Year 9 Sisters - A Mel, Tab, Mewla & Cathy story

Chapter Four


  Mrs Mewlham was already in the lab when we got there. She was fetching apparatus, test tubes and petri dishes from cupboards and drawers and placing them in groups on the main front bench.
  "Morning!" she said, as we filed in and sat down. "Now - get your things out quickly please, we've got lots of things to do today."
  Mrs Mewlham seemed in such a hurry to get us all started on our Science week that she didn't even allow us to talk quietly while we sat down and got out our things. She snapped at Purbecca and Purlibya for chattering and they both looked shocked, and shut up at once.
  "I'll be frank with you all." Mrs Mewlham faced the class once we had all sat down. "Your mock exam results were shocking. There is no other way to describe them. I can't believe you all got such bad marks. It doesn't fare well for either you or the teachers. So this week we will be working you very hard to make sure that your real exam grades are significantly pulled up to reflect what you are really capable of."
  We all shot unenthusiastic glances at each other.
  "Right then - I have prepared these worksheets for you all to have at your benches, with instructions telling you what I want you to do this morning." Mrs Mewlham. "Tabitha, can you come and give them out please, then when you have all read them, collect your equipment from the front bench here and I shall help you to collect the ingredients."
  Tab rolled her eyes at us as she clambered down from her stool and ambled over to the front bench to hand out the sheets. She handed them out to everyone, then came back to sit with us.
  "Hmmm... reactions with metals." Cathy said. "Groundbreaking science, that."
  "Nonetheless, something you weren't good at in your mocks, Catherine." Mrs Mewlham overheard her. Cathy smiled meekly and disappeared back behind her sheet. Tom snorted with laughter at her across the lab.
  "So when are you two going to get together?" Tab nudged Cathy. "It's so obvious you like each other."
  "He's my partner in crime." Cathy grinned. "That's all."
  "Partner in what?" Tibbicca laughed from behind us.
  Soon, most of the class went up to the front bench to collect their equipment. Mrs Mewlham stood and supervised.
  "Right - the metals and acids are in the cupboard." she said. "I'll get them for you."
  "Ooh, please let us get them, Miss!" Mewfal smirked. "Please let us loose in the science cupboard!"
  "That'll do, Mewfal." Mrs Mewlham did not look amused. "Right - one bench at a time. Melanie - yours first."
  We went up and received our different metals and chemicals.
  "Do we get to play with the dangerous ones, Miss?" Cathy asked with a grin.
  "Catherine, you never get to 'play', and they are not dangerous if handled properly." Mrs Mewlham sounded slightly exasperated. "You will have some slightly more reactive ones after break."
  "Coooool." Cathy rubbed her hands together in mock glee and we all giggled. Mrs Mewlham sighed and told us to go back to our benches.
  We were just about to start putting acid samples into our petri dishes when Mrs Mewlham bellowed across the lab and Cathy jumped violently and threw her pipette across the room. I am never sure if she does it deliberately to be funny but it always gets a laugh.
  "CATHERINE!" the whole class went silent, as it always does when Mrs Mewlham yells. "WHERE'S YOUR LAB COAT?"
  "Oh." Cathy hurried over to the rack of pegs on the far side of the lab wall and pulled down a white lab coat. Everyone who hadn't already taken a lab coat took their cue from her and went over to get coats too.
  We had only been working for about a minute when Mrs Mewlham bellowed at us all again.
  "STOP WORKING!"
  We all put down our pipettes and looked up at Mrs Mewlham.
  "How many times do I have to ask you all to remove your jewellery when doing experiments like this?" she said. "Do it now, please."
  We all took off our rings, bracelets and watches and tucked them into our bags. Then we continued.
  Our lab always looks very dark and dismal in the wintry weather, and that morning was no exception. The snow continued falling while we worked, and the sky seemed to get darker if anything. Thankfully the lab was fairly cosy, with its numerous radiators turned up to maximum.
  By the time break came, we were all very hungry and looking forward to going down to the tuck shop to get something warm to eat. As the science labs are in the main building, we didn't need to brave the outside to get to the main hall, so we all left our stuff in the lab and hurried down the several flights of stairs. The hall was full because of the weather. Usually, if it is snowing a little bit, most people like to go outside and play about in the snow, but as the snow was falling so thickly, no-one wanted to go out, so it seemed like most of the school was in the main hall, sitting around munching and chatting.
  "Blimey - look at the queue!" Cathy said, rummaging in her purse as we hurried over. "Good job we got here quickly!"
  When we eventually got served, we all got chocolate-filled doughnuts and mini pizza slices, then found an empty corner to sit and munch them.
  "Well at least we don't have to hurry off to another classroom for next lesson." Tibbicca commented. "God this pizza is good."
  When we finished eating we decided to go back up to the lab. There was nothing else to do. There was no-one in there when we went back in, but a few seconds after we went in, Tibbick and Mewbellan came in. They pulled some gossip magazines out of their bags and we all sat together to flick through them. Purbelle, Mewlarka and Alimew came in soon after. They sat down at their bench. The lab was filled with quiet chatter, until suddenly Purbelle gave a cry.
  "Where are my rings?"
  She was fumbling in the pocket of her bag, pulling out everything that was in there.
  "What?" Mewla said.
  "My rings are missing!" Purbelle said. "I put them in here when I took them off, I know I did!"
  "Hey - my rings and bracelet are gone too!" Mewlarka said, looking in her bag too.
  "Oh my God!" Tab said. "I...."
  But what she was going to say we never found out because Mewlarka suddenly rounded on us.
  "It was one of you lot, wasn't it!"
  "What?" Cathy said.
  "One of you stole them!" Mewlarka cried. "You were all in here when we came in - it was one of YOU!"
  "Mewlarka, don't be ridiculous!" Purla said, standing up. "How dare you accuse us, your friends, of nicking your jewellery? As if we'd take your stuff!"
  "Shut up!" Mewlarka yelled. "I know it was one of you! You were in here before us! Let me look through your bags!"
  "Get lost!" Cathy yelled back. "Like we're going to empty out all our stuff just because you've suddenly got it into your head that we've pinched your jewellery! I can't believe you're even suggesting it!"
  Purbelle was silent. She looked very sheepish, almost as if she felt bad about Mewlarka's outburst and that she should try and stop her. Purla was still stood with her paws on her hips, glaring at Mewlarka.
  "My rings are gone too." Tibleau said quietly, from her bench.
  "And you call yourself our friends!" Mewlarka shouted.
  "Will you shut your stupid mouth!" Cathy lunged forward, took hold of Mewlarka, and shook her. "What's come over you?"
  "Get off me!" Mewlarka shook herself free of Cathy's grip. She picked up her bag and left the classroom, banging the door behind her and causing a cabinet of chemical bottles to rattle and shake.
  A few seconds later, the boys all came trooping in.
  "What's upset Mewlarka?" Francis asked. "We just saw her flouncing off down the corridor - she never even looked at us!"
  "Well I don't know." Cathy said. "Some of us girls have just discovered that our jewellery is missing from our bags and Mewlarka suddenly went nuts and started accusing us, saying that we were already in the classroom when she came back, so that meant we must have taken her stuff!"
  "What?" Tom said. "How ridiculous! Who's had stuff taken?"
  "I have." Purbelle said. "And Mewlarka, and Tibleau too."
  "And me." Alimew was looking in her bag.
  "Oh blimey - so have I!" Cathy said, peering into her bag.
  "What's going on?" Purbecca and Purlibya came in.
  "I'd check your bags if I were you." Cathy said. "Some of us have had our jewellery pinched."
  Purbliya looked horrified. Purbecca tried to reassure her that it was't a thing that normally happened, as they checked their bags. Both of them had lost rings, a watch and some bracelets.
  Purbelle was sitting at her desk, looking thoroughly upset. Tab went over to her.
  "She's started again." Purbelle sniffed. "She's gone funny like she did last week."
  "I can't understand it." Tab said. "What's with her weird moods? She was so nice after that last time, and took you into town for a drink and stuff - I really thought she had just had a bad day and felt really bad."
  "So did I." Purbelle said. "I can't imagine what's up with her."
  Mrs Mewlham came in at that moment, and looked surprised to see us standing around in angry-looking groups, and Purbelle sniffling, with Tab's arm round her.
  "What's going on?" Mrs Mewlham asked.
  "Some of us have had their jewellery stolen, Miss." Cathy said. "Over break. And Mewlarka suddenly started yelling at us that we had nicked her stuff, then she stormed off."
  "You have had your jewellery stolen?" Mrs Mewlham said. "This is very serious. Who has lost their things?"
  We all told her.
  "I shall report this to Mr Mewan." Mrs Mewlham said. "Someone must have come in here at break while you were all out and taken your things."
  Cathy frowned at us.
  "But how did they know that we had jewellery in our bags?" she said quietly. "No-one could have known."
  It was a puzzle. Cathy was right - how could anyone have known that we had all taken off our jewellery at the start of class.
  Mrs Mewlham went to the door of the lab.
  "Stay here while I go and fetch Mr Mewan." she said. "And where is Mewlarka?"
  "We don't know, Miss." Tibbicca said. "She just stormed off."
  Mrs Mewlham left the lab and closed the door. Everyone started talking.
  "Who the hell could have come in and stolen our stuff?"
  "And how would they know we all had jewellery in our bags?" Tibbick said.
  "Maybe they just got lucky." shrugged Purla. "Looked in one bag, found some rings, and thought they'd check everyone else's."
  "Maybe." Cathy said, frowning.
  "You're not convinced, are you." I said quietly.
  "I don't know." Cathy said. "I don't know what to think. I'd hate to think that anyone in our class is a thief, and I can't think who it could be, but I just find it hard to believe that someone else came in here just by chance and happened on all our jewellery."
  "I know what you mean." Tibbicca said. "It's a puzzle."
 

***


  We didn't get much work done between break and lunch. Mrs Mewlham came back with Mr Mewan a little later and he asked us all questions about our things, and what we did at break. The upshot of it was that all of us went down to the tuck shop as soon as soon as break started, and after that we all hung around somewhere in the main building. The boys sat in the hall and ate their food, our little group came back up to the lab and read Tibbick's magazines, Purbelle said that she and Mewlarka went to the toilets together, which took most of break because the toilets were full and there was a queue, and Purbecca and Purlibya wandered round the main building, as Purbecca had wanted to show Purlibya round.
  "Wow - it's like solving a murder mystery." Cathy grinned. "Establishing where everyone was, etc."
  Her comment caused a few faint smiles round the class, but most of us were worried and mystified. Mr Mewan didn't really seem to know what to do; short of searching everyone in the school there wasn't a lot he could reccommend.
  "Basically, anyone in the school could have come up here while the lab was empty and gone through your bags." Mr Mewan said. "So I am going to speak to the Head about this and we will decide what is to be done. I will let you know what the end result is."
  "What about Mewlarka?" asked Tibbick. "Where is she?"
  "We don't know." Mr Mewan said. "Possibly gone home. We can't find her. But she will be dealt with accordingly."
  Purbelle looked miserable. I felt sorry for her. One moment Mewlarka was being her best friend, and the next minute she was being thoroughly nasty and insulting. It was very odd.


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