Year 10 At Tibcot - A Mel, Tab, Mewla & Cathy story

Chapter Five


  We set off back to Drama, through the thick snow.
   We stepped into the Drama room and everyone looked up. Miss Philmew smiled.
  "Did you get it sorted?" she asked.
  "Yeah." I said. "Can we carry on with our play?"
  "Yes, of course you can." Miss Philmew said. "Go on."
   We went back to our places, and Mewla signed for Miss Philmew to do the lights. She dimmed the ordinary ones, and the bright ones began to flash again. We carried on acting.
   The play was a success. We forgot all about the trouble with Mrs Fisher, and put our hearts and souls into the acting. When we finished, everyone cheered and whistled.
  "Well done." Miss Philmew switched the lights back on. "Now - move your props and sit with the others. Tibbicca - your group is next, I believe."
   We sat down with the others, and Tibbicca, Purla and Tibleau went over to do their play. It took them a few minutes to set uo some rather complicated props, but when they finished, we sat back to watch them. I still couldn't believe that we were getting letters home for that stupid work.
   After Drama, we went off to Biology. We all hate the Biology lab., as it always stinks of really awful stuff, and it's always freezing in the winter. Our teacher, Mr Purrleck, is like a mad scientist, with round wire glasses and wild hair, and he's very forgetful, but he's a good teacher when he can remember what he's teaching us, and if he finds something funny he'll laugh for hours.
   We all filed into the lab and banged our folders down on the big wooden tables. We all share the tables in groups of three to four. Tab and I sat down, and Mewla and Cathy went to get some stools. They came over and sat opposite Tab and me.
  "Eeugh!" a shriek from Tibbicca made us all look round. She has this little shriek that she does to get people's attention.
   She was looking at a large jar on Mr Purrleck's desk, and in it, in some yellowy liquid, was an eyeball!
  "Oh, God!" Purla buried her face in her arms. "Someone move it!"
  "That's so gross!" Cathy and Mewla turned to face us again, their backs to the eyeball.
  "It says bull's eye on the jar." Tibleau peeped at it. Then she suddenly realised how funny it sounded. "Oh - bull's eye! I only just got that!"
  "Duh!" Purla hit Tibleau with her Biology folder. Tibleau laughed and smoothed her hair down.
   Mr Purrleck came in soon after that, his wild hair white with snow.
  "Say, Sir - that's a nasty case of dandruff you've got there!" Tibbicca giggled. "You're a biology teacher - surely you can find some sap or something that will cure it!"
  "There's no need to be cheeky, Tibbicca." Mr Purrleck said.
   Tibbicca and Purla burst into giggles and opened their folders to hide their faces.
  "Sir! Please don't say we're doing something with that eye!" Purbelle called.
  "We're going to dissect it." Mr Purrleck said. "Can I count on you to make the first incision?"
  "You can count on me to be the first to leave the room, more like!" Purbelle said. "There is no way I can cut that thing!"
  "No, me neither!" Mewlarka spoke up.
  "Who will then?" Mr Purrleck said, looking round at us all. Tab and I looked down at our folders, and Mewla, Cathy, Tibbick, Mewbellan, Tibbicca and Purla all started to fiddle in their bags and pencil cases. Only the boys seemed interested. Oh, and Tibleau.
  "Gather round the front bench then." Mr Purrleck said. "Come on!"
  "Do we have to?" Tibbicca whined. "It's so disgusting!"
  "My dear Tibbicca, if you're going to enjoy your biology, you must learn to cope with things like this." Mr Purrleck smiled annoyingly.
  "But I don't enjoy biology." Tibbicca giggled.
  "Oh, my dear Tibbicca!" Purla imitated Mr Purrleck's voice.
  "That'll do, Purla." Mr Purrleck said. "Come on. You four - why are you still sitting at your table?"
   'You four' was us, and we sighed and dragged our stools over to the front bench, making a terrible screeching sound.
  "Oh, must you make that noise?" Mr Purrleck sighed. "I don't know what's the matter with you lot this morning! You're making my headache worse!"
  "Headache?" Tibbicca raised her well-plucked eyebrows in amusement. "You've not got a hangover, have you Sir?"
  "I've told you once not to be cheeky." Mr Purrleck said. "One more word out of you and I'll make you cut this eye open."
   Tibbicca turned round and pulled a face at us and we all laughed.
  "You four - come and sit over here." Purla moved her stool aside to make room for us. We dragged our stools over and sat with Purla and Tibbicca.
   Mr Purrleck put some gloves on and took the lid off the jar. He had a kind of scalpel in front of him on a pile of paper towels, and a huge pair of tweezers. He picked up the tweezers and reached into the jar to get the eye with them. He picked it up and we saw it squash slightly. He put it on the paper towels. The yellow liquid that the eyes was in ran off the eye onto the paper.
  "Oh - I'm going to throw up!" Purbelle leapt off her stool and fled out of the room, banging the door behind her. We all started to giggle. Mr Purrleck sighed.
  "Will anyone make the first incision?" he said, picking up the scalpel and looking round the class. "Boys? Any of you fancy doing it?"
  "Ugh - me too!" Tibbick Johnson clapped her paw over her mouth and got up.
   Mewbellan began to choke too, and got up and followed her sister. The class was in hysterics by that time as they both flung open the old lab door and ran out.
  "Oh, I give up!" Mr Purrleck said. He put the eye back in the jar, and screwed on the lid. "You'll have to copy notes from your textbooks. Go back to your tables, everyone."
   There was a loud scraping of stools as we all went back to our tables. We all took our textbooks out of our folders and opened them at the page Mr Purrleck had written on the ancient blackboard. He was writing up what we had to read and copy out of the books.
  "Mewla, will you go down and find Purbelle, Tibbick and Mewbellan, please?" he said.
  "Yeah." Mewla got off her stool and went out of the room. We all took some paper out of our folders and began to read our biology books.
   Five minutes later, the door opened, and Purbelle, Tibbick and Mewbellan came in, looking rather sheepish, but trying desperately not to laugh.
  "Is something amusing, girls?" Mr Purrleck said, as Purbelle slipped into her seat next to Mewlarka, and the Johnson sisters sat opposite.
  "No Sir." Tibbick said, and opened her book.
   Purbelle started to giggle and clapped her paw over her mouth again.
   Mewla came over and sat down. We had started to write out notes by that time.

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