Lenny Mass's Branhal School Diary - Tuesday 14 October

Tuesday 14 October

These are the events that happened yesterday.

Nettie sat next to me on the bus home, and told she was glad to be away from Michelle. Then she said:
"She's helping Mrs Nella become a teacher."
I looked at her, shocked. "What?"
"She's helping Mrs Nella put a petition together to take to Mr and Mrs Branhal. Mrs Nella wants to be in charge of a compulsory reading hour once a week, but she's afraid the headteachers won't take her seriously. The petition's a magic petition. People have to obey it, otherwise bad things happen. But it can only work if everyone signs it, and if it's signed on the twentieth of any month. I'm not sure how or why, but Chris, Tina and Matthew are hanging onto her every word." Nettie looked frightened. "It won't work, will it, Lenny?"
"No," I reassured her. "They need three boys and three girls. Michelle's using a 'friend' spell on everyone, that's how they're 'hanging onto her every word'. Even if she 'befriends' a third boy, she still needs a third girl. Even if you sign it, it won't work, as you don't want it to."
I was shocked. All this, for a  compulsory reading hour once a week? Hardly evil genius plot of the century!
"Is that why you wanted me to pretend to be Michelle's friend?" Nettie asked. "Did you know?"
"Yes," I answered, without thinking. "We knew they were up to something. We didn't know what."
We sat in silence. I waited for Nettie to ask how we knew about Michelle and Mrs Nella's plan, but she never did. By now, we were two bus stops before mine. I told Nettie to do the same again tomorrow.

Today:

I filled the twins in with what Nettie had told me. They were both disgusted that it was something silly, and it wasn't at least a plot to take over the school.
It turned out that the third boy to go under the 'friend' spell was Peter, who normally hung out with the two Adams.
On the bus home today, Nettie told me that they had gone to the library at lunchtime; Michelle and Mrs Nella were planning to go forward with their plan next Monday, as that was the twentieth. As they didn't realise the petition would no longer work, as Nettie wasn't under a trance anymore, they thought they had three boys and three girls. I panicked. There wasn't much time to stop it! I told Nettie I would go to see Mr and Mrs Branhal with the twins tomorrow.

Goodnight,
Lenny

:)