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

Chapter Twenty-Three


  The rest of the day went pretty smoothly. Mewbellinne pretty much kept her head down all day and wasn't really rude to anyone.
  After school, Tab came home with us for tea, and Cathy, Purla and Tibbicca said that they would come round at about half past seven.
  When we got home, Mum and Dad were getting ready to go out. Dad was polishing his shoes, and wearing his suit, and Mum was in her bedroom doing her hair. She was also dressed smartly.
  "What's going on?" I asked.
  "Dad's got a conference to go to tonight, and I'm going along too." said Mum. "It's quite a way away, and very late, so we're going to stay overnight at a hotel and drive back at our leisure tomorrow."
  "Oh, OK then." I said. "Looks like going to the chippy for tea then!"
  "You can if you want." Mum said. "Seeing as Tab is here too. I don't want a repeat of last time with the chip pan!"
  The last time Mum and Dad went away for a few days, Mewla and I managed to set the chip pan alight one evening, when Tab and Cathy came round for a meal, and we had to get Grace and Tim, our neighbours, to come and help us put it out. All the kitchen tiles had been ruined, and the tea towels had ended up as piles of ash, so as you can guess, Mum has been quite fidgety about us cooking anything else while she's gone!
  "OK then, I'll send Mewla out for fish and chips." I grinned, as Mewla went past.
  "You will not!" Mewla said. "Tab's the guest, she can go!"
  "What was that?" Tab yelled from downstairs.
  "You've got to go for chips!" Mewla laughed.
  "Get lost!" Tab yelled back.
  Mewla went out for the fish and chips in the end, while Tab and I stayed home and prepared some salad.
  "Would you have had the nerve to do what Cathy did today?" Tab asked me, tipping some lettuce into a colander and rinsing it under the tap.
  "What do you mean?" I asked.
  "I mean, texting her from your mobile and leading her on to think it's some guy." Tab replied.
  "Yeah, I think so." I said. "I mean, it's obvious that she'll find out eventually. It's just a bit of fun."
  "But Mewbellinne won't see it as fun." Tab said, tipping the lettuce into a bowl.
  "Hey!" I laughed, nudging Tab. "You're not switching sides, are you?"
  "No, of course not!" Tab laughed. "I hate Mewbellinne as much as we all do; she's a snobby troublemaker who's trying to be as nasty as she can, especially to Cathy. I just admire Cathy's nerve - the way she will do and say anything and get away with it, and I just wondered if you'd do the same."
   "If I hated her enough." I said, popping a cherry tomato into my mouth. "Yes."

***

  Tibbicca and Purla came round at twenty-five to eight, dressed ready to go, and just as I opened the door to let them in, we heard Cathy yell hi, and saw her hurrying up the close with a bag of clothes to change into.
  We didn't take long to get ready. We didn't dress up too much, as we weren't really going clubbing, but we had to make it look like we were going out somewhere, so we dressed in tight jeans and dressy tops, and put our scarves, gloves and long wool jackets on top. Tab had popped across the close to her house to get some clothes.
  By five to eight, we were ready.
  "I reckon it'll take us ten minutes to walk to Mewcan Close, if we go slow." Cathy said, looking at her watch as Mewla and I put our boots on.
  "This is going to be such a laugh." Tab said. "I told Tom what we were doing when I popped home, and he fell about laughing!"
  As we left our house, just as I was locking the door, Tab's front door opened across the street, and Tom and Francis called us.
  "Hey! Can we tag along with you girls?"
  "Yeah, OK!" Cathy called back. "Hurry up though, we're going now!"
  "We're ready!" Tom and Francis stepped out and shut the front door. They too had dressed up smartly, as if they were going out.
  We all set off down the snowy road, laughing.
  Cathy was right. It took us just over ten minutes to get to Mewcan Close, as we were all walking slow and messing about as we went. The bus stop was at the other end of the Close, by the main road into town.
  "Look." Cathy nudged me with her gloved paw.
  In the light of the bright street lamps, we could just make out a figure standing at the bus stop at the end of the Close.
  "That's got to be Mewbellinne." Tibbicca said. "There isn't a bus for another twenty minutes."
  "Perfect." Cathy said. "That means we'll have to stand there for twenty minutes, and then we'll see that her 'date' is very late!"
  We all tried to keep our giggles under control as we walked along the pavement. As we got nearer, we saw that it was indeed Mewbellinne, dressed in tight black and red trousers and a long black wool overcoat, like ours.
  "She'll have her six foot eyelashes on tonight." Cathy murmured to me as we got nearer. "With superglue."
  I stifled a laugh behind my scarf.
  "Hi Mewbellinne." Francis said, with a wonderful air of surprise. "What are you doing here? You don't live round here, do you?"
  "No." said Mewbellinne, fluffing out her long hair. "As a matter of fact, I'm meeting someone."
  We all kept perfectly straight faces. Mewbellinne kept looking at Cathy with a smug grin on her face.
  "Well we're all off into town." Cathy said, turning to look at the bus timetable behind her. "Oh, God - look at the times of the buses! There isn't one for twenty minutes! That means we'll have to wait."
  "Oh." Mewbellinne said quietly. I saw her look very discreetly at her watch. She was worried because her 'date' was already late, and she would be embarrassed if she had to wait for him until we caught the bus!
  "Oh don't worry, we won't say anything when he turns up." Cathy said. "We wouldn't want to cramp your style or anything."
  The eight of us sat down on the benches, and Mewbellinne stayed standing where she was.
  "She looks like she's standing there trying to get picked up, to me." Tibbicca whispered to me. I laughed.
  Mewbellinne began to get more and more fidgety as time went on. She kept looking at her watch and shuffling her feet and fiddling with her hair.
  "What time are you meeting him?" Tab asked.
  "Um, quarter past eight." Mewbellinne lied.
  "And you were here at eight?" Mewla said. "Blimey, you're keen."
  "I didn't want to be last arriving, if he got here early." Mewbellinne said.
  "Oh well, here's the bus." Cathy said, as the bus came up the road and signalled to pull up. "We'll leave you to it. See you tomorrow!"
  "Have a nice evening." Mewbellinne said smugly. "Shame you're not meeting your man."
  "How do you know I'm not?" Cathy said, as we all got up.
  "Just a hunch." Mewbellinne smirked. "Bye."
  We all got on the bus, paid, and sat down.
  "Damn cheek!" Cathy said. "She thinks she's meeting Greg tonight and that I don't know that he's slipping out to two-time me with her!"
  "So what are we going to do now?" Tom asked.
  "Well does anyone fancy going to that late-night cafe in town and getting a hot drink?" Cathy said.
  "Yeah, let's." Purla said. "That'll be fun."
  We got off the bus in town and walked up the snowy high street to the cafe.
  "Hey, look! Purbelle and Mewlarka are here!" Tibbicca said. "Hi, you guys!"
  "Hi!" called Purbelle, and she and Mewlarka moves up on the huge sofa to make room for us. There wasn't room for all eight of us, though, so Tom, Francis, Mewla and Tibbicca pulled up a few easy chairs round the little table in front of the sofa. Purbelle and Mewlarka had steaming cups of cappuccino.
  The cafe was almost empty, apart from two middle aged couples over in one corner and a few young couples on the other side. The sofa where we were sitting was in a cosy corner with large plants. It was lovely and warm, and smelt of coffee and chocolate.
  "What does everyone fancy then?" Tom said. "Drinks are on me."
  "Um, hot chocolate with whipped cream on top." Cathy said, reading the drinks list.
  "Yeah, me too." Tibbicca said.
  "Yeah, and for me." I said.
  "I'll have a cappuccino." said Tab.
  "I'll just have a coffee." said Mewla
  "Hmm... I don't know." Purla said, looking at the list. "Hot chocolate with marshmallows."
  "Yeah, I'll have that too." said Francis. "But I'm not letting you pay for them all."
  "Oh, shut up." smiled Tom. "They're all on me." and he got up and went to the counter to order.
  Cath - your phone's ringing." I said, suddenly hearing Cathy's mobile ringing inside her handbag.
  Cathy took her phone out and laughed.
  "Mewbellinne." she said. "Obviously wondering where her date's got to."
  "Answer it!" Purla laughed.
  "No." Cathy said. "That'll ruin it. None of us can pretend to be a guy. I'll let it ring. Then we can have some more fun with her tomorrow." and she put her phone away and let it ring.
   Tom came back over.
  "What's going on?" he asked.
  "Mewbellinne just rang Cathy's phone." Francis said.
  Tom laughed.
  "Well it looks like we found out why she left her precious boarding school, anyway." Cathy said.
  "Why?" asked Purbelle.
  "For having a fling with a teacher." Cathy said.
  "WHAT?" Purbelle's mouth fell open. "Oh my God!"
  "So she thinks that just because she did it before, she can do it again, here, with Mr Mewan!" Tab said.
  "So what's happening with Mewbellinne and you lot lately?" Mewlarka said.
  As we sat, we filled Purbelle and Mewlarka in on what had happened lately, including the incident in town on Saturday morning, and the argument on the Friday afternoon.
  "So there you go." Cathy said, as our drinks were brought over. "She's really got it in for me, and she really thinks there's something going on with me and Greg Mewan. And she's trying to get him for herself."
  "I guess she thinks that she's better than you, and that if Greg is interested in seeing a pupil, he'll see her instead of you." Purbelle sipped at her cappuccino.
  "Mmm." Cathy said, licking some of the cream off the top of her drink. "But we know who he wants really, don't we?"

***

  We left the cafe at about quarter to eleven. We had all had a good laugh and a gossip, even Tom and Francis, who usually aren't much for all us gossiping girls.
  Purbelle and Mewlarka live in the close next to our close, so we all decided to catch the bus back together. We all walked to the bus stop in a giggling crowd. Purbelle lit up a cigarette as we walked.
  "God - you're turning into a proper smoker!" Cathy said.
  "I'm not!" laughed Purbelle, blowing smoke into Cathy's face. "I just have the odd one, that's all."
  "Yeah, the odd one every hour." laughed Mewla.
  "I do not!" laughed Purbelle, punching at Mewla. She dodged, laughing.
  "Oh, eh up." Cathy had taken her phone out of her bag as we walked. "I've got a message."
  "Mewbellinne?" Purbelle said, leaning towards Cathy and blowing smoke at her again.
  "Oh, Christ, Purbelle!" Cathy laughed, wafting away the smoke. "When I want some I'll ask you for a f*g, I don't want your second hand smoke!"
  Purbelle laughed.
  "It is Mewbellinne, actually." Cathy laughed. "Look."

'well what happened 2 u 2nite? i stood at that bus stop till 9. thanx for nothing.'

  We all fell about laughing.
  "Nine o'clock! Oh my God!" laughed Purbelle.
  "What shall I say?" Cathy said. "Should I bother to answer it at all?"
  "No, don't." I said. "You can text her at school tomorrow so we can see her reaction."
  "OK." smiled Cathy. "I think we're going to have some fun with Miss Mewbellinne Pearson."
  "You can take that as a given." Tibbicca laughed.

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