Kacper and his friends arrive at a school that rolls into town on giant yellow wheels, where an eccentric headmaster promises lessons in motion and something hidden in the forest.
On the first of September, Kacper expected the usual disaster: new timetable, new teachers, old boredom. What he did not expect was a school standing on giant yellow wheels.
For a moment, he just stared at it. The building looked normal enough until the chassis underneath it groaned and shifted, like a bus pretending to be a school. Above the entrance hung a huge rusted sign: IM. SPACE EXPLORERS.
"Brilliant," Ola said beside him, never lifting her eyes from her phone. "A mobile school. In five minutes it’ll probably circle the market square and teach us calligraphy at the traffic lights."
A few students were already taking selfies in front of the stairs. Someone laughed too loudly. Someone else kept backing away, as if the whole thing might lurch forward and bite.
Kacper nudged Michal with his elbow. "I’m waiting for the part where they make us paint Mars on the ceiling while it’s moving."
Michal, who could turn even panic into a dramatic performance, narrowed his eyes at the windows. "Have you seen the headmaster? I heard that last year he dressed like a robot and only spoke in code."
Ola finally looked up. "That explains the sign. Space Explorers probably means they escaped from a museum of bad ideas."
Before Kacper could answer, the school doors swung open with a metallic clang.
A tall man appeared at the top of the stairs wearing a top hat, a silver bow tie, and what looked suspiciously like antennae made from ice-cream sticks and foil. He spread his arms as if he were unveiling a masterpiece.
"Welcome aboard," he boomed. "Students of the future. In our school, learning moves as fast as we do. We depart in five minutes. Fasten your seatbelts and keep your eyes open. Today begins with experimental chemistry."
A ripple of uneasy laughter ran through the crowd.
Then the man smiled in a way that made Kacper’s stomach tighten.
"And one more thing," the headmaster said, lowering his voice as though sharing a secret with the loudspeakers themselves. "Before we leave town, we begin the Mystery Pack challenge. The first person to find the hidden object will receive..."
The speakers crackled.
The man looked up sharply.
The engine under the school shuddered, the siren screamed once through the corridor, and the whole building gave a heavy, warning lurch.
Then it turned, slowly at first, toward the dark forest beyond the edge of town.