Free My Teacher is a Zombie (Supernatural Learning Book 1) by J.R. Murdock Page A

Dominguez. We actually left off with Adams."
    Stanley's attention diverted from the list Mrs. Applebaum wrote on the board to the bird flying past the window. How he longed to be outside flying along with the birds instead of being tucked away inside a classroom. Ashland had a great diversity of birds and bugs and while avoiding homework, Stanley had collected a good number of each from the woods and parks. Unless he missed his guess, the one flying by was a red-headed woodpecker. He'd never managed to catch one of them. They'd be sure to put up a great fight.
    "Mr. Kodluboy!"
    Stanley's head shot back to the front of the classroom, eyes wide. Mrs. Applebaum had picked up her meter stick and strode toward his desk.
    "Could you repeat the question, please?"
    "I asked you a simple question. Who was the fifth president of the United States." She rested the end of her meter stick on the edge of his desk.
    He had to think quickly. He hadn't studied the order of the presidents. Well, if Washington was the first president and he was on the one dollar bill, then the person on the five dollar bill...
    "Abraham Lincoln!"
    The classroom erupted in laughter. Stanley shrunk down in his desk and tried to disappear. He'd never felt so stupid in his life. Kids were going to give him a hard time for weeks on this one.
    Mrs. Applebaum shook her head. "I think you'll stay in from recess with me and we'll go over the presidents, Mr. Kodluboy."
    "What? We don't have recess."
    Mrs. Applebaum had been an elementary teacher for most of her career. She'd only moved over to being a middle school teacher a couple years ago. She might be old, but she'd never gotten confused like that before. Even if she looked near retirement age, she usually had her wits about her.
    She shook her head as if in a fog and looked up at the clock. "I'm sorry class. Let's go over the homework lesson for tomorrow. Polly, if you wouldn't mind, could you write the assignment on the board?"
    Polly Gunderson smoothed out her pink skirt, adjusted her dental headset, and took the dry erase marker from Mrs. Applebaum. Even though Bill was the smartest kid in class, something about his being in a wheelchair kept him from becoming what Polly had become in nearly every class; teacher's pet. Even though she had enough hardware on her head to set off any metal detector in a five-mile radius, she was the sweetest girl to all the teachers. She even made it a point to find someone in each class doing something wrong and telling on that person. She'd been doing that since sixth grade and showed no signs of letting up any time soon. For this she always got special attention from the teachers, but the disdain of her fellow students.
    After Polly wrote the assignment on the board, students either wrote down the assignment in their planner or, like Stanley, got out their smart phones and took a picture of the assignment. Stanley could barely read his own writing and if he didn't take a picture of Polly's perfect writing, he'd be sure to miss something. He sent the picture to his email address just like the rest of his classes and he could look them all up when he got home.
    The teacher sat at her desk for the rest of the class and she stared absently at her desk. She held a pen in one hand, her left, and didn't move. Even when the noise in the class went from loud, to deafening, to obnoxious, she didn't move. Two teachers from other classrooms came in and settled the class down right before the bell.
    "What was with her today?" Bert asked as they pushed their way out of the classroom.
    "I don't know. That was really weird. I mean, she's not the most normal teacher we have, but that was beyond weird, you know?"
    "Hey, what are you doing after school?"
    "I don't know. Depends on how much homework we get."
    "My mom is making pozole. You should see if you can come over. Just tell your mom that we're going to do our homework together."
    Something bumped into the back of Stanley's legs.
    "If anyone