Welcome to my second Gaobam story. This one is a little different from my old one. Its still a third person Mandy story. But instead of being a romance tragedy, This one is more of a thriller. Also I hope to capture both the comedy of the show, but also a real sense of fear.

So enjoy…and review…please

1. Deceit

Mandy joined the masses of students as they shuffled miserably down the corridor towards the auditorium. The grey, scuffed cement floor was covered in the dirt and other mysterious objects left behind from the shoes of the students, brought in by their lunch time activities.

A generally miserable vibe echoed down the corridors, the same miserable feeling they felt everyday they attended the dreary second rate school. Nothing seemed to work properly here. The lockers didn't open, the windows, dirty or smashed, the play equipment, nothing but a dangerous tangle of broken equipment. Yes it seemed like "Henry Mancini" Middle school had been forsaken. Left behind in the eyes of the education department as nothing more then a school for rat bags and drop outs.

But Mandy had learned to ignore this factor. All she knew was she was there and there was almost no way out of it. Though she hated it, she knew she needed to be here for her education. "Just three years" she would keep saying to herself whenever the school let her down. This was the only reason she hadn't gone crazy.

The mass of students she walked with finally reached the doors into the auditorium, slowing down to file through the thin doors. Mandy was squished as she squeezed through the doors. She popped out the other end into the large, dark, dropping room that was the auditorium. Mandy slowly walked down the stairs that split the seating down the middle, until she saw the familiar waving boy, Billy. She shuffled past the seated students and stopped at the empty seat next to Billy

'Saved this one for you Mandy' Billy said in his normal, cheerful voice. Mandy didn't say anything. She just turned and sat down on the seat.

'Ah!' she shouted as she felt a sharp pain. She shot up and looked down at the seat. A pointy spring stuck out of the center of the seat like a shiny strand of curly hair. She glared at Billy.

'Thanks a lot Billy' she said as she rubbed her backside in pain. She pulled the spring out of the seat and threw it of towards the stage, through the darkness of the room. Mandy could swear she heard someone cry out as the spring had disappeared, but she didn't really care. She sat down and gazed across the auditorium. The students sat in their seats unsteadily, waiting and wondering why they had been called here. Paper planes and spit balls filled the air and the uncaring teachers simply stood on the stage, taking amongst themselves. One of them smoking carelessly.

"If this place burned down it would be doing the neighborhood a favor" Mandy thought to herself as she watched the teacher breath out a jet of smoke.

'Mandy' Billy's voice toned, bringing Mandy back to reality. She looked over to see Billy pulling the fluff out of the arm of his seat. He had collected quite a pile of the yellowish foam that sat in a heap on his lap and the floor at his feet.

'What?' Mandy asked as she looked back to the front.

'Why are we here?' Billy asked. Mandy was taken back by the complexity of his sudden question, though she didn't allow it to show on her face. She sighed as she answered his question.

'Because of the inconvenient locations of our houses. This is the only middle school in the whole south side and the stupid department of education is too dense to see that because of the over-crowdedness of the school, the educational level drops accordingly, thus producing a school that consistently produces below average grades therefore lowering their funding. Its an unbreakable cycle, once it starts going down hill it just gets worse from there'. Mandy felt quite angry by the time she finished her sentence. She looked back to Billy to see that he had a puzzled look on his face.

'Uh' he stuttered 'I meant why do you think where here in the auditorium'

'Ah…' Mandy said slowly, feeling like an absolute idiot 'I-I don't know Billy'.

'Eh-hem' a loud voice toned over the speakers Grabbing Mandy's attention. She looked back to the stage to see the principle standing in the center of the stage, a microphone in hand. 'I know your probably wondering why we called this assembly today'.

'Eat me!' a student cried from the audience, followed by a small roar of laughter.

Mandy really didn't care why this assembly had been called. All she knew was that she had been called out of the most boring biology class of her life. If they were calling people out of class to kill them she would have gone.

'The reason is not the normal "someone has set fire to a portion of the school and seen as we have no emergency evacuation procedure, we just come here because it's the most structurally sound area of the school". Not this time at least' Mandy chuckled to herself, thinking about the past 'no this time I have brought you all here for a good reason' the principle paused for a second and the students started to mutter softly to themselves.

'Henry Mancini Middle school has been granted a huge lump sum to improve one section of the school' the whole auditorium seemed to gasp simultaneously. Mandy was actually in shock as the principle continued. 'One of our students, who shall remain nameless for safety reasons'

'Nerd!' a voice interrupted. The principle glared at the student for a second, then continued

'Anyway, one of our students scored a mark on the standardized test so high the department of education felt a responsibility to improve the learning environment'.

"Who could have single handedly wowed the whole education department" Mandy thought to herself

*

The Department of education

'Hey Bill'

'Yeah Greg'

'Listen to this answer to question one by a student called…Billy'

'Go ahead'

'Well the question asks you to relate ancient world conflicts to the political status of today's democracy'

'Yes, I have read the question Greg'

'Yeah yeah I know. But this Billy kid, for his answer he wrote…well he uh, answered'

'Spit it out man'

'Well…he drew a puppy'

'…a puppy'

'Yeah…'

'…this kid…this kid is a Genius!'

'I Know!!!'

'He is obviously referring to the innocence and youth of our democracy, saying that there is no relation to ancient conflicts at all'

'Only a genius could have described all that with one simple picture!'

*

Henry Mancini Middle School

Mandy was actually exited at this news, and so was the rest of the school. Finally they didn't have to attend a second rate school. They no longer had to have six people per science textbook. No longer would a student have to get a tetanus shot from just getting a splinter from the worn desks. They would be a normal school now; Mandy would be a normal student for once.

'But!' the principle shouted over the roar of the students. Suddenly Mandy's enthusiasm dropped and she felt the shrill reality set in. the reality that it was too good to be true. He cleared his throat as he began to speak once more.

'Our lump sum payment has gone all towards a single project. A new building in the school'. Mandy felt a need to lean in closer, as the principle fiddled around with the projector remote.

'And this is what our new project will be!' he said excitedly, pointing the remote up past Mandy, to the projector.

There was a quick flicker of light, a fizzling sound and then a loud pop. Mandy looked back at the projector. A small column of smoke was leaking out the back.

"Predictable" Mandy though

'…umm, could someone give it a bit of a…' the principle made a punching gesture. Mandy heard a shrill cry from a student, and then a school bag flew out of the audience and hit the projector with force. The projector started ticking over and finally started projecting a beam of light over the top of the students and onto the stage. Above the principle, a fuzzy image spread across the wall.

An image of a massive two story building, luscious in its exterior spilt forth from the projector. As the image changed Mandy saw how beautiful the inside of the building would be. It was like one of the houses you see on the shows like grand designs and better homes and gardens. A true work of modern architecture.

'This new facility is complete with the best of modern architecture and design. No corners were cut in the making of this new, mega teachers staff room. and-'

'What!' the whole auditorium seemed to scream.

'didn't I mention this' the principle added softly 'all of our funding has gone to improve the most important part of our school…the teachers staff room'

The whole auditorium was in an up roar. Mandy however simply leaded back into her chair. Though she had wanted an improvement to be made to the school, one that would benefit the students and their education, she new that it was way too good to be true.

'That's not all' the principle said loudly, quelling the noise 'due to the cost of our new staff room, or staff building if you will…anyway because we spent so much money on the building itself, we could only hire the very least in laborers'. Mandy narrowed her eyes towards the principle. She had always prided herself on being just that little bit quicker then the other students. And she had a sneaking suspicion that she knew where this was heading.

'So…we've decided…to postpone most of your classes during the construction in order for you, the students to help the tradesmen in building the new teachers building'

There was a large empty pause, a deafening silence that filled the room as all eyes were drawn onto the principle.

'I'm serious' he said 'in fact were going round to the site right now'.

The pause was not interrupted. It was so silent that Mandy could hear her own breath and Billy's unfit, wheezy breath as well. Mandy wasn't sure what to expect would happen next. Whether there would be a school wide riot, or if the students would see it as just another excuse to not turn up to class. An excuse that wouldn't get them in trouble.

'N…no' a voice finally said in a normal voice across the room. It was soft, but because it was so quiet Mandy could hear him as if he were sitting right next to her.

'Well actually you don't have a choice in the matter' the Principle said as he pulled a piece of paper out of his back pocket 'the from you thought was about class selections…was actually a manual labor consent form'.

The room seemed to take a breath in and Mandy's eyed widened. "Touché Mr. Principle" Mandy thought as she rubbed her chin.

'We're still not doing it' the mysterious voice said from the now slightly restless crowed. The principle sighed loudly and pinched the skin between his eyes.

'Failure to comply with set request will result in immediate expulsion' he stated. The room started to mumble restlessly. "He's certainly thought this one out" Mandy thought

'So lets all get up and head on down to the back of the school yard' he said in a much more upbeat way then before. Yet still there was no reply. He sighed and brought his voice down 'look, your getting time of class for this, so just….head to the construction site or I'll expel you like that' he clicked his fingers.

In one seemingly single motion every student rose out of their seats and started filing out the doors. Mandy shuffled along with Billy right next to her. She popped back out of the auditorium and headed down the corridor.

'Well' she said to Billy with a sigh 'what a way to start the day'

'But' Billy looked puzzled 'but its lunch time Mandy'. Mandy glared at him

'It's a figure of speech you dumb idiot'

'Oh!' Billy exclaimed loudly 'is that like my Mr. Hero figurine where if you pull the string he speaks'. Mandy stared at him for a second, and then sighed. There was no point in trying to argue with him. Besides

She had more important problems to deal with.

Well there's the first chapter. There isn't any thriller stuff yet…but it certainly sets up the scene don't you think.

Oh and if I get lazy and don't update. Review kick my butt.