Earthman Jack vs. The Ghost Planet Read Online Free

change, which to me says, quite simply,
that you have yet to learn your lesson.”
    Jack looked down at his feet.  There was never any arguing
with Mr. Shepherd.  The man was utterly without mercy.
    “I believe you know when and where,” said Shepherd.
    Jack nodded and sullenly walked out the door.

Chapter 3
    After a rather rocky start to the
day, Jack settled into his normal routine, though his mood did not improve much. 
Indeed, the simple fact was that Jack hated most of the time he spent in
school.  He hated most of the people he went to school with.  And he especially
hated most of the classes he had to attend.
    His English teacher, Mrs. Hemmert, was pretty cool, but she
always seemed to assign the lamest, most boring books possible to read.  When
it came to math, Jack was beyond hopeless, and his wicked shrew of a math
teacher, Ms. Webster, didn’t make it any easier.  Mr. Shiering, who taught
history, spent the entire time telling the class amazing stories, which Jack
loved to listen to – but he’d always get so caught up in the tales spun by his
teacher, he’d forget to take notes.  Therefore, when it came time to actually
study for the tests, he’d be totally lost. 
    Then there was study hall – normally a period where kids
were allowed to goof off, but since Jack had the unfortunate luck of being
assigned to Mr. Shepherd for study hall, it was pretty much an agonizing hour
of pure silence, where students either actually did their homework, or wasted
away the time doodling in a notebook (take a guess which one Jack tended to
do). 
    It didn’t help that Jack also had Mr. Shepherd for Phys. Ed.
immediately after study hall, during which the man had his students go through
all types of rigorous sprints, pull-ups, jumping jacks, and anything else the
Nazi’s might have invented to torture high schoolers during World War II.  Gone
were the days of actually doing “fun” activities during gym class, ever since
the evil Mr. Shepherd had arrived. 
    The one true highlight of Jack’s curriculum was, oddly
enough, his Physics class.
    Normally, when it came to science, Jack had less interest
than anything else he was forced to take in school.  With all the
abbreviations, equations, formulas, and the like, science should have been
Jack’s worst subject.  Who’d have guessed that Physics would end up being the
one class Jack not only partially enjoyed but also seemed to be good at?
    It wasn’t because Jack had any natural gift or talent for
science.  Oh, no.  In fact, Jack attributed his enjoyment, and subsequent skill
of the subject, entirely to his teacher, Professor Green.
    Professor Green was relatively new to the school.  He’d
started teaching roughly the same time Jack had started attending River Heights
High.  He was a tall and lanky man, with a shock of uncombed white hair and an
equally unkempt beard of matching color.
    He wore glasses that were always crooked but still somehow
managed to make his brown eyes look bigger than they actually were. His neck
was so long and thin in proportion to his head, Jack often thought he looked
like one of those bobble-heads that someone would typically put on the
dashboard of a car.  To complete his strange appearance, Professor Green always
wore his pants pulled up to around his chest, and he possessed a rather odd
affinity for bowties.
    But aside from being, without a doubt, the oddest-looking
member of the River Height’s faculty, he also had a true passion for what he
taught and the rare talent for explaining the subject matter in a way that
actually made sense to Jack.
    Of course, ever since he’d heard that Professor Green was
apparently friends with Mr. Shepherd and was actually responsible for helping
the man get his job at the school, Jack had found himself liking Professor
Green less than he had before.  But as he sat in class and watched the
Professor excitedly scribble on the chalkboard, rambling on about the day’s
lesson, he found