The Balance

Chapter 4

Just Annoying

Alder and Dash, the Heads, were in their office, arguing. Now, you may have noticed I put in Heads instead of Head. I did that on purpose- see, the Heads have two heads, each with a different personality, just like the Chimaera. Except the Heads have two heads only. Alder wasn't very bright. He was always letting secrets slip out, and couldn't ever comprehend with what anyone was saying. Well, he could, but everyone doubted he could make much sense of what he hears. Dash was the smartest of the pair, although he was very strict. He had a crop of orange hair and was wearing one of those graduation hat things. Alder was wearing a bucket hat thing and goggles. His head was flat and round, while Dash's was long and thin. They had purple skin and wore a weird scaly robe thing. No-one liked them much.

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"But I want to read the book!" Alder complained. He reached out to the grab with the left hand to grab the book, but the right hand held it out of the left hand's reach. The left hand was controlled by Alder; the right hand was controlled by Dash. The book was the book a goblin had given them when they were wandering around the school. The goblin told them it was a book with different ways to punish disobedient students. Alder and Dash had planned to punish Casper with a little help of the book. Dash grabbed the microphone that was connected to the loud speaker and announced, "Casper, please come to my office in five minutes," He flipped the book open and searched a page.

"Ah ha!" he cried as his thin lips stretched into a wide smile.

It read: Blackmail them. Force them to do something they don't want to do otherwise you'll punish them. Except it never said was sort of punishing technique they should use.

"What? Ooh! Let me see!" Alder cried. He grabbed the book and read the punishment.

"Except it doesn't say what sort of technique we should use," Dash muttered, frowning. Just then the door opened and in walked a gargoyle with Casper.

"Casper," the gargoyle announced in its gruff voice, and then walked out of the room. Casper looked around the room nervously.

"You called for me, sirs?" he said. Dash nodded gravely, as if he knew what he was doing. But he didn't.

'Ah, Casper. Your friendliness is a great threat to us all. We know exactly what to do with you," he said. Alder looked surprised.

"We do?" he cried, shocked.

"Yes, we do, you idiot. Um, let's see. You must... uh... be mean to Mantha and Ra or else you have to clean the pirate ship,"

Cleaning the pirate ship was the thing all the students hated the most. But Casper didn't mind. He was friends with Cappy, the boat driver, anyway. Plus Casper definitely didn't want to be mean to his best friends. So he took the pirate ship. After Casper left the office, Dash frowned in disgust.

"Did you hear that? He just said, 'Can I clean the pirate ship?'" he snapped.

"Yeah, I heard him alright," Alder said. Dash sighed. So his plan had failed on Casper. Who else should he try out? Esta!

"We'll try Esta now," Dash muttered as he spoke into the microphone again. "Esta, please report to the headmasters' office in five minutes,"

They turned to a different page in the book. Dash spotted something perfect for rebellious Esta: Make the student dust all library books and put them back in the shelves in alphabetical order. He showed it to Alder. Both of them were so desperate to punish Esta, they hadn't realised they didn't have a library. Just then Esta barged into the room.

"Where's the gargoyle?" Dash asked suspiciously.

"Oh, I told him to stop following me and clear off," Esta explained. "So. What'd ya call me for?"

She began picking at her silvery fangs.

"Esta, since you were the one who scattered broken pencil leads all over the floor, we have no choice but make you dust the library books and put them back on the shelves in alphabetical order," Dash said.

"What library?" Esta asked, confused. Then Dash realised that there was no library. He stared hard at Esta for a long time.

"You know what? Just go," he finally said. Esta went out of the door. Dash took one glance at the book and tossed it out of the window.

"That book is just annoying!" he cried.