Clearwater Public Elementary School
Miss Warren's 5th-Grade Class
Class was still underway until Mikey's teacher, Lydia Warren, received a rare phone call on the classroom phone.
"Class," Miss Warren began. "It's a little early, but we are going to have an recess..."
Twenty-eight small cheers sounded through the 5th grade classroom.
"...but it's going to be a blacktop-only recess. You are not to go out to the swings, slides or the monkey bars, nor the sports field. Everyone lineup by the door, please."
The children grabbed balls for four-square, tetherball, soccer and basketball. (Even if soccer was restricted to bouncing the ball off the wall, soccer kids gota soccer.) Kickball was the recess game of choice, but being restricted to the large asphalt-paved multi-use play area put a damper in that. No-one wanted to get in trouble grabbing a ball that left the multi-use blacktop, or the extra-wide sidewalk that surrounded Mikey's school.
Some, like Fread Orr and Natsu Meshida grabbed Nintendo Switches from backpacks and got ready for the serious business of competitive Pokémon battling.
A group of girls led by best friends Anna McMillian and Elsa Sanders grabbed a pair of jump-ropes and a book of rhymes.
Rebekah Silver picked up her clipboard and charcoal sticks, happy to have another chance to sketch. Hopefully, she'd meet her soon-to-be-step-sister Noor on the playground. Rebekah and Noor's parents' wedding was coming up fast, and the girls were drawing wedding dresses for Noor's mother. It was strange, having a not-yet-step-mother and not-yet-step-sister who were Muslima instead of Jewish. But it wasn't bad. Her father frequently said "In America, anything is possible! You just need to work for it." If it made Daddy happy, and came home instead of working long evenings at his jewelry-and-watch store, then Rebekah had no complaints.
Blaise Whitefield grinned, anticipating the chance to look at the book of magic spells he "barrowed" from his sister, Zelda. Sure, it was only "Fundamentals of Magic, Vol. 1", but Blaise couldn't understand the BIG book Zelda used all the time. It was a mix of nonsense, poetry and Gran's cooking recipes. But Blaise -will- figure this out - he just needed to figure out how his sister and mum did what they did.
At Miss Warren's whistle, the kids approximately formed a line, all buzzing with excitement and the energy 10- and11-year-old children naturally have. With no delays apparent, Miss Warren opened the door that led out to the playground and the kids were off.
Lydia took watch an overwatch position where the blacktop met the sidewalk as children from other classes exited for recess. There was a security lockdown at Lake Valey Academy, and officials at Lake Point Schools were assessing their options. This early recess was so that most teachers could meet and discuss options for locking down as well, or doing an early dismissal. In a school with older students, teachers could just call a study hall in the cafeteria with a hundred or two students overseen by just one or two teachers. But that would never work with young, energetic, 5th-graders. Since Clearwater wasn't under direct threat, the School Admin decided to controllably arrange for all teachers to meet so to gain their input.
It was just five minutes into recess when a silent flash appeared above the playground, over as fast as it came. (Was it just the sun?) With that, some of the Transformation Guns from MTI landed in the playground.
