Chapter 2
Maths class would have been far more interesting if we
had a far more interesting teacher. Mr. Longdivision droned on and on about the
seven times table, making us repeat everything after him. He was always sick,
with a cold or a sore throat or a high temperature, sometimes all three at
once. This day he seemed to have a terrible cold, and was sniffing and
snivelling, and snorting and sneezing, not taking in to consideration that half
his class would end up sick, thanks to him.
Our classroom had a pair of tables, each with five
seats. Tom Sandy managed to sit in the group were all the girls where, away
from us boys who were desperate to ask for his sweets to be divided, like
promised. So far he hadn’t eaten any himself, probably worried we might snatch them
away at any moment. As if WE would do that! I glanced at Will Freckles from
across the table. Well, he might.
Cinnamon Stix and Poppy went up to ask Mr.
Longdivision a question, and while he was distracted, Eric Redmane leaned
forwards and whispered to Choco, Billy and me,
“I’m getting fed up with Tom. He’s stalling things, I
think.”
I raised my eyebrow at him and said sarcastically,
“You think?”
“Some of us doubted that you could,” Will chuckled.
Eric narrowed his eyes at Will, but didn’t say
anything, “What I want to know is why he
won’t share with us? I mean, when has Tom Sandy never offered us anything? He’s
basically a boy version of Emily.”
I could tell Tom heard this, and he looked like he
wanted to answer back, but he chose to keep quiet and do his work. Yup, Tom was
acting weird today, hardly saying a word to any of us. His friends. I looked over at Cinnamon and Poppy. They were still in
deep conversation with Mr. Longdivision. Both of their seats were on either side
of Tom Sandy.
“I have an idea.” I whispered to the others.
“That’s a first,” said Will.
“I’m serious. I’m going to go over to Tom right now.
Someone else can come to block him from escaping on the other side.” As I said this, Billy slumped back in his
chair, fast asleep.
“I’m coming.” Eric Redmane, Choco Stix, and Will
Freckles all stated at the same time.
“Not all of you!” I hissed, “We don’t want to arouse
suspicion,” I nodded towards Mr. Longdivision, “Fine, Choco can come.”
“That’s only because he’s your BFF,” Will whispered
furiously to himself. I suppose he had a right to be jealous, I did pick Choco because he was one of my
best friends.
We scuttled out of our seats and plonked down on
either side of Tom, startling him.
“What? What are you two doing?” he asked angrily, “Sir
will catch you out of your seats!”
“Not if you quiet down he won’t,” said Choco, “We’re
here to ask you about –”
“The sweets,” Eric finished, appearing by my side.
Will came hovering behind Tom Sandy, and even Billy was awake to come over and
add in his opinion,
“‘Off with his head!’”
We boys (apart from Tom) stared at him in awe and
wonder, while the girls, Emily and Laura, looked completely confused.
“William Shakespeare,” Billy Snooze added, seeing
their confusion, “One of his very popular quotes.”
“Ohhh,” Emily now understood, “that makes sense,”
while Laura Sunset simply asked, “Who?”
“What are you all doing here?” Tom looked at everyone,
irritated.
“He’s right,” I said, “What happened to not arousing suspicion?”
“We wanted to come,” said Will firmly, “It’s not fair,
us missing out on the fun.”
“If you all think detention is fun then you must be
out of your minds!” Mr. Longdivision was standing next to us, Poppy and
Cinnamon at his side, “BACK TO YOUR PLACES!”
We rushed back to our seats, not in fear of getting
detention but because Mr. Longdivision suddenly had that look in his eyes,
which told us he was about to have a sneezing frenzy.
“That went well,” Will said sarcastically. He grinned.
Choco’s face turned sour, “It WOULD have, if you
hadn’t come and RUINED everything.”
“Choco Stix,” our teacher frowned, “Quiet down – AAACHOO! – or I’ll give you – AAACHOO!
– detention.”
We sat quietly after that, and did our work. When the
bell rang for the end of Maths lesson, signalling the beginning of Science, I
told Choco to get ready to pounce. But, as we headed out, following close
behind Tom Sandy, Mr. Longdivision called us back.
“Take Billy Snooze with you,” he gestured towards a
snoozing Billy. I sighed. So close yet so far, again.
__________
We lugged Billy along with us, no sign of Tom. Eric
and Will were still hanging about, waiting for us.
“You two should have gone ahead and pounced,” I
panted, dropping Billy’s leg.
“I wish you’d stop using that word,” Choco let go of
the now awake Billy, “Pounce. It
makes us seem like we’re in the wrong.”
“Perhaps you are,” said Cinnamon, as she walked by
with her Science books, “Have you even asked Tom why he won’t give you any
sweets? If you ask me you should buy
your own.”
“Well we didn’t ask you,” Choco said tartly, “And it’s
wrong to eavesdrop.”
“Look who’s suddenly obeying the rules,” she said,
before hurrying off to be in time for the next lesson.
Billy got to his feet and headed for his locker, which
reminded us all to collect our books. As we slammed our lockers shut, Will
suddenly had a thought,
“You know, today’s Friday.”
“So?” Eric asked.
“And tomorrow’s Saturday.”
“So?”
“So, the
next time we see Tom will be after the weekend. And by then no doubt all the
sweets will be eaten.”
I suddenly realised exactly what he meant, “We’d
better speak to him today, or we’ll never get our share.”
“Cucumbers!” slapping his hand to his forehead, Choco
said, “You and I’ve got detention, Eggster.”
I groaned deeply.
Billy came over and patted me on the back, “It’s
alright Eggster. Just go to sleep in detention. It’ll be over in no time.”
“You’re right Billy.” I smiled as we headed down the
hall, “And I have an idea; at lunch time you and the others are going to talk
to Tom Sandy about our share of sweets. You have
to. Tom’s pretty clever, and always manages to get away from us in the
classroom.”
Will nodded, getting excited. Billy blinked, fighting
the urge to sleep to hear the rest of the conversation. Choco and I grinned; positive
our plan would work this time.
Eric whispered
as we arrived in class, “We’ll meet you outside English class, with a bag full
of sweets!”
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