Crumbledown School: The Betrayal (Chapter 5)

CHAPTER 5

I don’t know why, but I had expected the bullies to look our age, small and skinny, not dangerous at all. But they weren’t. One was tall, very tall; with greasy blonde hair and mean eyes. The other two were un-identical twins that I’d often seen around school. They wore matching clothes and sunglasses that looked ten times better than Eric’s. I could tell he was jealous. They were shocked to see us all there, and one of the twins said angrily,

“What’s all this?! Hey you, where are our sweets?”

“You’re not getting any,” Eric growled, “Tom told us all about you, and you don’t deserve any of it! Just crawl back to the sewers where you belong.”

I looked at Eric Redmane. He was getting too cocky; he had to remember that they were a lot older than us, and stronger, despite our numbers. But Will Freckles only encouraged him, “Yeah, you tell ’em Eric!”

“Gladly,” Eric smiled, “You three are a bunch of slobbery losers –”

I shushed him, suddenly feeling a little less bold than I had only minutes ago, “Don’t make them angry.”

“We already ARE,” the tall one stepped forward. “Give us the bag or you’ll be sorry.”

“No,” Eric sneered, “Why don’t you make us?”

“Alright!”

Will Freckles edged backwards.

Tom Sandy gulped.

Eric Redmane took up his stance.

Choco Stix sneezed.

I swallowed.

And Billy Snooze fell flat on his face.

That was the first thing that went wrong. The other was that Will decided he really didn’t want to lose any of his teeth and, screaming, ran to the bike shed for cover. The Year 6 boys laughed, and all took a step forward.

“Do we run?” I whispered to Choco.

“Of course we don’t!” Eric hissed. According to Eric, we had to stay. Whether we wanted to or not.

“GET THEM!” the tall boy screeched, and suddenly, we found them plunging towards us.

The four of us, Tom, Eric, Choco and I, leaped forward too, with yells and cries, determined to stop them. I found myself facing one of the twins alongside Choco. I grabbed the boy’s legs and clung on desperately, making him fall backwards. I looked up in time to see Tom being squashed flat by the tall boy, and Eric was struggling to save him, but was held back by the other twin.

We need more, I thought. More help!

Suddenly, we heard a yell, and all looked up to see Billy Snooze, hurling himself at the twin that was grabbing at Eric Redmane. He knocked into him with a crash, and the boy fell to the floor, with Billy on top of him.

“Ge’ off me!” the twin growled.

Eric Redmane joined the pile, and I think he took it too far with the leg biting. Still, it made me laugh when I heard the boy scream like a girl. The twin I was tackling managed to flip me over, and now sat on top of me.

“Choco…” I gasped, my breath being squeezed out, “Help…”

Choco was on the twin’s back in a second, wrapping his arms around his neck like an octopus would do to its prey. But soon someone else had yanked him off the boy. I looked up and saw Choco struggling in the arms of the tall brute. Tom lay breathing hard. Fighting wasn’t his strong point, and, not much of mine either. Eric had good experience with it, and Billy put up a good fight, though he never got into any at school.

We were five against three, but that was still not enough. I soon realised we would never beat them. The twin on top of me grinned horridly, and dug his knees into my chest even harder. I squealed. Very embarrassing, but I couldn’t help it. Then suddenly, WILL FRECKLES came flying out of nowhere, and knocked the boy right off me. When he jumped up, he looked as energetic as a kitten.

“You came back?” I couldn’t quite believe it.

“About time too!” Eric called, while being wrestled to the floor.

Will went off to rescue Choco while I stumbled to my feet, shakily. Then, I noticed Tom Sandy was nowhere to be found. He took off. Realised he could make a getaway and left! I could not believe it. We were doing this all for HIM.

I realised we were stuck in this fight now; the Year 6 boys weren’t fighting for the sweets anymore. They were in the mood to fight for the sake of fighting. I attacked the twin that was pushed down by Will, but he kicked me right off.

Then, suddenly, we heard a yell of fury,

“What’s going on here?!”

We looked up, faces covered in dirt. Mr. Principle stood with his hands on his hips, looking disgusted. There was nothing he hated more than students fighting. Tom Sandy was standing just behind him, looking wide eyed.

“We’re...just rolling around, Sir?” Will Freckles answered in a questioning tone.

“JUST ROLLING AROUND?” Mr. Principle barked, “JUST ROLLING AROUND? You’re absolutely covered in dirt, and you are at each other’s necks!”

“Sir, those big boys are trying to steal my sweets, the ones I won for Best Dressed, remember? My friends were just helping to stop them,”

Mr. Principle looked at him, “They were STEALING were they?” There was nothing he hated more than students stealing.

“Yes,” nodded Tom hurriedly, “yes, and my friends were stopping them.”

“Bravery…” Mr. Principle scratched his head. There was nothing he loved more than students being brave, “But fighting nonetheless…”

“But Sir, please. Don’t give my friends detention,” Tom begged, and I realised Tom Sandy was never one to desert his friends.

“You three!” Mr. Principle snapped, pointing at the 6 graders. They scrambled to their feet. “Go straight to the reception, phone your parents and tell them you are staying back for an hour in detention. I will be calling them myself and telling them what you have been up to.”

The boys slumped off, their cheeks red with embarrassment. When they had gone, Mr. Principle gave us a lecture on fighting for a few minutes, but then praised us for our bravery.

“Though next time, do just tell me straight away about your problems,” he said, and then wandered back into Crumbledown School.

Tom wordlessly opened up his bag, and handed us five big pieces of hard boiled sweets.

“For fighting the bullies,” he smiled. “And for the fact that you’re my friends.”

Surprisingly, battling those brutes made us all lose our appetites; our stomachs were aching all over. We accepted the sweets for later, though, and then all headed off to the bike shed to watch Tom collect his bike. Then we headed out of the school gates, and walked down the pavement, while Tom slowly rode beside us.

“We are all sorry for thinking you were so greedy, Tom Sandy,” I said, speaking for us all.

Tom shrugged, like it was nothing.

“Yeah,” Will Freckles gave Tom a pat on the back, “We’re really sorry. So, can we have su’more sweets?” he added quickly.

But Tom was ready for him, and zoomed ahead of us, gliding down the street, “No way,” he laughed, “They’re all mine.”

We giggled and chased after him, down Penny Lane and through Willow Park, heading for home.

The End

Crumbledown School: The Betrayal (Chapter 4)

Chapter 4

For once, everything seemed to be on our side. Mrs. Hazycurls didn’t call us up to her desk for anything, she didn’t give us after-school detention, and she didn’t tell us to take a snoozing Billy along with us, for Billy was wide awake. No, she just gave us a wave as we left the room. Tom sat furthest away from the door, and even if he had ran to it he wouldn’t have made it before we did.

We hurried out of school, sprinted down the steps (Will tumbled down most of them) and dashed round the corner, stopping a few feet in front of the bike shed. We all heaved in a big, excited sigh. Finally, finally, we had made it. We were ready for Tom to come around the corner.

I couldn’t help but feel slightly nervous, and glanced at everyone to see if they felt the same. They all looked determined, even Will. So I pushed my nervousness away and furrowed my eyebrows with determination. We heard footsteps crunching along the gravel and dead leaves. Tom Sandy rounded the corner. He wasn’t expecting to see us crowding near the bike shed, blocking his way. He gave a yelp and hopped backwards.

“What are you DOING? You’re all scaring me to death today. Just leave me alone!” the way he said that last part made me question what we were doing; looking at it from Tom’s point of view, we really WERE acting weird.

No one else really noticed.

“We’re here for our share of sweets, of course,” Eric said sternly, and Will nodded excitedly.

Tom looked really angry, “And I told you I can’t! Now leave, please.”

Leave? Why would he say that? He didn’t want us to move out the way, he wanted us to leave.

I lowered my hands, which I realised were outstretched, almost reaching for the sweets, “Tom?”

Tom looked at me, and I saw that he looked more scared than mad.

“Tom, are you waiting for someone here?”

The others stared at me, confused. And then Tom, looking very downcast, nodded.

“What?!” Eric Redmane turned to Tom, “Who, WHY?”

Tom sighed, and leaned against the cracked brick wall of the school building, “Earlier today, before school started, these three Year 6 boys starting making fun of me, calling me names, because of how posh I looked in my suit. It didn’t take long for them to realise that since I did look so neat, I might have a chance of winning the sweets. And since they didn’t have a chance of winning, they told me, threatened me to give them the sweets after I’d won. Or they’d beat me up.” Tom stared glumly at the floor, “They told me to meet them here, after school. But now you’re here and you’ll all get beaten up too.”

“Why didn’t you tell us?” Billy asked, “We could have helped you.”

Tom shrugged, “Well, I mean, I wanted to, but I didn’t want to get you into trouble.”

We all nodded, understandingly.

Eric suddenly took charge (this was something that he liked to do), “Well, they’re not getting it. ‘Cause we will fight them off. They won’t be expecting us at all, and so won’t be prepared.”

Tom smiled gratefully, “Really? Thanks!”

“Wait, we?! Who says I have to fight?” Will Freckles looked worried, “I mean–”

“Fine, don’t help out,” Eric Redmane snapped.

Will didn’t want to lose any of his teeth, but then he didn’t want to miss out on possibly the best fight ever held at our school. So he stayed. We all did, standing in a row, waiting.

And then the bullies arrived.

Crumbledown School: The Betrayal (Chapter 3)

Chapter 3

 

I sat at my desk in detention, chewing my pencil nervously. Choco sat next to me, fiddling with his cap. Mrs. Hazycurls was with us at the beginning; giving us work to do, but by now she had left, off to the cafeteria to eat. We were allowed to get our food from the cafeteria, even though we weren’t too hungry. What’s the point of stuffing yourself with food when soon you’ll be stuffing yourself with sweets?

“You know, as much as I hope they’ll get it, I’m starting to wonder if they really will.” Choco suddenly admitted.

I looked at him, “What makes you think that?”

Choco placed his cap back on his head, “Well, Billy Snooze is one to fall asleep, like that,” he snapped his fingers, “Will is one to get cowardly and freak out, like that,” he snapped his fingers again, “And Eric is one to take things too seriously, and start demanding for a lawyer or something if Tom protests, like that,” he snapped his fingers for the final time.

This thought of Choco’s crept into my own head, and I too started worrying if we’d actually succeed. It was one thing to plan out your mission, and another to sit in detention hoping your friends did it right.

The bell rang, signalling the end of break. We dashed out of the classroom. No one was outside yet, but I had a feeling they’d come. And minutes later, they arrived.

Choco and I whooped with joy, and jumped up and down and punched the air. Our cheers died down as we saw that Eric was stomping towards us. Will Freckles trailed behind with Billy Snooze.

“What’s wrong?” I asked slowly, as they neared.

“The plan failed, if you must know,” Eric snapped.

I turned to the others, “Billy?” I felt my face fall even more, “What happened?”

Billy’s shoulders drooped. He shuffled awkwardly, “I don’t know. Not too sure. All I know is we failed. Sorry.”

“Billy fell asleep,” Eric looked sour, “The moment we reached Tom Sandy’s table he fell asleep and wouldn’t wake. Will started freaking out, saying we were mysteriously being taken out one by one.”

Will blushed, his freckles brightening.

“Ran away like a chicken,” Eric Redmane continued, “I decided to still go ahead with everything. But then Tom Sandy kept saying he can’t give us the sweets, and didn’t answer me when I ask him why. I guess I raised my voice too high for Mrs. Freckles’ liking, because she told me to leave, and I demanded for a lawyer.”

“Quite dumb actually, if you think about it,” Billy pointed out.

Eric growled in frustration, “MY POINT IS WE FAILED. WE’VE BEEN FAILING ALL DAY, SO WE MIGHT AS WELL GIVE UP!”

Mr. Croaky popped his head from outside the teachers’ office, which was at the end of the hall. He put a finger to his lips, and then disappeared back into the room.

“But if we give up, we’re losers,” Will Freckles looked upset.

“LOSERS, I tell you. We wouldn’t be able to walk into school without feeling like losers for months.”

Choco couldn’t resist the urge to snicker, “You sure? You’ve always seemed like a loser to me.”

“Yup.” I agreed, smiling as Will looked angrily at us, “You have that loser face…” I dashed away as Will chased after me playfully.

“Eggster Bold! Come back here!”

He knocked into Eric, who ran after him, until Choco Stix and Billy Snooze couldn’t help but chase after us all. Soon all our worries had washed away and we flopped down in a pile.

Students were returning from the cafeteria to their classrooms, and the stream of people had to part in two as they neared us. We lay there feeling relaxed, until Mr. Principle scolded us and we scrambled to our feet and quickly headed for class.

___________

Our worries came back to us in Art class, the last lesson of the day. The Art room was the biggest classroom in the school, with a long white table running along the length. The room was decorated with paintings done by students, and had two sinks at the front of the class. Behind the art table, and were we all sat, were the art supplies and some of our previous work.

Five easels stood on wobbly legs behind us, four with canvases on them, one with a sheet of paper nailed into it, displaying just how terrible everyone’s art skills were. There weren’t enough easels for us all, as usual, and so the other half of the class had to have cardboard boxes as easels, and paper nailed into them as substitutes for canvases. Eric Redmane had gotten the box with the tiny scrap of paper – there wasn’t anything else you see – and he wasn’t particularly happy about that. So instead of drawing, he had scribbled: UNFAIR!

Mrs. Hazycurls, who was also our Art teacher, sat at her desk near the door.

Tom Sandy sat right at the end, with Laura Sunset (who was busy retrieving her lump of clay that she had dropped onto the floor) and Cinnamon Stix next to him. Poppy Petal sat opposite Cinnamon, reading her book. We were all supposed to be making figures out of the clay we were given. Mrs. Hazycurls was busy tapping away at her computer, her back towards us.

Eric Redmane was poking at his lump of clay, convinced it was alive. Will Freckles was peering at the clay too, worried it might suddenly move on its own. Billy Snooze had parted his grey lump into three chunks, shaping them into Zs. This made him feel sleepy, and his face went smack on the table, the Zs looking as though they were floating out of his face, like smoke from a chimney.

Choco Stix and I were trying to form dinosaur shapes with our clay, but the silly thing ended up looking like a weird rock. Choco’s piece of clay looked more dino-like than mine, but he couldn’t get the claws right.

“We only have one chance to get Tom,” I said, “And that’s after school. Let’s not bother him this lesson. If he thinks we’ve given up, maybe he won’t rush out so quickly.”

“What’s wrong with you?” Emily Rose glanced at all of us disgracefully, “Why can’t you leave poor Tom alone. He clearly doesn’t want to share, and you have no right to force him to. If you wanted to win the sweets you should have dressed better.” And with that Emily collected up her clay that had been transformed into delicate flower petals and leaves, and walked off in disgrace, sitting down on the other side of Poppy, away from us.

“Snob,” Eric muttered, “She’d be doing the same thing as us if she hadn’t won.”

“We better get out of class early. Tom always heads round the back of the school to get his bike,” Billy suddenly said, waking up.

We all nodded, took a glance at Tom Sandy making a clay-bike, and then saw each other’s smiles spread across our faces.

Crumbledown School: The Betrayal (Chapter 2)

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!”