever. Day one of my final year at Clover Meadows Primary. I haven’t seen a monster all summer. It’s been faaaan-tastic! You see, I only need to make it through one more year withoutbeing suspended or expelled, and I’ll get to go to the same high school as my best friend, Eli. One more strike, though, and the school won’t take me.
I can’t let that happen.
Which is why I’ve decided to ignore them. Monsters? What monsters? Imps – no such thing as imps! If they show up in class, not my problem. I will concentrate on maths and english and anything else the teachers ask of me. I’m going to be so well behaved they won’t know what’s hit them.
I walked into class and slid into my seat. No one had made it in yet, not even Mr Johannsen. I laid out my pencil tin and brand-new notepad and smiled. Maybe this yearI could actually be the kind of kid to blend in. I was hopeful something had changed. Perhaps monsters had decided Clover Meadows was boring and left for good, or maybe I’d lost the ability to see them. Whatever it was, it was epic. Eli and I had spent the whole summer riding our bikes down by the lake, playing computer games and hanging in my treehouse. Like normal kids.
My class began to file in. As usual, no one said hi to me. I was known as the troublemaker. The weirdo. No one wanted to be seen within a metre of me, like maybe they’d catch detention just by being around me. The only one brave (or maybe foolish) enough to hang out with me was Eli. We’d been friends since kindergarten, back when choosing a mate was more about sharing crayons than survival of the coolest. He was good at sport, a total cyber genius and somehow managed to make teachers laugh instead of sigh. He could’ve had his pick of friends, but for some reason he stuck with me. Now, we have each other’s backs, no matter what, so I counted myself lucky.
Mr Johannsen breezed in. Tall, all elbows and knees, with trousers that always stopped just shy of his ankles. His face was pointy, with sharp angles and wide eyes that made him look permanently surprised. It was the second year in a row I’d landed in his class, which meant I had a lot to prove. He launched into a story about his summer that had the whole room laughing. It felt good to laugh. Everything about the morning felt good.
Until it didn’t . . . I caught sight of movement over by one of the windows. My stomach lurched and my blood ran cold, like I’d swallowed an icy too fast. There, in plain sight by the open window, was a small but spritely greenish-brown imp, clawing its way inside. This couldn’t be happening. All summer there had been no sign of monsters, and the first day back at school one comes for a visit? I shut my eyes. It had to be a bad dream. Maybe if I pinched my arm I’d wake up.
Owwwww!
I opened one eye, vaguely aware Mr Johannsen was asking us to write something down and, not even five minutes into my first class on my very first day, I was already ignoring what I’d been asked to do. My heart raced as my vision focused. The imp was still there.I wasn’t dreaming. It was a nightmare, but it was real – my living nightmare.
Ignore, I reminded myself.
Ignore, ignore, ignore!
Mr Johannsen was still at the whiteboard, oblivious to the imp that had made it all the way to his desk and was now kicking things off. A pencil tin rolled onto the floor. No one noticed. The imp wasn’t satisfied. It danced around, spinning into the air like a miniature ninja and headed straight for Mr Johannsen’s prized Lego T-rex, which was almost as tall as me and had taken our class months to build.
I watched in horror as the imp karate-kicked the dinosaur. It creaked, rocked and teetered on the edge of the desk. Do nothing, Jace. It’s not your fault there’s an imp in the class. If the Lego falls down, it falls down. If the teacher is angry or upset, it won’t be at you.
Closer, closer. Wobble, wobble . . .
Instinctively, I leapt from my seat, reaching out with both hands in a desperate bid to catch it as it toppled.
Too late.
With an almighty crash, the dinosaur shattered across the floor like rainbow confetti.
‘Jace Tanner!’ Mr Johannsen bellowed.
My chin sank to my chest as he marched me to the principal’s office. Life was so unfair.
We stopped at the door with the plaque that read: Mrs Prince, Principal. I barely flinched. I’d seen this office enough times to know the drill. Mr Johannsen went in and closed the behind him, leaving me alone in the hallway.I dropped into the chair outside, catching my reflection in the window opposite. This morning, I’d looked in the mirror and actually felt good. Confident, even. My hazel eyes bright, grin wide, the dimples Mum always called ‘adorable’ standing out. I’d even tried to tame my messy brown hair, going for a sleek side parting, hoping to look serious. Normal. Like someone who didn’t live in detention. Now, I just looked deflated.
I dragged a hand through my hair, messing it up again.
Behind the door, Mr Johannsen’s muffled voice rose.I caught fragments of his frustration. Something about not being able to handle another year of me.
A lump formed in my throat. Day one, and I’d already blown it.
‘Jace, come on in.’ The principal’s voice sounded soft above me as Mr Johannsen stormed off down the hall.
I headed inside, taking the usual seat opposite her desk.
‘What are we going to do with you?’ she asked with a sigh, taking her seat. I opened my mouth to defend myself, to tell her that Mr Johannsen had it wrong, that I was actually trying to help. I closed it again. They never believed me. I shook my head miserably, staring at my hands in my lap.
They were shaking. No, wait! The chair was shaking! And the floor!
I looked around, confused. My mind raced. Was it some kind of earthquake?
A towering bookcase beside the principal rattled and broke away from the wall.
‘Mrs Prince!’
I jumped to my feet, bolted around the desk and, without stopping to ask permission, grabbed the back of her wheely chair and pushed.
The chair spun and we skidded beneath an archway on the other side of the room, just as the bookcase crashed down behind us.
Sweat poured down my face. The room continued to rock. I’d never experienced an earthquake before. What could it mean? No monsters all summer, and suddenly an imp and an earthquake in the same day? It couldn’t be a coincidence.Eventually, the tremors ended and my racing heart rate slowed to normal speed.
‘Jace,’ Mrs Prince panted, catching her breath and sliding her glasses back onto her nose. ‘You saved us!’
I blinked. Yeah, I guess I had saved us. Did this get me out of detention? I wondered.
‘Hurry back to class; I need to make sure everyone is okay. Be careful!’
I took that as a ‘yes’, gave Mrs Prince a little salute and headed for the door before she could change her mind. I’d been saved by the bell. Or, more accurately, saved by the quake!
‘Jace?’ Mrs Prince said, stopping me before I made my escape. ‘You’re a good kid, Jace Tanner. I don’t want to see you in my office again, okay? Please behave.’
I nodded and darted down the hall. The shaking had stopped, but there were pieces of fallen furniture and cracks in the walls. It would be days, hopefully weeks, before they could repair it all and we’d be allowed back to school. I fist pumped the air at the thought, dodging fallen plasterboard as I skidded into class.
Everyone looked wide-eyed and shaken. Some of the kids were crying. Mr Johannsen was getting them into single file.
‘Everyone’s parents have been called, you must wait here until they collect you. I need everyone signed out. School will finish early today.’
I always walked home, so I swiped up my bag and ran for the door. I needed to speak to Eli. I spotted him hanging upside down from the monkey bars by the front gate. He swung down when he saw me, pushing wavy black hair out of his eyes, only for it to flop right back. The sky was heavy with rain clouds that had lingered all week, but the sun broke through for a moment and lit his warm brown skin as he grinned like he was mid-laugh.
‘Every other kid is cowering in the classroom and you’re on the monkey bars,’ I said as we high-fived.
‘Wild quake, huh?!’ he said, bright with excitement.
‘Well, it did get me out of another detention, so that’s a plus.’
‘Detention? Why? What happened?’ His dark-brown eyes shifted from excited to concerned. He wanted me to get through this year unscathed – and not expelled – as much as I did. Our high-school lives depended on it.
‘An imp happened,’ I grumbled as we headed out. ‘It knocked over Johannsen’s Lego dino. Somehow, I got the blame.’
‘You said you were gonna ignore them from now on, Jace. You’re on your last strike.’
‘Don’t you think I know that? I tried my best!’