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

Chapter Seventeen


  Cathy was at our house the next morning before Mewla and I were ready. Either she has started getting up earlier or Mewla and I are taking longer to get ready these days. I think it's the latter.
  We jeard the doorbell ring, then Mum's voice carried up the stairs.
  "Mel! Cathy's here!"
  "Coming!" I yelled, pulling on my jacket and grabbing my bag. Mewla collided with me as we both came out of our rooms and tried to run down the stairs at the same time. We both ran down and landed with two thumps at the bottom.
  Cathy was leaning casually against the wall and she smirked.
  "No need to fight to get to me, girls. Plenty for both of you."
  We all laughed.
  Mewla opened the door to get her boots off the mat, just as the postman was about to push our mail through the door. He and Mewla both jumped a mile, and Cathy and I burst into giggles.
  "Morning." he grinned at us.
  We have had the same postman for the past 3 years; he's called David, he's a really nice man, and he's got to know us all really well.
  "Two for madam." he said, holding out two letters to me. "And two for little madam." he held two out to Mewla.
  "Cheek!" she laughed, taking the letters.
  "And five for your Mum and Dad." said David, giving the mail to Mewla. She put it on the hall shelf. "See you tomorrow."
  "Bye!" I said, as Mewla picked up her boots and closed the door to stop the snow swirling in. She sat down on the floor and pulled them on.
  "Oh, yuck! They're all wet inside!" she said, pulling a face.
  "Well you shouldn't leave them outside when there's a blizzard going on all night!" I laughed, picking up my own boots from by the hall radiator, which was on. "Mmmm - mine are lovely and warm!"
  Mewla pulled a face.
  After much moaning from Mewla about her wet socks, and then having to wait while she went and changed them, then bringing her hairdryer down and blowing the inside of her boots, we were ready to leave.
  As we walked down the path, David, who was just on his way up towards Cathy's house, stopped.
  "I've got a letter here for you Cathy, you might as well have it now." he said, and walked over and gave Cathy an envelope. She smiled, said thanks, took it from him and read the writing on the envelope.
  "Who's it from?" I asked.
  "I don't know....." muttered Cathy. She was holding the letter right up in front of her eyes, not looking where she was walking, straining to read the postmark. "I can't...... quite...... see the......... postmark........."
  "Well surely it would be easier just to open it and read who it's from?" I laughed, closing the gate as we stepped out onto the snowy street. Cathy punched me with her gloved paw. I laughed. Cathy pulled her glove off with her teeth, ran her long nail under the flap to tear it open, then held the open envelope in her mouth while she put her glove back on.
  "Oh my God!" she exclaimed, as we strolled to Tab's house. "Oh my God!"
  "What?" I said, walking alongside her and trying to read it.
  "Oh my God!" she clamped the letter to her chest and grinned.
  "WHAT?" I said, tugging at her sleeve.
  "It's from Greg!"
  "Greg? Who's Greg?" I asked.
  "Mr Mewan!" Cathy said. "Didn't you even know his first name?"
  "No." I said.
  "What does he say?" Mewla said, trying to peer at the letter. "Why write to you?"
  "He's written it on pink paper, in that sexy handwriting of his." Cathy said, looking at the letter. "Look."
  We all stopped walking and she showed us the letter.

Cath,
I just fancied writing to you. something
different from saying things to you at school.
You're so sexy and beautiful............ I can't wait to see
you every day! See you at school!
Greg  xxxxx

  "Oh, my God!" squeaked Mewla, as we started walking again. "How sweet!"
  "It's not 'sweet', Mewla, it's dead romantic." Cathy said, smiling broadly as we opened the gate at Tab's house and went up the path.
  "You're so lucky." I grinned.
  I rang the doorbell and we stood and waited. Suddenly we heard a loud shriek from somewhere in the house.
  "OI!!!!"
  Then we heard footsteps racing down the stairs, and the front door was flung open. All we saw was Mewlip (who had stayed the night again) racing off down the hall and round the corner into the kitchen. He had opened the door as he raced through.
  "Give it back, you little twit!" Tab came thundering down the stairs, laughing. We were just about to step in but we all shrank back as she skidded off the last stair, round the corner and off down the hall after Mewlip. We didn't even think she had seen us.
  "Hi Mel, Cath and Mewl!" she called as she ran. We all exchanged glances and stepped in.
  "You.... you..." we heard Tab yell again from in the kitchen. Tom suddenly came tearing out of the living room and back up the stairs, laughing, with something in his paw. Tab shot after him.
  There was a big thump on the landing and lots of giggling. Mewlip came out of the living room, out of breath, wheezing, and stood with us at the bottom of the stairs.
  "You alright, mate?" Cathy thumped him on the back, laughing, and he dropped to his knees.
  There was more loud giggling and thumps and bangs from upstairs, and eventually, Tab came down the stairs, fluffing out her hair. Tom followed, laughing.
  "He had my lip gloss." Tab said, stopping at the hall mirror to smear some on her lips.
  "All that fuss over a pot of sticky stuff." laughed Tom, pulling his jumper straight and picking up his coat. "Girls, eh?"
  "I'll have your hair gel one of these days." Tab said. "I wonder what all the girls at school would say if you turned up with fluffy hair, like you'd just got out of bed? We all have things we can't do without, don't we, Tom-eee?" and she fluffed up his newly-gelled hair.
  We all laughed, even Tom and Mewlip.
  "Come on then." Tab said, pulling on her coat. "Let's go."
  "I can't believe we have to do hockey today in this damn snow!" Cathy said, as we went along. "Do you reckon it'll be cancelled?"
  "I doubt it." I said. "When does Ms Hapmew ever cancel PE?"
  "Oh well, the only consolation is being able to watch Mewbellinne causing a scene." Tab said. "You can guarantee she will."
  "Absolutely." said Tom. "If she can cause a scene in a simple Art lesson, PE will be very enjoyable, I should think!"
  "Pity you guys don't do hockey with us." Tab said. "You'll miss all the commotion.."
  "If there IS a commotion." Mewla said.
  "Trust me, Mewl, if there isn't, there will be by the time I've finished." Cathy smirked. We all laughed. "If there's no sign of one you can always rely on me to start one."
  "Well we'll probably be doing football on the grass area next to the hockey pitch, so if there's any trouble, signal us and we'll come over." Mewlip said.
  "Deal." Cathy laughed.
  Tibbick and Mewbellan Johnson were the only ones in the tutor room when we got into school. Tom and Mewlip had gone off to find the other boys for a quick game of football, so the four of us went inside.
  "Morning!" they said, as we went in, our teeth chattering.
  "Hiya." we said, going over to our desk.
  "Madam's not here yet then." Cathy said.
  "Yeah, she came in about ten minutes ago." Tibbick said. "Her bag's over there. She said she had to go and see Mr Mewan about something and that if she wasn't back by registration, could we tell Mi... what's up?"
  Tibbick stopped as she saw the horrified look on Cathy's tanned face.
  "Jesus Christ!" Cathy said, slamming her paw down on the desk. "We thought yesterday that she suspected something!"
  "Suspected something? What about?" Tibbick said. Then the penny dropped and her eyes widened. "Oh - God! I see what you mean!"
  "God, if only we knew what she was saying!" Tab said.
  "I wouldn't worry too much, Cath." I offered. "The fact that she's gone to see him and not gone straight to another teacher shows that she's not going to report you both. She's probably trying to blackmail him for some good grades or something. That's if she suspects anything at all. She may have gone to see him about that incident in the Drama Room. Maybe he wanted her to go back to get some extra work or something."
  "I've got to go up there and see what's going on!" Cathy said, turning to go.
  "No! Don't!" I said, grabbing her arm. "If by some chance she doesn't know what's going on and has gone up to see him for some innocent reason, she's going to think there really IS something going on if you go storming up there for no apparent reason!"
  "Yeah, you're right." Cathy said, turning back. She sighed and ran her fingers through her hair. "I'll go up and see him later on and find out what she wanted."
  "That's the best plan." Mewbellan said. "Now change the subject - I just saw Miss Mewola coming up the corridor."
  A few seconds or so later, Miss Mewola came in, covered in snow as per usual.
  "Morning!" she said. "Gracious - not many of you here this morning!"
  "Mewbellinne's here, Miss, but she's gone off somewhere." Tibbick said. "Her bag's over there."
  "Well I can't mark her in if she's not here to answer her name." said Miss Mewola.
  The door opened and all the boys came in, followed by Tibbicca, Purla, Tibleau, Purlibya, Alimew and Purbecca.
  "Ooh, I'm sorry, are we late?" Tibbicca said, looking up at the clock.
  "No, it's me that's a bit early." said Miss Mewola. "Sit down. Oh, boys, how many more times do I have to tell you not to come in covered in snow? This carpet won't be fit to be seen soon!"
  Tibbicca burst into giggles.
  "Something funny, Tibbicca?" Miss Mewola asked.
  "Not really Miss, it's just that every class we go into, the boys bring in mud and snow and slush, and every teacher tells them off about the state of the carpets!"
  The whole class laughed.
  After Miss Mewola had called the register, and marked Mewbellinne away because she wasn't there, we all set off for Physics.
  "Cathy, will you please stop frowning?" I said, as we walked along the warm corridor to the Science Block.
  Cathy was striding along with us, scowling, her scarf pulled up round her chin.
  She looked at me suddenly and snapped out of it as if someone had woken her out of a dream.
  "Oh, I'm sorry." she said, pulling her scarf down a bit so that she could talk. "I just can't help wondering why Mewbellinne was gone so long, and why she went to see him."
  "Well she's bound to be in Physics, so I dare say we might find out." Tab said.
  "Well she's not exactly going to come up to me and tell me, is she?" Cathy said.
  "There she is." Mewla nudged me.
  We looked up the corridor. Mewbellinne was going into our Physics room behind Purbecca and Alimew. She had walked up the corridor from the other direction, and must have spotted Purbecca and Alimew on their way, as she didn't know where any of our rooms were yet.
  "Right." Cathy sounded determined. "Tell Mr Hillmew I'll be there in five. I'm going to go and see Greg and find out what's going on."
  "OK." I said. "Try not to be too long."
  "Hmmm... I'll try, but no promises." Cathy grinned. She sauntered off down the corridor, and the three of us went into Physics.
  Mr Hillmew was at his bench at the front of the room setting up some bunsen burners and petri dishes of strips of different metals. I went up to him.
  "Sir, Cathy said to tell you that she'll be here in five minutes. She's just had to go and see a teacher. But, um, she doesn't want any of the class to know, so it's just between us, yeah?"
  Mr Hillmew looked amused as I said this. He's always been very amiable, and he nodded and smiled knowingly.
  "Right." he said.
  I went and sat down at the bench where Tab and Mewla had sat down. Tibbicca, Purla and Tibleau had just come in and they sat near us. Mewbellinne was sitting near the front. She turned round and looked at us.
  "Where's Cathy?" she asked, looking at each one of us in turn.
  "Never you mind." I said.
  Mewbellinne gave a smug, know-it-all smile and turned back to the front. Tab clenched her fist and banged the bench.
  "Oooh, I hate it when people do that. Most of all, her." she said.
  "What?" I asked.
  "Smile knowingly and turn away without saying anything." Tab said. "Like they're saying 'Yeah, yeah, I know all about it, even though you don't think I do' kind of thing."
  "Yeah." I said. "God she annoys me."
  "And that's putting it mildly!" Tibbicca heard what I said and leaned over to me. I laughed.
  When everyone was quiet, Mr Hillmew got out the register. He called our names, and when he got to Cathy's, Mewbellinne couldn't resist piping up.
  "Yeah, where IS Cathy?"
  "Never you mind." Mr Hillmew said, and we all laughed. I don't know if he had heard what I said and was playing along, or if he just said it off his own bat. Mewbellinne looked thoroughly annoyed.

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