Sorry I haven't written in a while, I've had school and stuff to attend to. Anyways please enjoy this chapter and if my maths teacher is on this site... Mrs. Skittle is definitely not based on you! If you aren't my maths teacher, then yes, Mrs Skittle is based on my maths teacher.


Games and the Letter C

"So you're sure you understand?"

"Yes Mrs. Skittle! The two sideways mountains make a 'buh' sound," repeated Vancha, hoping he'd got it right.

"NO! For God's sake, were you even listening?" she yelled back desperately.

"Good question... Well… Uuhh… I'm not going to lie…" Vancha trailed off.

"He was not listening, Mrs. Skittle," smiled Larten.

"I don't like both of you! Now get back to work!" snapped Mrs. Skittle.

"Please may I go home, I've finished writing all the Bs you wanted us to do!" asked Larten.

"Fine… But Vancha's staying an extra half hour!" shouted Mrs. Skittle.

"What about the sunli- I mean, what about school? We have to bring Darren to school, he cannot drive, and that is why we are taking night classes in the first place!" Larten lied. The school excuse had been Darren's idea, because he still looked young enough to go to school.

"Drive? I don't think that stupid, ignorant people such as you could drive!" sniffed Mrs. Skittle. Vancha gritted his teeth, he wasn't ignorant! He was a respected prince and great in combat! Larten was hurt too, he'd been trying his best but he simply couldn't understand! "Anyway, I heard that he has to go to school by sunrise, (a pretty funny schedule if you ask me), and sunrise isn't till at least half an hour later!" she huffed.

"Oh... Oh, yes, of course," Larten breathed in, relieved for Vancha, "Alright, I am leaving!"

"Lucky, lucky you!" muttered Vancha.

"What did you say?" yelled Mrs. Skittle, "GET BACK TO WORK YOU LAZY, GOOD FOR NOTHING SCUM!" For a moment it looked as if Vancha was going to cry, but he sniffed and carried on working. Larten went back home whistling and feeling happy that he wasn't the one studying. He made a silent promise to be nicer to Darren in the future, school was terrible! When he finally got home, he groaned and pushed the door open and almost immediately slumped on the couch.

"Look at what I bought for you!" exclaimed Darren flitting into the room.

"What is it?" I am tired!" yawned Larten.

"That doesn't matter, tomorrow's Saturday!"

"Why is Saturday so special?"

"Uuuhh... It's the weekend!"

"The week ends on a Saturday? I am confused..."

"No, silly! The weekend is Saturday and Sunday, they're days off!"

"Oh! Yes, you had a "weekend" when you were at Mahlers! Is it not some sort of holiday?"

"No! You get a weekend every week!"

"You mean, you get two days off every week!"

"Yes! Is there something wrong with that?" asked Darren confused. Larten cursed inwardly, children those days were so spoilt! He only had half days off on Sundays at the silk factory and a entire day off on Christmas. Next thing you knew, they'd be having summer holidays too! Larten smiled at that silly idea, why would someone need a whole summer off? Then Mr. Crepsley remembered the Mrs. Skittle and stiffened.

"No, there is nothing wrong with that... What were you going to show me?"

"This!" Darren smiled proudly, bringing his arms up and showing off a big brown box.

"What is it?"

"Open it and see!"

"I do not like surprises," grumbled Larten but he opened it anyway. It looked like a green laptop with Leapfrog tm written on it's side.

"Well? What do you think?"

"I do not mean to be rude... What is it exactly?"

"It's a LeapFrog!"

"And that is... ?" Larten stared inquisitively at the piece of machinery. Darren picked it up and showed him a rectangular object and fitted it inside a slot.

"This is the game. You slide it into the side and you turn it on by moving this switch, okay?"

"Yes, go on..."

"Now you open the laptopy part of the leapfrog and..." Vancha burst in to the room.

"I'M ON FIRE! I'M ON FIRE!" he shouted. Darren and Larten just sat there. "Can't you see? I'm on fire! Mrs Skittle said so!" Vancha started to calm down and looked down at his clothes. "Ah. I'm apparently not on fire..." Darren burst into laughter and Larten started to smile.

"It's a figure of speech, Vancha!" Darren was roaring with laughter.

"Yeah... I knew that..." mumbled Vancha, still making sure there wasn't a small flame that would prove him right.

"It means you did a good job! I don't know why though, I thought you didn't make any effort!" cried Darren wiping tears out of his eyes.

"I managed to work out that a sideways mountain is also a bee. It's a silly idea, but I had to please her or she'd have my guts for garters!" wailed Vancha.

"I can't believe you're scared of Mrs Skittle! She's a human! You could drain her in five minutes! What's so scary about her?" Larten and Vancha exchanged glances.

"Is that an actual question?" asked Vancha surprised that anyone would ever doubt the terror of Mrs Skittle, "Anyway, what were ou talking about when I came in? Something about a laptop?"

"Yes, I was just about to explain to Larten how to use a Leapfrog," said Darren, still wiping tears out of his eyes. He repeated the instructions until he got to the point of opening the laptop. "So, now you open the laptopy part of the lea-

"What's a laptop?" asked Vancha.

"That doesn't matter! So you open it and you fit the book which matches with the game in the book shaped space, okay?"

"Okay..." repeated Larten and Vancha.

"The book shaped space has a sort of pressure measure, so that when you press on the book with the pen that's attached to it, it can make a sound or say something according to exercise."

"How does it tell the pages apart?" inquired Larten.

"You press a red circle in the margin of the book each time you turn the page, the red button is in a different place each time." Vancha decide that the game might be a good thing to keep his mind off Mrs. Skittle, so he grabbed the LeapFrog and slotted the game in. Larten bent over Vancha's shoulder to see how it worked.

"Shall we start on the third page? We have already learnt A and B," reasoned Larten.

"Good point," Vancha turned the pages over to the third page.

Larten felt a sense of pride, it was a book! A real book! he'd been read aloud to, but he had never actually made sense out the symbols, this time, he was actually reading! "Oh! Look, they have a half circle on this page!" cried Vancha.

"Press on the letter and see what it is called!" Larten felt so excited that he almost forgot not to use a contraction on the "it is". Vancha pressed on the letter and jumped when he heard a voice say:

"See."

"See what? What kind of witchcraft is this! I'll have to ask Evanna about this..." shouted Vancha, putting the LeapFrog back on the couch and stepping back.

"It's a speaker. Heard of those?" laughed Darren.

"Actually, no, I haven't!"

"I don't believe that... But if you say so..." Darren walked off, shaking his head, the two vampires seemed to be far further behind technology than he thought.

Larten picked the LeapFrog up carefully and continued his lesson with the strange voice.


Sorry, again if I've updated later than I should have. I was meaning to finish writing this chapter earlier this week, but I never got round to it. Thank you for all the lovely reviews, please post more!