Class Trip to the Cave of Doom (7 page)

Known to the Boys as:
Lady Lo Lo
Dream:
Frightfully fashionable
Reality:
Frightful
Best-Kept Secret:
Shops at Dark-Age Discount Dress
Dungeon
Plans for the Future:
New uniforms for the boys with
mesh tights and lace tunics

Sir Mort is our well-loved professor of Dragon Slaying for Beginners as well as Intermediate and Advanced Dragon Slaying. Sir Mort says that, in his youth, he was known as the Scourge of Dragons. (We’re not sure what it means, but it sounds scary.) His last encounter was with the most dangerous dragon of them all: Knight-shredder. Early in the battle, Sir Mort took a nasty blow to his helmet and has never been the same since.

Known to the Boys as:
The Old Geezer
Dream:
Outstanding Dragon Slayer
Reality:
Just plain out of it
Best-Kept Secret:
He can’t remember
Plans for the Future:
Taking a little nap

Coach Plungett spent many years questing in the Dark Forest before joining the Athletic Department at DSA. When at last he strode out of the forest, leaving his dragon-slaying days behind him, Coach Plungett was the most muscle-bulging, physically fit, manliest man to be found anywhere north of Nowhere Swamp. “I am what you call a hunk,” the coach admits. At DSA, Plungett wears a number of hats—or, helmets. Besides PE Teacher, he is Slaying Coach, Square-Dance Director, Pep-Squad Sponsor, and Privy Inspector. He hopes to meet a damsel—she needn’t be in distress—with whom he can share his love of heavy metal music and long dinners by candlelight.

Known to the Boys as:
Coach
Dream:
Tough as nails
Reality:
Sleeps with a stuffed dragon named Foofoo
Best-Kept Secret:
Just pull his hair
Plans for the Future:
Finding his lost lady love

Brother Dave is the DSA librarian. He belongs to the Little Brothers of the Peanut Brittle, an order known for doing impossibly good deeds and cooking up endless batches of sweet peanut candy. How exactly did Brother Dave wind up at Dragon Slayers’ Academy? After a batch of his extra-crunchy peanut brittle left three children from Toenail toothless, Brother Dave vowed to do a truly impossible good deed. Thus did he offer to be librarian at a school world-famous for considering reading and writing a complete and utter waste of time. Brother Dave hopes to change all that.

Known to the Boys as:
Bro Dave
Dream:
Boys reading in the libary
Reality:
Boys sleeping in the library
Best-Kept Secret:
Uses Cliff’s Notes
Plans for the Future:
Copying out all the lyrics to
“Found a Peanut” for the boys

Professor Pluck graduated from Peter Piper Picked a Peck of Pickled Peppers Prep, and went on to become a professor of Science at Dragon Slayers’ Academy. His specialty is the Multiple Choice Pop Test. The boys who take Dragon Science, Professor Pluck’s popular class,

Known to the Boys as:
Old Spit Face
Dream:
Proper pronunciation of
p
’s
Reality:
Let us spray
Best-Kept Secret:
Has never seen a pippi-hippo-
pappa-peepus up close
Plans for the Future:
Is working on a cure for
chapped lips

How Frypot came to be the cook at DSA is something of a mystery. Rumors abound. Some say that when Mordred bought the broken-down castle for his school, Frypot was already in the kitchen and he simply stayed on. Others say that Lady Lobelia hired Frypot because he was so speedy at washing dishes. Still others say Frypot knows many a dark secret that keeps him from losing his job. But no one ever,
ever
says that Frypot was hired because of his excellent cooking skills.