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

Chapter Twenty-Four


  "Well, yeah, I suppose we could." I said, twisting the phone wire round my fingers. The doorbell went. "Mewla! Door! Sorry Mum. Go on."
  "As long as you don't mind us being away for the week." Mum said.
  Mum had phoned about ten minutes before we were due to leave for school. Dad didn't have to work for the rest of the week, and so Mum and he had decided to stay up in Bristol, where the conference had been. The hotel they stayed in was beautiful, apparently, and they wanted to see some of the city, and perhaps then drive out to the country, near Bath, and find another nice hotel for a few days.
  "No, of course not, it'll be nice for you two to have a break." I said.
  "Well, as I said, have your friends round and enjoy yourselves." Mum said. "Just don't trash the house!"
  "Course not." I said. "Listen, we'd better go or we'll be late for school. Call us after six tonight and let us know what you're doing."
  "OK." said Mum. "Bye!"
  "Bye!" I put the phone down. Cathy, Tab and Tibbicca were in the hall, waiting.
  "Come on, slowcoach!" laughed Tab. "We want to be there early to find out how Mewbellinne's date went!"
  "And I guarantee she'll have a good version to tell us!" Cathy said.

***

It was just after twenty past eight when we got to school. Purbelle was outside the back door again smoking, and Purla went to join her.
  "I wonder if Mewbellinne will actually show up today." Tibbicca said. "I mean, she knows that this admirer is someone in school, and she'll probably feel stupid for having stood there in the snow for an hour and then been stood up! She'll be thinking that there's a group of guys laughing at her somewhere!"
  "No, she won't, cos she thinks it's Mr Mewan." I said. "She'll text Cathy and tell her 'date' how cross and humiliated she is."
  "Well just as long as she doesn't go up to his office and burst in and start shouting." Purla said from round the doorframe.
  "Hey - you're getting all that smoke in here!" Tibbicca said, picking up her folder and wafting the clouds of smoke back outside.
  "Well spray some body spray or something." Purla grinned, stepping back outside. Tibbicca pulled a can of body spray out of her bag and sprayed it vigourously round the room.
  "That looks even more suspicious now." Purla laughed, breathing another cloud of smoke round the doorframe. "If someone walks into a room and smells very strong spray, it's obvious people are trying to cover up a smell."
  We all laughed.
  "In that case, may I suggest that you two smoke on the way to school and not within two feet of our tutor room?" Tibbicca laughed.
  "Morning!" Tibbick, Mewbellan, Mewlarka and Tibleau came in, wet with the snow.
  "Hi!" we all said.
  "Is she here yet?" Tibbick asked, grinning.
  "No." Cathy said. "I don't think so, anyway. Did Mewlarka tell you everything that's happened?"
  "Yeah, I told them on the way here." said Mewlarka.
  "I can't wait to see what she tells us about last night!" Mewbellan said.
  "Well I think we all ought to be nice to her today, just pretending of course, but she's more likely to open up to us and tell us stuff if we appear genuinely interested. We'll still have a joke with her with one thing and another, though."
  "Talk of the devil." Mewlarka nudged me.
  Mewbellinne came in.
  "Hi." Tibbick said.
  "Hi." Mewbellinne seemed quite friendly.
  "Hey, so how did it go?" Cathy said.
  "How did what go?" Mewbellinne asked.
  "Your date!" said Cathy. "How did it go?"
  "Um, well..... um..... as it happens, he didn't turn up." Mewbellinne said.
  "Oh." Cathy said. "Oh, bad luck. That's a shame."
  "Aren't men idiots?" Tibbicca said, pretending to be nice. "I wouldn't worry about it, Mewbellinne. He's obviously not worth it if he didn't even bother to turn up."
  "But I was so sure he wanted me." Mewbellinne said. "You know how it is when you just get a feeling that someone really likes you? That's how it felt with him."
  "Who is he?" Purla said, coming in from outside. "What's his name?"
  Cathy turned and grinned at Purla with the kind of look that says "Nice one! Let's see how she answers this!"
  Mewbellinne went red and started to fiddle with the belt on her wool jacket.
  "He, um, um, well, actually, I don't know his name."
  "What?" Purbelle came in and closed the back door.
  "You don't know his name?" Tab said. "I thought he was someone you knew!"
  "Well, it's kind of awkward." Mewbellinne said. "I do know him, well, I think I do."
  "Sorry, Mewbellinne, you've lost me." Cathy said. She was dying to laugh.
  "Well he started texting me, and never said exactly who he was, but from what he was saying I got the distinct feeling that he's this guy I know." Mewbellinne said, looking at us all, her cheeks red underneath her blusher. "And we arranged to meet. That's all that happened. We were only texting for about twenty minutes yesterday."
  "You arranged to meet this guy that you don't even know properly?" Purla said, her eyes wide in mock disbelief.
  "I do know him!" Mewbellinne said. "Well, if it's who I think it is."
  "That's what I meant." Purla said. "You arranged to meet him without even knowing for sure who it was?"
  "Rather you than me, girl." Cathy said.
  "That's really brave." Mewla said. "You were meeting him at that bus stop, yeah?"
  "Yes." Mewbellinne said.
  "Blimey - down that quiet close!" Tab said. "And in the dark! He could have whisked you off into the bushes and you might have never been seen again!"
  "I suppose now you put it like that, it does seem a bit dangerous." Mewbellinne said. "But he would never do anything like that."
  "But how do you know it is him, whoever he is?" Cathy said. "Who is he, anyway?"
  Cathy looked directly at Mewbellinne, and Mewbellinne looked away.
  "No-one really important." she said.
  "Hmmm." Cathy said.
  Miss Mewola saved the situation by coming in at that moment. All the boys followed her.
  "Right." she said, putting down her books and register. "Boys, I am sick of having to come to the football pitch and get you every morning. Don't any of you ever look at your watches? You should be here already when I get here. Tomorrow morning, I want you all in here at quarter to nine. And after lunch today I want you in here early too. I realise that playing football up to your ankles in mud and snow is more fun than sitting here answering your names on the register, but it has to be done." she smiled round at the boys and they laughed. That's one of the things we love about Miss Mewola - she never gets cross and even if she has to tell someone off or lecture someone about something, she is always fair and nice, and sometimes has a laugh with them about it.
  First lesson was Drama. When we got there, Miss Philmew was already there, and so was Mr Mewan. Cathy, Tab, Tibbicca and I went into the Drama Room first, and as soon as Cathy spotted Mr Mewan, she grinned.
  "This is going to be fun." she said. "When Mewbellinne sees him, she's going to be so angry because she thinks he stood her up last night!"
  "Yes - and the funniest thing about it is that she actually has no proof that it was him that texted her, and if she says anything to him, he genuinely won't know anything about it, and she'll look such a fool!" Tibbicca said. "She admitted to us that she doesn't know for sure who it was!"
  "It just gets better and better, doesn't it!" Cathy grinned.
  Mewbellinne was one of the last to come in. When she saw Mr Mewan, she stopped and stared, then glared at him. Mr Mewan was talking to Miss Philmew, and didn't notice.
  Cathy collapsed into giggles.
  "Look at her face!" she said. "That's the kind of look that says 'How dare you have the nerve to even show up at school today!'!"
  "Mewbellinne!" called Tab. "What's up?"
  Mr Mewan looked up at this. Mewbellinne looked away and walked over to us.
  "What do you mean?" she asked.
  "You had a filthy look on your face when you came in just then." said Tab. "I just wondered what was wrong."
  "Did I?" Mewbellinne said, trying to act inncocent. "There's nothing wrong."
  "OK." Tab said, and turned away to hide a smirk.
  "Cathy." Mewbellinne said. Cathy looked at her.
  "Yes?"
  "Um, can we put aside our differences and forget everything that's happened?" Mewbellinne asked. "No hard feelings, eh?" and she held out her paw.
  "Oh, OK then." Cathy shook it. "Forget it."
  "Cool." Mewbellinne's face broke into a smile; the first time we had really seen her do anything but look sulky.
  Mr Mewan, who was looking over, looked completely astonished to see Cathy and Mewbellinne shaking paws and grinning. Cathy looked over at him and winked, and he grinned back at her.
  "Right then." said Miss Philmew, once everyone was just about quiet. "Mr Mewan will be sitting in on the lesson today, just to see if my teaching's up to scratch, so I thought we'd get into groups and devise some plays. That sound alright?"
  "Yeah!" we all chorused.
  "OK then." said Miss Philmew. "Cathy, Mel, Tibbicca, Mewbellinne, Purla and Purbelle, get into a group. Tibbick, Tab, Francis, Mewla, Mewbile, Purbecca and Purlibya, get into a group. Alimew, Mewbellan, Tibleau, Mewlip, Mewfal and Tom, get into a group. You can devise your play about anything you like today; we want Mr Mewan to see the best of your talents, don't we?"
  "Oh well, looks like getting Cathy to strip." Tibbicca whispered to me, and we both choked on giggles.
  "Oi! I heard that!" hissed Cathy. We all laughed. Mr Mewan was watching Cathy the whole time, a slight smile on his tanned face.
  "Right then, off you go." Miss Philmew said. "I think a couple of the Tech huts are free if you want to work in peace."
  "Well, we'll stay in here." Cathy said.
  "Right then - looks as if we're relegated to the stinky Tech huts." Tab said, laughing.
  "Yep, it does!" Cathy grinned. "An inch of sawdust on the floor, oil everywhere, wonky stools....."
  "Yeah, yeah!" laughed Tibbick.
  The two other groups left, giggling. Mewbellinne didn't look too happy at having to stay in the Drama Room where Mr Mewan was watching.
  "I think we'd have been better off going to one of the Tech Huts." she said.  
  "No, Mewbellinne." said Cathy. "It's much better if we practise in here. This is where we're going to perform, this is where we're going to practise."

***

  We have never had such a hilarious drama lesson in our lives. Mr Mewan didn't go to watch the other groups; he just stayed in the Drama Room, watching us.
  Cathy took the greatest delight in humiliating Mewbellinne one way or another, and she was so subtle with it that Mewbellinne didn't even realise. Mr Mewan was smirking the whole time.
  I kept thinking to myself that we were being a bit mean to Mewbellinne, and I think Tab did too, at times, but then again, on the other hand, Mewbellinne was very cunning and sly and mean herself, and wouldn't hesitate to do the same thing to Cathy and probably the rest of us if she had the chance, so that made me feel better. Mewbellinne had been very mean in her own way to Cathy about Mr Mewan over the past week, even in town at the weekend.
  Mewbellinne totally ignored Mr Mewan throughout the whole lesson; she didn't even look his way.
  "She's really cross with him." Cathy had whispered to me between giggles.
  After the lesson, when we had all performed our plays in front of Miss Philmew and Mr Mewan, we were all dismissed apart from Cathy and Mewbellinne. Mr Mewan wanted a word with them both.
  Miss Philmew left, so Tab, Tibbicca, Mewla, Purla and I stayed behind outside the door, waiting for Cathy, and eavesdropping. Mr Mewan knew we were there, but he made out that he didn't. I think it makes him more at ease to know that Cathy's mates know and that we'll all stick up for him and Cathy if there's any trouble.
  "I'd just like to say how well I noticed you two were getting on this morning." said Mr Mewan to them both. "It's good that you've both put aside your differences."
  "Oh well, you know me, no hard feelings." said Cathy, and as soon as Mewbellinne looked away for a split second, Cathy winked at Mr Mewan, and he winked back.
  "Well I don't want to hear of any more trouble with you two now." smiled Mr Mewan.
  "Sure." Cathy grinned.
  "Is everything OK, Mewbellinne?" Mr Mewan said. Mewbellinne was looking anywhere but at him.
  "Yes." she said shortly.
  "Tell you later." mouthed Cathy at him.
  Mr Mewan smiled, picked up his jacket, and walked across the room to leave. The group of us outside the door suddenly moved away from the door and stood about outside trying to look as though we were just waiting for Cathy. Mr Mewan stopped just as he got to the door, and turned back.
  "Oh, that reminds me. Cathy - I shall need to see you in my office at some point today about that letter of complaint that you wrote last week."
  "Oh, right, OK then." smiled Cathy.
  "What letter is this?" Mewbellinne asked, walking over.
  "Oh, nothing, really." said Cathy. "I just wasn't happy about something last week and I wrote a letter of complaint about it."
  Mewbellinne looked decidedly uncomfortable.
  "What was it?" she said.
  "Like I said, it doesn't matter now." said Cathy. "It's being dealt with."
  "Are you free now?" Mr Mewan asked.
  "Erm, well, I've got Biology, but I'm sure Mr Purrleck won't mind if I'm five minutes late." Cathy said.
  "Right then." said Mr Mewan. He turned to us. "You lot go off to Biology and one of you tell Mr Purrleck that Cathy's going to be a bit late."
  "I will." said Purla. "Come on then."
  We all went outside, and Mewbellinne stood and watched as Mr Mewan and Cathy walked off together towards the main buliding.
  "Mewbellinne! Come on - we'll be late!" said Tibbicca. "What's up?"
  "Nothing." Mewbellinne said, and, with one last jealous look at Cathy and Mr Mewan disappearing into the main building, she walked over to us and we went off to the Science Block.

_______________________