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

Chapter Ten


  "Never again!" Mewbellinne said, turning on the tap in the sink next to our table. We had watched her dissect the eye and nearly have three fits, and now we were back at our desks for the remainder of our double lesson, writing up what we had done.
  "Oh, it wasn't that bad!" Tab said. "I thought it was very interesting when you sliced it down the middle and all the...."
  "Oh, stop it, stop it!" Mewbellinne said, throwing the pump dispenser off the bottle of handwash and pouring about three gallons of it into her paws. "Never again. Never again!"
   When Mewbellinne had done enough washing to practically wash the skin off her paws, she sat down and opened her pencil tin.
  "Cath!" Alimew and Purlibya yelled across the lab. "Can we borrow your compass please?"
  "Yeah!" Cathy said, taking her compass out of her pencil case. "Here you go!" she threw it, but swung her arm round too far and clobbered Mewbellinne round the head, messing up her hair and catching her eye. Alimew caught the compass deftly and she and Purlibya watched, giggling, as Cathy looked totally horrified.
  "Oh!" Mewbellinne dropped her ruler with a crack.
  "Oh - I'm so sorry!" Cathy said. "Really I am - oh, I'm so sor..." she stopped and turned away, trying desperately to smother a laugh. Mewbellinne looked puzzled, but patted her hair flat and started to write.
  "What's up?" Mewla whispered to Cathy.
  "Her... her eye..." Cathy said, inbetween chokes and giggles. "I hit her eye and her fake eyelashes are coming off!"
  "WHAT?" Tab overheard and looked directly at Mewbellinne. Cathy was right. We could see Mewbellinne's thick eyelashes on her right eye peeling off. Tab stifled a laugh and turned away, sticking her fingers in her mouth.
  "Mewbellinne, have you a compact mirror I could just borrow for a sec?" Cathy asked.
  "Yes." Mewbellinne said. She opened her bag and took out a posh make-up bag. She unzipped it, and gave Cathy her silver compact mirror. Cathy unfastened it and pretended to check her hair and eyes. She then gave it back to Mewbellinne, still open. She intended to let Mewbellinne see herself in it, but she didn't even look! She simply closed it with a click and put it away again!
   Cathy's face was a picture as she looked at me and Tab.
  "Mewbellinne, come up here a moment!" Mr Purrleck called her. "I want to give you some sheets of info that these lot had the other day."
   Mewbellinne got off her stool and stalked up to the front bench.
   Cathy and Mewla nudged each other and giggled.
   Suddenly, the lab door was opened, and our Year Head, Mrs Mewberick, came in.
  "Uh-oh." Tab said. "That's done it. As soon as Mrs Mewberick sees those lashes, Mewbellinne'll be for it. You know old Mewberick can't stand make-up or anything."
  "Mmm." I said. "The only reason she doesn't make a huge scandal out of it is because every girl in the school wears it and she knows she couldn't stop us all wearing it."
  "Ah, Mewbellinne, this is your Year Head Mrs Mewberick." Mr Purrleck said. "I take it you haven't met?"
  "No." Mewbellinne said.
  "Hello Mewbellinne." Mrs Mewberick said. "I knew you were starting today, but I didn't get the chance to meet you this morn..." she stopped.
   Mewbellinne looked at her, surprised, waiting for her to finish.
  "SIR!" Alimew yelled. "Come here, will you? We're stuck!"
   She winked across at us and we realised that she only wanted to get Mr Purrleck away from Mrs Mewberick and Mewbellinne so that Mrs Mewberick could tell Mewbellinne off about her eyelashes.
   From that moment on, Mrs Mewberick talked in such a low voice that we couldn't make out what she was saying, but we knew roughly what was going on. Mewbellinne suddenly clapped her paw to her eye, and we all stifled giggles.
  "Haven't you lot got work to be getting on with?" Mrs Mewberick said sharply. We all subsided and bent over our work.
   In the end, Mrs Mewberick left the lab, and Mewbellinne stalked sulkily over to our desk. She sat down with a bump.
  "What's wrong?" Cathy asked.
  "Oh, don't come the innocent with me!" Mewbellinne hissed in a low voice. "You knew all along that my eyelashes were coming off, and you let me go up there to Mr Purrleck like it too! You're all being horrible to me!"
   Tab choked and turned her back on us.
  "And you're not?" I found myself saying. "Like Purla said this morning, you've been criticising everybody and everything ever since you got here! Look what you said to Tibleau! If anyone's being horrible, it's you!"
   Mewbellinne blushed underneath her make-up. She took her make-up bag out again, and then proceeded to glue her eyelashes back on. We all pretended to get on with our work, but we were watching her out of the corners of our eyes.
   Fifteen minutes later, Cathy tossed a screwed-up piece of paper at me. I unfolded it. It said

Hiya Mel - God, what a spoilt madam!
 She's so horrible! What I think is that we
ought to teach her a few lessons! Like, for
starters, that there is not much room on our
table for horrible people! Just follow my
lead whatever I do.                   luv, Cath

   I grinned at Cathy and nodded. This was going to be fun!
   A few minutes after that, Cathy opened her folder and began to spread all her work out on the desk. Mewbellinne kept shuffling along to give Cathy some more space, and as soon as she did, Cathy spread her work out even more. She pretended to be poring over her work with such a serious look on her face that it was all I could do to stop laughing.
   It ended up with Mewla knocking Mewbellinne's pencil tin onto the floor, and Mewbellinne's pens and pencils went rolling around the lab everywhere.
  "Say! Cool pencil! Wonder who left that lying around?" giggled Purlibya, leaning down onto the floor and picking up Mewbellinne's favourite silver hologram pencil. Mewbellinne scowled at Mewla and got off her stool, her boots clacking on the floor of the lab. She went round the room, squatting down by everyone's table, picking up the various contents of her pencil tin.
   When she had finished, she brought her tin back to our desk, and sat down with a bump.
  "Look." she said. "What is your problem? Why are you being so horrible to a new girl? The girls at my old school would never have dared to be like this!"
  "Shall we tell you?" Cathy said, putting her pen down, folding her arms on the desk and facing Mewbellinne. "As if we haven't made it clear enough - you have been absolutely awful to us since you got here. Pulling a face at this and that, looking down your nose at everyone, and making nasty comments to nearly everyone you've spoken to! You might have been the queen of the school at your private school, but it's different here! You have to mix and be mates or you don't fit in! We all like each other here, and we all want to get on with our work and have a good time. Snobbery, haughtiness and nastiness just don't fit in here, and the sooner you learn that and stop being like you are, the better! Maybe then we'll make room for you on our desks and start to accept you! So far all you've done is show us what a spoilt little madam you are - no better than a tiny kid, showing off to get attention! See? So get your act together, Mewbellinne!"
   Everyone had stopped working and was listening.
  "Yay!" Purbelle stood up and clapped. Fortunately, Mr Purrleck had left the room for a moment. Everyone whistled and cheered. Cathy grinned round.

______________________________