Nocturnal Academy 5: Mage Against the Machine - Nocturnal Academy, #5

Alice Dibble returns to the Nocturnal Academy for her second year to find that the ghost Baron Falkenstein has been made Vice Principal. He has all sorts of nasty plans lined up the school, which he believes is suffering such a bad reputation because of a serious decline in discipline. A new boy named Harley joins the Academy. He was told he was an earth elemental, but he doesn't feel any connection with the Earth at all.
A genius and a misfit who was home-schooled until recently, he has no people skills and immediately rubs Professor Abbacus - and half his classmates - up the wrong way. Only Alice dares to become his friend. Alice hopes her year 8 will be slightly less eventful than her year 7, but almost immediately things start to go wrong. Her brand new computer has sticky keys, other kids are starting to call her "unlucky Alice" and Baron Falkenstein catches her in the corridor after hours and puts her on detention cleaning fungus off dungeon walls.
Then she discovers something dark and evil hiding deep in the bowels of the school. Alice, Harley and Professor Abbacus must journey into an entirely different realm to face this new danger, a collusion of threats from both outside the school and within. The entire Nocturnal Academy itself is at risk, and if these beings succeed in their vile plan, the entire school will be wiped off the face of the Earth.
Also available:Nocturnal AcademyNocturnal Academy 2 - Teacher's PetNocturnal Academy 3 - Immaterial GirlNocturnal Academy 4 - The Supernatural CircusNocturnal Academy 6 - The Da Vinci CodexNocturnal Academy 7 - School of ThoughtNocturnal Academy 8 - The Lonely HouseNocturnal Academy 9 - Mirror Mirror