RotMSB 6 Meet The Henchmen

Act 2: The Magic School Bus Gets Rescued
Chapter Six: Meet The Henchmen

Janet Perlstein's parents trusted her to be responsible. She was almost obsessive about serving her community and trying to gain a favorable standing with them. They weren't sure whether to be proud or nervous about her natural affinity for politics, but they were supportive nonetheless. They assumed the reason why she was endorsing her cousin for next year's student-body president, instead of herself, was so she could still have time for her community activities.

That's why they let her borrow the car all of the time.

They may be more hesitant if they knew that she was currently standing by herself at the back of a Wal-Mart parking lot, waiting to meet someone who contacted her over the internet.

She waited outside the car, having told whoever was to meet her to look for her curly red hair. She had been waiting, leaning against the car for ten minutes and was starting to feel nervous. As a defense mechanism, she mentally changed gears to her bratty superiority mode. She could be polite when she wanted to, but there was no way these strangers were going to try and convince her she was vulnerable.

Finally a dark gray car was circling at her end of the parking lot and finally pulled up a parking space away from her.

A woman and a man got out of the car. The woman was short with dark brown hair, while the man was tall, younger with platinum blond hair.  The man she recognized from her first encounter with these people.

"Are you Janet?" the woman questioned.

"Are you TruthSeeker?" Janet asked instead of responding.

The woman, a rather grumpy sort apparently, took that as identity confirmation, "I'm Marge95531" she corrected, "And this ApocalypticConclusion," She added with distain. Janet wasn't sure if the disapproval in her tone was directed at the man' choice in screenname or her general opinion of her companion.

"He introduced himself as Scott when he approached at my High School," Janet countered, "But then again, I wouldn't have known about the screennames at the time."

Marge95531 glanced and her companion in irritation again before finally answering Janet's question. "TruthSeeker is busy."

"Busy?" Janet spat, "And here I thought he or she sought me out. Apparently I'm not actually worth their time."

"You turned him down," The woman replied, "you said you weren't interested in our... enterprise."

"I suppose that's fair," Janet responded, "but what did you expect? You were soliciting a teenage girl to assist in apparently shady dealings via the internet."

Marge and Scott exchanged glances that rather conceded Janet's point. "Then why help us now?"  The young man inquired, "You did contact us this time around."

"Well, something has come up," Janet explained, "I was promised money for this escapade if I assisted. Unfortunately for you, I'm the well-loved only daughter of a successful nurse and a business man whose company I'm due to co-inherit. Money is not a good enough to catch my attention."

"So what did catch your attention?" Marge asked a bit disgusted.

"Let's just say I'd rather be owed a favor." Janet stood tall and walked confidentially casual towards them, really digging into the spoiled princess persona. "Well, as I hinted to just now, I'm due to inherit a business alongside my cousin. But he's getting ambitious. My first hint was when we both got involved with the student government: at first we were in it together, but he is all but president-elect next year and has managed to completely marginalize me." Janet continued, "But this, I know, is just practice. He's after the business that our fathers built together and he aims to push me out. Men seem to hear 'It's a man's job' much more easily than 'You've taught me well, daddy, I can do this!'"

Scott didn't seem very impressed by Janet's perfect blend of pouty princess and mistreated feminism, but Marge was apparently still listening, "And how would you expect us to help you out with that?"

"More importantly," Scott added, "how could you help us?"

"Well, this project of yours revolves around something that I know I'm more familiar with than you are," Janet stood in front of them, hands on hips, "It trusts me, and I doubt it likes any of you at all."

The shady duo exchanged glances again that confirmed Janet's assumption. "We'll see about that." Marge mearly nodded to Scott before looking at Janet again and gestured for the teen to come towards their car.

"Whoa, I am not getting into the back seat of a tinted-window car!" Janet protested.

"We don't want you to to get in," Scott laughed, almost upbeat, a drastic contrast to his companion. He had been friendly and charismatic when she first met him at Walkerville High. She had thought then back that it had only been to sell her their idea. But, no, it seems he enjoyed his questionably legal job.

"By the way," Janet added, "You should know that I told my cousin to call me every hour or so to check in on me."

Scott hesitated with suspicion, "You told him you came here?"

"No," Janet responded coolly, "I told him I was going on a blind date and I wanted an excuse incase I needed to get away from my date." For good measure, she added, "Also, if I didn't respond to a few consecutive check-in calls, that he was welcome to assume the worst and report me missing."

"Chill out, kid!" Scott said to Janet's annoyance, he couldn't have been more than five years older than her. As he opened the rear car door, Janet glanced around.

Out of the vehicle, Scott pulled out a two-foot tall birdcage. Inside the cage was a bright multi-colored macaw with more magenta than macaws... ever have; and frizzy red hair. She could not have been very comfortable in that cage.

"Janet! How lovely to see you again!" Miss Frizzle cheerfully greeted as if she wasn't a prisoner.

"Miss Frizzle??" Janet gawked.

Scott and Marge seemed satisfied. "There was some doubt that she or the... thing even knew you." Marge explained. "But maybe you could be of use to us; and in return, we could... owe you a favor," Marge offered, "once we've mastered the creature."

Janet had to take a moment the mentally compose herself. "There's a lock on the cage." The teenager said trying to disguise any emotion.

"She'd figure out how to escape a regular bird cage," Scott shrugged his shoulders casually.

"You captured an elementary school teacher?" Janet’s disgust was becoming obvious.

"We needed her to get to the bus," the young man explained, more defensively this time.

"She had to have been on a field trip," Janet faced Marge and Scott, getting angry, "Did you kidnap the children too?"

"No!" Marge was getting upset as well.

"So, what, you abandoned them?" Janet accused, "Left them who knows where without a teacher? Were they just collateral damage?"

"What kind of teacher takes kids on dangerous trips like that?" Marge countered, "We're doing a service!"

"Don't back out on us now," Scott enticed, "Think of what we can get once we harness the bus's magic."

"You're committing a felony!" Janet barked, "How about you give me the cage and I NOT report you to the police!"

"And what would you tell them?" Scott challenged her, "You can't admit that you know her; that you've participated in her exploits without bringing everyone against you."

"You can't prove anything," Marge added with a scowl, "I've tried. The world does even let us try and reveal any of this before we are shut down, ridiculed, and disgraced."

"I've got your suspicious e-mails and could claim that this confrontation, as witnessed by Wal-Mart's Security cameras, was to blackmail me into accompany you for your twisted, criminal activities!" Janet countered, "I am, after all, a defenseless teenage girl who is well liked in her community. I promise I will pretend none of this happened and leave you to your criminal behavior if you will just give me the bird and promise me that you will leave me alone!"

"Janet does commit herself when she puts her mind to it," Miss Frizzle offered.

The humans warily glared at each other, uncertain about making any moves.

After a few minutes, Janet's cellphone began to ring in her pocket. Marge and Scott watched her warily, looking ready to pounce her. Janet flipped her phone out and answered it.

"Hey cuz!" She said in a perky tone and waited for a response, "Yeah, about that date, there's something you should know..."

Janet narrowed her eyes at the adults in an unspoken challenge.

Scott held out the cage to her which Janet took after stepping to meet part way. With the birdcage in hand, Janet stepped back to her car and continued into her phone, "My date never arrived; I think I've been stood up. I'm going to just head on home."

Marge and Scott took that as a sign they were safe and edged back to their car as Janet edged towards hers. "Yeah, yeah, I'm fine!" She said into her phone, "I knew it was a risk when I agreed to a blind date. Nothing really to tell, don't worry about me." She awkwardly hung-up single handedly and opened the door behind the driver's seat.

"How good is parrot eyesight?" Janet said softly to her locked-up companion. "Can you see a golden little ladybug?"

Miss Frizzle moved to where she could see around the human who was securing the cage with a seatbelt.

"I do see a rather golden coccinellid beetle!" Miss Frizzle chirped, "It has oddly linear spots!"

"Is it near their car?" Janet, finished with her task, kept her back to the other car, but to the side to avoid blocking the macaw's view.

"Oh, it just snuck inside their vehicle just as the passenger door closed," Miss Frizzle observed with mild interest.

"They did it!" Janet released a heavy sigh as she closed the rear door and entered the driver's seat.

"Not to sound ungrateful, Janet" Miss Frizzle wasted no time speaking up, "But please tell me if you know if my class is alright."

As Janet drove, she explained all she had been told and that the kids were safe and at home.  "However, I'm afraid you might be stuck as a bird for a while. The only available magic school bus is out trying to find yours."

"Oh, I can make do, Janet, don't worry!" Miss Frizzle replied, "Besides, while there are only two magic school buses that I know of; it doesn't mean that they are the only ones of their kind!"