Chapter Twenty-Two
We thought that the snow had finished by Sunday, but by Monday morning it had started up again. Not much of it melted on Sunday, so the roads and pavements were pretty much the same.
Tibbicca had decided to meet us on the way instead of having a lift to school, and she and Cathy turned up at our house early, and sat in the living room while we finished getting ready.
Tab and Tom were just leaving as we left our house.
"You are not going to believe what happened last night!" Tab said, as we all crossed the street.
"What?" I said.
"Guess who phoned our house?" Tab grinned, adjusting her scarf.
"Who?" we all said.
"Only Mewbellinne!" Tab said. "And guess who she wanted to speak to?"
Tab pointed at Tom, and he pulled a face. We all laughed.
"But why?" asked Tibbicca.
"And how did she get your number?" I asked.
"Search me." Tab said, as we all started to walk down the road. "She must have looked in the register or something. She told Tom that she really liked him, and asked if he wanted to go out sometime."
We all shrieked with laughter.
"Yeah, yeah, have a good laugh." said Tom, grinning. "Tab's not going to let this go now, are you Tab?"
"I'm going to have a lot of laughs about this!" Tab said. "First she's after Mr Mewan, then when he turns her down in the middle of town on Saturday, she rings Tom as a backup! It's hilarious!"
"So what did you say to her?" Mewla said.
"I told her I wasn't interested." Tom said. "Just like that. I said "Sorry, Mewbellinne, I'm not interested."."
"What did she say?" Tibbicca asked.
"Nothing. She hung up." said Tom.
We all fell about.
When we got to school, we were the first ones there, or so we thought.
Our tutor room has a main door into the corridor, which is where we all come in, and it also has another door at the back, leading outside onto a small area of concrete surrounded by walls. No-one is really sure why it's there, and the door is usually blocked by spare chairs piled up in the corner of the room, etc, but in the hot weather we have the door open and go and sit out on the concrete at lunchtimes, as it's a real sun trap out there.
As we went into the tutor room and were taking off our coats, we saw that the chairs had been pushed aside, and we could see the huddled figures of a couple of kittens outside.
"Who's that?" Cathy nodded towards the door as she took her coat off and put it down on our desk.
"Don't know." I said. "It's freezing out there, who would want to go and stand out there?"
Cathy went over to the door and opened it. The two figures jumped. It was Purla and Purbelle.
"God Cath, you scared the life out of us!" Purla said.
"What the hell are you two doing out there?" Cathy asked, leaning round the door to talk to them.
"Just having a sneaky f*g." Purla grinned, holding up a half-smoked cigarette.
"You'll be right in it if Miss Mewola catches you." I said, going over to them.
"Well we figured that this little space was the best place to have one, with the door closed." Purbelle said, breathing out a long line of smoke. "The only way out here is through this tutor room, so no-one's going to catch us, and as long as we keep the door shut, Miss Mewola won't smell the smoke when she comes in."
"Well I hope you're right." Tab said. "For God's sake don't let Mewbellinne see what you're doing or she'll tell on you right away."
"Here she is now." Mewla nudged us as Mewbellinne stalked into the tutor room, covered in snow. We must have looked very dodgy, all gathered round the back door. I think the fact that we were trying not to look dodgy made us look even more dodgy. I had to hide a giggle.
"What are you lot doing?" she asked, looking from one to another suspiciously as she took her coat off and put it on the desk with her bag. Her mobile phone clattered out of her pocket and slid onto the desk.
"Nothing really." said Cathy airily, swinging round the doorframe. "Just admiring the wonderful wintry sky."
Purbelle snorted with laughter and great clouds of smoke came through the door. Mewbellinne looked even more suspicious of us.
"Brrr! It's freezing out here!" Tab said, huffing and puffing on purpose so that great clouds of steam floated around, so that the smoke would look like Purbelle's freezing breath.
"Well I've got better things to do than stand in the cold." Mewbellinne said haughtily, and stalked out of the tutor room again, leaving her bag and coat on the table.
Cathy wasted no time.
"She's left her phone on the table!" she said. She looked at each of us with a wicked glint in her bright blue eyes.
"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Mewla said, grinning.
"I reckon I am!" Cathy grinned back. We all shot over to her phone and Cathy picked it up. She fiddled with it.
"Well?" Tibbicca said.
"I'm looking at at her messages." Cathy said. Then she stopped. "Oh my God!"
"What?" I said.
"In her message editor." said Cathy. "The last message she sent. Look."
Cathy gave me the phone and I looked at the message. It said
'hi Greg..... or should I be a good girl and call you Mr Mewan........? hi sexy.... it was great to see you on Saturday. See u at school. xxx :P'
Cathy was looking at the floor. She was crushed, I could see that.
One by one, we all read the message.
"Oh, Cath, I'm so sorry." Tibbicca said. "I can't believe it."
"It really looks as though she's seeing him." Cathy said quietly. "I never thought he'd go for her. I - I thought he wanted me."
"I think we all did." Tab said.
"Well I'm going to go and find out exactly what's going on." Cathy said. She looked at her watch. "I've got time before Miss Mewola gets here."
"If it'll make you feel better." I said.
"It might not make me feel better, if I find out something that'll hurt me, but at least I'll know." Cathy said. "If there's one thing that infuriates me more than anything at the moment, it's knowing that there's stuff going on with Mewbellinne that I know nothing about."
Cathy left the tutor room and slammed the door. We all looked at each other.
"I feel so sorry for her." said Purla. "That Mewbellinne never gives up. I really thought Mr Mewan wanted Cath, not that stupid stuck up know-it-all. She thinks just because she's come from a private school she can have whatever and whoever she wants."
"Which reminds me." Tab said. "We've got to find out why exactly she left her wonderful private school."
***
Cathy missed registration altogether. Mewbellinne asked us where she had gone, but we said that we didn't know. It turned out that it didn't seem to be as bad as we had first thought; after Cathy had left, we had all had a proper look at everything on her phone, and she didn't have Mr Mewan's number in her phone book. This was when Tibbicca started to think, and she had leapt off the desk and clicked her fingers as though a lightbulb had come on in her head.
"That's it!" she had yelled. "Mewbellinne never sent that message to Mr Mewan! She doesn't even have his number! She wrote that message out as a trick! That's why she didn't bother to pick up her phone when she left the room! She just left it lying there because she knew that we'd have a look at her messages once she'd gone, and that we'd find that fake one in the editor! Who else would leave their phone lying around when they're going to leave the room? She let it slide out of her pocket on purpose!"
Cathy caught up with us on the way to our first lesson, which was English. She looked flushed and happy.
"Hey!" she slapped me on the shoulder. "Guess what?"
"You guess what!" I said. "We've solved the mystery!"
"Me first." Cathy grinned. "Greg swore to me that Mewbellinne didn't have his number and that she hasn't texted him. He showed me his phone and I looked all through his phone book and his messages; there's nothing to do with Mewbellinne. He swore to me, and I believe him. I told him that I'd get her back, and he said it wouldn't be a bad idea as long as it doesn't cause lots of trouble!"
"Well we can back him up." Purla said, and she explained to Cathy what we had found out before register. Cathy's face was a picture. She was so happy.
"I'll get her!" she said. "I'll so get her back for this! And I have Greg's approval!"
"And we'll help you!" I said, hugging Cathy as we piled into the classroom.
Mrs Purralin was in there already, but she had her jacket on and a pile of books under her arm.
"We're not stopping." she said. "We're having another lesson in the library today."
A few of us grumbled, and a few of us sounded more enthusiastic. Cathy was especially pleased.
"This'll make it easier for me to get her back." she said to me as we left the classroom.
We all trudged back through the snow to the library, and went in. Miss Thorpe looked very disapproving at us all going in, covered in snow and with wet shoes. Mrs Purralin muttered an apology as she went past.
We all settled down at various tables and got out the exam booklets that we'd been looking at the previous lesson. Tab, Cathy, Mewla and I sat together, and Tibbicca and Purla pushed their table over to ours so we could all sit together. Purbelle, Mewbellan and the Johnson sisters were sitting nearby. Mewbellinne was sitting with Purlibya and Alimew, who didn't look too pleased. Purlibya pulled a face at me across the library and I laughed.
After about fifteen minutes had passed, and everyone was settled down quietly reading their booklets and writing notes, Cathy got up.
"I'm going on the computer." she said.
"What for?" Tab looked up from her book.
"Research." Cathy replied simply, and went over to a free computer not far from where we were sitting. No-one took any notice, not even Mrs Purralin.
Five minutes later, I looked round to see what Cathy was doing. She was on the internet; 'Great English Literary Works' filled up the screen. She smiled at me and carried on scrolling through the information.
I swear Mrs Purralin goes to sleep at the desk. She was sitting apparently poring over a large book, but we couldn't see her eyes moving. Purla got the giggles over this, and even her infectious giggle didn't attract Mrs Purralin's attention. It did, however, attract a furious look from Miss Thorpe, which set Mewla off giggling.
Suddenly, the loud beep of a text message on someone's mobile phone broke the silence. Mrs Purralin nearly jumped out of her skin. Miss Thorpe looked up at once; mobile phones in the library are her biggest pet hate. Over at her table, Mewbellinne went red and tried not to look shifty as she reached discreetly into her bag for her phone.
Cathy was over at the printer collecting a wad of work she had printed out. She looked over at us and winked.
"Cath, I can't believe you actually want all that for work." Tibbicca smiled as Cathy came back over to the desk with a wad of paper over an inch thick.
"Are you doubting my love of work?" Cathy grinned, sitting down and banging the wad of paper down. "Ooh, looks like Mewbellinne's got a text message."
Mewbellinne was smiling to herself over at her table.
Cathy looked at us all and grinned.
"Is that something to do with you, you little devil?" Purla asked.
Cathy grinned even more.
"I just sent her a little message from the internet." she said, smirking. "I made a mental note of her mobile number this morning when I looked on her phone. She'll never suspect that it's me because she won't think that I know her number"
"What did the message say?" Tab said.
"It said
'Hi Mewbellinne, bet u didn't know u had a secret admirer, did u? u look too good for this place, u don't fit in with that bunch of tarts i've seen u with. text me - 07964 978991'."
"That's your moblie number!" Tibbicca said.
"Yep!" Cathy said. "She doesn't know my number, so she'll text it, and then I can have a bit of fun winding her up!"
Cathy had such a wicked glint in her eye.
"I've got my ringer on silent, so if she texts back my phone won't beep, and I can answer her. She'll never guess her 'secret admirer' is sitting a few feet away from her!"
We all got on with our work, and in about five minutes' time, I happened to look up at Cathy's phone, propped up on the desk behind her coat, and there was a message on it.
"Cath." I nudged her. "Message."
Cathy grabbed her phone and we all carried on with our work while she read the message. She stifled a giggle and passed her phone to me. I read the message.
'Hi, who are u? r u a pupil here or a teacher? i know wot u mean - i am too good for this place. + those tarts r not my mates. text me back, i like the sound of u, baby. xx'
When we had all read the message, we were all dying to laugh so much I was amazed that we all kept quiet. Cathy sent a message back.
'teacher or pupil.... what do u think, u sexy private school girl? xxx'
It was hilarious to see the smirk on Mewbellinne's face as she read that message that Cathy sent her back. She sent one back almost right away.
'i think you're a teacher.... i seem to have that effect on teachers.... i did at my old school, anyway.... :P'
Cathy's jaw hit the table. Tibbicca couldn't hide her laughter any more. She burst into giggles and everyone looked over.
"Mel - how can you say that and then just sit there so solemnly?" she laughed, hitting my arm. I knew she was trying to cover up the way she had just burst out laughing, so that Mewbellinne wouldn't suspect anything.
"I'm just so funny." I said, and we both laughed.
While we were giggling, Cathy discreetly sent another message back.
'sounds fascinating - u bad girl! fancy meeting up tonight? then u can see if i'm better than the last teacher u had...... xx'
By this time we couldn't control ourselves. Miss Thorpe looked thoroughly displeased and she came out from behind her desk and came over, looking very angry. Mrs Purralin spotted her and frowned at us.
"You lot! Ssshh!" she said. "Or we'll all be in trouble."
We all shut up and Miss Thorpe went back to her desk. Cathy got a reply at once.
'OK, where do u want to meet?'
She grinned at us and sent one back:
'how about at the bus stop at the end of Mewcan Close?'
Mewbellinne answered:
'OK, c u there at 8, baby. xx :P'
After that last message, we all settled down to our work again. We only had half an hour of the lesson left.
"Cath, what's going to happen tonight?" Tab asked.
"Well, obviously, Mewbellinne's going to be waiting at the bus stop for a very long time!" Cathy grinned. "And then at about ten past eight, we are all going to just happen to be walking along the street to get a bus into town. Mewcan Close isn't far from where we live, so it wouldn't be unusual for us to be around there at that time of night, right?"
"How the hell do you think up these things?" laughed Purla.
"If someone is causing trouble for me, I have my ways." Cathy grinned.
_______________________
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